So: The Zoom reading of MIKVAH with a cast of two experienced and age-appropriate actresses for an audience of friends:
It was so exciting for me to see the play LIVING. People believed this 1905 Jewish village world. They believed Rachel and Chava were real people. They cared about them, thanks to the wonderful actresses and my writing. They believed the two women were madly in love with each other, even though they couldn't touch each other because they were stuck in boxes next to each other-- one box in Brooklyn and one in Ashland, Oregon.
I am so grateful to my director, Heather, who arranged the auditions that brought Amy (Chava) and Emily (Rachel) to us. The two of them were inspired.
The Zoom audience understood Rachel was trapped in a marriage to an abusive husband and it was particularly unbearable to her previously untrammeled spirit.
But then again, the actual murder of her husband was a bit controversial. That was good, that was good.
The Zoomers had a lot of good suggestions -- way too many for me to take in. Fortunately we recorded most of the discussion, so I can go back and watch it. And the Zoomers had criticisms. One friend went on at length about how inappropriate it was for for Chava to give Rachel the nickname "Little Bird." It was hard for me to hear. But then again, my friend went on so long that I actually realized she was RIGHT!
WHAT PEOPLE WANTED MORE OF:
People wanted a longer play, which was very gratifying.
People wanted more about the mikvah itself -- its rituals and history and the little details of its operation. In other words, the mikvah is a CHARACTER.
People wanted Rachel to display her knowledge, if she was so damn learned.
People wanted to see Chava and Rachel having a GOOD TIME, being more playful. Wow, I was happy to hear THAT! Because them playing together is going to be FUN to write! Let's hear it for NOT going deep, for energizing myself by creating a bit of cavorting!
Trying to understand how Rachel can get to the point of killing her husband, and imagining the emotional consequences of that act -- this is very unknown territory to me. This exploration takes a lot out of me. But lovers playing together -- that's not just familiar, it's..it's really enjoyable to think about!
After everyone else had left the Zoom room, Carolyn and Heather and my friend Tara, who read stage directions, and I continued the discussion. More and MORE and MORE ideas!
Carolyn thought the play absolutely needs music. Now, THAT'S a very exciting thought, because the music of that time and place and culture is KLEZMER! Kind of jazzy and minor key, ranging from mournful to wild celebration, Klezmer is Jewish blues that makes you get up and DANCE. And we know the leader of Isle of Klesbos, a wonderful lesbian klezmer band. She can perhaps be convinced to compose some music for us.
I've always prided myself on being open to criticism. I'm not as defensive as other writers. I have a very deep understanding that I cannot get where I want to go artistically BY MYSELF! I need help, and lots of it.
But I also need lots of encouragement. I'm not one of those visionaries whose inner flame burns so brightly that they can overcome obstacles on their own. (I just read a biography of the first woman doctor in America -- Elizabeth Blackwell. She had that indomitable drive.) Me, I need people to tell me my work is important, in order to believe in myself.
So I was especially deeply touched by my friend Jerry's words. He could not understand how other people could even SPEAK after the intense and powerful experience of MIKVAH. Thank you, Jerry, for your articulate inarticulateness. Thank you for being overwhelmed by MIKVAH.
So the first draft of MIKVAH is a success. The play really works in its current form --- although it can be SO MUCH BETTER, with music, playfulness, more information on the mikvah, more scholarly observations by Rachel and a new nickname for her too -- among other things. Chava, strange awkward innocent Chava -- she's already there in full bloom.
You know, I channeled this whole play -- except for one part of it. Quite often incidents in my plays are based on my life or on things I read or heard about from other people. But MIKVAH came from inside me -- except for the part about Schlomo the beggar drilling a hole in the mikvah so he could peep at the women bathing. That came from a New York Times story about a Hasidic community in upstate New York, where the Rabbi did that very thing.
I've said before that being a playwright is like being God and creating a world. But I've never gone so far out on a limb before. This world I've created is so different from my own. I wondered, before the reading, whether I'd really brought it to life. I have! And this world is the right place for me to examine a theme that has haunted me for decades -- women's rage against the patriarchy.
ONWARD!
Dear Bloggelinis: I'm looking forward to describing this process of creation of a play to you. I've never done that before.
Terry
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