GSAS! Producer’s Note: playwright David Haan is writing things you should read, produce, and/or go and see.
Case-in-point: his 42-play cycle The President Plays re-imagines the death of every U.S. president from Washington to G.W. Bush, a series so epic that the reading of it had to be spread over three consecutive Tuesdays. The intrepid folks at Blowout Theatre are kindly hosting the readings on off-nights from their new show, Jona Tarlin’s In Antarctica, Where it is Very Warm (which, though the podcast wasn’t able to get out to cover it, looks super-cool, pun intended—remaining dates are Thursday thru Saturday, October 9, 10, & 11, nightly at 8PM!).
There’s only one more night from the posting of this episode to catch the remaining plays in the cycle (Tuesday, October 7 @ 7:30PM!), and it’s well-worth seeing thanks to the wonderful actors you’ll see (including members of Amios and The Assembly), excellent direction from Liz Thaler, and, of course, David’s imaginative, intriguing, insightful scripts.
I sat down with David over a beer after Part II of the cycle last Tuesday — listen in as we discuss getting history wrong, collaboration, our love of Amios, dreams of marathon theatre, and writing the impossible.
“…I’m very interested in the theatre as a collaborative enterprise…it’s kind of a conveyor belt, in which each part is kind of it’s own fully formed thing, but then becomes something greater…”
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Blowout Theatre presents
The President Plays
by David Haan
directed by Liz Thaler
Tuesday, 9/23—Part I: Washington to Buchanan
Tuesday, 9/30—Part II: Lincoln to Hoover
Tuesday, 10/7—Part III: Roosevelt to Bush
IRT Theater
154 Christopher Street
Manhattan
7:30PM
Tickets: FREE
photo of David Haan by Liz Thaler; production photos of The President Plays at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest 2013 by Marielle Solan