FROM THEATER J’S LEADERS Dear Friends,
One of our favorite things to do at Theater J is to unearth a script from the archives, put it in the capable hands of DC’s top artists, and give it fresh life. Some “forgotten classics” speak more powerfully today than they did when they were originally penned. From Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass to the forgotten Yiddish play The Jewish Queen Lear (Mirele Efros) and now to Edward Albee’s Occupant, you never know how the past will speak to the present until you invite it back to the stage. Albee’s Occupant was written toward the end of the master playwright’s career. Originally intended as a vehicle for Anne Bancroft in 2002, the initial production had to be cancelled when Bancroft fell ill with pneumonia. The play was left unproduced until 2008, when it received its premiere in a production starring Mercedes Ruehl. Though it had been written years earlier, it would prove to be the last produced new play of Albee’s, finally on stage a year after the premiere of the last play he penned: Me, Myself & I (2007). What motivated Albee to write about the Jewish immigrant sculptor Louise Nevelson? Did Albee, who had been cast aside by the critics in his own field for so many years, feel drawn to this fellow artist who only made her name late in life as she became an acclaimed woman in an otherwise male-dominated field? Or was it the fact that Albee was a passionate art collector and greatly admired Nevelson’s seemingly simple, monochromatic collections of chair legs, driftwood, and other found objects? Or maybe Albee, who as a gay man never felt at home in the unhappy family that he had been adopted into as a child, felt drawn to Nevelson’s flamboyant, anti-family persona. What we do know is that the two artists eventually became friends, and that Albee wrote the introduction to one of the major books about her work. We also know that Albee was a famously reluctant interview subject, cryptic about his work and resentful of anyone being asked to define their art—a theme you’ll see throughout this enigmatic play. We hope you’ll enjoy exploring this forgotten masterpiece as much as we have enjoyed sharing it. And we hope to see you for more thought-provoking work at Theater J this winter. We start the new year with Sheltered, an astonishing play that examines a refugee crisis and the power (and challenges) of individual action in the face of a global threat. As with so many Theater J productions, we think it will provide for a lot of great discussion and thought. As always, don’t hesitate to share your ideas with us at adam@theaterj.org or jojo@theaterj.org. See you in the lobby! Yours,
Adam Immerwahr Jojo Ruf Artistic Director Managing Director
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