Playwright's Note for MANGELLA

Joe Jung, the director of MANGELLA, offered me a chance to put something in the program about the play and I turned him down. Thanks to his insightful staging and the dedication of the actors, designers, and crew I think it's all up on stage. Also, I only ever end up reading playwright's notes when I'm bored with what's happening on the stage.
But the more I thought about it, the more important it became to me to take a few minutes and explain how the play came into being and to express my gratitude to the people who have helped me take something from hieroglyphs in the margins of a notebook to a full New York production.

Mangella Drawing: October 2002

 "Mangella" started out as a drawing in a grad school notebook during a particularly boring literary criticism class taught by an unnamed Florida State professor (Gil Lazier). I had grown up in St. Louis, Missouri and been fascinated by bluesmen like Elmore James and Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson. And during this class, I drew an old white man in a bathrobe with a guitar and a harmonic snorkel. I regret to say that the harmonica snorkel did not make it into the play.
During my time in grad school, I got to spend some time with my uncle who was schizophrenic and terminally ill. Since he was my father's brother, I spent a lot of time talking to him about his childhood. He was rarely lucid, but there would be occasional flashes where he'd say something about my father or my grandparents that I'd never heard before. My visits with him were brief and he died much too soon but his impact upon my life and this play are immeasurable.

Further proof I cannot draw, November 2005

After grad school, I'd write other plays and when I became dissatisfied or disillusion or (for God's sake) bored with what I was working on, I would return to "Mangella". I wrote (and sensibly abandoned) a play titled "Roman A Clef" in 2005 which featured a talking/codependent television set. I had cable at the time and found that I had real trouble turning it off. Later, as I got deeper into Mangella, I decided to cannibalize and reconstitute this character as Gabriella, Ned Frangiapanni's boxy, out-of-date desktop computer. I found that as I attached feelings and motives to my own laptop, it clearly had very specific needs. Your computer needs you to be paying attention to it at all times. Tabbed browsing, updates, news feeds, pornography- all of these things are just your computer screaming at you to pay attention! Because your computer knows, s/he/it's only got three or four years to live and be useful and the second s/he/it stops, you're going to chuck it into the garbage (when you really should have recycled it.)

From London, 2004.

In 2007, I wrote and performed 'angel/buddy' at the New York International Fringe Festival. I took away two things:
1) I would never again act in a play I wrote
2) I would try to write at least one really compelling role for a woman.
That's how Lilly came about. I'm not going to say any more about Lilly because a play ought to have a couple surprises except to mention how brave and patient the actor (the talented Hannah Wilson) has been since the moment she got her hands on the script.


Similarly, Anthony Manna has to be credited with pushing ahead with this play. After reading it at my house, he announced "I think this may be something" and asked to be attached to it. I have to thank my wife, an actor of such imagination and humanity that she inspired me to write a role for a woman as a 2003 Hewlett Packard Desktop Computer. Jessi Blue, the producer of 'Our Bar' where I work every month as a writer and actor, was a huge help in the development of the Gabriella's character as well as the catalyst for Project: Theater producing the show. Thank you to Ali Perlwitz who, only a couple of months out of undergrad, has infused her character with an energy and specificity of a seasoned professional. Thank you to Bob Austin McDonald for his fearless work in the face of truly daunting and complex title character.  Thank you to Adam Carpenter and Alicia Bullen who gave the play its first reading in Sarasota. Adam even ended up stage managing. I can't say enough about Ben Schwartz and the extraordinary art work he contributed. Thank you to Miles Grier, Tijuana Ricks, my parents, my brothers, Matt Schneider, Matt Hamilton, the contributors to Project: Theater and the fantastic artists at 'Our Bar.' Without these people, I doubt this show would have happened.

2005. 

Lastly and most importantly, I must credit Joe Jung, the show's director. If you don't know, Joe Jung I expect you will before long because he's going to be famous. Not simply because he's a talented director with a keen sense of beauty and moment who plays extraordinary guitar and is a Broadway-caliber performer. Joe will be famous because he works harder and with greater generosity of spirit than any human being I have ever seen. There was never an Off-Off Broadway show that didn't see some rainy days, but I never saw concern even crease Joe's face. As a writer, I have never been in a more fruitful or more personally enjoyable rehearsal process and I credit that to Joe's talents as a director and a collaborator.

So there you have it. As I said at the top, it's all on the stage. Lastly, and I say this with all sincerity: anything you like in this play is probably very much the contribution of one of the people listed above. And anything you really hate is all my fault.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy "MANGELLA."