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FROM THE DESK OFTIM SANFORDDEAR FRIENDS,Those of you who saw Tanya Barfield’sBlue Door here in 2006 may be struck,when you read her Playwright’sPerspective, by a kind of shadow parallelbetween that play and Tanya’s descriptionof the genesis of The Call. Blue Door tellsthe story of a super-assimilated AfricanAmerican math professor who becomesincreasingly haunted by specters fromAmerica’s and his own ancestral history.The path that led Tanya to write TheCall seems to have run in reverse. Shedescribes how her natural predispositionto write about African American historyseemed to leave her as the specter of herown personal story began to call to her.I was grateful to Tanya for her opennessabout her personal adoption story, notbecause it explains the play somehow,but mainly because it makes it easierto talk about the levels of complexityand ambivalence the play contains. Itmight be understandable to assumethat a play titled The Call about a whitecouple adopting a child from Africa mightdeal substantially with issues of globalpolitics. But the tone of the play is muchmore slippery than that. When we startout, we thinkwe mightbeheaded into gently satiric territory aboutwell-meaning white liberals. Yet there isno glib edge to her tone. The uncertainshifts in this couple’s journey seemgrounded in humility, not presumption.Gradually, the title of the play comesto seem somewhat ironic in that thereis no one clarion call of moral certaintythat beckons them to answer. They arein fact pulled in a host of directions, bythe burdensome requirements of theadoption bureaucracy, their own parentalinstincts, issues of pragmatism, theirintermarital dynamics, self-doubt anda gnawing categorical imperative. Thepolyphony of calls threatens to paralyzethem with indecision for a time. There’sno reasoning their way out of theirconundrum, yet not choosing is also achoice.Tanya’s perspective piece movinglyshares how the personal and the politicalhave merged in her own life. And forme, the wallop that The Call deliversstems from the skill and subtlety withwhich she backs the play into thistruth. Politics is just posturing withoutpersonal investment, and individualdreams are ephemeral in a social vacuum.Playwrights attune their ears finely totheir inner voices to hear a call to write aplay, just as all of us listen for the call thatguides our own aspirations and actions. Ilisten for a similar call when I bring a playto you. I look for plays that speak to allothers as a culture and a nation, and Ilook for plays that speak to me personally.The Call does both. I am confident it willspeak to you as well.Tim SanfordArtistic DirectorCASTINGUPDATEKERRY BUTLER BROADWAY: Gore Vidal’s The BestMan, Catch Me If You Can, Rock of Ages, Xanadu (Tonynomination), Little Shop of Horrors, Hairspray, Beauty &the Beast. TV & FILM: “White Collar,” “Blue Bloods,” “30Rock,” “Rescue Me,” Borough of Kings.EISA DAVIS PH: This. BROADWAY: Passing Strange. OFF-BROADWAY: Passing Strange (Public); The Violet Hour(MTC); June and Jean In Concert (Public, Signature). TV& FILM: “Hart of Dixie,” “Smash,” “Mercy,” “Damages,”The Stare, In the Family, Welcome to the Rileys.CRYSTAL A. DICKINSON PH: Clybourne Park. BROADWAY:Clybourne Park. OFF-BROADWAY: Born Bad (SohoRep); Broke-ology (Lincoln Center Theater); Ruined(Manhattan Theatre Club); The First Breeze of Summer(Signature Theatre). TV: “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.”RUSSELL G. JONES OFF-BROADWAY: Marie & Bruce(The New Group); Ruined (MTC, Goodman); A View from151st Street, The Fairy Tale Project (LAByrinth TheaterCompany); God, The Crackhouse & the Devil (La Mama).TV & FILM: “Smash,” “Law & Order” franchise.MEET THE TEAMas of 1/7/13During the run of The Call, post-performance discussionswith members of the creative team have been scheduledfor the following dates:Wednesday, March 27 with Tim Sanford, Artistic DirectorSunday, March 31 with Adam Greenfield, Director ofNew Play Development (following the matinee)Tuesday, April 2 with Tim Sanford, Artistic DirectorThursday, April 18 with Andrew Leynse, Artistic Director,Primary StagesWednesday, April 24 with Michelle Bossy, AssociateArtistic Director, Primary StagesThese discussions are an important aspect of our playdevelopment process. We hope you can take part!Show your PH community spirit and keep abreast ofeverything we do through our social media networks:PHOTO BY CHRISTINE GATTIFacebook.com/PlaywrightsHorizonsTwitter.com/PHNYCPlaywrightsHorizons.Tumblr.com
PLAYWRIGHT’S PERSPECTIVE:TANYA BARFIELDI did not want to write this play. I refused. Without realizing what I wasdoing, I pointedly and stubbornly refused. It wouldn’t make a good play, Ithought. And I didn’t know how to write it. What I knew—what I was knownfor—were plays about the African-American experience through history. Idid not want to write a contemporary play, a play close to me, a play aboutadoption.And so I didn’t write.And I didn’t write.I didn’t write.Anything.As my mentor Marsha Norman had said to me and I had told my studentshundreds of times, “Write what you don’t want to write. Even if it’s acomedy, write what makes you uncomfortable. Let yourself be afraid whenyou write.” But, instead, I tried to continue on my steady path. And yetwriting through history—once so easy for me—had become hard. Thecharacters wouldn’t emerge. So, reluctantly, I decided to give in and writea contemporary play. I decided that it would be neat, tidy and well-madewith just enough idiosyncratic wordplay and character eccentricity thatanyone could enjoy. A wise play, a funny play that had great ideas and wasalso whimsical and wouldn’t push anyone’s button—especially mine. Ididn’t want to write a play that wasall heart. So, I began many tidy,whimsical plays but quicklydiscarded them. Then,I decided to embracewriter’s block.“I’m havingwriter’s block,”I thought, “andit’s going tobe poetic.”It wasn’t. Itwas not at allsimilar to awriter’s blockfrom abiography of a great writer.uninteresting and excruciating.It was terrible; terribly mundane andAfter a while, I found myself sitting in my friend Lucy’s kitchen. Stymied andstubborn with the answer right in front of me, but I couldn’t see.“Just write it,” Lucy said. “Write about adoption, and you don’t have toshow it to anyone.”For over a year, I got up at 4:00am to figure out this play. My kids wouldwake up two hours later, at which point being a mom would kick-in, leavinglittle room to write, let alone to write something deeply personal. Herewas a play that required ME—and the many other moms I had met alongthe way to motherhood —as the primary source material. It was scary. Itwas uncomfortable.Doubt surrounding motherhood is a taboo subject. Images of idyllic momsand their babies are everywhere. The iconography of picture-perfectmotherhood fills our culture: perfect moms and perfect babies. And yetwhat mother is actually picture-perfect? In writing The Call, I try not tosugar-coat adoption or the prospect of parenting in general. When it comesto adoption, many people ask “how can you raise someone else’s child?”Answering—no, asking—this question is what this play is about. I lovemy children more than anything else in the world and I can’t imagine lifewithout them. It was love at first sight. But, I’d be lying if I said that I neverstopped to question what I was doing and wonder if I was doing it “right.”I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that self-doubt and tears didn’t accompany thejoy and pride.I’m a bi-racial gay woman, raised by a Caucasian mom and African-Americanstepdad (who was just Dad to me). My family wasn’t picture-perfect. Myparents loved me—the same way I love my kids—more than anything elsein the world. Yet, from the time I was a baby, “political” was stamped onmy forehead and became the fabric of my identity. Today, many familiesare interracial through biology or adoption. These cross-cultural bondsare still sometimes viewed through the lens of politics but for the mostpart we have come to understand that it is not politics, but love and care,that weave people together. Four decades after I was born, Americans areredefining what it means to be a family, and I have found that today my“political” identity is personal to so many.The Call is about adoption, yes. It’s about race, midlife, Africa and marriage.It’s also about taking a leap, as terrifying as it may be. It’s about steppingoutside your comfort zone and committing to something bigger thanyourself. It’s about recognizing the power of change and then actuallydoing it. About being an active member of society—the global society—and improving upon it. It’s about hearing the call to be something more, andthen taking that call. As uncomfortable as it may be.No, I didn’t want to write this play. But I’m certainly glad I did. Tanya BarfieldDecember 2012This production is generously supportedin part by an award from the NationalEndowment for the Arts.PHOTO BY ZACK DEZON
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