John F. Kennedy: Light the world

Some Pre Production Notes

Thank You:

Thank you for choosing to produce and direct John F. Kennedy: Light the World. As an independent writer, I deeply appreciate your willingness to take a risk on a new play and your courage in bringing the play’s message of hope and civility to your audience. Today it often seems as though Aristotle’s “golden mean” of morality is no longer an acceptable position, but your decision to present this play shows that the “middle way” is still very much in play in these extreme times.

Inspiration:

I believe Theater is one of the most powerful artistic instruments in a free society. It can bring sorrow or joy…. it can also bring about significant change. Some might ask how can it compete with big budget movies, or the Yellowstones that stream to millions, or all the network fare available today? If you’re a theater person, you already know the answer to that. It’s LIVE, RAW and in the here and now. The emotion is palpable – it rolls through the audience on a wave of actors’ spoken words, their pauses, their physical movements and gestures, and the play’s immediacy as it unfolds in the present. Some film directors have tried to break the barrier that separates the film actors and their action from the movie audience. I’m thinking here of Mel Brooks “Blazing Saddles” and Woody Allen’s “Purple Rose of Cairo.” In Brooks’ film, the horse chase continues from the desert through the studio production lot and out into the streets of L.A. In “Purple Rose of Cairo” a romantic actor steps through the screen and walks into the audience to woo a poor depression era girl who uses the movies to escape her sad existence. These are interesting, but they do not really break the barrier. The studio lot and the streets of L.A. are still on film, as is the theater audience in “Purple Rose”. These innovative film directors with their reflexive movies make a noble effort, but they do not succeed in creating the immediacy, the liveness that only theater can deliver.

Theater has been creatively breaking that fourth wall for years as plays had actors entering through the audience or coming out into the audience to interact with the audience, and if my fading memory can be trusted, I seem to recall an experimental play or two where the audience itself came on stage and took part in a performance. Some of these worked, some didn’t, but they all succeeded in the sense than in the “now,” anything can happen.

But my main point here is that Theater can bring about change. And our nation’s political culture is in dire need of change. The hatred, anger, verbal violence, is gradually being transformed into real violence. Assassination, as in Kennedy’s time (JFK himself, his brother Robert, and Martin Luther King in that same decade), is in the Zeitgeist again.

I believe this play and others like it can stop that rising blood tide if we come together. John F. Kennedy: Light the World quotes JFK who himself asked citizens to place the nation itself above their individual interests, to “not emphasize all on which we differ but all we have in common. Let us consider not what we fear separately but what we share together."

We have the power. If enough of us make a decision to resist those temptations to choose the violent word or make the hateful remark, if we temper our passion with the singular power that the humanities arts give us – the insight into the Other, the ability to see the world through their eyes, to “walk a mile in their shoes,” to truly understand anOther. If we can do that and work together to stand against the haters, we can truly “Light the World.”

A “New” Play Means Editing During Rehearsal Will Be Necessary:

Three times in the past, I’ve had the experience of directing my own, never before produced,  original plays. On each occasion, on the first day or two of rehearsals, it was quite clear that not everything worked. Much had to be completely cut. Other passages had to be rewritten. Sometimes new material was written in. It happens every time and to writers with much more skill than I. Changes have to be made. All of these changes will eventually be recognized by a writer/director willing to let success in the coming performances, not his/her ego, determine the scene.

Sadly my directing days are over. But I hope those of you who choose to “put on” (as they used to say in the old movies) John F. Kennedy: Light the World will be my proxies in this situation. As I said, there will be changes that have to be made. I understand this and fully accept it. I encourage you to make whatever alterations, cuts, etc. that comprise your vision of the play, and I hope you’ll share those changes with me and your directing colleagues by posting them on the comments on this website. At some point, using your input, I’ll revise the script, acknowledge your input, and incorporate many of those changes. Also, if you post them on the website, other directors can use your experiences to avoid the same problems in the first place. BTW, I already know that I’ll probably trim a bit from the “Invocation” section. I can see that there’s probably more there than needs to be. I’ll be sure to post that change in the comments here when I get time and energy to revise.

There’s another item related to the idea of cutting or editing that I’ve temporarily placed in that same “when I get more time and energy” file. I think a shortened, tightly edited, one hour (60-70 minute) version of this play might work. I can’t get to that now, but maybe later.     

 

Costumes:

In the play’s opening description of the scene, there’s a statement about costumes: “They [the actors] wear formal clothing – matching dark suits and ties or [preferably] tuxedos for the males and off-white, gray, navy blue, or black sheath gowns for the females.” I’ll add that word “preferably” to future revisions of the play because I want to emphasize to the audience the high seriousness of the subject matter -- JFK’s presidency, the play, and its purpose. I will also add a note that the musicians and vocalists should also be dressed in tuxedos and gowns.

If directing the play, I would also make some sort of costume distinction between the Chorus and the Leaders of the Chorus. A red or blue sash would probably work here. Also, one other personal note, I think I would choose an off white, cream, or light gray color for the female actors gowns, something formal but a break from the black of the tuxedos.

The costume for Actor One in the role of the Herald warrants a note. Here’s the play description: (Male Actor One moves to down center stage, and as the Herald speaks the lines to open the play. The same actor plays this role throughout the performance. He voices other parts too, but during the Herald speeches he wears a lanyard around his neck and a large tag that indicates he’s a member of the Press. He speaks loudly, formally, like a Town Crier making a proclamation or announcing the news. He introduces each new section of the play and wears the lanyard press tag as an identifier to the audience, removing it when he finishes his herald

speech.) I struggled a bit with his costume description. At first, he wore a certain kind of hat, but after a while I abandoned that and settled on the lanyard with a big, easily readable tag with the word “PRESS: or “MEDIA.” The words of his introductory speeches at the beginning of each Part of the play will also help identify him, but I think some costume change would also be useful here. If you find something that works better than the lanyard or the hat, please share it in the comment section here.

One final suggestion regarding costumes -- I wanted to keep it simple for those actors playing different characters from fictional Anderson Springs. The mayor has his fedora, George Willard his baseball cap and mechanic’s dirty rag, etc. You can certainly go a little further than I did, but my concern was where do they carry the costume identifiers or hide them before and after? Also, I didn’t want to go so far as to slip into comedy.

Set Design:

I used AI to generate a few set designs that I added to the Production Kit. You or your assistants can certainly do the same. I originally thought of three levels to create more movement and positioning to counter the static nature of this ceremonial play. But I believe two levels -- stage level and a single one step high platform would be perfectly workable. As for the lecterns, I’m not sure they are needed, but some directors might like them. The lecterns could definitely be used in a Readers’ Theater production. I deliberately made one with big, bulky lecterns as a way to hide the character props mentioned above. They’re maybe a bit much, but with a lighter touch, might work.

I will provide more discussion of pre-production ideas in the blog on this website.