As a writer, a lot of my heart and soul goes into a piece. It's hard, sometimes very hard, to write a piece of work. None for me have been as hard Living With the Family.
I've written six plays now, Living With the Family being my first. I spent three months to write this play. Others, like "Better Way," I wrote in full on December 20, 2017. I put a lot of thought into this play.
I trusted my wonderful director, Justin Shaw, to read it when I had finshed it, and he gave me a considerable amount of notes on the play, though all of them were positive. On February 3, 2018, Justin and I began to talk about producing the play.
I trusted him with casting, because his gut is never wrong. I took a backseat on the direction, because, as a writer, I don't trust myself to direct my own show, and bring it the justice it deserves. I decided to take the lead role in the show, and gave the directorial power solely to Justin. I have never been so pleased with a decision in my entire life.
A while ago, I wrote a short (three pages) piece about why I'm a writer. In it I used the phrase "I write because it's how I make myself who I am." When I reflect back on writing Living With the Family, that couldn't be more true. I initially wrote Living With the Family to be a therapy piece, never to be shown to the outside world, but soon, I realized the power of the piece. The relevance it has in society.
A piece like Living With the Family, if I can say without being biased, is a piece for a modern family today. Everyone has their problems, sure, but not everyone is comfortable sharing them with the world. I will be the first to admit, only half of this story is my own, but that doesn't make it any less relevant to my life, or to anyone else's. This piece touches on almost every problem faced by people in today's society. Homophobia, Depression, Fighting, and Family Problems, just to name a few. Several Members of my family are portrayed in this show, but that doesn't mean that these characters are my family. A piece that can manage to touch on as many areas of modern life always has a type of power that can't be taken away.
Writing a piece this powerful and meaningful, not only to me, but to anyone who could encounter it, took out almost everything I had to give. There would be days when I'd be halfway through a scene, and have to put down my (metaphorical) pen, and go to school, or sleep, and I would have an overwhelming feeling of depression lingering from the show, as if I was reliving the problems that led me to write the piece.
The piece, if I can say without bragging, has a stand alone power from other pieces I've written. All of my other five focus on one main issue, with a few underlying issues throughout. Living With the Family is filled with complexities, and that can make it seem overwhelming, but, as the writer, all I want to say is that, life is filled with complexities of its' own. So, if one really examines it, Living With the Family, with it's own stand alone grace, is more or less just a metaphor for life. It's simple complexities, It's clear ambiguities, and it's loud silence make it a piece that means so much more than my own problems.
~Zackary M R Smith
