"A Letter to the Editor of "The New York Time"s by Playwright J.T. Rogers"

THEATER / THEATER   | June 07, 2009 Critic:  Submitting to a Play's Spell, Without the Stage By DWIGHT GARNER A critic reads four Tony Award- nominated plays, having seen none of the productions.

From: J.T. Rogers Date: Tue, 09 Jun 2009 13:32:48 -0400 To: letters@nytimes.com Subject: Dwight Garner's "Critic's Notebook: Submitting to a Play's Spell, Without the Stage," To the editor, As both a playwright and play reader, I enjoyed Dwight Garner's thoughtful article about reading this season's Tony-nominated plays. But I was amused by his pronouncement that "new plays are hard to find in bookstores" I read Mr. Garne’s article while having a cup of coffee in the Dean & Deluca on the first floor of the New York Times building--directly across the street from the Drama Book Shop, wherein every play under the sun is and has been available for years. J. T. Rogers

J. T. Rogers' "gorgeously wrought"* plays include:

Madagascar
A haunting story of a mysterious disappearance that changes three lives forever. At three different periods in time, three Americans find themselves alone, in the same hotel room overlooking the Spanish Steps in Rome: June, a young woman who works as a tour guide of the city's ancient ruins; Lilian, her wealthy and elegant jet-setting mother; and Nathan, a rumpled university economist and the best friend of Lilian's famous deceased husband. They each tell their individual story of how and why they are here. Their relationship to each other, what this room means to them, and why they have been called to it slowly reveal themselves. Their stories spill out, weave back and forth—each contradicting, clarifying, deepening what the others say—becoming strands of one gripping and disquieting tale

Madagascar
Acting Edition
2006, $8.95

The Overwhelming
When American academic Jack Exley arrives in Kigali, Rwanda, in early 1994 to write about his old college classmate, Dr. Joseph Gasana, and his work with children stricken by AIDS, Jack is unable to find anyone who even admits to knowing the doctor. Jack, his African-American second wife, Linda, and his teenage son, Geoffrey, become enmeshed in the politics, fear and personal betrayals that mark the start of a genocidal war—a horror all can sense is coming but no one can comprehend or control.

The Overwhelming
Acting Edition
2009, $8.95

White People
Now—right now—what does it mean to be a white American? What does it mean for any American to live in a country that is not the one you were promised? WHITE PEOPLE is a controversial and darkly funny play about the lives of three ordinary Americans placed under the spot-light: Martin, a Brooklyn–born high powered attorney for a white-shoe law firm in St. Louis, MO; Mara Lynn, a housewife and former home-coming queen in Fayetteville, NC; and Alan, a young professor struggling to find his way in New York City. Through heart-wrenching confessions, they wrestle with guilt, prejudice, and the price they and their children must pay for their actions. WHITE PEOPLE is a candid, brutally honest meditation on race and language in our culture.

White People
Acting Edition
2007, $8.95

All three are available at The Drama Book Shop.

 

*Andre Gregory