May 23, 2022
Director James Ijames
I am a fan of playwrights. The way people root for and follow sporting teams and star-level athletes, that’s how I interact with playwrights and their plays. I have been a Jackie Sibblies Drury fanatic since I appeared in her hypnotic and arresting play We Are Proud to Present… I learned from being inside one of Jackie’s masterpieces that to meet her work, you will be asked to extend yourself intellectually and physically, and Fairview is no different.
This play in structure and temperament is a sitcom that trips on a wrinkle in the rug and tumbles into the uncanny, the sublime, and the truth. If you are sitting in this room watching this play, you have survived so much. Think about it! You have survived tremendous restriction, tremendous loss, tremendous grief, fears, pain, anxiety– the list goes on. Now consider that what I have described is the daily lived experience of many marginalized people. Right now, some family is living apocalypse.
Jackie’s play asks us all to imagine together what it means to choose a different path. To practice empathy. To make room for someone who is suffocating. And to be clear–that person may be sitting right next to you in this very moment. They could be a neighbor. They could be a co-worker. They could be a spouse. They could be your own child. When the time comes, someone may ask you to move so they can breathe. I hope you will make space and recognize that their breathing does not stifle yours. There is air enough for all.
-Co-Artistic Director James Ijames
