One of the most beautiful and frustrating things about local theater is what a transitory experience it can be. You’ll go to an exquisitely moving world premiere of a beautiful play written by a local author, something that moved you so deeply you want to see again and again. But the rest of the run is sold out, it’s new enough no one else is staging it, and it’s local enough that it’s impossible to get a published version of the script. All you’re left with is a memory.
Luckily, Plan-B Theatre Company has found a way to give you a little more than that. The group is selling “More Plays From Behind the Zion Curtain” (available both online and at the theater after a show), a compendium of four original plays the group has staged over the last few years. This group includes past favorites “Block 8” and “Di Esperienza,” by last year’s playwright Matthew Ivan Bennett. Also included are this season’s just-wrapped-up “Wallace” (by Jenifer Nii and Debora Threedy) and the not-yet-staged “Amerigo” by Eric Samuelson (effectively giving you a chance to preview the show before you buy a ticket).
Though having the printed scripts can’t begin to replicate the full experience of a staged production, it’s a way to hold on to the poetry of a particular play (or give you a chance to taste it for the first time if you missed tickets). Here’s a sampling of last season’s “Di Esperienza,” in a line spoken by La Gioconda herself: “If you are worried, my brother, about the path of the line you see stretching into the future, then change the point from which that line departs. This instant.”
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