9 April 2026

 

    In a desperate attempt to feel  control...I'm making my Theatre 1 kids write monologes based in a theme. As I am wont to do, I write with them.

    Turns out I've been writing blogs so long I have no idea how to write monologues. Here's what I barfed up:

     Theme: The fragility of the American Dream 9 April 2026 12.15 am

One of the greatest plays ever written, in my opinion, is The American Dream by Edward Albee. Of course I’m partial as I studied with the man for a year, and he produced my writing and coached me as a writer and human and teacher—I owe him A LOT. But I digress. He’d be disappointed. 

The American Dream takes place in the living room of Mommy and Daddy. Grandma lives with them but is being packed off because she is old. Mommy is domineering, Daddy is weak. In the scope of Mr. Albee’s work, these characters are familiar as they imitate his own adopted family in the Hamptons. As a man raised in wealth and privilege, Mr. Albee gratefully swung left of that and instead embraced free thought, art, expression and teaching.

There is a level of intellect necessary to process-let alone enjoy- Mr. Albee’s work. I do not feel like a snob saying this. Overall the intellectual capacity of people who attend plays over musicals is superior. It takes an understanding of language, philosophy and the human condition as well as stamina to sit through three hours of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Which I did–at the Alley theatre—because Mr. Albee directed it.

He was insistent that playwrights do not direct or act in their own work until after the first production. He said you can’t stop editing and fully engage in the power of your words if you’re always editing. I’d say he’s right. And I’ll also say I've acted in my own work, but only after it was produced the first time. It’s a way to get perspective, so many writers exist in a vacuum, and I guess that’s great if you’ve the confidence and ego—I’m looking at you David Mamet—but the rest of us value distance and another voice.

I blame Mr. Albee for my vocational choice to teach. I was full on going into theatre–acting sometimes, directing a bit but primarily writing. I wanted to Be A Playwright. That was my version of “the American Dream”, to do What You Love fully and make a living at it.

This was not my mom’s American Dream. Hers was tied to getting married and having kids and a home. That generation is the only one —arguably—that fully received the true American Dream: work an honest job for a good salary that allows you to buy a house and a car, an occasional vacation and retirement. The American Dream they were sold worked out for them, which is problematic when it comes to understanding the struggles other generations fought through later. They elbowed their kids into it, and we are not OK–let alone recipients of the dream. Greed took hold of America in the 1980’s and never let go. Those unwilling to play Wall Street were left out. Left to lesser salaries as nurses, teachers, mechanics, clerks, cosmetologists, oil rig workers. Paid less to contribute to society, as inflation rose exponentially but salaries did not keep pace. The Trumpers sold empty bonds and hollow stocks to line their own pockets. And now our own children, who understand the fragility of the dream by calling out The Dream itself as false, will never have one career that pays the bills and buys a home,get married. Raise kids. Enjoy retirement. 

I feel like I let them down. I have never voted for a presidential candidate that won–a dubious distinction. Twice I voted against someone, not for someone.

I think Gen X means we’re the generation at the crossroads. Our kids will be the ones to walk the change across the finish line, but not until the billionaire boomers and tech turds are struck down. Our job is to use everything we have in us to keep them afloat. And that does mean financially as well. Even those with “good” college degrees find themselves unable to find work in an oversaturated  field, or up against massive Trump cuts to research and environmental support. My oldest is very into art/work trade—they’ll cut someone’s hair in trade for vegetables from their client’s garden. This is going to be the future, the way we will have to function when the financial apocolypse explodes. This will be how we respond after being bombed back into the stone age by corporate greed and unhinged gluttony.

The American Dream was pure once, but always fragile. It relies on everyone —government and society—working together to keep us all afloat.

Eat the rich is only the beginning. We must build a new society and make sure this never happens again.