Theater Delights

New plays are an acquired taste. You (the patron) are asked to go to places you may be unfamiliar if not uncomfortable with, often by a playwright who is an unknown. And it may lead nowhere: many new shows die on the vine. But for those of us who see one reach fruition, there are distinct pleasures to be savored, some in unexpected ways.

I was fortunate to see a couple of world premieres that did very well for the playwrights who conceived them as well as the actors, creative team, and theaters involved. Each writer was an unknown to me then - what a thrill it is to hear a new artistic voice for the first time! - though the theaters were not.

The DC's Wooly Mammoth Theatre is an old hand at producing new plays with a certain type of abandon. Such was the case with David Lindsay-Abaire's Wonder of the World (2000) which featured quirky characters thrown into a hilarious series of misfortunes in search of some kind of redemption. I had missed his earlier Fuddy Meers, but the all-star cast, which included Deb Gottesman, Nancy Robinette, Michael Russotto, and Bruce Nelson, were well known to me, and there too was the impressive Emily Townley who I saw for the first time. While Sarah Jessica Parker and Amy Sedaris got the glory, I like to think that Deb and Emily paved the way, in their respective characterizations, for the New York cast. Mr. Lindsay-Abaire, of course, went on to bigger things, including Rabbit Hole, where he shifted the tone to more of a tragicomedy. But the new play here, directed by Tom Prewitt, helped send him on his way.

For audiences at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago, Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch (2005) traversed some very challenging terrain. The playwright took no prisoners in this very politically incorrect satire that shined a bright light on Gen X and its values, particularly its corrupting influence on childhood. The mature and horrific situations engulfing a very young actress (5-6 year-old) were especially striking on Dan Ostling's swank set (he collaborates today with director Mary Zimmerman, among others). Tracy Letts (before he hit it big as a playwright with August: Osage County) played a wacko doctor. While Mr. Norris stirred up a critical firestorm when Pain was mounted, it picked up three Jeff Awards, including one for himself: for new play; director, Anna D. Shapiro (who also helmed August: Osage County); and featured actress Jayne Houdyshell, playing Everymom Carol who joined Ms. Shapiro when the show moved to New York. Mr. Norris's rapier dialogue and comedic social critique would find full expression in his 2011 Pulitzer Prize and Olivier Award-winning play Clybourne Park, which premiered in London and is now at the Wooly again for what looks like its second successful run in as many years. (But not yet at the Steppenwolf until September 2011.)

So when the next world premiere comes your way, keep you eyes open for the chance to see a rising star or two or more. It just might be a great show or a vintage wine, bound for glory. Yeah, there's likely to be many a dud along the way, but careers are made when everything comes together -at some point in production - and there's no more satisfying feeling in theater. And you in the audience, perhaps the most important ingredient in shaping a show, can look appreciatively back and say "I was there."