A GREAT PLAY FOR HALLOWEEN MONTH: I Interview Bradley Walton About Their Play, "Villains and Zombies"

 

Angry Zombie Nate Feleke, Photo by Sophia Kurzius

Here we are, Halloween Month still marching on to the final big day, and it is time for me to talk about another play that I think is perfect to produce during the scary season. It is called Villains and Zombies, by my playwright pal Bradley Walton. The show is unique in that it takes the idea of super villains, which we are all familiar with in comics and movies and television, and places them on stage. I was completely fascinated at the idea of directing a graphic novel in a theatrical setting, something one does not get the chance to do very often--- add in the horror element with zombies, some philosophical discussions about redemption, and flawed but relatable characters (not to mention the chance for some disgusting zombie makeup), and you have a perfect show that presses all of my geek buttons.

When I first started publishing plays, I reached out to playwrights who were being published in my market for advice and commiseration, not really expecting people to get back to me. I was mistaken--- most of them did write back to me, but Bradley did even better by calling me up, chatting with me for the better part of an hour and giving me advice and telling me about their experience in the business.

Bradley was generous enough to take the time and answer some questions about the writing of Villains and Zombies, comics, and why zombies are so scary.

Playwright Bradley Walton

BOBBY: One of the reasons I wanted to direct Villains and Zombies is because I loved comics growing up, and your rarely see superhero (or in this case, super villain) stories told on the stage. I know you've forgotten more about comics than I will ever know, and I'm curious what inspired you to take a comic book type story like this (or your excellent play Higher Power) and create it specifically for the stage?

BRADLEY: My answer to this is probably going to be horribly disappointing. Basically, I needed to write a play for my school that year (as I do every year) and a comic book-type story is what was rolling around in my head. Ditto for Higher Power. You can tell any genre of story on the stage, you just have to adapt it to fit within your resources and what’s possible in a live performance environment. That can be constraining, but it can also inspire you to get creative. It also forces you to focus on character rather than the fantastical action stuff, which was fine with me because I was much more interested in exploring how having super powers influenced who the characters were as people.  So it was largely a matter of “This is what I’m going to write this year” and it just happened to be a comic book-style story.

BOBBY: One of my favorite special series when I was collecting was Batman Vs. Predator, in large part because it combined my beloved Batman with a horror creature like Predator. I also collected a Dracula comic series and a brief run of Morbius the Vampire. Were there any specific comics with elements of horror that inspired your writing of Villains and Zombies? Why do you think superhero stories tend to blend so well with elements of the horror genre?

BRADLEY: Funny you should mention Dracula. I used to collect sketches of Dracula that I commissioned from artists at comic book conventions. It was something everyone was familiar with and felt free to put their own spin on, so it made for a good subject. But to answer the question...no, not that I’m aware of.  I’m actually not much of a horror fan at all.  (Very much in contrast to my kid.)  I’m pretty sure I was reading The Walking Dead at that point, but I have zero recollection of it rattling around in my head at all as I was working on this.  (In contrast, J. Michael Straczynski’s Supreme Power was definitely rattling around in my head.) The zombies were really just a device to put a group of deeply flawed characters in a desperate situation that would force them to reevaluate themselves and undergo significant personal growth in a very short period of time.  But I do think horror and superheroes blend well, and that’s because they can both involve fantastical elements.  If you can accept that a person has super powers, then using those powers to fight reanimated corpses isn’t a stretch at all.  Ditto for giving those powers to reanimated corpses, which Marvel has done in its Marvel Zombies comics and also recently on the animated What If…? series.

Full Cast photo from Foxcroft Academy's production, 2014

BOBBY: Another reason I loved producing the play with my high school group was that it led to a great deal of interesting discussions and character work. Many heavy and important themes are in this, which, to be honest, surprised a great number of my colleagues who came to see the show. They did not expect a play about villains battling zombies to carry themes such as redemption, the shades of gray between good and evil, loyalty, loss, guilt and even how a marital relationship can strain and break. Can you tell me a bit about how you decided to explore these kinds of themes through this story and these characters?

 BRADLEY:  Aside from the two main characters and their ex-marital relationship that serves as the backbone of play, along with the basic concept, setting, and the ending... everything was made up on the fly as I wrote, and I wrote pretty quickly.  It was kind of amazing.  I’d just reach blindly into my head for the next thing that I needed and there it was.  And very little revision was needed afterwards.  So it really wasn’t a conscious decision to explore those themes, so much as “that’s just what came out.”  As to why that’s what came out, I’d say it was because I was a fan of dark, character-driven superhero comics, so that’s where my brain went.  It probably helped that I knew exactly how the play would end, and I was always writing with that specific direction in mind.

With respect to the divorced couple who are the play’s two main characters...I’m very happily married and have been for 25 years.  When I write about couples in relationships, to some extent I’m always drawing on my relationship with my wife.  The two characters in the play had a marriage that was grounded in causing mayhem together as super villains.  They were forced to go into hiding when something happened that made the world too dangerous to be a super villain, and without the mayhem, their marriage fell apart.  But they still love each other.  I can relate to that.  I can write that.  So I did. 

BOBBY: What do you think it is about zombies that makes them so scary to us, but also so very popular in our entertainment?

BRADLEY:  They’re people.  Or at least, they used to be.  They could be someone we love.  They could be us.  We can easily see a dark reflection of ourselves in them, which is what makes them great metaphors for other things...mindless consumers, mindless followers of some particular ideology, mindless pretty-much-anything-you-can-think-of.  They’re not complicated or difficult to understand.  They can be physically horrific to look at....or not.  Zombies are incredibly versatile.

BOBBY:  And finally: what advice do you have for any school or community theater group out there that is interested in producing Villains and Zombies?  (Note:  As someone who has directed a popular production in my home town, I highly recommend it!)

BRADLEY:  When I did the play with a group of high school students, they had some difficulty relating to the characters.  The super powers had nothing to do with it.  It was the grounded-in-the-real-world stuff...marriage, divorce, reconciling, going into hiding, giving up the thing that gives your life meaning, being a criminal, choosing to be something other than what you’ve been  your entire life...they had very little personal experience to draw on relating to these things.  So if you’re doing this play with younger actors (or even older ones), plan to spend some time working on them getting to know and understand their characters.  

From a purely technical standpoint, there’s some offstage dialogue at the end of the play that’s easy for the audience to miss because there’s a lot going on.  Make sure that dialogue is clear, audible, and try to find appropriate beats in the action to insert it.

Also, if I was writing the play today, I would probably have given the two main characters different super villain names than North and South, because I feel like in the current political climate, those words have become more readily associated with the Civil War. I used those names because I associated them with cold and hot. No Civil War connection is implied or should be inferred.

Leah Word and Gabriel Piquette as Malin and Monstro, respectively

Again, I want to thank Bradley for taking the time to answer my questions, and to highly recommend Villains and Zombies for production. My students had a blast. I produced the play in 2014, and just a few years ago, one of the students from the show made a long post on social media about how lucky and grateful he was to be in a play that combined super villains and zombies while in high school, making the point that it is so rare to be able to portray something so cool in a high school play.

Now that's a positive impression!

If you would like to learn more about Bradley's work, and you are in luck because there is a whole lot of it!, you can do so by clicking the links below:

BRADLEY'S PLAYS AT BROOKLYN PUBLISHERS

BRADLEY'S PLAYS AT ELDRIDGE

BRADLEY'S PLAYS AT THEATREFOLK

BRADLEY'S PLAYS AT PLAYSCRIPTS, INC.

BRADLEY'S PLAYS AT BIG DOG PLAYS

BRADLEY'S PLAYS AT HEUER

BRADLEY'S PLAYS AT YouthPLAYS

And if you would like to learn about my spooky comedy for younger audiences, Are We Scared Yet?, you can do so by CLICKING HERE

Please comment below with the titles of your favorite Halloween Month plays!

And feel free to visit my book review blog, "My Only Friends Are Books" by CLICKING HERE

PLAYS FOR HALLOWEEN MONTH!: A look at "The Canterville Ghost" by John Vreeke, adapted from the novella by Oscar Wilde

 

Mariah (as Virginia Otis) and Bob (as the Canterville Ghost) in a production I directed for Lakewood Theater in Madison, Maine. "When a golden girl can win/Prayer from out the lips of sin"

The Canterville Ghost by John Vreeke is a most faithful adaptation of Oscar Wilde's story, as, in fact, it takes much of Wilde's prose and splits it up among the characters. It is a piece, much like readers theater, where the cast simultaneously narrates the story and acts it out, often picking up cues mid-sentence from one another. It was challenging to direct such a piece, and, I daresay, challenging for my actors as well (though I can say with all honesty that they all did a wonderful job). The flow is of utmost importance, and the script is a valuable lesson of looking and listening, so vital for every actor. 

If you are not aware of the story, it involves an American family by the name of Otis moving into a haunted manor house in England in the late 1800s. The house is haunted by Lord Canterville, an actor who murdered his wife in 1587. The house comes with a very serious housekeeper and butler, who warn the American family that they are moving in with a ghost. The family is nonplussed, and, part of the humor in Wilde's story is the fact that our Canterville ghost cannot scare these Americans, not even with the pool of blood that reappears even after it is scrubbed away daily.. It is also very playful in terms of the difference between Americans and the British. Even during his most extreme haunting of the family, the Canterville Ghost must endure the indignity of the family's father telling him to oil his chains, and the young rascal twins (patriotically named Stars and Stripes) hitting him with their pea shooter. 

The ghost being attacked by the family after a failed haunting

The heart of the play is in the relationship between Virginia Otis, around 16, and the Ghost himself. There is a prophecy that goes like this:

"When a golden girl can win
Prayer from out the lips of sin,
When the barren almond tree bears
And a child gives away its tears,
Then shall all the house be still
And peace come to Canterville."

Virginia is sensitive, an artist herself who has some lovely moments with the deceased and hammy actor. Here, the humor shifts into a poignant, lovely examination of death, the type really only Wilde can pull off. "The Ghost is so very tired. And it is Virginia who helps to release him, and bring the aforementioned peace to Canterville--- and not just the estate. 

Again, Mr. Vreeke's adaptation is not without challenges, but it is a rewarding piece that I enjoyed directing immensely.  You can find the rights to it by visiting Concord Theatricals--- simply 
CLICK HERE

If you're looking for a funny, spooky take on urban legends and ghost stories for younger audiences, check out my play ARE WE SCARED YET? by CLICKING HERE

What are some plays that get you in the Halloween spirit? Comment and let me know!

PLAYS FOR HALLOWEEN MONTH!: A Look at "Dracula" adapted for the stage by Steven Dietz

 

Maggie Kelleher as Lucy, Mark Nadeau as Van Helsing in the middle, and me as Dr. Seward in Lakewood Theater's production of Steven Dietz's Dracula. My character should be relieved Lucy didn't marry him, since she's an undead monster now. 

I love Halloween. I suppose that isn't rare for someone who has spent most of their life in the theater. I imagine most performers  have a soft spot for a holiday all about getting into costume and getting out of yourself for an evening...

I also love horror movies and spooky books. I'm a Maine boy, so I have read a great deal Stephen King's work, because he is our Emperor in these parts. 

I also like spooky and scary plays, or any play with a Halloween vibe, though I sometimes think they are overlooked. That's why I've decided that this month, I will highlight some plays that I think are great for October, or, as I like to call it, Halloween Month. I figured I would start with Dracula by Steven Dietz, based on the novel by Bram Stoker.  I played Dr. Seward in a production at Lakewood Theater, and will share photos along the way...

Me as Dr. Seward, who is facing down madman and Dracula minion, Renfield, played by Bart Shattuck.

I have always loved vampire stories, so, as soon as I was old enough, I read Stoker's novel Dracula, the father of them all. I remember rushing to see Francis Ford Coppola's film adaptation when I was in middle school (probably too R-rated for me at the time, but I had cool parents), and while I loved it (I was like 12--- what wasn't to love?), I also wondered why every adaptation of Stoker's novel seemed to add a love story that just isn't there in the book. 

I was happy to be cast as Dr. Seward in Lakewood's production. Both of my parents had been in a different adaptation of Dracula when I was a boy, and I remember watching it over and over again. So being in my own production felt like a foregone conclusion, and I was happy to be in this particular production with my friends Jak, Maggie, Nick, Hannah, Jen, and everyone else involved. 

Playing Dr. Seward was a special treat, because I particularly like how Dietz treats the character in his adaptation.  Adapting a novel, particularly a longish one like Dracula, is not an easy task. Obviously novels and plays are very different art forms. But Dietz is faithful to the source material, while making a very theatrical play, condensing events and keeping scenes moving quickly from one to the next. 

Maggie (as Lucy) gets a nice necklace from Mark as Van Helsing, while Hannah as Mina and I look on and try not to be bothered by the smell.

Dietz wisely does not dramatize each of Lucy's suitors, though they are all mentioned. Dr. Seward stands in for the rest of them, and Dietz gives him a lovely monologue as he proposes to Lucy. It shouldn't be a spoiler to say that she rejects him, though in the script, he sees the rejection in her face, but continues his speech as a good gentleman should, telling her he will always be there for her when she needs him. From this speech and scene, Dietz continues  the speech as Seward decides to take comfort in his work, and uses this transition to a seamless scene with Renfield. Again, I am fond of how Dietz is able to keep the action moving with transitions like this... with so many scenes, a production can die of boredom unless the script keeps them moving. 

What could be wrong with Lucy? I hope it's not a freakin' Dracula!

I am of the opinion that live theater can actually create a creepier experience with scary stories than movies, due to the fact that it is life, happening in the moment to be shared with the audience. When it's going well, there is a lovely energy in the air. 

And, trust me, don't skimp on the blood. 

Take a bow!

So if you're looking for a good Dracula adaptation, I am a fan of the one by Steven Dietz. Sure, there are probably wilder ones and musical ones, but Dietz is true to the story and has plenty of atmosphere, and, in my experience, can be as simple or as complex to stage as your production will allow. If you are interested in learning more about licensing it, you can visit its page on Dramatists Play Service's website by CLICKING HERE

If you are looking for a fun and funny spooky play for younger audiences, may I suggest my play Are We Scared Yet?  from Elderidge Publishing? It takes some popular spooky stories and urban legends and gives them a fun little twist. You can learn more about that play by CLICKING HERE. 

What is your favorite scary/spooky/Halloweeny play? Let me know in comments!

LEARNING FROM STUDENTS: AN INTERVIEW WITH LILY BRAY, HIGH SCHOOL ACTRESS

 

Above, you will find a video about Erskine Academy's theater program in my home state of Maine, under the direction of Mr. Nored.  Last year, Mr. Nored and his wonderful group of students presented my play Confession: Kafka in High School for the state high school one-act play competitions. Even though I have lived in Maine for most of my life, my plays are rarely produced in my home state: I can count on one hand the number of productions of my plays in Maine that I haven't directly been a part of myself. So it was exciting for me to see that they were putting on my play, particularly since it is one of my personal favorites.

Time and again, the universe likes to tell us that, as Disney Land says, it's a small world after all, and not only was Erskine Academy putting on my play, but one of the actors, who also served as a student director, was the daughter Heidi Bray (who I knew as Heidi Ryder), a high school friend I was in a number of plays with lo those many years ago! Knowing that the daughter of a friend I had fond memories of going to one-act competitions with was now in a competition play written by me was surprisingly moving for me and gave me an interesting sense of... I don't know.... perhaps symmetry is the best word. 

Heidi is the blonde young lady... I'm the short guy being strangled affectionately

Heidi's daughter is named Lily, who at the time of this writing is a senior and an honor student.  Since I know her Mom and her grandmother, I thought this might be an opportunity for me to connect to an actual student who was recently in one of my plays and get direct feedback about her experience, what she and her cast mates found engaging, and to hear her thoughts about the piece as a whole. Since I no longer teach but still write a great deal for high school students, I felt this would be good for me and good for my writing--- particularly since I have been toying with the idea of writing a companion piece to Confession which would feature the character that Lily portrayed (a character named Miss Delisle, a principal at a high school, who is actually one of my favorite characters I have written in a play for students).  Lily kindly agreed to meet with me via Zoom (how else do people meet nowadays) to chat about her experience. The fact that she was not only a performer in the piece but a student director as well (something I think is a great thing for Mr. Nored to do, giving students these creative leadership roles) gave an extra layer of insight. 

Lily has always been interested in theater. Her middle school only had a theater program for one year when she was there, but she loved it and decided to shadow the drama class at Erskine when she had the chance for a "move up day".  As soon as she was a freshman, she got into her drama class, and through the drama class, got involved with the theater club.

Confession: Kafka in High School was my attempt to make themes explored in works like Kafka's The Trial  relatable to high school students, by having a character named Connor K (or Constance K when performed by someone who identifies by a female, like in Erskine's production) wake up to find himself or herself in a conference room at the the high school, accused by Ms. Delisle of having done something against the rules and being told to confess to his or her crimes. The only problem is, no one will tell Connor or Constance what they are accused of. From here, it leads to some of the issues of the absurd and existentialism, as well as the nature of authority that Kafka (and many others) approach in their classic works. 

Lily tells me that she and her fellow students thought a great deal about the questions of authority and what control (or lack of control) students may have in certain situations. I asked Lily if her portrayal of Miss Delisle, who we agree is very manipulative with her authority over students, was inspired by any real-life experiences. 

"When she is tearing the students apart, that is definitely a real life thing," she told me. "Not all teachers, but some teachers, will use their power to scare you into things.... No teacher has ever done this to me, but I have seen it happen, teachers using their authoritative control. Miss Delisle used her power to get what she wanted in the end."

Lily is rightfully proud of decisions she and her production mates made in terms of the set. One such decision I absolutely loved was adding pet door in the set for a character named Mr. Demetri, Miss Delilse's vice principal and yes-man. It resembles a doggie door, and is used only by this character who acts like lap dog to the character. It is a perfect example of making a choice that is not in the script (largely because I would never have thought of it!) that heightens both the character and some of the more absurd and darkly comedic themes. "We wanted to play up the fact that Mr. Demetri is the complete minion of Miss Delisle," Lily said. "Whatever Miss Delisle has, he has the.. well, the Wal-Mart version, if you will.... and no one else used it but him."

I was very excited to hear some of the other choices the student directors and cast made to heighten the absurdist elements of the play. "In rehearsals we were laughing all the time as things became more and more absurd," she said, which is always good for me to hear. "Every character had an absurdist piece to their costume, and other wacky characteristics." She described a character with a tool belt that hand everything but a tool on it, as well as a teenage girl with a Santa Claus fixation, carrying a Santa bag, and sometimes sneaking in a "ho, ho, ho" on occasion, while she would replace props onstage with cans of Spaghetti-Os (that Lily then later opened up and ate uncooked with her bare hands). 

"I wish you could have seen it," she said more than once, and I wish I could have seen it, too. 

I think the most rewarding thing for me to hear was how Lily and her other student director were very much into collaboration with the rest of the cast. Giving the actors a chance to own their characters is so important, to encourage young actors to make choices and commit to them. That's is one of the most important things to learn as an actor.  And hearing that they engaged with what I was trying to do with my script while also having so much fun meant the world to me. 

Lily tells me that, like myself when I was a student, the one-act play competitions are her favorite part of the theater season. I always loved the bus rides, watching all the other plays from the other schools and meeting other like-minded theater students. My heart has gone out to theater students who haven't been able to have one-act competitions in the way they have always been because of Covid-19, and Lily, like most theater students, has felt the impact of these changes. Still, she is grateful that they found a way to put on a show and compete last winter, and she is all set to act and co-direct the one act play competition this year. 

Near the end of our conversation, I asked her a more general question about the importance of theater and the arts in her school. 

"It's so important," she told me. "Theater club has always felt like a very accepting and very safe space, and I think that's important for the school to see... I love going to theater club because it's like an escape from the rest of my day... you get to release a lot of negative energy by performing and discussing what you're doing. It's completely an awesome time."

That last sentence is also the perfect way to describe my conversation with Lily:  a completely awesome time. Hearing about her experience with her friends and cast mates was a lovely reminder of why I write plays and why I have spent so much of my life working with students. As the title from this post suggests, cliché or not, I learn more from them than I feel they could ever learn from me. It is also a reminder that, in my opinion, theater will never go out of style and will always be meaningful and vital for our culture. 

Thanks for reading my blog. If you want to read Confession: Kafka In High School or license it for a production, you can visit the Playscripts, Inc. website by CLICKING HERE.

  

WHY READING PLAYS IS GOOD FOR YOU....

 

If you haven't been following my blog (it's okay, there's a lot of stuff to do in this world of ours), I read 30 plays for the 30 days of September, one a play a day, reading the plays in one sitting to get a good feel of their dramatic arc and structure. I then wrote about each play, giving a basic run down of what it was about, as well as some history of its premiere production and its playwright, and other dramaturgical information, as well as some of my opinions about each play.  The 30 plays were as follows (you can click on each one to go to my post about it) :

1. Lemon Sky by Lanford Wilson
2. Ceremonies in Dark Old Men by Lonne Elder III
3. Painting Churches by Tina Howe
4. The Flies by Jean-Paul Sartre
5. All Over by Edward Albee
6. Other Places by Harold Pinter
7. Marat/Sade by Peter Weiss, Translated by Geoffrey Skelton, Verse Adaptation by Adrian Mitchell
8. for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange
9. Brilliant Traces by Cindy Lou Johnson
10. Titanic by Christopher Durang
11. Sticks and Bones by David Rabe
12. Bosoms and Neglect by John Guare
13. Arcadia by Tom Stoppard 
14. R.U.R. by Karel Čapek
15. Trudy Blue  by Marsha Norman 
16. Morning, Noon, and Night by Israel Horovitz, Terrence McNally, and Leonard Melfi
17. Jack and Jill: A Romance by Jane Martin
18. The Good Doctor by Neil Simon
19. Fences by August Wilson
20. Tea and Sympathy by Robert Anderson
21. One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace
22. The Taking of Miss Janie by Ed Bullins
23. The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen
24. I Hate Hamlet by Paul Rudnick 
25. Hunger and Thirst by Eugene Ionesco
26. Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams
27. Mary, Mary by Jean Kerr
28. Indians by Arthur Kopit
29. Salomé by Oscar Wilde
30. Little Murders by Jules Feiffer
BONUS PLAYS THROUGHOUT THE MONTH:  This Property is Condemned by Tennessee Williams, Come Down Burning by Kia Corthron, and My Left Breast by Susan Miller

As the title of this post might and the above picture suggests, spending a month focusing on reading a play daily was very good for me, and I think it will be good for you, too. 

But why, Bobby, why?

Here are a few reasons:

- IT REFRESHES YOUR VISUALIZATION:  I found that working my visualization muscles was a real treat. Setting the scene in your mind, hearing the characters in your head, and actually watching the play unfold in your imagination is a valuable tool for any playwright, actor or director. 

- DETECTING STRUCTURE BECOMES ALMOST AUTOMATIC: Especially with well-crafted plays, the reader begins to fully and almost inherently feel the structure of a play, and sense its dramatic arc. Clearly, this is valuable for any one involved in theater. 

-ONE BEGINS TO GLEAN CHARACTER BUILDING TECHNIQUE AND DRAMATIC ACTION: All these things one learns in a script analysis class or an early acting college course can start to be gleaned simply by reading plays, paying attention to how dialogue creates ACTION for character, how the dramatic action builds based on OBJECTIVES and OBSTRUCTIONS. One can find this stuff easily on the page--- it is not hard to find, because as you read, you simply begin to understand it as you let the play build in your imagination. 

- IT IS FUN:  Yes, pure and simple, reading plays is fun. And by fun, I don't just mean with the comedies and laughing, etc. Fun is also being engaged. Fun is feeling something deeply, understanding something in a new way that you have never understood it before. 

-IT IS BOTH HISTORY LESSONS AND EMPATY LESSONS:  I noticed when reading many of these plays, particularly American plays of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, how even plays that weren't outwardly political had something to say. Mary, Mary example, in many ways, seems like just a fun comedy, and it is that, certainly. But when you think of the time period and a female protagonist taking agency for herself, making the choices based on what she wants, it is a statement. A play like Tea and Sympathy  comments on toxic masculinity before the term existed, and comments on homophobia when it wasn't popular to do so. And plays like Indians, Fences, Come Down Burning, and The Taking of Miss Janie  deal with America's racism in stark and honest and necessary ways. And by presenting all of this as plays, where the reader and the audience is in the character's shoes, hearing their voices, it becomes an easier delivery system for empathy in many ways than other forms of writing (in my opinion... but don't get me wrong... I love pretty much all forms of writing). 

Do I think if you are serious about theater that you should try a similar challenge of reading 30 plays in 30 days?  Yes I do! 

Do I think if you just like reading that you should try a similar challenge of reading 30 plays in 30 days? Yes I do!

Do I think we should normalize reading plays in the same way that we read novels and short stories and poems,etc.? You bet! 

I know I plan to keep reading more and more plays. As a playwright, it has recharged my batteries and inspired me. I hope to read at least one play a week from here on out (on top of all the books and such I want to read, too). 

Don't feel you have to have the same reading list that I did (although I must say it is a pretty good one... I did try to be diverse and wide-ranging). Read any type of play that interests you, and then, please feel free to comment here and tell me about it. 

Thanks for taking the time to read my final thoughts on my 30 day play reading challenge. Go out and have a great month of reading yourselves! 

Shameless plug:  If you want to read any of my plays as part of your challenge, you can learn about them by CLICKING HERE

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #30 "Little Murders" by Jules Feiffer

 

The Penguin Edition of the Play, featuring a still from the film adaptation

I can't believe it... September is almost over, and my challenge is officially finished. I have read 30 plays in 30 days. Today, I will do my daily write up of the day's play, but tomorrow, I will write a little bit about the value of this experience, and how reading plays every day has made me feel great, and taught me a great deal, too. In short, I recommend it if you are looking for inspiration. But more on that tomorrow. In the meantime...

Play #30

Little Murders by Jules Feiffer

I have said this about several of the plays I have read this month, but Little Murders, despite being dated in some regards, is honestly just as relevant today, if not more so. I had read the play a number of years ago, probably as a teenager or young adult, but couldn't remember it--- strange, since as I read it today, I realized it was a piece that really hits my sweet spot as a reader and audience member--- a savage and savagely funny satire and dark comedy that brilliantly and forcefully depicts an America where violence, and particularly gun violence, is as American as apple pie (as Clive Barnes wrote)... or, in other words, simply America. Feiffer said he was inspired to write the story after the assassination of JFK (though he was not necessarily a fan), which was quickly followed upon by the assassination of Oswald, and the violence in Vietnam:  "So the motive of the play was the breakdown of all forms of authority--- religion, family, the police. Urban violence was always the metaphor in my mind for something more serious in the country." (Quote from the New York Times)

The play begins in the Newquist family's apartment: the matriarch, Marjorie needs to prepare for dinner, as grown daughter Patsy is bringing her new boyfriend Alfred over to meet her family. Carol, the patriarch (who hates being called by his given name of Carol), figures he will have to booze up the young man to find that he isn't good enough for his daughter. He is adamant that every boyfriend of Patsy's has not been a "real man", and questions their sexuality, all while ignoring his son Kenny, living at home but attending college, who may be closeted. Patsy, a very positive, bright, and strong daughter arrives. She is adored by her father and brother, yet her mother seems somewhat uncomfortable around her. Alfred, her new boyfriend, is a big guy with bruises all over his face--- because of his size, he says that people always want to pick fights with him. He lets them beat on him (as long as they don't touch his cameras--- he is a photographer) until they tire out. This does not sit well with Carol:

CAROL: Christ Jesus, you're not a pacifist?

PATSY: (warning) Daddy...

ALFRED: (slowly shaking his head) An apathist. 

Patsy, in fact, can't pull herself away from Alfred because he is so different--- he won't fight, and because of this, she can't win a fight with him. 

The family and guest sit down for dinner amidst rolling blackouts and gunshots going on at a fairly regular rate outside the window. And this continues all throughout the play, the gunshots, even before the wedding of Alfred and Patsy (after a big to-do because Alfred doesn't want God mentioned in the ceremony) until, ultimately, there are tragic results from the gunshots, leading to the death of a major character (I won't say which one). Bringing about an ending that essentially paints the picture that the American way of dealing with gun violence is by becoming perpetrators of it yourself. 

Jules Feiffer was known as a cartoonist first, at the Village Voice (where he produced the weekly comic strip Feiffer until 1997) before garnering a reputation as a writer and playwright, though as Clive Barnes noted, his cartoons are always monologues from a character, or dialogues.  He wrote the animated short Munro which won an Academy Award. He also wrote a novel called Harry, the Rat With Women in 1963. 

Little Murders  first appeared on Broadway in 1967, featuring Elliot Gould (who would later star in the film adaptation), but it was iced out by critics and closed after seven performances. It fared better in London. But then in 1969, it was staged Off-Broadway, where it probably belonged in the first place, in a production featuring Fred Willard and directed by Alan Arkin (who would helm the film), and received great reviews and ran for 400 performances. 

Feiffer is 92, and, from what I could find, he is still teaching at an MFA program at Stony Brook Southampton. He won a Pultizer for Editorial Cartooning, and is in the Comic Book Hall of Fame. 

I cannot tell you how much I love this play. It is the type of bold, dark comedy that I find both hilarious and poignant and important... the kind of work I like to do myself from time to time. I would love to see it produced a whole bunch--- as I say, it is still very relevant. 

If you are interested in reading it or licensing it for production, you can do so by clicking this link to CONCORD THEATRICALS.

Any thoughts on this play or this film?  What are some other great plays you think I should read and discuss? Please feel free to comment. 

And if you're interested in my work, check out My List of Publications.

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #29 "Salomé" by Oscar Wilde

 

I am reading 30 Plays in the 30 Days of September and discussing them here. I can't believe the month is almost over...

Play #29

Salomé by Oscar Wilde

The original version of this play was written in French in 1891 and translated into English three years later. The first production was in Paris in 1896, because it was banned in Britain because of its depiction of Biblical characters. It would not be performed there until 1931. 

One might remember that this play was written before Oscar Wilde had success with plays such as A Woman of No Importance and The Importance of Being Earnest (which I had the pleasure of directing a while back). This one act tragedy bears little resemblance the quick witted comedies that many associate with Wilde, though the luxurious use of language is still on display. 

Salomé is the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, who is having a drunken party. He and his guests have been leering inappropriately at Salomé all evening, so she steps away and hears the voice of Jokanaan the prophet (John the Baptist), who is being held prisoner. She demands to see him, even though it is not allowed, and is drawn to him, though he calls her harlot and such. She wants to kiss his mouth and he rejects her. She persists and he continues to reject her, to the point where the young Syrian captain of the guard, upset that she wants another man, kills himself. Right there between them. Just kills himself. 

Right there. 

Salomé doesn't pay the corpse much mind but tells Jokanaan that she will kiss his mouth one day. He is taken back to his cell, and Herod comes to find Salomé, slipping on the blood of the young captain (a bad omen--- of course). The old perv wants his stepdaughter to dance for him, even though his wife, Salomé's mother Herodias, is right there. Salomé says she will dance for Herod, against her mother's objections, so long as Herod swears to give her anything she wants in return. He gives the oath. She dances the dance of the seven veils. Herod is super happy, the old perv. Then Salomé tells him what she wants. 

The head of Jokanaan. (spoiler alert: yes, she does kiss it)

Salomé is not named in the Bible, but is only known as Herod's stepdaughter who asks for the head of John the Baptist. Apparently, Oscar Wilde has been interested in writing on the subject of Salomé since his Oxford days. 

Like most everything Wilde ever wrote, it is a well-written with wonderful turns of phrase:

"Only in mirrors should one look," says Herod in one of his speeches, "for mirrors do but show us masks."

Salomé has been adapted in many different media (including a film with Al Pacino and Jessica Chastain), and there are countless pieces of art depicting the young woman with a head on a platter. For all of this, I do not think this particular play is what people think of when they think of Oscar Wilde... I know I can't help but think of Earnest or An Ideal Husband or his beautiful collection of fairy tales. I once had the good fortune to play Oscar Wilde himself (though he was much, much taller than I) in a production of a play called Wilde West by Charles Marowitz, which depicts on Wilde on his American tour (which did happen) where he meets outlaw Jesse James (which did not happen). It was a great pleasure to play a genuine genius and to learn about his life. 

Have you read Salomé?  Let me know in the comments!

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Bonus Play "My Left Breast" by Susan Miller

 

Here is another bonus play for my "30 Plays in 30 Days" September reading challenge. My Left Breast by Susan Miller is a one-woman show that I found in a collection I have of The Best American Short Plays 1993-1994. The play originally premiered at the Actors Theatre of Louisville in the 1994 Humana Festival where Miller performed the piece herself. 

A multi-layered monologue, My Left Breast tells the story of a "one-breasted, menopausal, Jewish bisexual lesbian Mom", from a diagnoses of breast cancer through a mastectomy, from raising her son, to a breakup of a long-term relationship, and a diagnoses of osteoporosis... and through it all, Miller tells the story in a very human way, with plenty of humor, insight and poignancy.  I found the descriptions in the aftermath of her breakup relatable, and one can feel the no-holds barred honesty as she approaches each subject with a kind of grace in her writing.

Susan Miller received an Obie and shared the 1994/1995 Blackburn Prize for the play. It is published by Playscripts, Inc., a very fine publishing house (they carry two of my plays), so if you are interested in reading the play or licensing it for performance, you can visit their website by CLICKING HERE.

If you know this play, have read it, seen it, or performed it, let me know your thoughts by commenting on this post. If you would like to learn more about my plays, you can do so by CLICKING HERE.

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #28 "Indians" by Arthur Kopit

 

I have decided for the month of September to read 30 plays in 30 days. It is my belief that, if possible, a play should be read in one sitting to get a better inherent sense of the dramatic arc. Each day, I will write a short post here about the play of the day.

Play #28

Indians by Arthur Kopit

If Arthur Kopit had stopped writing plays after his debut with Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You In The Closet And I'm Feelin' So Sad: A Pseudoclassical Tragifarce in a Bastard French Tradition, I would still consider him one of the most important American dramatists of his time, and, perhaps, of any time. That play proved to be prophetic about the sixties and the very notion of revolution, a theme shared in the brilliant one act play Madam Popov by Gladden Schrock. Fortunately for all of us, Kopit continued to write plays, including the brilliant Indians which I have finally read today. 

Again, I am glad that I saved it in a way, because the play seems even more relevant and tragic today as it did at the time it was written. Michael Patterson wrote in The Oxford Guide to Plays that Kopit "turned to a more serious political investigation of the white settlers' treatment of Native Americans," and that "Kopit's play was one of the first major pieces to confront the issue and to relate it to continuing genocide in South-East Asia." 

Indeed, I kept thinking as I read the play how it should be required reading in every high school in America, whether in history or English classes, with discussions about a country built on white supremacy and a notion of exceptionalism. 

Unlike Oh Dad, Poor Dad, which Kopit reportedly wrote in five days (!), Indians took a number of years to research, write, stage, rewrite, re-stage and rewrite some more (Kopit admitted this could have been a process for his entire lifetime with this particular piece). 

Indians sets out to obliterate the American myths of the wild west, our culture of "Cowboys vs. Indians," with the great white roughriders saving innocent white folks from the bloodthirsty savages with their trusty six-shooters. The play deftly cuts between Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (something that caused a great deal of damage with its mythic nonsense of cowboy heroes, as did the dime novels of Ned Buntline, also a character in the play) and a so-called presidential commission meeting with Sitting Bull to hear their grievances about the American government's lies and broken promises to his people.  And the play also deals with the massacre at Wounded Knee and makes no bones about the fact that it was a completely politically motivated act of genocide. 

While this theater blog and this project is not meant to be political, I cannot help but say for a moment that the history of America needs to be told in honest terms. I even know people who will say it is tragic what happened, but seem to say so with a tone that suggest that it had to be this way. As Indians helps to reinforce, IT DID NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY. The American Government chose for it to be this way. When cheating Indigenous People out of their land, moving them to reservations, refusing to help them as promised, when all this didn't work, then there were the smallpox blankets, the massacres, the notion of wiping them out as though they were just a speedbump in progress. It did not have to be this way. Sadly, what people aren't really saying is, "It had to be this way to maintain white dominance, supremacy, and expansion." 

But back to the theater...

Kopit's final script is brilliantly structure, powerful and heartbreaking. Like his other pieces, it is also wonderfully theatrical and moves along at an exceptional pace, with brilliant dialogue, visual mastery and moment of dark and ironic humor. He clearly researched this with his heart and kept working to make it the best version of itself it could be, and it shows. 

After productions in London and Washington (with rewrites after each), Indians opened in New York on Broadway in October of 1969. Theater heavyweight Stacy Keach played Buffalo Bill, and other greats like Manu Tupou, Raul Julia, Charles Durning, and Sam Waterston appeared in it. And as much as I loved reading it, I am sure it is even more powerful to watch. 

The play was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award. In 1976, Robert Altman adapted it into a movie called Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson, which did not fare well as the country was celebrating its bicentennial.

Aruthur Kopit would also be a Pulitzer finalist for his play Wings, which also received a Tony nomination for Best Play. He would receive another Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical for Nine, an adaptation of the film 81/2. With his Nine collaborator, he wrote the book for Phantom, an adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera that was overshadowed by Andrew Lloyd Webber's, though many critics prefer the Kopit version with music by Maury Yeston.

Sadly, Mr. Kopit passed away just this last April at the age of 83. He had been living with progressive dementia prior to his death. 

He will always be one of my heroes, and reading Indians today only solidifies my feelings on the matter. 

If you are interested in producing the play, it is licensed by Concord Theatricals, and you can learn more about it by CLICKING HERE.

Thanks for reading, and feel free to comment with your thoughts on this play or on Arthur Kopit below. If you are looking for a great Christmas play, check out A Wicked Christmas Carol, by me, which combines the worlds of Dickens and L. Frank Baum's Oz books. You can learn more by CLICKING HERE.

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: BONUS PLAY "Come Down Burning" by Kia Corthron

 

Today, I have another bonus play. I read a full-length, and, tonight, read a brilliant one act play called Come Down Burning by Kia Corthron. It is in a collection called The Best American Short Plays 1993-1994, which was given to me by my high school drama coach and dear friend, Tom Lyford. 

Kia Corthron has written many plays, as well as the novel The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter which won the 2016 Center For Fiction First Novel Prize. She also wrote episodes for the television series The Jury and The Wire. 

Come Down Burning centers around two grown sisters: Skoolie, the elder sister, who is paralyzed from her waist down due to a fall from tree as a child, and Tee, the younger sister with three children, who always needs help from Skoolie. It is established that Skoolie is the strong one, despite her physical condition, and she can move around fiercely in a wooden cart her father had made for her years ago, a cart with wheels on the bottom. Already, Corthron has inverted a cliche in a terrific manner by making Skoolie the one who takes care of the family. Tee has moved in with her three children, ages 9, 6 and a baby of just 3 months, and we learn it is not the first time that Skoolie has had to take Tee in and take care of her. Tee defers to Skoolie on most things, like how best to feed the baby, and how to deal with a mean teacher who is singling out her daughter, but this begins to build a kind of resentment--- in truth, a feeling that has probably been building in Tee for years

Skoolie makes money doing hair, and also performing illegal abortions on the side. Though Tee has three children is pregnant again, we learn two of her children had died, most likely because of malnourishment brought on by poverty. Class, race and poverty is dealt with in a strong manner in this play, though not in any way that feels preachy. Tee needs to make a decision about the pregnancy, and how to move forward, and if she can even move forward without her older sister's help. 

But even more than help, she wants Skoolie's approval. 

I will not go into the ending here, only to say that it was a very powerful piece and that Corthron packs a great deal of emotion into a a short piece. Her language is also poetic, yet still feels natural and real. 

Come Down Burning had a workshop production at the Long Wharf Theatre, and then premiered at the American Place Theater in 1993. To learn more about it, or to order a copy yourself, you can CLICK HERE.

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment if you have any thoughts about Kia Corthron's intense one act play, or with any recommendations for plays that I may not have read or discussed. If you would like to learn more about my published plays, please CLICK HERE. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #27 "Mary, Mary" by Jean Kerr

 

 I have decided for the month of September to read 30 plays in 30 days. It is my belief that, if possible, a play should be read in one sitting to get a better inherent sense of the dramatic arc. Each day, I will write a short post here about the play of the day.

Play #27

Mary, Mary by Jean Kerr

Mary, Mary opened on Broadway in March of 1961 at the original Helen Hayes Theater. It ran for 3 years and 9 months before it transferred to the Morasco. It ended up closing December 12, 1964 after 1,572 performances. 

Let me say it again--- 1,572 performances. 

That makes it the longest-running non-musical play of the 1960s.  The play ran much longer than the film adaptation of it. 

Now, if you were to have asked me what the longest-running Broadway non-musical play of the 1960s had been I probably would have guessed one of Neil Simon's comedies, either The Odd Couple or Barefoot in the Park. 

How happy I am to have been wrong!  I confess, I find it incredibly refreshing that a female playwright writing a character about a woman who has grown in to finding her agency was such an incredible success. And here's the thing--- it is a pure joy to read, and I imagine is even more fun to see onstage. 

Mary, Mary begins with Bob, divorced for about nine months, in the midst of planning to get remarried to Tiffany. He is having money and tax problems, so his friend Oscar, an accountant, comes to his apartment to help him out. Unbeknownst to Bob, Oscar has asked Bob's ex-wife, the titular Mary, to come and help, as she might be able to help, as she and Bob had shared expenses before their divorce. Bob is nervous to see Mary, to the extent that he doesn't want to be left alone with her, and certainly doesn't want Tiffany, his new bride-to-be to meet her. When Mary arrives, she is stronger, more fashionable and perhaps a bit more confident than her ex-husband remembers. 

And she is very funny. 

Yes, I think Mary is a very cool character who, after the divorce (which was her husband's idea), has worked to become the version of herself that she wants to be. Yes, she still has feelings for ex-husband, and yes, sometimes her confidence wavers, but this is a character who, as John Gassner put it, is just as intelligent and funny as... well, Jean Kerr herself.  I like how the play even ends on Mary's own terms. Further, the role of Tiffany, the younger new wife, is also treated like a genuine character, in a role that many playwrights might have written as an airhead young trophy wife, Tiffany also shows her own agency and deeper layers.  

There is a subplot about a movie star who wants to publish a book with Bob's publishing company who meets Mary and develops feelings for her, seeing her in a way that Bob never did... until, perhaps, it was too late.

Or was it?

This is by no means a perfect play, but I understand why it was so successful. These characters are pleasant to be around. Jean Kerr, also known for her best-selling collection of essays, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, has one-liners that even Neil Simon would admire. And sorry to keep making the Neil Simon comparison, but I just find it strange that I had never really heard of Jean Kerr's plays until recently. I wonder why she or this comedy isn't as widely produced as some of Simon's classics. Yes, the play is a little dated perhaps, but so are Neil's. 

In any case, the play didn't exactly end as I had wanted it to, but it ended in an honest way that, again, didn't short change Mary's growth as a character, and even allowed Bob a little growth, too. Underneath the jokes, there are some genuine ideas about relationships and men and women that might not be groundbreaking, but are interesting. 

Jean Kerr was married to the Broadway writer and critic Walter Kerr, and they collaborated on such projects as Goldilocks the Musical and the Tony award-winning King of Hearts. 

Jean Kerr passed away in 2003 at the age of 80. Her last play, Lunch Hour was staged in 1980.  

If you're interested in staging Mary, Mary you can learn more about doing so on the Dramatist Play Service Website for it. 

Looking for a great new play for the Christmas season?  Check out my play A Wicked Christmas Carol, which blends the worlds of Dickens and L. Frank Baum's Oz books, providing terrific roles for women with a spin on a classic. CLICK HERE for details. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: BONUS PLAY "This Property is Condemned" by Tennessee Williams

 

I have given myself the challenge of reading 30 plays for the 30 days of September and to write about them here on my blog. Today, after reading the Summer and Smoke, I was so taken with the Prologue featuring the Young John and Young Alma, that I went back and read Tennessee Williams' short play, This Property is Condemned. And while I will not consider it one of my 30 plays for the 30 days of September (it's probably a 15-minute read, tops, probably closer to 10), I will still discuss it here briefly. 

While Tennessee Williams is primarily known for his full-length works that made him one of the most important American playwrights of the 20th century, (particularly A Streetcar Named Desire and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,  both winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama), I have always been fond of a number of his short plays for their ability to pack some serious emotional weight while being short and precise. I think This Property is Condemned is maybe the best example of this gift. 

The two-character play begins with Tom, about 12 or 13, out with his kite, and a young woman of 13 named Willie is walking down the railroad tracks with a ragged doll in one hand and sorry looking banana in the other. Willie is dressed in clothes that are too old for her, and has childishly rubbed rouge on her face. She asks Willie to hold her doll and and not talk to her until she falls off the tracks--- which she does after a few more moments. 

As the two kids talk, it is clear that Willie is not in the best of circumstances. Since her older sister Alva's death, her life has crumbled. Her sister was promiscuous with the railroad men, or so it was said. Willie's mother ran off with a man from the railroad, and her father took to drinking and disappeared. She lives alone in their house now, which has a sign on it reading: THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED. She is alone, though she says she has inherited her sister's clothes and her beaux. Tom has even heard that Willie danced for one of his friends, which Willie doesn't deny. She merely said she was lonesome at the time. 

Willie is a heartbreaking character, and the short play is a perfect portrait and duet for two talented young performers. I am happy tat Williams doesn't answer every question about Willie's life, and that we don't know exactly when she is lying and when she is telling the truth. It is a fascinating short piece. 

A full-length movie was made in 1966 that expands the story and dramatizes Willie's stories about her older sister Alva. And while I have heard good things about the film, I think I prefer the short, ambiguous, yet emotional piece written for the stage. I don't think we need to see Alva's story. It's about how Alva's story brought Willie to where she is now--- that's the engaging part of it for me. 

I hope you enjoyed this bonus discussion for This Property is Condemned. Please feel free to keep on coming back to my blog.  And if you're interested in a cool new Christmas Play, you can learn about my play A Wicked Christmas Carol that combines the worlds of Dickens and of L. Frank Baum's Oz books by CLICKING HERE. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #26 "Summer and Smoke" by Tennessee Williams

 

I have decided for the month of September to read 30 plays in 30 days. It is my belief that, if possible, a play should be read in one sitting to get a better inherent sense of the dramatic arc. Each day, I will write a short post here about the play of the day.

Play #26

Summer and Smoke by Tennessee Williams

One can't really have  discussion about 20th century American theater without mentioning Tennessee Williams (born Thomas Lanier Williams III). Along with biggies like Eugene O'Neill, he is considered to be one of the most important dramatists of the era--- his play A Streetcar Named Desire is considered as seminal an American work as O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. His first major success came with The Glass Menagerie when he was just 33, and the prolific, lyrical playwright followed it up with a string of hits, including winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice, once for the aforementioned Streetcar and again for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. 

Summer and Smoke opened in 1948, his first follow-up to Streetcar, though he had been working on it since 1945 under the title Chart of Anatomy (such a chart is pivotal in the play). The play is sort of a love story (or maybe, more appropriately, a love story that doesn't really happen) between Alma, the minister's daughter, and John, following in his father's footsteps by becoming a doctor. Alma, her name meaning "soul", believes in the spirit within a person, while John is more interested in the flesh. The play is told in two parts--- Summer and Winter--- and in many ways is a philosophical argument between these two ways of looking at humans (argument being the word the characters use). Alma loves John, believes he could ascend to be above what he is in the first part, that is, a drunkard who goes after pleasure where he can find it. By the end, however, Alma and John have reversed, or so we are led to think--- she has "won the argument" according to John, who now believes in the soul, and Alma is no longer sure of such things... only sure that she loves him and can't be with him. Now, I say that John has supposedly changed, though, by the end, he is with a woman who he admits is still "just a child", who we first met as a 16 year-old student with a school girl crush on him.  So... yeah. 

While Tennessee Williams is always a pleasure to read--- he is such a gifted writer and spins an interesting tale that you want to see reconciled--- this play is not his best. Alma really is little more than a symbol for the spirit, and her "nervous attacks" (John gets her hooked on pills for that--- yay) and strange laughter feel more like quirks than actual character traits. John is also too much of a symbol, and, as mentioned before, I did not find his journey believable or earned. Nor did what keeps them apart at the end seem genuine to me, either. 

I know this sounds like I didn't like the play, but that is not true at all. It really is a great read, and Williams, very specific in his stage directions, sets up a nice visual picture, and there are beautifully written monologues. 

Interestingly enough, this story must have kept kicking around in Williams' head, because he rewrote the play in 1964 with the title The Eccentricities of a Nightingale. It is said that he prefers this play to Summer and Smoke, and some of the criticisms about the character Alma are said to be rectified in Nightingale. This, of course, makes me want to find a copy of it so I can do a side-by-side compare/contrast... perhaps some day. 

One final note: the play begins with a Prologue of a young John and Alma at the fountain (which also is of importance in the play). It is a short scene, but I really like it. Williams, in my opinion, was pretty good at writing children, and I almost wish this scene had been longer. Makes me want to take another look at his excellent one-act, This Property is Condemned. 

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to check out the rest of my blog. If you're interested in my plays, you can click HERE, HERE, HERE or even HERE

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #25 "Hunger and Thirst" by Eugene Ionesco

 I have decided for the month of September to read 30 plays in 30 days. It is my belief that, if possible, a play should be read in one sitting to get a better inherent sense of the dramatic arc. Each day, I will write a short post here about the play of the day.

Play #25

Hunger and Thirst by Eugene Ionesco

I have mentioned my abiding love of the Theatre of the Absurd before on many occasions, and when it comes to writers I am fascinated by, Eugene Ionesco is near the top of the list. While I certainly am a fan of works like Rhinoceros, Exit the King, The Killer, The Bald Soprano (an anti-play) and others, it was some of his shorter plays like The Chairs and Jack or the Submission that really turned me on and blew my mind by their creativity. Ionesco's influence is huge, no doubt. Just read Albee's The American Dream and The Sandbox--- they are practically overflowing with Ionesco's influence.

Hunger and Thirst is labelled as 3 episodes. The first, called "The Flight", finds Jean dissatisfied at his new home with his wife Marie-Madeleine and their small baby in a cradle. As much as his wife adores him and comforts him, he feels a lack. There is a strange (it is Ionesco after all) visit from an Aunt who may or may not be dead (you can see in scenes like this how Ionesco also influenced comic writers like Christopher Durang), and after, Jean plays a prolonged gamed of hide and seek with his wife before disappearing altogether. And while she honestly believes that he cannot tear out his love from his heart, he does so, symbolically, in order to set out for something different. 

Episode 2, "The Rendezvous" finds Jean at a gorgeous mountain top museum, waiting to meet a woman, who may in fact just be some idealized version of something that does not exist. He waits and waits, while the two museum keepers look on him. In this episode, one might be able to see how Beckett influenced Ionesco... Ionesco, in the one interview I could find with him that was subtitled, talked about his love for Beckett's work. 

Episode 3, "The Black Masses of the Good Inn" finds Jean taking rest at an Inn (or is it a monastery?). The "brothers" who work their keep filling his plates and his drink-- and he keeps eating and drinking, never sated, a physical literal representation of his dissatisfaction in the first episode. The brothers then put on a show for him, which, in truth, goes on a bit too long and becomes a little tedious, though the message is strong--- it demonstrates belief as a kind of conformity, or, perhaps, conformity as a means to being fed. After the play, Jean finds himself in Inn (or monastery's) debt, though he sees visions of his wife and daughter, the baby girl now 15, waiting for him. Though he wants nothing more than to at last go home, it is time for him to feed others. 

There is much to be admired in this play (though I do think a good 5 pages could be cut from the final episode), and I underlined a great deal of it. The ending is powerful, and, as usual, Ionesco reveals some frightening truths in a manner both dark and comedic all at the same time. 

I thought it was brilliant.  

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #24 "I Hate Hamlet" by Paul Rudnick

 

I have decided for the month of September to read 30 plays in 30 days. It is my belief that, if possible, a play should be read in one sitting to get a better inherent sense of the dramatic arc. Each day, I will write a short post here about the play of the day.

Play #24

I Hate Hamlet by Paul Rudnick

When I was accepted into the acting program of Boston University's School for the Arts, I was given a t-shirt that had an image of John Barrymore as Hamlet with a speech bubble proclaiming, "To B.U. or not to B.U."  I mention this not only because even after all of these years I am proud to have been accepted into such a competitive program (ah, the days when I really believed I had the talent to actually make something of myself--- but I digress), but to give you an idea how John Barrymore, of one of the big theatrical families (and yes, he is the same Barrymore as Drew) is considered one of the most famous American Hamlets. In fact, after his 101 performances as Hamlet on Broadway, he was called "the greatest living American tragedian." 

Thus, of course he appears as a ghost in Paul Rudnick's I Hate Hamlet. In a note before the text, Rudnick tells how the play was inspired because he answered an ad in the New York Times real estate section for a "medieval duplex", to find that the apartment had been occupied by Barrymore in 1917.  I Hate Hamlet is about a handsome, though somewhat bland television actor of questionable talent, Andrew Rally, who decided to audition for Hamlet in the park after his television series was cancelled. He has rented a new apartment in New York, and, lo and behold, it once belonged to Barrymore. After a wacky seance (that, truthfully, doesn't feel earned) run by his wacky real estate agent, Barrymore is summoned---- though what really brought him back was to help the young actor prepare for the greatest role in the English-speaking theater. And whether teaching him the best way to stuff his tights, or performing Hamlet's speech to the Players, he succeeds in teaching this nervous young actor the transformative power of the Bard. 

It's a witty play, with some genuine laughs and a truly New York state of mind--- it's no mistake that Andrew's old TV director shows up with his coarse Los Angeles views to try to save Andrew from this "theater thing." And while occasionally some of the characters seem a bit one-dimensional and over-the-top, tis can be forgiven as it is a play about the theater and being larger than life. And in truth, I am wired to appreciate a play that honestly believes there is a transformative power in the art of Shakespeare for any actor, or, indeed, any person. 

Paul Rudnick's first play was Poor Little Lambs about a female Yale student who wants to join the all-male Whiffenpoofs. I knew his play Jeffrey and the film adaptation, a piece that won him an Obie and a John Gassner Award, as well as comparisons to Oscar Wilde. He has also written some very witty movies like Addams Family Values, Sister Act and In & Out (which is really fun). 

I Hate Hamlet did well, but actually achieved some controversy when the famed actor Nicol Williamson (a famous Hamlet in his own right, and was said to be "touched by genius" by Samuel Beckett) in the role of Barrymore, began attacking his co-star Evan Handler too realistically and dangerously in an onstage sword fight. Handler left the production because of it. 

Full disclosure:  I hate seen a production of this play when I was in high school, but didn't remember anything about it. It must not have been memorable. But it made reading the script today fun.

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #23 "The Master Builder" by Henrik Ibsen

 

Henrik Ibsen, a master builder of plays

I have decided for the month of September to read 30 plays in 30 days. It is my belief that, if possible, a play should be read in one sitting to get a better inherent sense of the dramatic arc. Each day, I will write a short post here about the play of the day.

Play #23

The Master Builder by Henrik Ibsen

There is a reason that we call the great ones the great ones (hint: it's because they are great). Henrik Ibsen is the most frequently performed dramatist in the world after Shakespeare (his play A Doll's House was the most performed play in the world in 2006). The Norwegian playwright and theater director is rightfully considered one of the founders of modern theater as we know it. Although his early verse play Peer Gynt has some surreal elements to it, after that he largely was interested in writing only realistic prose. His influence is clear in writers like G.B. Shaw, Eugene O'Neill, and even James Joyce. he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1902, 1903, and 1904.

And yet, for whatever reason, I have not read all of his works. Before today, I had read his play Ghosts while a student at Boston University (a play in which we know a character has syphilis without the word every being said), Hedda Gabler (I don't know many people who have studied theater haven't read that one) and A Doll's House. 

I absolutely loved reading The Master Builder today. While it feels strange I that it took me this long, I also like to believe we read the things we read when we do for a reason, and it is possible that I might not have loved this play as much had I read it as a young man (or, younger man, right?) as an assignment. In many ways, Ibsen is the master builder, or at least the master craftsman, with so many playwrights like myself discovering that they are eager apprentices. 

The play was first published in 1892, and while it continues his quest for realism, it is also deeply infused with symbolism. Halvard Solness is the title character--- a middle-aged man, desperately afraid of the younger generation of builders, to the extent that he has kept one in his employ to clip his wings and keep him from rising, going so far as to encourage the young man's fiance to fall in love with him to use her to keep him in his employ. Solness lost his two young sons in what he thinks is the direct aftermath of a fire--- a fire he believes he may have had the power to will. In fact, Solness believes that he has this power in other ways, to bend people in a sense because of his will. That the "trolls" and "devils" help in this way. 

Along comes Hilda Wangel, who I have learned is a character who appeared in Ibsen's earlier play The Lady From the Sea as well. I hope to read that play, too, because I think Hilda is an amazingly drawn character. She talks of having seen the Master Builder when she was but a child of 12 or 13, when he climbed to the top of a church, to the highest tower, to adorn it with the traditional wreath upon completion of the project. She also tells Solness how he had promised to make her a princess one day and had even kissed her (gross). He told her in ten years he would come and take her away. And now she has come to him for the kingdom he promised her. 

The dynamic between Solness, afraid of his middle-age and relevancy and Hilda, the one aspect of the younger generation he is drawn to, is the heart of the play. And while sometimes Hilda's motivations seem a bit inconsistent--- does she want him to find happiness by being more grounded, or is she the temptress bird of prey who wants him to build the castles in the sky even if it means crashing down?--- it is often "quite thrilling" (as Hilda would say) to read their back and forth. 

There is much more I could write about this play, but I encourage you all to read it for yourselves if you haven't yet. You'll be glad you did...

One last note:  The play has very obvious biographical elements, as Ibsen had a brief affair with an 18 year-old woman who apparently delighted in stealing husbands (but he was in his early 60s, so maybe it was more his responsibility), of who he said gave him a "high, painful happiness". And while she didn't "steal" him, he said he stole her--- for his play.