Dramaturg/Facilitator: Jim Martin
Playwright: William Missouri Downs
The play is performed courtsey of Mr. Downs.
Starring
Nan Weber
and
Paul Boruff
Playwright: William Missouri Downs
The play is performed courtsey of Mr. Downs.
Starring
Nan Weber
and
Paul Boruff
Lighting support by Lee Hollaar and Umbrella Theatre.
Artist bios
Paul Boruff has his degree in art and music from Arizona State University. His background includes performing big band music in the Admiral’s Band in United States Navy. He has performed with Jane Powell and Ernest Borgnine for the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival. Paul also performed the opening number at the Salt Lake City’s National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in Kingsbury Hall. His other roles include Father Drobney in “Don’t Drink Water,” chorus in “Damn Yankees,” music director and actor in Caryl Churchill’s “Vinegar Tom,” original first-person performance of “Trappers, A Musical Adventure.” Paul is excited to be stepping into the multi-character role in “The Trail of Ayn Rand” with Nan Weber.
William Missouri Downs has written everything from NBC sitcoms to Kabuki tragedies. He's had over 350 productions of his comedies and musicals and won many writing awards including 2 rolling premieres from the National New Play Network. He's twice been a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill. His plays have been produced in Spain, Canada, South Africa, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Israel, India, UAE, Australia, South Korea, and the USA. He’s directed 40 plays and published 14 with Concord, Playscripts, Heuer, TRW, and Next Stage Press. He was a staff writer on the NBC sitcom My Two Dads and a freelance writer on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Amen. He’s also sold/optioned movies and a TV pilot. He’s published four books, including The Art of Theatre, a textbook, now in its 4th edition, which has been used by 100,000 college students.
His other books include Screenplay Writing The Picture, Naked Playwriting, and Playwriting From Formula To Form. He has two MFAs, one in screenwriting from UCLA film school and one in acting from the University of Illinois. He was trained in playwriting by Lanford Wilson and Milan Stitt at the Circle Rep Theater in New York. He's represented by Pat McLaughlin at the Beacon Artist Agency, New York. Last but not least, his first novel will be published in 2024.
Nan Weber - I received my BFA from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and have a degree from Salt Lake Community College in Sign Language for theatre performance. Some of the performances I am proud of that I’ve done in Utah include directing a performance of Ugo Betti’s “Crime on Goat Island” in Utah’s west desert; the role of Elder Jay in Ogden’s Good Theatre production of “The Christians;” Bubbie in Covey Theatre’s “Crossing Delancey;” Danielle in Utah Arts Alliance’s “Home of Truth;” Nat in Voodoo Theatre’s “Rabbit Hole.” I’m honored to be portraying Ayn Rand for this production!
Facilitator/Dramaturg Note
One of the first documented instances of an audience interactive play trial happened in the 1600s with Bartholomew Fair by Ben Jonson. This play asked audiences to toy with the notion that law is not permanent and that they (as audience) possessed agency in the world of the law beyond the theatre space.
During the Renaissance following the Medieval period, theatre naturalism took root with fewer interactive theatre techniques. However, some artists of the time took their theatre to the streets in the form of mock trials, putting individuals figuratively on trial in the name of activism.
Legal scholars have found that when asked to evaluate the guilt or innocence of characters, audience members do not necessarily rely on actual guilt. A play’s ability to generate empathy with an audience toward a character, such as in Les MIserables and Antigone, is more important than the character’s actual guilt or innocence in the eyes of spectators.
So this brings us to William Missouri Downs’s work The Trial of Ayn Rand, which you are seeing today. My hope as a director is that we generate enough empathy for Ms. Rand that you will reconsider what you perhaps have thought about her in the past and to approach the play’s accusations against her with an open mind.
We live during polarizing times. Peter T Coleman, in his book The Way Out, suggests that we take a walk in nature with an individual that we are ideologically opposed to. He thinks this is not about changing minds but instead creating empathy and understanding toward our fellow humans.
Wasatch Theatre Company wants to prioritize the human in us all. Ayn Rand was a human informed by her Communist past in Soviet Russia. She spent a lifetime trying to escape this past, to find something better, to free herself of what she perceived as her own physical ugliness. She invested a great deal of time in being loved and accepted. In the process, she ended up influencing history.
There is much to be misunderstood about Ms. Rand. She is a novelist and a philosopher. She has been embraced by some feminists who see her work as empowering for women, especially in the time that it was written. Women have historically been written marginally into stories. Ms. Rand upends this by making her women independent and strong, not living one’s life based on the whims and desires of others. Her female characters explore the relationship between love and sex, mind and body with brains and beauty to accompany their efforts.
In theatre, we often choose projects that reinforce our values. We often attend plays that reinscribe the values we carry. A majority of theatre-goers identify as liberal; thus, a majority of produced theatre fits into a liberal framework.
I chose The Trial of Ayn Rand as part of our Storefront Series because I have always disliked Ayn Rand. As a self-proclaimed progressive, I was told that Ms. Rand’s politics were wrong and ideologically opposed to my own. So I chose this play mostly because I hoped to take a walk in nature with Ms. Rand–learn a little bit more about her, increasing my own understanding and empathy toward her and her politics.
This task occurs through a form of participatory theatre, where you the audience are asked to engage in ways that we don’t typically ask for in theatre. Often, the expectations of an audience are to sit passively and receive the content. Maybe we want to be entertained, maybe we want to be emotionally moved, maybe we want our values further affirmed.
Participatory theatre asks “What if theatre were to do more than entertain, emote, or affirm? What if theatre were to challenge our thinking? What if we want theatre to lead somewhere else, to a better world?” Participatory theatre grew in the twentieth century. It employs elements of what we call meta-theatre, where you are able to actually see the blood and guts of the play production. Meta-theatre asks you to consider your role as an audience member and how these elements have the potential to translate into post–play action for social good.
I think part of this participatory theatre and meta-theatre project involves you, the audience, taking a walk with Ayn Rand and her prosecutor, to better understand where they each respectively are coming from. In this case, the nature that Coleman speaks of is the beauty of the theatre arts that we are lucky enough to share today.
In her text Emergent Strategy, Adrienne Marie Brown encourages readers to “practice the future together.” She continues with a call to practice justice together, “living into new stories.” Brown recognizes that this experience we are having right now is dependent on who is in the room and how we interact with one another. I want to acknowledge this and hopefully pause to reflect on the power of this moment we are sharing.
Additional note: Mr. Downs, the playwright of this piece, has been gracious in spending time with me and in sharing his perspectives of the play. He fully recognizes the potential strengths and perils of Ayn Rand’s ideology and encourages us to learn more. He also wishes for a theatre environment that doesn’t just pat ourselves on the back for taken-for-granted ways of thinking. He hopes our thinking can stretch our perceptions, make us re-consider what we originally brought into the space, and maybe even lead to revised actions for the public good. He recommends a reading list (included below), which I have added to. Mr. Downs allowed us to perform his play royalty-free. We are grateful for his generosity in this process.
–Jim Martin
Recommended Readings
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand
The Goddess of the Marketplace: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns
Who is Ayn Rand? by Narthaniel Branden with an introduction by Barabara Branden
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism And Other Arguments for Economic Independence by Kristen R. Ghodsee
It’s OK to be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders
Works Cited
Bergman, Chad Eric. “‘We Do Storefront Theatre’: Using Chicago’s Storefront Theatre
Model as the Foundation for a Theatre Curriculum.” Theatre topics 20, no. 1
(2010): 55–64.
brown, adrienne maree. Emergent Strategy : Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. Chico,
California: AK Press, 2017.
Brown, Andrew. “Theatre of Judgment: Space, Spectators, and the Epistemologies of
Law in ‘Bartholomew Fair.’” Early Theatre 15, no. 2 (2012): 154–67.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43499631.
Coleman, Peter T. The Way out : How to Overcome Toxic Polarization. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2021.
Downs, William Missouri. Interview by Jim Martin. Phone conversation. February 1,
2024.
Gladstein, Mimi R. “Ayn Rand and Feminism: An Unlikely Alliance.” College English 39,
no. 6 (1978): 680–685.
Horwitz, Simi. “Enter Stage Right: Conservative Theatremakers, Some Emboldened by
Trump’s Election, Look for Inroads Onstage.” American Theatre 34, no. 9
(November 2017): 44–49.
Lambert, Andrew. “Antigone and Les Misérables: A Pathetic Look at Jury Nullification.”
The San Diego law review 59, no. 3 (2022): 437-.
Sakellaridou, Elizabeth. “‘Oh My God, Audience Participation!’: Some
Twenty-First-Century Reflections.” Comparative Drama 48, no. 1/2
(Spring/Summer2014 2014): 13–38. doi:10.1353/cdr.2014.0005.
Sierra, Horacio. “Bearing Witness and Taking Action: Audiences and Morality in
Renaissance Tragedy and Activist Street Theater.” Comparative drama 48, no.
1/2 (2014): 39–57.
Paul Boruff has his degree in art and music from Arizona State University. His background includes performing big band music in the Admiral’s Band in United States Navy. He has performed with Jane Powell and Ernest Borgnine for the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival. Paul also performed the opening number at the Salt Lake City’s National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in Kingsbury Hall. His other roles include Father Drobney in “Don’t Drink Water,” chorus in “Damn Yankees,” music director and actor in Caryl Churchill’s “Vinegar Tom,” original first-person performance of “Trappers, A Musical Adventure.” Paul is excited to be stepping into the multi-character role in “The Trail of Ayn Rand” with Nan Weber.
William Missouri Downs has written everything from NBC sitcoms to Kabuki tragedies. He's had over 350 productions of his comedies and musicals and won many writing awards including 2 rolling premieres from the National New Play Network. He's twice been a finalist at the Eugene O’Neill. His plays have been produced in Spain, Canada, South Africa, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Israel, India, UAE, Australia, South Korea, and the USA. He’s directed 40 plays and published 14 with Concord, Playscripts, Heuer, TRW, and Next Stage Press. He was a staff writer on the NBC sitcom My Two Dads and a freelance writer on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Amen. He’s also sold/optioned movies and a TV pilot. He’s published four books, including The Art of Theatre, a textbook, now in its 4th edition, which has been used by 100,000 college students.
His other books include Screenplay Writing The Picture, Naked Playwriting, and Playwriting From Formula To Form. He has two MFAs, one in screenwriting from UCLA film school and one in acting from the University of Illinois. He was trained in playwriting by Lanford Wilson and Milan Stitt at the Circle Rep Theater in New York. He's represented by Pat McLaughlin at the Beacon Artist Agency, New York. Last but not least, his first novel will be published in 2024.
Nan Weber - I received my BFA from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and have a degree from Salt Lake Community College in Sign Language for theatre performance. Some of the performances I am proud of that I’ve done in Utah include directing a performance of Ugo Betti’s “Crime on Goat Island” in Utah’s west desert; the role of Elder Jay in Ogden’s Good Theatre production of “The Christians;” Bubbie in Covey Theatre’s “Crossing Delancey;” Danielle in Utah Arts Alliance’s “Home of Truth;” Nat in Voodoo Theatre’s “Rabbit Hole.” I’m honored to be portraying Ayn Rand for this production!
Facilitator/Dramaturg Note
One of the first documented instances of an audience interactive play trial happened in the 1600s with Bartholomew Fair by Ben Jonson. This play asked audiences to toy with the notion that law is not permanent and that they (as audience) possessed agency in the world of the law beyond the theatre space.
During the Renaissance following the Medieval period, theatre naturalism took root with fewer interactive theatre techniques. However, some artists of the time took their theatre to the streets in the form of mock trials, putting individuals figuratively on trial in the name of activism.
Legal scholars have found that when asked to evaluate the guilt or innocence of characters, audience members do not necessarily rely on actual guilt. A play’s ability to generate empathy with an audience toward a character, such as in Les MIserables and Antigone, is more important than the character’s actual guilt or innocence in the eyes of spectators.
So this brings us to William Missouri Downs’s work The Trial of Ayn Rand, which you are seeing today. My hope as a director is that we generate enough empathy for Ms. Rand that you will reconsider what you perhaps have thought about her in the past and to approach the play’s accusations against her with an open mind.
We live during polarizing times. Peter T Coleman, in his book The Way Out, suggests that we take a walk in nature with an individual that we are ideologically opposed to. He thinks this is not about changing minds but instead creating empathy and understanding toward our fellow humans.
Wasatch Theatre Company wants to prioritize the human in us all. Ayn Rand was a human informed by her Communist past in Soviet Russia. She spent a lifetime trying to escape this past, to find something better, to free herself of what she perceived as her own physical ugliness. She invested a great deal of time in being loved and accepted. In the process, she ended up influencing history.
There is much to be misunderstood about Ms. Rand. She is a novelist and a philosopher. She has been embraced by some feminists who see her work as empowering for women, especially in the time that it was written. Women have historically been written marginally into stories. Ms. Rand upends this by making her women independent and strong, not living one’s life based on the whims and desires of others. Her female characters explore the relationship between love and sex, mind and body with brains and beauty to accompany their efforts.
In theatre, we often choose projects that reinforce our values. We often attend plays that reinscribe the values we carry. A majority of theatre-goers identify as liberal; thus, a majority of produced theatre fits into a liberal framework.
I chose The Trial of Ayn Rand as part of our Storefront Series because I have always disliked Ayn Rand. As a self-proclaimed progressive, I was told that Ms. Rand’s politics were wrong and ideologically opposed to my own. So I chose this play mostly because I hoped to take a walk in nature with Ms. Rand–learn a little bit more about her, increasing my own understanding and empathy toward her and her politics.
This task occurs through a form of participatory theatre, where you the audience are asked to engage in ways that we don’t typically ask for in theatre. Often, the expectations of an audience are to sit passively and receive the content. Maybe we want to be entertained, maybe we want to be emotionally moved, maybe we want our values further affirmed.
Participatory theatre asks “What if theatre were to do more than entertain, emote, or affirm? What if theatre were to challenge our thinking? What if we want theatre to lead somewhere else, to a better world?” Participatory theatre grew in the twentieth century. It employs elements of what we call meta-theatre, where you are able to actually see the blood and guts of the play production. Meta-theatre asks you to consider your role as an audience member and how these elements have the potential to translate into post–play action for social good.
I think part of this participatory theatre and meta-theatre project involves you, the audience, taking a walk with Ayn Rand and her prosecutor, to better understand where they each respectively are coming from. In this case, the nature that Coleman speaks of is the beauty of the theatre arts that we are lucky enough to share today.
In her text Emergent Strategy, Adrienne Marie Brown encourages readers to “practice the future together.” She continues with a call to practice justice together, “living into new stories.” Brown recognizes that this experience we are having right now is dependent on who is in the room and how we interact with one another. I want to acknowledge this and hopefully pause to reflect on the power of this moment we are sharing.
Additional note: Mr. Downs, the playwright of this piece, has been gracious in spending time with me and in sharing his perspectives of the play. He fully recognizes the potential strengths and perils of Ayn Rand’s ideology and encourages us to learn more. He also wishes for a theatre environment that doesn’t just pat ourselves on the back for taken-for-granted ways of thinking. He hopes our thinking can stretch our perceptions, make us re-consider what we originally brought into the space, and maybe even lead to revised actions for the public good. He recommends a reading list (included below), which I have added to. Mr. Downs allowed us to perform his play royalty-free. We are grateful for his generosity in this process.
–Jim Martin
Recommended Readings
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand
The Goddess of the Marketplace: Ayn Rand and the American Right by Jennifer Burns
Who is Ayn Rand? by Narthaniel Branden with an introduction by Barabara Branden
Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism And Other Arguments for Economic Independence by Kristen R. Ghodsee
It’s OK to be Angry About Capitalism by Bernie Sanders
Works Cited
Bergman, Chad Eric. “‘We Do Storefront Theatre’: Using Chicago’s Storefront Theatre
Model as the Foundation for a Theatre Curriculum.” Theatre topics 20, no. 1
(2010): 55–64.
brown, adrienne maree. Emergent Strategy : Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. Chico,
California: AK Press, 2017.
Brown, Andrew. “Theatre of Judgment: Space, Spectators, and the Epistemologies of
Law in ‘Bartholomew Fair.’” Early Theatre 15, no. 2 (2012): 154–67.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43499631.
Coleman, Peter T. The Way out : How to Overcome Toxic Polarization. New York:
Columbia University Press, 2021.
Downs, William Missouri. Interview by Jim Martin. Phone conversation. February 1,
2024.
Gladstein, Mimi R. “Ayn Rand and Feminism: An Unlikely Alliance.” College English 39,
no. 6 (1978): 680–685.
Horwitz, Simi. “Enter Stage Right: Conservative Theatremakers, Some Emboldened by
Trump’s Election, Look for Inroads Onstage.” American Theatre 34, no. 9
(November 2017): 44–49.
Lambert, Andrew. “Antigone and Les Misérables: A Pathetic Look at Jury Nullification.”
The San Diego law review 59, no. 3 (2022): 437-.
Sakellaridou, Elizabeth. “‘Oh My God, Audience Participation!’: Some
Twenty-First-Century Reflections.” Comparative Drama 48, no. 1/2
(Spring/Summer2014 2014): 13–38. doi:10.1353/cdr.2014.0005.
Sierra, Horacio. “Bearing Witness and Taking Action: Audiences and Morality in
Renaissance Tragedy and Activist Street Theater.” Comparative drama 48, no.
1/2 (2014): 39–57.