Great Talent Amazes

November 8, 2010 by Larry Downes Mary’s Wedding @ IRT

In Mary’s Wedding, the play takes place in a dream and time is not quite linear, but rather bounces around a bit. How did this affect the way you told the story?

I think the danger of any play that’s told as a dream with a structure that has the freedom to move fluidly through time/place… the danger is that we as storytellers (director/actors/designers) can use that “dream structure” as a crutch, as a way to justify our choices.  But the thing I kept coming back to is that even though dreams can be confounding when we wake up and try to remember them — when we’re having the dream they usually make perfect sense!  For me as director, that meant that I am always looking for the truth of the story, dream or no dream.  I also find that this play (and others that are bold in structure) are much easier to experience in the audience than they are to explain beforehand.  I think a play can be very surprising without being confusing and that’s what I’ve focused on.  Again: story.  With the designers and actors (they will tell you this) I always go back to this question:  What’s the story?
 
One of your first choices, was to add a live musician. What inspired this choice?

From the first time I read Mr. Massicotte’s beautiful play, I “heard” music while reading it.  It wasn’t that I was “directing” the play when I read it — it’s important for folks to know that when I read a play I’m not imagining myself directing it, I’m simply trying to let the story in, to experience it as story with the characters telling it.  When it turned out that I would direct Mary’s Wedding at the IRT, I went back and read it again — this time noting more carefully my instinct to include music.  The cello was, again, not an intellectual choice but more an emotional response to the story.  When I first starting talking with Brian Grimm (cellist/composer for the production) about why the cello was the “right” instrument, he said something that made sense: the cello’s range is closest to the human voice.  In that way, Brian’s music (played live during every performance) is a voice in the play that’s already there, we are simply featuring it.

What is your favorite element in the play?I love that Mr. Massicotte is bold and theatrical, the language is heightened and poetic yet the characters feel knowable and accessible.  I love that he’s written about characters we can fall in love with and care about, and care about their fates.  I love that he embraces the theatre in his play, that it requires constant invention for the artists doing the play and that it holds up to all the scrutiny and questions that come up during rehearsals.  And maybe most of all I love that he’s not afraid to be romantic and sentimental in the truest sense.  It’s so much easier to be ironic or clever these days, and I find the dividends of not resorting to cynicism in this story pay off in very emotional ways.

You stated in the Meet and Greet that the rehearsal process is all about discovering. What were some of your favorite discoveries during Mary’s Wedding?

Oh, for this one there were discoveries nearly every day, the play and production required that of us in rehearsals.  Discovering how we were going to put a horse on stage — and how we would physicalize not one, not two, not three, but at least FOUR different horse rides at different moments in the play.  It’s also a fairly abstract set (inspired by the world of dreams) so I also needed to figure out how to tell the story in Mary’s Wedding without lots of realistic props and sets… all of the changes in locale would be driven by the actors and eventually with the great help of our lighting designer.  More discoveries:  how do you portray war and violence on stage?  I’m not a fan of romanticizing violence of any kind — but I also wanted to find a theatrical equivalent for it within the world of our production style.  So again, discovering all the ways we could explore the battle scenes.  There are many, many tiny but revealing surprises in the production — the multiple ways a chair is used, the ways an umbrella is used, the way a long piece of old lace fabric is used.  I loved discovering all that with the actors in the rehearsal room. 

Where did you get the idea for the wedding dress hanging in the tree?

The inspiration for the wedding dress on the set is a personal story… something from my own life.  When my paternal grandparents decided to sell the 80-year family farm (in Kansas) and move into town, they had a big auction.  I was living in New York at the time and of course flew back to Kansas to be there for the auction.  It was an emotional day for me, watching strangers sift through my family memories.  I bought many more things than I should have (in a panic) including a 1962 Chevy pickup that I promptly gave to my dad because I knew he wanted it.  But the image that haunts me to this day was the image of my grandma’s wedding dress from the late 1920s on a hanger, hanging from a tree… sold to some second hand clothes store.  I still cry thinking about it blowing in the wind, some stranger taking it and not knowing the stories that dress symbolized for my family.  And by the way, I’ve never been back to the farm since.  I don’t think I could bear it. 

The two actors in the play have amazing chemistry. Is there something you did in rehearsals to account for this? Saw it at auditions? Or is it just luck?

Casting is mysterious.  I know actors sometimes think there’s some conspiracy about casting but it is personal and instinctive, it has something to do with my perceived chemistry between the actor and the character.  I am always looking for something special in that relationship and can’t always explain what that is… and then of course when you’re casting a two-person play that’s a love story — well, chemistry is paramount.  It’s a big risk because you don’t really know for sure how it’s going to play out between two actors.  I was looking for chemistry in the auditions and I felt that Wendy and Zach had something special and I believed I could built on that, that together we could make something bloom, that we could make something personal happen between their characters that would give the audience a chance to care about their relationship.  Having said all that, I’m afraid, finally, there’s also a little luck involved.  I’d like to think I helped guide them in rehearsals to be open to their natural chemistry — but I know it’s more complicated than that.  In the end, I’m happy to say they DO have amazing chemistry (I agree with you!) and that makes our production all the more special.

As a playwright, do you ever direct a play wishing you could change the text?

Never.  I get asked this all the time and it may be hard to believe — but honestly I feel like my job as director is to make the story work, to tell it fully and with confidence.  The writer has his/her reasons for every word and punctuation; it’s a very detailed map.  Having said that, there are certainly times when I have to stop and wonder why a writer might make a choice at any given moment.  But I find that fascinating and I’ve learned so much as a writer who also directs other writers’ plays.  Even if I might not make the same choice as a playwright, it’s very revealing to see all of the ways a play can develop, the ways a story can unfold.  

What is your most memorable moment as a director?

Mmm, too many to list here.  When I feel like I’m in a groove working on a good play with fellow artists that make me a better artist — there are memorable moments every day.  It’s one of the reasons I love my job.
 
A show that you would love to direct?

I love this question.
I’m going to break it down by decades (a play written in different decades) and this is without any editing or Googling!

1940s:  A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams.
1950s:  Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (or Picnic by William Inge)
1960s:  Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee (or Seascape by Albee)
1970s:  Company or Follies by Stephen Sondheim
1980s:   Plenty by David Hare
1990s:  Angels in America by Tony Kushner (Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel)
2000s:  lots and lots and lots of plays by fellow playwrights, there are many wonderful plays big and small I’d love to direct

And Shakespeare:  The Tempest and Measure for Measure.

Favorite show that you’ve directed?

It’s usually the last one I directed.  I’ve gotten just enough distance from it that I can really appreciate the work I did, and I’m not mired in the excruciating pressure of getting a production up in 3 1/2 weeks.  So using that as a model, Becky’s New Car is the favorite show I’ve directed.  In a few months, Mary’s Wedding will be my favorite show I’ve directed.  At the IRT, I’m also deeply proud of the other recent plays I’ve directed which include Doubt and Rabbit Hole.

Contact:
Jon Whitmore
President, San José State University
Secretary, College of Fellows of the American Theatre
One Washington Square
San José, CA 95192-0002

Telephone: (408) 924-1177
Email: sjsupres@sjsu.edu

FOUR THEATRE LEADERS TO BE INVESTED AS FELLOWS OF THE COLLEGE OF THE AMERICAN THEATRE APRIL 17, 2010, AT THE KENNEDY CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

Four outstanding leaders of the American Theatre will be invested into the prestigious College of Fellows of the American Theatre during ceremonies on Saturday, April 17 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.. Membership in the college is one of the highest honors theatre professionals and educators can confer on their peers. For a complete list of Fellows please visit www.thecollegeoffellows.org.

The 2010 Fellows are:

William Ivey Long

William Ivey Long attended the public schools of Chapel Hill, North Carolina and Rock Hill, South Carolina, and entered the College of William and Mary where he graduated in 1969 with a bachelor’s in history. He then attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to pursue a doctoral degree in art history. After completing nearly all of the doctoral course work, he decided instead to enroll in Yale’s design program. He studied under Fellow Ming Cho Lee, who he credits as a major influence in his career. He received his MFA in 1975 and moved to New York City where he worked for couturier Charles James. When James died in 1978, a Yale friend suggested Long pursue work as a costume designer for a production of The Inspector General. To date he has designed 59 Broadway productions. He has been nominated for eleven Tony Awards and won five Tonys for Nine, Crazy For You, Hairspray, The Producers, and Grey Gardens.

He has also been named “Person of the Year” by the National Theatre Conference. He has received the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Legend of Fashion” Award, and he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame in 2006.

Long has returned to both Yale and UNC to teach. He has participated in numerous theatrical conferences, and is a celebrated participant in the North Carolina History gathering each year in Asheville.

Kim Marra

Dr. Marra has distinguished herself as a scholar, teacher, mentor and administrator. Having begun her academic career at the University of Iowa in 1990 in the Department of Theatre Arts, Dr. Marra was jointly appointed in the Department of American Studies in 2000 and became chair of that department in 2008. She has also served on the Advisory Committee of the Sexuality Studies Program since its founding in 1997.

She has made important and vital contributions to the study of sexualities in American theatre history. Her book Strange Duets: Impresarios and Actresses in the American Theatre, 1865-1914 (University of Iowa Press, 2006) won the 2008 Joe A. Callaway Prize for Best Book on Drama or Theatre conferred biennially by NYU’s Department of English. With Robert A. Schanke, she co-edited Passing Performances: Queer Readings of Leading Players in American Theater History (1998) and Staging Desire: Queer Readings of American Theater History (2002), The Gay and Lesbian Theatrical Legacy: A Biographical Dictionary of Major Figures of the American Stage in the Pre-Stonewall Era (2005), all for the University of Michigan Press. Dr. Marra has served as Secretary of the American Society for Theatre Research and as an executive board member of both ASTR and the American Theatre and Drama Society. She has also served on the Research and Publications Committee of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education, as well as on editorial boards of Theatre Survey, Theatre History Studies, the University of Iowa Press, and the Theatre in the Americas Series of Southern Illinois University Press.

James Still

A playwright and director, Still’s plays are notably diverse in form, style and substance and have been performed in leading theatres across the United States as well as Canada, Europe, Japan, and Australia.  Most recent plays include The Heavens are Hung in Black which reopened Ford’s Theatre in celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday; Iron Kisses; and The Velvet Rut.  His plays for young audiences and families have graced the stages of America’s most notable youth theatres and countless community, university, and high school theatres and include his docudrama And Then They Came for Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank which has been translated into several languages and continues to be produced around the world.

His plays have been commissioned from many notable theatres including Indiana Repertory Theatre, People’s Light & Theatre Company, Cornerstone Theatre Company, the Kennedy Center, and The Children’s Theatre Company.  His awards, among them The Charlotte B. Chorpenning Cup for Distinguished Body of Work, the William Inge/Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, two Pulitzer Prize nominations, and election into the National Theatre Conference, are numerous and far ranging.  Still also writes extensively for film and television, most notably in children’s television for which he is a five-time Emmy nominee for such shows as Maurice Sendak’s “Little Bear,” Bill Cosby’s “Little Bill,” and the innovative pre-school series “Paz” for Discovery Kids.

Still lives in Seattle, but his artistic home for the past twelve years has been the Indiana Repertory Theatre where he is the Playwright in Residence.  He has had a profound impact on the IRT for plays he has premiered and directed there, and for his involvement in the theatre’s institutional life, area schools, and the Indianapolis community.

Paula Vogel

A productive playwright since the late 1970′s, Vogel first came to national prominence with her AIDS-related The Baltimore Waltz, which won an Obie for Best Play in 1992. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning play How I Learned to Drive (1997) examines the impact and echoes of child sexual abuse and incest.  Other work includes: Desdemona, A Play about a Handkerchief, The Oldest Profession, And Baby Makes Seven; Hot ‘N Throbbing, Mineola Twins, The Long Christmas Ride Home, and Civil War Christmas.

For two decades, Dr. Vogel has lead the MFA and undergraduate playwriting programs as well as the new play festival at Brown. She helped develop a nationally-recognized center for educational theatre, culminating in the creation of the Brown/Trinity Repertory Company Consortium with Oskar Eustis, then Trinity’s artistic director. At Brown she was the Adele Kellenberg Seaver Professor in Creative Writing. In 2008, she was appointed the Eugene O’Neill Professor and Chair of Playwriting at Yale School of Drama. She is known as a unique and profoundly accomplished playwright and teacher, committed to the training and mentoring of young writers.

The College of Fellows of the American Theatre originated in 1965 within the American Theatre Association. From its beginning, investiture in the college was one of the highest honors bestowed on educators and professionals of America’s educational and stage community. Today it is an autonomous, non-profit organization that holds its annual meeting and investiture of new members at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The primary purpose of the College of Fellows of the American Theatre is to promote and encourage the highest standards of research and creativity in educational and professional theatre through the recognition and honoring of distinguished service and accomplishment in the field of theatre by individuals of acknowledged national stature currently there are 136 Fellows.

Constance Macy

Local actor Constance Macy plays Becky in Oxford Financial Group presents BECKY’S NEW CAR.  Making her IRT debut in 1990 and appearing in over 18 IRT productions, she is a familiar face on the IRT stage.  We caught up with Constance during rehearsals for a brief interview.

IRT:  What first attracted you to BECKY’S NEW CAR?

CM: I love the style of the play. It’s cleverly crafted, expedited story-telling. So I was attracted to that aspect of it. But I also liked Becky right away. She spoke to me. She’ll speak to you too, just wait.

IRT:  What do you like most about your character, Becky?

CM: Her humanity. She invites the audience into her story, into her perspective. And she is honest and vulnerable with the audience, more than with anyone else in the play, including herself. So as her circumstances mount up, you feel for her, hopefully root for her, because you know her.

IRT: How did you prepare for this role?

CM: Well, because I feel like Becky Foster probably lives in my subdivision, I didn’t need to do a lot of research. I did visit an auto dealership to research the job though. And, like with any role, I mined any elements of myself or other people in my life. Then, of course, daily explorations of character in rehearsal with James (Still, director), trying out different choices, exploring persectives.

IRT:  There is a lot of comedy in this play.  Does comedy come natural to you?

CM: I don’t really think of myself as a funny person, but recently I was talking to an old friend, a guy I went from first through twelfth grade with. We were talking about our kids. My son had just started kindergarten, and I was worrying about him, and I said something about my son being a “clown.” And my friend said “Yeah, well, so were you.” So maybe it does come naturally. I also love to laugh, and I’m working with six wonderful, funny actors, so that’s dangerous for me.

IRT: What do you think people will take away from this play?

CM: I think people will maybe examine their perspective. I had an epiphany at the Childrens Museum. They have this little triangular room with mirrors covering the three walls, each reflecting the others, and on and on and on until there are hundreds of you but each one reflected from a slightly different angle, a slightly different version of you. If you think back through your life and all the choices you’ve made, it could have gone a million different ways. “Fate is just the weight of circumstances.” (That’s Rush, Roll the Bones.)

IRT: One personal question. Do you remember your “aha” moment when you decided you wanted to pursue acting?

CM: I remember going to the Broad Ripple Playhouse with my mom when I was maybe 12. I don’t remember the play, sadly, I think it was probably over my head. But I remember sitting forward in my seat, just mezmorized by this actress. That was probably when I became enchanted by the idea of acting.

IRT:  Okay, now for the important question; Team Edward or Jacob?

CM: Edward. Seriously, he’s the new Mr. Darcy.

Kate Sutton-Johnson  Scenic Designer
Kate designed the IRT’s production of Rabbit Hole last season. Based in Minneapolis, Kate designs extensively in the Twin Cities area as well as regional venues including the Weston Playhouse, Florida Stage, Riverside Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company, Mixed Blood Theatre, Guthrie Theater, Park Square, Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, and many others. In 2007, she received the Ivey Award for Emerging Artist in the Twin Cities. Kate grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and went on to study design at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where she graduated in 2002.

Nan Zabriskie  Costume Designer
As a member of USA Local #829, Nan has been designing costumes for theatres all over Chicagoland and beyond for 29 years. Her frequently Jeff-nominated costumes have been seen at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Steppenwolf, the Goodman Theatre, Court Theatre, Writer’s Theatre, Northlight Theatre, Victory Gardens, Pegasus Players, Oak Park Festival Theatre, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, the Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance, River North Dance Co., Giordano’s Jazz Dance Theatre, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Welcome Yule 1994-present, Chicago Symphony Singers). From 1987 to 1998 Nan was co-artistic director and chief designer of the award-winning Chicago Children’s Theatre (25 shows). Nan works extensively in the stage makeup world where she designs makeups and prosthetics then trains actors to implement them. In this capacity she has worked with the Goodman Theatre (working with Brian Dennehy), Steppenwolf (John Mahoney), Time Line, Red Orchid (Michael Shannon),Writer’s Theatre, and Washington Shakespeare Theatre Company. Nan formed and runs the makeup program at the Theatre School of DePaul University where she has trained actors and designers in the art of stage makeup for 29 years. She recently founded Wigs and Hair Chicago, a professional program designed to train theatrical wigmakers. Nan teaches the program with Rick Jarvie, wigmaster of Lyric Opera.

Michael Lincoln  Lighting Designer
Michael has designed more than 25 productions at the IRT, including the recent redesign of A Christmas Carol in its fourteenth year, as well as Rabbit Hole, The Piano Lesson, Old Wicked Songs, Arcadia, The Immigrant, Ah, Wilderness!, Dinner with Friends, The Glass Menagerie, Hedda Gabler, Spunk, and Benefactors, among others. Highlights of his 30-year career include the Broadway productions of Copenhagen, More to Love, and Skylight, as well as Off-Broadway designs including Mr. Goldwyn, The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin, Defying Gravity, Bunny Bunny, and Swingtime Canteen. He now heads the Production Design and Technology Program at the Ohio University School of Theater. www.michaellincoln.net

Todd Mack Reischman  Sound Designer
Todd returns for his eighth season as resident sound designer here at the IRT. His original music was heard in last season’s Macbeth, This Wonderful Life, and To Kill a Mockingbird. He also recently composed the 37th season of the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival. Todd owns LostSound recording studio where he creates original works. He occasionally still tries his hand as a playwright, actor, musician, and tri-athlete, and he is working to pioneer a new professional sport which combines auto racing and sport fishing.

Richard J Roberts  Dramaturg
As dramaturg for 12 of his 20 seasons with the IRT, Richard provides research for the IRT’s productions and works with playwrights in the development of new plays. He has also been a dramaturg for the New Harmony Project and the Bonderman Symposium. He has directed the IRT’s productions of Pretty Fire, The Giver, The Power of One, and Twelfth Night. Other directing credits include the Phoenix Theatre, Edyvean Repertory Theatre, Indianapolis Civic Theatre, and Anderson University. He was editor-in-chief of Arts Indiana magazine and has taught theatre courses at Butler University and IUPUI. He studied music at DePauw University and theatre at Indiana University. In 2003 he received a Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis.

Nathan Garrison  Stage Manager
This is Nathan’s 14th season at the IRT. He has also worked at Center Stage in Baltimore and at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. In 2005, he was awarded a Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship from the Arts Council of Indianapolis. This past summer, Nathan directed Much Ado about Nothing for HART in White River State Park.

Amy K. Denkmann  Assistant Stage Manager
Amy has stage managed 12 productions here at the IRT. Her Broadway credits include Ah, Wilderness! (1998 Tony Award Nomination, Lincoln Center Theatre), Ivanov (Lincoln Center Theatre), The Rehearsal (Roundabout Theatre Company), The Last Night of Ballyhoo (1997 Tony Award Winner, Best Play), and Master Class (1996 Tony Award Winner, Best Play). She has also worked at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles Music Center (Three Hotels and Smokey Joe’s Café), and the Actors Theatre of Indiana (My Way, Cole, and Forever Plaid). Amy holds a B.F.A. in stage management from the University of Southern California.

by Janet Allen, Artistic Director

It’s a pretty joyous day when we find a smart, insightful contemporary comedy to produce! Sadly, these days, comedy seems to be relegated to serial television and romantic movies—largely disposable forms. The shelf life of a comedy in the theatre isn’t all that long. In part, this makes a lot of sense; comedy is very time sensitive, and based on social mores and customs which are forever subtly changing. A comedy that hits just the right issues and edges today may seem horribly outmoded, or simply dull, in even five years. While there are timeless comedic ideas (farce elements seem never to die), social comedy, and the idiomatic language in which it is transmitted, changes practically overnight.

It’s also a joyous day when that comedy comes from a playwright we enjoy, whose work we have produced: and that’s the case with Steven Dietz. We opened last season with Steven’s Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure, to considerable audience enthusiasm. Consequently, we are pleased to be putting a very different piece of his into public attention in Indianapolis. We are joined in this little Steven Dietz celebration by our colleagues at the Phoenix Theatre, who are producing his Yankee Tavern in April—it’s a rare (and planned!) occurrence to be able to see two works by the same writer, and we hope by sharing this mini-festival with the Phoenix to stir some discussion among our patrons about contemporary American playwriting.

There’s another wonderful feature about this play that we didn’t know about until after we had selected it for production: the story behind its creation. The play was commissioned by Seattle’s A Contemporary Theatre (ACT). The funds for the commission were donated by Seattle businessman Charles Staadecker, who chose to honor his wife Benita’s birthday in 2005 with a special living gift: a new play. The program, titled New Works for the American Stage and devised by ACT’s artistic director, Kurt Beattie, seeks to match individual donors with writers to create works of art that honor the honoree as well as the artist and the art form. Becky’s New Car is receiving 10 regional theatre productions this year (not surprising, given its delightful content and refreshing style), and the Staadeckers are traveling to see them all. While spreading the word about the joy they have experienced in helping launch the play into the world, they will encourage other arts patrons to step up to help create art work that inspires them.

In an article in the October edition of American Theatre, ACT artistic director Kurt Beattie noted, “This sort of thing happens all the time in classical music.” (The Staadeckers’ arrangement with ACT was inspired by their discovery of a similar practice at the Seattle Symphony, and the couple has since commissioned a trombone concerto from its resident composer Samuel Jones for their 25th wedding anniversary.) “If it happened more in the theatre it could be incredibly valuable, for both the artist and the philanthropist.”

So, as we open Becky’s New Car, and enjoy the play itself, we are also looking forward to meeting the folks that made it happen, and hearing first-hand the story about their role in its creation. In these challenging economic times, we need not only the laughs and the surprises that Becky brings us, but we need to reflect on how art gets made—one play at a time.

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.

Of special note to Mr.. Still is that the National Theatre Conference meets annually at The Players Club at 16 Gramercy Park in New York which was where Edwin Booth lived (and died).  Audiences will remember that Edwin Booth was a character in James Still’s recent play THE HEAVENS ARE HUNG IN BLACK. 
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