 to this event so what this is is a conversation with playwrights about first scenes when we were trying to figure out what to do this evening we knew that we wanted to get a bunch of playwrights together and look at some scenes and talk about them as writers. Doug Langworthy had the great idea of maybe we do first scenes and therefore they need no introduction we don't need to tell you anything about the play we can start cold because that's where we will start naturally in the play. I really love this idea because part of my work here that I'm doing in my fellowship is I'm reading a lot of plays and as a playwright it's a very it's a it's an incredible lesson in playwriting when you have to read other people's plays and you understand just how important a first scene actually is when you're reading your 20th play that week first scenes are very important so I'm going to let everybody introduce themselves while we're the format we're just going to read a couple of scenes that we've picked and then we're going to talk about them it may be interesting it may not be interesting I make no promises I will say that the scenes are good so at least there's that we definitely have some good writing on display with the exception of one none of us are actors so let's keep our expectations down okay this is this is this is all for the sake of a conversation um uh let's just go around and introduce ourselves hi I'm Ann Garcia Romero camp powers I'm Lauren Yee I'm Regina Taylor Robert Schenkin go on Emily Parkland artistic associate here stage direction Emily's going to be doing our stage so yes please and everybody um we are going to start with uh what I think is like uh wind essential first scene I'm not going to sit here with you guys uh we're gonna start with who's afraid of virginia wolf set in darkness crash against front door Martha's laughter heard front door opens lights are switched on Martha enters followed by George Jesus H Christ God's sakes Martha it's two o'clock in the morning oh George well I'm sorry what a clock what a clock you are it's late you know late what a dump what's that from what a dump how would I know oh come on what's it from you know Martha what's it from for Christ's sake what's what from I just told you I just did what a dump what's that from I haven't a faintest idea dumb bell it's from some goddamn Betty Davis picture some goddamn Warner Brothers epic look I can't remember all the pictures nobody's asking you to remember every single goddamn Warner Brothers epic just one one single little epic Betty Davis gets peritonitis in the end she's got this big black fright wig she wears all through the picture and she gets peritonitis and she's married to Joseph cotton or something somebody somebody and she wants to go to Chicago all the time because she's in love with that actor with the scar but she gets sick and she sits down in front of her dressing table what actor what's going on I can't remember his name but God's sake what's the name of the picture I want to know what the name of the picture is she sits in front of her dressing table and she's got this peritonitis and she tries to put her lipstick on but she can't and she gets it all over her face but she she decides to go to Chicago anyway and Chicago is called Chicago the picture the picture is called Chicago don't you know anything Chicago what's the 30s musical starring a little miss Alice Fey don't you know anything well you know that was probably before my time okay just cut that out this picture Betty Davis comes home from a hard day the grocery store she works at a oh she's a housewife she buys things and she comes home with the groceries and she walks into the modest living room of the modest cottage modest Joseph cotton has set her up are they married yes they're married to each other and she comes in and she looks around and she puts her groceries down and she says what a dumb she's discontented I really don't know Martha well think I'm tired dear it's late and I don't know what you're tired so tired about you haven't done anything all day you didn't have any classes or anything you know I'm tired if your father didn't set up these goddamn Saturday all the time about you George well that's how it is anyway you didn't do anything you never do anything you never mix you just sit around and talk what do you want me to you want me to act like you do you want me to go around all night braying at everybody the way you do I said you didn't break make me a drink I said make me a drink I don't suppose a nightcap kill either one of us a nightcap are you kidding we've got guests we we've got what guests guests guests yes guests people we've got guests coming over when now good lord Martha do do you know what time who is coming over what's their name who what's their name who what's their name I don't know what their name is George you met them tonight they're new he's in the math department or something who are these people you met them tonight I don't remember meeting anybody tonight well you did will you give me my drink he's in the math department at about 30 blonde and good looking yes and his wife a mouse a little type without any hips or anything oh okay you remember them now yes I guess so Martha but why in God's name are they coming over here now because daddy said we should be nice to them that's why may I have my drink please daddy said we should be nice to them thank you why now because it's after two o'clock in the morning and because daddy said we should be yes but I'm sure your father didn't mean we were supposed to stay up all night with these people I mean we could have them over on Sunday or something well never mind besides it is Sunday very early I mean it's just ridiculous well it's done all right well where are they if we've got guests where are they they'll be here soon what did they do go home and get some sleep first or something they'll be here soon you know I wish you would tell me about something sometime I wish you would stop spring all the time things on you yes you do you really do you are always springing things on me always just don't bother yourself all right okay didn't like it huh it was all right Martha you laughed your head off when you heard it at the party I smiled I did not laugh my head off I smiled you know I mean it was all right you laughed your god damn head off it was all right it was a scream it was very funny yes you make me puke what mm you make me puke you know Martha that's not really a very nice thing to say all right technically the first scene of Virginia Woolf is the entire first act but we decided not to do that um that was great don't you feel like we should just add this to the season we can have them stay a little longer um so now this is the part of the evening we have no idea what's going to happen um which is basically we're going to talk about this and I I can start the ball rolling just to really by example um what I was listening to this scene what's so amazing to me is the entire play is there in that in that exchange you know everything everything that we need to know about the evening ahead is is there the the the baiting the drinking the attraction to Nick is already implanted there um the of course the the title of the play is in there um and there's something that happens which is so amazing which he does so gracefully some subtly well not subtly actually but gracefully and just pointedly says oh we're not going to bed we have guests coming over like that simple statement is like where the play turns almost I mean that way that for uh you know four pages we think we're going to bed and then you know imagine being an audience seeing this play for the first time um and not knowing what the hell is going on but seeing these two people bickering on stage and it's funny it's very funny but it's also like it's very off-putting you know and um but then that one line is we've got guests and then I just I made a note of that how it just sort of turned a corner and like oh my god we're going to be up all night with these people um so I did that do you please everybody just jump in and I mean I think in in addition to like turning a corner to like continue like the car metaphor I feel like you see where like the pileups are going to be I was like it's 2am they're drinking you know like like the obstacles have already been set in place for like the road that we're traveling down um and I think like one thing that hit me now um in hearing it is just like that we kind of come in at like at like the moment right before crisis in a way that like um you know like in plays a lot of the time they you know you talk about like framing like how do you frame the scene like at what point do you enter the story and I feel like that's such a good moment to like enter enter into this world do you know what it just made me think about is the beginning of reasons to be pretty which if anybody you know that play of the needle of you play it starts with the five I mean the play begins at like 80 decibels like I mean there's no there there's no easing into it it just it starts there it's it's no it's there it's it's when she finds out that he said that she's got an average face um I mean those of you don't know uh uh reasons it it is a reason to be pretty right yeah it's a reason to be pretty and um this has already happened off stage the play hasn't you know the play begins with the fight and it's this guy she he woman finds out that her boyfriend said she has an average face and and that's really the beginning of the entire play I mean um and so I love that they sort of come in with this this heated energy um and I'm struck too by how um the piece of Betty Davis really sets up character how he masterfully brings in all about Eve and kind of sets up this what's that movie and what's it called and says that what a dump line many times so we get this image of Betty Davis in all about Eve and Martha you know instantly what kind of woman she is what she likes and he just masterfully combines like popular culture and this world so we kind of know who she is right away there's also something I George continues to bait Martha about their age difference that she's older than him and that's in there too you know there's a great top there's a great line and I think the second act when they're talking about uh wait what do you weigh the two men are talking and like what do you weigh and then in George has this great line she says Martha is 104 years old um there's also something in George that is so you can see that power dynamic there it's like he's letting her win um uh you know it depends on the version of the play that you see but there's that the idea of George letting her you know giving her enough rope um I like the I like the notion that um that there are clues there or or um aspects of the play that will be revealed to us and we'll go back later and say oh yes of course it was right there um to me uh the success of a good first scene is that it asks it asks a good question it asks a question I want to see an answer to and and that's what that's what this play does more than it tells me it's it suggests things you know implies things it tantalizes me with things but it leaves me with this question is what is up with these people what is what is going on here what's the why did they stay together why what what is the link here what did what's what's the motor in this relationship um for me the the one line that I am always drawn to in the scene is married to something somebody somebody that to me is kind of the the essence of Martha says oh she was married to something and George corrects her somebody not a thing a person somebody and she accepts that and that's really ultimately what the play comes down to is them finding some way to be human with each other as opposed to turning the other into this device this thing that keeps me going in my despair it's really great just at the introduction of the characters we have the dynamics from the very beginning we see that he's seemingly laid back but he is bathing her as much as she's bathing him she's louder you get the the clear I have brain brain and I'm speaking brain is the sound what is that sound that is this cry as well as this that's a little bit of a howl of pain and you wonder then how did they get here from the very top how did they get here to this point looking at it from Martha is braving I also think about you know this is a play that we many people know playwrights obviously know this play very well um I just listening to it I just I think what what month this has been like for those first audiences who don't have our benefit of all this knowledge of the play of what is going to come next um they you know introducing nick and and and honey and in in such a a very specific but also very succinct way I mean he he's good looking she has no hips I mean that's that's basic I mean that's you know boiling them down to you know the casting call um uh yeah and I think the one thing that we didn't do at the beginning of this conversation is talk about the idea of first scenes um and and um like I said when I started reading these plays I was struck by just like what what it was about first scenes that that grab me and for me reading these you know reading a play like this obviously but reading other wonderful plays that came across uh my ipad um was was you know is there is there something compelling is there something that does is it feed does it feel mysterious does it feel what is the thing that grabs you what is the thing that paint that creates a world um what in my case for for the you know reading a play what keeps me read it you know what what keeps you engaged and this I mean for me I mean it's interesting I was trying to think once we found out what the plays are going to be for tonight what are components of first scenes of plays that I really enjoy that they all have in common and I find that a strong first scene gives me a really great understanding of the main characters and their motivation which then allows a good playwright to kind of turn my expectations of those characters on on its head later so I mean I hate to use like a football metaphor but since we're in the home of the Super Bowl champions um I was explaining it reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend from England about why American football is so popular and I said it's because everyone watching it at home feels like they're smarter than the coach but you're calling plays but then the coach does something unexpected and it surprises you and in many ways strong first scenes and plays give me that same feeling I start off the play going well I know this guy I've seen this guy a million times and then it defies my expectations later on in the play it's wonderful yeah I often feel like a great tool that is in the playwright's arsenal is allowing the audience to think that they're smarter than you allowing the audience to think that they know what what what you know um and then you know subverting um shall we do another one yeah let's do it all right we're gonna do a little bit of rearranging here so we can have the table of course need Nick to you um yeah you're coming over here we did rehearse this so this next scene is from uh so that was you know that's a play that most people know most people see most people know most people know most people know most people know most people are the very least seen the film um this is a play uh that very likely you may not know it hasn't played to my knowledge played in in colorado yet and um it was in new york earlier I guess last year now uh so this is the first scene from a play uh by Rajiv Joseph called guards of the tosh 1448 night humayun a young imperial guard stands watch brilliant stars stop the sky but there is no moon crickets chirp the distant call of a crazed bird otherwise silent another guard baboor hurriedly enters very much disheveled late to his post he upwardly sets up in guard position a few feet away from humayun trying to get properly dressed humayun doesn't move but he's clearly irritated by baboor finally baboor is set he stands with attention like humayun baboor switches his sword sorry wrong hand baboor switches his sword to the proper hand holding the blade perfectly upright against his body a long beat they stand guard crickets the same crazy bird calls out which one is that crazy bird again I don't know them like you know them the birds which bird is that one chickadee sandgrass thick knee shut up you always know the birds I don't know any birds or would you be quiet I'm just saying imperial guards of the great wall city of agra sworn to the eternal dominion of his most supreme benevolence emperor shah jahan do not speak you just spoke among the sacred oles at the mughal imperial guard is to never speak you keep talking about not talking in silence we are vigilant swearing an oath not to speak contradiction baboor stop you have to be careful okay I'm serious okay they'll release us from this honored fleet without a second thought the tiniest of infractions will see us both gone quick stuff to the lowliest gullies of agra you won't tell on me well I won't lie oh come on we're brothers you and me we're not brothers we're just friends that's insensitive that makes me sad I think of you as a brother as a as a by you you call me by I called you by make me lose my job you and who's your father only simply the highest of high command in the all-on high imperial guard my father yearns for my defeat always has you know him sons or sons fathers or fathers and one day you'll be chief top boss man of the imperial guard just like him that will never happen he thinks i'm soft stop talking stand guard another bird sounds then quiet you know what I wonder about no shut up I was wondering when will we get to guard the imperial harem huh no I'm serious when guards of the imperial harem are tip top guards seniority best position in the fleet we are not tip top we get the dawn watch we'll both be gray and toothless before they let us guard the harem put your father maybe he that will never happen never absolutely never man I want to see that harem it's supposed to be pretty boring really it's not so salacious a venue as the gossip would have me think it's a harem it's a government department like any other office it's where the emperor does his most confidential work thus only the mahalda the concubines and eunuchs are allowed within the walls and the two most trusted imperial guards who are decidedly not us but I mean surrounded by naked women it's not like that okay it's not some depraved house of sluts okay it's not some hotbed of wanton lust okay it's just you know a place the emperor goes to work both guys imagine what goes on in the harem mine clears his throat let's stand guard what do you think it'll look like they say it's white yeah but just white is it skinny is it fat I mean what shape would be all we know are these protective walls that have hidden it the last 16 years the city within the city it's crazy 16 years in the making since we were kids they've been building this and yet we have no idea what it'll look like because within the walls where Taj Mahal is built another city a secret one with strange men who have lived a different life than anyone else and now overnight those protective walls have been torn down to reveal Taj Mahal to the world for the first time ever his most supreme emperor Shah Jahan decree that no one shall see it until it is fully completed but why there need not be a reason it is a royal decree the construction of Taj Mahal is not to be seen by anyone except the masons laborers and slaves who exist within its walls and the architect ustad isa ustad isa ustad isa they say he is the smartest man in the kingdom in any kingdom the smartest man on earth doubtful he speaks to the king he looks the king in the eye he is equal to the king that is mild to medium sedition but then he drinks with the masons and he frequents the horse he's cross-eyed and overweight he he built a school for the peasant children on his day off i saw it it was too big he smiles at everyone can you imagine such a thing smiling at every person the happiest man in the world 16 years in the making surrounded by these walls so that no one may see it until it is complete which is today's first life which is today's first life and for 16 years he built this thing he smiles at everyone because he is happy because he made Taj Mahal ustad isa he's amazing even god couldn't make blasphemy would you stop don't forget the punishment for blasphemy it's three days in prison that is weird though isn't it what mild sedition for example making a joke mild sedition is whipping shaved head torture but blasphemy just three days in jail and if the emperor doesn't really care about speaking ill of Allah he's way more concerned about himself don't test him and stop with this ustad isa talk Taj Mahal was made by his sovereign ruler of hindistan shajahan who built this for his tragic queen her excellent empress muhtaz this is her tomb a mausoleum to honor her for all time now now what ustad isa he made Taj Mahal oh yeah did ustad isa import the pietra dora from Greece or the herringbone from iraq or the marvel from china or 700 tons of jasper from some damn full slum in usbekistan no he did shajahan ustad isa says that today's first light is important for Taj Mahal because after today the air and the rain and the sand and the heat of the sun will start to age her perfect face but that today at first light Taj Mahal will be the most beautiful thing in the history of everything that has ever existed think about it the most beautiful thing ever made Taj Mahal is sitting there waiting to be lit by the day's first light waiting to be seen we are not turning around oh come on man no we are guarding we are facing south not north south just for a quick moment just we could just turn around turn right back absolutely not imperial guards do not move from their post they don't speak either but here we are talking for a long time we are not turning around we are imperial guards this is very important to me to me as well but people are watching us oh elders waiting for us to deviate from the sacred oaths you and me Babur there is no one below us if there is a post that nobody wants for example the one single guard post that faces away from Taj Mahal at dawn then we are assigned to that post we are grunts of the imperial force until that day new appointments are made and until that day we get the jobs nobody else wants unless of course we are sacked for being stupid because we turned around at first light to see a white building they'd send us to the brink we'd end up patrolling Kashmir a place to which if some bastard is assigned some bastard ends up dead do you want to go patrol Kashmir no do you want 40 lashes on the shave head no do you want to be blinded by a dull blade or sewn into the hide of a water buffalo no or maybe you want to end up like poor ustadisa and my cut off Babur notices wait what nothing no what were you just saying nothing forget it what about ustadisa nothing oh come on what nothing hold me on no hold ma no tell me no what have you heard it's simple don't be careless come on tell me okay but you can't tell anyone i promise who keeps a promise better than me okay it's been said that after the last jewels were inlaid and the last piece of marble polished it has been said that this wastrel this cur ustadisa the proud architect who thinks himself equal to a king approached Shah Jahan himself and asked his excellent Mughal lineage for a personal favor a personal favor yes he asked the emperor for a personal favor i don't even know which level of sedition that is because it's never been classified because nobody's ever done it this is the kind of useless vagabond your brilliant artist is he asked Shah Jahan great great grants on a babur first Mughal emperor my name's your namesake ustadisa asked Shah Jahan for things such as these personal things yeah yes what was it what was what the personal favor ustadisa asked Shah Jahan if the 20,000 men who built it could wander the unsheet Taj Mahal at first light so that they could see and admire their handiwork this thing to which they owe the last 16 years of their lives oh huh what did Shah Jahan reply his supreme excellent imperious royalty said no oh but there's a rumor of having never in his life been asked a personal favor before his most sovereign enlightened one needed time to fully absorb the gross insult hurled upon him the emperor is angry yeah the emperor is angry so now the emperor has issued a decree nothing so beautiful as Taj Mahal shall ever be built again what kind of a decree is that he ordered that the hands of every mason laborer and artisan who crafted Taj Mahal be chopped off what wait wait wait he's gonna chop off 20,000 hands 40,000 because they wanted to look at Taj Mahal we need not ask why a royal decree is exactly that every worker every man who built this every one so someone is gonna have to chop off 40,000 hands yep that's a terrible job shit oh no shit oh that's us right shit i don't want to do that i don't either shit well i think the emperor is overreacting 40,000 severed hands what is the purpose of such punishment nothing so beautiful as Taj Mahal shall ever be built again this news depresses Baboor although he wanted to med it long be it Baboor looks at the stars it's almost first light Baboor what are you doing turn back around you can't Baboor as Baboor starts to really see the Taj the Taj Ulta transforms each passing moment slowly bringing a new shade of morning light who are you turn around who are you Baboor anyone sees you who are you doing this man think you should look we can look at any other time any other time except now why is it so important to risk everything to look at this now turn around with each second Baboor is more transformed a new light shines on the Taj he lowers his sword as if he had simply become too heavy Baboor raise your sword Baboor drops his sword to the ground involuntarily he doesn't even know he has done it you drop your come on man you're an imperial guard they'll no one is watching not us Uma trust me there are no eyes in this land that would waste themselves on us they are not watching us they're watching this this oh my god look who can see Humayun finally breaks a little and very slowly awkwardly turns around he stares at the Taj both men do after a moment and another shift of morning light Humayun lowers his sword eventually he drops his sword too both men without sound and without even knowing begin to leap they are experiencing awe in the most biblical sense it is fear it is one of the fires in the sky landed in their city Humayun hits Baboor's arm and hold on to it as if to make sure they both aren't dreaming Humayun's clutch of Baboor's arm slowly loosens drops the two men as if to keep themselves slightly in reality take each other's hands they hold hands and watch the first light of day illuminate the Taj Mahal I should say that the first time I heard this scene was at the Steinberg awards when Rajiv won his Steinberg award and and they read this and it was the first time anybody had ever heard this scene and let me tell you it blew everybody away I mean it was just it's just I just think this is just one of the most beautiful scenes ever and especially as a first scene I was I knew I had to include it in this you know there I even not having seen it in a production this this first scene for me was like the only thing anybody could talk about was like I like what comes next like you know and again like the first scene like George and Martha I mean these characters are so well-defined again there's there's instant you know there's this instant space for conflict between these two men there's obviously this this we've caught a little bit of the scene actually they talk about their childhood a little bit in the scene too with Rajiv's permission I should add and I love that he he without showing us the Taj Mahal he puts us he puts us there and and and for me this scene just I just you know whatever wherever he takes us next I as a viewer want to go as an audience want to go that's all I got right now one thing I'm really struck by with first scenes is how a first line can encapsulate the entire play and in this line the first line is wrong hand I feel like that is a little clear the entire way well yeah I mean thematically and also as a bit of character you know this guy's late for work he's late for work and he gets all ready and then he puts his sword in the wrong and then his friend has his back you know there's a there's a Vladimir and Estragon quality to them as well on this scene it also reminds me of like a mentor of my Naomi is who talks about the big at the beginning of the play she kind of looks at it like you as a playwright are a host and that you are a kind of like gracious host and that when somebody comes into your home or your play you're kind of taking care of them and I feel like this first scene takes care of us in such a wonderful way it gives us a relationship that we care about it gives us humor it gives us setting like I feel like you know Rajiv is like giving us these cookies so I'm like I don't know what this is or where I am but I'm so happy to be here for another five minutes and another five minutes well what's interesting too is that going back to Virginia Woolf I mean well what a play setting he's made for us I mean the warm bath that is this scene as opposed to the cold shower that is that first scene and yet they do prepare you for the story to come you know I do know for a fact that my father hates Virginia Woolf with a passion and I think that my father when he first saw the play just I think that first scene was just like three hours of these people and yeah but I love that idea of you are the hosts do you think he would have enjoyed guards batat I think he would love guards batat um my father loves Rajiv he wishes he were his son yeah but it is that it is that like it welcomes you in to this world that otherwise might seem you know like distant and far away I mean like the year is I don't know like 16 1648 and it just feels so contemporary and like embracing well let's talk about the language in it too I mean one of the things that is in the beginning it says the actor should not speak with accents which is a very very conscious decision to not keep it trapped in amber right and and also there's a lot of um modern colloquialisms pepper throughout it oh come on man yeah like yuppie dang and there's there he throws lots of those in there yeah that that does make it feel incredibly contemporary and in the New York production if anyone saw it it was you know they were it was the the the the physical production was 1648 but then the language you know you you walk into this theater and you you you see this world that is um and I think that's a very wonderful thing that that he does in this first scene in which he says this is I mean it's a very specific date it isn't like it's not saying it's you know he's not saying it's the 17th century it's saying it's 1648 and yet the language that he uses in this first scene instantly um for me at least puts you you know you just like want to hear these guys banter all night because like for these like for these two characters the world is contemporary like they do not feel like they're in a museum piece it's kind of like how like we look at black and white pictures of history and for them they were in full caught like in real life they were in full color but you know we see them with this such this distance all right like we I think we cut it out but the part where uh bubble is kind of talking about his flights of fantasy fancy and he's kind of talking about an airplane he invents an airplane in his imagination right so they talk about all of these and of course whom he keeps saying everything he says is absurd but his audience member we just enjoy you know him talking about all these things that are going to come true I mean that's what makes it also I'm trying not to talk I've seen this play as well and I don't want to ruin it for people who see it but it just that's part of what makes it so such a tragic story for me like it was really one of the my favorite things that I saw last year in part but it was just so heartbreak it was a heartbreak heartbreak to hander can we talk 40 000 hander can we talk briefly about if anybody wants to jump in about your own approach to first scenes and and if any have a particularly wonderful anecdote to tell about either having written you know how some of your plays start um you've written some very long plays in your day those first scenes are a distant memory by the time we uh we leave the theater um can you talk about what you're what what you're you know do you just in general or or or the way you know you have you have a play going on right here as a matter of fact uh I have a play going on here and I'm and I've just started a new play so um it's interesting I I am not uh as crafty uh as we've been talking about the construction of a first play a first scene I will go back over and over again and thread things through but that first pass is a very visceral emotional pass for me there's a lot going on and and it and sometimes it shows up sometimes it doesn't and that's why I go back to it but um I've been working on this new play and as I've been I've now 30 pages in I know what the ending is I often know what the ending is and I was thinking about the last speech of the ending and how I should go back to the very beginning and and plant one line in the very beginning scene so that it will link up in the way I want it in the will have the effect I want it to have when I get to the end so that's an ongoing process it's it's it's the play as the play reveals itself to me more and more I will find myself as I revise going back and re-exploring um the first scene and then I think probably all of us have the same experience of you you know it and you know it and you know it and then you get in the rehearsal room with actors and then they find things that you you didn't even think of but they're there they are there and the actor or the director or the designer pulls that out and you go wow I didn't yes of course of course but I wasn't conscious of that because you're operating at a different level I had an experience so I had to play here the legend Georgia McBride which was done in New York last year premier here at the Denver Center and we thank you and when we were in production in New York one of the last things that changed before we froze the show was the first scene the first scene played so well in Denver that I just we didn't even Mike Donahue and I just were like great first scenes working like gangbusters we were going to work on the rest of the play and then we get it we get in New York and it's you know it's different actors it's a different set it's a different audience it's a different everything and the play didn't kick in until scene two and for the longest time we I you know we had other fish to fry but eventually we looked back at the first scene and realized that the play that the rest of the play had had changed so much that the the first scene needed to and I think that speaks to your what you were just talking about about there is something almost there can be something very methodical about a first scene at times that you do have to sort of like see what the rest of the play will become and then go back and make sure that that first scene supports it you know pinter we I was almost tempted to start with the homecoming because pinter said that the homecoming he didn't know anything about the homecoming except for someone was looking for scissors like and that's the only thing he knew I don't know that's true but I heard that so we're gonna I'm gonna tell that story as if we're sure the caveat that it may not be true but I believe that this is true that that that all he knew about that first scene was um I can't find the scissors where have you put them and and and the rest but he had the benefit of being Harold Pinter because I think even though like we're breaking all these scenes down and like finding all the great things in them I feel like I'm with Robert that it's never like when you're going through that first pass it's never as conscious as like okay this line is going to tell the audience everything about this play and this next line is going to tell the audience everything about this play like I feel it's almost like you're subconsciously like picking at things as fast as you can and hopefully if you've written a good play when you go back you know there's all these beautiful things that you have kind of magically ended up with yeah how many productions would you say it usually takes before you lock in your script depends on the play right like uh Georgia McBride had two productions um there'll be another production later this year somewhere uh that uh I plan to do a little bit of work at in before we we publish it uh whipping that had I think four productions before I felt felt that I was done um and my play somewhere I'm still writing I'm of the school that plays are never finished they're just abandoned right it's true at a certain point you know you've got where you've got to with it and do you find is there is there a place where you you you just you know you're done I mean not done but you're you're going to take put the creoles away um yeah I mean I had a play here last year as well one night in Miami and I thought I was done with it and I just changed the beginning I cut like 15 pages a couple of weeks ago then wrote another 20 pages and I thought it was like locked yeah but just I'm starting to wonder I need to do what you need to do and just give up on it can you can you turn can you turn after you finished a play finished a play are you able to just turn your your writer's mind off when you watch it again you must have seen crowns many times over the years yes but yes do you watch that play and still edit it or are you done I think I'm back to a place that just crowns and I enjoy that over the years it's had these various productions that some I agree with some I don't but always the spirit of the piece still holds and so I'm always delighted by that I don't know that I'm ever I think a play is a living thing and so it continues so if I have another opportunity to come back to it as I'm coming back to a play called with my duty that was done several years ago I'm coming back to it now in a different place in terms of writing and certainly a different place in terms of the times that were in it's a piece about female jazz musicians in the 40s and the times being the men have gone off to war women's baseball league rosy the riveter we have these all female bands that sprang up during this time the men are coming back home this territory that the women have gained we don't know where we are right now you have a black man coming back to the United States and he's trying to figure out where he stands as well I think it's it's changed for me because of I think the journey that I've been on and certainly where we are right now informs me to look at it in a different way so I'm really challenged by rewriting piece so we do another scene so another way obviously plays begin um from days of Shakespeare uh beyond uh sometimes they start with a speech uh and uh we are going to do one of those a little switcheroo here this is actually how the commissioning process works they put a series of chairs out and we walked around and they stopped the music and then that's it uh we're going to do a polavogal play we're going to do the first scene we're going to do the first speech from baltimore waltz stage right in our trench coat clutching the brillettes pocket guide to europe Anna reads from a book help me please uh dutch couldn't image helping abscheft there's nothing i can do french i have no memory where are the toilets i've never studied abroad it's not that i don't want to but the language terrifies me i was traumatized by a junior high school french teacher and after that it was a lost cause i think that's the reason i went into elementary education words like brioche bidet buildings roman raise a sweat oh i want to go carl he's my brother you'll meet him shortly he desperately wants to go but then he can speak six languages he's the head librarian of literature and languages at the san francisco public library it's a very important position the thought of 800 year old houses perched on the sides of mountains and rivers whose names you've only seen in the sunday times crosser puzzles all of that is exciting but i'm not going without him he's read so much i couldn't possibly go without him you see i've never been abroad unless you count baltimore maryland that's it one of the things that i love she has the ability to do that most writers it's just so cloying is is um it is talk directly to the audience but in a way that sort of creates a sense of the audience is a character in play as well um we are we aren't being um we aren't things aren't being explained to us because the writer hasn't figured out how to actually write the scene so much as things are being explained to us because that's the only way the character can possibly convey themselves that they need our confidence um i think that's you know that that was something about um uh just the the very clear precise obvious way this place starts of like so this is who i am and this is what's going on and and usually it doesn't go well when it's when you see that in plays because it's just like you know don't tell us show us but but paula vebo has this amazing way of just sort of like kind of putting your arm around us and just going here this is what you need to know it's almost as if she's whispering in our ear um and and and and there is something there's something about starting with a speech that can be very terrified for for an actor and it can be very terrifying for an audience um but um you know when those those those moments happen um they they instantly create a bond with the audience i think she does that and i think too she sets up the rules of the play with this monologue because it's a very theatrical play there's a character in this play who plays many different roles they go to europe he plays all different kinds of doctors and you know lovers and just a really hyper theatricalized character and so she sets this kind of other world up in this first monologue um and i also love how the humor that you mentioned right because this play is about anna and her brother has hiv aids and so uh it's really a very corny and played very moving play a very tragic play but i guess there's so much humor there's so much lightness and she really reveals the the reality to us slowly really brings us in with the humor that i think is really beautiful um do you start to play with speech you've done this let's just start to play with speech yes yeah what are your experiences with it in terms of you and you started um because we're doing another scene later that starts with speech we're actually not doing the speech but we're going into the scene um your experience what has been the the um why do you do that what why the choice of that in any particular play that you've done it made sense for for that for that particular uh play um is trinity river plays it was a trilogy uh about this young girl starting out as a young girl starting when she's 17 years old birthday uh to 17 years later to uh a little while later so you see her at different points in her life the first piece was jar fly and it begins with her birthday and that was really important as it spoke to me that we saw the essence of who she is in this uh as it were cocoon ready to come out so we see for that literally but it is a cocoon it's monologue for speaking to herself revealing herself in this first moment of the play it it it spoke to me in that way it's sort of much the same way the beginning of glas menagerie works which is for tom to say um i am of this world but also i'm going to be a part of i'm apart from it uh and you need to take me on both in both terms and he's not the narrator of the play but the beginning of the play with that speech was the only time so perhaps at the end uh would he um no not the end um when he speaks to the audience he um he he sets himself apart and he says watch me um which is important for that character that play you're going to say something i know oh i was also going to say um i don't know if i've ever started to play with the monologue but i feel like when you do that it's such a strong choice that it makes you pay attention to what does this mean like in this case like this means this play is going to be about me or i'm going to take you to the story and then it also made me think of uh august osage county where it starts with this like long long monologue um by the father i think bev beverly beverly um whom has this monologue we never see him again and i and i feel like that seems like so deliberate um just to like the playwright is shining the spotlight on this character of like pay attention to this i almost picked that scene too yeah that's a great first scene because it is also uh unlike anything else in the whole play beverly's speech is so um he's so loquacious and he's so philosophical and drunk um and and and and he does that first scene in that play is so masterful because um you know it's a 13 character play and that gets expensive and to write a character who is in only the first 10 minutes of the play and then vanishes uh is is is ballsy in my idea but like but like think of what what the play would be if you didn't have that it would work if like the play started in scene two where they're like where's that he's gone yeah like would you care no i mean maybe but not as much as you do because you've seen him yeah and um and yeah i think that's that's that's another great example of starting with a speech um how are we doing on time we should do the last scene yeah um you're still here now you get to go so for our so for our final number tonight uh we're going to be doing uh the first scene from my all-time favorite play uh if i if there was no if i had to save one i would save this one um but i'll never have to be on the digital age um we're going to do the first scene from glass menagerie um we're not going to do the speech that starts the play which definitely sets the tone and sets the character i know it's such a beautiful it's beautiful language uh but i'm reading tom so we really don't want that um i will say that i cribbed this totally from my play somewhere the first scene just wasn't working like i wanted it to and i was like we need we need to isolate this character and i'm like what would williams do and you would just like give a big speech on the fire escape i was like done let's do that um williams did a much better job of it than i did uh so tom has set the scene he's told us it's play's memory um he's told us about all the um the production elements that are going to go on in this scene uh in this play uh he's going to tell us that we're watching a naturalistic play but it's not going to be done naturalistically uh which is such a wonderful part of this play um and and then the scene starts tom yes mother we can't say grace until you come to the table coming mother honey he bows lightly and withdraws reap hearing a few moments later in his place at the table honey don't push with your fingers if you have to push with something the thing to push with is a crust of bread and chew chew animals have secretions in their stomachs which enable them to digest food without mastication but human beings are supposed to chew their food before they swallow it down eat food leisurely sun and really enjoy it a well cooked meal has lots of the delicate flavors that have to be held in the mouth for appreciation so chew your food and give your salivary glands a chance to function tom deliberately lays his imaginary fork down and pushes his chair back from the table i haven't enjoyed one bite of this dinner because of your constant directions on how to eat it it's you that make me rush through meals with your hawk like attention to every bite i take sickening spoils my appetite all this discussion of animals secretions salivary glands mastication temperament like a metropolitan star tom rises and walks towards the living room you're not excused from the table i'm getting a cigarette you smoke too much i'll bring in the blunt mosh tom remains standing with his cigarette by the no sister no sister you be the lady this time and i'll be the darkie i'm already up resume your seat little sister i want you to stay fresh and pretty for gentlemen callers i'm not expecting any gentlemen callers sometimes they come when they're least expected why i remember one sunday afternoon in blue mountain i know what's coming yes but let her tell it again she loves the talent one sunday afternoon in blue mountain your mother received 17 gentlemen callers why sometimes there weren't enough chairs to accommodate them all we had to send the nigger over to bring in the folding chairs from the parish house how did you entertain those gentlemen callers i understood the art of conversation i bet you could talk girls in those days knew how to talk i can tell you yes image on screen amanda as a girl in a porch greeting callers they knew how to entertain their gentlemen callers it wasn't enough for a girl to be possessed of a pretty face and a graceful figure although i wasn't slighted in either respect she also needed to have a nimble wit and a tongue to meet all occasions what did you talk about things of importance going on in the world never anything coarse or common or vulgar she addresses tom as though he was seated in the vacant chair at the table though he remains by the portiers he plays the scene as though reading from a script my callers were gentlemen all among my callers were some of the most prominent young planners of the mississippi delta planners and sons of planters tom lotions for music and a spot of light on amanda her eyes left her face glows her voice her voice becomes rich screen legend don't there was young champ loughlin who later became vice president of the delta planters bank had the stevensson who drowned in moon lake and left his widow 150 000 in government bonds there were the cure cuter brothers wesley and bates bates was one of my particularly bright bow he got into a quarrel with that wild wane right boy they shot it out in front of the floor of moon lake casino bates was shot through the stomach died in the ambulance on his way to memphis his widow was also well provided for came into aid or 10 000 acres that's all she married him on the rebound never loved her carried my picture on him the night he died and there was that boy that every girl in the delta had her kept set for that beautiful brilliant young fits you boy from green county what did he leave his widow never married gracious you talk as though all of my old admirers had turned up their toes to the daisies isn't this the first you've mentioned that still survives that fits you boy went north and made a fortune came to be known as the wolf of wall street he had the mightest touch whatever he touched turned to gold and i could have been mrs duncan j fits you mind you but i picked your father mother let me clear the table no dear you go in front and study your typewriter chart or practice your shorthand a little stay fresh and pretty it's almost time for our gentlemen callers to start arriving how many do you suppose we're going to entertain this afternoon tom who's down the paper and jumps up with a groan i don't believe we're going to receive any mother what no one not one you must be joking laura nervously echoes her laugh she slips into a fugitive manner through the half open courtiers and draws them gently behind her a shaft of very clear light is thrown on her face against the faded tapestry of the curtains faintly the music of the glass menagerie is heard as she continues not one gentleman caller it can't be true there must be a flood there must have been a tornado it isn't a flood it's not a tornado mother i'm just not popular like you were in blue mountain tom udder is another groan laura glances at him with a faint apologetic smile her voice catches father's afraid of going to be an old mate the scene dims out with the glass menagerie music so obviously i love the language in this scene i mean it's just like gorgeous gorgeous language and and again it's like almost like with the uh virginia wolf opening it's the entire play in a nutshell in this scene it is all the characters is all the the conflict it's what every you know the last line of the scene mother's afraid i'm going to be an old mate is in some ways what you know the motivation of the play can be reduced to um uh there's um there's something i you know obviously there's something quite jarring in in two of the lines in this in this scene for a contemporary audience to hear um and and it's something that is so casually thrown out uh by her and it it's so funny because it it you know it it doesn't it doesn't paint her it doesn't paint her as a bigot it doesn't paint her as a um as an awful character is certainly not someone that we're made to sort of be aware of in that in those terms but the casualness which which she throws it out which isn't matched in any way by her two children um it's like she's trapped in this other world and been like put down on and you know in this kind of tiny little cramped apartment i would venture that it would have been inappropriate even you know even in its day uh that the in in this scene as it's used those words are not they're just i mean you know it's not it's just it's so it's almost is anachronistic within within the scene but everything we need to know about this woman is laid out right here in the thing and that wonderful speech that you know she begins with of like instructing him how to enjoy his meal um you know the setting the the um setting the relationship up so so so clearly and so purely um there there's there's i don't know i just i i i i just i i love this i love this i love this plan i love this scene i love that the scene really uh it really does just it's impossible not to whatever decide what you decide to do with your production it's impossible not to allow this scene to set the tone of the play um you know you talked about like setting a table we literally knew that in the scene we literally set the table and begin to eat dinner uh and we're led into into the world at this time i think i know that they haven't talked about his stage directions right and williams has these incredibly ornate poetic lengthy stage directions um that set up this world as well for the reader for the director for the actors for the designers that we don't see on the stage but it informs how the play gets produced and i think i think it's just i mean he's like a master and but you know in today's uh theater we don't see this indicate you know list uh as he does but i think it's another tool that these players are using like also in regime justice piece how he describes watching the taj and just on the page it's like he describes how they see it you know i think that's an important part of these first scenes how the playwright describes in the stage directions what this world looks like and feels like i think it's uh it's good to take note of race in this play i think he shrugs off race so when um he's placing those words in her mouth it is to place her in terms of not just time because we use those words today but it is to place it in terms of race and gender and place where is she in all of this how she feels uprooted displaced could have been if she had married and about being married rather than having a career where all those things are spoken of in terms of the use of the inward and who she sees herself as serving or not serving well and and and i love that juxtaposition too of this is not a very nice house it's a very nice apartment that they live in you know it's a rat trap and and that she's she's this tuesday night dinner is this she wants it to be this elegant affair so everything in the scene everything that williams lays into the scene it really does establish her as as yeah from from from wanting to hold on to the different to that old that old place it's tempting to establish on a random tuesday night at dinner that we're going to act as if i mean i think that's the the one of the big things of the play is we will act as if yeah we'll act as if we are rich and white rather than uh displaced and like niggers um is is what i was thinking about place um and how each of these scenes each of the opening scenes has a very strong sense of place even if it's not even if it's a place that's not present but desired or imagined in this case you have three people living in three very different places actually she's a man who's living in the past or what should have been and laura is living in increasingly shrinking world of her own imagination and tom has already left tom can't wait to leave tom is looking beyond to go tajma hall you know what a striking place to set a play for the beginning um and um and virginia wolf it's it's a home but it's the middle of the night it's two o'clock in the morning and everything that that does to a house it nothing seems familiar