Monday, June 20, 2005
Playwright Thom Thomas on the world premiere of “A Moon to Dance By”
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Thom Thomas’s script for “A Moon to Dance By” traveled from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to Taos, New Mexico, before arriving in the hands of Scott LaFeber, New Harmony Theater’s artistic director. “I sent my script to a friend in D.C. who had been a Broadway producer, just to get her impressions of the play, and she liked it tremendously,” Thomas said. “Since it takes place in Taos, she thought it would be great to have a production there. She sent it to a designer, Holly Haas, who lives in Taos. “Holly really liked it and it just so happened Scott LaFeber was her house guest at the time. Scott was heading back to New York and she gave him the script to read on the plane. He read it and called me. He said he’d like to talk about doing it at New Harmony.” “A Moon to Dance By” recreates a visit to D.H. Lawrence’s widow, Frieda, and her lover, Angelo Ravalgi, by her estranged son, Monty Weekley, in 1939. The play debuts July 8 as the first world premiere at New Harmony Theatre. Lawrence (1885–1930) was one of the most important and controversial English writers of the 20th century. He is best known for the novel, “Lady Chatterley's Lover,” which was banned as obscene in the United States and Britain. Thomas, LaFeber, and Haas, who is designing “A Moon to Dance By,” traveled together to the D.H. Lawrence ranch, about 20 miles outside of Taos. “That was a spiritual bonding we all had,” Thomas said. “It was wonderful. I’m glad we had that opportunity. “We stood and looked out at the vista the characters see in the play. Everything is very much the same as it was back in 1939….the smell of the juniper trees and the evergreen, and the sound of the whistling of the trees off Lobo Mountain. “Hopefully, the audience will be transported in their imaginations to that place.” Thomas has always felt a connection with Lawrence, the son of a coal miner. Thomas also is from a coal mining family. “We lived in a little coal mining town, but moved when I was young,” he said. “My family wanted us to get away from the coal dust and dirt, and moved out in the country to a town called Thomas, Pennsylvania,” where Thomas lived on Thomas Road. And though he grew up in Pennsylvania rather than England, Thomas’s family is Welsh. “I’d always been fascinated with and loved Lawrence’s books,” he said, “and I always had in mind that I wanted to write about him - but other things came instead.” Thomas has written several other plays, as well as for film and television. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, he was associate playwright/director at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, artistic director and head of the Drama Department at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, artistic director of the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, and an associate member of the Playwright Unit at the acclaimed Circle Repertory Theatre in New York. He is a member of the Playwright/Directing Unit of the Actor’s Studio in Hollywood, the Dramatists Guild, The Writer’s Guild of America, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and has been a recipient of the National Endowment for the Arts. When he began researching Lawrence’s life, “I was intending to write about Lawrence and Frieda, but I became more fascinated with Frieda than I intended,” he said. Frieda abandoned her husband and three children – including 12-year-old Monty – for Lawrence, who was her husband’s student. Even after Lawrence’s death, Frieda stayed in Taos with her Italian lover, Angelo, and never returned to her family in England. “They were estranged for all those years, and Monty was quite bitter about it, as you can naturally understand,” Thomas said. “Imagine if you’re 12 years old and your mother runs off, leaving you.” During his research, Thomas repeatedly found an intriguing footnote referring to the fact that Monty had visited his mother at the ranch for four days in 1939. “That’s all that was said about it. I thought, ‘What must’ve transpired between Frieda and her son, now 39 years of age, and her Italian lover?” The dramatic potential was explosive. To add to the tension, the play takes place eight weeks before the start of World War II. “That intrigued me too,” Thomas said, “…a German (Frieda), an Italian, and an Englishman, and they’re on American soil.” The playwright read countless books about Frieda, her family, and her lovers, and accessed the University of Nottingham’s D.H. Lawrence Collection through the Internet, telephones, and fax machines. Thomas read letters from Frieda to Monty, begging him to come to New Mexico, and between Angelo and Monty after Frieda’s death. “Some of the letters were actual letters the library sent me, copies of them,” he said, “and some they would read to me over the phone.” Serendipity helped in his research, as well. “I went to this bookstore in Glendale, California, a dusty old place with books piled everywhere. My eye caught the binding of this small book with no title on it on the bottom shelf, and I bent down and pulled it out. It was a transcript of Frieda Lawrence giving a talk at UCLA. “I was so shocked that I found this. Why would I find this book? It was so thin you could hardly see it on the shelf.” Through the transcript, Thomas was able to catch the rhythms of how Frieda spoke. “It was so interesting, and of course I bought it. It was a couple of dollars, but it was worth a fortune to me.” In his research, he had never found any reference to the existence of the transcript. “I treasure that book,” he said. Frieda’s affair with Angelo began while she and Lawrence lived in Italy. “Lawrence knew about it,” Thomas said. “He could tell they were doing some hanky panky, and that was when he started to write ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover.’ It was inspired by what was happening between the three of them. The character of the gamekeeper is patterned after Angelo.” Angelo remained married to his wife, Serafina, throughout his relationship with Frieda, and returned to his family in Italy after Frieda’s death. “Frieda was quite a gal – a very free-living kind of person. She was into free love way before anyone else.” Thomas said he appreciates LaFeber’s respect for his play and its larger-than-life characters. In television, he said, “The writer is pushed way down the line.” “The play is sort of explicit in some ways, but Scott never once said ‘You can’t do that.’ It wasn’t, ‘Be careful and let’s not offend.’ This is about D.H. and Frieda Lawrence. These people lived the life they lived, and you have to create it the way it was.” Thomas has written for top shows including the Emmy Award-winning series “Hill Street Blues,” “Hotel,” “Mr. President” with George C. Scott, and a multitude of Movies of the Week, HBO features, and TV pilots. He currently has five films in development. “It’s quite lovely to do a play - which is my great love, to write for the theater - and know that the writer is so important, and we all begin to collaborate on the project. “That’s what’s so exciting about having a world premiere. When a play is first done, the director and playwright work closely together and it’s a collaboration, and then we bring in the actors and it’s more of a collaboration.” The cast, comprised entirely of members of Actors Equity, includes Jana Robbins as Frieda Lawrence, Tim Artz as Angelo Ravalgi, Larry Gleason as Monty Weekley, and Jeremy Holm as the Kiowa Warrior. This will be Gleason’s sixth role at New Harmony Theatre, and Holm’s fourth. Robbins and Artz are making their NHT debuts. “After New Harmony, our goal is to keep moving it until we get it to New York. After that, it’s in the hands of God.” “A Moon to Dance By” runs July 8-24 at The New Harmony Theatre, Murphy Auditorium, 419 Tavern Street, in New Harmony, Indiana. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and 2 p.m. Sundays. There will be an additional matinee at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 23. Tickets are $22, with discounts for seniors, students, and groups. For tickets, call 877/NHT-SHOW or go to www.newharmonytheatre.com. The play contains adult language and situations. |
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