[Guest post by Adam Suritz]
Like many House of Cards fans, I have too many news alerts set up on my iPhone. The fact that I grew up as a news junkie in the suburbs of DC only makes the problem worse. I’ve got alerts for Supreme Court rulings, for Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (who I think is a serious VP contender in 2016), and for various NY and DC area theater companies. Usually the alerts are mundane, but one this morning had me pumping my fist and shouting on the W96th Street subway platform.
What an absolute thrill it was to find out that playwright of Fault Line Theatre’s Breathing Time, Beau Willimon, was nominated for an Emmy, for Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series.
For the millions of House of Cards fans, this nomination is exciting and well-deserved. For those of us who were a part of Breathing Time this past spring, the nomination is doubly-sweet. Fault Line Theatre’s audience got to see a side of Beau’s writing that might surprise many of his fans. Beau always finds a way to surprise you. Point in case: Googling “House of Cards Spoilers” returns almost 1.5 million results. The surprises in Breathing Time were of a different type, though. Sure, there were more than a few gasps in the houses at Theatro Iati, but the surprise was how much the characters onstage mattered to people in the audience in such a short amount of time.
When Breathing Time opened, The Hollywood Reporter said, “It’s a genuine coup for Fault Line Theatre…to be presenting Beau Willimon’s Breathing Time.” Maybe. But Beau’s work and Fault Line Theatre’s ethos go hand in hand. He puts the story, the words, and the action above all else. Fault Line Theatre creates and produces socially relevant, character-driven plays for today’s audiences, and so does Beau. Whether or not he brings home the Emmy for House of Cards – and we believe he will – the team here at Fault Line Theatre is proud of Beau.
