FHS grad has play at Kennedy Center
Posted on Tuesday, December 25, 2007
While Fayetteville High School graduate Nathan Lane now lives in Philadelphia and he has attended college at Boston and Kansas, his connections to Arkansas have helped him succeed as a playwright.
Arkansas was the setting of his first full-length play," The Devil's Teacup," which he wrote while working on his master of fine arts in playwriting at Boston University.
"It takes place in the back room of a bar in Arkansas," he said.
The play was performed at the Boston Playwright's Theater in October. It was selected to be performed at the Kennedy Center for the Arts' American College Theater Festival's Region I competition, which takes place in Massachusetts Jan. 31 through Feb. 5.
"If they like it, then it will be selected for the national festival," Lane said.
The play takes place in the fictional small town of Calvary, Ark., which Lane describes as having a church and a bar but not much else. The plot revolves around a young man named Max Fletcher who, having moved away to New York to try making it as a musician, returns to the town for the funeral of his father, who owns the local bar.
"The biggest theme is you can never really go home again," Lane said. "And, people aren't always who you thought they were."
During the course of the play, Max struggles with whether or not to stay in Calvary and if he should sell the bar, named The Devil's Teacup, to the local Baptist Church, which wants the property for an expansion. His brother, Oogie, wants him to stay and keep the bar.
The play has a total of seven characters, Lane said, and throughout the course of the play, present and past characters come in to talk to Max.
"The father, even though he's dead, comes in and out," Lane said.
Lane attended Boston University for the 2006-2007 school year. The school offered a one-year M. F. A. program, he said, and each year one student's play is selected to be fully produced.
This year," The Devil's Teacup"was selected.
Setting of the play in Arkansas and the "Bible Belt"might have helped set the play apart from some of the others.
"You got to have some signature or individuality," he said.
While in Boston, Lane also had a short play called "Bigfoot Dreams," set in Oklahoma, which was performed at the Boston Theatre Marathon.
Since graduating from Boston University, Lane has been living in Philadelphia and teaching classes at Lincoln University and Philadelphia University.
A 1997 graduate of FHS, Lane is the son of Debbie and Buzz Lane of Fayetteville. He attended the University of Arkansas after high school, majoring in theater.
Most of his theater experiences in high school and the UA involved acting.
"I liked acting, but it wasn't enough," he said.
After graduating from the University of Arkansas, he worked at various jobs in town for two years before moving to Lawrence to study film at the University of Kansas. After KU, he went to Boston University.
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