FACTS
About Light the Way Back:
- Premiered in 2020 (early pandemic), at Millersville University (where it was originally set.
- Has been performed virtually multiple times
- I really wanted to note this because I, personally, feel that performing this play virtually defeats the purpose and the messages regarding the importance of theatre and its legacy. Is virtual theatre, theatre? I’d be really curious to know why the playwright allowed a virtual performance of this work.
About the Rachel Luann Strayer:
- Pennsylvania based
- Works for Gaslight theatre company
- MFA in Creative Writing and Playwriting from Wilkes University
- Experience in theatre education at various universities
- Finalist in the Henley Rose Playwriting Competition for Women, Premiere Stages at Kean University, Jane Chambers Award for Excellence in Feminist Playwriting
About the text:
- Cam and Jamie are teenagers
- Cam and Jamie break into a theatre
- Jamie has a fair amount of historical knowledge learned from their grandmother
- Jamies grandmother did plays in college.
- They find hand sanitizer, a script, costumes, etc.
- The theatre has been abandoned for nearly 50 years
- There was a war in the past
- There was a pandemic in the past
- Many people of the grandparent generation did not survive
- Technology does theatre better
- Jamie lives with their mom and grandmother.
- Jamie has never held a book before
- There is a curfew siren.
QUESTIONS
- Do Jamie and Cam go to school?
- What is Cam’s home and family life like?
- Why did they break into the theatre?
- How did they break into the theatre?
- Why hasn’t Jamie held a book before?
- How do Jamie and Cam know each other?
- What is Jamie’s home / family life like?
- What age are Jamie and Cam?
- Why did Rachel Luann Strayer choose a university setting?
- What themes does Rachel Luann Strayer typically include in her plays?
- Is this play Strayer’s type? Or something new for her?
- Why did strayer choose to write this play?
ANSWERS
- Jamie and Cam go to school online.
- Cam’s family is never mentioned in the play. Cam is not in a rush to go home. So Cam’s family life is fairly lonely.
- They broke into the theatre because they were curious and wanted to escape the dystopian outside world.
- They climbed into the theatre through a broken window.
- There was a book burning of any controversial texts (aka most books)
- Jamie and Cam are best friends. They have never met each other’s families, but they spend a lot of time one on one together.
- Jamie lives with just their mother and grandmother.
- Jamie and Cam are 17
- Rachel Luann Strayer has worked at numerous universities around the nation.
- Strayer usually writes using themes and images such as feminism, covid-19, light, ghosts, literature, and history.
- Strayer’s most produced play is called Drowning Ophelia in which a modern-day woman finds Shakespeare’s Ophelia in her bathtub.
- “Light the Way Back indulges all my worst fears, but still offers one bright, shining moment of hope at the end.” (Auburn University Article – Linked below)
RESOURCES
A video of Strayer explaining why and when she wrote Light the Way Back
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=197736312309839
Auburn University– Meet the playwrights: Description of Strayer’s background, with brief information about her plays, and reasoning for writing Light the Way Back https://cla.auburn.edu/theatre/news/meet-the-playwrights-for-together-apart-rachel-strayer/
A review of Strayer’s play Drowning Ophelia from the Broad Street Review – alludes to Stayers common theme of relating past and present https://www.broadstreetreview.com/articles/philly-fringe-2016-ensemble-atria-and-eagerrisktheaters-drowning-ophelia
Stayer’s profile is on the New Play Exchange where the majority of her works are published. https://newplayexchange.org/users/21286/rachel-luann-strayer
Strayer’s Honors Thesis about her play Downing Ophelia and how it relates to creative writing and dramaturgy. – Strayer, Rachel Luann, and Wilkes University. School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. “Drowning Ophelia: A Thesis in Creative Writing.” Wilkes University, Author, 2011.
INSIGHTS
I was initially surprised to see that while Rachel Luann Strayer has written many plays, there is not a lot of info about her, herself that is published. However, I was pleased to find some articles as well as a video directly of Strayer that explain that she created this play to face her own fears and to inspire hope in a scary time. I was really glad to read that because that’s the same reason why I chose to direct the play. The future scares me very much, and I want the play to encourage my audience to be optimistic moving forward. I was also interested to see that Strayer is known for feminist plays, as the script for Light the Way Back says that the characters can be played by any gender identity. Before this research, I had not considered the possibility of casting two women, but I think it could be cool to create a camaraderie between two women of different backgrounds.