Stage Notes: Little Doc

Brooklyn native Dan Klores is a well-respected documentary filmmaker.  He's made six films in the last eight years and four of them have previewed at Sundance.  Two of them won major awards: Crazy Love (2008 Independent Spirit Award, Best Documentary) and Black Magic (Peabody Award).  Two others are sports-related, the moving and eloquent boxing bio, Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story (2005), and the humorous and arresting Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. the New York Knicks.  Now he's written a play, Little Doc, that's directed by John Gould Rubin, and being presented by the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Set in the 1970s, four friends gather in a Brooklyn apartment under the El and above a neighborhood bar, to deal with a dangerous situation, and maybe find out the validity of their generation's adopted virtues: sex, drugs and rock 'n roll. I spoke with the cordial playwright, who chose his words carefully and tried to give me honest and thoughtful answers.
 
Hi  Dan. OK, set the scene, tell me what your play is about.
It takes place in Brooklyn in 1975.  It's a play about "can-you-fix-broken-relationships?"  That is, I think that's the question.  It takes place in one night.  Four very close old hippie friends, three guys and one gal, in their late 20s, early 30s, get together over a dope deal that went bad.  They explore the mixture of their relationships, as best friends, as lovers.  A father walks in, there's the father's son there in the room.  There are three kinds of relations here: father-son, best friends and lovers.  It also questions the so-called virtues of that lifestyle: openness, being loved, drugs; because these characters have spent years living this way.  And hopefully, the play, in a subtle way, explores a world bigger than what's going on at that moment.  I think that's what it's about.
 
So, at first it's three guys and a woman in the room?
To start with.  And then a father comes, with his friend, his boss.  And there's a fifth character, who lives in between both of these worlds.  Seven characters total; it's a two-act play.
 
Is there a resolution?
I hope so.  The play at times I think is very authentic, and at times, very funny within that.  The one woman, in her late 20s, tells about giving her first blowjob and it's a pretty funny scene.  There are moments of this real tension and sexuality, and that's a funny moment.
 
Anything more you'd like to tell me?
A lot of it is about fathers and sons and belonging to different generations.  They're coming from a poor, middle-class background in Brooklyn.  So what were they able to get from their parents, and what effect did that have on how they treated themselves.  That is a big part of  the play.  They didn't come from places where love, encouragement, embrace and support were in the house.  So now they step into the counter-culture. And there's a conflict of virtues from were they came from.  The culture is that love is free, they've been told to share and not be judgmental; and their parents, they come from a place which is completely different, that's the conflict.
 
The rehearsals must be something for you; a lot different than shooting documentary footage.
What I'm learning is that you have to respect and fear the whole process, and the stage.  I've directed six films; and when you direct a film, you're the boss.  Here you have to watch everyone else interpret and learn, including your director.  And then you learn.
 
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, 224 Waverly Pl., (212) 868-4444. Previews June 11, opens June 17. Mon., 8 p.m.; Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., p.m. $45.

Photo by Sandra Coudert