So I caught the third new play reading at the Drake last Monday by new local playwright Sarah Galante. I also caught the second one two weeks ago, by Julia Lopez, but I got lazy and didn’t post anything about it. However, not to be one to let an opportunity slip by (even one created by myself), I thought I’d hit up both in one swell foop.
It will surprise no one than neither of these plays knocked my socks off, because I am rapidly gaining a reputation for being a crotchety bastard. Graciela, by Lopez, was very beautifully and lyrically written in a style that more-than-flirted with magical realism, but I never had a clear sense of where the plot was going, and when the play finished, I didn’t know where we arrived. I suspect that some of that is indicative of the form, but it didn’t grab me at all.
I Know the Way Home, by Galante, had the opposite problem. The plot seemed like this big, lumbering inevitable thing. There was nothing particularly novel about the story (two young girls and a boy escape a religious cult with the help of a feisty grandmother), but I thought Galante handled the material quite well…she just kept in too much of it.
Anyway, that’s what readings are all about (obviously), and knowing how crappy the rewrite process can be, I wish these two playwrights all the best.
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