Day 12 brings me another play I was completely unfamiliar with - Mamets Duck Variations.

My first impression of this show is two things: this is an experiment in Meisner as a playwriting exercise and second: it would be useful in a college setting because of it.

The show is two men on a park bench discussion life through the scope of ducks and things about ducks. It's... A bit wackadoo. But there ha go.

The structure of the show again lends itself to the college structure as it is 14 vignettes of these two men... Each one is some 3-5 pages and then it's a "new" day. Ah life.

Final verdict: I'm not in love with this one. Education is the home of this play I think and with good reason.

Next up: Might be an Athol Fugard play. 

As always pleas make suggestions should you feel inclined, join me as you will! Thanks for reading. #PlayADay4May

Today's okay is Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies... And what a play it is.

Fantastic, truly great. The play is about a famous artist and how he met his inspiration muse. And about his work and complicated human interaction. It's brilliant and provocative and gosh darn it I want to be in it. :-)

The play is non linear but completely easy to follow. These moments are all what brought this artist to greatest and dispair, triumph and misery... These things brought Jonathan to greatness and his knees.

I really like this play.

Final verdict: direct and be in. New goals.

Next up:

As always thanks for reading! Suggest away! Join me! #PlayADay4May

Today's Sunday play is Shopping and Fucking by Mark Ravenhill.

It's an intense play to say the least, about ownership of material objects and people. Really, through the graphic sexual scenes (there is lots of on stage sex), there is this theme about owning people. The idea that, I pay for you to eat so I own you, or I pay for your clothes and shelter, so you are my property.... It's an intense view of human nature, but then what play isn't intense in some way or another?

I will always remember that one of my college professors said "99% of plays are about extraordinary days or events or they wouldn't have been written - then there's waiting for Godot."

It really has been interesting reading about all the extremes of human emotion and discovery these past 10 days. It has definitely been provocative. Made me think about my own life and question. I guess that was part of my goal about this reading challenge.... I wanted to see what thought provoking stories are out there.

Next up: Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies

As always, thank you for reading this little challenge blog. If you want to suggest a play please do so, or if you want to join me I would love that too. #PlayADay4May

Day 9 brings us The Serpent by Jean-Claude Van Itallie. Its a old testament based "ceremony" play... Essentially Genesis on Acid.

I dont know who decided this was a good idea to do, to print, to whatever. I distinctly disliked this play. Now before you say "But Matt! Aren't you agnostic / really against Christian dogmatic and biblical things?" (Mom...) I would like to let everyone know I took my senior capstone in Medieval Drama which was almost entirely religious texts and I loved it. I enjoy reading how scripture becomes plays and how stories are passed down. I find it fascinating how things change through generations and by what is important to us.

This play however.... was shit. It starts with the Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations and then with no explanation or justification at all shifts to Adam and Eve. It then continues through all of genesis almost verbatim and finishes with 20 pages of an ensemble reciting the begatting in generations.

Its like this guy on powerful hallucanigens went: "You know what would be awesome.... Genesis verbatim. Whoa."

Final Verdict: This play is shit. Enough said.

Next up: Shopping & Fucking by Mark Ravenhill

As always, thank you for reading this little challenge blog. If you want to suggest a play please do so, or if you want to join me I would love that too. #PlayADay4May 

Today's work: The hilarious and brilliant 39 Steps.

So this is a show I am familiar with, having seen a very well done production at New World Stages. It's a British farce about a man who inadvertently gets himself tangled up in a spy ordeal, becomes a hero, foils the plot, and of course wins the girl.

The incredibly special thing about this show is the two clowns - two men who play all the other characters in the world of the play, and how brilliantly the show works with that.

One of the interesting things about this play from my experience, is the little changes that occur between an official script and particular productions - things that are added or subtracted as is appropriate for the audience and what is really funny one place and not anothe

Final verdict: I would love to be a clown, direct, or just watch this show. It's brilliant and hilarious.

Next up: The Serpent by Jean-Claude Van Itallie

As always, if you would like to suggest a play, please do so! If you'd like to join me on the journey, I'd love the company. #PlayADay4May

Day 7 and another play I had no previous experience with. Pizza Man is definitely interesting...

The play is about two women who have had extraordinarily shitty days. One lost her job, the other dumped by her lover. In order to feel some sense of control the lure a pizza guy into their apartment in order to rape him.

To say this play is intense is an understatement. The 2nd half of the play is incredibly philosophical and full of soul searching by the two women and their captive. Everyone leaves the situation changed in a way - having gained or lost power in the situation. Crying, it seems, is a necessary part of our humanity - or at least letting the feelings out.

Final verdict: I'd love to play the pizza man and direct this one. This play definitely speaks to me.

Next up: the 39 steps!

As always, if you would like to make a suggestion of a play to read, leave it in the comments! If you would like to join me in reading, I'd love the company. #PlayADay4May

-Matt 

Day 6 was a drama called Key Exchange by Kevin Wade.
This play is set in and around central park in the 80s and about three bicyclers, two men and a woman.

One man is newly married and the other man is casually dating the woman biker. They meet while biking every week and "shoot the shit" about life and things as they are catching their breath.

The play gets interesting as the relationship between the man and woman bikers plays out - the guy is not one for commitment, or really just knows what is coming in a committed relationship when he is involved. The woman is trying to move forward in their relationship and he keeps dragging his feet - and the downward spiral starts over a discussion of key's being exchanged. 

Meanwhile the newly wed has his own issues - his new wife has already left him for someone else.

The interesting thing about this play is that its very cynical about relationships and the idea of monogamy. There are constant references to monogamy not being the natural way of things and relationships / commitments really being forced whether you want to admit it or not.

Final Verdict: I think the play is dated in both setting and subject - and possibly that the author had an experience of his own and is writing about it. Not a huge fan.

Next up: Might be the 39 Steps or the Pizza Man. Haven't decided yet.

As always, if you would like to make a suggestion of a play to read, leave it in the comments! If you would like to join me in reading, I'd love the company. #PlayADay4May

-Matt 

Day 5 was supposed to be funny! 
Well, it had bits of amusement from the play The Walworth Farce by Enda Walsh... but really, this play is as if 39 Steps had a demon baby with Lieutenant of Inishmore.


So, the play takes place in a London flat with two brothers and their father recreating a farce of their own - playing all the characters in a monumental real day of murder that changed their lives and set them on this path. 

The brothers play all the rotating parts with Dad Dinny playing his own. Into this mix comes the very real and unsuspecting cashier from the local market... and the play within the play changes dramatically. 

This play ends up being very dark, as anyone knowing my above reference to Martin McDonagh would be able to guess and definitely took me by surprise.

Final Verdict: Though I would love to be in this play, whew does it say some crazy things about humanity and what people will do to protect themselves from the truth.

Next up: A Key Exchange by Kevin Wade

As always, if you would like to make a suggestion of a play to read, leave it in the comments! If you would like to join me in reading, I'd love the company. #PlayADay4May

-Matt

Day 4 - And another play I had zero familiarity with. I'm really enjoying reading these completely new to me works - I have no preconceived notions, no idea of the casting, only that I am going on an adventure.

On to the work!
The Children's Hour - or as I would like to call it "The Crucible in a Classroom". Except that it was written 30 years before the Crucible. (1930s compared to 1950s)

This play is about a young women's boarding school, and this play's Abigail is named Mary. Mary is a troubled young woman who needs to get her own way - she does this by telling her socially powerful grandmother: "I saw the teachers getting busy!" 

Needless to say this destroys the women and their life's work. To learn later that it was all a lie, well... it isn't possible to fix the damage is one way to say it. I won't spoil the ending for those that may want to read it, but you see parts of it coming. 

The interesting deeper conversation this play brought up for me is that it's really about hidden demons at its core. What lies do we even tell ourselves to make it through the day? 

Final Verdict: I really liked this play. I'd like to direct it (mental note!). It is reminiscent of The crucible and History Boys rolled into one and predates them both by a lot. The show is also based somewhat on true events. 

Tomorrow's Play: Time to get a little funny after this dark show with The Woolworth Farce by Enda Walsh

As always, if you would like to make a suggestion of a play to read, leave it in the comments! If you would like to join me in reading, I'd love the company. #PlayADay4May

-Matt

So today I read In the Bar of A Tokyo Hotel by Tennessee Williams, a play I had no familiarity with before I opened the cover. I am of course familiar with many of Williams plays but this one? Not at all.

So a few thoughts about this play:
I wanted to look up when this play was in Williams career as it seems so different from the works I am familiar with, both in style and content. Interestingly enough, its after many of his most famous and career launching pieces but smack dab in the middle of his many published works (1969 in a career that started with Glass Menagerie in 1944 and ended with his final play in the year of his death in 1983).

The play is about a woman who is very unhappily married (and unfaithful) to her also deeply unhappy (about her unfaithfulness) painter. The style of writing has almost no complete sentences or completely voiced thoughts - the words trail off or are interrupted by other characters. Its also quite explicit for a writer who launched with the proper styles of Menagerie, with the main woman speaking of both her sexual exploits and groping the Japanese barkeepers crotch on stage. It was also interesting to me that there is a character of a Hawaiian woman whose sole purpose is to cross the entrance twice - as in she doesn't even come on stage, but merely you see her cross an entry way from left to right and then back again, and is casually mentioned by the main character and then forgotten. It makes me think about what William's purpose was of including this character and how a a director should use this piece of the puzzle... or on the other hand how this character could be completely removed from actually appearing and only referenced. When a play has so many sentences that die off deliberately and its up to the audience to ascertain the final intended thoughts, this character's inclusion is a deliberate choice of the playwright... 

Final Verdict: While I often enjoy Williams better known works, this one often shocked me because of the very jarring style. I like the show but don't love it. It's not as simple and clear cut - its muddy and difficult on purpose. 

Next up: I think tomorrow will be The Children's Hour.

As always, if you would like to make a suggestion of a play to read, leave it in the comments! If you would like to join me in reading, I'd love the company. #PlayADay4May

-Matt