Playwright Ben Andron Waxes About His New Adventure

About four years ago, a guy I used to know from High School (a few grades younger than I was, but we were both active in the theater program) called me out of the blue. He was unemployed, living in NYC and trying to make it as a theater producer. He asked me “have you ever thought about writing a play?” I’ll be completely honest; I hadn’t. I’d written some TV before, kids’ animation, mostly, and I have a drawer of un-produced movie scripts, but never a play. He said that NY needs new comedy. He said, “If you write a play, I’ll produce it!” So I thought, OK, what the hell? And I wrote something.

Cut to March 24^th, 2010. I’m in NYC, walking down 50^th street, past New World Stages, and there’s a banner on their marquee that says “White’s Lies”. I go around to the stage door entrance, walk into Stage 4, and there right in front of me, is a gorgeous, fully built set – a real tangible structure – a physical representation of some random little idea I had a long time ago, matching my description to the last detail, and then some!

As I make my way down the aisle, people keep coming up to me to shake my hand, producers, actors, photographers, crew… They’re taking pictures; they’re telling me how much they love the play, saying how great it is to meet me… "I know this is perfectly normal for people in the theater business, but I’ve been in the theater business for about an hour at this point, and for me, this is anything but normal. And that’s the thing I can’t get over; how ‘real’ everything is. It’s the kind of thing that so many people – myself included – dream about. And yet there it is, right in front of me. Seven amazingly talented actors – some of them quite famous – gathered together to bring this thing to life, shaking my hand, telling me they’re excited to be a part of this…

We all sit down to read through the script for the first time. It goes amazingly well for a first read, but as I listen intently to those words that I wrote – only breaking concentration once or twice to look up at the set and marvel at the surrealism – I have two simultaneous conflicting emotions: One is how amazing this all is, hearing those words come out of those mouths, on this stage, knowing that in a few weeks, it will be on its feet, open to the public… And the other is panic; after all, in a few weeks, it will be on its feet, open to the public! We won’t be ready! That line isn’t right! That scene is dragging! I have too many words in that paragraph! Too many syllables in that sentence! That joke will never be funny to anyone other than me! I have a lot of work to do to make this thing perfect… and that’s what it takes to snap me out of the whole ‘this isn’t my real life’ thing.

I’m here to do a very specific job: to make this play as sharp and funny as I possibly can. And now that I have my very specific task, the dreaminess of the ‘dream come true’ goes away, because the truth is, this is my reality now. Don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but today I am a playwright, and it’s time to get to work.

Cheers!

Ben