On The Porch
An Interview with Jack Neary
The Porch runs at Stoneham Theatre May 15 - June 1, 2008. We chatted with the play's author and director, Jack Neary. . . .
The Porch had a previous incarnation, as a play you wrote called Beyond Belief. What's changed since its debut?
THE PORCH was born as a ten-minute play called ORAL REPORT, which was presented at the first Boston Theater Marathon of ten-minute plays and staged by Adam Zahler for New Repertory Theatre. Subsequently, I took over the franchise and wrote two more ten-minute plays featuring the Porch Ladies for the second and third Marathons. Those plays were called ALTERNATIVE LIFESTYLE and THREE-PEAT. When I was directing LEND ME A TENOR at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, Spiro Veloudos was looking to replace one of the plays in his season, and asked if he could read a play of mine called SEX AND CATHOLICS. He did, and he decided to put the play in his 2003 season, under the title BEYOND BELIEF. This script incorporated the three ten-minute plays I had presented in the Marathon, plus a new 20-minute Porch Lady play, and three other un-related sketches having to do with, well, sex and Catholics. The three unrelated sketches went okay, but the Porch Ladies were a huge hit. In 2005, local producer Ann Baker joined forces with Northampton's New Century Theatre to produce the new BEYOND BELIEF at CityStage in Springfield. This script was significantly different from the Lyric script. I had eliminated the three non-Porch Lady plays, and fashioned a full play around the ladies and two of their husbands. I also added a Narrator to help tell the story. Audiences loved the show. The laughter was loud and the standing ovations many. Once more, I went back to the word processor and refined the comedy, this time eliminating the Narrator. So now it's a play about the friendship of five senior citizens, and how that friendship is challenged by a stunning experience one of them encounters. When Weylin chose BEYOND BELIEF for the Stoneham season, he asked if a title change might be possible, because the script had changed so drastically since the Lyric presentation. That's how THE PORCH was born and nurtured.
What was the revising process like?
A play isn't a play until the audience shows up, no matter what literary managers tell you. (Did I say that?) I learned a great deal about what THE PORCH had to say by the audience members' reactions to the various manifestations of the play over the past few years. So, I listen to the audience as the show is in performance, gauge the reaction, and go back to the word processor to tweak what needs to be tweaked for the next time the play gets a chance in front of an audience. Most of the time, I do a lot of thinking and walking and sitting in the Barnes and Noble cafe considering what needs to be done to make a play better, before actually getting down to the actual re-writing. The process of THE PORCH has been greatly advanced by the actors who have played in it. Actors make invaluable contributions to new scripts, by the energy and creativity they bring to the rehearsal room, and sometimes even by lines they come up with in rehearsal--lines that often end up in the script. From its inception, the actors who have worked with me on this script have been tremendous, from Kate Carney, Patricia Till, Alice Duffy and Mary Klug in the Marathon plays, to John Davin, Richard Snee, Bobbie Steinbach, Marina Re, and especially Ellen Colton and Cheryl McMahon, who have been with the show since the Lyric.
The ladies of The Porch are at least a generation older than you. What drew you to characters this age?
Well, since I plan to be that age someday, I thought it might be nice to write about what it's like before I get there. No, actually, the idea from the play stemmed from a casual conversation I had with my mother during the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal. She and her neighbors, Mrs. Lally and Mrs. O'Neill, spent many happy hours back then sitting on Mrs. O'Neill's front porch, discussing the news of the day. One day, I visited my mother, who was just coming in from one of these porch sessions. Out of the blue, she said, "Mrs. Lally just explained oral sex to Mrs. O'Neill." I said to myself, "Well, I can't get a whole play out of that, but I can get ten-minutes." Ten years later, THE PORCH, and the ladies, are still going strong. When you grow up in a neighborhood like mine, you get to know these folks pretty well. And, to me, there's something intriguing and often funny about the candor that comes naturally when they reach a certain age. These ladies, it seems, can talk about ANYTHING and get away with it. And they do. Which is why I like to write for them. My mother and Mrs. O'Neill have since passed away. But Mrs. Lally is still toodling up and down the neighborhood in her four-door.
Does the North Shore have a voice, or is it just an accent?
Well, to be truthful, these characters were born not on the North Shore, but in the Merrimack Valley, which definitely has a voice AND an accent. However, my experience with the play has been that these characters and their stories are relatable to pretty much anybody, especially working class family members. I think, if anything, the voice of the people in THE PORCH is one of humor and truth, and that gives way to compassion when crises develop. The characters in this play are asked to confront a situation they never, ever could have imagined when they were growing up. And they do confront it. And they survive to live another day going on bus trips and attending parish spaghetti suppers. The characters in (and on) THE PORCH are survivors in the purest sense of the word.
Do you see yourself writing in a tradition of New England playwrights?
I don't think so. My inspirations as a writer have been Ring Lardner and Neil Simon, both of whom have taken the truth of many life situations, placed that truth in dialogue delivered by memorable characters, and elaborated on that truth to step over the threshold into a place where readers and audience members laugh at what their characters say and do. It's a tricky chore, not easily accomplished. Nobody really knows who actually said, on his deathbed, that "dying is easy; comedy is hard," but there's a certain amount of truth to that. The gentlemen I refer to in this paragraph, by and large, have created in their time truth-telling characters who are funny. That's what I try to do.
What can audiences expect from The Porch?
Fortunately, I can speak from experience as I have stood in the back of many audiences watching the characters on the porch as they spin their stories. If history holds true, audiences can expect to laugh. A lot. They can also expect to be told a good story by characters they recognize, in a setting that's comfortable and familiar, and when they least expect it, they may hear something they've never heard before. And I won't tell you what that is, because that's why we sell the tickets.