Scott Harrison’s Ironweed Productions will continue to investigate the complex issues of contemporary American society and the universal condition of the human heart in its production of John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable. Set in a Catholic school in the Bronx in 1964 in the wake of the Kennedy assassination and the dawning of the civil rights movement, the play centers on the school’s first black student and involves the struggle between pastor Father Flynn who embraces doubt and school principal Sister Aloysius who is all conviction and believes doubt is weakness.
John Patrick Shanley is, like many of us, a product of parochial schools and the conventional, unquestioning mind set of the day that made all vulnerable to a threatening world outside the safety of the school and church walls: “…in those schools at that time, we were an ageless unity. We were all adults and we were all children. We had, like many animals, flocked together for warmth and safety. As a result, we were terribly vulnerable to anyone who chose to hunt us. When trust is the order of the day, predators are free to plunder. And plunder they did. As the ever-widening church scandals reveal, the hunters had a field day. And the shepherds, so invested in the surface, sacrificed actual good for perceived goodness” (Shanley, Preface to Doubt, ix). Moreover, Shanley believes that doubt leads to change and growth: “It is Doubt (so often experienced initially as weakness) that changes things. When a man feels unsteady, when he falters, when hard won knowledge evaporates before his eyes, he’s on the verge of growth…. Doubt requires more courage than conviction does and more energy; because conviction is a resting place and doubt is infinite—it is a passionate exercise…. We’ve got to learn to live with a full measure of uncertainty. There is no last word. That’s the silence under the chatter of our time” (Shanley, viii-x).
Doubt opened on Broadway in 2005 and won the Tony Award for Best Play the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Ironweed founder and Producing Director Scott Harrison will direct the play, and the production will feature local actors Karen Leigh (Santa Fe Playhouse), Danielle Reddick (Theater Grottesco), Jonathon Dixon (Theaterwork), and Vanessa Rios y Valles (Theaterwork).
In keeping with its commitment to youth and emerging artists, a portion of the proceeds from Doubt will be donated to the La Mesilla-based teen arts center “Hands across Cultures” to fund a teen poetry slam at Warehouse 21 (Santa Fe).
Performances will be held from May1-18, 2008, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 8 P.M. and Sunday afternoons at 2 P.M. at El Museo Cultural (1615 Paseo de Peralta, Santa Fe). For further information and tickets, phone (505) 660-2379.
Ironweed Productions may also be contacted by e-mail at ironweedproductions@yahoo.com.
