Lori Presents Anne Washburn

Jacquie's Email
Hello Literary Ladies! It's time to line up for more great drama! Our next meeting is this Wednesday, November 9th at 12:30 PM at the library. Lori will be presenting on the playwright Anne Washburn.
   If you'd like to join us via Zoom, please let our tech crew... I mean Sharon know. They're not the best seats in the house -- sometimes only partial view -- but certainly worth the price of admission! Sadly, for me, I will not be with you all this Wednesday, but I'll see you next time. Thank goodness for season tickets! Have a joyful Thanksgiving! -- Jacquie

Christine's Minutes
(Written from Laura Rice’s notes)

Eight members of the Literature Club, plus one guest, gathered in the Orr Room of the library on November 9th. The bell was rung at 12:55 PM. Linda introduced her neighbor, Kathy Sullivan. In Christine’s absence, Connie read the minutes. Lori reported that our treasury contains $389.

Linda noted that she has been having trouble with her email. Kate Atkinson’s new book was recommended, and Sharon told members about Plays for a Plague Year.

The day’s program was presented by Lori Walsh, on Anne Washburn. Right off the bat, Lori announced that there would be few biographical details, as they are scarcely available. Her age is nowhere listed, but we can assume she is “our age.”

To prepare us for Mr. Burns Post-Electric Play, Lori reminded us of the old days of TV, when a family might gather round the television in the living room and share the experience. She noted the way that certain episodes, in The Seinfeld Show, or The Simpsons, can become cultural touchstones easily referred to, and how they can connect people.

Anne Washburn was born Berkeley, California; she frequently acted in school plays, and also wrote poetry. She went to Reed College and studied theatre and literature. After college she wrote some radio plays, with success. She moved to New York City and attended NYU’s Dramatic Writing Program.

Washburn is considered an experimental playwright. She has co-founded the theatre company, the Civilians, and received many awards, including a Guggenheim and a PEN theatre awards. She is a risk-taker.

Her play, Ten Out of Twelve, was a love letter to the theater; it consists of direct quotations from tech rehearsals.

Mr. Burns was first produced in 2012 at the Woolly Mammoth Theater, in Washington. In 2013 it came to New York’s Playwrights Horizons, and received rave reviews. Members read aloud from reviews in The New York Times.

Washburn sets Mr. Burns Post-Electric Play in a post-apocalyptic time, after a great nuclear melt down. There is no electricity and people are wandering around, searching. There are three acts, covering 75 years. The first act takes place after the nuclear meltdown. The second act is seven years later, and the third act is seventy-five years later.

Lori then passed out copies of the play and assigned parts. Washburn has explained that she created the first act by inviting a group of actors to remember Simpson episodes, and she made a transcript of their talk. The importance of The Simpsons in American culture – our shared memory – was discussed. The episode that Washburn uses in the play is the “Cape Feare” episode from Season 5 of the The Simpsons.

 Lori played a recording of Washburn discussing significance of the episode.

The second act of Mr. Burns Post-Electric Play contains lessons on capitalism and the nature of art. It is seven years after Act One, and the strangers we met earlier have now formed a theater group which travels around performing Simpson episodes. The troupe has become well known for the quality of their commercials.

Members read several scenes.

The third act is about how cultural mythologies grow, and how they are framed. It is now eighty-two years after the nuclear meltdown. The retelling of the Simpson episode is now presented as a Greek tragedy. Mr. Burns is conflated with Sideshow Bob, as a mythic villain. The play is transformed into a musical, with songs from Britney Spears and Eminem, and of course, Simpsons theme music.

Members read various scenes.

Lori ends by explaining Washburn’s conviction that it is storytelling that will allow us to cope, and even survive the unthinkable.

Respectfully submitted,
Christine Lehner (from notes by Laura Rice)
Recording Secretary