365 Plays/365 Days

By Suzan Lori-Parks
Directed by Rob Urbinati and Don Nguyen
With Mack Exilus, Jonas Cikotas, Ji Wook Lim, Janina Mattsoff, Go Takeuchi, Lizbeth Dolorier, Amadou Traore, Agnieszka Petla, Alex Dupre, Maritzabel Gruver-Torres
Costume design: Sharon Sobel
Lights: Chris Davis
Sound: Jessica Marandola
Queens Theatre in the Park, Flushing, Queens
Public Theater, New York, NY

Queens Theatre in the Park was invited to participate in 365 Plays/365 Days, most likely because we are the only professional theatre in Queens, and we produce new work by diverse writers in our Immigrants Voices Program.

When I met with Suzan-Lori Parks, she said that she wanted the QTP production to "reflect" Queens in some way, but she wasn't sure how. I immediately thought that the best way to do this was to cast the show with "recent immigrants," which would convey the evolving, dynamic demographics of the borough. QTP has an "affiliation" with LaGuardia Community College, which has a substantial ESL program. Our production featured ten LCC students, from eight different countries (and a friend from New Jersey). By casting the show this way, our Week of plays “responded” to the immigrant experience in New York.

The 365 plays are short, and I wanted to resist a tendency to have them feel like “skits.” Conceptually, I looked for a way to "link" our Week of plays, which were written as separate entities. Delving into the plays, I found a way in which each of the ten actors could play one character throughout all eight plays. In our production, all of the characters/actors were introduced in an opening tableaux (our “Constant”).  Each actor sustained this character throughout the remainder of the plays, figuring prominently in some plays, and less prominently in others. For example, in the opening play, “What Do You See?,” Man attempts to strangle Woman. This character, Man, played by Ji-Wook Lim, appeared in a subsequent play, “1000 South Kelly” as the son-in-law at a dinner scene. He was arrested, and the audience assumed this was based on his earlier attempt to strangle Woman. In the last play of our Week, “Tree,” in which a character hears “Carolers. From the prison,” Man did the singing. All of the characters were “tracked” through the plays in this way. This approach gave the plays a cohesion, and I believe it made it easier for the actors. Also, keeping the entire cast onstage throughout allowed us to explore both a sense of “community,” and a sense of the isolation we can experience despite being surrounded by people.

Because some of the actors’ English-speaking ability was limited, in rehearsals, it became clear that “cueing” might prove difficult. I decided to underscore most of the show, and nearly all of the cues were based on this musical “track.” This approach gave the production a precise, ballet-like quality in movement and composition.

I encouraged the actors to explore a cultural interpretation of the plays that was unique to their experiences. For example, how might a Columbian woman and a Korean man interpret the contretemps that informs the play, “What Do You See?”

Additionally, and most importantly, I wanted to take the plays seriously, and avoid a tendency to be “glib.” I did not want the plays to be ironic or tongue-in-cheek. The immigrant experience is rarely “ironic” – it is blunt sincere, joyous, painful, heartfelt – it is many things, but not ironic. I felt that it was important for the actors to make a direct emotional connection with the material. They did, with tremendous passion and conviction.