"They also serve who only stand and
wait," wrote English poet John Milton. Playwright Paulanne
Simmons, of Brooklyn Heights, could not agree more. In fact,
she quoted the 17th-century writer on a postcard that advertises
the opening of her three-part play about people who wait together,
which opens on Feb. 24 at the Theater for the New City in Manhattan.
What ties the three otherwise unrelated parts of "Waiting"
– "The Hospital," "The Bus Stop" and "The
Tower" – is not only the act of waiting itself, but also
the good deed, or the "mitzvah," as director Ted Thompson
calls it, that each of the waiting characters performs.
"They all wait because it’s a way of serving," Simmons
told GO Brooklyn. "And when you give something to somebody,
you get something in return. Nobody gives in a vacuum."
The first two stories are based on events experienced by her
family members and friends, said the playwright. In "The
Hospital," a woman waiting for her husband to come out of
brain surgery is comforted by a co-worker. In the second story,
"The Bus Stop," a teacher waits with her cab driver
after he gets into an accident.
The third, "The Tower," in which an office employee
stands by a friend during a terrorist attack, hits home for everyone
in America, especially New York.
"[’The Tower’] is based on the story we all know,"
Simmons said, referring to the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001.
"But it’s not about it." And that’s all she will reveal.
Simmons wrote her latest play during a few weeks in June and
July of last summer. She said it was the quickest she ever wrote
a play.
"I knew the plot and the outcome," Simmons said, "but
I had to create the characters." And she needed to figure
out what to have her characters do when they’re just waiting.
"The real challenge in the play is how to make waiting meaningful
to the audience," Simmons said. "You should never bore
your audience."
"Waiting" is Simmons’ third play, all three of which
debuted at the Theater for the New City. "The Volunteer"
was produced in January 2003 and "Basketball Lessons"
in March 2001.
Born in East New York, one block from where composer George Gershwin
lived, Simmons now resides in Brooklyn Heights with her husband,
Dwight, and the younger of their two sons, Alex, 17. (Mark, 22,
is enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio.)
Simmons, who says she has been writing most of her life, started
her career as an advertising copywriter. In addition to plays,
she has several unpublished novels, and she works as a freelance
journalist and theater critic for numerous publications including
GO Brooklyn.
"What interests me are people’s characters, people interacting
with one another and what people do for one another," Simmons
said.
Simmons likes the theater, she said, because she likes the excitement
of direct communication with people. "And, obviously, I
talk a lot," she quips.
As the playwright, Simmons might not be nervous before the opening
night of "Waiting" – which coincides with her 55th
birthday – but director Thompson is.
"I am terrified," said Thompson, 56. But with a talented
cast and a playwright who, as Thompson put it, is "open
and receptive to feedback," – he has worked with both Simmons
and most of the actors in the past – the director has little
to worry about.
Thompson, who lives in Sunset Park, has directed numerous plays,
by both emerging and established playwrights, at the Pulitzer
Prize-winning Theater for the New City.
"[Waiting"] is more character-driven than other pieces
I’ve worked on," Thompson said.
What he and the actors have discovered in Simmons’ play, Thompson
said, was the usage of silence and the importance of keeping
the action going without dialogue. He said that the pauses frequently
mean as much as the dialogue.
"The whole act of waiting is very difficult," said
Park Slope actor Joe Salgo, 22. "You have to make it real."
Salgo, who plays a doctor in "The Hospital" and a police
officer in "The Bus Stop," said that the general idea
of the piece is that people are people regardless of where they
come from and what they do.
"We all have similar experiences," he said.
Fellow actor Deborah Paulter, who lives in Kensington and plays
a lawyer who comes to the hospital to pray with a coworker in
need, agreed.
"People are all the same no matter how different they seem,"
Paulter said. And because the characters are ethnically diverse
and the play is based on true stories, she predicted audiences
would be able to relate to it.
And while Paulter hopes that audience members might leave "with
a tear in their eye," Thompson would like people to think
about the theme of the play: the spiritual reasons we’re on Earth.
"I take a religious view of the world," Simmons said.
"There is something beyond getting from Monday to Tuesday
and Tuesday to Wednesday."
But in terms of ritual observance, Simmons considers herself
on the weak side.
"Any religious Jew would not consider me religious,"
she said.
Each of the three scenes of the play involves interaction between
members of different religious groups – Judaism, Christian Scientology,
Islam and Catholicism. The varying level of religious devotion
among the characters plays a key role in determining the outcome
of each story.
When she first started writing the play, Simmons said that it
was the act of waiting that connected the characters. Later,
she said, she realized that the characters’ religious convictions
were deeply involved with why they were waiting.
"A lot of times, as a writer, you start writing about one
thing," Simmons said, "but it turns out to be about
something else."
Despite the somber nature of the three stories within "Waiting,"
she said that they are all funny in parts.
"I don’t believe in writing without humor," Simmons
said. "You have to give your audience a break."
"The Waiting: A Trilogy,"
by Paulanne Simmons, will be staged at Theater for the New City
Community Space (155 First Ave. at East 10th Street in Manhattan)
Feb. 24-March 13. Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays
at 8 pm, and Sundays at 3 pm. Tickets are $15. For reservations,
call (212) 254-1109. For more information, call (917) 589-9042
or visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net.
