Director's Note
Avery Erskine's one-act play, STRATEGY begins with banter, leads to full-throated argument, and concludes with a truce and the hope that best choices will be made. A 50-year-old career politician, Mark, and his daughter, Jeanette, a writer of high perception and great skill. The play raises questions of how to balance career vs family and what is fair use vs. exploitation of family issues for political (or other career) capital. Sensitively and skillfully developed dialog has the potential to lead an audience as well as the two characters to realize that argument does not have to be combat and that it can and should lead to understanding. But this is no TV "Afternoon special." Instead, sources of pain are exposed. Can we step outside ourselves and our roles to see beyond our own goals to ease that pain? Do we even understand how important and possible that is? --Becky Prophet, Alfred University
Avery Erskine's one-act play, STRATEGY begins with banter, leads to full-throated argument, and concludes with a truce and the hope that best choices will be made. A 50-year-old career politician, Mark, and his daughter, Jeanette, a writer of high perception and great skill. The play raises questions of how to balance career vs family and what is fair use vs. exploitation of family issues for political (or other career) capital. Sensitively and skillfully developed dialog has the potential to lead an audience as well as the two characters to realize that argument does not have to be combat and that it can and should lead to understanding. But this is no TV "Afternoon special." Instead, sources of pain are exposed. Can we step outside ourselves and our roles to see beyond our own goals to ease that pain? Do we even understand how important and possible that is? --Becky Prophet, Alfred University