Isherwood: Stop Talking to Me

Isherwood has taken young playwrights to task over at The New York Times theater blog for overuse of the "direct address." I see his point about how the device can be used to cover up lazy writing. I'm sure we've all seen examples of this. But the post also generalizes an entire generation of playwrights, is painfully euro centric and conservative, and reeks of old fogey-ism. This, of course, concerns Youngblood.

A key bit of the post (though you should read the whole annoying enchilada) is:

I sometimes think the decline of naturalism as the standard format for contemporary drama has simply made it easier for writers to get sloppy in ways that were more or less forbidden to contemporaries of Ibsen and Shaw and Wilde. Young playwrights these days employ direct address indiscriminately, breaking the spell of essentially naturalistic works because they have failed to grapple with some problem of structure. One reason the work of Annie Baker (“The Aliens,” “Circle Mirror Transformation”) stands out is her very sparing use of direct address.

The idea that you have to know the rules – even master them – before you break them seems to have lost some of its currency, because in our post-Beckett theatrical landscape there really are no rules.

Yay for the Annie Baker love, but still... really, dude? Isherwood especially (and rather unkindly) calls out emerging playwright Kristoffer Diaz:

Examples are almost too numerous to bother citing. A particular offender from last season was the Kristoffer Diaz play “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity,” about the colorful world of professional wrestling. I’d estimate that at least three-quarters of the play consisted of, um, elaborate monologues from one or another character describing events the playwright was unable to dramatize or chose not to. This secondhand description was particularly frustrating in a play about a sport that thrives on the display of combat. Conflict, that key ingredient in drama, is hard to come by when the characters in a play refuse to engage with one another.

I didn't get to see Diaz's play, but the reasons why Isherwood is dead wrong where the direct address is concerned are numerous. I'd list them all now, but lucky for me I don't have to. Diaz has already done it over on his blog. Seriously, read it.

I happen to fucking love the direct address. As an audience member and as a playwright. Do I like fourth wall dramas as well? Totally. It seems to me the theater lacks diversity on every front - lack of women, people of color, working class playwrights- but we also lack diversity in form. Isn't there (or shouldn't there be) room for everybody at the table? For all voices? It just seems to me that these sweeping proclamations about what plays should or should not be are poisonous.

I've noticed lots of criticism about young playwrights. We're too quirky! We don't follow the rules! Just google Sarah Ruhl, the queen bee of new and "quirky" playwrights, and you'll see what I mean. Some people spew perfect vitriol at her.

The thing is, we're not quirky at all. Just like every single generation before us, we have a different voice and our own rules. Whether Isherwood chooses to take part in our stories, to support our voices, is up to him.

Hot Playwrights IV: Annie Baker Edition.

Real talk express: Annie is a Youngblood alum, so hopefully it's not too uncouth to post this. Let me just state the obvious right up front: straight dudes in theater LOVE Annie Baker. Like, a lot. I don't know Annie personally, but she looks just like this girl named Brenna who sat next to me in A.P. English.

Arty dudes loved Brenna too. She dated Gabe who was one of the hottest arty, rocker boys in school. She was soft and kind of quiet, which belied a ferocious intelligence. Because she was so smart she was hard to get close too, which undoubtedly drove boys crazy. Few people got to know how hilarious she was. Most of those boys didn't know that Brenna had better taste in music and books than they did either. But she did. Brenna went on to become the valedictorian and Gabe went on to... well, who knows? He was never really good enough for her anyway.

I'm into dudes, but even I can admit that Annie is hot. Look how pretty her hair is! Also, she's always wearing cute stuff in press photos. I mean, it probably doesn't hurt her cute quotient that she's really talented or whatever. I guess she's written a couple of plays that people kind of liked or something? But who cares about dumb old plays? Something tells me that Annie, like Brenna, makes incredible mixed tapes. I wonder if she was ever into Sonic Youth.

At any rate, I'm certain- CERTAIN- that there must be heart broken arty boys all over New York because of Annie and to them I dedicate Jackson Browne's "Somebody's Baby."



Keep dreaming, boys!