Freud's Last Session centers on legendary psychoanalyst Dr. Sigmund Freud, who invites the rising academic star C. S. Lewis to his home in London. Lewis, expecting to be called on the carpet for satirizing Freud in a recent book, soon realizes Freud has a much more significant agenda. On the day England enters World War II, Freud and Lewis clash on the existence of God, love, sex, and the meaning of life– only two weeks before Freud chooses to take his own. Not just a powerful debate, this is a profound and deeply touching play about two men who boldly addressed the greatest questions of all time. Mark St. Germain’s celebrated new play was suggested by the bestselling book The Question of God by Dr. Armand M. Nicholi, Jr., professor of psychology at Harvard University.
C.S. LEWIS RULES. During my senior year of high school I took a class at Church of the Saviour in Wayne, PA taught by Rich Craven. Rich Craven is a pastor, college professor, genius, & awesome guy. The class concluded with a trip to Oxford, London, & The Kilns to see first-hand what we had been reading & studying for months. It was amazing, enriching, & so integral in the structure of my growth as a writer, reader, & conversationalist. [Sidenote: this trip also marked my very first taste of alcohol: peach schnapps @ The Eagle & Child. I still have the bottle, obviously]. C.S Lewis is the best writer & I wish his writing had more influence on the theatre community. I have seen two pieces of his work put onstage: The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe (musical) @ Arden Theatre Company & The Screwtape Letters (play) @ Lantern Theater Company. The LW&W musical was lacking (only because the writer was too green to conquer such a subject matter), but the idea was GENIUS. I hate to say it, but Disney could/should produce a mean version of The Lion, The Witch, & The Wardrobe & it would be a huge hit. The Screwtape Letters was a straight play that was well-written & decently performed. The notion behind the script was clearly awesome: 2-person play that does not lack for conflict & still provides the widest avenue for artistic, post-modern interpretation (and one of the characters is a DEMON, how‘s that for awesome theatrics?).
C.S. Lewis + Theatre = a trend that I would like to see expand.
THIS WORLD NEEDS SOME LEWIS.
P.S. The Weight of Glory is the most perfect compilation of words ever put together in the English language. Just sayin.
RUNS UNTIL JUNE 3
The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later is the epilogue to the original. Ten years after Shepard's murder, members of the Tectonic Theater Project returned to Laramie to conduct follow-up interviews with residents featured in the original play. Those interviews were turned into this companion piece. The play debuted as a simultaneous reading at nearly 150 theatres across the US and internationally on October 12, 2009 - the 11th anniversary of Matthew Shepard’s death. Most of the theaters were linked by webcam to New York City where Judy Shepard and the play's producers and writers gave an opening speech to begin this unique memorial and evening of theater.
I LOVE INTERVIEW THEATRE.
I define interview theatre as the act of interviewing participants surrounding an event & using their direct words to concoct a script. I first fell in love with this script-writing method after reading Fires in The Mirror by Anna Deavere Smith.
In August 1991, there had been an accident in Crown Heights, Brooklyn (a racially-divided community comprised of African-Americans & Hasidic Jews). The accident involved a 7 year-old, Caribbean-American boy who was killed while learning to ride his bike when a Jewish man drove a car veered onto the sidewalk. There were issues with the response of the medical staff which instigated protests; during one of these protests, a Jewish student visiting from Australia was stabbed. This caused days of riots, which resulted in 129 arrests, 190 injuries, & an estimated $1 million in property damage.
This community conflict caught the attention of the nation & Ms. Smith, so she decided to go the scene of the crime(s) & interviewed the widest range of community members. She comprised those interviews into 29 monologues delivered by 26 different characters; it is a stunning script & one of my favorites. In the play’s introduction, she wrote: "My sense is that American character lives not in one place or the other, but in the gaps between the places, and in our struggle to be together in our differences." Fires in The Mirror made its’ debut at New York Shakespeare Festival on May 1, 1992 with an official press opening on May 12, 1992. There was also a film adaptation of the play with Ms. Smith performing all the roles [also directed by George C. Wolfe, produced by Cherie Fortis, & filmed by American Playhouse]; it is one of the best & richest pieces of American archived theatre ever.
RUNS UNTIL APRIL 7
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