I love the collaborative nature of theatre. As a writer, I hole for some period of time and write a script. Then, I hand it off to a whole team of creative people and something magic happens: They interpret the words and create a world. There are always surprises in that world, always things I didn’t know were there. Not all of them are good surprises, which is why we call the process “development,” but often the surprises are delightful or profound.
One small example of this from New World Theatre‘s workshop production of Holy and Unruly was the chess board. There’s a scene where one of my stage directions calls for two characters to be playing chess. Since our workshop production couldn’t incorporate a lot of set changes, Director Eric Schildge made a chess board part of the standard set, anticipating that small moment. Then I watched him and his actors begin to make use of that chess board in really interesting ways. What began as an after thought (something for my non-speaking characters Dudley and The Unborn to do in that moment) became an integral symbol of the political maneuvering at the core of Holy and Unruly.
I had a lot of 2019 highs, but New World Theatre’s performance of Holy and Unruly at the Hatbox Theatre was among the highest. So much effort goes into a full length play–so many hours, so many choices, so much rewriting–that to reach the collaborative point in the process and have talented people start to bring the world of the play to life is beyond thrilling. It’s a little like watching your child grow from ultra-sound image, to baby, to toddler, to kid, to teen, to young adult. Then you send them (the kid and the play) out in the world to fend for themselves. It’s terrifying but also thrilling, because you know the village raised them well.
I wrote separate posts about other collaborators in the Holy and Unruly village, especially AboutFACE Ireland in Dublin and The Depot for New Play Readings in Connecticut. However, New World Theatre’s workshop production was special for me because it marks the moment when I knew I had a play. The script still needed work, especially in what was then the second act. However, I knew the work was worth doing. The care and energy that the team brought to the performance, and the reaction it got from that night’s audience, gave me the energy and resolve I needed to keep rewriting.
So, thank you Donald Tongue (producer), Eric Schildge (director), Toby Paul (stage manager), Laura Hoglund (Queen Elizabeth), Mary Fraser (Grace O’Malley), Jim Gocha (Burghley), Ashlee Bliss (Lady Scott, The Unborn, MacNally), Erik Shaffer (Essex), Mitch Fortier (Conroy and Bingham), and Paul Smith (Dudley) for adding your names to the ever-growing list of collaborators. You are helping turn Holy and Unruly from an idea (inspired by an NPR interview with Laura Sook Duncombe, author of the book Pirate Women) into a play. It wouldn’t have happened without you.
Pictured above: The cast of New World Theatre’s “Putting It Together” workshop production of Holy and Unruly during their final walk through prior to the evening performance.
You can read, recommend, or request rights to produce Holy and Unruly and my other plays at New Play Exchange.