The Arts in NYC Fall 2012

So, I realized earlier this week that I’ve had an incredible experience that merits sharing to you guys, and also will fit in for my Performance review.

For those of you that don’t know, and that’s probably most of you, I was involved in an incredible program called the Theatre Development Fund, which permitted me to attend five Broadway plays free of charge and work with an established Broadway playwright, David Henry Hwang, and discuss each play with him. I thought I should talk about the last play that I saw with this program, which was The Columnist, starring John Lithgow.

So when I went to see this play with my TDF group, my expectations were relatively low. I had heard that John Lithgow played his role of Joseph Alsop brilliantly. Outside of that though, I didn’t know much of anything about the play itself, its subject matter, or its cast. I was definitely uninformed. By the time the play was over, however, my perceptions had changed radically.

The show was incredibly captivating. The play started off with a scene in which John Lithgow’s character was naked, only a bedsheet covering him. To top it off, it was made clear that he had picked up a gay man and they had “relations” the night before. It was a rather startling, but incredibly powerful, way to start off the performance. Needless to say, it had me hooked. It was so unexpected that I wondered how they could possibly top themselves. The play focuses on an issue that’s seemingly antiquated: the power of the press. The amount of power Lithgow has is seemingly impossible for a simple newspaper columnist. He has one-on-ones with JFK and LBJ, to give you an idea. But there’s a soft side to him as well. The amount of power and influence that he has over the world of media and print, as wella s the world of government and politics, it steers him away from his personal life. His wife, his daughter, they both live very distantly from him. It’s a sad story, really, watching this man, who to outsiders is so wildly respected and feared, live a life that destroys those around him.

The turning point in this story comes in JFK’s assassination. From here, we begin to see the rather rapid downward spiral of Lithgow’s character. A pro-Vietnam, conservative man, his opinions are quickly overrun by those of the counterculture. Peace, love, and music overrun him. As he loses his grip on authority and power, we see him desperately trying to rekindle relationships with family and friends. And in this, we learn more and more about Lithgow’s character. Each of his relationships seems to reveal something new about his character. I loved learning so much about one character to the point where I felt I was an expert on who he was. I had never heard of Joseph Alsop before this play, and suddnely I felt like an expert!

Of course, beyond the play itself, there were other aspects to the production and the performance. The stage was very well-done, there were four different settings, and they were transitioned between and utilized seamlessly. They were very pleasing to the eye and really seemed to fit the 1960s theme as well as the personalities of the characters. There were old typewriters, large bookshelves, fireplaces, it all really fit the mold and made the story much more believable. The writers also included lots of evidence of counterculture, such as antiwar protests, within the context of the storyline. The story was rich in historical context, and it was fascinating to see a play that helped me learn about the secrets of the “Golden Age” of America.

All in all, I thought this was a tremendous play. Ever since I’ve been enrolled in this program, I’ve had a strong interest in theatre. I plan on going again sometime soon (the program also gave me $150 in vouchers per college year!) Oh, and I got to meet John Lithgow afterwards! He also plays Arthur Mitchell on Dexter, if you don’t know who he is.