Interview: ADI TEODORU And AARON ALON of MELVILLE & HAWTHORNE at THUNDERCLAP PRODUCTIONS

Playwright Adi Teodoru has written MELVILLE & HAWTHORNE, and Aaron Alon is a producer of THUNDERCLAP PRODUCTIONS. The play follows the year and a half that authors Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne spent living only a mile away from each other in the Berkshires. At the same time, Melville wrote and developed the novel MOBY DICK (which he dedicated to Hawthorne). The show is based on historical facts and will play at the MATCH COMPLEX from August 1st through August 10th. 

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Brett Cullum: Thunderclap Productions. Tell us a little about how long you have been around and your mission.

Aaron Alon: Thunderclap was first founded as a playwrights collective in 2010. We reorganized after our first production as a nonprofit in 2011, and since then, we've been dedicated to producing new and under-recognized plays, musicals, and screenplays. Everything that we do is Houston-based. We use Houston-based talent. The writers come from all over the country, however. But we take special interest in things relating to social justice and equity and celebrate the talents of local writers and performers.

We've been doing that since 2011, and we have had a lot of world premieres and regional premiers because that's the work that really excites us. 

Brett Cullum: And this is actually a world premiere.

Aaron Alon: This is a world premiere. That's correct.

Brett Cullum: Adi. How long have you been writing plays?

Adi Teodoru: I started writing plays with MELVILLE & HAWTHORNE roughly twenty years ago when I was in college; I'm a University of Houston graduate. I went through their Theater and English departments. A lot of the influence and inspiration for MELVILLE & HAWTHORNE started in those classes, and that was actually the first play that I ever wrote. I have written several throughout the years since then, as well as novels, but I always kept coming back to this one. Then 2020 came about, and the events of 2020 really inspired the message and theme behind this play.

It actually began in one of my literature classes, the first time that I was introduced to one of the letters that Herman Melville wrote to Nathaniel Hawthorne that we were discussing in class. I read the letter, and I could not help but feel that it was romantic. You see several of these letters featured in the play throughout to up the authenticity and let people know that what happens in this play actually happened. 

I began to do a lot of research. I read both of their biographies. I was in literature, so I was reading through a lot of their works as well. I'm sure we all read MOBY DICK in high school, or at least the Cliff Notes version, to get through the tests, and I think that it's a novel that's desperately underserved for how well we claim to know it. It is a novel that was written in 1850, at the time when the two-thirds compromise was being brought about the 1851 compromise was happening. Our country was heading into Civil War, and Herman Melville wrote a book that has almost entirely characters that are people of color, and as a very blatant, queer theme.

Brett Cullum: And it could be very prescient to the time that we are in now. It's interesting that Thunderclap has decided to mount this production, but you said it took 20 years for you to write it. You started obviously in college, so is this putting it out to the world for the 1st time?

Adi Teodoru: There have probably been about three or four versions of the play. But I think it took the world around us and the things that are happening in the world right now to really inspire this version of the play, which, to me, finally felt complete and right. It's connecting two points in history that are so connected to each other and so important, not only for queer people but also for our country as a whole. What does it mean to be American? And what does it mean to be in the American canon when America is what it is? And then the canon is these two works of art that are so prevalent. But we don't focus on the right things about these novels. So, I think that's what really brought about this version of the play.

Andrew Ruthven of MAIN STREET THEATER is directing. He's a close personal friend of mine. He has also been part of my sounding board as I develop this play. My other best friend, Mark, is his partner, and those two inspired my understanding of this sort of relationship.

I feel like it was kismet meeting with THUNDERCLAP PRODUCTIONS because it felt like exactly what they were looking for, is exactly what I had put my heart and soul into as far as this play goes, so it just absolutely felt right to work with Aaron and his team and the incredible board over there. 

Brett Cullum: Well, tell me a little bit about the themes that actually exist in this show. I mean, what were you really hoping to say with this? You mentioned kind of bringing back the world that we're in now, obviously, as opposed to 1850.

Adi Teodoru: I don't want to give any spoilers away. One of the main concepts of the show is this theme of love and this theme of queer love specifically. The play does not focus on love in terms of trauma and homophobia; you will actually find almost no homophobia or allusions to that sort of concept in the play. I tried really, really hard not to focus on that aspect of it because I feel like we've told that story, and that story has been told over and over again. So I feel like it's really important to tell people who are coming to see the show that they can at least feel safe from that aspect. They don't have to grit their teeth and bear through it. It's really a romantic period piece, and there are not a lot of romantic period pieces for queer people on stage.

The play also deals with racism, and it's also a time when we're splitting apart into two parties. People are drawing lines of which side I am on, you know? And how do I combat the other side? I think it is so incredibly reflective of where we are today that it's almost as if we came full circle.

Brett Cullum: It absolutely is. We are completely polarized. And it's amazing to see that connection. What are the age differences of these two men in the play?

Adi Teodoru: Hawthorne was around 45 at this time, and Melville was about 35, so he was younger, significantly younger. Hawthorne spent most of his life in Massachusetts. Up until this point, he had almost not gone anywhere. He was a homebody. He spent a lot of time alone. He lived out on farms, and Melville was a world traveler from when he was young, but he never had a formal education. He's sort of considered the poor man in this world, and that's sort of bringing him in because he's interesting and tells fun stories, but he's always an outsider. The play really focuses on sort of Melville's journey. It’s about him struggling against the concepts of that time which he found so ridiculous, as is shown in his works.

Originally, MOBY DICK was supposed to be just a story about whaling. It was more to be like a documentary than this sort of fantastical story, and then Melville moved roughly a mile away from Hawthorne and spent the year of 1851, 1852, with him. The book became something else entirely out of it. It inspired the relationship between Queequeg and Ishmael, which is, is the driving force in the book, and also why Melville dedicated the novel to Hawthorne because of his influence.

Brett Cullum: Going back to THUNDERCLAP PRODUCTIONS. Do you just do a project a year? Do you do several? 

Aaron Alon: It varies a little from year to year. So initially, what we would essentially do is apply for grants, raise enough money, and do a production. That's what we were traditionally doing. 

We got a grant funded by the John Steve Kellett Memorial Series. This transformational grant allowed us to produce an annual production focused on LGBTQ themes, which has always been an area that we've been passionate about, even long before the grant.

And that's actually how we 1st got connected with Adi. We were looking for directors for a different project. Someone recommended her. I reached out, and she said, “Hey, I am working on a play that I think would be a really good match for that,” and it really was. We invited her to submit it, and we read it and immediately took it to it. We're very excited to include it.

I hear so often people in politics saying things like, “Trans. People just appeared. And now we're supposed to accept them overnight.” And we've heard the same arguments about gay people, too. These things are not new, and it's important to have these historical glimpses and see what queer love looked like over 170 years ago. So I think there's real value in that. In addition to all the parallels, it draws to our current world.

Brett Cullum: And that's always reassuring, and it's great to see this represented on stage. I can't say that a romantic story about Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville was on my bingo card for the summer! 

MELVILLE & HAWTHORNE is going to run at the MATCH, starting on August 1st until the 10th. Tickets are $25. The MATCH is a great facility. It's got a lot of parking options, and there are so many restaurants and bars nearby. 

 

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