Reading List

While we wait for the county to sign off on all of the required permits--it's taking much longer than any of us imagined-- we've read more than a few plays in our search for a season. We can't nail down any of these until we actually have our space but we can at least share our list of real possibilities. (Most theatres, I think, are pretty secretive about their upcoming seasons. We argued over whether to hold off until everything was in place, decisions made, and any possible buzz of anticipation was at full volume. Peter argued--and obviously won this argument--that if we're to ride whatever digital information wave we can catch then we must be completely transparent. The more information that's out there, the better. Hopefully it will flow back to us as well. We could use your input--both the positive and the negative. Here are 10 plays for a start, in no particular order, that have caught our collective imagination. Some have been produced in the DC area, many haven't, but all are good theatre and worth a read at the very least. (Pictures link to Amazon.com -- we get a %!)

• We found Moira Buffini's Dinner after reading her adaptation of Nicolai Erdman's The Suicide (more about Erdman later). As the title implies, a meal is at the heart of this "revenge comedy". The first course is something the hostess calls "primordial soup" which gives you some sense of where the meal leads. Both the characters and the dialogue are bitter and acidic but strangely satisfying

• Eric Overmyer's Dark Rapture is subtitled "A Stage Noir" and like the film genre is filled with double and triple-crossing con artists. The play opens in the midst of a California wildfire and never lets up. This was produced only last year by the Spooky Action Company in Maryland but I doubt if many in our area caught it. It deserves another go if we can find a cast that could double in any number of film noir's.

• Edward Bond is probably one of Britain's best known playwrights but his work is rarely done in the US. The Sea begins with a drowning in a fierce storm on the coast witnessed, in one way or another, by some rather eccentric villagers. There's a deeply tragic aspect to this and subsequent scenes that also happen to be deeply comic. We all loved this play but any production of it depends on finding a 60-something actress with an imperious tone to lead the rabble. Know anyone?

• It's All True, written by one of Canada's hottest playwrights, Jason Sherman, is a homage to events preceding the production of the famous The Cradle Will Rock in 1937 New York. Young Orson Welles, John Houseman and Marc Blitzstein battle the government and each other after their show is shut down because of its political bent. The characters, the scenes and the dialogue are fast and furious and it's all true.

• Inventing Van Gogh by Stephen Dietz isn't as true but it's a great and haunting mystery tale of fabricated art and character. A young contemporary artist with a style similar to Van Gogh's is persuaded to forge a self-portrait of the dead artist. Van Gogh, Gauguin and more than a few other dead folk appear and enter the mix. It has a great first act but we're still befuddled by the second. If we can figure it out, it will be strong contender for a place in the season.

• Still another fascinating mystery is Nicholas Wright's The Reporter. Based on the life of a star BBC Reporter from the 60's and his bewildering and sudden suicide, the action flashes backward and forward as parts of his life are pieced together in an attempt to understand his simple, enigmatic suicide note, "I can't bear it anymore though I don't know what "it" is." It sounds morbid but the search for the note's meaning is so enthralling that you become more interested in the reporter's life than his death.

• So while we're on the subject of suicides, how about Nicolai Erdman's The Suicide. Many in the Marshall crowd know Erdman from The Mandate as well as from a cutting of The Suicide (Samoubistvo) we did several years ago. It just doesn't come as good as this. It's Russian, it's farce, it's political, and it's great theatre. We wanted to do a recent adaptation of this play, Dying for It, but it's unavailable for production in the US. After reading an exact translation of the original though, why would anyone want to do anything else? If we can cut it--the original runs over 3 hours with about 30 characters--we'd like to do it despite the fact that the title is a little heavy for a first season announcement.

• Best title for a new play goes to Howard Barker's The Almighty Seduction of God by the Boy Priest Loftus in the Abbey of Calcetto, 1539. A seizure-prone, adolescent priest discovers he has the power of life and death. Does young Loftus possesses this power by his own accord or has he somehow seduced god into giving it to him? Barker calls his body of work the "theatre of catastrophe". Catastrophic forces are unleashed every which way his characters choose to turn. This is full-impact theatre: Evil is evil and good is good and there is a lot of violence stretched between the two. It's certainly not for everyone and may be a little too extreme for a young theatre looking for an audience.

• Side Man by Warren Leight won a Pulitzer Prize a few years ago and deservedly so. It is to jazz what Amadeus is to classical music. It's an odyssey through booze, drugs, failed relationships and pure talent. It sounds bleak, and it is, but it's surprisingly life-giving in its humanity.

• And finally...Charlotte Jones' Humble Boy was inspired by Hamlet in part but also by bee-keeping and theoretical physics. It's a great combination. This dysfunctional family both frightens and charms you at the same time. No bees but everyone gets stung, and happily so.

Our list is even longer. As we get closer to an actual opening, I'll keep you updated on additions and deletions. Please let us know if there's something out there that you think we should consider.