Director’s Note for The Eccentricities of a Nightingale
ec·cen·tric·i·ty – unconventionality, deviation of a curve or orbit from circularity.
“What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it's curved like a road through mountains.” – Tennessee Williams (A Streetcar Named Desire)
Tennessee Williams- beyond being one of the writers that defined American Theatre- was an eccentric, an outcast, one of the lost and lonely, one of the dejected, even if only in his own mind. He also happens to be my hero. I first encountered him as a teenager in need of direction. A community theatre production of A Streetcar Named Desire changed my life: as Blanche descended, so did I. A 15-year-old boy was altered that night, finally understanding and initially discovering his purpose. I knew where my life needed to go and I have spent that last 26 years trying to recreate the feeling of that night in my work. I am always taken aback with wonder, astonishment, and disbelief that one man- one small, soft-spoken man- could feel so deeply and articulate it in the form of theatre so powerful that it still pulses at the foundations of our national dramatic sensibility. Mr. Williams has created some of the most recognizable and effective plays in the American canon. It is a pleasure to read and work with his inimitable dialogue. It is a lifelong dream of mine, which has come true tonight, being able to present this production to you.
The Eccentricities of a Nightingale is a reworking of a previous, more popular piece called Summer and Smoke. Summer and Smoke helped spur the Off-Broadway movement in the early 1950’s and is a great testament to the poetic melodrama of its day. It is rife with passion and longing. You can feel the hot summer nights seething from the stage. Alma (the main character) is a minister’s daughter in love with the boy next door. We find that she is sometimes willing (and sometimes unwilling) to share that passion with him. She journeys from prude to would be paramour. The play still resonates, though the drama can be a ‘bit much’ for a savvy, modern, theatre-going audience. Williams was known to tinker with his work for decades. Alma came from a short story published in the early 1940’s and he never felt that he did her justice until he wrote Eccentricities. This final version of Alma’s ennui in small town Mississippi is much subtler and more personal than any previous version. The emotional life is pared down to its core and it becomes a powerful statement on loneliness and acceptance. Alma is not here to fall in love with the boy, she is here to set herself free.
I strive in all my work, for good or ill, to present art free of constraint and cliché. I want you to live with Alma and others in this play for a while and walk a mile in their shoes. We sometimes get the best view projecting outside of ourselves and considering another’s circumstance. Doing this has taught me more about how to be a human than any other mode of experience. I don’t want you to feel obligated to care for the characters you see tonight. I just want you to be open and let them give you this story that Mr. Williams has so lovingly crafted: a story of the outsider understanding that there is a life in the margins. A full life. A life worth rejoicing. We all feel like outsiders in most situations, I know I do. We fake our way through most of our obligations. We are the lost and the lonely, but we will find the connection. We just need to take a leap into the unknown and see where experience takes us. Take what is given and pass it on. Art is working through our emotions. Our stories give us meaning. This particular story devastates and revives me on a daily basis. I hope it also gives something special to you.
“Through our craft, we will cultivate a more empathetic and understanding society by revealing intimate truths that serve as a forceful reminder to folks that when they feel broken and afraid and tired, they are not alone.” – David Harbour
