A Note from the Director
Be a Good Little Widow, was written in 2010, which hardly makes it a period piece. And yet, the world has changed so much over the course of the past 14 years. In the original production, Craig was constantly checking emails on his blackberry; when Melody played music she plugged her pink iPod nano into an iHome speaker dock (unless she was playing Craig’s music, in which case she used his blue iPod nano); there was a TV and a cable box that Melody would rely on for everything from the news reports to her yoga video.
It was unsettling (although also very fortunate) how easily each of these now obsolete pieces of technology could be ‘updated’ for our production which takes place in 2024. Melody’s absent TV watching became her absent ‘doom’ scrolling; the hunky television set became an iPad; the cable box became an internet router; the news reports became a Twitter feed. Perhaps the world really hasn’t changed that much since 2010.
Or perhaps only the technology we use has changed - people haven’t. In any case, the problems that Melody faced as a young, newly wed, would-be housewife in 2010 are much the same as the problems that she would face today; feelings of alienation, a lack of love and emotional connection (generated, perhaps, by her constant usage of technology), uncertainty in the face of major life decisions, feeling incapable of living up to the demands that others place upon her and the need to confront and process difficult emotional traumas. These problems are shared by Melody’s fellow personae dramatis; Craig, Hope and even Brad. It is my belief that these are problems that we all share with Melody from time to time - I know I certainly do. And it is my hope that the lessons, often difficult and painful, that Melody, Craig, Hope and Brad learn in their 90 minutes of life on stage can be shared by all of us, too.
-George Goodell
