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

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.

  

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: 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 #22 "The Taking of Miss Janie" by Ed Bullins

 

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 #22

The Taking of Miss Janie by Ed Bullins (pictured above)

I found this play in a collection I have of "Famous American Plays of the 1970s". It is not an easy play to read. The play begins with a white woman, Janie, in bed with her black friend named Monty. She is confronting him after he has just raped her. When this play opened in the 1970s, Bullins said described this scenario as a metaphor for race relations, but it is not an easy metaphor. The play won an Obie for Distinguished Playwriting, and also a New York Drama Critics Circle Award, but it is not a play I can imagine being produced easily in these times, though it was revived in 2006. In an interview with NPR (that you can find by clicking here) the director of the revival, Ms. Shauneille Perry, had this to say:

"It is a question of perception because I'd like to take note that the play is called “The Taking of Miss Janie.” And Mr. Bullins, himself, in various interviews, has said it was a friendly rape, quote/unquote. I'm not exactly sure what that means but I do know that in the play it's quite clear in the lines that Janie does not leave. She's not literally accosted and so on.

"In fact, she presents herself at the end. So, I think, Bullins was saying that Janie represents America, Monty represents black America and it was the black America in the taking of white America.I don't like to speak too much for the author but I think the word, rape, which I supposed is used for publicly purposes to get people in. But I think it's an overstatement of what actually happened and remembering that it's called “The Taking of Miss Janie.”

I don't know that I completely agree with this sentiment having read the play, nor do I think there is really such a thing as a "friendly rape".  And unfortunately, metaphor or not, I found the device problematic to say the least. Which is somewhat unfortunate, as there is still much to be taken in by this play. Bullins is a fearless writer--- he has won many, many awards--- and has a great deal to say by inverting stereotypes. Much of this play is a fascinating portrait and rendition of the turbulent 1960s, with many issues that are still so sadly prevalent today. 

My favorite line comes from Peggy, when talking, from the future, about the 1960s. She says:

"We all failed. Failed ourselves in that serious time known as the sixties. And by failing ourselves we failed in the test of the times. We had so much going on for us... so much potential..."

Ed Bullins has written many, many plays, won many awards and received many grants. He currently holds a distinguished Artist-In-Residence at Northeastern University, and was once the Minister of Culture for the Black Panthers. He is also considered one of the most prominent voices of the Black Arts Movement. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #21 "One Flea Spare" by Naomi Wallace

 

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 #21

One Flea Spare by Naomi Wallace

One Flea Spare  is set in a plague ravaged London in 1665, which is perhaps why it is perfect reading for today, for right now, this minute. I have read that Naomi Wallace was inspired by Daniel Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year and the acquittal of the four officers who beat Rodney King. According to Laura Michiel's essay Times of Contagion: The Social(ist) Politics of Plague in Naomi Wallace's "One Flea Spare", to Wallace, "these events became linked, because spatial barriers broke down, obliging the rich and poor to share a common space." And indeed, this play is very much about class, particularly in the time of a mass illness. Lower-class guard Kabe at one paint preaches, "you will see who it is that dies, their mouths open in want, the maggots moving inside their tongues making their tongues wag as though they were about to speak. But they will never speak again in this world. The hungry. The dirty. The abandoned. That's who dies. Not the fancy and the wealthy..."

One need only look today to see things have not changed a great deal in this regard. The effects of the current pandemic (as well as upcoming disasters such as climate change) do effect the poor by a very noticeable margin. And while this project isn't necessarily about making any kind of political statement, I think it is worth mentioning how art, even historical art, can be a powerful reflection of our present-day lives. 

The story centers on a wealthy couple who are about to flee London to try to outrun the plague, but are forced to stay and quarantine (literally forced--- boarded inside and guarded) when a sailor, Bunce, stumbles into their house thinking it is empty. A young girl of 12, Morse, has also become a stowaway in the house without them realizing. Because these uninvited guests were spotted by guards getting into the home, the wealthy couple, the Snelgraves, cannot leave. The four are stuck together. 

And Wallace is very good at showing how this quarantine-by-force breaks down the usual societal norms as time passes. And as one may notice in the quote above, Wallace does not shy away from the sad and the gruesome details of death, whether describing the pits where the dead are thrown, or those waiting to die and the "tokens" on their skin, black boils of pain. 

The meat of the play is how the characters interact, and Mr. Snelgrave, the master of the house, immediately keeps his "rightful" place and makes Bunce and Morse his servants. But structure cannot last forever. Not in quarantine. There is emotional and physical manipulation, violence, and odd desire. 

Which is not to say that the play is without humor and beauty. Naomi Wallace is also a poet, and her dialogue is lyrical and effortlessly descriptive. My favorite character is Morse, a challenging role no question, for any young actress. She was a servant girl who watched her mother get the "tokens" of the plague, and saw her master throw her mother in the cellar behind a locked door, and gave her no food or water. From then, she was on her own, until locking down as part of this very strange, intense group.

The title One Flea Spare comes from a poem, The Flea, by John Donne, and Wallace uses this and the Brecht quote "Corruption is our only hope" as epigraphs in the printed version of the play. The play originally premiered in London in October of 1995, then was part of the Humana Festival in 1996. It  opened in New York at the Public Theater in 1997, and won an Obie award for best play. The cast included Dianne Wiest  and a young Mischa Barton. The play also won a Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the 1996 Joseph Kesserling Prize, and the 1996 Fellowship of Southern Writers Drama Award.

This is my first introduction to the works of Naomi Wallace, and I anxiously look forward to learning more about her work. She is a MacArthur Fellow who has written many plays and several screenplays. I hope to learn more about her work soon. In the meantime, I highly recommend this play, though it may not be for the squeamish. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #20 "Tea and Sympathy" by Robert Anderson

 

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 #20

Tea and Sympathy by Robert Anderson

When reading Tea and Sympathy today, I couldn't help but feel this successful Broadway play from 1953 (it ran for over 700 performances) is certainly dated. But the fact that the play made me angry and sad also demonstrates what no one can deny--- it is still relevant. It shouldn't have to be--- one wishes it were a relic, something for people of today to look at and say, "Wow, can you believe people used to be like this?"  But it's not. It is still timely in its way. 

Tom goes to a an all-boys private school. He has a huge crush on Laura, a house mother at his dorm, who's marriage to Bill, a real "man's man" who wants to be headmaster someday, is not what she hoped it would be. Right at the beginning, bully Ralph has spread a rumor that Tom and a teacher named Mr. Harris were discovered swimming naked together--- it is not true. Mr. Harris, in his only scene, asks Tom if he told the Dean something had happened, but Tom is completely in the dark. Harris is going away. 

Laura, upset about these rumors that will affect Tom, and have gotten Harris fired without proof, confronts her husband, only to be told that men know when other men are off. And for the rest of the play, Tom is miserable, trying to prove that he is a man, even though his well-meaning roommate Al tells him he needs to cut his hair and "not walk so light". But even Al fails his friend, and, after pressure from his dad, intends to move out of the room. 

Bill, unprofessionally, spreads rumors about Tom, perhaps even jealous of the lad, because his wife has an interest in his well being. 

This play is tough: it is an early example of an American play dealing with sexual orientation, even though Tom is not gay, just sensitive and in love with Laura, who he can't be with. It talks a lot about when it means to be a "man" and criticizes what is known today as toxic masculinity. It criticizes notions that bullying is actually good for young men and helps them grow up. It criticizes the notion that men cannot be sensitive, cannot weep from emotion, cannot be different. These are all pretty impressive traits for a play in 1953. 

It was hard for me to read it at times, as I was called homophobic slurs constantly in high school, and had rumors spread about me being gay. Fortunately, I have always known that being called gay isn't an insult, even if it isn't true. There is nothing wrong with being gay. I would rather be mistaken for gay than be mistaken for being a misogynist, homophobic jerk. And even though the character Tom doesn't have that luxury, I do think the play is trying to send that message. 

The ending of course, which I won't spoil here, is perhaps problematic, but still, much better than I expected it to be. Laura is a great female character, very well rounded, and while not all of her motivations ring true, I imagine she was quite ahead of her time. 

As I wrote above, the play was a big success, directed by Elia Kazan and starring Deborah Kerr, Leif Erickson, Dick York and John Kerr (no relation). The play was then made into a movie in 1956, with Deborah, Leif and John reprising their stage roles. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #18 "The Good Doctor" by Neil Simon

 

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 #18

The Good Doctor by Neil Simon

Neil Simon hardly needs an introduction, as he is perhaps the most prolific Broadway play hitmaker of the last eighty years or so, starting with Come Blow Your Horn in 1961. Mr. Simon died in 2018 at the age of 91, over thirty plays, 20 screenplays, and dozens of television sketches and teleplays to his credit. I can also not stress enough how every student of playwriting, or any kind of writing in general, should read his memoir Rewrites, which follows his early years of learning how to write for the stage and all the work that goes into crafting a play. His second memoir, The Play Goes On, is also a valuable look at his life, though not as heavily focused on the craft of writing. Simon won a Pulitzer for his play Lost In Yonkers, and as well as a handful of Tonys, a Golden Globe, and many other awards along the way. 

Despite some of the critical honors and his unprecedented (and never duplicated) success as an American playwright, Simon was never taken as seriously as many of his contemporaries, as though his prolific nature and the fact he was writing comedies somehow meant he was pandering to audiences, or not a craftsman worth the admiration of say, a Pinter (Pinter actually loved The Odd Couple) or a Tennessee Williams. Underestimating Simon's importance and artistry is a mistake, I think. While he had some stinkers (what writer hasn't?), the truth is, he was solid at structure, creating human characters people related to, and, as his career progressed, someone who wasn't afraid of having real pain in his comedies. Famed actress and acting teacher Uta Hagen compared his comedies to the works of Anton Chekhov.

And that's the perfect segue to talk about The Good Doctor, Neil Simon's play that is a love letter to the master, Chekhov himself. The play features "The Writer" (played by the late, great Christopher Plummer) in the original Broadway production), a stand-in for Chekhov, who talks about his love for/compulsion for writing, as he introduces sketches based on Chekhov short stories, with scenes called "The Sneeze," "The Governess", "Surgery," "Too Late For Happiness," "The Seduction," "The Drowned Man," "The Audition," "A Defenseless Creature", and "The Arrangement."  It is a bright, breezy, fun read, with Simon clearly showing much love and care to the source material and its writer, a kind of "pupil appreciation for the master" sort of piece. I can imagine audiences having a great time, so long as they don't mind watching a collection of scenes as opposed to one longer piece. I daresay this would be fun to act in as well. 

While I enjoyed reading it, it is lighter fare, even for Simon. Each scene builds to a kind of punchline and little more, and while Simon is skillful in tying them together with the character of "The Writer," the play does feel a little disjointed.  

But it is good old fashioned entertainment, nonetheless.

The Good Doctor ran for 203 performances in 1973 at the Eugene O'Neill Theater, and was nominated for Four Tonys, with Frances Sternhagen winning one for Best Featured Actress in a play. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #17 "Jack and Jill: A Romance" by Jane Martin

 

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 #17:

Jack and Jill by Jane Martin

Jane Martin, often called the "mysterious Jane Martin" because she never wants to be seen in person, first came to attention with the collection of female monologues, Talking With. Her play, Keely and Du, which deals with the controversial subject of abortion, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and won an American Theatre Critics Association Award for Best New Play. The award was accepted on her behalf by playwright Jon Jory. Jon Jory also directs the original productions of  most of her plays. 

Because Jane Martin is (most likely) Jon Jory. 

I am not telling tales out of school here, though Jon Jory has never publicly admitted to being Jane Martin (though even his Wikipedia page mentions that he is rumored to being Jane Martin). My playwriting professor at Bennington, Gladden Schrock, who knows Mr. Jory and worked with him, flat out told us that Mr. Jory wrote as Jane Martin when he wanted to explore themes that dealt a great deal women and gender issues. 

Whether Jory is Jane Martin or not (he probably is), or whether maybe it has become like Andy Kaufman and Tony Clifton and others can take over, is not really a big deal. If a writer feels freer to explore certain things through a pseudonym, more power to them. I wouldn't take it away from anyone. 

And really, it has nothing much to do with my reading of Jack and Jill: A Romance, except, at times, one begins to wonder about certain tropes that Jill espouses, that sometimes feels like a male feminist writing from the point of view of what they perceive a feminist's mindset to be. Or maybe I just feel that way because I know the rumors about Jory being Martin, who knows? 

But I don't think so.

Jack and Jill: A Romance premiered at the Humana Festival directed by (surprise!) Jon Jory. It is a two-character play, with dressers who help dress the actors onstage. Jack and Jill meet at a library, begin a relationship, marry, divorce and meet again. It moves fast with accessible dialogue that is often witty and clever. Both Jack and Jill have monologues directly to the audience throughout, giving us more insight into their characters, but, really, it is the back and forth between characters that is most engaging (at least when Martin restrains from some of the preachiness). 

I don't think there is anything new about Jack and Jill: A Romance, and there wasn't anything new in 1996 when it premiered, not even the uncertain ending. The theme is about men and women connecting. The edges that overlaps and the areas that we don't understand about one another. 

But just because something is familiar territory, doesn't mean it isn't told in an interesting, entertaining manner. I imagine that this show could be quite the crowd pleaser with the right cast, and a director who knows how to keep the action moving between the many scene changes (this would die onstage with too much time between scenes... absolutely die). And to its credit, the piece attempts to explore relationships and issues between the genders, and for the most apart avoids certain stereotypes. 

I can't help but say that, in the final analysis, I found the play pretty much harmless. I could watch it and be fine and enjoy myself. 

But I can't imagine it sticking with me. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #16: "Morning, Noon, and Night" by Israel Horovitz, Terrence McNally, and Leonard Melfi

 

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 #16

Morning, Noon, and Night by Israel Horovitz ("Morning"), Terrence McNally ("Noon") and Leonard Melfi ("Night")

This trio of one-act plays that comprised a full evening by the Circle Square on Broadway must have seemed very strange to the audiences... for one, these do not particularly feel like Broadway shows of that era (1968), but rather the type of plays you might find Off-Broadway or Off-Off-Broadway. In fact, Clive Barnes in writing about the production (which he liked, and included in the "Best American Plays 1967-1973) called it an "invasion" of Off-Broadway onto Broadway. The three playwrights had certainly garnered some attention previously, Isarael Horovitz with The Indian Wants the Bronx which starred a young Al Pacino (who would collaborate with Mr. Horovitz again, including on an underrated movie I really like called Author! Author!.... side note: Horovitz is the father of Adam Horovitz, the Beastie Boy), Terrence McNally, the only one who had been on Broadway before, with And Things That Go Bump In The Night, and Melfi who had had plays produced all over the world. 

The show was not successful on Broadway, closing after 42 performances. Each play is for five actors, and the five actors were Charlotte Rae, Robert Klein, Sorrell Booke, John Heffernan, and Jane Marla Robbins. Despite the fact that the show was not a huge success, Charlotte Rae was nominated for a Tony. 

Clive Barnes wrote that the theme of each play was "Outrage"... I definitely agree in terms of Horovitz's Morning. The play is about a black family that has taken a miracle pill that turns them all white. While I understand the satire, and how Horovitz is intentionally playing with stereotypes, I cannot imagine this play being produced today without controversy. While one can appreciate the fact that the play, perhaps, is trying to give white people a mirror in which to see what the black experience in America may be like, it is tough to read stage directions saying things like "acting really black." Don't get me wrong--- I am a big one for satire, and I do think this play is not punching down, but taking shots at white culture liberal lip service... but it is still tough. I can't imagine watching a production with a group of white actors doing stereotypical voices as the play often suggests without feeling completely uncomfortable. 

On a side note:  Mr. Horovitz, before his death in 2020, was accused of sexual harassment by six different woman when they worked for him in the early 1990s (years after this play). He apologized, and his son, Adam, sided with the women, saying he believed them. 

Noon may be the most accessible of the three one acts. It is no secret that the late Mr. McNally (dying in 2020 of Covid-19, sadly) was very funny, and this short play is a sexual farce of sorts, with people answering a personal ad for a sexed-up afternoon with the mysterious "Dale", who never shows up. We have a gay young man, a stuffy uptight academic, a bored, married young looking to give steamy French lessons, and a married couple into Sado-Masochism. Hilarity and confusion abounds when they all realize Dale perhaps has brought them all here as a kind of prank. 

Night by Leonard Melfi is a strange (really a strange) night funeral scene. Though not explicitly stated, the attendees appear to be his wife, his mistress, his boyfriend and perhaps a friend. The deceased, a "cocky little bastard" named Cock Certain apparently wanted a night funeral. And he got one. A very strange one, that is ultimately interrupted by a man in a white suit burying a dog. 

So, yeah--- definitely an Off or Off-Off-Broadway invading Broadway, as Mr. Barnes suggested. And I think that's very cool. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #15 "Trudy Blue" by Marsha Norman

 

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 #15

Trudy Blue by Marsha Norman

Marsha Norman received the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 for her play 'Night Mother, and wrote the book and lyrics for a Broadway musical adaptation of The Secret Garden, which scored her Tony and Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a Musical. I was mostly familiar with three things about her:  a writer's handbook in which she wrote an essay giving advice (including to read 4 hours a day and not let anyone ask you why you were just sitting around reading), her play Traveler in the Dark that a friend and fellow student directed at Bennington, and her play Loving Daniel Boone (which I read because the premiere production starred my playwriting professor Gladden Schrock in the title role). 

Trudy Blue originally grew from a short one act called Lunch With Ginger, which is still a scene in the play. The play centers around Ginger, a middle-aged writer who lives a great deal in her mind, struggling with a marriage that has gone stale and a life that doesn't feel all that happy to her. The play moves back and forth between what is real, what is imagined, and what is remembered, and has a tendency to honestly feel like it can operate outside of or general ideas of space and time. In this regard, Norman achieves a true kind of daydream-like quality that goes well with the character. Ginger is working on a new book, featuring a lead character named Trudy Blue, a stand-in for Ginger who knows exactly what she wants, knows exactly what she wants to say, and is unafraid of doing what will make her happy. 

Some may be bothered by the fact that Norman doesn't give us exact answers, but such things rarely bother me, so long as I have been interested enough in the journey. And while I do feel the play could be shaved a little bit, Ginger is an interesting character, and, as someone who daydreams quite a bit myself, I could relate to her. I think most writers could. I mean, who doesn't wish they could write a character who could solve all of their problems and be as brave and bold as we all secretly wish we could be?

Trudy Blue was first performed at the prestigious Humana Festival of New plays in 1995, but, from what I could find, is not the most popular of Norman's works. Regardless, it is a play that I think would be interesting to see on the stage. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #13 "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard

 

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 #13

Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Tom Stoppard is a genius. 

Now that I have your attention...

I am not saying anything new by calling Mr. Stoppard a genius, and I should tell you, I think the word "genius" is incredibly overused. But it is true in this instance. I have been in awe of Mr. Stoppard since reading Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead my junior year of high school, right after reading Hamlet (thank you Mrs. Allen). 

My first year of college, I was a student of Boston University's BFA acting program in their school for the arts, which had a relationship with the Huntington Theatre. I went to see Arcadia as a student and was blown away by the production (the following day, members of the cast came to speak to my acting class--- including a 19 year-old young woman, which made us all a little jealous and wonder what we were doing in school while she was in this amazing production). I remember at the time just marveling at how the play was like a symphony in the way it was so brilliantly orchestrated, taking elements from different times and blending them so beautifully on stage. So precise, so wonderful. 

I never read the script until today, but always praised the play because of my fond memories of the production. Reading the script today is like reading the sheet music of that great symphony, and being just as in awe. 

Arcadia takes place in the same room, in 1808 and the present day. The play deals with research, truth, evidence, history, mathematics, time, space, physics... 

Now, who can take all of this stuff, which sounds so heady on the page, and make an engrossing, lovely, poignant, entertaining play out of it?

The same guy who can take two minor characters from Hamlet and build a tragicomic piece on existentialism and identity. 

Tom Stoppard, that's who. 

A genius. 

I would go into greater detail, but that might rob one of seeking out a production or reading the script themselves, which is something I have no interest in doing. I mean, who can really describe a symphony?

AN INTERVIEW WITH PLAYWRIGHT SUSAN PARKER

 

NOTE:  This interview was conducted for Lakewood Theater's program for their production of Who's In Bed With The Butler?

BACKSTORY WITH BOBBY KENISTON

 I had no idea when I set out to write this final backstory of the season that it would turn out to be a kind of love story. Michael Parker, the playwright behind Who's In Bed With The Butler, passed away in 2019. I had been in touch with Mr. Parker a few years ago for an interview about his play The Sensuous Senator which he wrote with his wife, Susan, and received a very generous and kind response. I reached out to Susan to offer my condolences, and learned that she and Michael had met when she had acted in a few of his plays, including the world premiere of Who's In Bed With The Butler, where she played opposite Michael, leading to a real life love connection. Susan described the original production vividly:

“A world production means you are the first to bring to life the character that was written by the playwright. As an actor you pray that you do both the playwright and the character justice. The cast for the premiere was extremely talented and working with Michael was great. He was always encouraging and giving us insights into what he was looking for in the characters. However, he was a stickler for getting your lines correct; which is why as we walked to rehearsal, we practiced the scenes which we had together. I played Susie and he was Clifton, the butler. Finally, when opening night arrived, we were ready. I could have recited my lines in my sleep. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always imitate art, and I forgot my lines! Having the playwright in the audience when this happens is one thing, but having him on stage with you is another. I had complete confidence that Michael would rescue us! As we blindly bantered back and forth trying to find the lines, all I could think of was, 'You wrote the damn play, why can’t you remember the lines?' Eventually, the play continued, we received a standing ovation from the audience and afterwards, had a great laugh. Being in a world premiere is a once in a lifetime experience. You have the opportunity to be in a production that no one has ever seen, your name is included in the manuscript as a member of the original cast and more importantly you create lifetime memories. For me, the most special part of this play was that life finally did imitate art….Susie really did get the Butler.”

Becoming Michael's writing partner as well as his life partner was also another great source of joy, as well as tremendous learning opportunity for this former teacher. “I think having the opportunity to act in Michael’s farces gave me a much better understanding of what the actors need in order to tell the story being created,” Susan wrote. “I learned that as a playwright, it is my job to find the balance between telling an actor what to do and not giving them enough information to understand what it is you want.” The Parkers' website shares their philosophy on how farce best works, and I asked Susan if she could elaborate on this philosophy, and she happily obliged:

“The concept of keeping the characters grounded, having them play the role seriously, originates from the English farces which Michael grew up with. This is what makes Parkers American Farces different and funnier. This concept is often missed by many directors and actors who do not relate to the English style of farce. One example of a great American actor who did understand this philosophy was Bob Newhart.”

Susan is keeping up the Parker brand as she continues to write, and acknowledges how blessed she has been to have had careers as an actress and playwright, and, even more importantly, to help spread laughter to audiences all over the world. “One of the best compliments I’ve ever received,” Susan told me, “was from an elderly woman who had just seen Who's In Bed With the Butler? She said, 'My husband died 6 months ago, and this was the first time I’ve laughed since.'”

For her part, Susan likes to find productions of the plays she wrote with her husband and sit in the audience, soaking up the laughter. It is a way for her to connect with her late husband, and to “experience that same ‘aha’ moment of joy,” that she and Michael had when writing the play together.

If you would like to learn more about Michael and Susan Parker's plays and their philosophy of writing farces, you can do so by visiting their website:  https://www.michaelparkerplaywright.com

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #9 "Brilliant Traces" by Cindy Lou Johnson

 

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 #9

Brilliant Traces by Cindy Lou Johnson

As reported by the New York Times, Cindy Lou Johnson was looking for a title for her play, found it from a poem by her mother, Avah Pevlor Johnson. The poem, Individuation was printed in the original playbill and is printed in the acting edition, and contains the lines: "Let me dance with devils on dead stars. Let my scars leave brilliant traces"... and hence, we have the lovely title Brilliant Traces for this 2-person play. 

It was first presented by the Circle Repertory Company at the Cherry Lane Theatre in NYC in February of 1989, starring Kevin Anderson (perhaps best known as the good guy opposite Julia Roberts in Sleeping With the Enemy) and Joan Cusack (who really needs no introduction at all--- she's simply awesome). 

Brilliant Traces starts with an arresting opening image of a woman (Rosannah Deluce) in a wedding dress, coming into a small barn in the middle of nowhere Alaska, from a snowstorm. She mentions she has been driving for days until her car died, and she's been walking for over an hour in the cold--- she manages to get this brief explanation before fainting. The owner of the house, Henry Harry, who moved to nowhere to get away from the world to become a "gray man", gently places her in a bed, and waits for her to wake up. Once she does, the action of the play takes place in a 70-80 minute burst where the characters struggle (sometimes physically and violently) to connect. And while sometimes Rosannah comes off as the prototype for the "manic pixie dreamgirl" before such a trope existed, and Henry Harry often comes off as the "tortured, quiet recluse with a past", one cannot deny that Johnson gives each character vibrant words and energy.  Indeed, for quite sometime, Brilliant Traces provided rich two-minute monologues for young women particularly auditioning for theater schools. I confess, I found some the situations a bit too quirky, but it is hard not to fall under the spell of the characters. As I have stated before, energy is very important, and in a quick show like this, I think you would be hard-pressed to not be taken in by it in production if it is cast well with terrific performers (as it sounds like it was for its premiere). 

I have not been able to find a great deal of information on Cindy Lou Johnson, only enough to know that she has also written for television, and wrote and directed a film called Claude. Brilliant Traces was adapted into a Canadian TV movie in 1998, adapted into French. I did find a video from 1989-1990 from the American Theatre Wing, where she was on a panel with other cool theater artists, including Wendy Wasserstein. On this panel, she talks about having written fiction for years, but that the characters in Brilliant Traces wanted to perform. She describes the process of developing the play at the Eugene O'Neill Conference as a complete education in the craft of writing plays, and understanding how play productions actually work, as she had no real idea previously. She has fond memories of the wonderful playwrights who were of great support and gave her sense of structure. 

I would never argue that Brilliant Traces is a great play, but I think it is a good one, and, again, it is alive, and comes from a distinct voice with something to say about suffering, pain and seeking understanding and connection. This is not small feat, and give the Cindy Lou Johnson tremendous credit for this being her first play-- it is almost unbelievable, in fact, to have a debut so accomplished in character, with a great showcase for two actors to really shine. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #8 "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf" by Ntozake Shange

 

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 #8

for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf by Ntozake Shange

Ntozake Shange was only the second black female writer to have a play on Broadway when for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf opened at the Booth Theatre in September of 1976. It would run for two years, be nominated for a Tony for Best Play, win an Outer Critics Circle Award in 1977, win an Obie Award for Distinguished Production for its run at the Public Theater that preceded its Broadway run, and, quite simply, make a mark in American Theatre history. 

Shange refers to the work as a "choreopoem" instead of as a play. The production focuses on her beautiful language, dance, movement, mime and music. Shange said, "A poem should fill you up with something... make you swoon, stop you in your tracks, change your mind or make it up." (My source for this quote is from The Best American Plays series, 1974-1982)

The play, or choreopoem, was first performed by Shange and four of her friends at the Bachannal, a women's bar, outside Berkely, California, and Shange opened with the show on Broadway as the Lady in Orange. The 20 (or up to 22 in later editions) poems are performed by seven women, all named after a color. There are poems that deal with rape, abortion, domestic violence, broken hearts and broken bones--- and it hit me reading it, how it still feels so sadly relevant and modern even now. It is heartbreaking in many ways, though,  Shange's poems ultimately end in strength "i found god in myself & i loved her her/i loved her fiercely," she writes, and the beauty of the moment leaps off the page. 

As much as I love the poems and loved reading the script (and recommend it to people), I would love to see what watching this play live would bring to it, with the music, the dance, the mime, all of it. I have no doubt that it is an unforgettable theatrical experience. And perhaps we will all get a chance again. The Public Theater revived it in 2019 (sadly, Ntozake Shange passed away in 2018 at the age of 70) , and it has been announced that this production will open on Broadway in 2022, directed and choreographed by Camille A. Brown.

In 1982, the play/choreopoem was adapted for the gone and lamented American Playhouse, and in 2010, Tyler Perry adapted the piece into a film starring Janet Jackson and Whoopi Goldberg (it was his first R-rated feature). 

Ntozake Shange wrote many other plays, including an adaptation of Mother Courage that won her another Obie, and that I would love to get my hands on to read. She also published several books of poetry, a bunch of novels, some children's books, and collections of essays, proving herself to be one of the great women of letters in our country's history. 

30 PLAYS IN 30 DAYS: Play #7 "Marat/Sade" By Peter Weiss, Translated by Geoffrey Skelton, Verse Adaptation by Adrian Mitchell

 

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 #7

The Persecution And Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed By The Inmates Of The Asylum Of Charenton Under The Direction Of The Marquis De Sade by Peter Weiss, with the English translation by Geoffey Skelton, and verse adaptation by Adrian Mitchell (The title is most often shortened to Marat/Sade in conversation about the piece for obvious reasons)

I realized I had never read the script for Marat/Sade but had only seen a few scenes from Peter Brook's film adaptation, which have faded from memory if I am being honest. Though I have read many raves about the film adaptation, and I am sure it is good as Peter Brook directed the initial productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1964 that moved to Broadway in 1965, one can't help but feel that so much of what makes the script so vibrant and almost dangerous is that it is a quintessential play-within-a-play format--- it's just that the play within the play is being performed by inmates of an asylum. 

Peter Weiss's script is clearly inspired by Brecht, and the text and Peter Brook's direction of the play in its English translation were inspired by Antonin Artaud's "Theatre of Cruelty", a type of theater designed to shock the audience with movement and gesture different sensory disruptions. It was Artaud's belief that such things were more visceral and important than text. Marat/Sade, in many ways, is a meeting point for the best worlds of Brecht and Artaud, for the text is certainly important here. 

I won't go into a huge history lesson here, but the play is set in an asylum in 1808 as the Marquis de Sade (far too much about the real guy to go into here, but, yes, sadism is named for him), is putting on a production of the execution of Jean-Paul Marat, which occurred July 13, 1793, during the French Revolution, of which  Marat was a prominent figure. He was assassinated by Charlotte Corday. Again, I won't go too deeply into the history surrounding the play, but I encourage one to research the story of Charlotte Corday and the death of Marat--- there's even a haunting painting that is recreated in tableau near the end of this script. 

So Sade is putting on his play, which is actually something based in history. The director of the asylum, Coulmier (who is also a character in the play, a Napoleon fan), did allow the Marquis de Sade to put on plays in the asylum for the education and rehabilitation of the patients. 

Essentially, in the most basic terms, the play is about revolution, and the philosophical differences between Marat and Sade. Sade argues a more individualistic belief--- he spent much of his life in and out of prisons, including five years in the Bastille. His works did often deal with sexuality, violence, blasphemy, and he was a firm believer in freedom unrestrained by morality. Marat, who spends much of the play in the bath due to his skin disease, believes that true change comes in the upheaval of society, the chaos being an important step, but then brought back by a leader (not a dictator).  The play is largely a thematic discussion about revolution truly means. In this way, I am surprised it is not produced more often these days--- I think it could really strike some interesting conversation. 

But what I love most about the play is its energy, the setting in the asylum, and that it is intended to step in and out of the moment to unsettle the audience. The device is powerful, at times very funny, but also unnerving. 

I can't speak for the original German, sadly, but Geoffrey Skelton's translation and Adrian Mitchell's verse adaptation is lyrical and thought-provoking. My pen was busy underlining lines that really struck a nerve with me, or that I found beautiful. 

The Marquis de Sade says near the end:

"Our play's chief aim has been-- to take to bits

great propositions and their opposites,

see how they work, then let them fight it out."

And that may be the best summation one could give. 

A LOOK AT "SCAPINO" BY JEFFREY BINDER: A Brief Overview of Scapin the Schemer and the History of this Zany Commedia Character

 

BACKSTORY WITH BOBBY KENISTON

 There's just something about a character who can talk themselves out of anything, isn't there? A character who can somehow keep track of the lies they keep piling on and on, nimbly deceiving those around them without breaking a sweat. This is a staple of great comedies and farces all throughout history, even as early as Ancient Greece and Rome, and tonight, playwright Jeffrey Binder's Scapino takes a classic tale by Moliere and effortlessly sets it in a mafia style comedy for today's audiences. 

Moliere's Scapin the Schemer was first presented on the 24^th of May, 1671. And while this is the original source material for tonight's adaptation, Moliere's character Scapino or Scapin is named after a zanni character for the commedia dell'arte. A zanni character is what the commedia dell'arte referred to as a type of character that was an astute servant and, even more importantly, a trickster. Such characters were immensely popular in the commedia with all types of crowds, and our English word “zany” is derived from such characters. Scapin himself is said to have been created by Niccolo Barbieri, an Italian writer and director of the commedia dell'arte, and an occasional actor as well, as it is said that he performed before the Royal Court of France.

The name Scapino is directly related to the Italian word “scappare” which means “to escape”, and literally translates to “little escape artist.” A fitting name for a trickster who talks fast, and flees from fights even faster (even the ones he starts himself). Moliere's Scapin talks of having had a falling out with Justice, a “trifling quarrel” in which he claims, “She used me very badly; and I felt so enraged against the ingratitude of our age that I determined never to do anything for anybody.” Their means of escape includes escaping accountability for most of their actions, using their wit and words to stay one step ahead of all of those around them.

To be honest, I am surprised that it took so long for someone to come up with the brilliant idea of placing a Scapin zanni type character in a mafia comedy. I tip my hat to playwright Jeffrey Binder, who spent most of his career as a New York City actor, performing on and off Broadway, as well as appearing in several television shows. He has been trained in the technique of commedia and clowning, so you can rest assured that this adaptation, while new and bold, is also true in spirit to the masters that came before him. His journey in becoming a playwright began after he adopted his daughter and left New York City to become the Associate Artistic Director of the Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples, Florida, where the Artistic Director encouraged the development of his Scapino every step, leading to a critical (“A bold stroke of creative genius!”, the Naples Daily News proclaimed) and commercial success that is now being produced all over the country.

So please sit back and enjoy the zany (and zanni) mayhem of Scapino, our penultimate production of the season. But please save some of your laughter for Who's in Bed with the Butler?, our final show of the season coming soon.

Note:  This backstory originally appeared in Lakewood Theater's program for their production of Scapino.

To learn more about Jeffrey Binder's adaptation or to acquire rights to produce it, visit Concord Theatricals by CLICKING HERE.