Corpse Published

I'm pleased to announce that my short play Corpse was published in the latest issue of Denver Quarterly.

Corpse was originally performed in 2009 as a part of Turtle Shell Productions' Summer Play Festival. Set during the 1950s, the play tells the story of a reporter interviewing a family that was involved in a recent notorious murder.

Denver Quarterly mainly publishes poems and short stories, though this issue does also include a short one-woman play, Mirroritus, by Laura Pfizenmayer. The journal has a long history that goes back to 1966. Its past contributors include Joan Didion, Joyce Carol Oates, and Robert Penn Warren.

In addition, I have some other good news to relate. I just found out this morning that my full-length play The Silver Tureen has made the second round for selection by Think Tank Theatre's 2024 TYA Playwrights Festival.

Based in Tampa, Florida, Think Tank Theatre aims to produce thought-provoking, awe-inspiring, professional theatre for young people and family audiences. The Silver Tureen, which features a cast of six young people, could be a great fit for them. I'll let you know if I hear more.

Sing it Again

I first saw Anais Mitchell's Hadestown in 2016, when it was playing Off-Broadway at New York Theatre Workshop. It was such a wonderful show, I saw it again at the National Theatre in London when I was in England visiting my sister.

That production got a bit lost in the cavernous space of the Olivier, a theatre that Iain Mackintosh has named one of the worst theatre spaces designed during the 20th century. When the show opened on Broadway, I did not run out to see it a third time.

However, this year singer/songwriter legend Ani DiFranco joined the cast as Persephone. She sang that role in the show's original concept album, so this casting made sense, and as someone who went to a liberal arts college in the 1990s, I was contractually obligated to see Ani DiFranco on Broadway.

Last night, I finally got a chance to do just that, and DiFranco did not disappoint. Amber Gray originated the role of Persephone on stage, later appearing on Broadway in such musicals as Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 and Here We Are. DiFranco might not be as experienced of an actor as Gray, but she exerts an aura that made Persephone a joy to behold.

Each actor I have seen in the role of Hermes has been completely different, but Jon Jon Briones, who is currently Hermes on Broadway, made the role work for him in a manner that was unique. It probably helped that his real-life daughter Isa Briones is in the show as Eurydice. The tender moments between the god and the mortal became even more tender when audience members recalled that the two performers are actually related.

While I didn't see Jordan Fisher as Orpheus, I had no complaints with his understudy, Brandon Cameron, a swing who made his Broadway debut with this show. Previous performers I'd seen in the role either had amazing voices or were strong actors, but Cameron's singing and acting were both superb. The same could be said for Max Kumangai, who played Hades, though in a manner quite different from Patrick Page, who made the part famous.

If you've never seen Hadestown before, now is a great time to go.

Herself

I remember seeing an Off-Broadway revival of Leslie Lee's play The First Breeze of Summer by the Signature Theatre Company and marveling at the size of the cast. Wow! Producers used to allow you to write plays with cast sizes that got into the double digits!

When I began writing plays, I tried to keep the cast size to eight, since anything above that was unrealistic. Then, I couldn't write for a cast larger than four. Now four is too large, and a two-person play is considered to have a large cast. Currently, I'm getting ready for a staged reading of a one-person play (more on that some other time).

This is why I was so excited to see the Drilling Company produce Herself by Tim McGillicuddy, which boasts 10 different actors. (There are actually more than 10 characters, so there is some doubling.) The story is ostensibly about Maureen (played by Kathleen Simmonds), who inherits a bar from her brother in Galway, Ireland, and returns home from New York where she's managed to make a new life for herself abroad.

What the play is really about, though, is the community built around that pub. The pub has served not just as a bar, but as a soup kitchen and homeless shelter, thanks to the kind-heartedness of its manager, Paddy (Drew Valins). Its vibrancy is accentuated by the regulars, including the charming young Anna (Meg Hennessy), the garrulous Mary (Una Clancy), the uppity Brenda (Mary Linehan), her fiancé Aiden (Patrick Hart), and local contractor Matthew (Dave Marantz).

To tell the story, though, that's not enough. McGillicuddy has made necessary to the plot Maureen's father Martin (played by the show's director, Hamilton Clancy) and Jane (Natalie Smith), the pregnant girlfriend of Maureen's deceased brother. Complicating matters is her crush on an old flame who later entered the priesthood to become Fr. Michael (Skyler Gallun).

The show is currently playing in the Gural Theatre on West 53rd Street, so head over to Hell's Kitchen to check it out while you still can. The final performance is April 20th.

Bumbled

I just saw Poor Mouth Theatre Company's Bumbled, a one-man play that is a part of the 1st Irish Festival organized in conjunction with the Origin Theatre Company.

Bumbled was written by Bernard McMullan and performed by Colin Hamell, who is artistic director of Tir Na Theatre in Boston. The play tells the story of an Irish drone bee, Pascal, who falls in love with a sexy French worker bee named Marion, even though his biological purpose is to have sex with the queen until his testicles fall off and he dies. Obviously, it's a comedy.

If you missed Bumbled, there are plenty more Irish plays to see this month as a part of the festival. Irish Rep is presenting Brian Friel's play Philadelphia, Here I Come! The Drilling Company is presenting a new play by Tim McGillicuddy called Herself.  Other plays in the festival include Marianne Driscoll's Last Call for Babe Reilly and Larry Kirwin's The Informer.

The 1st Irish Festival is happening all over the city, so there are plenty of places this month to see plays about Ireland.

Austen and Byron

I recently finished reading Christine Kenyon Jones's excellent book Jane Austen & Lord Byron: Regency Relations. It's a must-read for anyone interested in theatre of the Regency period in Britain.

Austen, of course, is known as a novelist rather than a playwright, though some very funny plays are included in her juvenilia. Her work makes frequent allusions to the theatre, particularly Mansfield Park, in which the young people try to put on a production of the play Lovers' Vows.

Byron took part in private theatricals much like those described in Austen's novel. In 1806, he played the role of Roderick Penruddock in a production of Richard Cumberland's The Wheel of Fortune. This was in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, where for many years Byron lived with his mother in Burgage Manor.

Kenyon Jones quotes an amusing letter from Mary Ann Bristoe describing the poet's antics. "Lord Byron requested to rehearse with me alone, for what reason I never knew," Bristoe wrote. "I had cause to rejoice at his having made this request, as it prepared me for what I might expect on the stage."

Byron went on to author numerous plays, including Manfred, Marino Faliero, and Sardanapaulus, the last of which is scheduled to have a staged reading in New York this fall. Both Byron and Austen admired some of the same actors, including Robert William Elliston.

Pick up a copy of the book if you can. I recommend it!

Gatsby on Broadway

Last night, I had the privilege of seeing a dress rehearsal for The Great Gatsby, which officially begins performances on Broadway tonight.

I won't give any spoilers other than to say you will want to see this show. Nathan Tysen's lyrics are delightful, and Jason Howland's contemporary score manages to capture the spirit of the Jazz Age while still resonating with audiences today.

Kait Kerrigan has done an excellent job adapting F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel for the stage, sometimes providing fresh insights that are only implied in the novel, and sometimes having the good sense to just give us Fitzgerald's words straight up, reminding us how insightful he was a century ago--and still today.

The cast is headlined by Jeremy Jordan as Jay Gatsby as Eva Noblezada as Daisy Buchanan. Noah J. Ricketts plays Nick Carraway, who narrates the novel, but is not present in every scene onstage, giving a different energy to scenes where Jay and Daisy can speak their minds without worrying about Nick overhearing every word.

I particularly enjoyed the performance of Samantha Pauly as Jordan Baker. Even though we know her romance with Nick is doomed, we can't help believing in it and rooting for them. Similarly, when Gatsby goes for a fatal swim, we know precisely what is going to happen, but still can't help but be surprised as it plays out on the magnificent set designed by Paul Tate dePoo III.

With the novel entering the public domain, there are numerous adaptations and re-imaginings being offered up, including last year's immersive production, but the Broadway musical is bound to stand out, so be sure to catch it!

Beckett and the Bible

Today is Palm Sunday (also known as Passion Sunday) when the Catholic liturgy takes on a distinctly theatrical turn.

The Bible has had a tremendous impact on theatre, particularly during medieval times. There is also a great deal of the Bible in Shakespeare, but what relevance does Christianity have in today's post-Christian, secular drama?

Well, Samuel Beckett, in spite of his outspoken atheism, couldn't keep Christian scripture out of his writing (much like his mentor James Joyce). Take as an example Beckett's masterpiece Waiting for Godot. In its blistering attack on religious belief, the play goes back to Christian scripture over and over again.

Only a couple of minutes into the play, Vladimir says, "Hope deferred maketh the something sick, who said that?" Proverbs 13:12 states, "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick." Interestingly, the passage continues, "But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life." This is rather telling when we consider that one of the few set pieces in the play is a tree that appears to be dead in the first act.

Later in the first act, Vladimir discusses the Passion itself, as it is described in all four canonical gospels. As he points out, the gospels describe the "Saviour" (as Vladimir calls Christ) being crucified with criminals or "thieves" (though the Greek word used in scripture can also be translated as revolutionaries or rebels). Only one of the Evangelists (Luke) describes one of the thieves being saved.

"One out of four," Vladimir says. "Of the other three two don't mention any thieves at all and the third says that both of them abused him." Well, that's not quite right. Those crucified with Jesus abused him in both Matthew (27:44) and Mark (13:32) though not John. What are we to make of all this? As Estragon puts it in the play, "Well? They don't agree and that's all there is to it."

The Biblical references don't end there. At one point, Estragon gives his name as Adam. Later, he calls Pozzo both "Abel" and "Cain" before remarking, "He's all humanity." Waiting for Godot is about the human condition, but it describes that condition in explicitly Christian terms, even though it ultimately rejects a Christian worldview.

Perhaps a knowledge of Christian scripture, or at least the rudiments of Christian belief, is necessary in order to understand even secular, atheistic dramatists like Beckett.