EACH OF THESE PLAYS INVESTS IN STARK,
STRIKING, ALMOST TOTEMIC IMAGERY; THEY’RE
ALL TRAFFICKING IN INCREDIBLY POWERFUL
IMAGES THAT COMMUNICATE AN ENORMOUS
AMOUNT OF MEANING AND EMOTION.
S: What do you see as the lasting legacy of these
three playwrights?
LN: These writers have contributed monumentally to the canon.
Their voices loom large for so many contemporary American
playwrights – in terms of how they grapple with mortality, with
identity, with the body. These writers speak to the human condition in ways that are utterly eternal. But I don’t think you see a lot
of plays like this anymore. They’re wild. These are plays that invest
completely in an exclusively theatrical vernacular, and to reencounter them is, I hope, to be defibrillated. It’s jolting and shocking
and challenging and bracing. These plays are full of heart and
anger and compassion – the full reaches of the human capacity. n
(right) Lila Neugebauer on the first day of rehearsals for Signature Theatre’s
production of The Wayside Motor Inn, 2014; (top and above) Photo negatives
of Signature Theatre’s production of María Irene Fornés’ Drowning, 1999.
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