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Issue 13, Fall/Winter 2008

New Year’s Day, 2003

Four and a half years ago,my daughter Carrie called me

from her home in Colorado.She was a writer, actress andmusician, who made a livingdoing all three.

“Mom?”

“Hey, Punkin’.”

“This has been on mymind for some time andI want to pitch it to you.”

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by Carol Burnett

Hollywood Armsto Broadway

From the

Donald Margulies’ Brooklyn BoyDoug Wright on Grey Gardens

An Interview with Keith Bunin

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ALL THAT I WILL EVER BE by Alan BallA privileged California native and anenigmatic immigrant from the MiddleEast search for a sense of belongingin this darkly funny tale of culturalprovocation.

ALL THE RAGE by Keith ReddinThis modern-day Jacobean RevengeTragedy presents a picture of a worldspinning out of control, as ten intercon-nected characters collide, and each ofthem has a gun and is ready to use it.

ART OF MURDER by Joe DiPietroAt a remote Connecticut estate, Jack, anaccomplished painter, awaits the arrivalof his art dealer. Jack is intending to killthe man, and Jack’s wife may or may notgo along with the plan.

BACK OF THE THROATby Yussef El GuindiAn Arab-American writer finds himselfaccused of possible ties to terrorists. Asan interrogation proceeds, governmentofficials reveal their evidence, but is itevidence or have innocent events beendistorted?

BEAUTY OF THE FATHER by Nilo CruzIn this play by Pulitzer Prize–winner NiloCruz an American girl who travels toSpain to meet her estranged fatherbecomes romantically involved with hisMoroccan companion.

BFF (“Best Friends Forever”)by Anna ZieglerTeenagers Lauren and Eliza are “bestfriends forever,” but soon sex and crueltyintrude on their idyll, as their relationshipexperiences the inevitable trials ofyoung-adulthood.

BHUTAN by Daisy FooteAfter the death of her father, Franceswonders how she ended up with such afamily. Her mother is driving her crazy.Her brother is in prison. She dreams ofthe Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan butcan barely find the kitchen door.

BOURBON AT THE BORDERby Pearl Cleage The story of a black couple who wentSouth to register voters during FreedomSummer, only to find that, even decadeslater, the price of freedom is never paidin full.

BLACKBIRD by David HarrowerRay and Una, who once had an illicitaffair, meet again fifteen years later.Guilt, rage and raw emotions run high asthe two recollect their relationship whenshe was twelve and he was forty.

BLUE DOOR by Tanya Barfield A disorienting insomnia inadvertentlyconjures Lewis’ ancestors as three gen-erations of men (all played by one actor)challenge Lewis to embark on a nightjourney of self-discovery.

A BODY OF WATER by Lee BlessingA middle-aged couple wakes up onemorning in an isolated summer housenear a picturesque body of water.There’s only one problem — neither ofthem can remember whom they are.

“I think we could take the first part of your memoir and make a play out of it. Just for thefun of it. You and me … together. How about it?” And we began to collaborate … longdistance. She would write in her mountain cabin, and I would write in my Los Angelesapartment. The faxes flew. Nanny, Mama and Daddy were all coming to life in a differentform. “Just for the fun of it,” she had said … and it was certainly that, but there was much

more that was going on. Carrie and I hadalways been close, able to read each other’smoods and thoughts … and yet, this exer-cise was bonding us deeper, bringing useven closer than either one of us could haveever imagined. She was getting to know herfamily in the most profound way …putting words into their mouths thatechoed in my deepest memories. It was alittle eerie. She had never known them inlife, but now she knew them by writingthem … not writing “about” them, but bywriting them.

In 1998, we sent a rough draft to thehead of the Sundance Theater Lab work-shop, Philip Himberg. Ours was acceptedalong with eight other projects that sum-mer. Delighted, we packed our bags and

headed for the mountains in Utah. Sundance provided us with wonderful actors and high-ly experienced dramaturgs for an intense eight days. We would sit around a table in a brightsunny rehearsal hall and read the play aloud. Suggestions would fly from everyone, andthen we’d retire to our lodgings and head for our laptops, to write new scenes and dialogue.One problem was that the work we had done was more like a screenplay, and we neededto address the very real aspects of scenery and costume changes.

Carrie and I continued to work in the same manner: apart. She would take one scene,and I would take another. The next morning, we’d hand out the new stuff and begin allover again. We were thrilled that no one could tell who wrote what. We had the same voice.And mother and daughter were having a ball.

The following spring, we did another workshop with Sundance helping … this time inNew York. Although it still had a “cinematic feel,” a stage play was beginning to take shape.

Late in 1999, there was interest from a producer, who gave us the names of two (fairlynew and highly respected) Broadway directors. Carrie and I didn’t have a clue about whichone to pursue so I called my friend Hal Prince, for advice. Hal (The “Prince” of Broadway)knew both directors, thought they were great, and offered to read it so he could give us arecommendation. He read it and offered to direct it himself. Hal Prince! The director ofPhantom of the Opera, Evita, Cabaret, Sweeney Todd, Follies, Company, and countless others… the winner of twenty Tony Awards … wants to work with us? Carrie and I were overthe moon.

Off and on over the next couple of years he helped us turn it into a real stage play. Ourfirst “assignment” was to put all the action in room 102 and the rooftop. This was quite anundertaking, as we had scenes taking place in several different settings. Hal said,“Confinement is your friend.” We tackled his notes and suggestions with a vengeance. Carriewas still in Colorado, I was still in L.A., and Hal was in New York. Once again, the faxes flew.We found out that the building had been called Hollywood Arms when it was first built inthe twenties. There was our title. (I wish I had known that when I wrote the memoir!)

Hal sent the play to Robert Falls, the Artistic Director of The Goodman Theater inChicago, and we were offered a limited run beginning in April of 2002. We were besideourselves. An honest-to-God production!

In the spring of 2001, Hal and his scenic designer Walt Spangler were in Los Angeleswith another show and wanted to see 102. We arranged a visit through the landlady. HereI was back again. We entered the room and it was squalid. It was empty, ugly and depress-ing. We spotted a used hypodermic needle on the threadbare faded blue carpet. Walt took

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Carol and Carrie triumphant.

(Continued on page 4)

From the Hollywood Arms toBroadway (Continued from cover)

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Brooklyn in the fifties occupies a unique place in the popular imagination. We glimpseit in old black-and-white photographs and snatches of old film, a teeming, ethnically

diverse, working-class and gloriously vibrant city within a city. Trolley cars, parades onFlatbush Avenue, sledding in Prospect Park, Ebbets Field and the Dodgers, these images ofits heyday inform our sense of Brooklyn as a kind of post-WWII utopia, the urban ideal ofhome. For Eric Weiss, however, the Brooklynboy of Donald Margulies’ brilliant and emotion-ally complex Broadway play, the Brooklyn of ourcollective dreams had already ceased to exist bythe time of his adolescence. By the sixties,Brooklyn had been drained of much of its vital-ity and, for Eric, had come to represent a provin-cial stasis from which he longed to escape.Columbia University became the portal throughwhich he passed on his journey to the literaryfigure he willed himself to become. And it is atthis point, when Eric’s third novel has reachedthe bestseller list, that the play picks up his story.

It is one of Margulies’ many deft touches ofirony in the play that Eric’s successful novel,entitled Brooklyn Boy, appropriates his childhoodfor its subject. The very identity that Eric hassought to reject provides the means for his suc-cess. And so with his novel now a bestseller, thestage is literally set for Eric’s return to Brooklyn. It is a homecoming that should prove tri-umphant, except that his father is gravely ill; his marriage is falling apart; and, as he soonlearns, those he left behind are bitter about being left behind. And why wouldn’t they be?Implicit in Eric’s rejection of his former identity is also a rejection of his father, his oldfriends, his culture, Brooklyn itself, even his wife. His success, however unintentionally, hasleft a trail of collateral damage.

In Margulies’ hands, however, success is not a straightforward matter. One of the morenuanced aspects of the play is that Eric’s successes and failures are neither unadulterated suc-cesses nor failures for him but are rather more ambiguous. His bestseller is down on the list,number eleven to be exact. His film adaptation has spiraled out of his control. He cannotenjoy the sexual attentions of a literary groupie. While, on the flip side, his father’s hostilitytoward him is tempered by something unspoken. And his wife, perhaps unfairly, blameshim for her lack of commercial success as a writer. From one angle, Brooklyn Boy providesan object lesson in the consequences of ambition. Success, we discover, is a mixed blessing.

Even so, it may be that there is nothing more American than reinventing yourself inthe service of ambition. It is one facet of that elusive gem of an idea, the American Dream.An invented identity, however, is a fragile construct, one that is likely to crack under sus-tained pressure. The envy and bitterness that Eric’s success engenders in those around himbegin to apply that pressure, so much so that Eric comes to feel himself besieged, at firstobliquely as his father expresses dissatisfaction with the book’s dedication: “For my motherand my father.” “Don’t we get our names?” his father asks, “Couldn’t you say: ‘For Phyllisand Manny Weiss’?” And later the attacks become more overt, as when he runs into hischildhood friend Ira. “People outgrow each other,” Eric says when Ira asks about the dis-tance between them. “I didn’t outgrow you,” Ira responds. “How come I didn’t outgrowyou?” From his father, from this encounter, indeed from all that Brooklyn represents, Ericdesires nothing more acutely than escape.

But when Eric’s father dies, without a real reconciliation between the two men, Ericrealizes that an accommodation must be made with his past, that his sense of self can belarge enough to incorporate both the man he has willed himself to become and the boy hewas that his father and his friends surely loved. One suspects that in his bestselling novelEric had already reached this conclusion. It remained for Eric to reach it for himself. AndMargulies, with consummate skill, guides Eric and us along this bittersweet journey, leav-ing us the richer and the wiser for it. ■

CHEMICAL IMBALANCE: A JEKYLLAND HYDE PLAY by Lauren WilsonA fast-paced and darkly comic adaptationof Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic story.

CHRISTMAS BELLES by JessieJones, Nicholas Hope, Jamie WootenFrom the authors of the wildly popularDearly Beloved and Dearly Departed. Achurch Christmas program spins hilari-ously out of control in this Southernfarce about squabbling sisters, familysecrets, a surly Santa, a vengeful sheepand a reluctant Elvis impersonator.

DARK MATTERSby Roberto Aguirre-SacasaWhen Bridget Cleary goes missing, inthe dead of night, her husband and sonscramble to find her. Then, as suddenlyas she vanished, Bridget reappears,talking about strange visitations andotherworldly beings.

DEDICATION OR THE STUFF OFDREAMS by Terrence McNally Love of the theatre infuses every aspectof this tale of passionate producers long-ing for a grand new home for their chil-dren’s theatre in upstate New York.

DEFIANCE by John Patrick ShanleyTwo U.S. Marines, one black and onewhite, are on a collision course overrace, women and the high cost of doingthe right thing

THE DINOSAUR MUSICAL music byRob Reale, book and lyrics by WillieRealePrehistory is rewritten in this rollickingmusical about a mother and daughterpair of dinosaurs, down on their luck, untilthey come upon the Paradise Hotel — asafe haven for vegetarian dinosaurs look-ing to escape meat-eaters.

DOUBT, A PARABLEby John Patrick ShanleyWinner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize andTony Award. Sister Aloysius, a Bronxschool principal, takes matters into herown hands when she suspects theyoung Father Flynn of improper rela-tions with one of the male students.

DUMB SHOW by Joe PenhallTV-star Barry believes he is to get thefive-star treatment that he deserves.However, a tense game of power andmanipulation ensues when two bankerspry into his offstage life.

DURANGO by Julia Cho To the outside world, the Lee boys lookperfect. But when their widowed fatherdecides to take them on a road trip toColorado, the carefully constructedfacades of all three begin to crack.

DYING CITY by Christopher ShinnA year after her husband’s death in Iraq,Kelly, a young therapist, confronts hisidentical twin brother, who shows up ather apartment unannounced.

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Photo by Henry DiRocco/SCR

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ELLIOT, A SOLDIER’S FUGUEby Quiara Alegría HudesWhile on leave from the war in Iraq,Elliot learns the stories of his father andgrandfather who served in Korea andVietnam before him. Will he go back towar a second time?

FLAG DAY by Lee BlessingTwo short plays, “Good Clean Fun” and“Down and Dirty,” examine white/blackrelations in our society with an unblink-ing eye.

A FLEA IN HER EAR a new version ofGeorges Feydeau’s farce by David IvesWinner of a 2006 Jefferson Award forBest Adaptation. The greatest of Frenchfarces, and perhaps the greatest farceever written, in a new adaptation by theinimitable David Ives.

THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OFHEDDA GABLER by Jeff WhittyWhat is one of drama’s most famoussuicides to do? Beginning just asIbsen’s classic ends, this story findsHedda mired in an alternative hell: aplace where death is only possiblewhen a fictional character is forgottenby the real-life public.

GREY GARDENS book by DougWright, music by Scott Frankel, lyricsby Michael Korie The Tony Award–nominated, hilariousand heartbreaking story of Big Edie andLittle Edie Bouvier Beale, the eccentricaunt and cousin of Jacqueline KennedyOnassis, once bright names on thesocial register who became notoriousrecluses.

GUARDIANS by Peter MorrisA tour de force in two monologues forone male and one female actor, thisunflinching look at the war in Iraq min-gles fierce irony with human warmth.

GULF VIEW DRIVE by Arlene HuttonThe third play in Hutton’s Nibroc Trilogytakes May and Raleigh from Kentuckyduring WWII to 1950s Florida. The cou-ple’s dream house shrinks as relativesdescend, and they learn to make uncon-ventional decisions in a changing world.

ICE GLEN by Joan Ackermann In this touching period comedy, a beauti-ful poetess dwells in idyllic obscurity on aBerkshire estate with a band of unlikelycohorts.

KLONSKY AND SCHWARTZby Romulus LinneyThe turbulent relationship between strug-gling writer Milton Klonsky and his men-tor, the brilliant poet Delmore Schwartz,is the basis of this engrossing drama.

THE LADY WITH ALL THE ANSWERSby David RamboLate on a 1975 night in Ann Landers’Chicago apartment, an ironic twist ofevents confronts her with a loomingdeadline for a column dealing with anew kind of heartbreak: her own.

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NEWPLAYSpictures of the tiny area, as he was about to start designing the scenery for the Goodmanproduction. He called from New York ten days later and asked if he could get a couple ofmore shots as some of his didn’t come out too well.

I went back to Yucca and Wilcox, and found the door to 102 wide open. There wereworkmen sanding the old wooden floor. Scraps of the faded carpet were piled in a corner.The Spanish landlady was there.

“What’s happening here?”“A new owner. He’s fixing up the place.”A young man had bought the building and had plans to restore it to what it was in

the 1920s … and he was starting with 102!What was it I was feeling? Happiness: At least it wasn’t going to be torn down.

Frustration: I was supposed to be the one to fix it up … to redo the past … So I rented it. Imoved in some old furniture I had in storage: A small couch, a couple of chairs and a desk.

Carrie gave me some sage to burn in the four corners of the room, “to exorcise anybad spirits that had lived there.” We even had a small champagne celebration when themovers left.

Why did I rent it? I didn’t know. I just knew I had to do it. I thought that if I took mylaptop there every so often, some ideas or feelings might crop up that I could write about …maybe Nanny might talk to me … reveal some of her long-buried secrets … I might hear Mamasing something … Daddy could show up at the door wanting to take me for a soda on theboulevard, so we could bond some more. They were good intentions that never panned out.

Carrie got sick.She was diagnosed with lung cancer in the summer of 2001. Determined to lick it, she

moved back to Los Angeles, where she would drive herself to her chemotherapy and radi-ation treatments the first few months. She was in and out of the hospital, rallying on occa-sion, and getting sprung to go home. I remember the final time she was readmitted toCedars-Sinai, in the late fall. I entered her room. It was around five in the morning, andshe was stirring. I looked down at her, and she opened her eyes and smiled at me. I feeblyjoked, “So you wanted to come back here to the hospital again, huh?”

“I missed the food.” We both howled.She died January 20, 2002.I knew I had to continue with Hal. I had to complete what she had begun.Flying to Chicago that April to begin rehearsals, I closed my eyes and thought,

“Carrie, let me know you’re with me. Give me some ‘signs.’ I need you to get me throughthese next few weeks. I need your strength.” I checked into the hotel room, and waitingfor me was a huge bouquet: “Welcome to Chicago. See you tomorrow! Love, Hal.” It wasa beautiful array of Birds of Paradise. I nearly fell over. Hal had no idea that was Carrie’sfavorite flower … she even had a tattoo of one on her shoulder. The next night, Hal and Iwent out to dinner. The maitre d’ offered us a complimentary bottle of champagne. Heshowed us the special label: “Louise.” That was Carrie’s middle name and Mama’s firstname. I had what I needed to keep me going.

Hollywood Arms opened on Broadway October 31, 2002. Hal had provided a beauti-ful production with a perfect cast.

My baby and I went the distance. ■

Keep abreast of professional

productions of DPS plays in your area.

The Page to Stage link on our web site

at www.dramatists.com provides a

current list of upcoming productions

conveniently organized by title or state.

Check out Page to Stage ➥➥

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LEVITTOWN by Marc PalmieriAmidst the thin walls of their Levittownhome, the members of a beleagueredfamily are forced to confront the self-destructive nature that has plagued themfor generations and the failure of faiths towhich they have desperately clung.

THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHEDby Douglas Carter BeaneMitchell is a budding screen idol whocould hit big if it weren’t for one teensy-weensy problem. His agent, the devilishDiane, can’t seem to keep him in thecloset and away from the cute rent boywho’s caught his eye.

LOVE-LIES-BLEEDING by Don DeLillo A free-spirited artist is left invalid after asecond stroke. His estranged son, wifeand ex-wife struggle over the ultimatequestion: How do they let him die withdignity?

LOVERS’ QUARRELS by RichardWilburIn Molière’s second full-length comedyin verse, a young woman has wornmasculine disguise since childhood forthe sake of an inheritance.

MARIE ANTOINETTE: THE COLOROF FLESH by Joel Gross Elisabeth Vigée le Brun, a beautiful,social-climbing portrait painter, uses heraffair with Count Alexis de Ligne, a left-leaning philanderer, to get a commis-sion to paint the naive young QueenMarie Antoinette.

MEASURE FOR PLEASUREby David GrimmRestoration comedy meets modern sexfarce in this romantic adventure, explor-ing the elusive nature of happiness andfeaturing mistaken identities, duels anddouble-dealings.

THE MISTAKES MADELINE MADEby Elizabeth MeriwetherStruggling with a soul-crushing job as apersonal assistant, Madeline developsAblutophobia, the fear of bathing, andwages a furious, funny war against allthings complacent, pampered and clean.

MY NAME IS RACHEL CORRIE takenfrom the writings of Rachel Corrie,edited by Alan Rickman andKatharine VinerIn 2003 Rachel Corrie was crushed todeath by an Israeli Army bulldozer inGaza as she was trying to prevent thedemolition of a Palestinian home. Thisone-woman play creates a moving por-trait of the young American activist.

NERVE by Adam SzymkowiczA dark comedy about falling into a rela-tionship on the first date.

NICKEL AND DIMED by Joan HoldenA vivid and witty, yet deeply soberingstage adaptation of Barbara Ehrenreich’sbestseller that chronicles her odyssey intothe world of low-wage, working-classAmerica.

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ROBERT. Ana Matronic of Scissor Sistersrecently had the word “staunch” tattooed onthe inside of her lip! Why do you think GreyGardens has developed such a cult following?DOUG. Sometimes in extreme characters, wecan most readily discern our own foibles,because they’re writ so large. The prudish ordelusional among us may watch the two Ediesand smugly keep them at a comfortable dis-tance, writing them off as eccentric or GrandGuignol. But — when we assess them hon-estly — we can’t help but see ourselves, and theterrifying, universal dilemmas that we all face:breaking free from the tyranny of family,weathering the indignity of time, the pain oflost opportunity. Both Big andLittle Edie confront theseconundrum head-on; and witha trenchant, caustic humor thatrenders them almost heroic. ROBERT. If the KennedyClan is American royalty,where do the Bouvier andBeale family fit in?DOUG. Darling, royalty tendsto gravitate to royalty. TheBouviers claimed to bedescended from French aristocracy; the Bealeswere patrician Southern folk. They’re all fanci-er than us, and that’s all that matters. We putwomen like the Bouviers on pedestals, mostlyso we can see up their skirts. ROBERT. When working on Grey Gardens,what most struck you about Big Edie andLittle Edie?DOUG. Their unapologetic sense of them-selves, and their own homegrown, miracu-lous philosophies. So quotable, those twogals! When Big Edie says of her relationshipto her adult daughter, “It’s very hard, bring-ing up a child fifty-eight years of age,” it’spriceless. I wish I could claim responsibilityfor all the bon mots in the script, but I owemost of them to those indomitable ladies. ROBERT. Scores of people can’t get enoughof the documentary and the musical of GreyGardens — yet many people are unnervedwatching the film. Your work made thetransformation palatable as it gave us the his-tory and showed what life could have beenlike prior to the decay. That must have beensome research job — something you’re usedto after having given us I am My Own Wife.DOUG. The original documentary is harrow-ing and brilliant; I hope our work hasn’t leav-ened it. But film and theatre require differentstorytelling mechanisms; onstage, we feltobliged to provide glimpses of life at Grey

Gardens before its ruination. I have to confess,I’m no Kennedy or Bouvier fanatic; and whenScott Frankel and Michael Korie brought meto the project, they’d already done most of theoriginal research. But we found JohnDavidson’s book on the Bouviers enormouslyhelpful; and Albert Maysles let us see out-takes from the film, which were instructive aswell. And heaven knows, there’s no dearth ofbooks on Jackie Kennedy and her clan!ROBERT. Were Big Edie and Little Edietruly alone out there in Grey Gardens — hadthey been abandoned by their family? DOUG. Their family did try to intervene onoccasion, but — like so many elderly or

eccentric people — the Bealeladies often pridefully refusedtheir help. Big Edie’s boys bothwanted to see her in a nursinghome or an institution, but shewas adamant about living outher days at Grey Gardens. Ithink their families foundthem both hopelessly irascible. ROBERT. After being threat-ened with eviction, and withall their names dragged

through the mud in the press, did Jackieever offer any help?DOUG. Most definitely, despite Little Edie’soccasional claims to the contrary. AristotleOnassis gave the women over a million dollarsfor a massive clean-up of the property. Thehouse was restored, piles of garbage wereremoved, and the cats were contained. But justa few short months after the restoration, theladies allowed the house to slide right backinto grave disrepair. I think Jackie probablythrew up her hands in frustration. On somelevel, Big and Little Edie were living in squalorby choice; a kind of passive-aggressive protestagainst their family’s very conventional values. ROBERT. How funny or sad is it thatJackie could save Grand Central Station, butshe couldn’t save them from themselves?There’s STAUNCH for you, huh?DOUG. No kidding! (I’m glad the city ofNew York wasn’t as willfully idiosyncratic asthe Edies, or we wouldn’t have that gorgeoustrain station!) ROBERT. Jerry, The Marble Faun, is a fasci-nating one, isn’t he? How did he fit into thisfamily? What do you know about him — ishe still a New York City cabdriver?DOUG. Jerry is a really lovely man. Heattended early performances of the show Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons, and sub-sequently saw it on Broadway several times.

Doug Wright on Grey Gardensinterview by Robert Vaughan

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NO CHILD… by Nilaja SunThis tour-de-force exploration of the NewYork City public school system is not tobe missed by anyone who is concernedabout the state of our education system.

ON THE LINE by Joe RolandThree lifelong friends take on manage-ment, the union and ultimately eachother when a strike wreaks havoc ontheir working-class town.

THE PAIN AND THE ITCHby Bruce NorrisWhat begins as an averageThanksgiving for one privileged familyunravels into an exposé of disastrouschoices and less-than-altruistic motives.A scathing satire on the politics of classand race.

PIG FARM by Greg KotisOn a struggling pig farm somewhere inAmerica, Tom and Tina (with the help ofTim, their hired hand) fight to hold ontoeverything they own — namely, a herdof fifteen thousand restless pigs.

A PLACE AT FOREST LAWN by LukeYankee and James Bontempo, basedon the one-act play by Lorees YerbyFriendship is the tie that binds in thisbittersweet and candid look at remem-bered love, forgotten promises, livingwith choices and dying with dignity.

PORT AUTHORITY THROW DOWNby Mike BatistickPervez is a cab driver on the run fromthe FBI. Hiding out in his cab outsidePort Authority, he meets a Christianmissionary and a homeless mansearching for a connection from a worldin which they feel alienated.

PURE CONFIDENCE by Carlyle BrownThe high-stakes world of Civil War–erahorse racing is the stage for this rivetingdrama of slavery and Reconstruction.

RABBIT by Nina RaineBella is celebrating her birthday with herbest friend and two ex-boyfriends in atrendy wine bar. Meanwhile her termi-nally ill father preoccupies her mind.

REGRETS ONLY by Paul RudnickA powerhouse attorney, his wife andtheir fashion designer friend share quipsand cocktails in the couple’s ParkAvenue apartment in this hilarious com-edy of Manhattan manners.

RIDICULOUS FRAUD by Beth Henley A disastrous New Orleans weddingrehearsal dinner is the latest in a seriesof unfortunate events that befall theClay brothers in this boisterous and bit-tersweet new comedy.

SATELLITES by Diana SonNew parents Nina and Miles, an interra-cial couple, have a new house, a newbaby, and only one of them has a newjob. (Hint: It’s not Miles.)

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ROBERT. As this is our “Family Issues”newsletter, I’ll start off with this: In The WorldOver, Adam is on an epic mission, but ulti-mately does it come down to finding his fam-ily? Is that what is most important to him?KEITH. I wrote The World Over becauseI’ve always had a very powerful emotionalreaction to those Shakespeare plays thatsome people call “romances,” where narrativelogic is thrown out the window and all theseinsane and fantastical things happen. WhenI was working on the play, my life was reallychaotic and crazy, and that kind of playseemed like the best way to express what Iwas struggling with. Adam was abandoned asan infant, and he doesn’t know anythingabout his parents. He comes to believe he’sthe lost prince of a country that may or maynot exist. He’s so obsessed with reclaimingthis kingdom that he winds up abandoninghis own wife and children. And I think hedoes come to learn, maybe too late, that hisinherited family is far less important than thefamily he’s created himself. ROBERT. We’ve seen very different types offamilies in your work. Traditional and not sotraditional — in 10 Million Miles Duane iswilling to accept a readymade family he’s notresponsible for; in fact, he desperately needs it. KEITH. Duane grew up with an abusivefather and a deeply self-destructive mother. Assoon as he was old enough, he ran away tojoin the army, and when that didn’t work out,he just kept running. It’s probably no accidentthat he’s an auto mechanic by trade: He has agreat need to be constantly in motion. He’salso a fabulist: He keeps reinventing his histo-ry because his real life is too dingy for him.But he knows he’s stuck, so when he finds outthat this girl he’s on a road trip with is preg-nant, he starts inventing a future for themtogether. It’s a dangerous thing to do, becausethe girl is deeply fragile and susceptible to hisinventions. And when the chips are down, hemight not be up to the task. But he needs tobelieve that he can have a family of his ownand build a decent, stable life for himself. Plushe also wants to save this girl in a way that hecouldn’t save his mother, and to love a child ina way that he was never loved.ROBERT. Two of your plays have families —sons — who’ve lost their father and handle itvery differently. Jamie in The Credeaux Canvasis quite something, isn’t he? KEITH. I knew a lot of guys like Jamie,both at the Quaker high school I went to,and later when I moved to New York. Jamieis the child of a very messy divorce, and

essentially he’s been erased from his father’slife. He has almost no self-esteem so hedevotes himself entirely to his friends. Andhe’s consumed by his hatred of his father:He’s constructed his life so it’s this huge actof revenge against his dad. ROBERT. Fathers and sons. Edmond andJames Tyrone, Willy and Biff, and even BigDaddy and Brick. What’s the draw?KEITH. Well, it’s one of those relationshipsthat you never get to the bottom of. It seemsto me like we’re always either seeking revengeagainst our parents (like Jamie in Credeaux)or else trying to avenge them. Or somedeeply convoluted combination of the two.In The Busy World is Hushed, Brandt talksabout reading his father’s college entranceessay, and wondering “how much of my lifeis just his unlived.” That’s something I thinkabout all the time. ROBERT. In The Busy World is Hushed,Thomas and his mother Hannah have a veryinteresting relationship. Into Hannah’s life,and then Thomas’, comes Brandt. Thesepeople all need something and for a time,they get it. Is it a new sense of family — ifonly for a moment?KEITH. The three of them do create this frag-ile little family, which is based on a deep andgenuine love they all have for each other, butit’s also built on a series of white lies and decep-tions and evasions. It’s something I find reallytroubling — the damage we can do to eachother when we’re trying to love each other.We’re capable of great crimes when we’re afraidof losing the people we love the most.ROBERT. Brandt’s father is ill and thenpasses away at the end of the play leaving uswith a stunning curtain line (I can still hearJill Clayburgh saying it), “Let’s bury ourdead.” You said about the play, and perhapsyour plays in general, that they’re meant tostart conversations. If I recall correctly, yousaid, “I think about these things, do youthink about them too?” I do and I wonderwhat your thoughts are on Hannah, Thomasand Brandt now? KEITH. That’s a very timely question,because the play is just starting to get producedin a bunch of different places, so I get theopportunity to revisit the characters wheneverI see a new production. Lately I find that Ihave great hope for Brandt and Hannah andThomas, even though the story leaves them allvery isolated and bereft. Brandt is in deepmourning, but even in his despair he’s stillactively questioning and seeking. And maybethe events of the play will force Hannah to

Keith Bunin’s Busy Worldinterview by Robert Vaughan

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SAVAGES by Anne NelsonShot through with similarities to ourpresent situation, this play is set a fewyears after the United States’ invasionof the Philippines to free them fromSpanish colonial rule, and Americantroops now find themselves fighting acostly war against the people theyoriginally came to liberate.

SEE WHAT I WANNA SEE music andlyrics by Michael John LaChiusaA breathtakingly original musical aboutlust, greed, murder, faith and redemp-tion, named by New York Magazine asone of the Best Musicals of 2005 andnominated for nine Drama DeskAwards, including Best Musical.

SEVEN IN ONE BLOW, OR THEBRAVE LITTLE KID by Randall Sharpand Axis CompanyA young boy, who kills seven flies witha single swat and makes a belt embla-zoned with “Seven in One Blow” tocommemorate the event, travels aboutmeeting colorful characters and learn-ing valuable life lessons.

SHINING CITY by Conor McPhersonA guilt-ridden man reaches out to atherapist after seeing the ghost of hisrecently deceased wife. Routine visitsbetween the two men quickly become agripping struggle to survive.

SIX YEARS by Sharr WhiteIn five scenes spanning twenty-fouryears of post-WWII life, Phil and his wife,Meredith, take an intimate journey to anunspoken side of the GreatestGeneration.

A SONG FOR CORETTA by Pearl CleageAt the end of a long line of mournerswaiting to pay their respects to Mrs.Coretta Scott King, five fictional char-acters share memories of Mrs. King’sextraordinary life and sorrow at herpassing.

THE SUNSET LIMITEDby Cormac McCarthyFrom the acclaimed Pulitzer Prize–win-ning novelist comes the story of an ex-con from the South who saves the life ofan intellectual atheist who wasn’t look-ing for salvation.

TEMPODYSSEY by Dan DietzA temp worker named Genny launchesus on an epic, fantastical journey throughcorporate America, Appalachia, astro-physics and beyond.

TUESDAYS WITH MORRIEby Jeffrey Hatcher and Mitch AlbomMitch Albom, an accomplished journalistdriven solely by his career, is reunitedwith Morrie Schwartz, his former collegeprofessor, and what starts as a simplevisit becomes a weekly pilgrimage anda last class in the meaning of life.

THE VOYSEY INHERITANCE by Harley Granville-Barker, adaptedby David MametWhen Edward takes over the familyfirm, he discovers the embezzlementthat has been keeping his relatives in alife of luxury.

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NEWPLAYSlook at the ways in which she’s used her reli-gion to shut out the world. As far as Thomasis concerned, some days I think he’s doomedand some days I think he’ll be all right. Thetruth is, I have great admiration for all three ofthem, despite how self-destructive they can allbe: They really are looking for connection witheach other in a deep and genuine way.ROBERT. Hannah is a very smart womanwho makes a very interesting decision in theplay and it backfires on her, doesn’t it?KEITH. She sees that Brandt and Thomasmight be falling in love, and because she thinkslove is God’s grace, she believes these two boyscan heal each other. So she encourages ormaybe even manipulates Brandt, against hisbetter judgment, to pursue Thomas. She’s con-vinced herself that this is the holy thing to do,but she’s blind to the fact thatshe’s also doing it for her ownreasons — because she’s afraidthat otherwise, her son will aban-don her. And that’s why it allbackfires on her. ROBERT. What do you thinkThomas is looking for that he’snot finding at home?KEITH. Despite Hannah’s bestefforts, Thomas grew up believ-ing that he was the cause of hisfather’s suicide. Also, so much ofhis mother’s faith is wound up in her feelingsabout him — she actually says at one pointthat he’s the only reason she didn’t kill herselfafter her husband died. It’s an impossible bur-den to place on him, so he’s caught in this ter-rible double bind. He loves his mother desper-ately, but whenever he tries to truly communi-cate with her, he hits this brick wall. But healso realizes that until he can either fully recon-cile with his mother, or else fully write her off,he’ll never really be able to move forward.That’s why I think he’s constantly runningaway from her and then running back to her. ROBERT. You have an interesting back-ground, don’t you? Is it too personal to askabout your family?KEITH. I should probably talk about myreligious upbringing first, since that’s a ques-tion people always ask in regard to The BusyWorld is Hushed: My father is half-Jewish andmy mother is a lapsed Catholic, and for somereason I was baptized and confirmedEpiscopalian. My family stopped going tochurch almost immediately after I was con-firmed, but then by coincidence I ended upgetting a scholarship to attend this Quakerschool down the road from where we lived, sothat’s where I spent my last three years of highschool. Quaker school was my first experienceof a truly liberal and progressive Christiancommunity, and it had a huge positive impact

on my adolescence. So a lot of the roots ofthat play are in my weird polyglot religiousbackground. I grew up in Poughkeepsie, NewYork, which is known for two things: IBMand Vassar College. My dad worked as a man-ager for IBM, and my mom worked in alum-ni affairs at Vassar. I have one younger sister,and she’s a doctor who lives in Rhode Island.My sister and I both knew what we wanted todo from a pretty early age, and our parentshave always been extremely supportive of us.As you know, it’s hard enough to try and earna living as a writer, so I’m very lucky I didn’thave to fight my parents along with all theother battles that anyone working in this pro-fession encounters on a daily basis.ROBERT. I love your characters — Tess andWinston, all three of them in Busy and I

loved Duane. You have aremarkable ability to make youraudiences fall in love with thesecharacters, even when some ofthem are all too flawed andhuman. Do you have a particu-lar favorite or is that too muchlike asking which of your chil-dren you like best? KEITH. It’s definitely hard topick a favorite. I’m still veryattached to the characters in TheBusy World is Hushed. I don’t

know that I’ll move on from them ’til I finisha new play, so they’re definitely the peoplewho are closest to my heart at the moment.ROBERT. Do you have a favorite family inthe world of plays?KEITH. What a great question. I’m reallyfond of the Shotover family in HeartbreakHouse — totally screwed-up and impossiblebut really extraordinary. And this is probablyobvious but the family I’d most like to livewith is the Sycamores in You Can’t Take Itwith You. You’ve got to love a family wherethe mother decided to become a playwrightbecause eight years ago a typewriter wasdelivered to the house by mistake.ROBERT. One last thing — we’d love toknow what you’re going to give us next?KEITH. I’ve never written anything overtlypolitical, and I think it’s probably high time.Bill Clinton was the first President I was oldenough to vote for, and 2008 is the first elec-tion year when I’ll be legally old enough to runfor President myself. Not that I have any plansto do so. But I would like to investigate the waymy view of politics and the country in generalhas shifted from 1992 to now. I’m abouthalfway through a first draft, and that’s thepoint when I usually hit a huge brick wall.Which means I’m either going to press forwardor I’m going to abandon the game entirely. Socheck back with me again in a few months. ■

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He was a townie inEast Hampton whofelt no more athome in that blue-blood communitythan the Bealewomen did; likethem, he was a mav-erick. In Big Edie,he found a surrogateMom. In his heart,he felt every bit asbohemian as theydid, and togetherthey formed theirown makeshift, idio-

syncratic family. Jerry still drives a cab in New York City. Once — afterthe show — director Michael Greif, composer Scott Frankel and I allagreed to share a taxi downtown. We hailed one. We’d been in the car

for two or three blocks, when we realized Jerry was our driver! Hepulled over by the curb, and we sat, listening to him recount hilarious,heartbreaking memories of an adolescence spent with the Beales.ROBERT. The end of the musical is heartbreakingly beautiful. Didthis mother and daughter truly love one another or were they justsimply all they had?DOUG. I hope the musical itself answers this question unequivocally,or as authors we’ve failed. The story of Big and Little Edie is, I think,one of the most poignant, harrowing and truthful parent/child love sto-ries of all time. They loved each other ferociously; they hurt each otheras only lovers can. Theirs is a universal dance; parents may unwittinglywound their children, butthey’re also the ones who ten-derly nurse them back tohealth. That creates a savage,irrevocable bond. LittleEdie’s haunting admission:“What could I do? I lovedmy mother.” ■

8 ATPLAY

Beginning in February 2008, the Play Service will make the transi-tion to electronic billing as a part of our efforts to reduce our environ-mental footprint. Currently, invoices for purchases and licenses aremailed on a daily basis, and your account statements are mailedmonthly. Our new billing practice will allow us to send emails to youwith invoices and monthly statements as attachments in the popu-lar Adobe PDF format. If needed, you will be able to print theseinvoices or simply forward them to the appropriate department in

your organization for payment. If it remains necessary for you toreceive hard copies by mail, you will be able to opt out of electronicdelivery. We hope that your organization will also take a good look atthe impact of using paper and begin the process of adjusting yourpractices to an electronic workflow. We at the Play Service will con-tinue to look for alternative ways of doing business that take advan-tage of technology to provide better service to you and to contributeto all of our greater benefit. ■

A Note from the Play Service

—Rafael J. Rivera, VP Finance and Administration

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AT PLAYMICHAEL Q. FELLMETH, EditorTIMOTHY MUTZEL, DesignROBERT VAUGHAN, Contributing EditorJULIE JENSEN, Editorial Assistant© 2007 Dramatists Play Service, Inc.All rights reserved.

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Stephen Sultan

TAMRA FEIFER, OperationsMICHAEL Q. FELLMETH, PublicationsDAVID MOORE, AccountingCRAIG POSPISIL, Nonprofessional RightsRAFAEL J. RIVERA, Finance and AdministrationROBERT VAUGHAN, Professional Rights

We are delighted that the “Season Preview” issue of American Theatre magazine

reports that seven of this season’s Top 10 most-produced plays are DPS titles,

including the number-one most-produced, Doubt by John Patrick Shanley. The others

include Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire, Moonlight and Magnolias by Ron

Hutchinson, 9 Parts of Desire by Heather Raffo, The Little Dog Laughed by Douglas

Carter Beane, The Santaland Diaries adapted by Joe Mantello from David Sedaris, and

The Diary of Anne Frank adapted by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett.

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