Documentary Theatre with Emily Mann

Trying to stay engaged and creative during a global pandemic that has us on lock-down for the foreseeable future has been, shall we say, challenging. But in May I received an unexpected email that once again proved it's impossible to plan some of the best things that will happen to you in life. The email advertised an "exploration of docudrama" with Emily Mann, artistic director and resident playwright at the acclaimed McCarter Theatre in Princeton, who was ending her stellar 30-year career there with this class. We would meet on Zoom just four times, each Tuesday in June for two hours, to create "a short work pertaining to the current moment." What an amazing and unexpected opportunity. I was all-in. Next thing I knew there we were, 10 writers from as far away as Hawaii, filling up the Zoom boxes and Emily directing us on how to conduct an interview that gets to the "juice," the "spill" that will help structure and shape a theatrical monologue into a piece of art. Our one and only assignment was to find someone to interview about what it's like to live during the COVID-19 outbreak and the political upheaval that has been swirling around us this year and turn it into a 3-to-5 minute monologue. What you see here is the result of our work -- 10 diverse voices speaking honestly, emotionally, about their fears and anxieties. Ten stories about living in this monstrous moment. When the class ended on June 29, we bid Emily goodbye, wishing her an abundantly productive retirement, and thanking her for this most unanticipated gift. The members of our little class have decided to stay together and continue creating documentary theatre. We are now The Fly Eyes Playwrights and we're planning to turn what you see in the McCarter video into a theatrically enhanced and professionally cast Zoom production. But, for now, it's just us reading our own work.