I was recently lucky enough to have a play that I wrote called "Dear Anna" performed for a second time, this time on the Ithaca College campus. We got a really great reception, thanks to my fabulous director, stage manager and actors, who all worked so hard for this production, and it was really exciting. However, one of my favorite parts was getting to write a "Playwright's Note" for the program, which I had never been able to do before. It was a bit of a challenge; I had to figure out how to discuss the social and political issues I think relate to my play, while not giving away the entire story before the audience watches it come to life. As there is hatred and violence coming about that is largely enabled by the results of the presidential election, and as our president-elect is making the statement and allowing others to insist that theatre artists have no right to engage in respectful, thoughtful political discourse, I wanted to share the "Playwright's Note" that I composed for the "Dear Anna" program to demonstrate that in fact, theatre is inherently political. It is entertainment, yes, but I challenge you to name a play or musical in which I cannot find a single line or moment that has political relevance. I think it will be very difficult.
So, this is what I wanted to leave my audience with this past week.
I am a person who loves deeply and feels deeply and hurts deeply. I am a person who cries— a lot. When I began writing "Dear Anna," it was the story of Mallaigh, someone who, like myself, loves and feels and hurts very intensely. At a certain point in my process, I realized that in fact, I was telling Anna’s story. And that was really, really hard for me, because Anna is someone who feels like my opposite in nearly every way. She is someone I could love, and someone I have loved, but she is also someone who hurts me more than I thought I had words to say. And yet somehow — I have found the words.
I have come to believe that in times of darkness, I can write my way out. I truly believe there is always some way out of darkness, whether for you that is writing, dancing, painting, or even doing math problems. Isabel Allende said, “We all have an unsuspected reserve of strength inside that emerges when life puts us to the test.” My power comes from my words; through them, I have always managed to push through. And I can see Ithacans pushing through as we speak, and I can see my native New Yorkers and much of our country doing the same.
Right now, we are descending into a place of darkness that is not a result of any one person, but of many people and the prejudices they hold. This has become increasingly apparent as I have read stories of violence against members of the LGBTQ+ community in the past week, and of course long before then as well. I hope that when you leave today, you understand why I needed to tell this story. I hope that Anna, Mallaigh and Liz are real people to you — because they are real people. They are the people sitting next to you, they are the people passing you on the street, they are your friends and family and maybe they are you.
"I watched a girl in a sundress
kiss another girl on a
park bench, and just as the
sunlight spilled perfectly
onto both of their hair,
I thought to myself:
'How bravely beautiful it is,
that sometimes,
the sea wants the city,
even when it has been told
its entire life it was
meant for the shore.'"
(Christopher Poindexter)
That is why.
Though you were not necessarily an audience member at this production of "Dear Anna," and you may never have read it or heard me talk about it, I hope it is clear to you that theatre artists, too, are real people, and that when they have the ability to attempt to create social change, it is important that they do so. The president-elect referring to the statement made by the company of "Hamilton" at the end of the performance that the vice president-elect attended as "harassment" is a move toward an infringement not only on the power that artists have to enact social change, but on the Constitutional right that the people of the United States have to free speech. Everyone, artist or not, is entitled to and should speak up for their rights and the rights of others.
