TED SCHMITT AWARD – World Premiere of an outstanding new play
Tom Jacobson, CREVASSE – The Victory Theatre Center & Son of Semele
I am deeply grateful to the Los Angeles theatre community and my artistic colleagues who made Crevasse possible. The outstanding direction, astonishing acting and brilliant design transported us all to the collision of Nazi Germany and Hollywood, a timely reflection of America today. This production could only have happened in Los Angeles, where we are blessed to share a dramatic landscape with so many marvelous actors, directors, designers and producers as well as an audience that embraces experiment and risk. Beyond gratitude, I am proud to be your colleague and to be honored with the 2024 Ted Schmitt Award for Playwriting. I worked with Ted, so the honor is especially personal for me.
Writing – Original
Abby Rosebrock, Dido of Idaho – Echo Theater Company
I drafted Dido of Idaho in my twenties, when I had more in common with the young women in the story: namely, terror in the face of late-stage capitalism, a longing to escape the traumatic indignities of heterosexual courtship, and an unnerving identification with Dido of Carthage, the ancient queen who was so devastated by her experience of “being ghosted” (as we now say) that it drove her to self-immolation.
Of course, it’s better to write about these feelings than to enact them, and composing my wild, expressionistic first draft was an exercise in catharsis. In subsequent years, it took extensive development, with wonderful companies in New York, Montana, and (appropriately) Idaho, to craft the right ending. Today, I’m especially proud of Nora’s discovery, in the final scene, that real dignity lies in rising to a purpose. In her case, that purpose is to create a world with no prisons or hellscapes, a world in which everyone–no exceptions–feels cared for and safe in a way she never quite has.
The artists who brought Dido to Los Angeles gifted me an invaluable opportunity to fine-tune this work from a more settled, but no less empathetic, perspective. By then, I was no longer groping towards the equanimity that Nora and Crystal finally begin to grasp at the end of the play; rather, I’d actually begun to acquire it for myself, in some modest measure. And being less identified with the characters–pining Nora, rageful Julie and Crystal, snarky Ethel, even hapless Michael–I had greater respect and compassion for them. They all began to feel entirely separate from me and even to impress me with their points of view.
Under Abigail Deser’s direction, and with an outstanding cast, Echo Theater produced an astonishing, dreamlike iteration of Dido that captured the uniquely disorienting position of women like Nora–alone and underpaid, used for sex, carved up and stomped on and spat upon–in the present day.
Sadly, the socioeconomic landscape that causes Nora so much frantic suffering has further deteriorated in the years since I began writing. But this intensified context has only strengthened my belief in her final vision, as well as her (glorious, obnoxious) example of resilience. Seeing L.A. embrace the show also gave me immense hope that many people share in the faith she articulates. I extend my deepest appreciation to The Echo for their essential production and to the LADCC for this honor.