Interview: Tom Dudzick of MIRACLE ON SOUTH DIVISION STREET at The Sheen Center

Playwright Tom Duzick has had his works performed all over the world, which speaks to the universal appeal of his creations.  He has a new production of one his most popular plays opening next week.  He sat down to chat with BWW about it.

 Tom, after more than 200 productions of Miracle on South Division Street, what continues to surprise you about how audiences respond to the play—and has that response evolved over time?

TOM:  What dazzles me  (Yes, dazzles!)  is that people from everywhere somehow relate to, and laugh their butts off, at this lower working class Nowak family who live behind a barbershop. People who go to Noel Coward and Chekhov plays, they come and laugh at Jimmy Nowak and his broken toaster, Beverly and her obsession with bowling. Noel Coward wrote in a silk robe and held a cigarette holder. I wrote “Miracle” in coffee shops with annoying music overhead. What was the question?

No, that’s alright. Now, bringing the play to the Sheen Center for Thought & Culture gives it a particular New York context. Does staging it here, in a city so rich with immigrant stories, shift your perspective on the work?

Yeah, I think they were very smart to bring it here.  New York is loaded with those immigrant stories. And that’s why I think New Yorkers will relate to the Nowaks so well. Mom who runs a soup kitchen for the homeless. And the miracle itself – the Blessed Mother appearing to Grandpa in his barber shop. The audience wondering, what the hell is THAT all about? Y’know, there was a production of the play near my home and my wife ran the lights and sound every night. The waves of laughter, she said – the actors needing to wait and wait before they could continue. And then the quiet parts where you could hear the sniffling. She said she never got bored once.

The play delicately balances humor with deeply personal revelations about faith, family, and identity. How do you guide directors and actors to maintain that tonal balance without tipping too far in either direction?

I don’t do much guiding. The trick is to have smart directors. They’ll keep things balanced. ‘Cause it can get tricky for an actor. One moment you’re up there getting a huge laugh. Next moment you’re delivering some devastating line that shuts the whole room down. How do you make that look real? You “play the truth,” as the directors say. “Play the truth of the scene.”  Then the actor goes home and tries to figure out what THAT means. And the good ones do.

With so many productions behind you, have you ever felt the urge to revise or “update” the play—or do you see its strength as lying in its specificity and period authenticity?

What, I should fix something that ain’t broke?! No, I know what you mean. And at the beginning I did toy with the idea of bringing the story into present day. But I quickly realized I can’t. The story is kicked off by a tiny event that happens in World War Two. So since I can’t move WWII around, there we are at the Nowak’s kitchen table in 2010. And the audience apparently likes dipping into the past a little bit. A director in India told me his audience loved the kitchen table scenes.

India?

Yes. Mumbai. There it was called “Miracle on Matunga Street.” Also done in Jerusalem. Twice. They had a “holy man” come and lead an audience discussion after each performance.

And your play “Over the Tavern” was done in Ireland I heard.

Yessir, Cork Arts Theatre. They called it “Over the Pub.” They ran it 3 consecutive seasons. Broke their box office record.  To think I worried they might not “get it” over there. Ha! Y’know, after “Miracle” one night, a woman came up to me and said, “I adored it! But would people ‘get’ this play in Kentucky?” I said, “Kentucky? Honey, they ‘get’ this play in India!”

Family lies at the heart of Miracle on South Division Street. What draws you repeatedly to family dynamics as a storytelling engine?

Hmm, I guess it’s just “write what you know.”  In college I kept getting laughs telling stories about my family and the nuns in grammar school and the neighborhood oddballs. Finally it hit me – write these stories down!

And what made you choose theatre as your outlet? What do you think theater can reveal about families that other forms cannot?

Live theatre is ideal because it’s built for storytelling. People walk in, sit down and say, "Tell me a story. I don't need car chases or dinosaurs. Just talk to me."  So I do.

For audiences encountering Miracle on South Division Street for the first time next week, what do you hope lingers with them after they leave the theater—not just intellectually but emotionally?

What do I hope lingers? Just one thought. "Jeez, that was a funny play! I gotta tell my friends!"

BroadwayWorld wants to thank Tom Dudzick for sitting down and chatting with us before the opening of his play and wishs him, cast, crew and producers a very successful run at the Sheen Center.