Gene Golaszewski wrote most of his first play, Double Vision, in less than a week.

“I wrote probably 95% of it in four days,” the Brookfield resident and first-time playwright said recently. “It just came to me,” he said of the play that will debut at The Little Theatre this weekend.

After decades of working within the local theater community, Golaszewski’s Double Vision is his first attempt at play writing. The comedy is a play-within-a-play farce, with mixed identities, chaos and misunderstandings filling the two acts of the new release.

Town Players of Newtown will celebrate opening night of Golaszewski’s farce this Friday evening. The curtain will rise at 8 pm at The Little Theatre, 18 Orchard Hill Road, for the first of nine performances of Double Vision. The International Theater Competition Review has already called the work “a delightfully absurd comedy of errors that keeps audiences howling.”

Performances will continue Friday and Saturday evenings at 8, and Sunday afternoons at 2, through June 14.

One Thursday evening show, on June 12, has also been announced. Curtain will also be 8 pm.

Golaszewski has been involved with community theater for over 25 years. He took to the stage as an actor, then took stints as a stage manager, lighting and sound operator, producer, and finally as a director. He has been a board member with Town Players for many years.

He pulled away from the spotlight quickly, he said last week with a laugh, “because I was a terrible actor.

“I really had no choice,” he added. “If I wanted to be involved in community theater, I had to do something else.”

Double Vision opens with a community theater group battling disaster on opening night. Most of the cast of a play about to open is hospitalized after colliding with a truck full of chickens.

“They’re a big part of the show, of course” — the actors, not the chickens, to be clear — “so other actors suddenly have to play multiple parts in the show,” Golaszewski said.

Director Barry (being played for Town Players by local theater veteran Rob Pawlikowski) refuses to cancel the show and asks the ever-resourceful stage manager Nickie (Kimberly Marcus) for ideas. With only two remaining cast members — Trish and Carl (Kristin Aug and Shawn Brown, respectfully) — the four-person team frantically doubles up on roles to fill the six-character play.

Meanwhile, others have fallen ill with allergies, prompting Barry to enlist refreshment saleswoman Mrs Hertel (Barbara Disraeli) to take on a role.

“The second act is just filled with confusion,” Golaszewski said. “You don’t know who’s who, and who’s playing which part. They hide scripts behind tables and chairs and doors, but one of the characters, the grandmother, comes along and decides to do a little changing of the scripts by snipping part of them away, so the actors don’t have their scripts to play with.”

Amanda Bunting is playing the grandmother who brings even more confusion to the backstage antics.

Golaszewski said he has “a top-notch, A-one cast” for the production.

“The backstage people as well — the stage manager, set builders, lighting people … I’ve been very fortunate,” he added. “I’ve been involved about 20 years in Newtown and Brookfield, and this is one of the best casts I’ve seen.”

Rehearsals have been “going great,” he said last week. “We’ve all been laughing at ourselves.”

Golaszewski is very proud to continue the Town Players legacy. The small community theater is the longest continuously running theater in Connecticut, he noted.

In March Double Vision was highlighted by International Theater Competition Review (ITCR), which described the show as “a fast-paced farce filled with chaotic mishaps, quick character changes, and non-stop laughs.”

That’s what audiences need now, Golaszewski said when asked why the world needs another farce.

“I figure everybody needs a good laugh, especially these days,” he said. “This is just a steady hour, hour and a half of entertainment. There’s enough drama in our lives.”

Tickets for all performances of Double Vision at The Little Theatre are $30, with senior citizen discounts offered at the door. The theater is at 18 Orchard Hill Road.

Tickets and additional information are available at newtownplayers.org.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.

Actor-turned-stage-manager-turned-light-and-sound-operator-turned-producer-turned-playwright-and-director Gene Golaszewski mugs with Rob Pawlikowski, who is featured in the next production at The Little Theatre. Pawlikowski plays the director of the play within Golaszewski’s play, Double Vision, which is about to open for Town Players of Newtown. —Mark Ferguson photo

Gene Golaszewski wrote most of his first play in less than a week. Town Players of Newtown will raise the curtain tomorrow night for its production of the Brookfield resident's "Double Vision."