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The Diaries by John Strand
March 5 - April 3, 2005
Shining a light in the darkness
By Tara Vodihn *
"Opening night feels like inviting people to your own execution. Only a madman could deliberately enter into such a profession."
- Playwright John Strand
If the name John Strand isn't familiar to you yet, it will soon be.
John Strand is one of America's foremost playwrights, bringing a rare blend of wit, intelligence, and eloquence to the American Theatre. New Theatre audiences
were introduced to his play TOM WALKER, which earned New Theatre three Carbonell nominations. Next season, New Theatre will be hosting the world premiere of his play, LINCOLNESQUE, and on Saturday, March 5, 2005 New Theatre opened Strand's THE DIARIES, which has been playing to enthusiastic audiences since its first performance.
One of the reasons that Strand and New Theatre make a wonderful match is Strand's agile and expressive use of language, which many contemporary playwrights tend to bypass in favor of more "realistic" dialogue. Then there's New Theatre's aesthetic: one that favors plays of ideas and language-driven plays. Strand's interest in language is so strong that it most often ends up directing him towards the material he will choose for his plays. " I make choices as to what to write about and how to use language to write about it in a way that is challenging and interesting to me."
For example, THE DIARIES utilizes an unusual form of communication - diary entries - but has the writer speaking these directly to the audience. TOM WALKER used 18th century diction, which can be witty and lyrical. LINCOLNESQUE, a comedy that deals with a homeless man who believes he is President Abraham Lincoln came into being because Strand loved the writings and speeches of the American icon and asked himself "How could I use this in a play?" LINCOLNESQUE is actually the first part of a trilogy about life in contemporary D.C. that Strand has found himself writing. "I woke up one day and said: That's a trilogy all over my table."
Another thread running through Strand's work is the nature of identity, and how characters alter theirs as a means to cope with the situation in which they find themselves.
"I'm fascinated by the masks that people are forced to wear... Maybe I am drawn to it because there is something inherently interesting in subterfuge." For Strand, this does not necessarily mean deception with malicious intent. His characters are often moral people in an immoral world, and the masks they wear are what enable them to survive. Despite this rather serious slant, it is delightfully surprising to find a high level of humor in many of his plays. Strand says that his wife can tell that he is close to finishing a scene because he starts laughing out loud while reading it. He also confides that he is currently working on an adaptation that has no humor, and is bound and determined to put some in, because, says he: "I don't trust a work of art that has no humor or wit in it."
Humor is not the only way Strand makes his presence felt. According to him, "I feel that the writer is present in every character, especially those that work, whether they are good or evil... In THE DIARIES, I sympathize with Judith, but I understand Ernst. I want the audience to put themselves in the character's positions. If they are going to, I have to be able to."
This is particularly interesting given the seeming polarity of the characters of Judith and Ernst at the beginning of THE DIARIES. Judith is the descendant of a Jewish woman killed during the Holocaust, and Ernst is the grandson of a German Officer. Instead of cookie-cutter characters and easy answers, Strand's empathetic approach yields an exploration - not a solution - and one that caused a holocaust survivor to thank him for writing a healing play. Strand also states that he doesn't think it's possible to consider the play to be anti-Jewish or anti-Holocaust. He thinks the material is angry, challenging, and disturbing, and wrote it for precisely those reasons. But ultimately, he hopes: "...that the play presents the possibility that there can be some light in the darkness."
Though this play has been produced before, Strand has taken the unusual step of making major changes to the play, bringing it to its present incarnation. However, according to Strand, a play never feels finished, even after publication. So perhaps it is not that surprising that Strand chose to continue working on THE DIARIES even after it was nominated for the McArthur Award (2002).
This is merely "...part of the madness of the enterprise... Theatre is living writing. It can never be completely the same..." This "living" aspect of theatre, and its reliance on all participants is part of what makes theatre into something greater, Strand says. However, when the original DIARIES turned into something other than the play he wanted to write, New Theatre's production became a wonderful opportunity for him to see his vision realized on stage. He understands that it is harder and harder to do new plays because the payoff is seldom worth it. It takes, Strand says, courage and madness. "We should recognize what a tremendous resource and asset theatres like New Theatre are."
Strand's undertaking mirrors that of his protagonist, Ernst Altsanger. Both Strand and Altsanger create an eloquent piece of writing that has to undergo a change. Then both experience a need to have their true voice heard anew so as to shine a light in the darkness.
* Tara Vodihn is New Theatre's Literary Manager and an actress. She recently appeared at New Theatre in Clarence Darrow's Last Trial.
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