On theatre and politics

The title of this blog, On Theatre and Politics, is occasionally hilarious to me. When I named it, I intended to write quite a bit about politics (I'm a bit of a news junkie and it was Bush administration era) and also about theatre. What the blog has become is more like notes on a life in New York City, working to be a successful playwright, and some other stuff. I write about politics considerably less than I did. I think that's because I'm over saturated with political babble, and I enjoy it, and I find it interesting, and I think its important to be up on current events...but I just can't stomach writing about it constantly in my personal space. It just gets exhausting.

That's why my new play, That Old Soft Shoe, has been such a release for me. It is overtly political theater. It certainly isn't, either, a progressive diatribe about the Tea Party movement or Fox News or Glenn Beck or Rand Paul. More than anything, it's my response to what feels like alphabet soup in the political arena. It's also, maybe, a reminder that even in the midst of what feels like real progress, we can't ever pat ourselves on the back and go about our business. We are still a country that does immoral and unethical things with impunity. We abuse language the same way we seem to abuse our bodies: we'll pay for it someday, but for now, junk food just is too tempting.

I'm curious how you'll all respond to the piece. I hope you'll come to see it. It opens June 6th.