Excited to share that WE DECLARE YOU A TERRORIST has been published by Dramatic Publishing! When I started writing this play (many lifetimes ago) it was in direct response to the ways I saw our country peddling fear in order to suppress healthy dissent—unfortunately that’s a reality which has only become more and more relevant. It’s an often heavy play, but it is not without humor and hope as it explores the necessity of personal expression and art in the fight against tyranny.
Many thanks to Round House Theatre for producing it, to The New Harmony Project who first developed it, and to everyone who’s ever had a hand in helping me bring this story to life.
As it’s most imminent, I’ll start with an upcoming online workshop with Phamaly Theatre. Last year, I started writing The Hard Price at The Orchard Project as their inaugural Reg E. Cathey Writer-in-Residence. Set in North Dakota oil country and spanning the United States’ two wars in Iraq, the play follows the effects of those 2 conflicts on 2 generations of the Erekson Family, using the story of The Oresteia as a jumping off point. (What? Me adapt a classic Greek play? How unexpected…)
In September 2019, I got to hear a very rough draft read at The Lark. (Lords, remember when we could just hop on the bus, get off in New York, walk a few blocks and be welcomed by the loveliest and most talented people? #fuck2020). I’ve been working on the play since then and recently completed a more polished draft that I get to work on for a few days with Phamaly Theater and a few of their core artists. If you don’t know Phamaly, it’s a great time to get acquainted. They’re a Denver-based company that serves as an artistic home for artists with disabilities. Remember how awesome Ali Stroker was when you saw her perform as Ado Annie in Oklahoma/on the Tonys? Cool, now imagine the entire cast is that same kind of awesome. The Artistic Director at Phamaly is the incomparable Regan Linton, and I’m really thrilled to have been invited to collaborate with her and her peeps.
I also get to work with the phenomenal Jessica Kubzansky who, as both a freelance director and as artistic director of Boston Court Theatre in Pasadena, has brought the most exciting plays/productions to the LA Basin.
As if all that wasn’t good enough, this project will be a lovely, cross-generational, UCSD get together as I (class of ’06) get to work with the aforementioned Regan Linton (class of ’13), AND MacGregor Arney (class of ’16).
So, really, what’s not to love?
The workshop will be closed to the public but I’m very excited about this play, so write to your Congressional representatives BECAUSE WE NEED ELECTION SECURITY NOW. And then, hopefully, in some post-45….er, post-Covid-19 world, this play will quickly appear on our stages.
Broken 5th metatarsal: bad. But look how beefy my 1st metatarsal is!
At the end of June, in this order, the following happened…
– I had an outbreak of shingles. – I broke my foot. – Oh, and you know, our country continued to fail to respond usefully both to the Covid-19 crisis and to 400 years of racism, oppression, and the inequality that we have forced on Native Americans, Black folks, and every other person of color who has come here with the hope of making a better life for themselves and their families.
This means lots of career things have slipped through the cracks. I will be updating those over the coming days in, perhaps, no particular order. I hope they can provide you, as they have me, a tiny of bit of relief and distraction from the shitshow that is the world in 2020.
Tune in TONIGHT (Tuesday, March 24) at 6pm to see my play “The Time Machine,” starring Ryan Haddad.
Excited to share that I was asked to write for the latest round of The 24 Hour Plays: Viral Monologues. I got to write for the inimitable Ryan J. Haddad, and I’m so excited to see him work his magic!
Tune in TONIGHT (Tuesday, March 24) on their website and/or on their Instagram channel @24hourplays. They’ll start posting monologues at 6pm EDT, with a new one being posted every 15 minutes.
So thrilled to share some news about my play “We declare you a terrorist…”
This past fall, Round House Theatre in Bethesda, MD, expressed their interest in producing the play and offered me a finishing commission to do a big rewrite of the play. I gladly accepted and dove back in to working on it.
Well, I’m happy to share that Round House has officially announced that they will be producing WDYAT during their 2020-21 season with Artistic Director Ryan Rilette & Jared Mezzocchi at the helm.
And if you’re thinking, “Hold on, hold on, back up a sec. Tell me more about this play.” Then this section is for you:
We Declare You a Terrorist examines the 2002 Moscow Theatre Hostage crisis and the ways in which it changes one of the survivors, leading him down a road of dissent and resistance against the burgeoning dictatorship his home is turning into. After being held hostage in a Moscow theater by terrorists demanding an end to Russia’s war in Chechnya, one man is still haunted by the relationships he made during the crisis and unable to move past the tragic events that surrounded the siege’s conclusion. In a desperate attempt to understand where he and his country have come to he attempts to sneak into Chechnya only to be captured by Russian agents and suspected of being a terrorist himself. All alone in an interrogation room on the Russian frontier he is forced to confront just what happened during those fifty-seven hours in 2002.
The play is a 4-hander which bounces back and forth before the Dubrovka Theatre in 2002 and an interrogation room on the Russian frontier in 2003.
If you’re interested in producing it, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at the following:
Tim J. Lord 