Author

Daniel Popa  about Kevin Doyle 's The Position

I was flying back from New York to Bucharest 2 years ago. I bought one book only, containing the new plays and playwrights of the moment. I didn’t know yet what play I wanted to stage, I only hoped that something will strike me reading this book. And so I got to Kevin Doyle’s The Position. I was laughing alone in the plane, happy to discover the perfect play for a Romanian audience.

Kevin’s style reminded me of the absurd master whom the French claim is theirs, but Ionesco was Romanian. They will probably say the same about the American Kevin Doyle, so mature in his writing, that I didn’t expect him to be so young when we finally met, having Ionesco in my mind.

The reason I was so happy was that there was no better way to tell the Romanians what is going on with them right now, then to use Kevin’s approach to what’s happening to the whole world - so similar but so much sharper and to the point through its contemporarily means of expression than its Ionesco predecessor. Kevin’s work is so universally valid but I bet he didn’t have Romania in his mind when he wrote The Position. But then, to describe the process a whole society goes through these days, the global mechanization of every little thing, starting with gestures, ending with human beings. It may be an old theme, but he does it in such a way, that you just have to do something with the play after you read it.

The Position has humor mixing existential drama, daily actions and gestures becoming a sort of ritual dance, ending with a final tango interview that puts the finger on more than the getting a job issue. His work is so real, that when I tried to have it produced in Romania, I had the same things happening to me, as a creator. A whole process of having to wait for your turn, without knowing exactly when it will come; everybody smiling at you like they have known you for years; the same names that you bump into every office you go, the same passion for new gadgets the Romanians develop each day, the same absurd actions they take while thinking they’re doing their jobs.

And I could go on with the similarities of Kevin Doyle’s power of rending facts as they are, but the biggest of them all, is the ¨waiting state¨. Everybody waits in Romania. They don’t know what they’re waiting for, they just wait. Some of them were told to, some of them saw these other guys waiting, others just wait thinking it’s smarter, some because they don’t have the courage to act – no matter the action.

The Position is so complete that I dared to stage it even if I’m not trained as a director, but as an actor. It’s because the author put it all in there. You just have to give it to the actors and let it happen to them. You don’t really get this these days –such a great overview and full vision in one’s work like Kevin Doyle has done with his The Position.

Kevin Doyle  Artistic Director Sponsored By Nobody

            I am a writer and director based in Brooklyn. My plays are regularly produced to critical acclaim in New York City and throughout the United States. Since January 2005, I have served as the founding Artistic Director of the Brooklyn-based theatre company, Sponsored By Nobody. My work has received support from multiple institutions and foundations; including the Puffin Foundation; the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council; the Foundation for Contemporary Arts; the East End Arts Council; and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. Last year, I was awarded the 2008 Thornton Wilder Fellowship from The MacDowell Colony. My plays have also been presented in Belgium, The Netherlands and Canada, while having been translated into both French and Romanian. I believe I possess a detai led knowledge of trends in the performing arts industry in both New York and Europe and am therefore qualified to express my views on Daniel Popa as an actor an director.

            On a previous visit to the United States, Mr. Popa discovered my play in it’s published edition in the New York anthology, Plays and Playwrights 2006. Mr. Popa explained to me very honestly and sincerely that he read my play in a single sitting while on the plane ride between New York and Romania. He stated to me that he instantly knew that The Position was a play that wished to translate, adapt and direct professionally for the stage in Romania. Based upon Mr. Popa’s sound dramaturgical comprehension of my writing and the absurd, satirical elements in The Position, I happily gave my consent. This began a professional dialogue that exists to this day and remains one of my most valued professional relationships in theatre.

            I met Daniel Popa for the first time in February 2008 while in The Netherlands for a meeting about his proposed Romanian production of The Position. Based on my discussions with Mr. Popa about my own play, The Position, as well as the body of work in which I have seen him perform, I am convinced he has a firm grasp of the absurdities and neuroses that run through the themes of the play and which are essential to its successful execution.  I believe Mr. Popa is the rare actor that has a sound knowledge of dramatic structure and the superior skills to channel that knowledge into practical realities during a rehearsal process as well as the performance.