The Human Trickle-Down Project, part 2

We had another meeting regarding our docudrama project this weekend. In attendance were myself, Artistic Director Matt Wells, Associate Artistic Director Ian Forester and Associate Artists Brandon Baruch and Mike Wells. We’re still very much in the preliminary stages of this whole idea and so the major question of the day boiled down to, “What do we want this play to feel like?” This is a tricky question. Obviously, there is a gravity to the idea that can’t be ignored and if this project is truly going to be a reaction and a reflection of the huge fight to survive that many of us are looking at now, then we have a responsibility to capture the truth of that fight in all its dirty details. But, on the other hand, part of the ethos of needtheater is an effort to get away from the self-seriousness and pretension that has infected so much theater today. With some plays and some companies, you can almost see the production patting itself on the back for being so hard-hitting and socially aware, and it is that smug, self-congratulatory streak that has turned off so many audience members; all of whom have come to, at least in part, be entertained. One of the reasons we are all so proud of our production of John Clancy’s “Fatboy” is that the play managed to be both incendiary and socially relevant while maintaining a loose, fun tone that allowed our audience to sit back and enjoy themselves. When you have both of those things working together, you have the potential to do something really great. So it’s a balancing act. How do we create a play that will tell such an important story while continuing to prize theatricality and a spirit of entertainment that will keep the play from becoming too leaden? Pondering the answer to that question at this point only leads us to more questions. For instance, is there a kind of humor to be found in our current economic crisis? Are there bad guys out there besides the bankers and brokers and Bush? And, most importantly, is there a happy ending to this story? One great thing we discovered during this meeting was that we think there is. After all, you have to knock down the house if you want to rebuild it. And in asking these questions, we begin to see the basic, building blocks of the play we will create: character, tone, an arc to the plot. So maybe it’s not a docudrama. Maybe it’s just a play. Who knows? More importantly, who cares? The classification isn’t important. The spirit behind the work is what matters. And we’ve got spirit. Yes we do