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Conversation Pieces | ||||||
Vol. 94 — Stop Plosive | ||||||
by Cesi Davidson
Why not? In this collection of plays, I play. Why not? I explore how we can become more human with perspective-taking by giving an object, food, or animal, human characteristics. I place humans in unusual circumstances with time and space, and with mixed intentions. What can we discover? Come play with me. Let’s laugh and have fun together. Let’s acknowledge our sadness. And let’s cry together. Let’s admit that we don’t know all the answers but still know the importance of asking questions. Why not? Cesi Davidson—from the Introduction Advance Praise The plays in this collection will elicit a mosaic of
emotions. There's joy (Potato Chip Race), and laughter (Mrs. Brown's
Dilemma), anger (Where's Becky?) and bewilderment (Clockwise). You'll
meet yourself, your family, your friends, and even your
frenemies. You'll know that we are seen and immortalized in
print. Allow these feelings to course around your body through the
magic of plays on a page. Cesi Davidson has done it again, in this,
her fourth collection. We can always depend on this prolific
playwright to deliver us to ourselves in all our messy glory.
Why Not? One particular play, “Bus Talk,” really spoke to me. “Bus Talk” shares the story of a New York City bus driver on his last day of work before retirement. The play begins with the bus driver lamenting that despite his 33-year stellar safe driving record, his employer is more concerned with weeding out bus drivers who are deemed too old and making too much money. This metaphoric scenario is familiar to those of us who have experienced a career in which our deep and personal connections with our core constituency, the “passengers on the bus,” are not appreciated by the administrators of the “bus system.” The genius of Davidson’s play is in creating an uplifting story in which the bus driver realizes his true gift in connecting with specific passengers on his bus and then magically bestowing his gifts on each passenger without the constraints that the bus system imposes on him. The bus driver essentially is living his last workday in the realm of “Why Not?”. In other words, Davidson is asking her readers to contemplate this compelling question: Without systemic constraints and barriers, imagine what we could do with our life? Imagine what we could do if we lived life in the sphere of “Why Not?”. For example, why not use our true gifts which are grounded in love for one another?Thank you Cesi Davidson, for your many gifts, which fill my heart and head with your inspirational “Why not?”. In Stop Plosive, Cesi Davidson’s wildly imaginative short
plays continue to astonish. In this slender volume, she had me
laughing at her hilarious take on superbad sex machine/soul brother
James Brown. She had me crying as a retiring bus driver doles out
random acts of kindness to his passengers. She had me thinking about
the insidious way white privilege works in “Where’s Becky,” a
politically enlightened homage to Waiting for Godot. And she
gave me hope in “Bringing Tiny Home” when white and black stepsisters
overcome their differences and figure out a way to care for their
recently deceased father’s dog. What more can one ask of a playwright?
And yet there is more, much more. Read or watch these plays. You will
be very happy you did.
Plays: Dinner for Two & Where's Becky?
ISBN: 978-1-61976-266-4 (13 digit)
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