The Myopia and Other Plays by David Greenspan

The Myopia, an epic burlesqueof tragic proportion

The Myopia, an epic burlesque of tragic proportion David Greenspan in The Myopia. The Foundry Theatre/Atlantic Stage 2, New York, 2010. Photographs by Jon Wasserman. The Myopia, an epic burlesque of tragic proportion First produced by The Foundry Theatre, Melanie Joseph, Artistic Director , at Atlantic Stage 2, New York City, from January 6 through February 7, 2010. Performed by David Greenspan Set and Lighting Design by Peter Ksander Directed by Brian Mertes Note: The Myopia is performed as a solo—in the “story-telling” tradition. One actor plays all the roles, speaking the stage directions in brackets as narration . The actor is con‹ned to a chair for the entire performance. He does not move from that chair. 218 Act 1, Flare-Up Characters: The Raconteur Narratage in the form of Stage Directions Yetti, an old hag Koreen, Yetti’s daughter Febus, Koreen’s suitor, later her husband Barclay, product of Febus and Koreen Second Self, Barclay Warren G. Harding, a character from history Florence Harding, Harding’s wife Old Timer, a country fellow Henry Cabot Lodge, Senator from Massachusetts Will Hays, Republican Party Chairman George Harvey, Editor, North American Review Charles Curtis, Senator from Kansas Frank Brandegee, Senator from Connecticut Selden Spencer, Senator from Missouri Reed Smoot, Senator from Utah William Borah, Senator from Idaho Joseph Frelinghuysen, Senator from New Jersey Medill McCormick, Senator from Illinois James Watson, Senator from Indiana Henry Haskell, Reporter, Kansas City Star Irvin Kirkwood, Reporter, Kansas City Star Setting: Various. Note: Yetti speaks with an East European accent. The Myopia, an epic burlesque of tragic proportion / 219 Prologue Raconteur: I’ve been thinking about pictures. I’ve been thinking about pictures and how one might make pictures on the stage, which is not to say that I’ve been thinking about stage pictures. On the contrary. I’ve been re›ecting on the difference between the image and the imagined , and the relationship of imagining to thinking—and I’ve been thinking about thinking, but for the moment that’s tangential. I’ve been thinking how a picture is a picture of something, but not the something it is a picture of. And the same for ‹lm—which is after all pictures, and for anything that is a picture even if it is not a picture but a recording of something, but not the something it is a recording of. And others have addressed this issue more astutely than I. If you wish, see me after, I refer you. But that this is not true of live signals, broadcast or monitored, might lead one to consider the televising of something, which is not by necessity a recording though it is by necessity a transmission. Here again others—I must refer you to others—though I will say that television, no matter how it is maligned, shares with the theater the capacity of presenting things actually happening. Of course this is true with radio, but I’m not thinking about radio because with radio there is no picture —other than the ones one must imagine—which is to say I am thinking about radio. But—well—others—others will address these issues. I cannot—other than to say there might be a lot of confusion about the theater—with some expecting of the theater what is inherently untheatrical, and some in the theater providing this—some of these some being sometimes successful—abandoning action for image in ways that are thrillingly theatrical—forcing one in one’s confusion to wonder whether what one has been thinking all along has not more to do with the stage than the theater, the stage being a platform for drama, the theater not that same thing entirely. But—well—so—anyway, thinking about pictures—a picture being a picture of something but not the something it is a picture of, I’ve thought about the theater, which is not a picture of something, though one might make pictures in it. And not only have I thought about the 220 / The Myopia and Other Plays by David Greenspan theater which is not a picture, I’ve thought about the theater because it is not a picture, thinking instead it is what is happening in it. And that no matter what is happening in it—even if what is pictured happening has already happened, or didn’t happen, or never happened, or never will happen, you know on...