Moving into the script section. Samuel French dominates. Most of the Samuel French scripts here are plays I acted in. Hence, their terrible condition.
And hey look there’s Cousin Mike’s play, Diverting Devotion
. It was such a huge deal when it was published by Samuel French! If you’re an actor, you refer to “Samuel French” so often you might as well be discussing a mutual friend.
In re: The Flick
, by Annie Baker: I cant express how proud I am of myself that I went and saw the original (almost four-hour long) production. So often I miss “events”, because I can’t afford it or I hear about it too late. If you were in any way aware of your surroundings at the time, you heard about the production of The Flick. Its length. The walk-outs at intermission. The TONE of the reviews, where very good writers clearly struggled to even describe what the play WAS, and why it was so effective and radical. It got me curious. So I bought a ticket. I would be so pissed at myself now if I missed it. I will never ever forget that show. I wish more film critics had gone to see it here in New York. The play takes place in a movie theatre, the last in the state of Massachusetts that hasn’t gone digital. There’s still a projectionist in the theatre’s employ. Movie love is why the three characters choose to work there in shit minimum wage jobs. It is a brilliant play. Why is it four hours long? What is it about? It’s about everything. And it needs to be that length. It requires SUBMISSION from the audience. It requires a serious space of listening and concentration absolutely unheard-of today where people can barely go a minute and a half without checking their phones. The script can’t be compared to anything else. The script also reads GREAT. (Lots of scripts don’t: they need to be put up on their feet in order to “work”. In those cases, whatever the script is, it’s not “on the page.” But The Flick is totally on the page. (Elia Kazan said that Streetcar was that kind of script. He read the manuscript Tennessee Williams sent to him and he could see the entire production in his head.
The script collection goes on for another shelf (not counting the 2 and a half shelves just for Tennessee Williams’ works).
I’ll never get rid of these scripts. I look at them and see my life story, my earliest and deepest held dreams.
