Wednesday, February 27, 2013

The Whipping Man

A Note from the Artistic Director

Chris Hanna,  Artistic Director
I’m not sure at what point a New Yorker becomes a Virginian. I bought my Norfolk house in 1993 and raised my son there from kindergarten to college. I have buried two dogs in Commonwealth soil and planted dozens of azalea bushes as well. I order hash browns over grits at breakfast however and still wonder how anyone could pass up any opportunity for catsup. So I wonder in my heart, am I still truly a carpetbagger?

Watching the powerfully talented cast of The Whipping Man prepare for Friday night’s opening, I have finally been able to answer that question for myself. Regardless of my upbringing, yes, Virginia is my genuine home. Mathew Lopez’s drama has received successful productions across the country since its New York premiere but I can’t imagine it connecting with any audiences in the way it does for Virginians.  And as it does to me.  It is a well worn cliché that Virginia is obsessed on its own history but Lopez’ play turns that cliché into poetry. The play makes me incredibly proud as a Virginian, not of region’s history, but of its courage to use that history for seeing into the present.  Historical events may change over time but human character never does.  As William Faulkner famously wrote, “The past is not dead; it’s not even past.”

It means even more to me that I’ve become so connected to Virginia heritage through the work of Mathew Lopez, a Hispanic Jew raised in Florida, and the show’s director, Jasson Minandakis, who was raised in Richmond and is now raising his own family in Northern California.  As you will see when watching The Whipping Man, their personal connection to Richmond at the end of the Civil War is surprisingly immediate. It reminds me that Shakespeare didn’t travel to Rome to write Julius Caesar; the human imagination, like the human heart, is capable of stretches far beyond the rules of science and reason.  I have never watched a production claim the Wells stage so authentically and or felt my own  connected to Virginia soil as I do watching this play, even as an adopted son.

I hope you find that the show, and its connection to our rich Commonwealth, means as much for you.

Best,

Chris Hanna
Artistic Director