2022 Reading List
This year I found myself reading mostly plays because my interest in theater — from performing in productions as a child to juggling…
This year I found myself reading mostly plays because my interest in theater — from performing in productions as a child to juggling acting and architecting when I was a graduate student at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, serves as an outlet to provoke thought and imagination. Some I re-read, and some I read for the first time:
Private Jokes, Public Places (by Oren Safdie) is sardonic yet entertaining, illustrates not only laughable rhetoric and aesthetic failings of architects, but also their moral shortcomings in treating clients, students, staff, and critics.
Bilbao Effect (by Oren Safdie) examines whether architecture has become more of an art than a profession, and at what point do the ethics of one violate the other — provoking thought and inspiring discourse about the profession’s disregard for some of society’s needs.
False Solution (by Oren Safdie) explores the issues of commemoration and commercialization in architecture and its role in society. It examines their resulting debate, as well as the conflict between characters of an established German-Jewish architect and a striking young intern, including the effects of war, religious identity, and sexual politics, when the creative process and personal agendas collide.
Color Blind (by Oren Safdie) uses the narrative of a fictionalized jury deliberation surrounding the selection of an architect for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC, to discuss broader issues on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI). It invites audiences to be privy to critical selection decisions, allowing them to see through the veil that renders them bewildering.
Unseamly (by Oren Safdie) inspired by various allegations of sexual harassment, it shows female sexuality confronting male corporate power and the difficulties of being an immigrant woman of color in America.
Picasso At The Lapin Agile (by Steve Martin) features the worlds of science, the arts, and performance that collide at a Parisian bar called the Lapin Agile, as represented in the characters of Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, and Elvis (implied). Set at the turn of the 20th century, Einstein was on the verge of publishing his Special Theory of Relativity, Picasso would paint Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, and Elvis was about to manifest his name on lights, in Vegas.
The Divine Comedy (by Dante Alighieri) is a narrative poem that inspired various performances on stage. It is considered one of the greatest works of literature and was one of the first in the Middle Ages, to confront a hard issue — the redemption of humanity.
Our Country’s Good (by Timberlake Wertenbaker) is a play inspired from the novel The Playmaker. The plot centers on a group of Royal Marines and convicts in a penal colony in New South Wales, set in 1780, who put on a production of a play called The Recruiting Officer.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (by William Shakespeare) is a popular and widely performed play set in 1595 in Athens, and contains several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta.
Hamlet (by William Shakespeare) another popular and widely performed play, it is considered Shakespeare’s most powerful and influential work of literature. In it is a play called The Mousetrap within the actual play, Hamlet. It depicts the power struggle between Hamlet and his uncle Claudius, and the lengths he went to uncover the truth about his father’s death.
You might be interested to read them too. And let me know your thoughts.