WIsconsin playwright Kimberly Megna Yarnall's Waiting comes to the Broadway Theatre Center this month courtesy of a staged reading with Milwaukee Chamber Theatre.
The play is a comic look at the journey to parenthood as a contemporary couple deals with the difficulties of infertility.
From the description:
"Crystal and John are married professionals who shop at REI, and sometimes eat canned soup because it's easier. They also can't get pregnant. Victor and Darla guide the audience along on Crystal and John's quest for a baby, often playing the other characters Crystal and John encounter: fertility doctors, nosy colleagues, overly-friendly dentists. It's a story about wanting something and having to wait for it, and how to negotiate life in the interim."
The playwright took some time to answer a few questions I had about the script:
How long a wait has it been putting together WAITING? -- I understand that you had a reading of the play this past May.
How long had you been working on it prior to that?
I had the idea for the play and the four characters about 2.5 years ago, I drafted a couple of scenes, and then I had my own baby. Fast forward one year, and I completed the play in about three months for entry into Wisconsin Wrights. Since then, it's been a whirlwind -- becoming a finalist, having the first reading in Madison, and now in Milwaukee.
How has the piece evolved since that reading last May?
It always inspires me how much a playwright learns from the first audience. Since the May reading, I focused on evolving the roles of John and Crystal - the main couple trying to have the baby. John's character needed more opportunity to grapple with the events on his own terms, and Crystal needed more opportunity to express the buoyancy and strength of her character. In all there are two entirely new scenes, one scene has been cut, and pretty much every-other scene had a line or three altered to better sculpt the arc of the play.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Infertility is one of those idiosyncratic experiences--either you've been through it or you haven't.
So a play about the experience might come across as a hit-or-miss proposition.
It sounds like a deeply emotional kind of comedy, but it could also be played a bit more lighthearted and whimsical without coming across as being insensitive.
What is the tone of the script with respect to the comedy?
One of the other things we've tried to add to the play since the May reading, is a better expression of how the journey of infertility can be viewed with a more universal lens. So we'll see if that's more clear in this version! As for the comedy -- I have been lucky enough in my life to be surrounded by people who believe that finding the humor, the lightheartedness, and sometimes the absurd, in any situation, can help us as humans better understand, accept, and grow from an experience, even a difficult one. I hope this play expresses that.
Waiting will be performed on Monday, October 14, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. in the Skylight Bar & Bistro, located on the second level of the Broadway Theatre Center, 158 N. Broadway in Milwaukee’s Historic Third Ward. Tickets for the reading are Pay-What-You-Can at the door. Seating is first-come, first-served.
For more information, visit Milwaukee Chamber Theatre online.
