@dramatistsguild @AoiseStratford

Happily, my own backyard is lovely at this time of year. The peonies just bloomed and it’s warm enough to play outside till late. Summer in Ithaca makes you feel like part of the world again—no small thing for a place that is ‘centrally isolated.’ Many of my region’s theatre goers and makers spend a good deal of their time (and money) combatting this isolation by traveling many hours to New York—easier when we’re not snowed in. But sometimes New York comes to us.

This Spring, Guild member, Pulitzer Prize-winner, and mentor to countless playwrights, Paula Vogel came to Ithaca and spoke about theatre, writing, the relationship between art and education, and much more. The visit culminated in an enthusiastically received concert reading of her play Indecent, which was simultaneously also in rehearsal in New York and about to open at The Vineyard. The opportunity to work on this play with other Ithaca theatre-practitioners, and to be part of the public reading, was a gift I will always be grateful for. Paula Vogel has for a long time been a source of inspiration to me–for her superb craft, her passion, and her generosity. The reading of Indecent, which marked the conferment of Dr. (!) Vogel’s PhD from Cornell, also marked the opening of Klarman Hall, and celebrated the New Century for The Humanities at Cornell. I love that it was a play about theatre and community that launched the dawn of a new century for the humanities. But I also love that it was a play about struggle and survival, about Jews, lesbians, censorship, hatred, perseverance, and love. As I write this, I can’t help but reflect on the division and struggle facing our country, and on what it means to have the insistence and the optimism to make art when things seem dire. 

In a strange way, Vogel’s visit to my backyard made a fitting bookend to my own visit to the Bay Area earlier this year, where I collaborated with Bay Area Rep Suze Allen on a panel discussion about the challenges of working both locally and nationally. The event included a staged conversation with Guild member Lauren Gunderson, who had just won the Lanford Wilson Prize. She was the first playwright outside of the tri-state area to do so. Much of what we talked about that day focused on the vibrancy of our local theatre communities and the importance of working in our own backyards, wherever they may be. The Regional Rep program was founded on the principal that important work happens in theatres around the country, not just on Broadway. But we also talked about the desire to have our work on stages nationally, to reach audiences elsewhere, to have a presence and a role to play in those larger communities to which we also belong. And so I’m struck by my urge this summer to look beyond my region, and appreciate the paths both in and out of it. To have Paula Vogel inspiring playwrights in Ithaca, to have a chance to be in rehearsal and development with Suze Allen for my own work in San Francisco, to see Lauren Gunderson honored in New York reminds me that what happens in one room in one city can be felt far and wide. A timely reminder that in some important ways we’re all in this together—or at least we could be.

Paula Vogel; photo credit Andy Gillis

(l to r) Meghan Brodie, Paula Vogel and Sara Warner; photo credit Andy Gillis

astratford@dramatistsguild.com