"Spokesperson" was produced by the Prop Thtr in Chicago. May 22 to June 29, 2008.

The play was directed by William Bullion.

The cast: Paul Bunton, Jonathan Cofield, Gilmary Doyle-Andrews, Gordon Gillespie, Diane M. Honeyman, MacKenna Murphy, Kelly Owens and Jen Remke.

Sloane A. L. Spencer was the Stage Manager.

There was an exhibition of my artwork in their lobby during the run.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS FROM THE CHICAGO PRODUCTION.

CLICK HERE FOR THE PROP THTR PRESS RELEASE

CLICK HERE FOR THE POSTCARD IMAGE

The Prop did two very skillful staged readings of "Spokesperson" as part of their 10th Annual New Play 2007 festival last summer. The audience response indicated that the play was ready for a full production.

2 acts

An empty stage set, 3 females, 3 males

Minimal props

The play revolves around Candy, a spokesperson for a factory suspected of releasing toxins into a suburban lake. Candy is 30ish, pretty and successfully pursuing her career. She smiles for the TV news camera and confidently says her company is not responsible for the thousands of dead fish floating in the lake. But Candy’s media savvy appearance is eroded as her personal life unravels. Protesters hurl insults at her and vandalize her car but that doesn’t bother her as much as the aching fear that all she believes in may not be real. The story follows Candy as the pollution gradually worsens to the point where the lake eventually bursts into flames. Candy’s allegiance to her company and American industry keeps her from questioning whether the allegations of pollution are true. She also ardently defends her personal values in a series of imagined scenes where she becomes the spokesperson for Candy’s life. At first she says Candy is doing wonderful but she supports that claim with statistics based on standard materialistic values presented in the same way she would promote the factory. As the play develops, Candy’s role as a spokesperson for herself echoes her job representing the factory when evidence of her flaws becomes as impossible to deny as the factory’s responsibility for the burning lake.

Three people have an influence in Candy’s unraveling. One is Craig, an administrator with the factory who is having an affair with Candy. He quickly abandons her when the factory becomes a target of public anger. An ecological activist named Andy is Candy’s opposite but he is fascinated with her. Andy is aware that he is also a spokesperson with an agenda. After each media appearance that puts them at odds publicly, Andy privately tries to convince Candy that they’re actually very similar inside though polar extremes outside. That core similarity draws them together. Lucy is an alleged victim of Candy’s employer. She is an older woman confined to a wheelchair because of a mysterious green pox illness that is blamed on the factory. She has a saint-like persona for the media but when she’s alone with Candy she becomes foulmouthed and irreverent. Lucy also has an agenda but hers is based on the belief that everyone is complicit in the evils of the world.

Candy’s media image isn’t more fabricated than the ones presented by the eco-activist, the alleged victim and the TV news reporter. The play is as much about the way the news media depicts an issue as it is about how special interests try to spin that depiction. Candy is the catalyst but not necessarily the target of the play’s analysis. The audience is the target.