Professor’s play performed in New York
An original play written by a Utah State University professor is currently being performed in New York city.
“Yielding,” written by emeritus English professor Gene Washington, is a short play about a newlywed couple stranded on a chair lift after their mountain-top wedding. “Yielding” was first performed two years ago at USU and then in Salt Lake City before being picked up by the New York company Love Creek, Washington said.
The play is 15 minutes long, but has seven scenes. The couple is stranded for eight to 12 hours and works through an assortment of marital issues. The play is ultimately about the couple learning to “yield,” or submit, to each other, Washington said.
One of the first obstacles the couple faces is the responsibility they each have in an emergency. When the chairlift first gets stuck the bride says “Why don’t you do something?” to which the groom replies “Why should I do everything?” Washington said.
In another scene, the groom mentions, to his wife’s dismay and disagreement, that his father likes to be called to dinner by his mother. The couple also discusses what first attracted them to each other, how they are going to be late for their reception, and an uncertainty about where their wedding gifts ended up. In Act VI, the groom thinks that he and his new wife should have sex on the ski lift. When Act VII opens the bride and groom have switched seats.
“The audience usually gets it,” Washington said.
Washington said he got the idea for the play from various friends who had wedding ceremonies at ski resorts and a news story of a man a few years ago who got stuck on a ski lift. The play was structured around Shakespeare’s play, “As You Like It” which includes a monologue called “The seven ages of man.” Each of Washington’s acts is influenced by one of Shakespeare’s ages, he said.
Washington said it took him only a few months to write “Yielding.”
“Once you get started on one of them they take on a life of their own and kind of just write themselves,” Washington said of his play.
The hardest part of the process was making the play sound real and conversational. Washington drew on his past at USU listening to student dialogue because the bride and the groom in the play are college aged.
“Yielding” is not Washington’s first play. Since retiring in 1993, Washington said he has had a lot more free time to write. He said he enjoys writing short stories, poems and plays. It’s not Washington’s first time with a play in New York either.
A year and a half ago, Washington’s play “When Robert Redford Ran Over My Skis” was performed in the Big Apple. “Redford” was a play about two girls at a ski resort who discuss and fantasize about Robert Redford running over their skis and then losing their virginity to him. The play was inspired by a similar conversation about Stein Erickson Washington overheard when once in Deer Valley.
At press time, Washington was in New York City to watch his play performed. Because he has no real say once the play is in the hands of the director, he said he has enjoyed seeing it performed a little differently each time.
-hilaryi@cc.usu.edu