directed by Stephanie Burlington Danielsvideo collage designed by Elliott Mazzola Soto Clemente Velez Cultural Center, NYC June 2007 View specs and complete text It all began in August 2006 when one of my students, my sixteen-year-old niece, and I were sitting around very depressed about the war. As a way of pulling us out of the doldrums, I declared Thursdays “Dadaist letters to the President night” and that evening inaugurated our weekly campaign of writing to George. A few other people joined us from their homes and the only requirement we kept is that the letters be mailed out on Friday mornings. In all the five months we were writing letters, none of us ever received a reply. The other letter writers were:
Steven Bell When director Stephanie Burlington invited me to work on a new play with the Lynx Ensemble Theater, I took the opportunity to translate the letters into a dramatic form. During that time, it occurred to me that Today Show style television weather reports would make an excellent contrasting backdrop to the desperate pleas of citizens whose locations would be indicated by where they would stand on a map line drawing of the United States. In other words, a tableau of America’s obsession with the weather juxtaposed with our alternating denial, fear, and abhorrence of the political climate.
In the first part, there’s very little direct interaction between the six characters, who represent a variety of viewpoints that contradict each other but not in overt displays of conflict. My main preoccupation with this project was to re-locate the conflict from our various opinions to one that addresses citizens in conflict with the government. My position is that our arguments with each other are immaterial compared with the ways the Bush administration duped, deceived, and basically screwed all American citizens — as well as Iraqi citizens.
I developed and presented a work-in-progress showing of this piece while a resident in Perishable Theatre's RAPT program under the leadership of Executive Artistic Director Vanessa Gilbert. Subsequent showings, also directed by Stephanie Burlington Daniels, happened at Wheaton College; Amanda Weir later directed a showing for the Provincetown Theatre's Winter Reading Series in February 2008. Poster design: Elliott Mazzola |
LIBBY Just wanted to say hello and that I’m wondering why you haven’t written me in all these weeks. I know how busy you are, but I’ve written you five letters, and it’s rude of you not to even drop me a line saying something like, “hey, I’m here. Just swamped. I’ll write you in more detail soon.” GRACE HANK AMELIA LIBBY (Cut to undulating flower image. The undulations get faster and faster as GRACE’s lines reach a climax.) HANK GRACE (Cut to a weather map with the title, “Why so cold?”) MARK AMELIA My husband, an elegant Englishman, couldn’t believe it had been a terrorist attack after the first plane crashed. Then we moved away, he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and he died. His childhood home in London was blown apart during the blitz when he was three, after which he suffered from a lifelong stutter. In other words, I know well the direct and indirect consequences of war. LIBBY (Cut to a news update.) ANNOUNCER’S VOICE (Cut to a local weather report in Channel 31’s studio.) GABRIELLE KOMOROWSKI JIM MOORE (Cut to dark clouds, thunder, lightning. Then to ominous mountain vista.) GRACE TOM GRACE LIBBY |
Part two evolved into a return to childhood, with the backdrop of a cartoon-like oval office, and the six
characters “playing” George for each other (with George puppets) — all his own words. 
Though we’ve heard his many
malapropisms in public speeches, a new depth of shock and awe penetrates the mind when hearing them in sequence re-cast as answers to other questions in the poetic logic of collage.
It’s not only his stupidity (hilarious, yes)
that comes to the fore, but the callous brutality of a privileged man devoid of a conscience.Copyright © 2011 Charlotte Meehan |
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