Perspectives / Adam Bock

Adam Bock’s play,The Shaker Chair, appeared in the 2005 Humana Festival and has been nominated for a Kesselring Prize. His other published plays include Five Flights, which won the Glickman Award, and Swimming in the Shallows.

I loved going to Kentucky. Such a great place for a new play festival, sweet and friendly Louisville—kind and gentle enough, so I didn't have to be a nervous wreck. I saw the Pamela Brown Theatre and gasped. It’s huge. Our set was already being built, an expanse of white walls that I'd dreamed of, but never thought I’d see. Reminded me of the tundra in Canada. The first day of rehearsal there were more people in the room than have been in some of my audiences. There were directors and literary managers and stage managers and a seat for me, and swarms of apprentices in the green rooms, and volunteers with cars who took me to buy groceries and to the dentist when I broke a filling.

Imagine a great big building stuffed full of people all working together to make new plays. New plays are strange creatures, like baby giraffes or spun sugar or walnut curio cabinets. Who gets them? Awkward and uncertain, they wander through the hallways at Actors. So lovely that the folks in Louisville want to meet them.