 So I'm here at the Denver Center. Thank you. It's my mom over there. No, it's not my mom. You give me a microphone and this is going to be a long night. We are here to spend some time with playwrights. These are tonight we're going to be reading from some of our work. Anybody who attended the conversation we had last night knows now that playwrights make the best actors and especially when they're reading their own work because we sit there and we listen to actors say it wrong and we quietly say to ourselves, if I were doing it, you would do it like this. So this is the one and only opportunity where playwrights have an opportunity to show you what it actually sounds like in our heads. We're going to start. I'm going to go first. So because I get nervous, I'm going to sit up here and I'm going to use the mic. So I'm going to do this too because I get very nervous. So this is from my new play. It's called The Inheritance. The only thing you need to know about this scene is that the play is very loosely based on E.M. Forster's Howard's End. It's set in contemporary and what you need to know about this scene is that Toby and Eric have been together for about seven years and Toby is a playwright and Eric is a blogger. He's been in a five bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side that has been literally grandfathered to Eric that they are in controlled stealing. But they're about to lose the apartment because the owners of the building have caught on to their little scheme and Toby has just had a smash hit play in Chicago. Yeah. And it's going to Broadway and he feels like the director and the star have taken all the credit and he's not getting any credit for his own work and so he still has some things to prove. So they have to leave their home of seven years, this palatial apartment and they are looking for new apartments. So they're at home with their laptops looking at apartments. It starts with Eric so you can keep track of the back and the forward. Here's a nice place, but neighborhood. Puddle Hill. I don't want to live in Brooklyn. Everyone's moving there. Then there should be plenty of apartments in Manhattan to choose from. At least in Brooklyn we can find a place with space. I have a play opening on Broadway in the spring. I just sold the film rights. Why don't I just buy an apartment? Do you ever read the Times real estate section? My advances should be arriving any day now. And you have to live off of that until the show opens and even then you have to wait until it starts making money. It'll make money. And where do you think you can afford to buy it? With your credit, Toby, even if your show were a hit, the best we could possibly afford is somewhere in Brooklyn, somewhere far out in Brooklyn. Who are all these people buying houses and apartments then? Russians. Why don't we rent a place for a year and then if the show recoups we can look into buying something. I'm not leaving Manhattan. We can maybe afford a one bedroom in Midtown. I need more space than that. Which is why I'm looking in Brooklyn. What about Williamsburg? It's just a quick ride to the city. Yeah, when the trains are working. Park Slope? I'd test yoga. Well, there's always a story. No, there isn't. You have to work with me here. You just can't say no to every idea. Well, what about Los Angeles? I hate Los Angeles. Don't be such a cliche New Yorker. I can hate Los Angeles without being a cliche. Besides, my work is here. But my agent thinks I can work on a series if I wanted. Why don't you just stay in New York and start working on another play? No one actually works in theater anymore. It's television's waiting room. Oh, come on. This is my character speaking, not me. You screwed up my setup. Don't boo me this time. If you stay in New York and start working on another play, no one actually works in theater anymore. It's television's waiting room. Well, then who are all these people working in theater right now? Those who didn't get pilots this season. My character, okay? What if I went to Los Angeles and you stay here? Listen to me, Toby. I don't want to stay here. Yeah, we could be by coastal for a while. How would that save us money? We could each get tiny places? Are you being subtle right now? I don't know what you're talking about. Yes, you do. I promise I don't. Most people would take a moment to consider how difficult this transition might be for their partner. But not you, Toby. The second thing is to get a little challenging. You want to bolt for California. Just until rehearsal start, for seven years I have been carrying you financially. And now that you've got just a little bit of success, you don't have been carrying for me financially. This is bullshit. You couldn't even afford a studio in bed style without me. And instead, you've been living it up, rent free in this palatial apartment, and acting as if you belong here. Okay, first of all, it's hardly palatial. The kitchen hasn't been updated since the Carter administration. The refrigerator is harvest gold, for God's sake. You want out and you're just too scared to say it. That's not true. You know I would never move to Los Angeles. You know I would never leave the city. I think you just want different things. Just be honest with me, please. Just tell me you want out. I know I need to know this if I'm doing this alone or not. I just think we're headed in two different directions. Yeah, meaning you think you're a sin and don't want the inconvenience of having a boyfriend around messing up your fun. Now that I don't have this apartment to offer you, now that success is in your grasp, now that you think you can take care of yourself, you don't need me anymore. Maybe even you think you can do better, but at least be honest and tell me that, Toby. I just want something new. Problem with that plan, Toby, is you'll be stuck with yourself no matter where you land next. Thank you. Did you sleep with Adam in Chicago? Adam's the lead in his play. Did you sleep with Adam in Chicago? No. Did you want to? Well, of course I want to have sex with Adam. Who doesn't? I don't. Well, then there is something seriously wrong with you, Eric. He's gorgeous. There's more to people than beauty. Yeah, well, you would have to tell yourself that, wouldn't you? I didn't mean that. Actually, Toby, that's the first honest thing you've said this entire conversation. I suppose I should thank you. And since we are telling each other the truth, your play made me sick to my stomach. I actually threw up afterwards. You told me it was the oysters we ate at dinner. No, it was the play. You're insane. That play is the greatest thing I've ever done in my life. We're a huge fucking hit. We're moving Broadway in the spring. You're just jealous because of Tom's brilliant production. And because of Adam's heartbreaking performance. He's the heart and soul of that play. There would be no brilliant production or heartbreaking performance without my script. I am the heart and soul of the play. You have no heart or soul, Toby. You're all ambition and self-regard. Grown men wept at that play. Straight ones. Because you manufactured it to have that precise effect. Your play was nothing but pure cynical calculation. All storytelling is cynical calculation. Haven't you ever seen a Hitchcock film? You've gotten so good at spinning people you think you can spin me too. But you forget that unlike all the rest of your recently acquired acolytes, I know who you really are. Your book was a con job from start to finish and your play was even worse. Not without talent, of course. God forbid anyone should accuse you of that. But worse without integrity. You were so terrified of truly being known of even facing it yourself that you have spent a decade of your life constructing this narrative that has nothing to do with the truth. And now you even believe it yourself. Adam's character isn't you. You know that, right? It's just who you want people to think you are. Which of course makes Adam the perfect actor for it because he's everything you've always wanted to be. I couldn't even look at you after I saw your play because all your self delusions were up there on that stage. So beautifully rendered by Tom and Adam. Neither of them having any idea that they're doing all the service of your sickness. And soon enough all of New York is going to see it and all your delusions will become that official story and you tell me that flesh and blood man who once had such promise that man who I met and was dazzled by and believed in will no longer exist. And all that will remain is your ambition and your ego and delusions and the only person who will know the truth is me. Which is why you need to get as far away from me as possible because I'm the only one who knows what a frog you are and more importantly what wasted eventually your life has become. And that's what you're too much of a coward to say. Well if you feel this way about me, if this is who you think I am and why have you stayed with me so long? Because I'm a coward too. That's it. Thanks. Okay now I'm like done. This is going to be an easy part of the work. It gets so much easier guys. First up is Lauren Yee. Lauren's play in the word is currently having a national new play network rolling world premiere beginning at Straw Duck Theatre Company in Chicago. Her play King of the Yeas has been read. It's several new play festivals across the country. Lauren is a member of the Mayi Theatre's writer lab and a playwright center core writer Lauren Yee. She'll tell me if I need it. Scene from my play King of the Yeas which is about me and my father and the only thing that you kind of need to know is that this scene is between two Asian American actors who are on break in a hallway kind of in between acting in this play. Scene, hallway. So while we're out here can I ask, ask what I don't get? What don't you get? It's a men's club? It's a men's club. For Chinese people named Yee. Right. Sorry what don't you get? I guess my question is why? Why you'd want a men's club? Why you'd want to save it? So in the future you can have an association of Yee men for some reason. I should have asked when we were rehearsing. Why didn't you? If I ask then I'm the one asking and I feel like she came in just expecting us to know. Just because we're Chinese. Actually I'm Korean. What? Now you're going to get me in trouble. For being Korean, King of the Yeas So? I had no idea the whole thing was going to be so Chinese centric. I figured they were just looking for general Asians. Fuck that. Fuck her. Thank you. Hey I'm only three quarters Chinese. Really? My mother's mother was Irish. Oh now I can see it. It's like a part of me is oppressing the rest of myself. Could she tell you're not awful Asian? No. She can't tell. Even Asian people can't tell. I'm so relieved though. I didn't have to do my Chinese accent. Why? Mine is so bad. Most Asians have awful Asian accents. No. But mine was like we are Chinese. We are Chinese. We are Chinese. Chinese. Chinese. How was that? Was that Chinese? Somebody told me that what you need to do is keep your mouth shut so that when you talk no. No? What my voice teacher said is that you do want to suck your jaw but you also want to keep pressure on the diaphragm. Down here Chinese. You're hitting more of the knees instead of the thigh. Chinese. Like you've been punched in the gut. Chinese. Chinese. Working in a rice paddy. Chinese. And there are bombs and Agent Orange raining down on you then you're just doing Vietnamese. No. Wait. There are Japanese bombs raining down on you. Chinese. And you can't see your conical hat and your eyes are really small. Chinese. So you have to lean forward to see but you're still running from the Japanese bombs. Chinese. The weight of your ancestors is on the lower part of your diaphragm. Chinese. And the expectations of your unborn ABC children are pressing down on the back of your throat. Chinese. But from the inside and you speak like there's a sorrow. Chinese. Buried so deeply inside of you. Here and here. Chinese. Flat in the yards. Chinese. Watch your tones. Chinese. Dim sum carts. Chinese. Lactose intolerance. Chinese. Chinese. Chinese. My voice teacher spent two years living in Shanghai. So she knows. They say what you have to do is imagine that you're a woman which for me is easy. And that someone is raping you and you want to scream. But you've just had plastic surgery so you can't move your face. Korean. You'll probably never need it anymore. Wow. Is Kim Powers Yes. Kim is a resident playwright at Los Angeles his multi-award winning brogue machine theater company where his premiere play One Night in Miami enjoyed a sold out four month Los Angeles run in 2013 and received four LA Drama Critics Circle Awards as well as four NAACP theater awards. He has since enjoyed a groundbreaking run at Baltimore Center Stage and a successful run here at the Denver Center. And it is currently in development for his first commercial run in London. Ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen. Kim Powers Is it okay if I stand? I didn't expect you to just read my bio. Yeah I'm going to do a short scene from something new that I've been working on. It's called Little Black Shadows. It is a play about a family who lives on a cotton plantation in Georgia in the 1850s and they're on the process of trying to move to a sugar plantation in Louisiana. The characters are the mother, the father, their two twin 11 year old children and each of the twins has their own 11 year old child slave who sleeps under their bed at night and the slaves only communicate with each other when the kids are asleep. This scene is one where the father of the house is trying to teach his young son a lesson. I guess that's the best way to put it. We hear an uncharacteristic buzzing sound that starts off quietly then grows in volume until it becomes nearly deafening. As the light of day returns the stage is illuminated revealing a large wasp nest hanging from the ceiling outside the front door of the house. Father is staring up at it chewing on a blade of grass as he takes it in. Daniel 11 year old son is watching father and Colis Daniel's 11 year old slave stands behind watching Daniel. Father, you know what that is? Sir? That. Do you know what that is? A hornet's nest. Huh. So you're not dumber than a stump after all and what do you think of hornets? Huh? Oh so now you're deaf. I said what do you think of hornets? I hate them. Why? Because they're ornery. So are the dogs. Only when you mess with them hornets are ornery for no darn good reason. Oh there's a reason. Tell me Daniel, why are hornets important? They ain't important. Ain't they? Son I may just barely be able to suffer your prance about this house like a Betty, but I cannot suffer your ignorance. What? The hornet has a purpose. Like you, me, everyone. My purpose is to farm this land. Take care of my wife, raise my children. Your purpose seems to get on my last damn nerve. And Colis's purpose is to look after you and these hornets. They've got a purpose as well. You wouldn't be sleeping that comfortable bed of yours and have that roof over your head if not for these here hornets. Daniel looks confused. The hornet kills the aphid. The hornet kills the hornworm. The hornet kills just about every damn kind of caterpillar that crawls, chews, and creeps. And what do all those things do, Daniel? Turn into butterflies? God damn it boy. In some turn into moths. And yes, and what? And kill our crops? That's right. They kill our crops. And the hornet kills all of them. But it isn't just that they kill them, it's how they kill them that's so important to understand. Father reaches into his pocket, pulls out some tobacco and rolling papers and begins to roll himself a cigarette as he speaks. You see, the hornet don't sting them or bite them till they die. No, the hornet flies up and stuns them. It paralyzes them. And then it lays its eggs inside of them while they're still living. Little critter wakes up, wonders what the hell just happened to it. Was that a dream? Then it goes about its business like nothing ever happened. Something did happen, didn't it? Those eggs hatch, then the little baby hornet lovers start to eat critter alive from the inside. Till one day its skin falls off and it explodes. One second it's a healthy caterpillar and the next it's a bunch of little hornets out in the world looking for the next victims so they can deliver the same fate. Dad, that's awful. I think it's beautiful. Why would you think some animal getting its guts eaten while it's still alive is beautiful? Because to me it's a sign of what? God's justice. I don't understand. You see, the devil, he put the aphid, the horn worm and the caterpillar on the God-fearing man's land all load up in heaven. He created us in his image and he gave us the ability to tame the land, harvest the land and he even gave us the cursed children a ham to aid us in our mission so that we might be fruitful, so that we might bring him glory. But then the devil made these things, the aphid, the horn worm as a pestilence upon us to remind us that if we let down our guard for even a single moment that even the Lord's congresses cannot protect us from him. But then, see, I believe that God heard our pleas for help in battling back these insidious minions of the devil and so he gave us the hornet. Not just to aid us, but to do so in a way that showed the devil how horrible our Lord's justice could be. To put fear in the devil's heart when he even thinks about placing these burdens upon his children. You, me, your mother, your sister, God says to the devil, I will not simply push back your agents. No, I will tear apart their insides, make them suffer until their very last breath, put tear in their hearts and by extension yours, by delivering a death that is as precognitive as it is inevitable, as painful as it is horrible, the worst kind of death, the Lord's branded death. So you see the hornet, if you think about it, ought to be revered. It's not a pest, it's not ornery, it's one of God's little winged angels. Still, you can't have all the angels up there stinging on visitors when they come inside the house. Get that nest down. Sir, get it down. Father pulls out a ladder and sets it against the wall. It's topped just under where the wasp nest hangs. The angry buzzing gets a little louder. Daniel stands there staring at Father. The Father's face betrays no emotions. He stares back at him. Reluctantly, Daniel turns to Colas, then points up to the wasp nest and makes a pulling gesture, signaling him to get it down. Colas' eyes go wide with fear, but he nonetheless slowly begins to make his way over to the ladder. No, I didn't say use your shadow. Colas, you stay right there. Yes, you get it down yourself, son. But how, sir? Father places the now-finished cigarette into his mouth. He strikes a match, lights it, and takes a long drag. He doesn't answer. Daniel, he's waiting. When Daniel realizes no answer is coming, he walks over to the ladder and begins to climb it. Father and Colas watch as he slowly ascends. Less than halfway to the top, he smacks at his arm and he's pulling the first time. Out. He continues ascending. Another sting makes him flail at his leg. Out. Now sobbing, Daniel finally reaches the top and stretches out his arm, pulled down the nest. The buzzing now rises to a roar as Daniel is beset by body and stinging wasps. He flails at his arms, legs, and back. In one final stretch, he yanks the nest from the ceiling and tosses it to the ground. Not a second later, still swatting at the stinging insects, he falls from the ladder. Master Daniel! His lunges towards the falling Daniel as the lights go dark. Thanks. 10 hours! Next up, can I just say for a second, we are like listening to plays that have never been done before, written for like, spoken by playwrights? That's amazing! Next up is Anne Garcia Romero. Her plays include Providence, which was seen at the Eugene O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. Paloma, which was a National Latino Playwriting Award runner-up. Earthquake Chica, National Latino Playwriting Award finalist. Mary Domingo, Goodman Theatre Commission. Mary Peabody in Cuba, National Latino Playwriting Award finalist. She teaches at the Department of Film, Television and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. It's about two characters, Paloma and Ibrahim. They live in New York City. They're both NYU graduate students. They've been born and raised in New York City. This is the second scene of the play, and it takes place at NYU. Scene two, on the Essence of Love. September 22, 2003, early evening. Ibrahim and Paloma study in the New York University Library. They read to each other. Paloma, love, may God honor you, begins with riddles and ends in truth. Ibrahim, and because it is sublime, its subtle definition cannot be deciphered, Paloma, nor its essence could. Without generous determination, Ibrahim, we know that the essence of attraction or the separation between creating things arises from the affinity or repulsion between them. Paloma, therefore, love is a rebellious illness. Ibrahim, whose medicine exists within itself if we know how to treat it. Paloma, but it's a delicious illness, and an appetizing sickness. Those who don't have it curse their health, Ibrahim. Those who have it don't want to find it pure. They put down their books. Paloma. And so, apparently Ibn Hazm had it going on in 11th century Spain. Ibrahim, and so he wrote his treatise on love. Ring of the Dove in the original Arabic, Alhamama, in Spanish, El Coyar, Paloma, El Coyar. Ibrahim, El Coyar de la Paloma. Paloma, my name, Ibrahim Paloma. Paloma, aha, means dove. Then there's Flores, Ibrahim Paloma, Flores, Paloma, Flowers, Ibrahim, Floras de Paloma. Paloma, Flowers of the Dove, right here. That's what I'm talking about. You have the pronunciation, you speak. Ibrahim, un poco, no mucho. El Coyar de la Paloma, Paloma, Tawak al Hamama, Ring of the Dove, Ibrahim. So, why ring? Why dove? Paloma, well, Coyar means necklace or maybe neck ring, and Paloma means pigeon or dove. Ibrahim, both? I like dove better. Paloma, yeah. And so, Professor Gomez mentioned that the dove also represents the soul in the neoplateness philosophy that influenced even Hassan. Weren't you paying attention to his lecture? Ibrahim, I guess I was kind of distracted in class today. Okay, so the dove represents the soul and Paloma, and the ring of the dove refers to human kinds attempt to guide, i.e. put a ring around one's divine soul, i.e. dove. Ibrahim, great. What else do I miss? Paloma, well, after his friend wrote him a letter asking for romantic advice, even Hassan described rules, Ibrahim, on how to love. Paloma, kick-ass rules. Ibrahim, do they still apply? Paloma, I think they just might. Ibrahim, so are you suggesting we try to apply them? Paloma, is that a come-on? Ibrahim, too obvious. Paloma, kind of, Ibrahim, oh. Paloma, I mean it's not like I'm not into obvious come-ons, it's just in this context Ibrahim, yeah. Paloma, in the NYU library Ibrahim, in a study room. Paloma, in the afternoon Ibrahim, early evening, actually. Paloma, study session. Ibrahim, context, you're right. Paloma, not a bad context, just kind of Ibrahim, random. Paloma, unexpected. Ibrahim, not always a bad thing. Paloma, not always. Ibrahim, could kind of fit in with the study-partner thing. Paloma, huh? Ibrahim, partner, couple, study, learn. Just, you know, different context. Paloma, why are you even taking this course? Ibrahim, attraction to Paloma okay? Ibrahim, to this subject matter for my masters in Islamic studies. Paloma, because Ibrahim, so dig that period. And location in history in light of, you know, now. Paloma, you mean like all the residual anxiety and antagonism in the atmosphere hovering over our entire society? Ibrahim, oh, there is that. And you? Paloma, I need this course for my masters in world history. This one covers transnational themes, so yeah, ancient Muslim Spain. Ibrahim, Al-Andalus. Paloma, 800 years. Ibrahim, three religions. Paloma, Islam. Ibrahim, Christianity. Paloma, Judaism. La Convivencia. Ibrahim, co-existing peacefully. Right, exactly. I mean, yeah. And plus, there are definite benefits. Paloma, too. Ibrahim taking this course. Paloma, and they are. Ibrahim points to Paloma. Paloma, ah, Ibrahim. Yeah, Paloma, there is that. Next up, we have Rogelio Montines. Right, I told you I was surprised you didn't need to go around. The Lark Play Development Center announced that he was the inaugural recipient of the Lark Big Career Playwriting Fellowship. Yes. This award is from the New York City where his laboratory is designed to ensure economic stability for playwrights at transformative junctures in their careers. Thank you, Lark Play Development Center. For the Denver Center, he's writing a play about Reagan and Gorbachev, which will complete his Cold War trilogy, which includes Ping Pong and Born in East Berlin. Ladies and gentlemen, Rogelio Montines. Alright, so, oh, actually the light's pretty good here, so I might be able to read. So, this is the first scene of the play that I'm working on, on Reagan, which is very difficult to write about, because I have no clue what's going on inside his head. So, if I skip a page by mistake, it's okay. Then it's consistent with the tone of the play. So, hopefully at some point I'll drop these and then I'll be, you know, and then we'll find a structure. So, first scene, a light on a nurse in the void somewhere, there's a man in a wheelchair. His back is to us, he's Ronald Reagan, the nurse. He talks about writing out into the sunset. He used to hum me this one piece of music. I looked at all his movies, but can't find what he's referring to. This was when I first started working. I tried to talk to her once about this and she dismissed me. Then a few days later, she sat me down and then made it clear that I was not to correct them. So, there's this music, but there's this other sound he talks about almost always at the same time. Swish, swish, swish, swish. Really loud he explains. Can one really call it explaining? I suppose my job is to understand. So, explaining is as good a word as any. He says the sound is loud until, well, you're right there and then it doesn't sound as loud. These two things, well, someone once told me that what we do with our memories is to create some kind of story. That's why we remember things wrongly. It doesn't fit our story. This is what seems to be happening. He's trying to tell a story and even when memories don't match up, he just pulls them together. There are memories where he wasn't even there for them, but he pulls them into his story. Or even if it didn't happen, it becomes part of the story. A technician wearing a Reeboks and a sweatshirt walks by. A technician. We're ready whenever. And the technician's gone. An RCA 1930s mic nearby. There's a teletype. An assistant enters and hands the man in the wheelchair a piece of paper. The assistant has a non-matching shirt, pants. He sits next to Reagan. His information comes over the teletype. As the pages come, the assistant passes him to Reagan. The Cubs trail New York, 3-0. Willi McCrae is at the plate. Balled off two pitches. Hauser is getting up rave at first and he's a few steps from the bag. Throw to the first. Safe. Infield is in. This is Wilson's seventh pitch. Grace swings. Ball ball down the first base line. The teletype breaks down. The assistant panics. The two continue to look at one another, but then Reagan continues. Or you can see the frustration on Wilson's face. Whatever he's got, McCrae is falling off. Wilson just had a tough time with McCrae this whole game. The pitcher goes to the Rosenbag. He's trying to slow down the game. The assistant's panicking. He's trying to fix the machine. This teletype is clearly not working and Reagan is just making it up. It hasn't been an easy day. The young man has allowed three runs. The Yankees are not done with him. He can only slow down the game so long. Wilson goes to the mound, but now it's McCrae backing off. He cleans his cleats. And they usually like to keep things moving, the Yankees do. But now these two are just playing a whole new game. The teletype starts to work again. Reagan. Alright, here we go. McCrae swings. The ball goes right past the shortstop. Hauser comes around third. Kinsley in right. Field throws home. The play at the plate. Hauser slides save McCrae. Easily takes second. Yankees take a four point lead. The game seems to be picking up now with a second baseman. White at the plate. The teletype continues to bring the information in. In their light shift. The assistant is cleaning up. Reagan is putting on his coat. Assistant, how do you do it? What's that? You've never been to New York, but I was right there with you. Well, the machine there has the facts. The rest, well, there isn't anyone listening and watching the game at the same time. You mean there isn't anyone to say you're wrong. It's a technician from earlier walks by. Already when you are, Mr. President, a second assistant enters. May I take your coat? Reagan hesitates over his coat. Second assistant. And here's what you'll be saying. Reagan, what are these lines over here? Second assistant, you circled them. You wanted to put some emphasis and technician says sound check. Reagan tops the mic. It's no longer 1930s RCA, but something more advanced. It's the 80s. It works. Technician, ready? Reagan, you need me, technician. Just use whatever voice. I understand. Technician, okay, ready over here. Reagan says, my fellow Americans, I'm pleased to announce I've just signed legislation that will outlaw the Soviet Union forever. We begin bombing in five minutes. Reagan smiles. Everyone in the room laughs. People in the shadows. We've never seen before. Reagan says, how is that? Technician, good. Good to go. Three, two, green light comes up. Reagan says, my fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you that today I signed legislation that will allow student religious groups to begin enjoying a right they've too long been denied. The freedom to meet in public. High school students during non-high school hours just as other student groups are allowed to do. At that moment, Secretary of State George Schultz appears and several aides are taking notes. Schultz, Mr. President, Reagan, rest that voice. She insists she's right. Mr. President, go on. I need to urgently sit down. Good. Now come out with it, Schultz. The Soviets got their hands on the recording, Reagan. It was a sound check, Schultz. They got their hands on it, Reagan, who's responsible, Schultz. Well, that's an issue Casey's taken up, but there's a more pressing problem, Reagan. There's a mole, Schultz. Well, they could have picked it up from a van half a mile away. We didn't do a sweep of the neighborhood. Why not? It wasn't classified. It was the other thing during the sound check that got us Reagan. That has them all in a huff, Schultz. That has us all in a huff. Reagan's stomp, Schultz says. Mr. President, Japanese and U.S. intelligence spoke a coded message coming from Valdosta. The Soviets are on red alert. The order clears the way for Soviet military action against the United States. I'll flee the Soviet nuclear subs, and the coast are on full alert. The man is now on high alert. Several American naval bases in Alaska have been mobilized. They didn't find it funny. Reagan, did you get in touch with their embassy, Schultz? There's a problem. We scramble old signals out of their embassy. This makes it difficult for them to stay in touch with Moscow. It means they can't call home, Reagan. Don't scramble them, Schultz. It's not as easy as it sounds. Reagan, I can press a button in that suitcase there. We can blow up the world. We can do all that, but we can't just let the Soviets call home. Schultz, you're suggesting, Reagan? I'm suggesting we get in touch with them now. Schultz, then we can't contain the story. And Aide says, elections are coming up soon. Reagan looks at the young Aide and says, I know that. I don't need to be reminded, Schultz. This won't be an easy one to control, Reagan. You're worried about elections. That makes sense to all of you. If we blow up the world, I will be a one-term president. So does that make it any more real, young man? Schultz motions for the Aide to go, but just as he starts, the second Aide comes in. Then, at that moment, there's a quick light change, and there's a press conference. Schultz, no comment. There's a French reporter. Is the president of the care of a trained psychologist? Schultz, is that a serious question? British reporter, his behavior is not the behavior of a man in charge of the world's greatest nuclear arsenal. Schultz, what is your question? It was not very funny. It could have. Schultz, what is your question? British reporter, the obsession with the destruction, Schultz says. Allow me to clear something up. The Soviet Union has a greater nuclear arsenal. Let's get the facts correct. Next question. British reporter, you didn't answer. Schultz, you didn't ask a question. Next. British reporter is Helen Thomas. Helen Thomas, he insists calling the Soviet Union the evil empire. He wishes it outlaw. Is it safe to assume this will be his platform for the coming election? Schultz, I have not spoken to him about such matters. Helen, is it safe to assume he will have a platform? Schultz, Helen, Helen, does he plan to run again? He is already the oldest. Schultz, Helen, you're the oldest person at the post. You're the oldest person in this room. You plan on quitting anytime soon. Helen, not as long as he's in office. Schultz, he's not catching in on the Social Security if that's what you're asking. Helen, many fear Social Security won't exist once he's done with it. Schultz, well, that's irrational. Helen, you're calling the American people. Helen, this might come as a surprise to you, but you're not the American people. Hi, Trump. In your times, the President has failed these last three years to meet face-to-face with the Soviet General. Is it safe to say the feeling is expressed in the recording matches intentions? Schultz, Mark, the President has looked for ways to reach out to all Soviet Secretary Generals, but keep in mind he's been in office three years and during this time the Soviet Union has had two leaders die almost within a year of one another. In other times, has he been in contact with their new leader, Schultz? There have been official exchanges made between Secretary General Shenenko and the President of America. So does the President intend to get Schultz? The better question, Mark, is whether Secretary General Shenenko plans to die anytime soon. Obviously, there's only so much the New York Times can know, but if you figure it out, be sure to let us know. Thank you. Richard Shankin. Yes! Is it of course a Pulitzer Prize-winning, Tony Ward-winning, Writers Guild Award-winning, two-time Emmy Award-nominated writer of staged television and film. His Tony Ward-winning play All the Way is currently running at the Denver Center's Stage Theater. He co-wrote the feature films The Quiet American, which is a gorgeous film. Hacksaw Ridge and television credits include All the Way, The Pacific, The Anthropatistry, and Spartacus, ladies and gentlemen, Robert Shankin. I'm not sure I've had quite enough Diet Coke for this, but... I thought I'd just take a page from last night and read the opening scene. This is for The Great Society, which is the sequel to All the Way. Spot up on LBJ's standing center stage. The witnesses enter, chanting All the Way with LBJ! All the Way with LBJ! The chant builds to a crescendo and cuts off. LBJ speaks directly to the audience. One year when he was feeling flush, my daddy took us all to the rodeo. Boiled peanuts. Big dill pickles the size of your fist and pink cotton candy for the kids. For the adults, Shiner Beer topped off with a tinware to homebrew from a pocket flask. There was rope tricks and clowns and barrel races and bronc busting, but the thing everybody came for, the thing everybody wanted to see was the bull riding. You could get up close in those days. And I stood right there by the gate my eyes as big as saucers as they led the biggest, ugliest, meanest looking bull I have ever seen in my life into the chute. And then this good old boy, more balls than brains carefully climbed on board. He shoved his one gloved hand under the rope around the bull and he worked it this way and that checked in his grip until he got it just right and the bull snorted once and every muscle on his body twitched. And the good old boy took a breath and he nodded at his friends and said, here we go. They released the gate and 2700 pounds of horns, hooves, and hate exploded into the arena twisting left and right, bucking up and down. Everybody gets thrown. Everybody. Sometimes you come down so hard you break your back. Sometimes the bull comes back and Gorgia'd stomp you while you're lying there until they drive it away. Sometimes you don't ever get up. So why would you do that? Why would anybody do that? Well there was this one moment in his short ride when I could see that good old boy's face and maybe it was a trick of the light and there was such a look of joy. Of triumph. Check your grip. Take a breath. Here we go. Blackout. Have you finished riding this play? Then leave and don't come back till you're done because we need to see this play. Next up is Regina Taylor I must say should be the next Martha in who's afraid of Virginia Woolf That's Robert Schenkin as George For those of you who witnessed the first scene last night it was electrifying. Who to hug and who is back. Regina Taylor is an accomplished actors playwright and director. Last summer she directed her play Stop Reset. You could stop dot reset or stop reset. There you go. At the Goodman Theatre. Extending the storytelling beyond the theater stage to diverse communities by way of live events and internet portals. Regina Taylor's play Crowns continues to be one of the most performed musicals in the country and was produced at the Denver Center in 2005 which was also Kent Thompson's first year as artistic director. A story pairing. Ladies and gentlemen Regina Taylor. Thank you. This is a piece that was done before but I'm coming back at it as a musical so doing that I've been looking at the arias so there are three pieces I'd like to share with you. It's called McNallia. It was first done when it was first done as Obama became president and it's a take on the cherry orchard. I like coming back to it right now because we think we've come through certain things. We think we can close the door and walk away from a burning house and never return. The thing about that is at a certain point the roots pull us back and we're all bound together by the twisted naughty roots. Three characters. One is Lily the next is Carlotta and the other is Thomas. Thomas is the businessman who hasn't come back to the plantation where he was born for 20 years. That's the last one. This one just imagine me as Lily who is this white woman of a certain time. Trying to find freedom. Boys will be boys but a woman. A far farthest woman. This unburdened would you please. In the desert of Arabia you know I could never tan. I dyed my skin and hair with henna's made by a Tunisian holy man. I traveled to Marrakesh with the Bedouin. I dressed as a boy. A woman could never travel by herself alone. I called myself Abdul Haq. It means servant of the truth. Abdul could go wherever he wanted to do whatever he wanted and no one ever knew. Boys traveling with men through the desert are sometimes used as concubines. When I was still no one ever knew who I was, what I was. Every month your grandmother would send a girl all the way to Athens to pick up her cigarettes. Athens Georgia so that no one would recognize a maid from the forest household and every Tuesday afternoon your mother would sit with a short glass of bourbon and she would smoke three cigarettes and nurse that one drink for the hours before the children came back from school. I discovered this one day I had come home early. I saw her smoking and drinking and humming. Her face to the sun she never looked happier than on her Tuesday afternoons when she thought she was alone. Carlotta is a black woman. You know nothing about birthing no babies. I went in for that role. Didn't get it. That butterfly her stole it from me. I wanted to audition for a man. Had a Nick Daniels got it. He said I wasn't hefty enough. I was a skinny little something back then. Couldn't have been more than 90 pounds soaking wet. They wanted somebody big and fat to play Mammy. I told Selznick that I was born to play that role. Why does Mammy have to be so fat? Why can't Mammy be a skinny colored woman? Oh he just laughed. Said he had a heart perfect for me. It was crawling on the floor. I swear to pee laughing so hard. Knew I had it. Knew that part was mine. That butterfly had fun. I'm not spreading no tales about it. Because everybody knew how she got that role. Not that I knew her first one, but everybody knew her personally. Knew. And that's all. This butterfly anyhow had when she won that damn Oscar and that could have been mine. After that I took my act on the road. That bitch won my Oscar. I went back to my nightclub act told Hollywood to kiss my black ass. Been on the road since I was 6 years old. My mama and daddy both dared. Don't remember my name or real name or how old I am exactly, but I feel young. Some showbiz folk took me and traveled all over Kansas, Wyoming, Chicago, South America, Europe, that black thing. Got my boys together. Mendoza and the Jungle Kings. I was married to a Cuban with a wondering eye. That's how I got my next slit 1950. His other wife, she jumped me right in the middle of a sick jump up on my stage teach you to mess with my man. She cut my throat. Then she stabbed out my husband's eye. The one I leave you. You better be sure to keep it on me. And he she didn't cut me too deep. Didn't lose. Just lost my taste for the road. What else could I do except how out as a man me? What else? Who else could I be in those days? Thomas, a black man, hasn't gone back to the plantation in 20 years. Been calling Lily Boris every day for the past week. Catch up a little on the phone but no time, no time to hear what I got to say. Times running out. Two more weeks that land will be sold. What's it to do with me? Who are they to me? Who owned my great grandma? Great, great grandpa. Who built that estate with their own hands? Those hands owned by Nathan Bedford Boris. Can't all that business. Nothing to do with me. All are dead and gone now. I'm the last of the coat line of forests. Every one of them are buried out there in the colored cemetery. Just below the river where I was baptized. All of them buried out there below the river out under them Magnolia trees. My mom. She died because she meowed. My father slapped me and I took my first breath and then my brother first born son paused, heart. It broke that day. Pa died on that day. It just took years for him to let them lay him in the ground. Still some things never die. Like what he said to me when they cut my brother's body down I said to me, it should have been you. It should have been you. You ain't worth the dirt you was born from. I walked away from that place the very next day and said I wasn't yesterday. Miss Lily called, asked me to come out there to meet her this morning. Hadn't been back in over 20 years. I get out of the car and I'm standing in the middle of this place that named me. I remember strong what I hated about it. Don't remember being so the smell and the earth so black. The servant's court is where I was born. A blue green shade worn down and the east meadow where my Pa drunk. He beat me good most nights. Same meadow he taught me to ride my first horse. He taught me how some memories can eat up other memories. Some things we forget like they never happened. Other things harder to shake like your shadow. Our shadows with us to the day we die. I think our shadow lives way after we're gone. Like my father's shadow dragging me back. Like my father's voice. I feel the weight of his voice in my hands. Wrecked around my neck and it's strangling me before I can even help. I stand silent in this jar. I'm walking towards the house when who do I see? Blaning over the vegetable bed. A tall thin woman white as cotton. Blaming red hair. I could swear it was my grandma Monerba and then my Aunt Betsy, Uncle Biel, great Aunt Cliola, my own mother. She's there. They're all of them surrounding me. Their voices last like the leaves. They're falling from the branches like blossoms. Magnolia blossoms grown too heavy with their own scent, secrets and memories. All these ghosts I thought I left behind. Surrounding me as I'm walking towards the house. Knocking on the door of the house. I'm standing in the threshold trying to summon the courage to open my mouth to call out my own singing. And then I hear this sound voices rushing like I can't believe Miss Martha Forest is dead. Next up we have Andrew Inderacher. His play Colossal received a national renewed play network rolling premiere in 2014. Other plays include I Am Going to Change the World, Dirty, Kingsville and Suicide Incorporated, which premiered at the gift in 2010 and was subsequently produced off-Broadway at the Roundabout Theatre Company in New York. Andrew's play Colossal, featuring a dance company, a drumline and a fully padded football team, was the recent recipient of multiple awards from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He is currently a writer on the Showtime series, Penny Dreadball. Andrew? Hey everyone, my name is Andrew. I just moved to Denver from Chicago and I just want to thank Doug for asking us out to follow Robert Schenkin and Regina Taylor. That's very nice. So let's just all collectively lower our expectations. Great, so Bret, you can stop hiding the wings and come on out. Bret Schneider is a magician and an actor based in Chicago and we've been collaborating on this project for about the past three years. It's a piece called The Magic Play and we're going to get to, can you just tell me what your setup is? Your setup? Great. We're just getting a small piece of it. It's a piece where Bret plays a magician who comes out to do a show and pretty quickly gets interrupted with the memory of a partner who's just left him that morning. So you'll suffer through my performance of that but essentially in the present tense there's a show going on, a magic show going on while simultaneously there are scenes from the past that are happening as well. So we're going to jump in kind of in the middle of the first act and hopefully it will make sense. Cool, thanks. Good? Cool. And it's not until a few months later that he does this brand new trick for me. Yeah, I really don't want to do that trick tonight. Yeah, I really don't care. See, that's the thing about memory. Unlike every other facet of your life, it's not something you get to control. Go ahead, show them. These people came to see some magic, son. They don't give a fuck about the magician. So go ahead. Show them the trick that broke my heart. So you can see I've got a nail in my pocket. No, no, do it right. With all the pretty pattern. All that carefully crafted language to make this feel more special than it actually is. Seduced them with lies. Ladies, gentlemen, you may remember earlier in my show I handed my volunteer a pocket knife and you may have even thought that that seems like an awfully dangerous way to open a box of cards. And of course that was the point. Of course I said be very careful, please, to conjure the image of something very sharp and very dangerous cutting someone's hand. And just to demonstrate that this nail is in fact brutally sharp. This is the first part of the trick. For the second part, you the audience will choose a single card and to get down to that card we need to eliminate some options. So right here in the first row if you could simply just shout out left or right. Left. Left very well we will eliminate the cards in my left hand. Let's see here. Right here in the first row you could simply say face down or face up. Face down very well I will dribble off the cards until you tell me when to stop. Leading me with one, two, three, four, five, six, seven cards. Thank you very much. And let's see over here. Tell me your name after all I'm the magician and I should be able to tell you. So just think of your name in your mind, repeat it over and over in your mind. Damn damn. Now you say no. Daniel? No. Dan, it's not Dan yell is it? It is. Does that note? Does that mean anything to you? That's your girlfriend. We'll try to clear her out of your head for just one moment. Just think about your name. Do me a favor I have seven cards in my hand could you please name a number between one and seven? Three. Thank you Steve. Two, three. Leading me with the eight of clubs and Steve if you could hold on to the eight of clubs. Thank you very much. And the eight of clubs is the second part of the trick for the third and final parts I will need a volunteer so right here in the first you're not in already perfect. What is your name? Jennifer. Jennifer do you mind joining me on stage? Ladies, gentlemen and otherwise to find a round of applause. Thank you so much. Jennifer I'd like you to verify that this nail is in fact brutally sharp just please be careful. Brutally sharp. Do you have a standard brown paper bag? Yes. Brown paper bags and Jennifer inside each of these is a block of wood and no nail. Harmless. Not so harmless. Now many of you have seen different versions of this game. Sometimes it's done with three shells and a P sometimes on a stadium jumbotron. The rules are the same it's a hustling game. You try to follow the object I fool you and take your money. Except in this version of the game Jennifer I not only want you to guess correctly I need you to be right. In a moment I'm going to spin these bags and I'm guessing a lot of them are going to lose track of this object but I'm trusting that you won't. Are you ready to begin? I'm ready. Maybe more than you trust yourself as a matter of fact. But I mentioned that my version of the game would be a little different so I don't want you to point to the bag that has the nail. I'd like you to point to one of the three bags that is safe. This one. Do not believe there is a nail in this bag. Is that correct? Correct. You fully understand the nature of the game. The stakes have raised considerably. My hands are if there's worthwhile about me it's all of my hands and yours. Because that's what trust is. When I was getting this piece ready for performance he came over to be my volunteer and after I smashed that first bag he was like there's no way there's a nail in one of those bags. There's no way swap it out or something. There's no nail. No. Can I see your hand? And then I ask Tim as I'll ask you Jennifer to please point to the bag. This one. And there's this moment of exhilaration immediately followed by... Well that's just proof. You'd never do that if there was actually a nail. I mean right? Of course there's a nail. To truly put ourselves in each other's hands you have to take a risk. It's going to be this lovely moment where I let him smash my hand down wherever he wants. Because I'm willing to risk getting hurt because I trust him. So that if there really is a nail we both get hurt. Jennifer could you please point to one more bag. Go for that one. You can change your mind if you'd like to. You like that one. Are you sure? You want to stick with this bag? Okay because when people go home tonight they're going to wonder what if she had changed your mind. Jennifer my trust in you was very well known. Jennifer just to verify can you make sure this nail is still in fact? Brutally sharp. And Jennifer as you can see there's a playing card on this nail, a card that's been there this entire time. That card was actually a prediction. Because Steve, right? I'm sorry I had Maurice in my head for some weird reason. Steve you're holding onto a card? A card that the audience arrived at through a series of decisions left to right face up or face down. One through seven you said three leaving us with what card do you have in your hand? The eight of clubs. Jennifer if you could please remove this card from the nail. What card are you holding in your hand? The eight of clubs. The eight of clubs. That is your card. A round of applause for Jennifer. And of course after I do the trick he's just staying there. Staring at me. And of course I think it's because it was so impressive like he's literally spelled down to silence. It's not bad, right? That's straight up insane. Thank you. No, that you would that you take something so meaningful and turn it into a pattern for a cheap trick. It's not a cheap trick. Yeah that would be the thing that would offend you. What's the line? The only way we're putting ourselves. The only way we're really putting ourselves into each other's hands if we truly take a risk. Yeah, do you not? You didn't take a risk. Am I wrong? That depends on how you define risk. Okay. When I jump off the diving board and throw my head six inches from spinal injury that's risk. But I know you. And there's no way you do that trick if you hadn't already swapped out the nail or if I had absolutely no choice at all or both. And I remember I said that so proudly like I didn't or both motherfucker but basically as soon as I say I can feel something shift that moment when a lover no longer sees you through a lover's eyes. That's it. That's all we got. This was a match set so I want to introduce you to Brett Schneider. Where's Brett? Brett has been performing master professionally for over 15 years as a member of the world famous Magic Castle in Hollywood, California. His work has received numerous awards and citations including San Francisco State's Magician of the Year and he was a finalist in the World Magic Seminar held in Las Vegas. He has performed in Andrew's The Magic Play at the Goodman Theater's New Stages in 2014. I think that and all of our writers deserve a hearty round of applause. Thank you all so much for being here. Can I get all the playwrights together for a picture? Do we need the audience for that? No, we don't need the audience for that. Good night. Thank you all.