Sun and Room
Photo by Danielle Faitelson
Pictured (left to right): Zoë Pike, Matthew Socci, Leah Brewer
“A remarkable new work."
— The Durango Herald
Sun and Room is a major departure, step forward, shift - all the words - in my writing and development. In 2013, several streams collided into a river:
I had just finished a presentation of Orchestra, the first major attempt at realizing the Script Writing Score. SWS - how to invert theatrical text, express voice - all of this was at the forefront of my mind. I took the technique to a conference in Barcelona that summer with director Shannon Fillion. I began actively campaigning for this way of working.
At the same time, New York art was blooming under playwright Annie Baker and experiments like Marina Abramovic’s The Artist is Present at MOMA. The idea of presence and the Pinter Pause were having a renaissance.
I discovered the paintings of Edward Hopper at the Whitney for the first time in my life. They deeply affected me, particularly seeing the collection of his “studies” - the way he created some of his most cherished paintings.
I was granted a hefty and generous commission from Fort Lewis College - where I taught the year before - to develop a new play. This is key, because I didn’t have to do anything else for three months (the same was true of Convention later - another radical progression in my style - and the same was true of Sparrow, while at Columbia…).
And finally, and most importantly, I got sober that June, right before all of this started to coalesce. Sun and Room was the first play I wrote while actively staying present. And I really think it shows.
The result is one of my proudest plays. The performances by Leah Brewer, Zoë Pike, and Matt Socci are imprinted in my mind for all time. This play taught me about structure, sustaining a full evening of theater, nuance of language, the unspoken, the power of off-stage relationships, dramatic tension - all of it. It changed everything.
It’s also the longest running show of mine to date: first at Fort Lewis College under the direction of Ginny Davis in 2013, then at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival in 2014, and finally at Paradise Factory in the East Village in 2015 under Shannon Fillion’s expert craftsmanship.
These reviews say it all:
I had fun, indeed.