MARCH/APRIL 2004
THE WILMA THEATER
Artistic Director
Blanka Zizka
Newsletter Editor
and Dramaturg
Nakissa Etemad
Artistic Director
Jiri Zizka
Contributing Writers
Susannah Engstrom
Nakissa Etemad
Managing Director
Lynn Landis
THE NEWSLETTER OF THE WILMA THEATER
Charles L. Mee’s Wintertime: March 10 – April 18, 2004
A Playwright’s Singular
Vision of Copyright
When one wants to read a Charles
Mee play, there is no need to go to a
bookstore or library or to contact his
agent for a perusal copy of a script.
One need only visit charlesmee.org to
find almost every play he has ever
written. In this day of controversy over
copyright law violation through
downloading original works from the
internet, Mee not only takes the risk of
others appropriating his words but
actually encourages it. He has entitled
the practice: “the (re)making project,”
with the invitation as follows: “Please
feel free to take the texts from this
website and use them as a resource
continued, page 2
Meet the Author
of Wintertime
One of the foremost avant-garde writers
working today, author Charles Mee spoke
with Wilma Dramaturg & Literary
Manager Nakissa Etemad about his work,
his life, and the genesis of Wintertime.
NE: You had written political history for
many years and then returned to writing
for theater. Can you tell me about that
path?
CM: I got out of college in 1960 writing
plays. And had stuff done at La MaMa in
its very earliest days at St. Mark’s Church
in the Bowery, and places like that. And
then I got very caught up in antiVietnam War activities and started
writing stuff about politics. Which led to
stuff about the Cold War, which led to
stuff about American foreign policy, and
I took this immense detour in life. I
stopped writing for the theater altogether
and wrote political history for 20 or 25
years and only got back to writing for
the theater again in the late ‘80s. But
the theater had always been my great
love, really.
NE: Do you think there’s a quality in both
history and theater that connects your
love for them?
Mee’s writing takes inspiration
from collage artists of the 20th
Century. Bottom Photo: Man Ray.
CM: I don’t think of it so much as the
two things appealing to the same
impulse as that I come back to writing
for the theater with a different sense of
things than I think originally I had. That
is, it seems to me that human beings are
formed by history, not just by the
psycho-dynamics of early childhood.
Charles L. Mee
And so the people I put on stage, I hope
in some way, their behavior is explained
a little more broadly than just by
psychology but includes history and
culture and gender and genetics – all of
those things that we really know are
true. So it’s a broader, more open
understanding of what it is to be human,
I hope, and that’s what I think I bring to
[the theater] from having spent all those
years writing history.
NE: How does playwriting compel you in
your life now?
CM: The truth is, when I was a kid, the
first play I ever saw – my mother took
me to see the musical South Pacific. And
there was an actor who had a big sailing
ship tattooed on his stomach – sailing
ship on the water, on waves – and he
continued, page 2
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2
Playwright’s,
cont. from page 1
for your own work: cut them up,
rearrange them, rewrite them, throw
things out, put things in, do
whatever you like with them – and
then, please, put your own name to
the work that results.” (Of course, to
produce his work as written, one
must obtain rights as with any other
playwright’s work.)
This unusual practice of
“(re)making” is due in part to his
philosophy of original writing. Here
is an abridged version of his
introduction from his website that
says it all:
There is no such thing as an
original play.
None of the classical Greek plays
were original: they were all based
on earlier plays or poems or myths.
And none of Shakespeare’s plays are
original: they are all taken from
earlier work. […]
Sometimes playwrights steal stories
and conversations and dreams and
intimate revelations from their friends
and lovers and call this original.
“the culture writes us first,
and then we write our stories.”
And sometimes some of us write
about our own innermost lives,
believing that, then, we have written
something truly original and unique.
But, of course, the culture writes us
first, and then we write our stories.
[…]
And so, whether we mean to or
not, the work we do is both received
and created, both an adaptation and
an original, at the same time. We
remake things as we go. […]
I think of these appropriated texts,
[my plays on this website], as
historical documents – as evidence
of who and how we are and what
we do. And I think of the characters
who speak these texts as characters
like the rest of us: people through
whom the culture speaks, often
without the speakers knowing it.
And I hope those who read the
plays published here will feel free
to treat the texts I’ve made in the
same way I’ve treated the texts
of others.
Meet the Author,
cont. from page 1
could make his belly roll in a way that
made the ship rock on the waves. And I
think that’s when I fell in love with the
theater. And so I grew up to be a more
sort of serious person writing all this
political history, but I think in some way
the seriousness of that world combined
with the ship rocking on the waves is
what I never tire of. And so I get up in
the morning every morning and get a
cup of tea and come to my desk, and
there’s just something I always want to
work on. And it’s this source of endless
pleasure for me. It’s like there’s no
solution to playwriting. I guess maybe
mathematicians get up in the morning
interested in doing another problem,
too, but, to me, the world of the theater
is this infinitely variable set of
fascinating human beings that just I
never tire of.
NE: What was the inspiration for the story
of Wintertime?
CM: Well, several years ago a director
named Ken Watt who had done my
version of Orestes in San Francisco
called and asked if I would write
something for him to do in San
Francisco. And I thought, “Oh, great. I
mean, he loved that twisted, nasty
Orestes, he’d like me to do something
really twisted and horrible. And I don’t
know anybody in San Francisco, I don’t
have any friends there so I can do
something really awful.” And so I set out
to do a really awful, twisted, nasty piece
of work. And out came this kind of
frothy romantic comedy called
Summertime. And I didn’t quite believe
it but I sent it to Ken, and he didn’t
believe it at all. So he tried to surface
deep, dark, awful stuff from the subtext.
And I went out to see this workshop,
and I said to him, “You know, I don’t
think you can do this, I don’t think you
can sort of load King Lear on top of a
frothy comedy without sinking the
whole deal.” And he said, “Yeah, I think
you’re right.” So he turned it upside
down, and he did this nice little
romantic comedy. But I watched it and I
thought, “But I could do that. I could
surface the dark stuff and call it
Wintertime.”
“I love theater that takes me
someplace I’ve never been –
whether that’s to some really
foreign land or just to some other
place in the human heart.”
So I set out with the same people in the
same summer house but in the middle
of winter to do this really dark play. And
out again came this romantic comedy.
So I’ve sort of given up on the dark,
twisted play. But beyond that, I guess
Wintertime is sort of full of my life.…
You know, a lot of times I’ve taken a
classical model, or I’ve taken something
and deconstructed it and appropriated
Notes Toward a Manifesto
Written by Charles L. Mee in 2002
If Aristotle was right
that human beings are social animals
that we create ourselves in our
relationships to others,
and if theatre is the art form that deals
above all others in human relationships,
then theatre is the art form,
par excellence, in which we discover
what it is to be human and what it is
possible for humans to be.
Whatever else it may do,
a play embodies a playwright’s belief
about how it is to be alive today,
and what it is to be a human being –
so that what a play is about,
what people say and how
things look onstage,
continued, page 8
Cover of the First Edition of Mee’s
autobiography, design by Leslie Goldman.
3
open stages
material and stuff. But this play actually
comes completely from my life. Which
is to say, none of the characters is
exactly a character – nobody is me, or a
friend of mine, but sort of scraps and
shards of my life and friends. Or bits of
them coalesce in different ways and
those become new characters. So to
watch it is kind of wonderful for me
because I see my life flashing before my
eyes in this odd, remade way.
NE: How do you think Wintertime falls
into your canon of plays?
CM: I guess, just in those terms,
probably half my plays begin as being
material stolen from somebody else, and
half of them are original – which is to
say, stolen from wives and friends and
family and…. But in another sense, I
think that my earlier plays, many of
them derived from Greek tragedies,
were horrible, nightmarish kinds of
plays. And my work in the past several
years or so has taken a turn into a sort of
happier world – because my life has; I’m
just a happier person. And so there have
been a lot of plays about love, and a lot
of plays that have some kind of
sweetness to them – not because I’m a
sweet person but because I maybe have
encountered sweet people, or longed for
it. But I think Wintertime, in some way,
combines a little bit of both of those
worlds…. I was thinking of Molière a lot
while I was writing it, this kind of
beautiful thing that Molière does of sort
of floating a nice comic world and then
having these dark threads that run
through it, or threads of melancholy or
sorrow or regret or heartbreak or
whatever else it may be. So that it feels
[like] it combines a little bit of light and
dark at the same time.
NE: You developed part of Wintertime at
Sundance Theatre Lab with Les Waters as
the director, who then directed it at La
Jolla Playhouse and then at Long Wharf
Theatre. Did you follow any subsequent
productions?
CM: No. […] But I’m a guy who almost
never goes to rehearsals anyway.
(NE: Do you not enjoy it, or...?) No, no, I
actually love it. But I feel that the
director and the actors should be as free
to do their thing as I was to do mine.
And I feel that when a playwright is in
the room, everybody thinks the
Watercolor by Ted Kautsky.
definitive version of this play exists in
his head, and if we can just find out
what that is and replicate it exactly on
stage, we’ll have done the right thing.
But I don’t think there is such a thing as
a definitive version of anything. And so I
think if the actors feel a little freer to just
explore and find out for themselves who
these people are, they have a great deal
more vitality and spontaneity, and they
become who they are going to best
become in that play. So I think getting
out of the way is really crucial. I think
I’m the only playwright who believes
that, but I really believe that by staying
out of rehearsals I get better
productions. […] It occurred to me
some years ago that the playwrights who
got the best productions were the dead
playwrights, and maybe that was
because they didn’t go to rehearsal.
NE: Our audiences saw Big Love last
season. Big Love is your response to a
classic, whereas Wintertime is an original
piece. In your opinion, how is Wintertime
different or similar to Big Love?
CM: Well, I think it’s a very different
play. I mean the same person wrote it,
so it’s the same person concerned with
the issues of how people get along and
whether they’re kind or cruel or selfish
or generous or any of those things.
I guess I think, in a way, Big Love was
really all about young people dealing
with relationships – for the most part
anyway. And Wintertime feels to me
more like all the generations. So there’s
this young love that sets it off, but then
it’s not just a question of whether two
young people are going to find true
love, it’s a question of whether a
marriage of some years can be
sustained, or if not, different sorts of
relationships between grown-ups can
work.... So I guess that’s the main thing.
NE: Having seen our production of Big
Love, is there something you’re curious
about or expecting with our production
of Wintertime?
CM: Well, I don’t know what to expect.
I thought the production of Big Love was
really wonderful. And I think Jiri is
amazing and brilliant. And so I’m just
excited to see whatever he does.
NE: What do you personally love most
about the theater?
CM: I love theater that is terrific fun and
very challenging both to the heart and
the mind, that’s completely involving,
and that takes me someplace I’ve never
been – whether that’s to some really
foreign land or just to some other place
in the human heart.
4
Designing Mee:
Meet the
Designers
of Wintertime
Wilma Dramaturg & Literary Manager
Nakissa Etemad had the delightful
opportunity to talk to those creators
who live behind the scenes and work
their magic in images rather than
words, the designers whom we rarely
get to hear from, as their products
speak for themselves. The design team
for Wintertime happens to be the
same team that designed last season’s
Big Love, also by Charles L. Mee and
directed by Jiri Zizka. Set Designer
Jerry Rojo, Costume Designer Janus
Stefanowicz, Lighting Designer Jerry
Forsyth and Sound Designer Bill
Moriarty discuss the design process
and share their impressions of Charles
Mee and his work.
Setting a World of Ideas
NE: Talk to me about the work of
Charles Mee.
Jerry Rojo: It is to me the best kind of
theater, what the stage is all about.
Wintertime has much more traditional
dialogue, and the scenes are about
people who talk and express themselves,
and I think it’s more Chekhovian in that
way, or Pinteresque. My first impulse
after having read Wintertime for the first
time was the birch trees. They have this
lyrical and romantic quality to them,
and if it’s a birch tree forest, then it can
be dangerous at the same time. And
because the play is [taking place in] the
winter, it can have a number of urges to
it that one can play on or off of as the
play proceeds.
NE: How is it different for you to design a
Charles Mee play versus another more
traditional playwright’s work?
Initial Concept Sketch of Wintertime Set Design by Jerry Rojo. Insert: Rojo’s Scale Model
of the Set.
open stages
JR: It’s much more of a process
between the director and the designer.
Jiri and I have been working on this
since September, and it still isn’t over.
Things are still evolving, and we’re still
looking at some questions. It never
ends because you think you’ve solved
this problem – then we do something
else, and that impinges on [our first
solution] and we have to make
changes… So it takes a long time.
Whereas in a traditional play, it’s all
pretty much spelled out. A lot of
directors I’ve worked with see theater
as words for actors and hope that the
designer does a nice background, and
that’s about the end of it! The Wilma
tends to do so much with lights and
sound and scenery and all of that…
that’s how they perceive the theater.
And that to me is the best kind of
theater.
NE: After having designed over a dozen
shows at the Wilma, both you and the
theater seem to have found a good fit.
Does a philosophical writer like Charles
Mee inspire you in a certain way?
5
JR: Yeah, he does, because I think he’s a
writer who has a certain theory of art:
that there can be no art without ideas…
Now I don’t believe that plays should
be didactic…Mee is probably less
message-oriented than say Brecht, for
example, but boy, for me, Wintertime
screams out a message! In one of the
first lines of Wintertime, Francois says
something about America, that people
misunderstand each other, that no
place else do they do that. So early on
in the play, Mee I think is telling us this
is about America – it’s not about
[certain] people, this is how America
does things.… I think it’s how we have
a double standard on sexuality, for
example, and that’s why Francois, the
Frenchman, and Jacqueline, and these
exotic characters are in there because it
pits them against our American
sensibility, where we have happy
endings and romantic young women
and lovers and all that stuff. […]
He also talks about us as a mercantile,
industrious people…and we get too
involved in so many other things, we
don’t think about ourselves, we don’t
think about each other. So I do believe
that’s the main theme in the play, how
people relate. It’s one of the best
relationship plays I’ve ever read. It’s all
very true, very real but done in a very
entertaining way. And he kind of forces
us to look at ourselves. Charles Mee is
one of my favorite playwrights. Nobody
brings stagecraft and idea in such
clarity the way he does.
NE: How was the Big Love experience
for you?
JR: It was phenomenal. It was very
process-oriented and it meant a lot of
meetings. In the process you can’t just
e-mail, you have to sit down and talk
and bring stuff to the table – literally,
look over pictures and this kind of
thing. And that’s how that came
together. And I thought that production
was about as good as you can get it.
In the last analysis, it was a very joyous
experience when I look back on it.
Clothing Individuality
open stages
JS: Exactly. I would say it’s one of my
favorite things about working at the
Wilma, being able to work with the
same people over again.
NE: How was the Big Love experience?
Carmen Roman and Danielle Langlois in last season’s
Big Love.
NE: When you’re focusing on clothes,
how do the words of the play influence
you?
JS: Oh, it was terrific. And I got a big
prize for it, [the 2003 Barrymore Award
for Outstanding Costume Design].
I mean it doesn’t get any better. I have
to say though, one thing I think that is
particularly inspiring about Charles
Mee’s writing [is that it offers
something] that not all writing does: the
non-realistic setting that inspires the
sculptural ideas that Jerry Rojo creates.
I think that’s really exciting to me, to be
in that kind of environment. That our
world starts with something that is so
creative, that isn’t just three boxy walls.
If you do more realistic plays, they have
to have more realistic sets. And I just
think of that Big Love set…and then I’m
sure this one will just be wonderful
pieces of art. And then it’s great to be
able to have your design on top of it,
and lit by a good lighting designer.
continued, page 6
Janus Stefanowicz: Basically I need to
have the costumes imply character. It’s
hard to have a costume imply a word.
But we can have it imply a kind of
character, without being stereotypical
but yet being familiar, for us to
recognize that type of person. If you see
someone, a young girl in a miniskirt, as
opposed to a young girl in all black
clothes, you get a different view of two
different kinds of characters. But of
course, we get who the character is
from the written word. And Mee’s
characters are very much individual
characters.
NE: What is it like to design with the
exact same team from Big Love?
JS: Oh, it’s terrific. I just think that
communication is the basis of any good
design, and the more you work with the
same people, the more you understand
what everyone means by a certain word
or a certain phrase and what the need
is. And it only becomes a tighter unit
when you work together multiple times.
NE: Is that something that makes you
enjoy working at the Wilma so much?
Paolo Andino and Danielle Langlois in Big Love.
open stages
6
Danielle Skraastad, Amy Gorbey, Carmen Roman, and Danielle Langlois in Big Love.
Designing Mee,
cont. from page 5
Shedding Light on Surreality
NE: How is it different designing a
Charles Mee play versus a more
traditional playwright’s work?
Jerry Forsyth: A Charles Mee play tends
to have a secondary layer. There’s a
basically realistic portion and then
there’s usually an out-of-reality or a
heightened-reality moment that
interjects. So, for me, one of the first
things with a Charles Mee play is trying
to identify those non-realistic sections,
and determining what he’s trying to say
with them and how to treat them in a
way that points them out without calling
attention to the technical aspects.
NE: What does it feel like doing another
Charles Mee play here with the same
design team?
JF: We didn’t have to start from ground
zero. We have developed a way of
working and sort of a visual vocabulary
that I thought would be particularly
useful. However, this is such a different
animal – it is still a Chuck Mee play and
has many of his characteristics, but its
world view is a little different. Big Love
seemed to be dealing with larger issues
almost the whole time. There were some
realistic sections but it really did seem
to be a state-of-the-world comment
throughout a majority of the play.
Whereas Wintertime has flashes of that
but is predominantly reality-based, or a
drawing room comedy with moments of
Charles Mee peeking through. So I think
it’s useful having the same design team
dealing with a second work by the same
playwright.
NE: How was the Big Love experience for
you?
JF: Different but good. Everyone likes to
toot the collaborative horn, but I usually
like going into a show knowing at least
what my world is for the play and how
I’m treating it. And Big Love was such a
wild card that more than usual I needed
to go into it with a paint box of tools to
choose from to alter the space. And
then a lot of decisions were reached in
technical rehearsals, generally between
Jiri, Jerry Rojo, and myself. So that was
initially worrisome and in the end a
very pleasant experience.
NE: What brings you back again and
again to the Wilma, and to working with
Jiri?
JF: Well, to a great extent that is the
answer, working with Jiri. The Wilma
has the resources to challenge a
designer. […] At the Wilma, it is more
about what you want to see as opposed
to what you have the ability to put on
stage. And, talking about working with
the same design team again, having 17
years now with Jiri, you learn how the
other collaborator works, and it
sometimes makes it more interesting.
You have a sense of the way a director
likes to work.
Reinforcing Mood with Sound
NE: How is it different to design sound
for a Charles Mee play versus another
more traditional playwright’s work?
Bill Moriarty: I’ve found there’s not a lot
of realistic sound effects, of realistic
reinforcement of mood. He calls for a
lot of specific music and specific
recordings of traditional classic work.
And as opposed to some sort of music
subtly coming in and reinforcing the
background, there’ll be a moment in the
play where there’s a shift in emotion,
and we just accent that emotion by
turning the music up incredibly loud –
or as [Mee] calls for, “deafeningly loud.”
It’s not a subtle thing, it’s the human
emotion that’s changing, and everything
about the play’s going to change.
NE: Is there any liberty? Do you add
other sound effects?
BM: Absolutely, yeah. This particular
play Wintertime is much more about
mood than actions. The last play we did,
Big Love, had some huge things
happening with the helicopters and
people coming in from different places
and then the murder scene. This is more
just really showing and changing the
human emotions.
NE: Does the fact that Mee is a
philosophical writer inspire your design in
a certain way?
open stages
7
BM: It’s completely human. I find this
playwright to be talking about people
and the way people feel, the strange
things that people do and are driven by.
I come from that place with the music
or tones to try and show the different
sides of what a human can do.
Words from
the Actors of
Wintertime
Considering Charles Mee’s terrifically
theatrical style, his poetic language and
no holds barred physicality, one might
wonder – what must it be like to act in
a play by such a writer? And what might
draw an actor to this kind of theater?
To answer these questions, Literary
Assistant Susannah Engstrom spoke with
the Wintertime actors a few weeks
before the first rehearsal. While some
actors had worked on a Charles Mee
play before (three were in the Wilma’s
production of Big Love) and some
actors’ sole exposure to the writer was
reading Wintertime, all had something
to say about the delights and challenges
of bringing Mee’s work to life.
What draws you to Charles Mee’s work?
I think there’s something visceral,
insane, delightful, bizarre about Chuck’s
plays…. I threw saw blades last year in
Big Love and obviously that’s not
something you’re going to do
[regularly], but that scene was
completely a logical extension of the
frustration that was happening for the
men in that play.… I think [Mee
explores] things in a totally unexpected
way. I think he creates insane moments
but they still capture the way people
either behave or want to behave.
possible in terms of love and lust and
desire and trust.
• ELIZABETH HESS (MARIA)
I really like his writing. It’s very
poetic and very touching and at the
same time it’s really funny. It’s amazing
how he can do both at the same time. I
also like [Wintertime] because there’s a
lot of action and conflict and a lot of
hijinks, and it seems like it’s going to be
a fun thing to work on.
• PRUDENCE HOLMES (BERTHA)
[Mee] is not afraid to go beyond the
bounds of conventional theatricality. A
lot of theater you see today would do
just as well on television, and it’s really
nice to see something that wouldn’t
work on TV.
• SETH REICHGOTT (EDMUND)
Chuck Mee’s work seems to literally
pull me straight from the heart. The
passion it emotes balanced by a very
strong earnest base really attracts me to
return again and again. Excitement lies
in the privilege of putting life into an
already lively play. And everything’s so
huge! And that’s the way human
emotions feel – huge! But we subdue
those huge feelings in everyday
situations and act according to our
subdued environments.
• JULIANNA ZINKEL (ARIEL)
• MICHAEL EWING (JONATHAN)
I think [Mee] knows an awful lot
about all the permutations of love. He
seems very savvy to me about love.
Maria, I feel, is caught between
domesticity and deliciousness, and I
think that’s a common plight for an
awful lot of people, and I find it
completely compelling… I really feel
like [Mee] has a deep experiential
understanding of the layers of what’s
Ice Sculpture as the centerpiece for a wedding.
He has a way of bringing forth many,
many, many societal taboos – such as
adultery, a mother’s sexual attraction for
her son, homosexuality, you name it,
things that are considered on the fringe
and/or not acceptable in this society –
and presenting them in such a way that
there’s enormous respect given to each
of those lifestyles, or points of view, or
sexual orientations.…
• DALE SOULES (HILDA)
I like that he’s always searching for a
bridge between lovers.… He takes these
extreme, hidden-away lovers that
nobody sees and nobody knows, and he
makes them exist and try to find love.
And their grand attempt at it makes our
struggle seem more clear.
• DANIELLE SKRAASTAD (JACQUELINE)
continued, page 8
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8
Words,
cont. from page 7
Prior to reading Wintertime online in
preparation for auditioning, I had never
seen or read a Chuck Mee play. I
realized in no time at all that he’s a
major dramatist. For me, with his
concise poetic language and confident
use of illustrative symbols and symbolic
actions, he creates a stark, very singular
world where some very human
creatures come to terms (or don’t!) with
their various struggles.
• JOHN WOJDA (FRANCOIS)
truth in all of that. And I suppose you
could also say the other way around –
to not get buried by the truth.… So both
to be able to dig down and be able to
come back up again.
• ELIZABETH HESS (MARIA)
Perhaps it’s the creation of this
‘special world’ of Mee’s that allows the
characters in Wintertime to be so
believable on the page. The challenge
for the actors, then, is to make the
characters as believable in the playing
as they are on the page – no mean feat!
• JOHN WOJDA (FRANCOIS)
What are the challenges you face as an
actor preparing for a Chuck Mee play?
I think one of the big challenges is to
find the tone of the piece without losing
the truth. When I first read the play I
thought, this guy has as much insight in
his own way into love as someone like
Ingmar Bergman does in his way, and it
would be such a shame not to find the
Notes Toward a Manifesto,
What about the physicality of Mee’s
work?
We tear our hair out over the
complexities of love, but there’s also
something so wonderful about [Mee’s]
levity. That physicality is just a great
way to keep it in perspective.
I think smashing things is such a
human inclination.
• MICHAEL EWING (JONATHAN)
I’m a big fan of physical comedy, so
any time you can bring that to a show I
think not only do the actors enjoy it but
I think the audience does, too.
• GREG WOOD (FRANK)
I love the physicality of Chuck Mee’s
work. It makes me feel very
comfortable…. I am a very kinetic
person by nature and emotion affects
me physically, so I think I understand
what Chuck Mee is getting at by the
physical scenes; it’s when words just
don’t or can’t do, it’s when stuff just
comes out through your body, and you
gotta throw it down, or squeeze it tight,
or shove it into the next tree.
• JULIANNA ZINKEL (ARIEL)
• ELIZABETH HESS (MARIA)
cont. from page 2
and, even more deeply than that, how a play is structured,
contain a vision of what it is to have a life on earth.
If things happen suddenly and inexplicably,
it’s because a playwright believes that’s how life is.
If things unfold gradually and logically,
that’s an idea about how the world works. […]
When I had polio as a boy, my life changed in an instant
and forever. My life was not shaped by Freudian psychology;
it was shaped by a virus. And it was no longer well made.
It seemed far more complex a project than any of the plays I was seeing.
And so, in my own work, I’ve stepped somewhat outside
the traditions of American theatre in which I grew up
to find a kind of dramaturgy that feels like my life. […]
In 1906/07, Picasso stumbled upon cubism as a possible form.
Immediately, he made three pencil sketches
of a man, of a newspaper and a couple of other items on a table, and of
Sacre Coeur – that is, of the three classic subjects of art:
portraiture, still life, and landscape.
And he proved, to his satisfaction, therefore,
that cubism “worked.”
My ambition is to do the same for a new form of theatre,
composed of music and movement as well as text
like the theatre of the Greeks […]
– Excerpts, from “Mee on Mee,” The Drama Review 46, 3.
Paolo Andino and Danielle Langlois have their first
dance in last season’s Big Love.