Jason Calabrese is the playwright behind “CPW Presents: We Don’t Play Fight,” but he doesn’t mind if his actors take a few liberties with his script.
After all, it is a play about the world of professional wrestling — and sometimes you just have to roll with the punches.
“Obviously I wrote the thing, but it’s the people on stage who make it come alive,” said Calabrese, himself a veteran of the ring. “It’s the wrestler in me — I’ll make changes to the script on the fly anytime. I go by feel. It’s a little different from Shakespeare or Lin-Manuel Miranda.”
The theater production, which premiered in Orlando in June 2016, will make its way to the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts this Saturday at the Pugh Theater for one night only. Tickets are $30 and are available at drphillipscenter.org.
“CPW Presents: We Don’t Play Fight” — the CPW stands for Conquer Pro Wrestling — tells the story of a struggling theater troupe that finds rehearsal space at a nearby wrestling school. When an evil landlady threatens both groups, they band together to put on a wrestling show and save the day. Much of the stage is taken up by a full-size wrestling ring.
The play includes five wrestling matches featuring stars from WWE, Impact Wrestling and other promotions. The main event features two former military men and Impact stars, Chris Melendez and Jesse Neal, in a flag match. The final act of the drama comes about as a result of what happens during the matches.
The dialogue of the play may change, but Calabrese, a New York native who lives in Orlando, said he has added depth to the play’s plot, much of it on advice from veteran director Jason Skinner (Fringe’s “Shatter”) and some of it thanks to Calabrese’s own life.
“As we started to prepare for this, Jason [Skinner] said it needed more backstory,” Calabrese said. “We needed to know why this person was this way, or why these two were friends. So, for example, now the theater director [character] is a guy who left the [wrestling] business because he was tired of working his butt off and getting left out of the major leagues, just like I was. The play is full of little mini-true stories and it has improved it so much.”
He has staged the play in Sanford, Winter Garden and at the Orlando Fringe festival, but he said bringing pro wrestling to the Dr. Phillips Center has been a goal for a long time.
“When we got this date eight months ago, it seemed like a long way off,” Calabrese said. “Now it’s just a couple of days — it’s finally here. We’re so ready for this.”
‘CPW Presents: We Don’t Play Fight’
Length: Up to 2 hours, including intermission
Where: Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 S. Magnolia Ave., Orlando
When: 8 p.m. June 23
Cost: $30
Call: 407-839-0119
Online: drphillipscenter.org
