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Home , Alfred Uhry, Arena Theatre, David Greenspan, Dramatists Play Service, Emily Mann (director), This Is Our Youth

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As the 1998-99 season proceeds, “How I Learned to Drive,” winner of the 1998 , pl a y remains the most produced play of the year. Never one to slow down, took ISSUE 3, SPRING 99 some time recently to have a and Brazil, and it’s usually for profession- tour and she slipped and fell. Fortunately, she fell conversation with Robert al writers, although I’ve done it with student on the timpani, so she didn’t hurt herself. But, Vaughan, our director of pro- writers. Basically we spend every day for at least a unfortunately, it was while they were playing her fessional rights, about where week in the rehearsal room writing short plays theme song, “Falling In Love Again,” that she fell and we end up doing what we call “The Great off the stage. she’s been and where she American Play Bake-Off,”where everyone has to plans to go. write a play in 48 hours. RV: You’re making that up. I am not making it up. Listen, Washington D.C. RV: A full-length play? is rife with these things. Do you know about the Well, however long it comes out. I say to people instance of “Mata Hari?” Now, I was in town that they have to write it in 48 hours, and if they when this happened. sleep or eat it’s on their own time. Usually what does come out ends up being the germ of a full- RV: Mata Hari the spy? length play, if not a full-length play. The fourth “Mata Hari” was a David Merrick musical, and it workshop I’m doing will be open to opened at the National. Lyndon Johnson was in RV: You’ve been so busy. Where subscribers, people from the neighborhood, the audience opening night, and at the end of the have you just come from now? board members, anyone who wants to come first act, the stage set fell on the actress who was Oh man, Robert. Let me try and think about down. We’re trying to create circles that expand, playing Mata Hari. Fortunately, it hit her with what this past week has been. Well, Seattle. I do and God knows I’ll know Washington in a much the canvas part instead of the wooden part, and remember Seattle; Seattle was fun and fabulous. better way when the three years are up than I her head basically just went through the flat and Let’s see, where else have I been? Little things, you know it now. You know, I’m always in a state of they brought the curtain down and they never know … and Washington D.C. … I’m starting to shock when I go back and visit family members, had an Act Two. They never opened. That was the work with Arena Stage. The Hamptons, to get because when I was growing up, basically it was end of “Mata Hari,” though it would be interest- some award, which was kind of fun. the National T h e a t re and Shady Grove ing to see if someone could bring it back. Music Fair. (Pause) Wait, I have to tell you RV: You got another award? about some memorable things. RV: Don’t give them Yes, I got another award. And, you know, that’s (Laughs) any ideas. been all in the past week. I don’t really remember Washington is different from what I did yesterday. RV: I like that laugh. What when I knew it. Now it’s its did you do? own community with a RV: (Chuckling) Have you had You’ll probably quote this, but ver y diverse spectrum time to see the new film version I’ll never forget the night that of theatre. It’s really a of “Lolita?” I was wondering what Anna Maria Alberghetti was per- place where I think you thought of it, considering forming and left her throat mike you need to have a how you feel about “Lolita.” on when she went backstage to vital theatre com- I liked it very much. The one thing I missed was the bathroom during Act One and mu n i t y , more the kind of irreverent humor that the first film … this you can’t quote … anyway, than any place had. It was a little more twisted and a little more it was the purest, highest “C” I’ve else in the scrappy. I think this “Lolita” was reverent. It was ever heard her hit. Then there continued on page 4 almost religiously done, beautifully done, so I was the time when thought it was really interesting, but I still prefer Marlene Dietrich fell the original movie version, and of course nothing into the orches- beats the book. The real trick is how can you get tra pit a n d that tone that Nabakov achieved? You can’t. You n e ver came can’t do it on stage, you can’t do it in the movies. out again. I sort of go in (to the movie) expecting the worst She w a s and then being pleasantly surprised, because I making a really think it’s an impossible task to adapt some- c o m e b a c k thing like that.

RV: So you went to Arena Stage recently. You’re going to be working there for three years? How Yes. This first season I’m going to be doing four workshops. The first is going to be for anyone who works in the building and wants to take a playwriting workshop and spend eight hours with me on a Saturday. The next workshop is for anyone who works for the Washington D.C. media - reviewers, reporters. And for the third one we’re asking several theatre companies in Paula Vog e l Washington to nominate two playwrights and I’m going to do for them what I call my “boot camp.” Learned to RV: You do that at Brown, don’t you? THRIVE I do a boot camp at Brown. I’ve done a boot camp in L.A.. I’ve done a boot camp in London and Carol Rosegg LINES

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“The Irish are Coming!” (At Play, issue 2) was the first thing I saw. As Artistic Direc t o r of The Irish and American Reperto r y The- at r e, a new in Columbus, Ohio, I was extremely excited to see your article on Ma r tin McDonagh and the continued ren a i s - sance of Irish arts. As a new company inter- ested in producing professional prod u c t i o n s , was a great help in getting us set up for our first prod u c t i o n , “Molly Sweeney” by Brian Friel. Love the ne w s l e t t e r , love Dramatists Play Servi c e . We look forwa r d to working with you again soon! Anne Hannon Irish and American Repertory Theatre

Congratulations to everyone at Dramatists The Play Service was proud to see so many of our titles included in American Theatre Magazine’s annual Top Ten List of the most-produced plays of the year. for an outstanding web site (www.d r a m a - tists.com). I found what I wanted. Orde re d 1 How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel it. Got on with the rest of my day. Thanks 2 The Last Night of Ballyhoo by to all for the thoroughly professional job. 3 Gross Indecency, The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde by Moisés Kaufman by (Non-Professional Rights) You ’ r e making everyb o d y ’ s life much easier. 5 6 Death of a Salesman by (Non-Professional Rights) Neil Thackaberry 7 Having Our Say by Emily Mann, adapted from the book by Sarah L. and Summit Classic Theater Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth 8 The Old Settler by John Henry Redwood

the play service sh i p p i n g we l c o m e s ne w s Below is a selected list of outstanding new properties acquired since the publication of Last fall, Dramatists Play Service converted to a new computer system our 1998-99 Supplement. and moved our entire warehouse of acting editions to Brooklyn. Our new Corpus Christi by Terrence McNally distributor, the Mercedes Controversy! Protests! Hysteria! The theatrical event of the season is a contemporary play Distribution Center, is now handling drawing parallels between “the greatest story ever told” and the life of Joshua, a young man discover- all of our book fulfillment. ing his sexuality and purpose in Corpus Christi, . (World premiere at New York’s Theatre Club.) We made this decision in order to Love and Understanding by Joe Penhall improve and expedite both our services and the shipping options we The British Invasion continues. What do you do when a no-good friend needs a place to stay, but seems intent on turning you and your girlfriend against each other? (American Premiere at the Long had been offering to you. We regret Wharf Theatre, New Haven CT.) that during the move, and immedi- ately afterwards, book shipments The Ride Down Mt. Morgan by Arthur Miller were delayed and our customer When Lyman Felt is injured in a car accident, his wife Leah is called to his side - as is his other wife, service department was sometimes Theodora. Gradually both women come to comprehend the meaning of Lyman’s nine-year deception, unable to field your inquiries. As and he is called to account for his many betrayals. (As produced in New York by the Joseph Papp Public with any major change, a few kinks Theater.World premiere at the Wyndham’s Theatre, London.) had to be ironed out and we sincere- ly apologize for any inconvenience This Is Our Youth by the transition may have caused you. One of the season’s most celebrated new plays about three friends poised on the edge of adulthood but lost and disaffected as they experiment with drugs, courtship and surviving the legacy of their 60s gen- How the new warehousing eration parents. (As produced by New York’s Second Stage Theatre. “Commercial comedies of such brio and will affect you: darkly satiric edge are rare these days. Supercool entertainment.”- New York Times) This Lime Tree Bower by Conor McPherson Place orders as usual to DPS A son attempts to get his father out of debt with the dangerous local bookie, but chooses to do it by By phone, fax and mail, or via robbing the bookie himself in this amazing new play by the young, Dublin-born author who has taken e-mail and our web site, London by storm. (American premiere this May at New York’s Primary Stages.) www.dramatists.com. Vernon Early by Your Customer Number has changed Pulitzer Prize winner Horton Foote returns to Harrison, Texas in this dark and poignant drama about Your new customer number appears the sadness of growing old. (World Premiere by the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Montgomery, AL.) on all invoices, packing slips and The Weir by Conor McPherson licenses. Please distribute it to those in your organization who order scripts In a bar in a remote part of Ireland, the boys are trading ghost stories in the hopes of spooking (or is or apply for performance rights. it impressing) a pretty young woman just arrived from Dublin. But she has an even more chilling story of her own. (Broadway premiere this March. “The Weir” was commissioned by the Royal Court Theatre, London. “With bewitching fluency allied to a gift for locating the greatest emotions in the smallest details, Send script returns to: and a faultless ear for idiom, McPherson achieves something remarkable.” - TLS) Dramatists Play Service, Inc. c/o Mercedes Distribution Center Wit by 160 Imlay Street One of Time Magazine’s 10 Best Plays of 1998, this is the shattering and uplifting story of the last Brooklyn, NY 11231. hours of Vivian Bearing, a 50ish literature professor and John Donne scholar facing her imminent death by ovarian cancer. (“Brutally human and beautifully layered...The kind of theatrical experience of which legends are made.” - New York Times. Currently running at New York’s Union Square Theatre.) Have you ever borrowed a record or CD from a friend and made a tape of it? Of course you have. I used to do the same thing. Before I learned it was illegal. It doesn’t matter that Paul McCartney is almost a billionaire. He still deserves to be paid.

by Craig Pospisil, Director of Non-Professional Rights

iracy of intellectual property is big business. My son is in “Hamlet.” May I videotape that? P Bootleg copies of movies and music are being Yes. “Ha m l e t” is in public domain. T h e re is no pro h i b i t i o n distributed in Eastern Europe. The U.S. govern- to videotaping any play that is in public domain. Yo u ment has been in discussions with the Chinese should, howe ve r, have the actors’ and the theatre’s permis- about closing down factories that pirate sion before pro c e e d i n g . American music and computer software, result- ing in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars Our theatre would like to make a videotape for for our industries. You can find pirated videos of our archives/grant proposal. Is this all right? current movies being sold on the streets of New The agents I deal with are more open to this kind of request, York. And Congress is currently debating the but as usual you must get their permission first. Again, best ways to protect copyrighted material from contact the author’s primary agent by writing to them at the dissemination over the Internet. Digital technolo- address on the copyright/caution page of our scripts. gy makes it possible to make perfect copies of a piece of music — a fifth generation copy might A local video producer wants to film my produc- be just as good as the original itself. tion and sell tapes in our lobby. This is absolutely not allowed. Theatres that have engaged in So what does this have to do with plays? After or tolerated this activity have faced serious legal repercus- all, you don’t see too many photocopied plays for sions. Stay away from this kind of venture. sale on the street, or hear of high level, interna- tional negotiations over unlicensed editions of I am a college student. Can I get permission to “Long Day’s Journey Into Night.” But it doesn’t make a film of a play? mean that other violations aren’t happening here This is ver y unlikely to be approved. Again, you should contact at home and on a smaller scale. the author’s primary agent, but don’t get your hopes up.

May I copy a script for the actors at my theatre? ozens of people wrote in after my last two No. Just like making a copy of a friend’s CD, this is a viola- D“Rights & Restrictions” articles and requested tion of copyright law. Royalties from script sales is one of the permission to reprint them. I was pleased with the ways that a is compensated. For every illegal copy reaction, and we said yes to all who asked. Thank you for letting us know how much you liked the of a play made, the author has been denied the money that articles and feel free to reprint this one or copy it. he is rightfully due. All we ask is that you give the proper authorship and credit the article as follows: “Copyright 1998 Can I copy a script and distribute it to my class by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.” We would also for study purposes? appreciate it if you would list our mailing and Under the provision of “fair use,” copyright law does allow Internet addresses. And drop us a line to let us for limited photocopying in educational settings. You cannot know, or send us a copy of the reprint. photocopy an entire play for your students, but copying a short section is permissible. I recommend that you read up again, if anyone would like to learn more on copyright law for further clarification before proceeding. about copyright, a trip to your local library would be an excellent starting place. Or, if you have access to the Internet, I highly re-commend My daughter is playing Maggie in “Cat on a Hot visiting the U.S. Copyright Office web site: Tin Roof.” Can I videotape this for her grandpar- ents to see? I know that this seems harmless enough, but the answer is www.lcweb.loc.gov/copyright very likely to be “no” because video rights are also subject to the author’s copyright. Dramatists Play Service, however, The site has recently been given a make-over and does not control video rights; we only administer the English is greatly improved. It is easy to navigate and has language stage performance rights to the plays that we a “Frequently Asked Questions” section which publish. Questions about videotaping a performance should covers a lot of ground. I also recommend “10 Big be directed to the author’s primary agent listed on the copy- Myths About Copyright.” This site was put right/caution page of our acting editions under “All other together by Brad Templeton, and he sets the inquiries . . .” record straight in a clear, concise manner. Please note, the Internet address for this site has Keep in mind that video rights are considered part of the changed to: motion picture and television rights to a play, so agents are generally reluctant to exploit them separately. www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html paul a have to be from AIDS. It could be a parent, a effect that every stage is haunted, and it’s haunted vo g el wife, a husband, a child - I just think that there’s as much by the energies of living actors, but it’s continued more resonance with “Drive.” A lot of people also haunted by characters that don’t exist. We have been arguing with me and say “no, no, no; expend our lives and our passions and our energy ‘Drive’ is a much better play,” and I guess it’s an in love with characters that don’t exist, and that is , because that’s where the battle against argument I’m happy to lose. Probably people will very strange. the arts is taking place. be having conversations with me over “T h e Mineola Twins” versus “How I Learned to Drive.” RV: I know what you mean. RV: You’ve been accused of being I can see that conversation coming up. What’s your greatest inspiration, political in your writing. Do you besides Nabakov? think you are? RV: “Mineola Twins” starts...? I almost admit to having three gods as play- I think all theatre is political. I think when people Yes, at the Roundabout. We’ll see. It’s an interest- wrights: John Gua r e, Maria Irene Fornes and say “political,” they mean being polemicists or ing conversation to have in terms of the work of Ca r yl Churchill. Those are my three gods, and propagandists or something like that. And that’s a particular playwright. The difficulty is that after that there are thousands, people we all know not my notion of the word “political.” I think there is so much great writing going on, and there and love; people like Mac Wellman and Connie theatre is by nature political, because theatre is are so many great living American writers. You Congdon and Suzan-Lori Par ks; Naomi Wal l a c e basically about the present moment in time, and can’t compare one person’s work to another’s, and Elizabeth Egl o f f . I mean it goes on and on and you’re creating a community which comes into a because it’s apples and oranges. There’s no way to on. It’s just a ver y, ver y rich time. But John Gua r e common space and examines the present moment in time. The side of us that goes into a movie is a private self. It’s in the dark. It’s voyeuristic. But IN COLLEGE I WROTE SOMETHING CALLED when you go into a theatre, you’re going into the “THE BEAUTIFULQU A S I M O D O ” public. That’s a much different persona. AND I FELLIN LOVE WITH QUASIMODO. AND THE NIGHTWE PULLED RV: You never get on a soapbox, though. DOWN TH A TPL A YI KNEW I’D NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN AND I STAYED UP Well, personally I do - because I’m a very short AL LN I G H T IN THE TH E AT R E WE E P I N G . woman - but not when I write. It’s an interesting thing, Robert. I think that because I’ve been appreciate Nicky Silver except in the canon of is somebody that really filled me with possibilities writing for so long, and this is true of all writers, Nicky Silver. Or Craig Lucas. You can talk about that I hadn’t rec o g n i z ed before. Th e r e’s a certa i n i t’s such an automatic reflex that when I’m “Prelude to a Kiss” versus “The Dying Gaul.” It’s total sympathy I think I have for him. He can be writing it comes from some other side of me that a fascinating conversation to have, and one that lyrical and he can be incred i b l y , hysterically funny only comes through the writing and doesn’t nec- can be had, but there’s no way that Craig is in any and, in a great way, vulgar. In a way that I love. essarily intersect with the other aspects of my way like any of the other writers writing at the being, my teaching, who I am as a person. same instant in time. It’s the richness right now of RV: I think he captured every Something else takes over. American theatre that is in many ways paradoxi- single one of those aspects in cal because it’s happening at a time when the arts “Six Degrees of Separation.” RV: If you’re conscious of your are embattled. Yes, he does. I’m thinking about this a lot because process, it won’t work? I’m a woman who writes comedy and I think that Well, I think we have to go through a period of RV: Wasn’t it Martha Graham who that’s different from a man who writes comedy. I being conscious, and that’s when we start out, and said that no artist is ahead of his think what we forget in the twentieth century is it seems to me being a student and studying theatre time, the artist is the time? that if we really love theatre and we love what we or being a student playwright, you are being con- Oh, that’s nice, Martha. That’s nice. do, we think about Shakespeare, and Shakespeare scious of your devices. You ’re learning all of you r combines kings and clowns side by side. So you tricks and you ’re thinking about them. And then RV: You write things that people have the assassination of Duncan followed by piss th e r e has to be a point where it becomes subcon- are just compelled to talk about, jokes told by a drunken porter. They’re side by scious and you think about other things and let whether they like your plays or side, and that’s the greatness of Shakespeare. To your ref l e x es take over . But I go in and out of that not. Or whether your plays make try to achieve that — and does, and intense thinking about what I’m doing. I find that them angry. so does, for example, Peter Barnes, who is a the more I write, the less I know what I’m doing. There’s a lot of that, too. I do know that there’s a British playwright that I really love — to do that, When I first started as a playwright, I could tell you button that I trigger, where I seem to irritate though, as a woman… I often feel that we’re the exactly what ever y play meant, and now I can’t tell people, which is always intriguing to me because equivalent to women painters. There’s almost a you. I really don’t know what my plays mean. I it’s not anything that I intend to push, but it does decorum to what we think women playwrights really don’t know what I’m trying to do. get pushed. should be, a decorum that they should adhere to … and that is that women painters should be RV: “How I Learned to Drive” is RV: The people who were terribly painting delicate watercolors, they shouldn’t be not your favorite play. upset by “How I Learned to working in deep, messy acrylics and oils. But No, it’s not. “Bal t i m o r e Wal t z ” is, and there’s Drive,” I just don’t understand it. again, if you’re in the theatre, you’ve got to going to be a part of me that will always be a little It made me feel there was some- combine the kings with the clowns. I think that’s hu r t. I would have loved to have a Pul i t z er Pri z e to thing wrong with me. what John Guare does and other writers that I put at the memory of my brot h e r . That would Join the club. (Laughs) There are times when really love. That’s what they do, they have that ha v e been great, to place that on the altar. Par t of people find out I wrote “And Baby Makes Seven,” huge, messy spectrum of the human heart. But I me always feels that “Bal t i m o r e Wal t z ” is more and they don’t want to sit next to me on the bus. do feel that, as a woman, I often get comments original. I feel that it is pure emotion that’s found They move a seat away. There’s always been that deploring the vulgarity of say, the Greek chorus in an expres s i v e form. But again, ver y possibly, that feeling of...you see it’s a terribly oddball profes- “How I Learned to Drive.” Certainly “Mineola play had to happen in order for people to be able sion to be in anyway. I think you’re suspect when Twins” is going to make a lot of people uncom- to see “How I Learned to Dri v e.” I am ver y glad you say to people that you work in the theatre. fortable with its level of physical comedy. to see that “Bal t i m o r e Wal t z ” gets done as often as Don’t you find people look at you strangely? it does. I’m also personally reg r etful of the fact that RV: I don’t recall the Greek it played for only seven weeks in New Yor k City in RV: Sometimes. chorus in “Drive” being vulgar. a theatre of 165 seats, and that that’s all there was Sometimes it’s with envy, but usually it’s like, “Oh, The British thought it was ver y vulgar, and I’ve in New Yor k. I have a lot of reg r et for that, but I’ll when are you going to grow up and get a real job?” he a r d comments that it’s sort of slapstick. I’ve also ne v er have reg r et for the experience of “Bal t i m o r e had a lot of comments about “Bal t i m o r e Wal t z , ” Waltz,” which I still think of as a high point. It RV: Well, in New York, it’s more that the last moment had dignity, but all the was pure joy. I’m also grateful for the actors, along the lines of “Oh, do you moments that came before wer e just too slapsticky. Ri c h a r d Thompson, Cherry Jones, Joe Man t e l l o ; actually work in the theatre?” and and Anne Bogart (the director). I wish that riches I say “yes.” It doesn’t bother me. RV: Well, certain families are like wer e laid at their feet. So, that’s got to be my I have to. I’m compelled to do it. that, too. In real life. fa v orite play, even though I’m obviously happy I’ ve heard many similar stories. It is a compulsion I certainly think that I’m like that. In my house- about what has happened with “How I Learned to and it is an addiction. I remember the first play hold, you never got a chance to sit down without Dri v e,” but I don’t find it as rich and complex. wh e r e I really got attached to my characters. I’d a whoopie cushion being thrust beneath you. You been doing little high school skits and things like always had to look before you sat, so I just RV: I can understand that, but that, things that didn’t really matter to me. But assumed that most American families are like “How I Learned to Drive” did when I was a freshman in college I wrote something that. And, of course, I’m sure that there are some something to me that not a lot of called “The Beautiful Qua s i m o d o ” and this strange very “elevated” American families out there. plays have done lately...and I don’t sensation happened. I fell in love with Qua s i m o d o . know how to describe it, either... I fell in love! And the night that we pulled down RV: Yeah, but they’re boring, I bet. I think everybody learns at some point, or almost that play I knew that I’d never see him again and I They’re probably boring, and their repression everybody, how to drive a car, and everyone goes st a y ed up all night in the theatre weeping. (Pau s e ) probably leads to other problems. I would rather through sexual maturity, hopefully, some process just have a nice, loud, scatological laugh at it and of sexual maturity. So the play is going to hit a RV: That’s great. That’s amazing! put it in my work. It’s an interesting thing about wider segment of people. There’s going to be I know it’s great, but it’s very strange when you theatre; it’s about where we come from, where our vibrations. For “Baltimore Waltz,” you really have fall in love and they’re not even people. We fall in roots are. Theatre is of the flesh, it’s not abstract to have lost somebody that you loved. It doesn’t love almost with the undead, if you will. This words. It’s literally words made flesh and when you talk about the flesh, what does that mean? It RV: What’s your all-time favorite ment in the room. The fact that Michael Mayer certainly has erotic connotations, it certainly has play? and the WPA have brought this to pass brings me beauty, grace and dignity. But it also has banana (She groans) I don’t have just one. Th e r e isn’t just so much joy. I think the one thing we have to peels, whoopie cushions and fart jokes. That’s also on e . concentrate on in this field together is opening flesh. I think that in America we are all kings and the doors faster for a younger generation. It’s been groundlings, and we have to write to that large RV: You can pick a handful. hard because theatre is expensive and one is spectrum. I think when I look at Irene Fornes or I would probably say “Cloud Nine.” always looking over one’s shoulder as an artistic Caryl Churchill or John Guare, they make that director.You know, you’re scared to offend the spectrum alive. All of their work is really “of the RV: That’s a good choice. subscribers, but we have to start taking risks in flesh” in that way. John Guare and I have gotten Wait, I’m not done. I’d probably say “Landscape order to open up the doors to younger writers and to know each other a bit because, of course, I’ve of the Body” and Irene Fornes’s “The .” younger audiences. embarrassed myself every time I’ve met him in Those would be my three favorites, but again public. I would grab his hand and kiss it. I have a that’s really hard for me to do. “Cloud Nine” RV: So where are you going tendency to do that with people whom I think of would be really, really up there. Movies, actually, next? as gods. He asked me to introduce him at the are easier for me to rattle off ten that really Well, for three weeks, or if I can scrape it out, four 92nd Street Y this past year when he was giving a impacted me. I would say “Atlantic City,” “Don’t weeks, I’m actually going to a cottage without a lecture, so I got this opportunity for five minutes Look Now,” “,” and “The Fearless phone to do the screenplay. After that I start trav- to stand on stage and say to his face what I’ve said Vampire Killers.” eling down to Washington D.C. and then before all these years behind his back, that I think he’s you know it I’m in rehearsal for “Mineola Twins” the greatest living American playwright. See, in RV: Polanski? in New York. But the next thing is really not to my mind, just about every play that John Guare Yes. Followed by “Chinatown” and “Babette’s travel anywhere other than inward and do the has written has been a Pulitzer Prize play that’s Feast” and probably in that order. screenplay, and that to me is the most exciting never gotten the Pulitzer Prize. I often think journey of all. I start on Friday. about this, and I think about how lucky I’ve been RV: I thought I was the only one with both “Baltimore Waltz” and “How I Learned who ever saw “Fearless Vampire RV: Well, this has been great. to Drive,” and not as fortunate with “And Baby Killers.” It has been great. If you think of anything else, Makes Seven,” not as fortunate with other plays. I’ve seen it many, many times and actually I adore sweetie, I’m here for another day before I hit the You know, playwrights have to be translated by a the early films of Polanski. road. I’ll probably talk to you soon. director in just the right way, and I wonder if certain plays by John Guare haven’t found the RV: “Macbeth.” RV: I’ll try to talk to you before right director.You start to think what would have Yes. It’s astonishing. We really are creating plays you hide away in the cabin. happened to if, for example, it through the lens of movies now. They are com- Okay, hon. Good talking to you, Robert. hadn’t been for Robert Woodruff. For me, if it pletely intermingled. hadn’t been and Anne Bogart, what RV: Bye, Paula. would have happened? We have to rely so much RV: I think you’re right, and I don’t Bye. on our interpreters, on our collaborators, in order know if that’s a shame or what. to break through. We admire actors, but I don’t I think it’s necessary. I think that in many ways it think we really understand what they do for new leads to the strengthening of the stage. We’re not work. The reception for new work is really all c reating plays from the printed word, fro m editor’s note dependent on the casting. I can’t tell you how reading, we’re creating instead through visual Besides being the most regionally produced play many times I’ve had people stop me and say images and we see everything, whether it’s the of the year, “How I Learned to Drive” has an “David Morse and Mary Louise Parker” in the proscenium arch, the movie theatre or the video impressive international schedule ahead of it. street. The nice thing is not just that they talk screen, or even our computers, through a kind of Productions are in the works for: Israel; Brazil; about the play, they talk about these actors. I’ve box lens, and that’s how we enter into the world. France; ; Belgium; Norway; Sweden; said this before, you know: I don’t feel like I won I think that’s where we are at the end of the twen- Iceland; Finland; Switzerland; ; Mexico the Pulitzer Prize, I feel like a group of us worked tieth century and I do think that there are and Puerto Rico. North American productions very hard together. Interestingly enough, for years separate strengths of film and theatre that are include: Arizona Theatre Company, Phoenix and Tucson IN MYHOUSEHOLD YOU NEVER GOTACHANCE TO SIT Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Berkeley CA Pacific Repertory Theatre, Carmel-by-the-Sea CA DOWN WITHOUTAWHOOPIE CUSHIONBEING TH R U S T Mark Taper Forum, CA BE N E A TH YOU...I’D RATHER JUSTHA VE ANICE LOUD, San Diego Repertory Theatre CA SC A TOL O G I C A L LAUGH ATIT AND PUTIT IN MYWORK. The Magic Theatre, San Francisco CA Ensemble Theatre Project, Santa Barbara CA Curious Productions, Denver CO Arena Stage, Washington DC before I wrote “How I Learned to Drive,” I often going to actually keep theatre strong: the richness Caldwell Theatre Co., Boca Raton FL used driving as a metaphor to describe how I felt that is created through the ear, rather than the Hippodrome State Theatre, Gainesville FL as a playwright, because on opening night I eye, is going to keep the next couple of genera- Ant Farm Productions, Orlando FL always felt that the playwright was in the passen- tions very strong in playwriting. As you know, Florida Studio Theatre, Sarasota FL ger seat and if an accident happened, there was I’ve been teaching a lot, and I have to tell you that Co., GA nothing we could do to control it. It was just sit there are multitudes of very strong, powerful Northlight Theatre, Skokie IL in the passenger seat and watch the oncoming voices right behind us, so I feel very hopeful. I Phoenix Theatre, Indianapolis IN collision. That’s how it feels to be a playwright. think that right now we’ve reached a time, American Repertory Theatre, Cambridge MA because of the conservative right, the Christian Center Stage, Baltimore MD RV: Who has the film rights to right, the Republican congress, where, as artists, The Performance Network, Ann Arbor MI “How I Learned to Drive?” we have to be advocates for the art form. I think Eye of the Storm, Minneapolis MN David Richenthal and Anita Waxman, who are we’ll see generations that are much more active in Unicorn Theatre, Kansas City MO theatre producers. And we’ve had meetings with public life. I think we’re seeing a flourishing hap- Repertory Theatre of St. Louis MO (director) Fred Schepisi. pening. I’ve never felt guilty in the past ten years Charlotte Repertory Theatre NC for taking someone who is bright and talented Manbites Dog Theater, Durham NC RV: He did a great job with the and has limitless opportunities and saying to George Street Playhouse, New Brunswick NJ film of “Six Degrees of them, “You know what, you’ll make an incredible Studio Arena Theatre, Buffalo NY Separation.” playwright. Don’t go to law school. You can Hangar Theatre, Ithaca NY He was incredibly smart and he really excited me always go to law school later if you don’t like it, Cincinnati Playhouse OH with some of the ideas he had. So on one shoulder but why don’t you try this out, because I think it Contemporary American Theatre, Columbus OH I’ll have him hovering and, hopefully, on the will give you joy.” And I have no guilt. Human Race Theatre, Dayton OH other John Guare will also hover and mentor me Artists Repertory, Portland OR RV: That’s wonderful. Especially through this. So I’m really very fortunate. Philadelphia Theatre Co. PA at Brown. Trinity Repertory Co., Providence RI RV: Guare certainly knows what Yes. I know. I shouldn’t be saying this. They’ll Trustus Theatre, Columbia SC he’s doing when he writes retract the contract that we’ve been working out. Dallas Theatre Center TX screenplays, doesn’t he? “Get that woman off campus. What is she doing Alley Theatre, Houston TX Oh boy, “Atlantic City.” I’ve only read it like, oh to our sons and daughters?” I have to say that of Salt Lake Acting Co. UT God, I’m boring on this subject. I think I’ve seen all the things that have given me pleasure in the Intiman Theatre Co., Seattle WA it maybe a dozen times and I’ve read the screen- last couple of years, it hasn’t been “How I Learned Spokane Interplayers WA play at least six or seven. to Drive.” I have gotten more pleasure knowing Madison Repertory Theatre WI that “Stupid Kids,” written by my student John Alberta Theatre Projects, Vancouver RV: That was when I fell in love C. Russell, is going to be the next play at the Citadel Theatre, Edmonton with Susan Sarandon. Century Theatre after “How I Learned to Drive.” Centaur Foundation for the Arts, Montreal Tell me about it. (Much laughter) I’ll tell you - I produced “Stupid Kids” at in Canadian Stage Company, ha v e lemons ever been so sweet a fruit as when she 1990. John was a wonderful human being and a Belfry Theatre, Victoria sq u e e zes them. Oh God, that was a great scene. wonderful playwright and I remember the excite- Manitoba Theatre Centre, Winnipeg OMENT

Nothing Mega About It Except theAp p l a u s e by Robert Myers

Imagine having to t e s t i fy about your sex life: what presents you gave your lover; how often you met; why you chose someone so much younger, and so beneath you in social s t a t u s . Sound familiar? It should. It happened to Oscar Wilde a little over a century a g o . As author-director Moisés Kaufman discovered, the figure behind the most notorious court case of the 1900s (think O.J. Simpson m e e t s M a p p l e t h o r p e ) is hard to pin down. The result of his investigation, Gross Indecency, The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde is the 3rd most produced play of the year.

Prior to Gross Indecency’s commercial transfer last year, R o b e rt Myers of the New York Times reported on the spectacular success of this sleeper turned hit. Moisés Kaufman

ritten and directed by an unknown dramatist had two hit plays, “The Importance of Being Earnest” and and put on with a bare-bones budget of “An Ideal Husband,” running simultaneously in London’s W $15,000 and one set, “Gross Indecency” has West End - to an object of almost universal scorn in a scant been the talk of Off Off Broadway, drawing audiences and three months. critics alike in a season crowded with multi-million-dollar When in February of 1895, at the height of his success, shows that in many cases have received mediocre reviews. Wilde elected to sue his lover Lord Alfred Douglas’s father, The story of this spare and original play with an innovative the Marquess of Queensberry, for slander when Queensberry style borne of necessity is a fable with a familiar moral: persist accused him (in a misspelled note) of “posing as a som- in what you believe. domite,” he set in motion a chain of events that would not It is also a tale of improbability involving a playwright, only bring about his artistic downfall but would leave him to Moisés Kaufman, whose first language is Spanish, and a script die a broken man five years later at the age of 46 after a mis- about one of the most elegant of British epigrammatists erable stint in Reading prison. drawn entirely from contemporary court documents, books In the first of three trials, Wilde was forced to withdraw his and newspaper accounts; a drama enacted by nine male per- suit against Queensberry after inadvertently betraying himself formers, most in dark suits, with virtually no scenery and set during cross-examination with his own too clever tongue. in a courtroom, where emotional highs derive from heated Much to the delight of the promoters of Victorian morality, cross-examination; an unknown actor, Michael Emmerson, criminal charges were immediately brought against him. A in the title role, who received superb reviews but who for of working-class male hustlers, whom Wilde admitted three years could not get a job on a New York stage, even as befriending and showering with cash and silver cigarette cases a spear-carrier; and an unusual letter, hand-delivered to the but denied having sex with, were summoned to testify about offices of major critics who had yet to see “Gross Indecency,” their “illicit” relations with him. Although the jury at the that began: “Pleading to dear Members of the Press.” second trial was unable to reach a verdict, by the end of the Mr. Kaufman, who is also directing the play, is somewhat third, Wilde had been convicted of “gross indecency with improbable himself, as he is the first to admit. An intense 33- male persons.” year-old of Romanian and Ukrainian Jewish descent, he Mr. Kaufman got the idea for the play about two and a half arrived in the United States 10 years ago from Caracas, years ago when a friend gave him a small volume of epigrams Venezuela, to study theater. Educated at a yeshiva in Caracas, entitled “The Wit and Wisdom of Oscar Wilde” that also he had attended a university in which most of the students contained a description of the trials. By that time he had were business majors. “Being Jewish in a Catholic country, founded the nonprofit Tectonic Theater Project, which gay in an Orthodox Jewish School, an artist in a business would ultimately present the play in its initial run of 16 per- school, and coming to the United States and becoming a formances in the small auditorium of the Greenwich House Latino,” he observed with a grin, “has given me an outsider’s School in the Village. perspective.” Oscar Wilde was, of course, also an outsider - an Irishman aufman said he has been fascinated with the ways in in Victorian England, a passionate social critic of his time, a which theater can create its own reality ever since he husband and father who nonetheless sought the sexual K attended an international theater festival in Caracas at company of men. Still, Wilde, whom Mr. Kaufman calls “the the age of 14. The event featured works by such eminent the- first postmodern,” lived the life of a notable insider until he atrical figures as Jer zy Grot o wski, Tadeusz Kantor, Peter Broo k stumbled into a lawsuit that ultimately destroyed his life. and Pina Bausch. “That was one of my earliest experiences “Gross Indecency” chronicles his precipitous descent from with theater,” he said over cappuccino in an East Village pastry the most celebrated playwright in the English language - who sh o p . Mr. Kaufman, who has a crop of dark hair and intense br own eyes, often gestures broadly to make a point in his nearly impeccable English. “What these four people did is they created a world on the stage. They didn’t pretend to imitate rea l i t y . When I saw my first naturalistic play, I was shocked. I thought: ‘This is like a am always thinking about myself, mo vie or TV show. This is not what theater is supposed to do.’” and I expect everybody else to do I the same. That is what is called The form that “Gross Indecency” ultimately took is, he said, a sympathy. function of months of reading, writing, dreaming and contempla- tion, an unsuccessful attempt to collaborate on the script with the The only way to atone for being playwright and actor David Greenspan, and two readings... occasionally a little overdressed is Mr . Kaufman said he had conceived of the play as “a journey from by being always absolutely over-educated. Wil d e ’s public into his private persona” and had known all along that the third trial would take place inside Wil d e ’s head. After seeing the Whenever people talk to me about reading in the fall, howeve r , he decided that the other two trials should the weather, I always feel certain be dramatized in distinct styles, the first in documentary fashion and that they mean something else. the second as if from the point of view of titillated voyeu r s . Scandal is gossip made tedious “I had two major objectives,” Mr. Kaufman said, “to tell the story, by morality. a story, of Oscar Wilde, and to understand how theater can com- municate history.” I like looking at geniuses, In the production, four of the ensemble’s actors serve as a kind of and listening to beautiful people. chorus, seated in front of the stage on which the trials take place, Simply a vast unnecessary amount making selections from the books, pamphlets and newspapers of water going the wrong way and stacked on a long table in front of them. With the carefully chosen then falling over unnecessary rocks. historical citations, Mr. Kaufman has developed a new kind of (When asked about Niagara Falls) wo rd p l a y , a polyphonic pastiche that re q u i res the actors and members of the audience to almost repeat the process of research, When people agree with me I always feel that I must be wrong. interpretation and evaluation he engaged in to construct the play. In a kind of dramatic parenthesis at the opening of the second act, I dislike arguments of any kind. the director sets up a brief modern-day exchange between an actor They are always vulgar, and playing Mr. Kaufman himself and another representing Michael often convincing. Taylor, the head of the Fales Library at New York University and the editor of a book about Wilde. In this self-conscious satire of the elliptical jargon of the modern academy, the Taylor character states that while Wilde “loved having sex with men,” he may not have been “what we would call gay today.” One aspect of the case that particularly intrigued Mr. Kaufman was the fact that Wilde, who indeed had had sexual relations with the male hustlers, not only elected to stay in England to face criminal charges - unlike many of his gay compatriots who fled to France Men who are trying to do during the three trials - but also chose to baldly lie in court about the something for the world, are always erotic nature of his liaisons. insufferable, when the world has done something for them, While other treatments of Wilde’s life have tended to see him as a they are charming. victim of unjust Victorian morality or the quintessential martyr of gay liberation, Mr. Kaufman said, he has tried to present a more People who count their chickens complex portrait. For example, in Act II, Wilde confesses to a close before they are hatched, act very wisely, because chickens run about friend that he is “not innocent.” so absurdly that it is impossible “You can’t sanctify Wilde,” Mr. Kaufman said. “One moment you to count them accurately. adore him for what he’s saying; the next you’re extremely critical of him for his treatment of these young men. Toward the end of the Whenever I think of my bad play he says: ‘I became the spendthrift of my genius. There’s no qualities at night, I go to faulting what I did, but there’s fault in what I became.’” sleep at once. Mr. Kaufman has received offers for possible productions of his The Public has always, and in every play in Berlin, Scandinavia, Australia and at regional theaters in this age, been badly brought up. They country. He has also been approached by four movie studios about are continually asking art to be creating a film version, although he says that the inherent theatrical- popular, to please their want of taste, to flatter their absurd ity of the piece, especially the role of the audience as a sort of surro- vanity, to tell them what they have gate for the reproachful Victorian spectators at Wilde’s trial, would been told before, to show them make a translation to the screen difficult. what they ought to be tired of seeing, to amuse them when they COPYRIGHT (C) 1997 BY THE NEWYORK TIMES COMPANY. feel heavy after eating too much, and to distract their thoughts REPRINTED BY PERMISSION. when they are wearied of their own stupidity. Now art should never try to be popular. The public should try to make itself artistic.

I am sure you must have a great Besides being the third most regionally produced play of the year, future in literature before you... “Gross Indecency” has blossomed internationally with productions in because you seem to be such a Germany, Austria, Puerto Rico, Scandinavia, Israel, and very bad interviewer. I feel sure that you must write poetry. Greece. There are also contracts pending in France, Mexico, I certainly like the colour Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and Spain. of your necktie very much. Goodbye. - In an Interview DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC. atplay

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AT PLAY: Editor & Design: DOUG GRABOWSKI Page to Stage Design: ALLEN L. HUBBY, TIMOTHY MUTZEL Se l e c t e d Professional Productions, April - June 1999 Contributing Editor: CRAIG POSPISIL Guest Contributor: ROBERT MYERS Washington. (APR.) THE GRAPES OF WRATH adapted by Guest Contributor: ROBERT VAUGHAN HOW I LEARNED TO THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN by Frank Galati; Fulton Opera House, DRIVE by Paula Vogel; Martin McDonagh; American Lancaster. (APR.) ©1999 Dramatists Play Service, Inc. All rights Arena Stage, Repertory Theatre, Cambridge. THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO by res e r v e d . Washington. (APR.) (MAY) Alfred Uhry; Totem Pole Playhouse, PTERODACTYLS by SCOTLAND ROAD by Jeffrey Fayetteville. (JUNE) DRAMATISTS PLAY SERVICE, INC. Nicky Silver; Source Hatcher; New Repertory Theatre, ’S THREE TALL OFFICERS: Theatre Company, Newton Highlands. (MAY) WOMEN; Walnut Street Theatre, STEPHEN SULTAN, President Washington. (MAY) THREE DAYS OF RAIN by Richard Philadelphia. (APR.) 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CRAIGPOSPISIL, Non-Professional Rights DRIVE by Paula Vogel; Adapted from the book by Sarah L. ELEANORE SPEERT, Publications Florida Studio Theatre, and Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill TENNESSEE ALLEN L. HUBBY, Operations Sarasota. (JUNE) Hearth; BoarsHead Theater, Lansing. HAVING OUR SAY by Emily Mann. DAVIDLEVENTHAL, Finance/Office Manager PSYCHOPATHIA (APR.) Adapted from the book by Sarah L. DOUGGRABOWSKI, Communications SEXUALIS by John HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE by Paula and Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Patrick Shanley; Florida Vogel; Performance Network, Ann Hearth; Tennessee Repertory Shakespeare Festival, Arbor. (APR.) Theatre, Nashville. (MAY) Coral Gables. (JUNE) THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO by ARIZONA A QUESTION OF MERCY MINNESOTA Alfred Uhry; Playhouse on the THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO by by David Rabe; Civic Theatre of THE HEIRESS by Ruth and Augustus Square, . (JUNE) Alfred Uhry; Arizona Theatre Central Florida, Orlando. (APR.) Goetz; Park Square Theatre, St. Paul. 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THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO by Our House Productions, Maplewood. lyrics by Barbara Damashek; Theatre Adapted from the book by Sarah L. Alfred Uhry; Theatre of the Stars, (APR.) IV, Richmond. (JUNE) and Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Atlanta. (APR.) THE OLD SETTLER by John Henry VERMONT Hearth; Sacramento Theatre Co. NEW YORK Redwood; Alliance Theatre Co., THE FOREIGNER by Larry Shue; St. (APR.) DEATHTRAP by Ira Levin; Kavinoky Atlanta. (APR.) Michael’s Playhouse, Colchester. HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE by Paula Theatre, Buffalo. (APR.) Vogel; Pacific Repertory, Carmel. (JUNE) ILLINOIS HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE by Paula (APR.) NORTH CAROLINA COLLECTED STORIES by Donald Vogel; St. Michael’s Playhouse, MASTER CLASS by Terrence McNally; HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE by Paula Ensemble Theatre Project, Santa Margulies; Organic Theater, Colchester. (JULY) . (APR.) Vogel; Charlotte Repertory Theatre. Barbara. (APR.) (MAY) THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN by WASHINGTON MASTER CLASS by TerrenceMcNally; STEEL MAGNOLIAS by Robert Harling; Martin McDonagh; Northlight HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE by Paula Pacific Repertory, Carmel. (JUNE) Barn Dinner Theatre, Greensboro. Theatre, Skokie. (APR.) Vogel; Spokane Interplayers. (APR.) OLD WICKED SONGS by Jon Marans; (MAY) Pacific Repertory, Carmel. (MAY) I HATE HAMLET by Paul Rudnick; Buffalo Theatre Ensemble, Glen Ellyn. WISCONSIN QUILLS by ; Magic OHIO (APR.) THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN by Theatre, San Francisco. (MAY) DEALER’S CHOICE by Patrick MIZLANSKY/ZILINSKY OR Martin McDonagh; Madison THREE DAYS OF RAIN by Richard Marber; Contemporary American Greenberg; Old Globe Theatre, San “SCHMUCKS” by Jon Robin Baitz; Repertory Theatre. (APR.) Steppenwolf Theatre Co., Chicago. Theatre Co., Columbus. (APR.) Diego. (JUNE) HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE by Paula (JUNE) CANADA Vogel; Human Race Theatre Co., THE MONOGAMIST by Christopher THE FOREIGNER by Larry Shue; COLORADO Dayton. 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(MAY) OREGON For a selected list of both A QUESTION OF MERCY by David DELAWARE MARYLAND professional and non- MERE MORTALS by David Ives; Round Rabe; Artists Repertory Theatre, professional productions, DANCING AT LUGHNASA by Brian Portland. (APR.) Friel; Delaware Theatre Company, House Theatre, Silver Spring. (JUNE) visit “Page to Stage” online Wilmington. (APR.) NIXON’S NIXON by Russell Lees; at www.dramatists.com. Round House Theatre, Silver Spring. PENNSYLVANIA COLLECTED STORIES by Donald DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA (APR.) A QUESTION OF MERCY by David Margulies; Pennsylvania Stage Co., THE CRIPPLE OF INISHMAAN by Allentown. (JUNE) Martin McDonagh; Studio Theatre, Rabe; Olney Theatre, Olney. (APR.)