The Comming of the Woodpecker

This is shameless and self-promoting, so it should appear on a blog. A few months ago I was asked by my college friend Ben Hill to participate in his festival of new plays, the Hatchery Festival. I had seen the previous years Playing House since the author was an employee of mine and I knew the entire cast and was intrigued by the idea of doing a real workshop production.

As a director I have had the good (or bad) fortune to have jumped right in to directing full-fledged productions, beginning with Lord of the Flies in 2002. I only started directing readings in 2204 and do them sparingly. On the other hand I do direct about 3 films a year for my day job so I am sort of constantly working the directing muscle, and each of those films is developed from scratch...so I have had some extensive experience with development even if that development is centered are teaching Sociology to community college students.

Anyway, I was supose to direct a different play; Corpus Clyde by...wait for it...Karl Miller...that's right, the now world famous Karl Miller. Due to a career explosion, Karl was unable to finish the play.

Earlier in the year, during the run of The Beard of Avon, my dear friend Michole was in town and we got together for a drink. As we were reminiscing about our idea for doing a show with interconnecting scenes built around a Sikh stand up comedian (it's a lot funnier than it sounds) she gasped and told me there was a play that I would love written by a guy in the writing program at her institution of higher learning (Rutgers.)

A few months later, as Karl was beginning his rise, she sent me the second draft of this play called The Woodpecker. I read it and could not contain my laughter. Or horror. Or disgust. Or emotional response. I arranged for a reading at my home theatre.

The reading was no well attended (there were about nine other readings the same night) but invoked intense discussion. As Karl's script floated away and he rose to the New York stage - the Woodpecker kept churning in my mind. Ben called me to come up with a solution for the Hatchery, since they had the space already. He sent me a play and I sent him the Woodpecker. It was not nearly as difficult to convince the Hatchery.

The play deals with what I see as a typical southern family (though some might say stereotype - not where I am from though) and the idea of freedom. What freedom means both in the domestic and international political sense. Act One deals with the home, the family, and a young man's last day of freedom before going into the army. The Second Act is his experience as a guard in an unidentified military prison. The theme of prison, or cages, juxtaposed with the characters (all five) desires for freedom from various versions thereof has really drawn me in.

Each character has there own relationship to God as well, which really provides a delightful insight to the thinking process of each. Did I mention that one of these characters is a Muslim prisoner? Well he is.

There are many more little tid bits, but I don't think I could fit them in one post - and this one is too long already. So just come and see this thin August 16-20 at DCAC. Come see the other Hatchery shows too, but I will let those directors tell you specifics. I am in love with my show as they are with theirs.