How do you write a show where language is the main character? This was the mission of “Where Words Once Were” and its playwright, Finegan Kruckemeyer, when the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts first commissioned the play in 2016. We recently asked Finegan some questions about the show and about his outlook on language and words!
There is so much word play in this show. How did you come up with these elements like the anagrams, etc?
I am a word-nerd and cryptic crossword lover, so these were a pleasure. Some were autobiographical (my wife once gave me a card saying ‘see leaf fall’ and I looked at it and saw ‘feel all safe’), others were contrived for the play itself, and a couple were respectfully borrowed (‘No! It is opposition’ is a pretty amazing, existing palindrome, though I can’t locate its specific source). At the heart of the exercise, though, was writing the story, with all its emotional peaks and troughs. The wordplay was a layer then added, both for my own pleasure and (hopefully) yours.
Is there a particular character you identify with more than others?
I can see aspects of myself in all those onstage (and indeed in all plays I’ve ever written, whether knowingly imbued or by osmosis). If the ultimate intent is to write without judgment, I can recognise myself at my most austere in the teacher, and at my most rebellious in the two protagonists.
This show was originally commissioned in 2016, how do you think this show’s impact has grown since its premiere?
It’s cause for both sadness and celebration that every moment in time holds great oppression and great dissent. I am an optimist, and a humanist, and do believe that society’s trajectory is ultimately positive, that the glacial shift is a positive one. But of course the voices challenging that are loud too, and I guess it’s up to us to choose which we will listen to.
What do you hope young people will take away from the show? What do you hope parents/adults will take away from the show?
Sorry to be vague but I really try never to answer this question. I hope that each individual audience member takes from it whatever they wish. And whatever that is, you’re correct.
What is a word you can’t live without?
‘Autumnal’. I put it in the play because it’s my favourite word. And ‘love’. And ‘murmuration’. And ‘coffee’.
Thanks very much from across the seas to the ensemble for bringing this play to life, and to the audience for coming along.
“Where Words Once Were” runs through April 7, 2019 at the Kennedy Theatre in the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets available at: https://theatreraleigh.com/family-series/