Jennifer L. Nelson is well-known in D.C. She is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and has taught at George Washington and George Mason Universities. She is known as a director and playwright and as the founding artistic director of the African Continuum Theater. Now her play, “24, 7, 365” is about to make a unique three-venue appearance. It will play first at the Atlas Performing Arts Center from February 10 to 27. Its last three performances are part of the Atlas’ Second Annual INTERSECTIONS: A New America Arts Festival. Then the production will move to the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas from March 3 to 5, and finally will transfer to George Mason’s Harris Theater in Fairfax from March 10 to 13.
| On Stage |
| ’24, 7, 365′ |
| Atlas Performing Arts Theater, D.C., Feb. 10 to 27 |
| Hylton Performing Arts Center, Fairfax, March 3 to 5 |
| George Mason’s Harris Theater, Fairfax, March 10 to 13 |
| Info: atlasarts.org |
“24, 7, 365” grew out of a play development program, First Light, run by Mason’s Theater of the First Amendment. “In the First Light program the playwright spends about ten days with a group of actors, a director and a dramaturg,” Nelson explained in a recent interview.
“They listen to the play and help it move along. My play was still in draft form when it was accepted, but it wasn’t finished. Working at George Mason helped me fill out some of the characters and develop more insight into what was needed for an audience to understand them.”
In “24, 7, 365,” Nelson’s characters find themselves in an unfamiliar setting. “I wanted to put these people in an environment that was different from their daily world, because when you take characters out of familiar surroundings, new things occur in their relationships,” Nelson explained. “This is a group of people who go on a camping trip and have different degrees of familiarity and comfort with where they are.”
The play is about happiness: how people define it, chase it and feel it has eluded them. “Human beings seem to be on this constant quest for happiness,” Nelson said. “As soon as we get that dream job, two days later we’re looking for the next big thing.
“It’s not in my nature to create a philosophical tract about happiness and the constant re-prioritizing of what makes us happy. But I can put questions in the mouths of interesting characters and have them talk about priorities.
“I find a lot of humor in how people talk to each other and the situations we get ourselves into. It’s not funny to the people who are talking, but it’s funny to the observer. We love to laugh at other people’s foibles.”
Nelson is very supportive of the way this play will be seen, first in D.C. and then in Fairfax County. “Mason’s commitment to producing serious theater outside the city is important,” Nelson said. “Many times, suburban areas get short shrift in terms of quality experiences. Playing in D.C., then moving on to Manassas and Fairfax is the kind of innovative thinking we need more of in the theater.”
