After used book shopping and checking in on my dad (he's going home today - prayers answered), I grabbed a 6 train and traveled to the 92nd Street Y. Christopher Durang was interviewed on stage by Roger Rosenblatt.
Durang is nothing like I thought he would be. He not only physically looked boyish; he seemed almost embarrassed by the attention. He read segments from older works such as Bette and Boo, 'dentity Crisis, and Laughing Wild, and he also read from his new play that is yet to be titled. Following are notes from the lecture:
· His first play was in 3rd grade. It was a 2 page version of the episode of the I Love Lucy where she has a baby (his school actually staged it).
· At 14, he wrote a play which included the shoulder strap scene from Gypsy. The nuns pulled the girls out of the Del Barton (all boys’ prep school) production because it was too scandalous. They had borrowed the girls from a local girls prep school.
· He was introduced to theatre by his mother, who especially loved Noel Coward.
· How to Succeed in Business was the 1st musical he ever saw - it affected his writing forever.
· His plays usually start with a character or an idea...not a plot.
· The Catholic Church had a significant impact on him. "When I was growing up the Catholic Church had an answer to everything. However, when my mom got sick...it just wasn't enough to take the nuns at their word."
This was the catalyst for Sister Mary Ignatious Explains It All for You. The project began with a nun just talking, and then he realized that non-Catholics would not get it. Durang said that he found himself explaining it to his best friend, Wendy Wasserstein (yes, THAT Wendy Wasserstein).
It became too difficult to write at this time because of his mother's illness; he put the play away. "I wish I still believed," he said very softly during this interview. Durang came back to Sister MI years later and added the idea of inserting the return of the students. Durang says he is always dismayed when productions insert humor in the play where it is not intended. For example, Diane's monologue is not to be funny. Durang was not going to finish the play, but he realized that would not be healthyand said, "One should never give in to writer's block or fear." Ultimately, Sister Mary Ignatious Explains It All for You became his most critical and financially successful work. Unfortunately - he said - it came too early in his career, and since then everything he has written has been measured against it.
· He was asked how his relationship with the Catholic Church is now. He laughed, “I have done more for nuns than anyone who has ever lived." He went on to say that he became very serious in his faith in high school and believed in a divine entity that would defeat all things including war (this was during Vietnam). Durang anticipated that when he got to Harvard, he would find more liberalism in Catholicism, and there would be grand discussions on faith. He did not find this and lost hope. He cited that many Baby Boomers have left the Catholic Church because they experienced the same reaction to the black and white word of the Church during such a difficult time. He said, "I was taught that Limbo was a place of fact was that was just too hard for me. Frankly, I do not know anything about the Church anymore." He added that he doesn't know when Christianity became about money and war, but it jaded him.
· Durang wrote a musical called, The Greatest Musical Ever which he described as giddy. It was a comical version of the life of Christ; he said it was like a child's view of the story and featured songs like, "Everything's Coming up Moses." It was called blasphemous, and one letter he received described it as pigs at alter. He submitted this letter along with his application to Yale.
· Baby and the Bathwater began with just a he and she. He quoted Wendy Wasserstein, "Start a scene with two people and when the third person enters, you now have a play."
· The idea for Actor’s Nightmare came from a story that he had heard where an understudy, who had never been rehearsed (and had been smoking pot outside), was called to go on. Durang didn’t have access to any books when he was writing it, so his inclusions of the Noel Coward, Shakespeare and Beckett works were from memory.
· Bette and Boo is autobiographical. He is the character of Matt.
· When asked about how the internet has affected his writing, he said that he has trouble writing when not at the computer. However, he has some students who have gone back to writing their scripts long hand.
· The Hardy Boys and the Mystery Where Babies Come From was written in the 1970 for a TV show called the Comedy Zone. It was written as a spoof on the Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson television series.
· He used to write a play every two years until Laughing Wild. When he was 40 years old it, Reagan changed the healthcare so many mental patients were forced to wander the streets of New York. This play came from observing these individuals.
· Durang cited the New Yorker’s Edith Oliver as a dramaturg/critic who was always gracious to him.
· I asked him what his role was in the rehearsal process. For example, they are currently working on a Broadway revival of Bette and Boo; I wanted to know how he works with directors and casts. He said that he asks for casting approval, and he always asks the director to go with him if he wants to work and/or speak directly with the actors.
After the reading, he did a book signing. I talked to him for a while about my experience in 1998 when the Catholic League of America contacted Governor Janklow’s office to shut down Rapid City Douglas’ production of Sister Mary Ignatious Explains It All for You at the SD State One Act Festival. I was serving on the SCASD Advisory Council at the time, so I was thick in the middle of the controversy. He was quite interested in the situation, and we conversed for an extended period.
I am so glad that I went to this event. Christopher Durang is nothing as I thought he would be. I was expecting cynicism with a thick layer of angst. The person who showed up was humble, softly spoken, witty and attentive of his audience. His work will definitely look differently to me now. I used to think that he was a gay man who blamed the Catholic Church for any and all of his woes. This just is not true. He is a man with questions and a longing for hope.
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