Most of my Duende plays are built around some deep conflict within the American soul. For Gunpowder Man it turned out to be the two concepts of American Exceptionalism. Since the Revolution of 1776, Americans have collectively defined themselves as exceptional. The Founders did amazing things: they cast off rule by a king descended from a long line of kings each of whom claimed to rule by Divine Rights. Getting rid of the whole idea of kings having divine sanction was an exceptional thing to do at the time. Having thrown off the monarchy, the Founders sat down and fought… [Continue reading]
Friendly Fire: The Indigenous
When writing Friendly Fire: A Forty-niner’s Life with the Me-Wuk, in 1995, I was acting, and thinking, locally. The impetus had been my indignation when I discovered how completely the story of the genocide of native peoples had been excluded from my education in California’s public schools. Of course I was aware that European people had been laying waste to indigenous cultures for at least 500 years of colonization, but I was only thinking about what had happened in my state, and indeed in my own back yard. This was surely a good thing for the play. I had chosen… [Continue reading]
Dust Storm: Means, Motive, Opportunity
Writing a play may or may not be a crime, but to create a produced play one needs the same ingredients. You must write a play that can be performed within the means of a theater. You must be motivated to write the play. And there must be an opportunity for it to be shown before an audience. In 1994, when I was working at Sierra Repertory Theatre there was an engaging young Chinese American actress named Tricia Dong. The management at Sierra Rep had an interest in producing a play on the Japanese Internment and suggested that I write… [Continue reading]
Money Man: “These are the times that try men’s souls”
As of this writing in the summer of 2016, Money Man is our most recent play. It imagines what Alexander Hamilton might have said to a group of friends who have come to be with him in the hour before he is rowed across the Hudson River to engage in his fateful duel with Aaron Burr. People, quite logically, question why on earth I would write a Hamilton play in light of the overwhelming impact of Lyn-Manuel Miranda’s fabulously successful musical that opened on Broadway just before Money Man opened in a small town in the California foothills. It’s true… [Continue reading]
Building on the Idea of Duende
1. Defining the Duende Play So, Duende began in 1998, producing tours of the three plays I had written for Sierra Repertory Theatre. We immediately started scouting for projects to expand our catalog. A list of desiderata quickly became clear: The project had to deal in some way with cultural conflict. California was our starting point but US history and the history of science, were also on the table. Each of our shows had to address the curriculum (as defined by the California State Dept. of Education) of one or more grade levels. At the same time we had an… [Continue reading]