Texarkana Waltz @ University of Oklahoma

Recently I posted photos of OU's production of Texarkana and they got me thinking. I loved that production. I loved the process, the staff, the cast, everything about it. My one regret is not being there for closing night. Opening was great, but based on first hand reports, the show matured and by closing night was a wonder.

The set, lighting and costume design were fantastic and the photos do a good job of capturing it.

Texarkana got a lot of great reviews, but the best and maybe the most meaningful came from someone who saw the OU production. What I get from it is that I told a good story and that the way I chose to tell the story, the conventions and structure of the script, were theatrical and performable. It's the performable part that concerns me most now. My direct input, and that input put into action, seem to be a requirements for success. My input having no impact had much to do with Texarkana's failure in NY.

If you're not me, it's a tricky show to make work. I do a lot with language, and performing styles and conventions make the language, and therefore the characters and story, come alive. The cowboys speak verse. Most actors and directors have a reference for the size and energy required to make those scenes come alive. People have a much harder time wrapping their heads around what's required for Eddie's storyline. The Dallas/Morgan plot is the most straight forward, but somehow the most difficult to get right.

For A Trick or Treat, I'm keeping it straightforward. No special knowledge of theatre history or theory is required. Living, breathing, competent actors and a love of Pop Culture will suffice. The goal being that any theatre can make the script a success, that the story and the dialogue will compensate for the theatre's lost skills, that my participation is optional.

Here's the letter:

From: Thomas Long
Sent: Tuesday, September 27, 2005 1:09 PM
To: Cook, Rena R.
Subject: Waltz
April 12, 2005

To the Texarkana Waltz company:

During my years working in theatre and observing new works, I have never seen a performance of a new play so well integrated and mesmerizing as Louis Broome's Texarkana Waltz.

At Friday night's performance it was only a few minutes into the play that I completely forgot the cast were students. You must know by now that you have something very extraordinary, and a precious and personal journey to remember far into the future.

It has been four days since I saw your remarkable work, and I still think about it, relish it, and turn it over in my mind again and again. I have always believed that this is the ultimate test of an important play.

Louis Broome has created a work so unique it defies labeling. It is one of a kind. Even Polonius could not categorize it. The play touches on contemporary issues without specificity. This is no small achievement. As audience we think of same-sex relationships, our own spirituality, the right to live and the right to die, capital punishment, law and order, and our own existential moment on earth. All of this is accomplished without judgment.

It is an extremely difficult play to direct and act. The story moves cinematically in time and space, but you are consistently clear in telling a compelling tale while allowing us look deep into the psyche of each character. The performance becomes Pinteresque for the characters are separated from the common culture as they struggle to live in their own.

The combined talents of Tom Huston Orr and Rena Cook blend so well, they are indistinguishable from each other. The two directors serve the play and the players splendidly. We are never consciously aware of their crafts of staging and coaching, creating a quality every director strives to achieve. Directors Orr and Cook allow layer upon layer of compelling content to surface and the voice of Louis Broome to speak to us. Importantly, the text of the play is never didactic.

Texarkana Waltz is a triumph as entertainment. The audience is asked to recognize the lighter side of the characters, and then to submit suddenly, and without the slightest hint of the tragedy to come, to visceral shock and surprise. These moments are exceedingly rare in drama, requiring enormous leaps of faith in the unfolding play and performance. In Texarkana Waltz this is so well executed, we consent to its frankness and integrity.

Thank you, company, for sharing your unforgettable odyssey.

Thomas Long (Ph.D.)