Last summer, playwright Wendy Hammond spent five days, five very intensive days, at the Sundance Playwriting Institute, where her new play, "The Ghostman," was read, discussed, revised, debated, probed and revised again.
Hammond, who has strong Utah roots and who graduated from the University of Utah with a theater degree, could be back at one of Sundance's other venues in the next year or two - the Sundance U.S. Film Festival.In mid-February, just before "The Ghostman" opened at Salt Lake Acting Company, Hammond was busy with another opening of the highly acclaimed drama in Charlotte, N.C. - and while she was in North Carolina she also spent some time doing more research into a film script she's writing for an independent New York filmmaker about the life and assassination of native American political activist Julian Pierce, who was slain while running for office in Robeson County, N.C.
At this point, considering that the case is still in the courts, she can't divulge too many details about the incident. But it's a situation fraught with racial unrest in a region of the Deep South where the county's population is divided equally among native Americans, blacks and whites. Pierce was a sharecropper's son who rose above his poverty to become a lawyer and who probably didn't make some people very happy when he began rallying the minority factions.
While the film script is Hammond's new No. 1 priority, she was excited to be back in Salt Lake City recently for the opening of SLAC's production of "The Ghostman," a two-act drama that also has a Utah setting.
Just this year, "The Ghostman," which continues through Sunday, March 25, at SLAC, has been produced by three theaters, including the prestigious Long Wharf Theatre in Connecticut, the Charlotte Repertory Theatre in North Carolina and Salt Lake Acting Company.
And, Hammond noted during an interview, the three productions were surprisingly different, with SLAC Artistic Director Edward J. Gryska's version coming closer to being what she initially envisioned.
"The Ghostman" focuses on a middle-aged man whose father, a community and church leader, has died. The central figure is Scott, a Helper coal miner and deeply religious man who is haunted by deep-seated memories of dark incidents from his childhood. But are they memories of things that actually occurred or is he just hallucinating? In this setting, Hammond conceived a play that drifts from reality into the surrealistic recesses of a man's mind and back into reality again.
And here's where a director's supervision of a production can make a difference. The Long Wharf production, Hammond noted, took a more naturalistic stance, while Gryska's version for SLAC takes more of the approach she originally had in mind.
The Charlotte Repertory production fell somewhere in between.
"The Ghostman" addresses social issues that few people even talked about 10 or 20 years ago - incest and child abuse.
Hammond picked Helper as her locale because she wanted a community populated by hard-working people. Her brother had worked in the coal mines there, so she was able to utilize his experience and knowledge in drafting her play.
She used an LDS family as the focal point because it was a background she grew up in and was familiar with. Hammond was the second oldest of seven children. She noted that the dysfunctional family in her play could happen in any setting and be from any community.
We asked her if there had been any problems with East Coast audiences being unfamiliar with some of the terminology associated with the LDS Church, and she noted that some patrons had expressed curiosity about the church.
When we met with Hammond she had been traveling extensively and was looking forward to heading back to New York City and getting back to her apartment, in a pleasant residential section of South Harlem. Between researching her film script and traveling to Utah for "The Ghostman," Hammond admitted she'd only been able to spend a few days at home during the past several weeks.
She added that the Sundance Playwriting Lab experience with "The Ghostman" was interesting and productive. Although the time there was intense, it was also very helpful to get feedback from the directors and actors involved, then being able to get off by herself to concentrate on on the project and ponder what had come up during the discussions.
Hammond has a BFA degree from the University of Utah and an MFA from New York University's dramatic writing program.
As a student at the U., she acted with the Human Ensemble Company at Arrow Press Square - Salt Lake Acting Company's predecessor.
Her latest stage play, "Jersey City," about a homemaker in New Jersey, is a 1988 Drama League Award winner and will premiere in June at the Second Stage theater in New York City.
"The Ghostman," continues tonight and Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with final performances on Sunday, March 25, at 2 and 7 p.m.
For reservations, call the SLAC box office at 363-0525. The theater is at 168 W. 500 North.