It's been a crazy few months- trying to coordinate things and prepare for this weekend. Know Theatre in Cincinnati opens their production today. Halcyon in Chicago starts pre-viewing this Tuesday. Theater for the New City is two weeks away. We got some great press from the folks at American Theatre Magazine this month- and the visitors to the site have been shooting up.

We've hit roadblocks, too. And I think it's important to be honest and open about them. The theaters who've signed up for this project are brave as hell! Unknown playwright, incendiary material- not always the perfect box office draw. And on the independent theater level we are already seeing the economic fall out hit us. Next Stage in Seattle has had to cancel their involvement- understandably, while losing staff and feeling the quick crunch of an impending season. Halcyon came close to have to canceling their's- miraculously raising $5,000 in the past month to ensure the show went on. Available Light and Bang and Clatter have been pushed into the new year (Bang and Clatter in full disclosure were planning to produce in the Spring anyway- they decided to forego a fall presentation on top of that).

This is the truth of independent producers in this age- finance is going to be a struggle. In some places diversity casting (African American and Arab) has also proved difficult- highlighting more issues prevalent in our theaters and our society.

This letter is open- and is a thank you to all the theaters involved at any point of this project. Your vision and support has been invaluable, your willingness to risk and dare in a market that presses against you is admirable and your desire to do a play- a piece of art- in general, is what makes me proud to be amongst you.

These problems are going to arise for more theaters as the dow keeps dropping and our numbers continue to fall. It's scary but I love this simple idea I was once told by an artist friend of mine- "when you're staring at the chaos, the unknown, the unsurmountable- what else can you do but throw art at that abyss. And throw more of it and then more and then more."

Thank you. Now get your asses to Cincinnati, Chi-town and NY! I'll be in the back with a drink...

Sean

I recently did some visual research for Militant Language and I've got to say that it is one of my favorite aspects of doing dramaturgy. I find that visual research is one of the easiest, most inspirational ways to start work on a project. With even just a few images, ideas can come a-floodin' to a theatre artist. Suddenly that moment in a text where an actor is unsure of what to do is illuminated. Or the moment in a scene that needs some lighting effect is suddenly easy to find. For Militant, I really wanted get pictures taken by soldiers as opposed to media shots in an attempt to get a first hand, unedited, raw perspective of war and combat. I found a fabulous website that does just this and most of the pictures from my research I took from this site.

A few of my favorites can be seen here.

About two months after I wrote the first draft of MILITANT LANGUAGE I was invited to a playwriting retreat with a group of writers from MFA programs from around the country. The goal was to develop our pieces with a Artistic Directors and Dramaturgs from the regional theatre landscape. We were sent a short synopsis of everyone's plays and who each of us would be working with- and two months later we all descended on Califronia together.

That first night when mingling, I remember one of the other playwrights saying "Oh yeah, I guess you're the one who rights about 'things'"- it was playful and joking but dismissive, too. I'm relatively passive like most of us- and also sensitive- and despite being hurt I just kind of laughed along with him and agreed... I write about things.

No matter your motivation writing about something like Iraq is daunting. One because it's huge. It's everywhere. It is widely understood and recognized. Most people have an opinion on the war, most don't need a lecture or polemic.

It's also daunting because it's exploitative. I know this. I wrestle with this.

A classmate of mine at the University of Iowa was a veteran of Iraq. Sharing this play with him was terrifying. Comments like my fellow writer's could have been terrifying as well. However... we need a political theatre. In a country as wide and varied as ours- we need dialogue. I think people's fear of "political" theater is their fear of propoganda. Their fear of what's untrue. If it's political in this country we assume it has an agenda. (Although most plays do) We fear it will manipulate us. That it will lie. It will try to trick.

We've lived with public figures manipulating us already. We have news outlets and other media to fill that void much more convincingly than a few actors on a bare stage on a Saturday night. We want our theater to be exciting and surprising.

And I was highly aware of that while writing this.

We want our theatre to be honest.

And I followed that impulse as well...

It's funny, when I first was asked about this play I'd say it was an "anti-political" play. Or "anti-propoganda." Words that seemed exciting but in truth I wasn't really sure what I meant by saying them. I was wary what it meant to be someone who wrote politically.

Now, I just say it's a play. A play about right now.

My heroes wrote those plays. Kushner. Churchill. Koltes. Soyinka.

An A.D. friend of mine often tells me the trouble with producing Political Theatre is that it has to be better than 99% of all other theater because the public has so many preconceptions they demand that it be so good... I think it 's the literary equivalent of James Cagney's acting advice: "just look the other guys in the eyes and tell him the truth."

Not what you think the truth is. Not what you hope it will be.
But what it is.

The ugly. The pretty. And all that's in between.