Day by Lanford Wilson
"Day" is a one-act play by Lanford Wilson, part of a collaborative project involving three prominent playwrights, including Terrence McNally and Joe Pintauro. This project, conceived by the Bay Street Theatre Festival Committee, aims to unify three individual stories set on a beach, each representing different times of day: dawn, day, and dusk. Wilson's play takes place at midday and is centered around three characters—a man named Ace, his girlfriend Bill, and a mysterious writer named Mace. Unique to Wilson's contribution, the narrative begins with no prior context for Ace, allowing his character's story to unfold organically.
The play explores themes of relationships and social dynamics, highlighted by a tense discussion about immigration and its implications in contemporary society. This creative endeavor emphasizes a shared setting and character dynamics, providing a cohesive experience for the audience. Overall, "Day" exemplifies Wilson's skill in character development and plot progression within the constraints of a one-act format, contributing to the rich tapestry of narratives woven throughout the collaborative production.
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Day by Lanford Wilson
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First produced: 1995, as part of By the Sea by the Sea by the Beautiful Sea (first published, 1996)
Type of work: Play
The Work
Members of the Bay Street Theatre Festival Committee in Long Island’s Hamptons hatched the original idea for By the Sea by the Sea by the Beautiful Sea. The community, the heart of which is Sag Harbor, is home to many writers, actors, and other celebrities. The committee proposed involving three of the area’s most notable playwrights—Terrence McNally, Joe Pintauro, and Lanford Wilson—in a collaborative effort that would eventuate in three one-act plays having to do with the sea and the beach. The plays would all take place on one day, respectively in the morning, at noon, and at sunset.
Wilson’s contribution to this collaborative effort is the middle play, “Day.” Pintauro wrote “Dawn,” and McNally wrote “Dusk.” The great challenge was to have a unified work rather than merely three one-act plays. The authors gathered to decide what the setting of each play would be, and they finally decided that the beach would become the unifying setting. After it was decided that dawn, day, and dusk would be times of the plays, the three playwrights drew straws to determine which time frame each would use. Each play was to have three characters, two women and one man, but they were to play different roles in the plays, each of whose characters was different.
Originally, one of the plays took place at a lifeguard station, one on a dock, and one on a stretch of beach. Finally, however, to increase the unity of the production, it was decided that all of the plays would take place on a stretch of beach and that there would be no identifying references to actual places so that the beach in each play would have a universality.
Pintauro’s play begins in the very early morning and continues until dawn. It is about a sister, a brother, and the brother’s wife who come to the beach to spread the ashes of their dead mother. Wilson’s contribution takes place during the lunch hour and involves a man who does landscaping, his girlfriend, and a mysterious woman writer. McNally’s contribution takes place at sunset and involves two woman vying for the attention of one man.
Wilson’s play is unique in the trio because it begins with a clean slate and is heavily plot-oriented. The audience knows nothing about Ace, his male character, so his whole story is unfolded without reference to any past history. Such is not the case in the other two plays. Writing within the one-act format, Wilson has to develop his play quickly, as do the other two collaborators.
The women characters in the three acts contrast sharply to each other. Mace, the writer, is reserved and, on the surface, more proper than Bill, Ace’s girlfriend. She also appears to be better educated. Ace himself is reserved and enjoys being alone, but not to the extent that Mace does.
At one point, Bill engages in a shouting match with Ace, during which all three characters talk heatedly and simultaneously. They get into a discussion about the immigration of Latins to the United States. Ace points out that a twenty-seven-year-old pharmacist from Columbia works with him planting trees and doing landscaping for the affluent because he can make more money doing that than he can ever hope to make in Colombia pursuing his profession.
This experiment was extremely creative in its conception. It also was remarkably creative in its execution on Broadway under the splendid direction of Leonard Foglia.
Bibliography
Barnett, Gene A. Lanford Wilson. Boston: Twayne, 1987.
Bryer, Jackson R., ed. Lanford Wilson: A Casebook. New York: Garland, 1994.
Busby, Mark. Lanford Wilson. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1987.
Dasgupta, Gautam. “Lanford Wilson.” In American Playwrights: A Critical Survey, edited by Bonnie Marranca and Gautam Dasgupta. New York: Drama Book Specialists, 1981.
Dean, Anne M. Discovery and Invention: The Urban Plays of Lanford Wilson. Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1994.
Gussow, Mel. “A Playwright at Home with Life’s Outsiders.” The New York Times, September 15, 2002, p. AR1.
Herman, William. Understanding Contemporary American Drama. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1987.
Hornsby, Richard Mark. “Miscarriages of Justice.” The Hudson Review 56 (Spring, 2003): 161-167.
Schvey, Henry I. “Images of the Past in the Plays of Lanford Wilson.” In Essays on Contemporary American Drama. Edited by Hedwig Bok and Albert Wertheim. Munich: Max Huber Verlag, 1981.
Williams, Philip Middleton. A Comfortable House: Lanford Wilson, Marshall W. Mason, and the Circle Repertory Theatre. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1993.