Calling all First Look 101’ers
Posted by David New on 8/11/2006
As summer seems to fly by, we approach the closing weekend of the three First Look Repertory plays, Spare Change, 100 Saints You Should Know, and The Butcher of Baraboo. The ancillary events offered to the First Look 101 participants have included table readings of the three plays, first rehearsals including designer presentations, working rehearsals, and technical rehearsals. All of these events provided insight into what it takes for a play to reach production and performance.
Throughout this process, along with Director of New Play Development, Ed Sobel, and First Look Assistant, Meghan McCarthy, I have a had the great pleasure of leading discussions with our First Look 101 participants. These discussions at times have included designers, directors, and actors. They have been engaging, smart, and provocative. And now, so quickly it seems, we approach the closing weekend.
I am interested in a conversation that looks back on the various aspects of the experience, the look into the creative process, and since there won’t be any more formal discussions, it seemed to me a good idea to launch our conversations into cyberspace here on the blog.
What did you find most compelling? Most surprising? Most eye-opening? To what degree were you involved in the process? Perhaps you just came to see one of the performances – what did you think of the result of the development process?
August 14th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
I saw Saints Friday 8/11 and came away feeling like a gourmand who’s just had a very satisfying meal. The play was deep, involving, provocative. On a conscious level I care very little about religion but the characters’ yearning for connection and spirituality caught me, drew me in and spoke to me to a degree that surprised me. It didn’t hurt that the casting, directing and acting were superb, but there was great writing to hang it all on.
My husband and I last saw Red Light Winter, The Pain and the Itch, and the Unmentionables at Steppenwolf and while we liked all those, it is a credit to Kate Fodor that we liked Saints the best and we have very different tastes! The characters — esp. Theresa, Matthew and Abby — seemed fully dimensional to me and their psychology, real.
I did think the first scene between Matthew and his mother went on a little long and the play ending seemed abrupt. I really liked ending with the concept and the words “see the face of God,” but felt I’d missed something along the way that would illuminate the full meaning of those words for me within the context of the play. The link is there in the whole play of course, but “the face of God” is so specific, I felt I needed those words highlighted more forcefully throughout the play for them to carry maximum weight at the end.
Because of these two things, I did get the sense that the play was still a work in progress. That is thrilling because what is there now is so resounding. What a credit to First Look. I was really delighted to see the work of three female playwrights highlighted this year. A terrific program and a great contribution to American playwriting.