Taking Issues

Who knew that the 2004 Presidential election would become the prime motivating force for the theater world? A.R. Gurney’s Mrs. Farnsworth and the Fringe Festival musical The Passion of George W. Bush are just two of the recent works that have come about as a response to what many see as a watershed decision set to be made on November 2. So it’s far from surprising that Naked Angels, having tackled everything from homelessness to women’s rights in its Issues Project series, has gotten into the act. The star-studded theater group will present Democracy, You Never Know What You’re Going to Get, September 14-30 at the Culture Project’s 45 Below (right downstairs from another politically-motivated theater piece, Guantánamo: Honor Bound to Defend Freedom.)

“At first, we were trying to find a side way into the election, but then we just decided to hit the nail on the head,” says Tim Ransom, artistic director of Naked Angels. “Our goal is to get people thinking, to provoke discussion, and to stimulate people into getting involved, no matter what party they belong to. We’re even going to be registering people to vote after each show. The one thing we’re not planning to do is some big lefty rant.”

While previous Issues Projects have called on the talents of a few playwrights each time, Naked Angels put out the call to more than two dozen of our most talented scribes. “We really thought the best way to talk about the concept of democracy was to open it up to as many people as possible and ask what democracy means to them,” says Ransom. “So we called on some old favorites and also asked some newer voices. We really made a great effort to include different ethnicities and sexual orientations as well, to cover as many colors of the rainbow as we could.”

The distinguished list of participating playwrights includes Jon Robin Baitz, Stephen Belber, Lee Blessing, Nilo Cruz, Tom Fontana, Jerome Hairston, Warren Leight, Kenneth Lonergan, Lynn Nottage, Frank Pugliese, Theresa Rebeck, and Christopher Shinn. “There were a couple of people, like August Wilson and Tony Kushner, who wanted to do this but were just too busy to fit it into their schedule,” says Ransom. As of this writing, the actual order of plays hadn’t been determined, but Ransom says he’d like to keep each evening to under two hours because “we don’t want to make this a long night. We’ve learned our lesson from the past.” Ransom notes that there may be music and/or performance art elements to some performances.

Another participating playwright is Pippin Parker, who is also the Issues Project‘s artistic director. “This event is really important for Naked Angels as a group,” he says. “It’s an opportunity for us to come together and reassemble, which we increasingly have less time to do. I think we’ve always wanted to elevate this concept of one-act evenings, which is really the lifeblood of any young company. In fact, I think our first Issues Project had the one-act version of Robbie Baitz’s The Substance of Fire.”

Like Ransom, Parker doesn’t want to simply preach to the converted. “The days of great agitprop theater are behind us, I hope,” he says. “If we can achieve a set of evenings that are interesting to both the audience and to ourselves, that would be perfect.” To help facilitate that result, Naked Angels is planning to ask a number of political commentators to introduce each evening’s plays. “We want them to talk about democracy, using some personal element, and then have them stay around after the show to guide a post-show discussion,” says Parker. “Hopefully, there will be some sort of natural organic transition instead of an awkward Q&A where the audience asks the playwrights about their intentions. If we have to, maybe we’ll serve some wine to get things going.”

Parker’s play is a two-hander about a pair of college students, a Mexican-American woman and a guy from New York City, who meet in a bar and who must spend about 20 minutes talking before one of their apartments is free for some non-verbal activity. Parker is somewhat bemused that he chose to write a play about such young people. “Not only did I not write it with any specific actors in mind, but I am actually too old to know who the perfect people are to play these parts,” he says. “I am asking around for suggestions.”

Indeed, Naked Angels has eschewed the use of casting directors on the project, instead having all the playwrights and company members enlist their friends and colleagues to act in and direct these pieces. “Everybody in the company is really stepping up to the plate,” says Ranson. “It’s a real team effort; it’s actually very democratic that way.”

Had circumstances been different, Parker might have written a piece for his very famous sister Sarah Jessica Parker, and his equally famous brother-in-law Matthew Broderick. “They do want to be involved but they just don’t have the time now to commit to acting in a piece,” he says. “They might host the opening night party, though.”

Similarly, Kenneth Lonergan isn’t writing his play for his celebrated wife, actress J. Smith-Cameron. When we spoke, Lonergan was still fleshing out his idea, saying that this assignment was turning out to be a particular challenge. “It can be hard to find something riveting to say that only takes 10 minutes,” he notes. “But I think, once you get the idea, it comes out much easier than a longer play, in part because the structural problems are so much less.”

Brevity is not the only challenge. “In some ways, writing about a negative topic is more stimulating,” Lonergan says. “I thought tyranny would’ve been a good subject for the evening. No matter what the topic, I also think you don’t want to write directly about the subject but, rather, approach it from the side. Theater is usually at its best if it’s not polemical but if, through good characters and good situations, it can shed a new light on the subject.”