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Interview: Playwright D.W. Gregory and THE OTHER AMERICAN at NJ Rep
Playwright D.W. Gregory
By: Marina Kennedy Aug. 26, 2024
New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) will continue its 27th Season with the world premiere of The Other American by D.W. Gregory who also wrote Radium Girls. The show is directed by James Glossman . It will begin performances on September 5, with its opening night on September 7 , and run through September 29, 2024.
Inspired by a true story, The Other American is set in Paris in 1952. After tangling over politics with an American tourist, a promising art student spirals into a mental breakdown that derails his life. Thirty years later, he discovers why: The tourist was a CIA operative, and the student was an unwitting participant in one of the darkest chapters of the Cold War.
Suzanne Barabas, the Artistic Director of NJ Rep commented, "We are thrilled to present the 158 th world premiere at NJ Rep with D.W. Gregory's The Other American. Gregory, known for her powerful storytelling plays such as 'Radium Girls,' brings a gripping tale that explores the unexpected intersections of art, politics, and espionage during one of the Cold War's most shadowy chapters. This play promises to captivate and challenge audiences as we continue our 27th season ."
Broadwayworld had the pleasure of interviewing playwright, D.W. Gregory about her career and The Other American that will be produced at NJ Rep.
Gregory’s plays frequently explore political issues through a personal lens and with a comedic twist. The New York Times called her “a playwright with a talent to enlighten and provoke” for her most-produced work, Radium Girls, about the famous case of industrial poisoning. Other plays include Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, a National New Play Network rolling world premiere (Contemporary American Theater Festival, Shadowland Stages, New Jersey Repertory Company); Molumby’s Million (Iron Age Theatre), nominated for a Barrymore Award by Theatre Philadelphia; A Thing of Beauty, winner of the Southeastern Theatre Conference’s 2023 Charles M. Getchell New Play Award; The Good Daughter and October 1962 (New Jersey Repertory Company); and a new musical comedy, The Yellow Stocking Play, with composer Steven M. Alper and lyricist Sarah Knapp. Her plays have been developed through the support of AATE, the National New Play Network (NNPN), the Playwrights’ Center, the Maryland State Arts Council, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the HBMG Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. A member of the Dramatists Guild, Gregory is an affiliated writer with the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis and an affiliated artist with NNPN. Gregory also writes for youth theatre (Salvation Road and Penny Candy) and makes occasional appearances as a teaching artist. Dramatics magazine named Radium Girls among the 10 Most-Produced Plays in American High-School Theatre for five years in a row.
We'd love to know what first inspired your playwriting career.
I made two early stabs at writing plays. When I was in fifth grade, I was recruited--or perhaps volunteered--to write our class play, a Civil War melodrama called the Trial of Barbara Fritchie. I am sure it was inspired by numerous old movies I saw on TV,
and was every bit as cheesy. A box office hit because attendance was required of the entire elementary school---but it was a critical disaster. Some of the kids hated the play and didn't want to say the lines I'd written. The scenery consisted of a cardboard tree and house taped to the stage curtain. In the second act, the scenery collapsed,
which was apt, because the script much fell apart at the same time. After that I stuck to writing short stories.
Fifteen years later my younger sister asked me to write a play for her college thesis project. She was a theater major at what is now Seton Hill University and I was an alum who was by then a working journalist dabbling in short fiction. For her project she had to direct a one-act play, then in the second half, perform a one-woman show, which was a collection of short pieces. I had not tried to write a play since fifth grade, but I agreed. The script I handed in was rather disjointed and plotless, but she and her actors gave it their best. What really got my attention, though, was that in the second half, she performed one of my short stories as a dramatic monologue. That was a revelation. It actually worked. I remember watching and thinking "That's not bad. I wonder what would happen if I could ever write a good play." And I've been trying ever since, with much much better results.
Have you had any particular mentors?
Bruce Sweet ran a workshop in Rochester, New York, where I lived for five years. I got involved in the workshop mostly because I needed something to get me out of the house on those dark winter nights, but I stayed because he was such a terrific teacher. Out of Bruce's workshop I wrote two one-act plays that won national competitions. The late great Kent Brown of the University of Arkansas was another teacher who made a huge difference to me. I attended a playwriting conference he ran with Roger Gross, who is also gone now. That experience really turned me around, changed my thinking about what I was doing. Megan Terry was another important influence; I took her playwriting workshop at a writing conference in the midwest. She was the first person to sit me down and tell me that I had talent and I should not give up. God bless the woman. Someone else who was a real influence was not a playwriting teacher but a professor of dramatic literature at Catholic University, where I did my MFA. Jane Ann Crum introduced me to a whole world of drama that I had not encountered before (the drama section in the Rochester public library was abysmal)--and to a whole new way of thinking about theatre. I don't think I'd be writing the kind of stuff I write today were it not for her classes.
Can you share a little bit about your experiences as a teaching artist?
I mostly have done short workshops at festivals and conferences--the International Thespian Festival, New Jersey Thespians, Virginia Thespians, the Southeastern Theatre Conference, and the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. For the past two to three years I've taught at university level as an adjunct. I get a real kick out of the conferences -- the kids are terrific, so sharp and so eager -- so I plan to keep on doing it if they'll have me. The university courses are a great challenge -- to build a course that gives young writers practical tools to sharpen their skills isn't the easiest thing, but I've been happily surprised by the results.
We know The Other American is not your first play at NJ Rep. Why do you think the company is such a stand-out?
One reason I think is their commitment to the artists who work with them. Jessica Parks is their resident set designer. Pat Dougherty has been designing costumes since my first production there 20 years ago. Their resident lighting designer, Jill Nagle has been there for many years as well. They work every show and they are all
very talented. And they know the space intimately--a tight stage, deeper than it is wide. It isn't an easy space, especially for a play like this, which moves back and forth in time and shifts locations on a dime. But the set Jessica has created for this show is just amazing.
But another reason is the spirit of the place--it's very welcoming. And there's no obstacle you cannot find a way around. Gabe and Suzanne get excited about a play and they will be determined to do it -- and find a way to make it work. The first play of mine they produced was The Good Daughter -- a play of epic sweep. You would not think it could work on such a small stage -- and yet it worked like gangbusters
Why do you think the time is right for The Other American?
This is a play about the costly human impact of CIA abuses. In the name of 'national security,' CIA operatives betrayed their fellow Americans and the U.S. Constitution, and did so with the blessing of CIA director Allen Dulles. These were war crimes, effectively. Drug testing on unwitting subjects is a violation of the Nuremberg Code. When these abuses came to light in the late 1970s, they fed a growing sense of cynicism about the federal government -- a cynicism that underpins the MAGA movement today and led directly to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2020. Without that cynicism, Trumpism could not have taken root.
It is easy to dismiss the story of The Other American as an unfortunate incident of the past. But it isn't past -- not if we elect someone who plans to dismantle the Civil Service and install loyalists in key positions throughout government -- loyalists who would be answerable only to him. And even if we don't elect him--there is a still a huge movement, the force behind Project 2025, that wants to see that happen, and it's not going away.
We've seen what results from intelligence agencies having unfettered power and operating without oversight. Do we really want to go back to that?
Tell us a little about the team that is bringing the show to the Long Branch stage.
James Glossman previously directed my drama Memoirs of a Forgotten Man at NJ Rep. He's terrific -- so sharp, so smart, he gets my work almost intuitively. Wonderful to work with, and he has a real knack for fitting my sprawling epics into tight spaces. And most importantly, making them move. This one is very cinematic, and thanks to his direction, it flows beautifully.
The cast is also superb -- I've worked with Amie Bermowitz before and she was one of the first people I thought of for the role. John Lescault is an actor whose work I'd seen in D.C. He brings real humanity to the role of Sidney Gottlieb. Everyone is really quite wonderful -- Chris Daftsios carries a huge load as Stan, and he brings a lovely, playful quality to the character. And I love what Eli Ganias and Naja Selby-Morton bring to their parts as well. Eli, Naja, and Amie play multiple roles--which is challenging in any play but especially one that moves as quickly as this one. But they've all risen to it and I'm excited to see it on stage.
What would you like our readers to know about the show?
There are several threads working through the story. One man's quest for vindication versus another's effort to escape responsibility. The unreliability of memory and the power of denial as a tool for suppressing truth. Whether redemption is possible in the absence of
true contrition. For me it's also about resilience and courage -- the absolute necessity of demanding justice, even when the odds are against you -- and how love of family can see us through. And though it's a story about trauma, there's a lot of humor in the play, because humor is how we cope with it.
Anything else, absolutely anything you would like to share with our readers.
If my name is familiar to anyone it may be as the author of Radium Girls, another play of epic scope based on true events. It's had more than 2,000 productions throughout the U.S. and abroad. Over time I've refined my story-telling style to be tighter, more taut, and more effective. So if you like Radium Girls, you'll love this one.
Tickets are NOW on sale on the NJ Rep website HERE or by calling 732.229.3166. The theatre is located at 179 Broadway, Long Branch, New Jersey with plenty of free parking in the rear. The Other American will begin promptly at 7:30 on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with additional matinees on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays at 2 PM.
Photo Credit: Claire Newman-Williams
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