BOOK CL
AUTOBIOUB EXPLORES
PLAYS BYGRAPHICAL
A.R. GUR
NEY
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ture’s Boo
k Club
or play th
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related to
discuss a
productio
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r currently book
graphically This spring, we’ll be
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A.R. Gurney ased plays by Resid ading two autobioency One
, whose pla
Pla
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by his unfo
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rgettable
summer a
mer is insp
t the end
of World W ired
ar II.
– JIM SIMPSON
S: Can you tell me about what brought you and Jim together?
ARG: Jim and I both worked up at Williamstown, and I saw a terrific
production that he had done of a very difficult play, Life is a Dream,
THE GRAN
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by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. So I knew this guy was good. And
then of course, The Guys [a play that ran at The Flea after 9/11,
directed by Simpson]. Swoozie Kurtz called me and said “You’ve
gotta come down and see this,” and I saw The Guys and I was very
impressed with that and the whole atmosphere of the place. I also
felt I was kind of at the end of my tether. I didn’t think I had much
more to write, or say, and the atmosphere of The Flea, the intimacy,
the immediacy, plus Jim’s work…I started writing again.
S: The stage directions in Summer state that the form
is simple and presentational. Pete, what drew
you to that style?
ARG: I wanted to write a play where you’re not
JS: I think it’s only possible to write this play if you
locked in one room, where it’s not entrances and
had kids. Having raised a family you encounter
exits just through one door. And also, this was an
the true spirit of it rather than sugar coating it or
important experience I had with this woman.
making it into something else.
She taught me - in some strange way that kind of
ARG: Very good, I don’t think I could have written
cropped up much later - that I should take myself
MANNER
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