PLAY PREFERENCE [Antonio Vettraino]

1. Pocatello
2. Blood at the Root (Wouldn’t mind at all… but Pocatello is still very high up)
3. The Thanksgiving Play (Way below Blood at the Root…)

Pocatello Proposal

The play that I would be beyond excited to direct for this semester would be Pocatello by
Samuel D Hunter. Out of the three plays, this is the first play I read and after I finished I was
moved to tears, specifically because of Eddie’s character arc in the play. His relationship to his
home town and him trying to mend his family right now parallel a lot of my own feelings/thoughts
with my family right now and reading the play felt almost therapeutic to me in a way. I feel this
was an obvious reason why the play resonated with me so much, while when I talked to other
people about their thoughts, their reactions were not as “moved” as mine were.
The play excites me for quite a couple of reasons. First of all, as I was reading the play, out
of all three, this was the only play I could easily pick out multiple scenes that I was excited to
direct. I specifically liked scenes 4 and 8, which in itself are two very very different dynamics, one
being with the explosion of Nick and Eddie’s relationship as brothers in front of the entire
restaurant, while scene 8 is a very intimate but loving scene between Eddie and Doris, which is the
scene that moved me to tears. I also feel that any of the scenes for me to direct were so easy for me
to understand and I could see a clear arc of each of the characters, which I couldn’t see as clearly in
the other plays.
I feel that this play can challenge me in a few ways, for example, out of the two scenes I
would love to direct, one of them has a lot of characters in one scene, and I feel if I was given the
chance to do that scene it would be a great challenge for me to direct more than two people since I
have had experience with staging small scenes like that before. Even if I couldn’t do scene 4
though, scene 8, which is the very intimate final scene between Doris and Eddie, would be a
challenge for me to really bring out the desperation of this scene while still finding the light to the
audience as Eddie finally is getting what he wanted from his mom throughout the play and for so
many years now.
This play to me speaks to contemporary society because of a main theme of the play, which
is Nostalgia/Longing to be in the past. It seems that a lot of people around my age as we get older
seem so nostalgic. We are always constantly bringing up our childhood and what made is so
special, as we look back to what we see as an “easier” time. Eddie in the play does the same as he
confides to Nick that before he came out to his mom, their family dynamic was much happier and
better than it is now, and Eddie represents the Nostalgia that we have today with my generation, as
he doesn’t want to leave Pocatello and is scared on what would happen to him if he did move away.
In another aspect, this play seems very timeless in the aspect of family, as this is something
everyone can relate to one way or another. Everyone in this play is connected somehow and I feel
like this makes it so that anyone who reads or watches the play can see themselves in a character, or
can see someone they know very well as a certain character in this play, which makes it much
relatable to an average audience member.
Overall, Pocatello speaks to me on an emotional level and out of all three of the plays, is the
one I was able to invest myself into the most. I think the other two plays offered great material to
direct and in their own ways presented great, relevant themes to todays society, however Pocatello
was the most resonant and if I was chosen to direct it, I feel I would be able to offer some great
creative ideas to whatever scene I eventually get to do.