Playwrights write plays for one reason: to see them performed on stage.
Last night was opening night for a staged reading of my play Extraordinary People. What a satisfying night for me. I finished this play in December 2021. It is the sequel to my first play Transcendental Trepidation, written in 1976, first performed in 1977. Extraordinary People is set "forty years later" in present day. I realize in real life it has been more than forty years, but I didn't want the actors to have to be in their 70s and 80s to play the roles.
EP opens in a funeral home, where one set of conjoined twins lie in a double casket. Funeral music plays at the audience enters. Some of the cast members will enter from the audience. This is a reunion of the members of the consciousness raising group they formed in Kansas City in order to raise awareness of the problems disabled people face, including accessibility..
The funeral is an opportunity for them to reconnect with each other (so to speak), and catch up on each other's lives. From the original four sets of twins in TT, three sets remain: only one set is still conjoined, the others have been separated. One set is estranged, in another, one has transitioned to a man.
The first play was a comedy, and I set out to create another with the same characters. My director says the play has drama, comedy, conflict, romance, and love. The audience laughed throughout, which was satisfying to this playwright.
The actors rehearsed almost as if they were doing a full production, and certainly the director brought all those sensibilities to the performance.
I was thrilled that we filled nearly every seat in the house. This is always the goal, rarely the case, especially during a theatre festival when people are faced with so many choices.
I wish I had pictures from last night's performance to show you, or at least a group photo of the cast, but I do not. Instead, I will post the few photos I have from Transcendental Trepidation. Excuse the quality please. These are all candid shots taken with a Kodak Instamatic 110.
Please share, leave a comment, come to Wednesday’s performance if you’re in the Portland area. And please, if you were there last night, chime in!
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I so wish I could have been there for this! Thank you for describing it in such detail. How thrilling to see your characters come full circle.
Your play is a joy! It’s a believable, relatable scene in spite of the really unusual circumstances. I did laugh often and caught my breath at least once. Thank you!