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Charly Evon Simpson

National Playwrights Conference, O’Neill Theater Center

I went to the O’Neill having had two readings of “it’s not a trip it’s a journey,” but without having had the opportunity to really workshop the play. The process at the O’Neill starts with what they call a dream design — when designers discuss ideas and questions that came up for them as they read the piece. This session was incredibly helpful to me as it unearthed themes that I had not consciously thought through before.

The play is about June, a black woman who convinces three of her friends to embark on a road trip. We see the characters in intimate spaces, in hotel rooms and in a car, and then at real public settings in the wide open United States. Those spaces include Lucy the Elephant, a six-story wood and tin elephant replica, in New Jersey; the largest ball of twine in Kansas; and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

This dream session put into words and images some of the tensions that exist between the characters. It also delved into the difficulty of creating the real spaces onstage. Lighting and sound cues could signal whether we were inside the car, or outside, but how would we depict Lucy the Elephant? We brainstormed solutions big and small. Lastly, the session gave me and my director, Nicole A. Watson, insight into how the play wants to work.

The next five days were filled with conversations with the cast, director, dramaturge and other supporters and observers we had in the room. I was able to discover which aspects of the play needed more exploration and spent the evenings rewriting. Two public readings were wonderfully executed by the cast and crew, and it was lovely to watch how the audience connected to the characters. The play found firmer ground, coming alive in a way I hadn’t seen.