In 1986, I started what I thought was a PhD program in Theatre History at Wayne State University in Detroit. I received a fellowship from the University that was a research fellowship, not a working fellowship. However, the Theatre department wanted me to work in the costume shop. Since I wanted to keep my skills current, I agreed to work, sew and design. I met some lifelong friends in the process. Midway through the year, the department chair called me into his office and said I had not signed up to direct anything in the student theatre yet. I responded "Why would I need to do that? I'm working on a degree in theatre history!" The chairman informed me the only PhD they offered was in directing. This is not what they said when they were recruiting me, but I went with the flow. I had been kicking around an idea to create a musical around songs I had written, many of which dealt with spirituality, alcoholism and recovery, other addictions and recovery, death and dying, and love.
I decided as long as I had to direct something, I would put the musical together and direct that. Faculty member Joe Calarco agreed to be my advisor on the project. He continually reminded me to stay true to my vision as others told me my script was breaking too many rules. I decided to set my musical within the meetings of a mostly gay and lesbian AA group, and show how the members dealt with addictions, sexuality, recovery, and mortality.
The creed of Alcoholics Anonymous says, "We shared our experience, strength and hope with each other." This play represents my efforts to share, and is my "thank you" to the many who have shared their experience, strength and hope with me, both within AA and outside of AA.
The characters each began as facets of my own personality, but with the loving care of my original cast (Bobby Pearce, Randy Breeding, Kevin Beverly, Patricia M. Jones, Doeri Welch, Alejandra Lopez, Carol Orcutt, Karianne Arnold and Elaine Sabal, my music director and genius), each became a separate, living person. I did not cast the first production with acting majors. I cast friends from the costume shop, the scene shop, the marketing office, the undergrad program, and from a local AIDS support group. We were standing room only for every performance in our scheduled week of production. I'm told we broke the current records for attendance at student-directed theatre productions at Wayne State. We re-staged the show a few weeks later as a fundraiser, and raised over $5,000 for the department's scholarship funds.
Even with the huge crowds, and the standing ovations every night, and many letters from people who praised the production and called it life-changing, there were still those who said the play broke too many "rules" for musical theatre. That summer, I saw a production of Sunday in the Park with George at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. The first act is about Seurat breaking rules and sticking to his vision. The first act ends with a stunning work of art. I could not stop crying.
Since the original staging of Open Discussion in 1987, I've seen other musicals that achieved great success despite breaking rules, including Rent, the Lion King, and Once. So maybe this show isn't really thinking outside the box any more - maybe the box got bigger!
I'm going to break some rules again, and use the internet (this blog and You Tube) to do a "staged reading" of the play. I'm going to change the book a bit, and replace some of the songs with songs I've written since then that I think will serve the play better. My partner Vernon Push is going to use his video skills to help me play all the characters. We'll post videos of me singing the songs on You Tube, so you can hear what the music sounds like as you read the book here in the blog.
Stay tuned - this is going to take a while to create, but I promise to keep adding to it on a regular basis until the whole play is posted. Share this with your friends, especially with anyone who is connected to a theatre that is not afraid to try something new. And the journey begins again!
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