This Philly-based advice columnist wrote a play with no easy answers
You think you got problems Problems by the hundreds flood Philadelphia advice columnist and playwright R Eric Thomas inbox What about the niece who scheduled her wedding for the same day as her grandmother s th birthday Would shopping at a different grocery store help the married person crushing on a supermarket clerk How can a -year-old man with FOMD Fear of Missing Daddyhood attract a younger woman to marry him so he can be a father Resolving life s complicated questions at the rate of three a day seven days a week requires a daunting measure of chutzpah humility and potency along with lots of fast keyboard work Really it s a wonder that Thomas had any quota whatsoever for workshopping Glitter in the Glass his play running May through June at Theatre Exile Last year the Tribune Content Agency tapped Thomas to replace retiring syndicated advice columnist Amy Dickinson Ask Amy In Asking Eric Thomas now dispenses his wisdom answering questions in more than publications including the Washington Post But with less than a year on the job and a play on the way Thomas is already grappling with just how complicated selected questions are to answer His method Maybe answers aren t dependably required Or at least that s the position he s taking with Glitter in the Glass I started this play in Thomas noted Premiered as Nightbird the play focused on Chelle a Black artist answering a commission to create a new monument to replace a Confederate statue Officers removed the monument from a park near her childhood home in Baltimore R Eric Thomas It felt like I had to come up with a answer to the functioning question What do we do with this painful shared history Thomas noted How do we fix the scar of these Confederate monuments and everything they represent In Nightbird Chelle struggled endlessly with the question apparently because Thomas as her playwright creator was struggling as well Chelle did reach a conclusion by the final act but Thomas wasn t absolutely satisfied with how his own play ended So when Deborah Block producing artistic director at Theatre Exile offered him a chance for a do-over Thomas did just that refashioning his three-character Nightbird into Glitter in the Glass In his revised version Thomas decided that the thorny question of how a single monument should express the entire history and legacy of the Confederacy did not have to be answered by himself or his characters It was too big a task for her and for me he stated Instead the play moves toward a release a feeling of region as opposed to a feeling of conflict Just as Thomas the advice columnist looks at all the factors when answering questions from readers Thomas the playwright also weighed his own emotional situation against the prevailing tensions of our time For me as an artist I was hungering for something different right now I was hungering for an experience in the theater that I was being taken care of as an artist as a person as an audience he revealed So numerous plays will ring the alarm bell and shake the shoulders of the audience as if to say Do you see what s happening I say we know what s happening Thomas noted Here s a place for us to feel safe and renewed That renewal is really key to me Non-people characters Three people act in the play but they re joined by two more characters the removed monument and its replacement In crafting Glitter Thomas consulted with Jane Golden from Mural Arts Philadelphia and Paul Farber director of the Monument Lab a Philadelphia nonprofit two groups that cultivate and facilitate conversations about past present and future residents art and monuments One of the the majority gripping things that came up is this idea of monuments as a site of populace memory and also a site of group conversation Thomas mentioned Sometimes monuments can feel like things that are set in history and set in space by somebody else by a cabinet or an organization From left Danny Wilfred Willard and Jennifer Nikki Kidwell Chelle argue over what type of monument Chelle should create to replace the Confederate monument that once stood outside their childhood home in the play Glitter in the Glass Courtesy of Azella Gardens But true monuments come from the neighborhood they represent he declared describing them as a conversation in the present that is both telling a story about the past and using it to shape the future In that way monuments are time travelers which brings us to the title of Thomas work Glitter in the Glass It s a Star Trek reference To achieve the moments when Star Trek s characters are transported through time and space as are the ideas conveyed by monuments Star Trek s production crew filmed aluminum dust falling through a beam of high-intensity light glittering in the glass For Block Exile s producing artistic director the new title Thomas gave to his work is emblematic of his gifts as a playwright He has a way of bringing up really significant social issues she stated He s attracted to really nuanced ideas but he has a satirical sensibility a sit-com rhythm to his writing that allows audiences to enter into serious topics light-heartedly Thomas set Glitter in Baltimore where he grew up He moved to Philadelphia then back to Baltimore and now lives in South Philadelphia around the corner from Theatre Exile His husband Rev David Norse Thomas is a pastor at the Swarthmore Presbyterian Church For years Thomas has been sharing hosting duties at The Moth StorySlam held monthly at World Caf Live StorySlam is an open-mic storytelling competition based on a theme and part of a nationwide array of storytelling events sponsored by The Moth A New York nonprofit The Moth is dedicated to the craft of storytelling Thomas will next co-host on June when the topic is Hospitality Doors open at p m stories begin at p m FYI Glitter in the Glass directed by Ontaria Kim Wilson May -June Theatre Exile - S th St Phila - - The post This Philly-based advice columnist wrote a play with no easy answers appeared 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