Tonight we kick off Episode 12 of the weekly Guest Post series: Medium Cool with BGinCHI.
In case you missed the introduction to the series: Culture as a Hedge Against this Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We’re Living In
You can find the whole series here: Medium Cool with BGinCHI
Tonight’s Topic: Discussion of “A Tree Grows in Longmont”, by our very own Mustang Bobby
I know that quite a few people were queued up to watch the play last Sunday. Of course, it wouldn’t be a performance if it hadn’t started late, right?
So we switched topics last week. We’re not sure ow many of you were able to watch it in the meantime. BG and I have both watched it – we’ll play Medium Cool by ear tonight once we see how many others were able to watch the play in these crazy times this week.
Take it away, BG!
I was really moved by this play, which on the surface offers us a series of memories about a relationship, but is then layered with meditations on love, family, responsibility, and desire.
What are your takeaways? Impressions? Thoughts?
Mustang Bobby
I’m here. Have at it.
BGinCHI
I was really moved by this play, which on the surface offers us a series of memories about a relationship, but is then layered with meditations on love, family, responsibility, and desire.
What are your takeaways? Impressions? Thoughts?
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: I’m not exactly sure how this is done. Would we normally hear from the playwright first? Or the attendees?
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: It’s B-J, so we just half-ass it til we figure it out.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: Works for me!
BGinCHI
I’ll start. There’s something so charming about having a first dance to “I Think I’m Turning Japanese.”
Can you even really dance to it? You can, but it takes a shitload of confidence for that to be a relationship starter.
Was that, in real life, the song?
Mustang Bobby
I put a link to this on my Facebook page as well.
@BGinCHI: Thank you.
Mustang Bobby
@BGinCHI: Oh, yes, it’s by a group called The Vapors. It’s on YouTube. And as I indicated in the play, it’s not easy to dance to it. At least it wasn’t for me since I’m from the Twist generation.
WaterGirl
Having seen photos of Mustang Bobby (Philip) it took me a couple of minutes to adjust to the actors playing the parts of Philip and Allen. Not exactly sure why, but at first my brain tried to make Allen be Philip.
Once I straightened that out, I was pleased to have the thought that it’s wonderful that no one apparently thought twice about race and ethnicity when it came to casting. That seems to be a good thing, as in this case, when a black man played the part of Philip. But is not such a good thing when we have white actors playing parts of characters with a different ethnicity, which feels to me more like white privilege.
BGinCHI
@Mustang Bobby: When I graduated HS in 1984, that song was everywhere. It’s a master stroke to make that the opening song. It skews the romance in just the right way, rather than having it be something sappy and on the nose.
Often life just deals us perfect opportunities for writing scenes…..
Mustang Bobby
@WaterGirl: When Ricky said he wanted to cast Kent as Philip, I almost leapt through the phone to say YES! I’ve known him for years and seen his work and think he’s amazing. FYI, I have a play called “All Together Now.” It’s about a gay couple in Miami that finds out that one of them fathered a son via IVF, and the kid shows up on the doorstep fifteen years later. Last summer it was done at the Vermont Pride Festival with an all-African-American cast. No changes were made to the lines. I wished I could have seen it.
Mustang Bobby
@BGinCHI: Allen gets the credit for that.
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: Kent really was good as Phillip!
I thought the actor who played Allen was a very good actor. You had mentioned recently that it felt like he captured Allen perfectly.
Do I have that right?
WaterGirl
I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I (or the play?) fell into the rhythm of being spoken with cameras in place and boxes on the screen, as opposed to a traditional play.
Mustang Bobby
@WaterGirl: Yes, Tanner channeled Allen to the point it was hard to watch for all the right reasons. The voice, the cadence, even the “whatcha doin'” on the phone was him. And he looked a lot like him at one stage in his life with the buzzcut and beard.
WaterGirl
When Allen called Philip, towards the end, I made the assumption that Allen had started drinking again, so it came as a bit of a shock to find that he was so ill.
I have to confess that I shed a lot of tears watching the play.
BGinCHI
My favorite moment of the play is when Allen confronts Philip about “letting him go.”
“Why didn’t you stop me?”
“I thought it was what you wanted!”
This gets at something so difficult in relationships, in terms of needing the other person to do something you can’t tell them to do (or it ruins it). And, also, needed your partner to straighten you out (so to speak) and to not “give you what you want” either at all, or too easily.
Can you say something about the writing of that? Or the reality of that?
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: I don’t know… I think Allen’s MacGyver look in his HS photo was pretty hot for that time period, and I think he’s very appealing when you are sitting there with your drinks in Miami, but I don’t think either of those looked like Allen in the play. But I may have been seeing “looks” and you were likely catching “the essence” of the character.
WaterGirl
Speaking of which, I have wondered several times whether you guys were drinking in your Miami picture. If that’s too private, just ignore me.
Mustang Bobby
@BGinCHI: That moment is in the play within the play, “Last Exit,” which i inserted for two reasons: Allen said he wanted to see the play I’d written about our last meeting at the house in Albuquerque on July 31, 2001. (He said that in real life, and I sent it to him when I wrote it about six years ago). The second reason is that it did sum up how we ended it. And while the “Why didn’t you stop me?” line was my interpretation, I knew he felt that way in real life.
Mustang Bobby
@WaterGirl: Allen was drinking again. Mine was a Virgin Mary. And that’s okay to ask.
BGinCHI
@Mustang Bobby: Ah, right.
That scene felt so spot on in terms of a lot of break-ups and failed relationships.
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: I guessed that yours was a virgin mary, because you said in the play that you hadn’t had another drink. But I was hoping Allen’s was a virgin something, also because I got the impression from the play that he was not a person who could drink socially.
Mustang Bobby
@WaterGirl: Allen did not stay sober after he moved back to Colorado for the first time in 2001. But he did not need to go back to rehab. In fact, he broke up with his last partner because of his drug use. I have been clean since the Lost Weekend in 1992.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: It really did.
Baud
@BGinCHI:
Excuse me. On BJ, we use the whole ass.
@Mustang Bobby:
I haven’t had a chance to watch it, but I have it bookmarked for later. I hope it was everything you hoped it would be.
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: I teared up just now when I read “Lost Weekend”. You’re going along and you know things aren’t perfect, but bam! In one second, everything changes and it’s over. That has happened to me, and it must be more common than I realized.
Mustang Bobby
@Baud: The highest compliment a playwright can pay to the actors and director is, “That’s what I meant.” And it was.
Baud
@Mustang Bobby:
????
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby:
If there’s ever a video made of “All Together Now”, I would love to watch it.
raven
I’m working my way through it. My first impression, from “The Lives of the Dead” by Tim O’Brien:
“. . . when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it is as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.”
Wolvesvalley
@Mustang Bobby:
I found the play very moving. The device of talking to Allen’s ghost in your mind was amazingly effective.
Some of the most poignant parts were where you and he were talking about the division of possessions (and what that meant).
Mustang Bobby
@WaterGirl: Apparently someone did, but I’ve never been able to see it.
raven
Our dear friends who have the place in the Quarter met when she was his student in Boulder in 1968. They got married and never spent a night apart until he died this December. They also lived in Miami for a number of years until they had a home invasion and they moved here. This is all too real.
Mustang Bobby
@Wolvesvalley: Thank you.
Wolvesvalley
@Mustang Bobby:
I also loved the way you brought Allen on — “A tree? That’s all I get? Dogs will pee on it!” It established him instantly as a character.
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: That’s unfortunate! (That you haven’t been able to see it.)
Mustang Bobby
@Wolvesvalley: Oh, he was definitely looking over my shoulder when I wrote that line.
Wolvesvalley
@Mustang Bobby:
:-)
Mustang Bobby
@WaterGirl: I also heard they filmed the production in Vermont last summer, but I’ve not heard from them, either. A lot of times filming is forbidden under the Dramatists Guild contract, but I approved the making of an archival film. So I will have to follow up.
raven
Ack, when I told my first wife I was leaving after 20 years she said “I never thought you’d be around for a year”.
WaterGirl
@Mustang Bobby: I’m curious. Does a playwright get feedback when a group performs your work? Or is it sometimes a one-way street, where you put your work out there and they perform it but they don’t close the loop?
WaterGirl
@raven: I wish I knew how to spell the sound I made when I read that.
gwangung
This was a lovely play. And the device of a ghost/mind in your head that the character needed to say goodbye to was clever and was able to unearth emotionally honest moments.
Ive seen a number of shows along the same lines and too many turn into self indulgent messes. This avoided indulgences and hit for honesty
I’ve gone to a number of pandemic-constrained readings and performances in the past few weeks, and this was definitely one of the more enjoyable ones I’ve seen.
Mustang Bobby
@WaterGirl: That depends on the theatre. I’ve had talk-backs on my plays before, but I’ve also been to productions where the lights come up and everyone goes home. Talk-backs are usually done during the workshop stage of a play’s development. They can be useful if you know what to listen for and what to ignore. Rule #1: don’t try to re-write the play. Rule #1A: don’t ask the playwright what he/she meant by a certain line; chances are we have no idea and will either admit to it or bullshit our way. David Mamet is notorious for not allowing talk-backs about his plays; it’s in the license agreement. But Mamet has other issues as well.
raven
@WaterGirl: We met in an anti-war demonstration on the quad. Years later I was looking through my second father in laws pictures and his graduation from the V-12 program at Illinois was almost on that spot
It was a miracle we lasted as long as we did since our relationship was founded in drugs and alcohol. I too learned that your maturation stops when you start drinking and I started at 13.
Wolvesvalley
@gwangung:
You said it much better than I did.
Mustang Bobby
@gwangung: Thank you so much; that means a great deal to me to hear that.
As for the pandemic curtailing productions, we have to be creative and remember that we’re not doing a play with a responsive audience. It’s basically a film project where we can do post-production, but we’re also hampered by the technology, such as the sound quality and the time lag between cues. In this case, the actor playing Allen was in Moscow, Idaho, and the actor playing Philip was in Sunrise, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale. But every venue has its quirks.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: Great job with those hurdles.
BGinCHI
@Mustang Bobby: “Mamet has other issues as well…”
Understatement of the day.
MomSense
@BGinCHI:
That part made me cry. This play sort of snuck up on me emotionally. I was enjoying the reminiscing and then it sort of hit me how we all have these stories in our relationships and anyone of them may be just a moment – but they add up. And the way we feel around all these moments can be so much more profound than what is actually happening.
Thank you Mustang Bobby.
MomSense
@Wolvesvalley:
Yup that hit me hard.
raven
@Wolvesvalley: I’ve got a buddy who wrote a song “She got the dog and I got the sony”.
debbie
@BGinCHI:
That has to be put on a t-shirt!
Mustang Bobby
@raven: “She picked up her paycheck, I’m packin’ the pickup again…”
BGinCHI
@MomSense: That’s where it all hit me too, and took it from memories to NOW, and forever.
Mustang Bobby
@MomSense: Thank you, and you’re welcome.
raven
@Mustang Bobby: I did get to keep my 66!
BGinCHI
@raven:
It was just another Thursday
Like any other Thursday
Except that we were through
We were wading through the concrete
And digging through the scrap heap
Deciding what belonged to who
All the treasure from the good days
Was going through the last phase
Of yours and yours and mine
When something from the yours pile
Shattered on the floor tile
And you went off like Frankenstein
–Wussy, “Airborne”
raven
@BGinCHI: It’s funny, we had one disagreement on splitting stuff up. He sister lived outside Albuquerque and had given us a Rocky Mountain Big Horn Skull. I asked if I could have it and she said she wanted to keep it. About 6 years later I came home from a yard sale and proudly announced to my now wife “look what I found” and pulled one out of the car. She was speechless but that was nothing compared to the 6ft tuna and redfish skull I have now!
Mustang Bobby
@raven: I still have a lot of Allen’s stuff. The play was pretty accurate in terms of records and pictures, but I kept all the furniture we bought, including the recliners that look like Queen Anne chairs and the kitchen table. I can’t look in a room in the house without seeing our stuff.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I know I’m late to the discussion but I just finished watching it. It felt very real, and the stripped down virtual staging in a way made it feel even more real. It concentrated things on the characters. I liked the way the characters circled back several times to the day they met and kept sifting through what happened, building their understanding. Thanks for sharing this.
Mustang Bobby
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Thank you.
zhena gogolia
Based on the comments, this play sounds great. I can’t watch it right now, but I look forward to catching it later. Congratulations, Mustang Bobby!
BJ commenters are the best.
BGinCHI
@zhena gogolia: Keep the kleenex close by.
Delk
Heh… I worked for IML in ‘99.
WaterGirl
@Delk: IML?
International Mr. Leather?
Mustang Bobby
@Delk: So that WAS you! :)
WaterGirl
It’s been a couple of hours and I don’t know how much longer he will be around this evening, so I just want to extend a great big thank you to Philip for sharing his work, and his life, with us.
Somehow after watching the play I feel like I should call you Philip rather than Mustang Bobby! But don’t worry, I’ll go back to Mustang Bobby next week. Or maybe the week after. :-)
prostratedragon
I just finished it. It’s a lovely play, Mustang Bobby. Thanks for sharing these memories, and thanks also to the actors and crew.
MomSense
@WaterGirl:
Yes a big thank you to Mustang Bobby. Now I need to find a way to see All together Now
Mustang Bobby
Friends, I need to sign off and get to work on my new play “The Sugar Ridge Rag.” It’s the story of twin brothers from a small town in Northwest Ohio in 1970. They are 17. One joins up, the other goes to Canada. I’ll let you know when it’s on New Play Exchange.
Thank you so much for all your comments and compliments. I feel so blessed to be a part of this community. I’ll be back now and then, and if you want to get in touch, you can contact me through my blog, Bark Bark Woof Woof.
Thanks so much, WaterGirl, for mentoring the Culture here at BJ, and thank you BGinCHI, for providing this opportunity to have this talk-back. I learn every time.
WaterGirl
Just want to point out that this discussion is Episode 12 of Medium Cool, a cool dozen, if you will, so I’d also like to thank BG.
I think this has been a great addition to Sunday evenings, BG. It’s so nice to have Medium Cool to look forward to!
WaterGirl
As Mustang Bobby and I were corresponding about the play a few weeks ago, he mentioned that Balloon Juice is his favorite blog, right after BBWW. So I googled “BBWW blog” and up came:
Not quite what I expected from Mustang Bobby! But of course he meant Bark Bark Woof Woof, though I’m sure the other blog is great, too.
debbie
Based on the comments here, I’m really looking forward to watching this.
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: 2nd that. What a pleasure to watch.
Many thanks, MB.
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: It’ll probably turn out Cole secretly runs the Big Beautiful Wonder Woman blog.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: In all of John’s spare time! :-)
billcinsd
@BGinCHI: It’s a master stroke to make that the opening song.
Is a funny thing to say as a song about masturbation
BGinCHI
@billcinsd: Next you’re gonna tell me DEVO’s “Whip It” is about masturbation…..
Laura Too
Mustang Bobby not sure you will ever see this but I have to say it. I’m always late to the party. In Minneapolis we have a place called the Playwright Center. Every year they have a week where they do readings called the Ruth Easton series, not full productions just readings. It is my favorite time of year. I got to see Linda Kelsey (from Lou Grant Show) on night. Amazing! There is something so magical about being able to create the scenes in my head. I honestly think the quality of the writing has to carry the story, no fancy set or props of any kind. I’m so glad I finally had the time to see this. The raw emotion and love comes through, The humor, grace and dignity of each of the characters made me feel as if they are people I know and love. Thank you so much for opening this up to us!