Hannah: Where was Clementine in the Lower 9 born? 

Dan: About a year and a half after Hurricane Katrina, I was living in Austin, and working as a Guest Artist at Florida State University.  This meant a lot of driving back and forth between Austin and Tallahassee.  New Orleans was my mid point, and as I drove through the city, I got to see close up the devastation that still remained--and the herculean efforts of rebuilding.  I was struck at the bravery and faith of it all.  How do you rebuild in the wake of a tragedy so huge, it obliterates entire neighborhoods?  I think that question formed the seed of Clementine in the Lower 9.

 

 

H: In choosing to set your story in the Lower Ninth ward, did you have any fears of cultural appropriation? Given your own background, how were you able to enter and explain that world? 

 

D: I absolutely worried about it.  So much so that I contacted a good friend of mine, the Literary Manager of a major American regional theatre, and explained my concept for the play--basically asking her, "Should I walk away now?  Do I even have the right to tell this story?"  And her response was pretty wonderful, because it was both encouragement and challenge: she advised me to embrace the challenge of writing the play...and do whatever it took to do so honestly and with as much authenticity as anyone who's not from New Orleans could.  So I did tons of research: through documentaries, interviews, anecdotal accounts, official accounts, photographs...and of course driving those city streets.  Then I channeled all the southern rhythms I'd gotten in my bones from growing up in Georgia, let them flow through all those discovered voices and knowledge, and a play began to take shape.  It's a unique place with a powerful voice, and I've done my best to do it justice.

 

H: With the base of a Greek tragedy behind it, the figure of Apollo still looming within in, it feels like you are creating a modern mythology. Do you think we have a similar need for communal catharsis as the Greeks? Do we have another need from our storytelling? 

 

D: What we think of as theatre was in part born in Greek amphitheatres.  And I think there's something about that dramatic philosophy that resonates today.  Their idea was that a society should go to the theatre to see themselves reflected onstage, their societal struggles played out by heroes and witnessed by a Chorus.  And that somehow the act of watching this as a group would give us all the chance to face powerful truths about ourselves--and perhaps find some kind of release, or a path to something better.  That's what theatre still does, for me at least.  There are problems so big, it takes a larger-than-life world to contain them.

 

H: Do you think we carry with us our own mythologies? If so, what's yours? 

 

D: I think we tell ourselves the story of ourselves continually.  And my own personal mythology has transformed over time.  First, I was the Outsider: a midwestern boy growing up as a transplant in the South.  Then there was a Homecoming:  when I found and was embraced by the electric and experimental theatre community in Austin, Texas.  Now I'm an Ex-Pat of sorts: a playwright who's gone off to LA to write for television.  And like all mythologies, these bring certain parts of my life into sharp focus while obscuring others.  That's the nature of storytelling, I guess.

 

 

H: The play is interwoven with music, is this your first experience of weaving music into your storytelling? What was the process to create this soundscape? 

 

D: I've actually been experimenting with weaving music into plays for quite some time.  My play Tilt Angel also used blues music to evoke the world of the play, working class Tennessee.  And my play American Misfit (which just had its premiere at Boston Court in Los Angeles) uses rockabilly music to drive the action and explore our rebellious (and destructive) American spirit.  In all of these plays, there is a central musical character who serves as a sort of guide through the story.  For Clementine, I got to work with the amazing composer Justin Ellington (who is also in residence for the Forum production).  Justin has a deep understand of the blues, and of New Orleans jazz and blues specifically.  And he brought all of that wonderful knowledge into the pay, working with me to weave it into and through the action.

 

 

H: What were you able to learn from the first production of Clementine that you are looking forward to exploring here with us? 

 

D: This is the second production, after a wonderful and gratifying premiere at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, CA.  That show taught me so much about the play and how it lives onstage.  So of course, my hope has been to take what I've learned and use it to make the script even stronger.  Forum has been incredibly generous, bringing me out here and embracing any changes I wanted to make to the play.  While the vast majority of the script has remained intact, there have been a number of key changes.  For instance, I've decided to trim down the play and cut the intermission--so now the story takes hold of you and doesn't let go until it's done.  Structurally this feels so much stronger to me.  I've also explored new ways that music can interact with the story (after becoming hungry for them while watching the TheatreWorks show).  And the play's ending has been richly and deeply explored as well.  It's such a gift when a theatre company like Forum opens their doors and their process like this, and I couldn't be more excited or grateful.

 

 

 

 

The cast of the upcoming one-night special engagement of Necessary Targets took the time to answer the question, "Why is this play important to you?"

 

 

 

Kimberly Gilbert:  “This is a journey of feminine union - which is a rare thing to find on the American stage.” 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Annie Houston:  “I feel passionate about Necessary Targets and the discussion I hope will come after hearing the reading, because the play takes on the challenge of delving into the pain the women in Bosnian experienced during and after the war.   For me it also indirectly deals with the bigger issue of how women globally suffer during and after war, a suffering which I believe is often a distorted extension of what they daily deal with in their lives.  I know firsthand from living abroad and from reading the news, that women all over the world are constantly subjected to disrespect, to domination and subjugation, and to rape as a way to control.  This play tells the story of Bosnian women who have been brutalized by war.  It also tells the story of women everywhere, even in our country - in the military, in Ohio, and elsewhere.  Women must speak out for one another, and I am grateful that Eve Ensler has done that with this play and Adrienne Nelson has done that with her vision to produce this reading.” 

 

 

 

 

Adrienne Nelson:  “One of many ways for rape victims and survivors of post traumatic stress to start to heal is to regain control - whether it's of their own body, place to live, story, or how they are labeled/described/categorized/diagnosed.  So many people want to help though don't know how. Through listening to the stories of these women, we get a sense of how we can help. Often it is just through listening; through allowing these women to tell their own stories and claim their own narratives. This play is important to me because it gives voice to the often voiceless.” 

 

 

 

Kimberly Schraf:  “I appreciate that Eve Ensler gives us such an honest portrait of flawed attempts at reaching across the divide. Both of the women who travel to Bosnia are deeply human and deeply imperfect, and that is somehow both moving and reassuring.”

 

 

 

 

Toni Rae Salmi:  “The stories of Bosnian women during that horrible time in history need to be heard so that the rest of the world learns about how they suffered and their arduous journey to recovery. Society must never forget that these massacres, rapes and injustices happened to innocent people. We must strive to promote peace so that it never happens again.” 

 

 

 

Sarah Taurchini: “I'm moved by the story of the healing process here, how both silence and speaking contribute to that process, how each character's process is different, and how some people know how to navigate that process and some don't.”

 

 

 

 

Forum Theatre in conjunction with producers Adrienne Nelson and Ian Armstrong, present a Special Engagement of Eve Ensler’s Necessary Targets.  All proceeds will benefit new play development at Forum Theatre.

 

 

NECESSARY TARGETS

By Eve Ensler

Directed by Dorothy Neumann

May 6, 2013

 

7:00 PM Pre-Show Reception

7:30 PM Performance

 

To purchase tickets, click HERE or call 240-644-1390.

 

 

 

 

by Julian Elijah Martinez (@julianelijah), DANIEL REEVES in 9 Circles.

 

 

 

While working on HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN by Kara Lee Corthron, we've asked the members of the cast and creative team to share a bit about themselves with the Forum Theatre community. The play takes place in a basement where teenaged Holly surrounds herself with a vast collection of dolls, so in keeping with the theme, some of these questions have to do with the importance of collecting and the idea of separating oneself  from the outside world.

 

 

Name: Parker Drown

 

Role in HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN: Yager

 

Hometown: Ellicott City, MD

 

Current town: Silver Spring, MD

 

 

What drew you to pursue your career in the arts?

 

My 7th grade reading teacher was also the High School art and drama teacher and she needed a little boy for a Christmas drama skit that the high school drama class was performing at a school assembly. She said it was either me or her 3 yr old grandson (I was the smallest kid in my class by far). I agreed to do it and ended up having a blast doing it. So I thought why stop, right?

 

 

Did you have a secret/separate world away from adults, siblings, and/or classmates while growing up? If so, what can you tell us about it?

 

I never had an imaginary world to escape to as a kid, but there was a tree in my front yard that whenever I needed to "run away" from home in a huff I would climb all the way to the top and sit there for hours and play in it. I could still see my house, but no one could see me when all of the leaves were still there.

 

 

Do you/did you collect anything? If so, what?

 

 I got really into the state quarters when they first came out and still have a few sets of all of those, but I was never a real big collector. I think that was just because I'm a little OCD about collections and want them to be big enough to matter but small enough to manage. With that said my most impressive collection that I ever had was an insect collection I had to make for 7th grade Biology. Now talk about OCD...I got a perfect 100 on mine because the display was perfectly spaced, perfectly labeled and altogether just perfectly impressive...if I do say so myself.

 

 

If you could choose three non-living items from your home in event of a natural disaster/apocalypse/derecho, what would you choose and why?

 

Knife, rope, and a big canteen of water...survival essentials. Obviously all contained in a very durable backpack.

 

While working on HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN by Kara Lee Corthron, we've asked the members of the cast and creative team to share a bit about themselves with the Forum Theatre community. The play takes place in a basement where teenaged Holly surrounds herself with a vast collection of dolls, so in keeping with the theme, some of these questions have to do with the importance of collecting and the idea of separating oneself  from the outside world.

 

 

Name: Dawn Thomas

 

Role in HOLLY DOWN IN HEAVEN: Mia   

 

Hometown: Fort Washington, MD

 

Current town: Columbia, MD

 

 

 

 

What drew you to pursue your career in the arts?  

 

I always was a kid who would do silly voices and play different characters that I just made up.  But...as much as I loved making up songs and practicing my RP by watching and mimicking the characters on Are You Being Served, so much so that when I got to high school my dad said "Why don't you join the drama club....you're always acting around here"....I did join the Drama Club in high school, but I had a passion and love for science and for the longest time wanted to be a doctor.  I went to a special program in high school that I had to test into for Science and Technology.  It was at college where my path in the sciences ended, and I took a couple theatre classes.  After that, I knew what I wanted to do.

 

 

Did you have a secret/separate world away from adults, siblings, and/or classmates while growing up? If so, what can you tell us about it?

 

I actually would get lost in my own world with my Barbies.  I loved playing with my Barbies...like, totally loved it.  I had a ton of Barbie stuff growing up.  At my last count, I had 66 of them.  My room was like a little Barbie town, I had three Barbie houses, and each had at LEAST one car.  There was also the Barbie camper.  I would go up into my room and play for hours with those dolls.  My Mom, in an attempt to encourage civility with my younger brother, said that I had to let him join me.  But not the way you're thinking.....he would bring his G.I. Joes....which he had a bunch of.  There was a point when my Barbie town had G.I. Joe protection and the Joe's were invited to the many Barbie weddings that took place

 

 

Do you/did you collect anything? If so, what?

 

I collected stuff with dragon motifs and images.  I read Anne McCaffrey's Dragonrider series when I was about 11 and that's how I became enamored with dragons and dragon imagery.  I had a lot of figurines, mostly glass and pewter.

 

 

If you could choose three non-living items from your home in event of a natural disaster/apocalypse/derecho, what would you choose and why?

 

Cell phone most likely, for practical reasons. Oddly enough, my recipe book, I've been compiling recipes for years and they have all these notes on them from tweaks I've made.  And....a particular necklace I own.  It was a gift from a person who is very special to me.