18.Mar.2010 Notes from the director of Becky’s New Car
LIBERATION
by James Still, Director
What if Cinderella goes to the ball and stays past midnight?
I have liked, admired, and followed Steven Dietz’s work as a playwright for 20 years, so it’s especially sweet to find myself directing Becky’s New Car. As a student of other writers, there’s nothing like directing a play to unlock its secrets of construction, to observe and marvel at the craft of that writer’s work. I like how smart Mr. Dietz is as a craftsman, and I admire that his body of work reflects a restless curiosity, a love for the theatre, and characters who aren’t always what they seem and might even bare a little heart in the process.
I had the great pleasure of seeing the world premiere of Becky’s New Car at ACT/Seattle in a wonderful production. The next morning I called Janet and said, “I saw a new Steven Dietz play and you’re going to want to read this one.” It’s not unusual for me to see work at theatres around the country and to report my experience to Janet. In fact, I view that as part of my job, part of what I contribute to the artistic conversation that’s ongoing at the IRT. As an audience member, I immediately liked Becky’s New Car because it is direct and funny. I was also struck by its use of a unique dramatic structure to tell a good story without a bit of self-consciousness. This play requires all of us—director, designers, and actors, as well as the audience—to embrace a kind of theatrical verve at its heart. The playwright makes his intentions clear in a preface to the play: “The play will move without transition between four primary locations…. Simply. It is not necessary, nor is it desirable, to fully depict any of the play’s locales.” Our production is a response to the playwright’s liberating wishes.
Liberation (as Becky confronts in the play) is probably never as easy as it looks; and a production (like life) is an accumulation of details and choices. Becky’s New Car has its own vocabulary and ways of telling a story, a kind of free-wheeling fast-moving comic spin that isn’t afraid to be funny any more than it’s afraid of having true heart. Mr. Dietz may be one of the few American playwrights who knows that sentiment isn’t a bad thing, especially when there’s something real at stake for the characters who risk it. Feeling and yearning turn out not to be liabilities but a wake-up call. What begins as a question gnawing at midlife (“Is this all there is?”) might finally be answered with another question: “Maybe … and isn’t that wonderful?” Sometimes the best adventure of all turns out to be our own messy, tender, funny lives. By the end, it isn’t just Becky’s car that’s new.
For me what makes Becky’s New Car so winning (and so deceptively simple) is that it is a play about people—knowable characters who can also surprise you. And make you laugh. I’m glad to have spent time with them, and I hope you will be too.
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