30 DAYS OF NYMF: Day 23 Jack Perry Is Alive (and Dating)

Day 23 Jack Perry Is Alive (and Dating)
Harrison David Rivers, playwright and bookwriter of Jack Perry is Alive (and Dating) sheds some light on the question: Why are we at NYMF?

I have had my share of heartbreak in New York City.

There was the guy who stopped calling.
The guy who moved away.
The guy who said I didn't make him laugh hard enough.
The guy who already had a boyfriend.
The guy who already had a wife.
The guy who only loved me for sex.
And the guy who stabbed me with a kitchen knife.
(True story. Buy me a drink sometime and I'll tell you all about it.)
My mom says that everything happens for a reason.
She's been saying so for years.
When I didn't get cast as Doody in my high school's production of Grease her response
was, "Everything happens for a reason."
When I accidentally deleted my thesis in college and had to start over from the
beginning she said, "Next time... save your work" and then she said, "Everything
happens for a reason."
And when, on occasion, I call to tell her about how some guy has done me wrong she
says, without fail, "Baby, everything happens for a reason."

It has only become clear to me in the last week or so that Jack Perry is Alive (And
Dating) is that reason. It turns out that I was meant to write a romantic comedically-
inclined musical about heartbreak (as were my collaborators Daniella Shoshan, Julia
Meinwald and Pirronne Yousefzadeh).

Jack Perry is about that moment right after you passionately declare (usually while
you're drunk at a bar with your best girlfriend) that you are, "Over men" and "Through
with Love." It is about how love almost always seems to come knocking when we not
only least expect it, but when we think that we don't want it. Jack Perry is Alive (And
Dating) is about what we discover about ourselves when we allow ourselves to try again.

I, like my mother, believe that everything happens for a reason.

I believe that Jack Perry is Alive (And Dating) was selected for the New York Musical
Theatre Festival for a reason.

Maybe so that you can come see it?
I certainly hope so.

To buy tickets or to learn more about Jack Perry Is Alive (and Dating) go to www.nymf.org/jackperryisaliveanddating or call 212-352-3101