It all comes together
As the dramaturg on The Books, I have tried to read and comment on as many drafts of the play as possible … and with Michael Edison Hayden, there are always quite a few. That’s a big part of what makes working with Mike so exciting: His commitment to the work is almost exhausting, but he doesn’t invest much in the content of a given draft.
For Mike, the revision process is one of discovery. He finds the essence of the play by rewriting it, often from scratch, then he pares everything else away.
I went to a rehearsal a few days ago to see how Aadya, Scott, Bradley, and Matt were making the essence visible, audible … how they were making it live onstage. The play was at that tender late stage of rehearsal, familiar even to those who have only been involved in school productions, where the pieces start to click together. In this stage, all the choices made by the cast, director, and production team move out of isolation and intermingle. The actors move from familiarity with their roles to fluency within them. Before and after rehearsal, they quote from the play a lot in conversation.
Watching the scenes unfold, I thought about how a good production, one that’s faithful to the writer’s vision, will always contain moments that surprise even those who know the script well. This is especially true of The Books, which presents a relationship whose emotional stakes couldn’t be higher. The characters Mark and Helen are discovering one another, and the revelations have to feel real.
The Books makes reference to James Joyce, Henry James, Christopher Smart, and other big nerds, but it doesn’t solicit a chin-stroking response. The play wants a laughing, gasping response, and I’m happy to report that I did plenty of both at the rehearsal, forgetting that I knew what came next.
Next comes the addition of all the elements that give a theater production the solidity of a lived experience: lights, costumes, music, audience. I’ll see you at The Cherry Pit.