Playwright Terry Guest on the World Premiere of "Oak"

Summer Wallace with Terry Guest  

Here's a newsflash (not): I love being in the same room with creative people. It's one of the reasons Sarasota is my home. And there's no better place to get up close and personal with actors, directors and playwrights than Urbanite Theatre. Case in point: Hearing playwright Terry Guest talk about "Oak," a show with a Southern Gothic feel that opened last weekend. 

If you're a Sarasota theater person, Terry's name might sound familiar. He also wrote "At the Wake of a Dead Drag Queen," a play that premiered at Urbanite back in 2021. A lot has changed for Terry since he wrote "Wake" during his lunch breaks while working at a Chicago coffee shop. He's now a full time playwright and the recipient of multiple commissions, including a musical he's putting the finishing touches on compliments of the largesse of the Goodman Theatre. 

"Oak" was also the result of a commission awarded during the pandemic -- the 2020 Charles Rowan Beye New Play Commission. But there's one big difference between the Urbanite and the Goodman commissions. Once completed, Urbanite guaranteed Terry a production of his new show. And so once the script was finalized -- more or less -- Terry headed back to Sarasota to share his work with Urbanite audiences. 

During a talk at Urbanite, Terry shared his inspiration for "Oak." He grew up in Albany, Georgia, a place far, far away from Chicago where he was quarantined during the pandemic. He missed home. He missed the outdoors, especially the trees. And he missed his mother. Set in a small wooded town, "Oak" grew out of those feelings. That makes it sound as if the play might border on sentimentality. But that's not the way Terry writes. "Oak" is wildly creative and hilarious and even a bit scary. It made me think about family and the choices we make and their consequences. I loved it. 

Guest is the first to admit that the play now on stage is quite different from the one page proposal he submitted for the commission. How can you know what a play is going to be until you actually put pen to paper? But one aspect of the proposal that remained intact was its Southern Gothic overtones. 

You might wonder, as I did, what it means for a play to have a "Southern Gothic" feel. And so I asked. He immediately began talking about the Civil War and the Old South and its huge plantations. These homes were once beatuiful -- if blood-stained -- but often fell into disrepair once slave labor was no longer available to maintain them. And so the ivy began to overwhelm the homes and they eventually crumbled, leaving behind what Terry called "ghastly remnants." What a perfect setting to conjure up a bit of horror. 

With Terry Guest on opening night

Happily for Urbanite and the other theatres that will be mounting "Oak," the play doesn't require the recreation of one of those old homes. Instead, the most important setting is the woods to which kids are automatically drawn. You can see in the picture above how scenic designer Frank Chavez captured this setting. Director Mikael Burke took full advantage of the design with the most creative staging of a show I've seen in a long time. I was in from the first moment. 

  

I mentioned above the "other theatres" that will be producing this play. Terry doesn't just hope that that will happen. "Oak" will be seen over the next 18 months at three other theatres across the country. The play is part of a rolling world premiere through the National New Play Network. The program provides support for a show to be produced in three different theatres, each of which will put its own mark on the play. It's an amazing opportunity for Terry to see multiple interpretations of his work as different actors, directors and creative teams bring "Oak" to life. Once the show has been wrapped at Urbanite, it will move on to the confusingly named Phoenix Theatre Cultural Center in Indianapolis and the Alleyway Theatre in Buffalo. And there's more! Terry and Burke are also bringing the show to a small theater in Chicago in October 2025. I might have to pop up to see that production. 

"Oak" runs at Urbanite Theatre through June 30th. It's the perfect way to spend a sultry summer night. For tickets, click here. And for more info on Terry and his work, click here. Stay cool!