"I Couldn't Put it Down"

The Firehouse's Founding Artistic Director Carol Piersol discusses how Neil LaBute's This is How it Goes was selected for production in the theatre's 2009-10 season. Tickets are available online at the Firehouse Web site.
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How was This Is How It Goes selected? I read it in one sitting – I couldn’t put it down – it smacked me in the gut and kept coming back to haunt me.

I put it in the pile of plays on my windowsill that are “possibilities” and went on with my life, putting on plays, going to track meets and riding my bike.

Mary Burruss, who is a theatre critic for Style Weekly, went to Studio Theatre in Washington to see This Is How It Goes. She called me and said, “You’ve got to do this play – it needs to be done in Richmond.” I said, “Oh, yeah, that’s a great play and I’ve been wanting to do some Neil LaBute. (I use scenes from his plays in my acting class and they are so alive and visceral and popping!)

I gave the play to Bill Patton who was in town directing The Widow’s Blind Date, by Israel Horovitz, here at the Firehouse and he read it in one sitting and said, “I couldn’t put it down – I was on the edge of my seat to find out what was going to happen.” I said, “Well, do you want to direct it next year?” And he said “Yes!”

The play deals with bigotry, gender, betrayal and deception and the RACE CARD!

LaBute says, “Maybe appreciation of diversity is a role that the theatre can foster for itself, as an oracle of truth – I honestly hope so. I suppose it’s ironic that we must gather together in the dark around a little stage to hear the truth rather than tell each other face to face on our front lawns, but that is how it goes.”

See you at the show!

Carol Piersol
Founding Artistic Director