BWW Interviews: Playwright Valerie Hart on 9/11-Themed RISING & FALLING

With the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America fast approaching, Nashville's Rhubarb Theater Company presents the debut of playwright Valerie Hart's Rising & Falling, running August 12-20 at Darkhorse Theatre.

"As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 approaches, I want Rhubarb to have a voice in the community, acknowledging these pivotal events in our lives, but I didn't want it to be a rehashing of the attacks on our country," says Trish Crist, artistic director for Rhubarb, who directs the play. "Val's play is challenging, beautiful, and very thought-provoking around a key aspect of 9/11 that has nothing to do with terrorists."

Hart describes Rising & Falling as "a play about art set against one of the largest tragedies of our time."

In the coming days, we'll continue to examine the impact of 9/11 on the theater community, as members of the Rising & Falling cast and crew remember where they were on that fateful morning - and several Nashville theater personalities will recall for us how about the impact of that historic day on Circle Players' production of the Stephen Sondheim musical Assassins, which was running at TPAC's Andrew Johnson Theatre at the time.

As the cast and crew of Rhubarb Theater Company approach final preparations for the production before unveiling Hart's play to the public for the first time, the playwright found the time to answer our questions and to tell us what Rising & Falling is about, how it reflects who she is as a woman and a writer and to talk about the juxtaposition of a great tragedy against a furor in the arts community.

What prompted you to write Rising & Falling? In 2002 Eric Fischl's sculpture, "Tumbling Woman," was removed from its site in Rockefeller Center Plaza due to public outcry. The media claimed that the piece exploited the memory of 9/11 victims, especially the "jumpers." Also at that time, it seemed like any broad discussion or dissent was being suppressed but I found this particular event really disturbing. And so there it was suddenly in my mind: a play about art and free speech, set against one of the largest tragedies of our time.

What about the story speaks most eloquently, in your view, of the aftermath of 9/11? If you mean the story in my play, what encapsulates post-9/11 life for me is the profound and fundamental change to the lives of the three main characters:  Marc, the artist; Claudia, the mother; and Chuck, the ironworker. Whether you "were there" or not, whether you personally knew a victim or not, your life is now very different than pre-9/11.

What's this process been like for you as a playwright? Do you attend all of the rehearsals? Are you doing re-writes as the process goes on? I couldn't ask for more generous, smart, experienced and intuitive collaborators than Trish Crist and her team. We discussed all the casting choices and she also read the earlier versions of the play - the one-act and then a couple of iterations to lengthen it and to "solve" certain staging issues. There are a lot of ideas packed in the play and her comments served as a real springboard to the further develop and delineate them. 

How does it feel to hear your words brought to life by actors? How big a challenge is it for you to refrain from directing? I've been in the rehearsal process before and it's always terrifying for me at first. I've attended most of these rehearsals and am frankly relieved that I'm not in the director's chair. It has been reported that I have occasionally (and inadvertently) dished out a line when an actor calls for it (which is the stage manager's job). So I plan on bringing duct tape for my mouth to the remaining rehearsals!

What do you think of the cast Trish has assembled? Every playwright should be so lucky as to have this cast. They are so dedicated, talented and enthusiastic. For example, Phil Brady, who plays the artist in the play, is creating a series of beautiful drawings that will be used and projected during the play's action. 

Theater is a "contact sport," and actors and rehearsals are incredibly valuable for my writing process. Several of Trish's cast have given me key insight into my own characters; helping them to be much more 3-dimensional. Many in the cast read the characters in a couple of early "living room readings" that we had while I was still developing the larger script. That really helped me figure out a couple of the relationships that were eluding me at that point.

With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaching, do you think there's a collective "forgetfulness," if you will, among the American people in regard to what happened then? I think there certainly has been a necessary distancing from the event. Time operates like a physical thing in this way, putting age and memory between us and the event. But I don't know if there's been as much grieving and closure over the event as I'd hope for, mainly because we went to war in Afghanistan in reaction to the attacks and we're still there.

Art and tragedy...how do they interconnect in general? And, specifically, in Rising and Falling? Art, especially the explicitly narrative arts, draw great breath from conflict; and when conflict prevails over the hero we have tragedy. Art is also one way for people to absorb any greater meaning (if there is one to be had) from the tragedy we too frequently encounter in our lives. And art is also a way to release ourselves from the stifling grip of those events. 

In the play, 9/11 was a tragedy which inspires an artist (Marc) to create art that is both rejected by some but also serves as a talisman of relief for another character (Claudia). Interestingly the original Greek word for tragedy, trag?idia, literally translates to "he-goat-song." And the artist and his work (which represents a 9/11 victim) become scapegoats and victims in the play. 

Your question about interconnection also makes me think that a good physical model for the play as a whole is the nautilus shell; spiraling and interlocking in on itself with respect to ideas about art and tragedy, heroes and scapegoats, free speech and group needs, etc.

Inspired by a real-life, the plot of Rising & Falling centers on a public arts controversy in the  immediate aftermath of 9/11 where public arts funding was spent on a statue that many in the public rejected and which was removed after just 8 days on display.

That story and the feelings around it are told by fictitious characters who explore the questions  of who gets to decide what public art is, how much is spent on it, how a city mourns or celebrates a major event, what is acceptable art and good art, and what is the proper time-frame to acknowledge tragic events through art.

A panel discussion around these topics featuring experts and artists will follow the performance on Saturday, August 13. All tickets are $12. For reservations and further information, call (615) 397-7820, or by emailing rhubarbnashville@gmail.com.

All performances are at The Darkhorse Theater, 4610 Charlotte Avenue in Nashville, opening Friday August 12 and running through Saturday August 20. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday shows at 7:30 p.m., Sunday matinee on April 14 at  2:30 p.m. No performances on Monday or Tuesday.

Following the matinee on Sunday, August 14 at 2:30 p.m., audiences are invited to join the cast and crew at Estel Gallery for wine, networking and conversation, Crist explains. In addition, firemen, police officers, paramedics and first responders are offered tickets at a two-for-one price.

Top photo: Actress Wesley Paine, director Trish Crist and playwright Valerie Hart; photos of Rising & Falling cast by Jacques Crist.

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