To see a play with a friend, life partner, colleague or anyone else on our team of co-actors on the stage of life is a kind of meta-reality. Think about it. A team of creators – writer, director, actors, technicians and theater support staff – tell us a story about an intersection of peoples’ lives that might reflect something we are going through in our own relationships, or is something so far from our own experience we wonder how in the world people ever get through it, but in any case we can spend the rest of the evening talking about it. Or the rest of our lives. The shared experience of seeing a play can turn out to be One Of Those Moments, an important memory made with an important person, but we won’t know that until it happens.
A new play, Jericho, set in the suburbs of Long Island and written by East Northport, NY playwright and musician Jack Canfora turns on an encounter between 2 people directly traumatized by 9/11 and coping in very different ways. In production from Oct. 13 - Nov. 13 at the New Jersey Repertory in Long Branch, New Jersey - and reviewed in the Oct. 23 New York Times - this play uses a remarkable degree of humor for such a searing subject, and explores the impact of extraordinary events on ordinary people - something many Long Island residents connect with and will want to talk about after seeing it. Winner of the 2011 Edgarton Foundation Play Award, Jericho will be produced at The Phoenix Theater in Indianapolis and The Florida Studio Theater in Sarasota, FL:A.
The central relationship in Canfora’s play Poetic License, winner of the 2011 Christopher Brian Wolk Award for Excellence in Playwriting by the Abingdon Theatre, which opens off-Broadway in February 2012 is between a father and daughter, and one of his earlier works, Place Setting, produced by The New Jersey Repertory in 2007, is a comedy dealing with 3 couples he describes as “not especially honest about the state of their relationships.” Poetic License focuses on the ideas we hold about ourselves and their power to make and threaten relationships. Characters in compelling stories such as these change right before our eyes, something that can be deeply satisfying to watch, especially since change can be difficult to discern in real-life relationships. Canfora’s favorite relationships depicted through theater include:
“Proctor and Belize in Angels in America - a terrific, almost idealized dynamic -- serious but funny, honest but loving."
"John and Elizabeth in The Crucible – there’s a lot of sadness and loneliness there but they come to be honest with each other, and forgiving, which is pretty much the most you can maybe ask for in your relationships."
"George and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – incredibly compelling”
A teacher of 11th and 12th grade English at Plainview Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School, Canfora cites the element of collaboration inherent to working in theater as part of the draw for him to write for the stage. “I don't know if I'd be as sanguine about my efforts and chances if I didn't get to share the workload with talented people,” he states. “Whereas as a solo artist I might feel overwhelmed by the risks involved, I've always liked being part of a team, and I think the theater can breed that sort of camaraderie.” With ten years of writing plays that have had readings and productions all around the country, the process remains one of persistence and repeated efforts to attain quality in his work. “I certainly approach it from the perspective of asking questions rather than prescribing answers. I'm just as confused as the next person. But another nice thing about theater - I would submit any art form -- is that, when it's done right, we learn something collectively.”
Here is another reason that live performance is a great night out and possible game-changer especially in our tightly-structured, increasingly programmed high-tech existence. As carefully-crafted and well-rehearsed as a professional performance is, the fact that it takes place in real-time renders it just as subject to unpredictable conditions as real-life plans are subject to change based on events beyond our control. Even if all goes as planned, it is a never-to-be-repeated gathering of human beings in the time and space, focused on the same human event.
As Carl Jung famously said, “The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”When the creative team of succeed in their efforts, the soul of a completely fictional person feels real. An imaginary person’s struggle generates authentic emotions. And sometimes we see something of our self and of our own struggle in a way that shines new light in dark places.
Jericho runs from Oct. 13 - Nov. 13 at New Jersey Repertory 179 Broadway, Long Branch, NJ, 07740 Phone: 732-229-3316
Jack Canfora performs with fellow guitar player Rob Koenig at venues around Long Island. Click here for a schedule of their upcoming performances.
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