Interview: DRY POWDER Playwright Sarah Burgess Explores Morality in the Private Equity Boardroom

Sarah Burgess's DRY POWDER, now in its last week at the Alley, is a peek into the world of private equity, and an exploration of 21st century morality, that had a pretty simple beginning.

"I started reading about private equity a couple years ago," says Burgess, "and became fascinated in how leveraged buyouts work, and in the effect these deals can have on companies and their employees."

Her research led to the creation of two characters, Jenny and Seth (played by Alley stalwarts Elizabeth Bunch and Jay Sullivan), both high-level directors at a private equity firm who see their work - and the consequences of their work - a little bit differently. With the characters set, Burgess was left to tackle a new challenge - the seemingly impenetrable dialogue of a very exclusive world.

"These characters discuss details regarding the structure of a buyout, projected return on their investment, and the company they are considering taking over. It was a challenge to strike the right balance between doing that and boring everyone in the room," says Burgess. "You want people to talk the way they might talk in the offices of a real PE firm - even if it is necessarily simplified, exaggerated and comedic - but at a certain point, obsession with that detail risks alienating the audience."

Burgess was ultimately successful, with Broadway World Houston's Gary Laird saying, the "audience hung on every word," The New York Times saying, "[t]erms like 'sell-side banker,' 'zero-based budgeting,' 'dividend recap' and 'disintermediation' are tossed around like confetti as Seth and Jenny make the case for doing the deal in radically different ways" and the Houston Chronicle asking simply, "When was the last time a play was so intensely quotable?"

But don't let the fancy lingo distract you from the timely questions Burgess explores within the walls of a private equity firm, on the verge of absorbing a family-owned American company and moving it to Mexico, or maybe Bangladesh.

"This question is something we hear a lot about," says Burgess, "and it affects all of us in one way or another: How will our country operate in the global marketplace? What do we do about the lack of good job opportunities for many Americans and how will that affect our culture? What, exactly, is our relationship to capitalist ideas at this moment?"

You won't have the answers at the end of Burgess's 93-minute, one-act play, but you'll probably be thinking about it on the drive home.

DRY POWDER runs through February 12 at the Alley Theatre, 615 Texas. The play contains explicit language and adult content. For more information, call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org.

And check out the Broadway World Houston review by Gary Laird, DRY POWDER Teaches the Art of the Deal at Alley Theatre.

Written by Natalie de la Garza. Reporting by Katricia Lang.

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