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Review by Nan McCulloch
I attended The New Play Project and saw Thorns & Thistles on Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007 at Provo Library's Bullock Rm. The four original plays were interesting, one particularly moving, but it was James Goldberg's introductory essay that was the thorn that pricked my imagination and left its mark. We frequently question the emergence of great Mormon artists, whether there will be a Mormon Potok or a revival of our ancient traditions. Goldberg referenced such a revival--the Harlem Renaissance of 1920. I am going to quote from the essay:
Toward a Mormon Renaissance
In 1920, while riding on a train, Langston Hughes wrote a poem on the back of a napkin. Maybe you've heard it. It was called The Negro Speaks of Rivers and it goes like this:
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
Goldberg finds the beautiful poem wise and grounded He likes the way it reaches into the past and deep down into the soul. *A poem that can give depth and strength instead of just describing them.* How can it do that when it was written in 1920 when white Americans and African-Americans thought of Black as *different, backward and inferior*?
But Langston Hughes confidently wrote my black soul is deep like the rivers and 86 years later we remember him for it. Not because he was the greatest individual writing talent of his day, but because he had something to say. Something that went beyond himself. He wrote about the culture and heritage of his people with pride and artistry. He and other like-minded writers, not ashamed to call themselves Negro poets, gave this nation a literature of black dignity. All of those individual writers, works and goals clumped together are remembered as the Harlem Renaissance.
Goldberg considers Mormonism a tradition and a people as well as a religion with a rich heritage and unique institutions. As writers and list members it is obvious that we Mormons have something to say, not unlike the men and women of the Harlem Renaissance.
Thorns & Thistles comes from the Bible verse in Genesis:3-17. It consists of four plays written and produced by BYU theater students.
Based on True-ish Stories: written by Katherine Gee and directed by Adam Stallard.
A young Catholic girl is struggling with her decision to elope with her Mormon boyfriend. As she packs her suitcase, trying to make the contents fit, she reviews her heritage, family traditions and spiritual life in an effort to make the pieces of her life fit the stories and life pieces of her Mormon boyfriend. Will their love *melt the differences*? *The stories must be respected.* I liked the ending. It was a departure from traditional Mormon stories.
Candle in the Darkness: written by Benjamin Crowder and directed by Mattie Roquel Rydalch.
A young RM is having a casual conversation with his mother and they begin a dialogue about fellow shipping their new neighbors. We see two distinctive styles for loving our neighbors and sharing the Gospel. The mother seems overzealous, wanting to rush right over with a casserole and a Book of Mormon in hand. The son thinks the casserole would be fine, but it is a little pushy to take the Book of Mormon on the first visit. He prefers the approach of *letting his light so shine* and taking the trouble to make friends with the other-faith folks. There are revelations that explain serious reasons why the mother and son have adopted these attitudes. They come by them honestly. I'm afraid my paradigm has been influenced by the constant string of missionaries that come to our ward and pass my house as they conduct the Lord's work. Only one has annoyed me to the bone and I can't get him out of my mind. I saw him at church and in the neighborhood weekly. I told him that I had two close other-faith friends and neighbors and that they were Catholic and Hindu. Both are good friends and very happy with their church affiliations. The young man never saw me but what he would preach and nag at me about these neighbors. One day he brought a new Elder by to meet me and asked what I was doing. When I told him I was reading, he asked if I was reading the scriptures and I told him no. He disappointedly replied that he was always happy when he came upon members reading their scriptures. This was a very entertaining piece and it covered all the bases.
Rameumptom: written by James Goldberg and directed by Katherine Gee
James was worried about this play, that it might offend. His purpose was to inoculate the audience by showing some unpleasant and unholy attitudes and practices that have crept into our church. He uses the *holy stand* spoken of in Alma, when he preached to the people about their offensive worship practices.---Some contractors build this stand to specifications and then two preachers (unaware of each other) ascend in parallel form as they preach diametrically opposed messages to their community. I see one as a radical Liahona Mormon and the other as a radical Iron Rod Mormon. The important word here is radical. Each is offensive in his own way. SPOILER ALERT At the end of the play both have ascended as far as they can go on the stand and they raise their arms to heaven and repeat in unison a repetitious prayer. I liked the play very much. I saw truth in it and I thought it was very well thought out.
Maror: written and directed by James Goldberg. Based on events described in *The Uses of Adversity* by Carlfred Broderick
Maror comes from the Hebrew word *bitter* and refers to the bitter herbs eaten the first night of Passover. The bitter herbs are a symbol of the bitterness of the enslavement in Egypt. They are eaten each year so that those hardships will never be forgotten. This is a fitting name for this play and the Jewish song at the end of the play worked well. Mathew 2:18 *In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.* SPOILER ALERT Could anything be worse than this scenario? A kind home teacher and his wife try to help out one of their families by tending their two children while the husband goes to the hospital to be with his wife who has just had a new baby. One of the children falls in the pool and drowns. This incident profoundly affects an entire ward and community, as well as the hospital staff. I don't want to reveal anything further, because I think this is a play that should be experienced. I agree with Eric Samuelsen when he called it a play about *faith, hope, and charity.*
The Nauvoo Theatrical Society, now in mid-years, still
struggles to continue a movement to tell their stories and to make a difference. So what about the 20-somethings? Is it arrogance to think that The New Play Project can be the catalyst that jump-starts a Mormon Renaissance? When Langston Hughes sat on that train watching the sun set he wrote with the voice of his people, that he had known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. When he did all that he was just 18 years old.
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Rank: AML Member
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Location: Provo Utah
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I also saw Thornes and Thistles, and had a similarly positive reaction to it. A few additional notes:
Katherine Gee's Based on True-ish Stories deals with a Catholic girl, engaged to (and planning to elope with), an LDS guy. She has all these short flashback memories of various religious discussions she's had over the years, as she tries to make sense of her decision to elope, and the religious implications of that decision.
The best thing about the play, in my mind, was the way the flashbacks showed us a genuinely curious mind trying to honor all the stories that encompass 'religion' in our culture today. In one of those conversations, she talks to a Muslim man who tells her that all stories must be honored, and although some of the flashbacks are of people struggling with religious questions in naive or shallow ways, the protagonist genuinely tries to fit them all into her world-view. So why does she decide NOT to marry at the end. A play urging us to honor religious and spiritual diversity concludes with its protagonist deciding she can't marry someone because his faith is different than hers? A fascinating play, but one which, for me, concluded oddly and unsatisfyingly.
Ben Crowder's Candle in the Darkness is a fine, intelligent, funny play about a dialogue between a mother and son over just how pushy we can be when trying to share our faith with those outside it. I thought it was a play that offered two diverging viewpoints on an interesting issue, and treated both viewpoints respectfully and thoughtfully. This was Crowder's first play, I'm told, and I found it a most impressive debut. I especially liked the depiction of a high school friend of the mother, who was instrumental in her own conversion, but who then fell into drug abuse. Very moving and persuasively written.
Rameumpton was James Goldberg's satire of Mormon conservatism and liberalism, in which two self-righteous straw men representing the cultural right and left harangued us amusingly. The result was very funny, and of course delightfully and I think thoughtfully and intentionally ironic, in that we're asked to judge these two bozos even while they're judging everyone else. An unnecessary epilogue hammered home the play's themes long after we'd all figured them out, but otherwise the play was delightfully evenhanded. I recall a critic who once described Moliere as a 'radical moderate,' a phrase that captures what James seems to be aiming for in much of his work.
James had a second play on the programme, Maror, a play that for me defines what's best and also what's most problematic about much of the work of the NPP. The play powerfully depicts a family tragedy, and the way a ward copes with a family in crisis, and much of the writing is very moving. In this play, the story unfolds through a series of very short scenes, some of them no more than a line or two long, creating a kind of impressionist tapestry of grief and sorrow. Ultimately, these short scene are meant to build in intensity towards final moments of loss and redemption. But the staging of these short scenes robbed them of much of their power. Instead of making use of what theatre does well--simultanaity, physicality, the plastic use of space and time--the production approximated what film does well, which is montage, short images edited together. So we had short scene/blackout/ actors move about the space clumsily/lights up/short scene/another blackout. I found the staging of the play ineffective and even a little tedious--and it's a staging approach that also marred Katherine Gee's play which opened the evening.
I'm actually criticizing these works more harshly than I'm inclined to do. I love what the NPP is doing, and I love James Goldberg's writing. I think he's an exciting young writer and the NPP a thrilling new company. I love watching these bright young artists engaging in such a spirited and thoughtful conversation with their culture. And I hope they continue, and I look forward to further improvement, especially in basic stagecraft, which right now strikes me as their biggest weakness.
Eric Samuelsen
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Eric, I generally agree with your comments about NPP. I've really enjoyed the writing-- been quite impressed on a number of occassions, actually-- but I would love to see the Production Values increase. I'm that sure that will come with time. I'll also be excited when they end up doing more full length stuff. Ten minute plays are good excercizes and some people can pack quite the whallop within that small time frame. Long hand is my preferred medium, however. Not to mention that ten minute plays generally don't have a long shelf life.
Upon the stage of a theater can be represented in character, evil and its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnamity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to sun it (Discourses of Brigham Young, p.243; Bookcraft, 199 
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Production values should be raising somewhat over our next three shows, since we'll be in Provo Theatre Company's space. I'm cautiously optimistic...just being in the better space should make a big difference, but this next show we'll be working through the kinks of being in an unfamiliar space with limited on-site rehearsal time and no real set or lighting designers, so I'm not anticipating a quantum leap forward just yet.
We'll also have more rehearsal time for the next season, and presumably a higher per-show budget (eight shows on $2,000 was necessary, but not something we want to do every year). That should help, as well. Ultimately, of course, our main concern is developing writers and generating scripts, and production values are always going to be a lesser prioirty than the writing process, but that doesn't mean we don't have vast room for improvement.
As far as moving toward more full-length scripts...we'll see what happens. We have been doing more and more one-acts and twenty-minute-ish plays than we used to. The advantage to shorter plays is, of course, that a playwright can go through a lot more drafts in a lot less time. That, and an evening of multiple plays means that audience members can hate one and enjoy others, which leaves us more room for experimentation where we might not otherwise take a risk.
And...we'll see what kind of shelf life some of these plays end up having. The ten-minute play form is so young, and modern theatre so much in a time of transition, that it's impossible to say what will last and what won't. There's certainly something to be said, in a theatre trying to create conversations with the audience, for doing shorter plays. Audiences like to distill each play into one or two main themes in their mind...if you can give them a take-home thought or inisght in ten minutes, isn't that better than making them sit through two hours? I don't know...
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Rank: AML Member
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I agree that ten minute plays have their strengths and advantages. And I've been particularly pleased by many of the NPP plays, so I know that they can pack a whallop in a short amount of time. But in a generation of MTV and Sesame Street and News soundbites (instead of full coverage)-- I don't particularly want theater to follow that same trend of attention deficit. But, of course, I love mini-series, thousand page novels and and the extended versions of the Lord of the Rings movies. And this is also a person whose play "Friends of God" about the events leading up to Joseph Smith's martyrdom was three hours long! Yikes! What can I say? I love being thorough.
Upon the stage of a theater can be represented in character, evil and its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnamity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to sun it (Discourses of Brigham Young, p.243; Bookcraft, 199
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