|
2008/2009 SEASON Tuesday, July 22, 2008 Plan-B's Resident Playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett on the 2008/2009 Season
There's a thread that runs through all three plays for the upcoming season. An adaptation of FRANKENSTEIN, a play about
Japanese-American internment camps, and a play about Leonardo da Vinci - what could they all share? As I was writing them, I realized that what they all
share is a subtle reminder to me that the Shadow within will devour
us if we fail to acknowledge it and deal with it quickly and decisively.
The
Shadow of FRANKENSTEIN is the monster, and the monster is a metaphor
for the part of ourselves we think is ugly, evil and undeserving of
love. But the monster is us. ...The monster is us... We ignore it
and spurn it at a cost. The monster thrives on our inattention and is
urged on by our (self-) hate and will kill everything we love in order
to get us to love it.
The
Shadow of BLOCK 8 is racism. The racism against the Japanese-Americans
in the 1940's was totally out of touch with reality. Yes, Japanese
soliders killed many, many American soldiers. They bombed us by
surprise. They flew planes suicidally into our warships. They
captured and tortured young men in the Pacific. And it's tragic. I
weep thinking about it. I also weep, however, thinking about the fact
that Americans failed to distinguish between Japanese nationals and
Japanse-Americans -- as if a yellow face meant you were a
traitor. 120,000 people of Japanese descent were forcibly
incarerated during the war and no one was convicted of espionage. The
hate was out of touch with reality. The hate was a projection of
America's Shadow within. By fighting the Nazis we began to become
them. Of course, they needed to be fought. The challenge to us in the
future, as a nation, is to defend ourselves as best as possible while
acting with love.
The
Shadow of DI ESPERIENZA is the myth of Leonardo. I personally believe
that the myth of The Great Man ate at Leonardo. He wrote in the
notebooks, "As a kingdom divided among itself is destroyed, so [is] a
mind divided among different studies." Of course there's no denying
that Leonardo is a genius and uncannily accomplished. However, as I
studied the notebooks, I began feeling like he was sometimes the
whipping boy of a burning perfectionism. Then I saw a trail of
unfinished art projects. The notebooks are definitely dotted with joy,
but the unfulfillment is palpable to me. So I wrote a play that busts
the myth of a demigod Leonardo and show us that he was a man. A man of
ups and downs. A man of good ideas and bad ideas. At times happy, but
like all of us, not 100% sure of who he really is, and who is pursued
by the Shadow that says "you aren't good enough."
On
a less philosophical note, I'm thrilled that the season is fully cast
and cast well. I feel incredibly, incredibly lucky that - in the
development process and auditions - we found great actors AND that
they're excited about the plays. Good theatre, I think, only comes
from directors, designers, and actors who really want to be there.
When
I first began writing plays, I thought that I would want to be
intimately involved in the production process. Now, from having
developed a relationship with Plan-B, I'm realizing that the best part
of writing a play is releasing it into the hands of artists you trust
and love. So I set all these plays free. There may be a tweak needed
here and there with these plays, but I'm confident that the Plan-B crew
will turn them all into wonderful (even if painful) experiences
instead of temporary distractions.
With Love,
Matthew Ivan Bennett
|
|