Local actress and director Mary Pavia, who appeared on the GreenMan stage as Dolly in The Matchmaker, is responsible for GreenMan Theatre acquiring the rights to produce Last Call by Hal Corley as part of After the End of the World. A versatile writer who has written for daytime television and has had his plays produced throughout the country, Corley has won 5 Emmys, 2 Writers Guild Awards, and 2 GLAAD Awards. He recently answered some questions about the upcoming production of his play at GreenMan.
What was your motivation to write Last Call?
The looming Mayan mythology-determined date (December 2012) for end-of-times made me wonder what sorts of deeply personal issues would dominate an individual's last days. Would it bring out the best in people or the worst? Selfishness or heightened altruism? Overdue self-discipline or unbridled hedonism, i.e. a last-ditch effort to go for the gusto? The very week after I completed a draft, interestingly enough, the Steve Carell-Keira Knightly movie came out, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Curiously, though I enjoyed the film, I found it somewhat uninterested in some of the bigger human questions. It seemed as if everyone wanted to find someone to die with, a logical first response; yet what of other matters that might arise beyond an expected fear of loneliness? And of course, the challenge inherent in the GreenMan fest was to address these massive topics in only a few minutes. A tall order I wanted to attempt.
How do you see Last Call fitting in with a production with the theme of beginnings, endings, and other apocolyptic scenarios, as is the basis for our production of After the End of the World?
Last Call is laid just outside the gated, snowy grounds of an Illinois rehab for drug and alcohol, a place where time stops for life-altering (and indeed life-saving) recovery work, other than "day counts" of addicts or alcoholics
trying to quantify hard-won early sobriety. What would such time-keeping mean if time itself were to cease? And as I suggested before, what might sobriety -- and its value, if any -- then mean as well? In my play, it quickly becomes a bigger question of family legacy and how coping with addiction's insidious grip on stalled lives might finally be resolved as counting days leads to an end of days entirely.
What was the genesis of Mary coming to you and you agreeing to allow her/us permission to include your play in our production?
Mary had directed two of my short plays at Theatre of Western Springs. Wildly different, one was a farce about an amateur gourmet cook who couldn't make decent chili, one a dark reunion of deeply wounded high school friends. Mary expertly staged both, and I was so impressed I invited her to collaborate with me in the future, anywhere, anytime. She promised to do so if the right occasion presented itself, and came back to me believing the After the End of the World festival might trigger something in my sensibilities. She encouraged me to write whatever the subject inspired, no matter how dark. I wrote the piece immediately, and the result is what's currently in rehearsal. I am honored.
What was your motivation to write Last Call?
The looming Mayan mythology-determined date (December 2012) for end-of-times made me wonder what sorts of deeply personal issues would dominate an individual's last days. Would it bring out the best in people or the worst? Selfishness or heightened altruism? Overdue self-discipline or unbridled hedonism, i.e. a last-ditch effort to go for the gusto? The very week after I completed a draft, interestingly enough, the Steve Carell-Keira Knightly movie came out, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Curiously, though I enjoyed the film, I found it somewhat uninterested in some of the bigger human questions. It seemed as if everyone wanted to find someone to die with, a logical first response; yet what of other matters that might arise beyond an expected fear of loneliness? And of course, the challenge inherent in the GreenMan fest was to address these massive topics in only a few minutes. A tall order I wanted to attempt.
How do you see Last Call fitting in with a production with the theme of beginnings, endings, and other apocolyptic scenarios, as is the basis for our production of After the End of the World?
Last Call is laid just outside the gated, snowy grounds of an Illinois rehab for drug and alcohol, a place where time stops for life-altering (and indeed life-saving) recovery work, other than "day counts" of addicts or alcoholics
trying to quantify hard-won early sobriety. What would such time-keeping mean if time itself were to cease? And as I suggested before, what might sobriety -- and its value, if any -- then mean as well? In my play, it quickly becomes a bigger question of family legacy and how coping with addiction's insidious grip on stalled lives might finally be resolved as counting days leads to an end of days entirely.
What was the genesis of Mary coming to you and you agreeing to allow her/us permission to include your play in our production?
Mary had directed two of my short plays at Theatre of Western Springs. Wildly different, one was a farce about an amateur gourmet cook who couldn't make decent chili, one a dark reunion of deeply wounded high school friends. Mary expertly staged both, and I was so impressed I invited her to collaborate with me in the future, anywhere, anytime. She promised to do so if the right occasion presented itself, and came back to me believing the After the End of the World festival might trigger something in my sensibilities. She encouraged me to write whatever the subject inspired, no matter how dark. I wrote the piece immediately, and the result is what's currently in rehearsal. I am honored.
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