So, one of the projects I have assigned myself over the past several months of Edward Albee’s residence here at McCarter has been to collect the best from among the many gems of wit and wisdom that have been tripping dryly out of his mouth since his “better bring a shovel” comment on the first day of rehearsal. I have been keeping a list, and here, now that the show has opened and Mr. Albee has returned into the mythical mists of Great-American-Playwright-hood from whence he emerged, are my favorites, published on the blog for your reading pleasure.

From the Dialogue on Drama at McCarter Theatre:

“I get so bored of plays where the curtain goes up and we’re supposed to be spies. Having to sit there and pretend you’re not there, and the actors having to pretend they’re not acting to you, just gets in the way.”

“A play is a set of parentheses around the lives of some characters. The secret of playwriting is in properly placing the parentheses.”

“You try to write a play in a way that makes it very difficult to screw it up.”

From an article by Anthony Stoeckert in the Princeton Packet:

“Theater should engage you in thinking about social, political, philosophical and moral questions and get you involved with people who are dealing with them responsibly and seriously. Plays can also be funny doing that, I’m not suggesting they should be humorless. You’ve got to entertain but people have to be willing to be entertained in the way you want to entertain them. Entertainment is not escapism.”

From an interview by Carol Rocamora in American Theatre magazine:

Carol Rocamora: How many drafts of the play did you write?

Edward Albee: “What do you mean “drafts”? I don’t write drafts. A draft could give someone a cold. No, I think you should write the entire play down the first time, and then fix it with a few touches here and there. You shouldn’t write it down until you think you have the whole play. Playwrights get in terrible trouble when they write a play too soon, and then hope that it finds its shape. Writing is a far longer process than you know. A play begins as an idea translated from the unconscious to the conscious. You’ve been thinking about it a long time and creating it a long time before you’re even aware of it. The longer you wait, the less likely you’ll discover that you have written a “first draft.” Wait as long as you can.”

And my personal favorite, one more from the Dialogue on Drama:

Michael Cadden: “I know you don’t set out to write didactic plays with a specific message, but after you’ve written a play, when you’re watching it, do you ever look at it and think, that playwright had blank on his mind…?”

Edward Albee: “Blank? I hope I had more than that!”

Posted by Elizabeth Edwards, Literary Intern at McCarter Theatre.

Photo by Peter Cook

Mara Isaacs is the Producing Director at McCarter Theatre and the director of Yehuda Hyman’s The Mad 7. Mara has enjoyed a 15-year collaboration with Yehuda Hyman as a producer, dramaturg and director. For McCarter, she is responsible for producing the Theater Series and play development programs and oversees McCarter productions on Broadway, off-Broadway, at theaters around the country and internationally. In addition to independent producing off-Broadway and in Los Angeles, Mara produced new play development programs and productions for the Mark Taper Forum from 1990–1995. She was a 2007 resident artist at the Rhodopi International Theatre Collective in Smolyan, Bulgaria, and is currently teaching at Princeton University. I asked her seven questions:

What’s your hometown?

Los Angeles, CA.

When did you first realize you wanted to work in the theater?

To be honest, it didn’t occur to me that working in the theater was a viable professional option (even though I had been attending since childhood). But as I neared graduation from college, I was torn between my passion for the performing arts and my chosen academic field of study (medical anthropology). While I was sorting through grad school applications in Public Health and Anthropology, a cousin of mine who was a professional stage manager suggested I apply for an internship at the Mark Taper Forum, and I never looked back after that.

What’s on your iPod (or CD player, etc.)?

At the moment, I’ve been listening obsessively to music that we might include in The Mad 7—Klezmer, Sephardic, Yeminite, African percussion, Indian tabla players, traditional Persian music, etc. When I need a break from that, I have the demo recordings of a handful of new musicals that interest me by some amazing composer/lyricist teams—Brendan Milburn and Valerie Vigoda (of GrooveLily), David Shire and Richard Maltby, Jenny Giering and Marsha Norman, to name a few. And sometimes, my 5 year old daughter and I just like to cut loose in the living room to some good dance music—the South African band Tananas is our current favorite.

What do you love about Princeton?

Well, McCarter Theatre, of course! Since it is what brought me here 12 ½ years ago. . Carnegie Lake, the tow path, nearby Honeybrook Organic Farm and Terhune Orchards, and the Princeton Public Library are major assets for us. And then there is the great synergy that exists due to the cross section of people from the Institute, University and professional communities in the area. I must say, though, that my Princeton life would be woefully inadequate without Small World Coffee. I would be lost without my daily soy latte.

If you were trapped on a desert island, and could only take one book, what would it be and why?

My first thought is a blank book, so I could write and doodle to my heart’s content when fighting off impending madness. But if it is a literary choice, A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is what springs to mind first. There are so many layers to the language and storytelling, not to mention the artful construction. I could read it over and over and always find a new way through.

What was the first play you ever saw?

I started seeing theatre at such a young age, that I don’t remember what was first. But I do remember the first play I ever produced (and wrote, built puppets for, and starred in). It was titled, “Hey Mom, what about me?” I believe I was around 8 years old, more or less. It might have been my first experience in grass roots political theatre. It was very effective as I recall.

What is your favorite part of The Mad 7? My favorite part of The Mad 7 is the man who performs it: Yehuda Hyman. He is a wonder and defies all expectations.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.

At long last, rehearsals for IN-Festival Spotlight Production The Mad 7 have begun! I have been looking forward to this moment since I first read the script way back in October. The play’s simple yet deeply meaningful stories, with their mythical resonance and multi-faceted symbolism, gripped me immediately, and I was so excited when I found out we would be putting on first a reading (back in November) and now a full production of this beautiful play.

I have been delving deeply into such research topics as Jewish mysticism, the life of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, the communities of the Jewish Diaspora, and dance traditions around the world in preparation for compiling the online resource guide for this production (which will be available in a couple of weeks through the Education section of the McCarter website, so keep an eye out!). All of this has been very fascinating, and helped to deepen my experience as I heard Yehuda Hyman read the play aloud for the second time at last Monday’s first rehearsal.

The read-through of the script was the first order of rehearsal business after our traditional Meet and Greet (which kicks off every first rehearsal). I stuck around to hear it, since Yehuda had made some significant revisions since McCarter’s developmental reading of the play several months back. Also present for the read-through were director Mara Isaacs, assistant director Marisol Rosa-Shapiro, artistic director Emily Mann, stage manager Lauren Kurinskas, literary manager Carrie Hughes, producing associate Adam Immerwahr and several of the designers working on the production, along with a small audience of interested McCarter staff members.

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What is this IN-Festival of which we speak? Great question!! I looked it up, and this is what the dictionary says:

IN-Festival (ĭn´fěs´tə-vəl) n. 1. A fully staged production of a significant new work. 2. A series of free play readings and special events featuring some of our favorite authors. 3. A place to explore exciting ideas and theatrical forms. 4. A glimpse into the creative process. 5. Quite inexpensive, if not free. [Origin: 2007. From IN- “innovating,” “invigorating,” “inventive,” “in-progress” + FESTIVAL “a program of cultural events,” “a celebration.”]

You may have noticed that television totally stinks these days, with only re-runs and reality TV. Since the writers refuse to have their labor stolen and the producers refuse to pay the writers internet residuals, you’re gonna have an awfully dull evening if you sit at home. So why don’t you come to McCarter’s IN-Festival? It’s cheap, it’s fun, and we pay our artists.

Posted by Adam Immerwahr, Producing Associate at McCarter Theatre.