the birthday soup manifesto

i believe plays should either be under an hour and 10 minutes or 3-24 hours long
i believe that for the next 15 years the only types of plays straight white guys should be able to write are greek myths or fairy tales
consider it a challenge, there is great beauty in fairytales
i believe in big noses
i hate theater because i love theater
i believe that you should never underestimate the power of a giant wig, or a rug on the floor (or the ceiling)
i believe if you’re going to be cynical and tell me that magic doesn’t exist, you better show me magic first
i believe theater needs to have magic
i believe in strange as a verb
i believe in waiting, I believe in patience
i believe in dramaturges
i don’t believe in high brow art or low brow art
I believe in high brow fart
fart is fun art, art that is silly and specific and doesn’t take itself too seriously but at the same time that’s what allows it to be real and also you can’t say fart without laughing, that’s how art should make you feel
i believe in changing the world through the power offart
i believe plays should have illustrations
i believe directors are uncool
i believe writers are uncool
i believe actors are uncool
i believe I used to be cool before I started doing theater
and the moment i started doing theater i began a beautiful ballet into uncoolness that hasn’t ended yet
i believe you can’t have a base level of empathy in America without having worked a service job
i believe in characters that get a moment to be painfully right and a moment to be painfully wrong
i believe in ensembles, greek choruses, and live bands
my artistic practice is dramaturgically jewish
a bunch of artists arguing, complaining, loving each other, throwing everything they have into the pot
i believe somebody has to hold things together though
i believe in unlearning
i believe it’s my responsibility to learn how to unlearn gracefully
i used to want to write plays that were dark and funny and now I want to write plays that are silly and deeply sad
when I was a kid my mom used to make me something called birthday soup
it had everything I liked in it, wheel pasta with ridges, broccoli, carrots, rice, salami, chicken
i was at an age where I still thought that throwing everything i liked into one thing would make it taste good
and you know what
i was right