The World of the Play

I just returned from New York where I had a productive meeting with the playwright Eisa Davis. We are producing the World Premiere of her play THE HISTORY OF LIGHT. We discussed casting ideas, the use of music/sound design, and set design ideas. We also agreed to have Liesl Tommy direct the production. Liesl directed the critically acclaimed STICK FLY at the Theater Festival last season. I am looking forward to working with her and Eisa on THE HISTORY OF LIGHT.

I enjoy the pre-production process of producing a Five Play rotating repertory. Now that the season has been selected I am focusing on reading each of the scripts. I love the pre-production phase. It begins with reading and re-reading the scripts, making notes, doing research, asking questions of the text, searching out details and making personal connections to the work. During this time I begin to create a mental movie of how I see the action in the plays unfolding. So I am exploring the scripts and making discoveries. The key ideas/moments usually arrive early in the process. I have learned to trust my first impressions when reading a script.

I find this pre-production period invigorating and creatively stimulating. I have learned to trust my intuition at every step in this process. During this pre-production phase I immerse myself into the world of the play, seeking out the heart of the playwright.

Every play has its own world. Some plays have fuzzy worlds, incomplete worlds, inconsistent worlds and hard-to-grasp worlds. And some plays have well-formed worlds.

The world of the play limits a play as a frame limits a picture. It limits the action. Creating the world of the play means gathering together those elements and moments that are alike-putting sameness together and bringing harmony and understanding to the component parts.

The pre-production period is one of exploration. It is the time that I ask the essential questions: what does the play represent? What is the main idea? Why is this play important? Why does it deserve to be witnessed? What universal truth does it illuminate? What excites me about this work? What aspect of the drama fires my imagination? What about the script makes me zealous and impassioned? Why does the play move me? What about the material gives me a deep feeling of satisfaction? What in the play makes it worthy of an audience attention? Why is it compelling?

These are just some of the questions that I am exploring as I prepare to meet with each of our playwrights and the design team.

—Ed Herendeen