Director's Note

The Titles We Wear

“What happens when you step outside of your role in a family? Can you be in a family and still be yourself, or do you always have to sacrifice some part of your identity and freedom?” 

Bess Wohl, GRAND HORIZONS playwright, in W Magazine

Of all the titles we wear—teacher, Babe, mother, the funny one—it is infrequent that one or all encompass our being. Any role that we put ourselves into, or feel put into, can diminish our sense of self, shallowing the depth of each person’s humanity. A long time of playing your role, and things may become automatic, erased, unrecognizable. GRAND HORIZONS’ Nancy French seeks dignity, respect, and to be seen beyond a role — a woman with desires, secrets and dreams.

While directing GRAND HORIZONS, I have been mining the themes and symbolism of the text to explore with the actors. Let me start by saying that I think Bess Wohl is just a genius playwright. This is the second show of hers we have produced in two years. There’s a great reason why, her words are extraordinary. And what she lays open for the actors between the lines, in the silences, is breathtaking.

I really love that our protagonist, Nancy French, at age 80, decides to finally take control of her life. She decides that whatever time she has left, she will be the master designer of it, no matter the cost, which just might be her marriage and family.

I think at the heart of her decision to ask her husband for a divorce after 50 years of marriage is the realization that the one thing every human being has in common is that we are all dying. And that the fear of death and impending change and grief it causes are too much to think about and cause us to remain in places in life that are not serving us, in a state of homeostasis. Are people just afraid of the capacity of change? Because if we confront the capacity to change, then that might mean we have the responsibility to constantly be transforming ourselves. Nancy wants to transform herself and is. There is no going back. The grand horizon ahead of her is limitless.

What she is so afraid of is not fully living.

In the story, Nancy’s daughter-in-law, Jess, is pregnant. Rebirth is a powerful symbolism in the play. It’s no accident that Wohl made Nancy the mother of two boys and Jess the impending mother of a male child. Her pregnancy is like a ticking time bomb; the urgency to learn how to communicate better with Ben so they don’t repeat the mistakes of the parents and create a dysfunctional family is upon them. Nancy has operated her whole life in a patriarchal family unit. She is showing Jess a new way to be in a new generation and Jess is teaching her, too. I find Jess to be the most interesting of the family members. This is a family where no one has talked about their feelings in years, and they don't know how to talk to each other. And the most interesting person to drop in this world is someone whose whole life is about feelings and talking about them. That being said, when the play begins, Jess hasn't quite applied that to herself; there's a lot she's feeling that she's not saying, which she comes to realize over the course of the play.

Meanwhile, Bill works on his stand-up comedy routine and is seeing a girlfriend, another distraction from his own mortality or doing the hard and sometimes painful work of being fully present in his marriage and family life. He is a member of a particular generation where open communication and showing vulnerability is not the norm.

Since this production uses a contemporary timeline, our characters have lived through the creation of suburbia, the height of the Vietnam War, the #MeToo movement, and both the 1973 decision and recent overturning of Roe v. Wade. The growing French family also lived through a major American Media cultural shift: 1970s Good Housekeeping covers projecting and perpetuating the perfect American family, then 1980s television shows (Family Ties, Growing Pains, Who’s the Boss?) showcasing mothers in the workplace – which contextualizes GRAND HORIZONS’ themes of identity and autonomy.

This play is about when you can and should undo your commitments, and Ben and Brian are positioned at opposite ends of that spectrum. Aside from them being gay and straight, they each have such a different relationship to commitment. Ben is at the turning point where he can’t turn back and is questioning what it means to be committed to someone. He is married and has a pregnant wife. Brian has lived a life where he's been a little commitment-phobic. And now they’re at a point where they’re questioning their own choices and judging the choices of the other one.

Nancy resists the current cultural milieus of obsolescence, dehumanization, and isolation from claiming her agency. She challenges her roles by being honest with herself, finding the words for her wants, advocating for them, and taking action. This story asks: how do you show love, how do you perceive love, and how do you love the person in front of you? Though parents will always be Mom or Dad to their kids, they have been and will continue to be vibrant, complex individuals beyond any role. And, if they are paying attention to their one finite life, they never stop desiring.

I’ve had the pleasure of having many intimate and enriching conversations with our actors during the rehearsal process. We have shared our own life experiences with each other and how we relate so much to each character. I hope you find a bit of yourself or your family in the French family, too. And I hope you never stop the process of self-discovery.

— Susannah Hough