This week's guest blog comes courtesy of fabulous playwright John Patrick Bray. I have been fortunate enough to see John's work a few times and can say that he has a great ear for dialogue, develops great premises for projects, and to top it all off he's a really nice guy! He's got a project coming up that I'll let him tell you more about. Take it away John!
Thank you, Michael, for your generosity!
My name is John Patrick Bray (JPB). I’ve been working as a playwright Off-Off Broadway/ in the New York Independent Theatre for just over a decade, and have been fortunate enough to work with some incredible people: director and innovator Rachel Klein, Daniel Horrigan and At Hand Theatre Company , Akia and the Rising Sun Performance Company, (re:)Directions Theatre Company (Tom Berger and Erin Smiley remain two of my all-time favorite people – they now live in Philadelphia doing great deeds, so re:Directions is no longer in operation), Jerrod Bogard and Matthew Kriener over at EndTimes Bunker, Nicholas Herbert at The Full Circle Theatre Company, and a bunch of folks who are affiliated with The Cry Havoc Company. This is just a sample, and should I ever win a major award, I’ll basically need the NYC phonebook when it comes time to say “thank you!”
Jeff Woodbridge, who directed a short play of mine, “On Top” with the Rising Sun, will be directing my play Donkey in the fall of 2013, with his own OOB company Unbalancing Act. Jeff has been kicking around the NYC theatre scene for a while now. He directed my friend Melissa Gawloski’s play Spring Tides with Boomerang Theatre Company, and is currently the director for the world premiere of The Pit by Melissa Annis, a Long View Theatre production, which will open at Theatre for the New City in February.
Donkey tells the story of Steve Ryan who owns an independent coffee shop in a liberal-arts-college town in upstate, New York. His “regulars” include the local newspaper reporter, an undergrad who works for (and sleeps with) him, a Goth kid who hears the call for the military, a performance artist, and a third-party mayor. He ignores the writing on the wall when the third party mayor paves the way for Quick Java, a “corporate coffee” shop, to move into the center of town.
Slowly but surely, Steve alienates his patrons, and the community. Furthermore, his regulars bully/torment/torture a college student, giving the impression the place is unsafe for anyone who is not town-bred. Left with nothing else to do, Steve vandalizes Quick Java on the eve of its opening….with bizarre results.
A satire of small-town politics, Donkey reminds us that for every decision we fail to make, there is another decision…waiting to not be made. Donkey is inspired by a true story.
The play is very apropos as a number of corporate stores are moving into small cities and towns around the country. Part of the issue is that in these small cities (I’m thinking now of Athens, Georgia, where I currently live) there is a need for stores that provide the basic necessities at a price that folks who fall into the middle and lower economic income brackets can afford. However, there are those who feel that corporate stores will actually take away employment opportunities, and drive out small businesses, taking advantage of a community’s need, under the guise of providing for the community, while both making a profit, and forcing independent stores to close. It has been argued that this is a corporate homogenization of the United States. While those arguments are sound, I do feel there is still a conversation that needs to be had regarding the day-to-day household economy for folks who do not fit in neatly to the “one percent,” and how these needs can be met without relying on corporate takeover. The play is not necessarily providing an answer, rather, it is a slice-of-life satire which suggests that we need to grow as individuals in a community context so we can prepare ourselves for these truly tough questions, in which there is not cut-and-dry answer. Friends of mine who read the play have said it is either very libertarian, or very socialist (I take both as a compliment), without being heavy-handed or judgmental toward the characters and the people that the characters (might) represent; friends have also said it is surprisingly nuanced as no one in the play is really a “bad guy.” These characters are just a bunch of folks trying to get by, who rub each other the wrong way, and learn how to manage living with one another.
Jeff and I have our collective eye on a space, and are currently raising funds as a down payment. I have co-produced before, and I find the biggest hurdle is securing the space. Once that is taken care of, budgetary decisions become a little easier. We are hoping to raise $2,500 by the January 1, 2013. I have already started soliciting donations on social media, but we need a little more visibility (thank you, Michael, for making this possible!). Donkey is sponsored by Fractured Atlas, so all donations made to the production will be tax-deductible. As an added incentive, anyone who donates $10 or more will receive a .pdf of the current draft of the script. This is a way of saying “thank you,” but also of letting folks know what exactly they are backing. I have done this before, and found that people – who are not investors in the commercial sense – appreciate knowing that their money is supporting something they can relate to.
To make an end-of-the-year donation, please visit this link. Then, drop me a line at JohnPatrickBray@yahoo.com, and I will send you a .pdf of the play. If you find that this is something you would like to support, do tell others about the work, and what we hope to achieve with this production. I believe the role of theatre – political or otherwise- is to start a conversation in the audience that continues into their daily lives. I believe that this play can achieve this by foregrounding a human story against a very divisive, community-based, economic issue which desperately needs further exploration.
John Patrick Bray (Ph.D., M.F.A.) is a lecturer in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies at the University of Georgia, a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, Inc., an Equity Membership Candidate, a published playwright, and scholar. Please visit www.johnpatrickbray.webs.com for more information.
Thanks John! It looks great! Be sure to check out John's work and support them if you can!
Excelsior!
P.S.- ConnectorCon is now 8 days away! Be sure to grab your tickets HERE!
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