OnStage - Goodman Theatre

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IN THE ALBERT And thus you have this fragmentation that reverberates throughout the piece. I strive to find the exact point in a narrative where the personal and the political intersect perfectly, because I find the two things completely inseparable. America is currently in a giant political debate, and you see a kind of war going on that’s actually a very old war. I’m trying to mirror that in the play. Our elections are about the soul of this country, which is what makes them so harrowing. It’s like every four years there’s open heart surgery here, and having had heart surgery I can’t conceive of doing it again and again throughout one’s life. I see the country as really broken, much as the family in the play is breaking. And I think the undercurrent of the play is that the civility that exists in the old guard GOP, which is even reflected in the differences between Bush 41 and Bush 43, have resulted in what is as close to a conceptual civil war that you can get. HW: There’s a debate that happens in this family about what truth is and its role in the larger questions that they’re debating. It particularly gets tossed around when people are talking about what a writer’s responsibility is to herself, but also to the people that she’s writing about. Could you talk a little bit about that? JRB: Joan Didion famously said that writers are always betraying somebody, which is a very funny and mostly true epigram. For me it’s always very important to have authorial credibility and create characters that are dimensional and recognizable. I take pride in not truly understanding anything other than all the shades of gray: I don’t know “I think the only thing I’ve really learned is that my flawed vision of my own little life is actually quite dangerous.” —Jon Robin Baitz anything about black and white but am obsessed with gray. I’ve always written very closely from my own experiences and attempted to reconstruct events, but some of those plays were written by a younger playwright who lacked selfcriticism. In some ways I’m trying to take an accounting in this play of some of what I’ve done over the years. I actually like not being a young writer any longer. I feel tempered because I started so young, getting my first play produced in ’84 or ’85. I think the only thing I’ve really learned is that my flawed vision of my own little life is actually quite dangerous. I have to take responsibility for it and continue to write knowing that someone has to gather the chaos together and write these little incremental bits of memory and of emotion into a thing called a narrative so that some part of life makes a tiny bit more sense. HW: What is your connection to the Goodman? JRB: I think my connection to the Goodman really begins with a growing relationship with Bob Falls, who directed my play Three Hotels at the Williamstown Theatre Festival last year. We had been talking for years about working together and finally we got to. It was a bit like meeting a long-lost slightly older brother. I completely fell in love with him: his enthusiasm, his passion and his vigorous and inexhaustible love for the theater. I haven’t really had a home in Chicago, and so it seemed to me that this was the beginning of a beautiful relationship. You don’t necessarily want to work in New York all of the time or start plays only in New York. My experience with Chicago is that it’s the great American city and magical in a very concrete way. I’m excited by the opportunity to find new and different themes and manifestations of older themes in the work that are approached by an utterly new group of artists. I love actors and I’m one of those playwrights Featured Sponsor: Northern Trust “For more than 120 years, Northern Trust has aligned its efforts with guiding principles of service, expertise and integrity. We are dedicated not only to meeting the needs of our clients and shareholders, but also serving as a responsible corporate citizen through a commitment to the communities in which we live and work. We are proud to be counted among Goodman Theatre’s loyal supporters, and thank this important organization for helping to enrich the lives of so many.” -David W. Fox, Executive Vice President and Head of Americas, Northern Trust, Goodman Trustee 4
LEFT: Rachel Griffiths and Thomas Sadowski in the Broadway production of Other Desert Cities. Sara Krulwich/ The New York Times/Redux JRB: It’s a volatile combination in a good way, and I’m very curious about the chemical reactions between this particular bit of theater and a Chicago audience. My only experience thus far was with a group of New Yorkers and occasionally some tourists who wanted to go see a straight play on Broadway. There’s a kind of litmus test for just how universal a play is. I just got a letter from a theater company in Turkey who wanted to do Other Desert Cities, and I wrote to them and asked how they thought this play relates to Turkish life? And frankly, their answer was the thing that most relieved me. They said, “We don’t, we just want to see if it does.” That was a great answer. who actually writes plays because I like being around them. I love their undervalued bravery and their willingness to experience and feel things. I love their ability to pretend in a kind of madness to be something else or someone else, and do so out of a strange, suffering generosity. You know, we have a cast of highly, highly accomplished American actors, whom I love spending time with and getting to know, and I really do believe that building an informal company of actors is an important part of what it means to be a playwright. So the more good actors I know from different places, the better it makes me able to imagine a new play and a new character. It’s all part of a learning experience for a playwright. I want to see what these people do: I’ve seen most of them before, and watching an actor identify and invent and translate an emotional secret into something palpable is stunning to me. So I want to meet new actors and a new director, and build those relationships. I know I would have been happier in a time where there were big repertory companies and I could steep myself in creating pieces for a specific group of actors. HW: I think that there’s something exciting about the way theater gets made in Chicago and the way artists make a living and apply their trade. With this particular play, the depth and the richness of the characters and the volatility underneath this personal and American story feels like a really exciting combination to me. Featured Sponsor: Mayer Brown “Anyone who understands the intellectual and emotional riches that great theater brings knows what a treasure we have in Goodman Theatre. I’m pleased to represent Mayer Brown in supporting the Goodman and in helping to underwrite Other Desert Cities.” -Elizabeth A. Raymond, Partner, Mayer Brown LLP, Goodman Trustee Individual Season Sponsors/Major Contributors Goodman Theatre is grateful to these individuals for their outstanding support of the 2012/2013 Season. The Edith-Marie Appleton Foundation/Albert and Maria Goodman Julie and Roger Baskes Ruth Ann M. Gillis and Michael J. McGuinnis Principal Major Sponsors Patricia Cox Sondra and Denis Healy/Turtle Wax, Inc. Carol Prins and John H. Hart Alice Rapoport and Michael Sachs/Sg2 Merle Reskin Leadership Major Sponsors Commitments as of December 10, 2012 5
Page 1 and 2: January - March 2013 The Personal a
Page 3 and 4: IN THE ALBERT From the Artistic Dir
Page 5: not permit me to do: to write about
Page 9 and 10: RIGHT: Dr. Elizabeth Loftus deliver
Page 11 and 12: IN THE OWEN A Conversation with Chr
Page 13 and 14: ABOVE: Michael Goldsmith and Grant
Page 15 and 16: The young are particularly likely t
Page 17 and 18: AT THE GOODMAN Coming This Spring:
Page 19 and 20: IN THE WINGS GeNarrations: Stories
Page 21 and 22: Cocktails and Conversation On Octob
Page 23 and 24: Center Stage Above: Cherie and Ken

OnStage - Goodman Theatre

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