related items
Available Light Theatre has hit a pretty enviable stride with their seat-packing lineup this year, and it doesn't look like they plan on letting their good luck fizzle anytime soon.
"A fellowship of artists dedicated to building a more conscious and compassionate world by creating joyful and profound theater" (according to the AVLT Web site), this ragtag group of lovable, bleeding-heart intellectuals has pumped a steady stream of hits since "Dirty Math" (a musical exposé about the economy's recent downfall) back in April. A quirky staging of "The Odd Couple" and a dark look into a family tragedy with "God's Ear" followed, along with "Church" and "Killadelphia," which brought revolutionary deconstructions of religion and murder, respectively.
The company has taken on a mixture of traditional and original scripts that tackle some sort of socially charged question. It's a formula that seems to be working, seeing as how their audience has doubled in size since last year, according to Matt Slaybaugh, the company's leader.
Now, partly because of "Dirty Math's" box-office success, they're presenting "How to Stay Human" (Nov. 5-14 at the Davis Performing Arts Center), a sequel to that takes on the environment in the only way AVLT knows how—with pizzazz and subdued controversy.
Metromix spoke with Slaybaugh, the writer and director of "How to Stay Human," about the new play, the key to the company's success and what's next for the rising theater troupe.
It looks like "How to Stay Human" is to the environment what "Dirty Math" was to the economy. Was that intentional? And how did the idea for a sequel come about?
That was half of the intention. In "Dirty Math" we had talk-backs every night after each show, and people got really excited. They started asking, 'What should we do to avoid another economic disaster?' Also, questions naturally came up about what should we do to avoid environmental disaster. We saw that these big questions had parallels. So we decided to explore the question—what are the things that we do that lead us to these crises, and how are connected?
The first part of the play talks about the problem, like carbon emissions, consumerism. It's practically oriented. Then the other half turns philosophical. Is there something deep in us as individuals that we can change to get out of these patterns?
What's the basic story line of the play?
There's really not much of a plot. It takes place in someone's apartment and someone in the play talking about change. But there's not that much of a story line.
The environment is a hot topic these days, with the popularity of "Inconvenient Truth," "The Day After Tomorrow" and now "2012." Was the issue's popularity a part of why AVLT decided to put this play out now?
Not really. It's something that we'd been thinking about. My wife and I went to see Thomas Friedman, who wrote "The World is Flat," a little bit before we did "Dirty Math" at [Ohio State University]. The stories that he tells left you feeling a lot more urgency concerning the issue. Yeah, we all get it, but we don't really get it in our souls, deep down. We don't think it's an impending disaster. But you do feel that way after leaving his lecture. That kind of sparked the whole idea.
That's also something else we talk about in the show—the fact that it is hard to care about the economy and that it can be confusing. And even if you want to do the right thing the world doesn't make it easier for you.
Is there a bit of a political agenda behind this project?
We want to save the world [laughs]. If you think that's political then maybe so, but I don't think it has a partisan slant. We need new ways of thinking about our relationships to people on the earth. That we're all connected beyond politics. People in China are doing stuff about the environment, and we have no idea about that whatsoever.
A lot of this is viewed through a political lens. We have this quote on the Web site and with some of the flyers: "If you're not thinking about change, then this play might be too soon for you." That's kind of where it starts. If you think the environment is a political issue, then it might be too much for you.
Why do you think "Dirty Math" was so successful?
It was the right show at the right time. We, in a way, got lucky the show came out when the economic crisis got to its worst point. When you're dealing with difficulties on such a large scale, people really want to talk about it. And it was a perfect platform for that.
Would someone who missed "Dirty Math" still be able to follow/understand what's going on in "How to Stay Human?"
That won't be a problem. If you did see "Dirty Math" it will just enhance the show, but it's based on what people said afterwards during the talk-backs, so you won't need to have seen "Dirty Math" to get what's going on.
AVLT has certainly made an impact on the Columbus theater scene this year. What's the company's secret to success?
The thing that I think we do that is different is that we're always asking questions. Each show is about asking a question. It's seven years of overnight success [laughs]. Somehow we doubled our audience in last year and a half. It's just years of trudging along and laying the ground work. We've been lucky to have found a lot of really great supporters.
What's next?
We've got a Christmas show coming in December. It's about a company Christmas party, where every year for 30 years a guy does 'A Christmas Carol' and all the history behind it, but he gets fired three hours before the show, so a Jewish guy steps in who has no idea what he's talking about. It's about the reason for the holiday traditions and values behind them. The guy who wrote it is Jewish (Artie Isaac) but grew up celebrating Christmas. This play partially explores why.
We're also doing a 'Pride and Prejudice' remake in January. It's a romantic deconstruction. First and foremost, we wanted to tell a satisfying presentation of the story, but at the same time we're going to look at some of the issues behind the story. Why was it written and why is it so popular? The whole thing is going to be done with only five actors, so it should be pretty interesting [laughs].
How to Stay Humans opens 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, and runs through Nov. 14 at the Davis Performing Arts Center. Ticket prices are based on the company's famous pay-what-you-want system and can be purchased at the door or at the Available Light Theatre Web site.
