Theatre 8:15 And Hartland Theatre Company Proudly Present

Music by Myron Fink Script by Steven Denlinger

Director’s Notes

What is the journey to a new play or opera?  I’m not sure what journeys other writers have experienced, because writing is so highly personal, and because writers are notoriously reticent, but I can talk to you about mine.

First, there was the idea and the research – my composer Myron Fink suggested I look at Robert Penn Warren’s epic poem Brother to Dragons (1953) back in July 2003 as I was finishing up the workshop here in Stark County for A Tale of Two Cities.  I didn’t like it much:  it simply made Lilburne a monster, which isn’t at all threatening to anyone.  Myron and I found more to think about in Boynton Merrill Jr.’s Jefferson’s Nephews (1978), and a lot of affirmation for our story in Jay Feldman’s When the Mississippi Ran Backwards (2005).

Then there was a lot of alone time – those long sessions between the computer screen and the research and my intuition and my personal experience.  In between writing sessions, there were conversations over Friday dinners and Saturday morning walks and Starbucks sessions with Myron.  Somewhere along the line, Myron chose a favorite Starbucks drink, the iced Grande Latte.

After three years of discussion and revised treatments, there came this past spring break.  I traveled to San Diego and put myself on house arrest at Myron and Bonnie’s place.  I did nothing but write, eat, write, sleep, write, talk.  And it paid off.  I emerged from San Diego with a bloody good treatment, so to speak.

It sat while I finished up my teaching, and rewrote The French Inquisitor and Fish – both screenplays.  On July 1, I traveled again to the outskirts of San Diego, and once again cut myself off from the world, going into my cave, so to speak.  Eight days later, I emerged with a first draft of 130 pages.  Over the next two weeks, I began to plan this development workshop with producers Dick Gotschall, Amanda Swinehart, and Todd Ranney – meanwhile editing the current version which fleshes out at about 90 pages.

Then it was a quick trip July 30 to Cleveland, Ohio, beginning to cast by phone.  July 31 – August 7, we cast the show and began rehearsals.  And tonight, you are seeing the results of that work as you view one of the performances in this development workshop.

We couldn’t have done this without the help of this wonderful company – some of whom committed to helping this week.  The number of old friends and new friends who have joined this venture is humbling and rewarding and astonishing.

This venture also sees the official birth of Hartland Theatre (www.hartlandtheatre.com), a development laboratory for new plays here in the heartland of America.  I have committed to using part of each summer to work with this fine company of actors and production team members to shape new shows – written both by me and by other young playwrights – that will hopefully move on to Los Angeles and New York.

It’s an exciting venture, and we’re looking for board members who wish to help support and develop this yearly venture – which will grow into a summer repertory theatre.  I have a selfish reason for starting this company:  even though I’m living 3,000 miles away, this group of artists will be a touchstone that will allow me to keep in touch with my roots here in the Midwest, while enjoying the relationships that I have built across the years.

If you would like to be put on the mailing list for future summers, please visit our webpage and email me.  I’d love to keep in touch with you.  After all, it is because of you the audience that a playwright or composer chooses to spend all that time alone, pounding the keyboard, looking for those moments of emotions that will move his audience to tears of joy and laughter.