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A Script Comes to Life at Munroe Saturday Nights Staged Playreading​

Erin McCormack, interview with Playwright Donald Cohen, Jan. 4, 2019


At 7:30 pm on Saturday, January 19, the Munroe Saturday Nights performance series will present a professional staged reading of Don Cohen’s play, The Intimacy Project. An earlier version of the play was well-received at the North Shore Readers Theater of Newburyport in October.
The performance at First Parish Church, 7 Harrington Road, is free, with a suggested donation of $10.
In this new comedy, Professor C.J. Jacob is so obsessed with his work on personal relationships that he ignores his wife, his daughter, and the dean of his college, rejecting their efforts to help him. It’s up to his loopy, energetic, funny, compassionate wife to save him from himself and ensure that things (sort of) work out for everyone.
Winner of a Massachusetts Artists Foundation playwriting fellowship, author Don Cohen has had many play readings in Lexington, most recently of Celestial Mechanics, a play about a NASA engineer’s difficult relationship with his adult daughter. We spoke with him recently about his new work.


What makes The Intimacy Project a comedy?
First of all, there are lines and situations that I hope the audience will laugh at. As in most comedies, problems are resolved at the end in this play, but only partly in this case; I can’t bring myself to write—or believe in—a happily-ever-after ending. I think of the play as a comedy of both relationships and ideas. The clashes of personalities are funny, at least at times. So is the glaring contrast between what the professor at the heart of the drama believes about the importance of connection and cooperation and how he behaves.


How long have you been working on the play?
Off and on for years—maybe as much as ten years. I seem to be very slow and inefficient at turning my interest in a particular set of characters and situations into an actual play. And other projects take precedence for a time. That seems to be my process. 


What has kept you interested for so long?
Partly it’s the complexity of the characters. I like the fact that they have mixed feelings and contradictory impulses and don’t always understand themselves, much less anyone else. Also, I’ve developed real affection for Evelyn, the professor’s wife, who is full of feeling and energy and is very smart in her own odd way


A version of The Intimacy Project had a reading in Newburyport last fall. What did you learn from that performance?
I learned that the play was too long, and I’ve made cuts that I think will definitely improve it. I saw some missed opportunities for humor and character development that I’ve tried to take advantage of this time around. On a more positive note, it’s gratifying to hear other people laugh at something that amused you in the privacy of your home office. And, of course, playwrights want to move their best work toward the goal of full production. 


What would you say to convince someone who doesn’t go to play readings to come to this one?
MSN selects new scripts that are refined enough to be accessible and entertaining. Audience members often discover they get so involved in the story that they forget the actors are reading from scripts. This is especially true when the actors are very talented, as they will be in this case. Four of the cast members of the very effective Newburyport reading—Kimberly Holliday, Heather Ferrari, Dave Sullivan, and Joe Domingue—will reprise their roles. C.J. will be read by Will Lyman, one of the Boston area’s best actors. And director Bryn Boice has directed acclaimed productions for the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and other local theater groups.
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