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One of three plays receiving a RoughCut production during this year’s *EST/Sloan First Light Festival is FRANKLINLAND by Lloyd Suh on November 21 and 25. The play reimagines the rich and at times contentious relationship between Founding Father and indefatigable inventor Benjamin Franklin and his illegitimate (and only) son, William. We were curious what intrigued Suh about the Franklins.
FRANKLINLAND seems to stick pretty close to the historical facts of the life of Ben and William Franklin. Did you take any liberties? Is the name “Franklinland” your invention?
It’s nice of you to say I stick close to the facts – I’ve tried to be respectful of the history, while inventing some things within areas that are more apt for speculation. The idea of Franklinland is completely my invention, but it’s rooted in some really interesting things I learned about Ben and William’s relationship. In his will, Ben left him only a patch of land in Nova Scotia, and the significance of this is really unclear. I couldn’t help but imagine that this gesture was loaded with meaning somehow, which led to me speculating on what that meaning might have been. And that turned into this elusive dream of a place called Franklinland.
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2824","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"491","style":"line-height: 1.538em; width: 350px; height: 246px; margin: 10px; float: left;","title":"1876 Currier and Ives print depicting Ben and William conducting 1752 kite experiment (William was actually 20 at the time).","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"700"}}]]There’s a considerable amount of humor in the byplay of Ben and William in the play. Was Ben Franklin really this drolly funny? Is that what you found in your research?
Totally. He was a noted humorist, and really famous for his disarming wit, so it made for a really fun ride in trying to honor that sensibility.
What kind of research did you do in writing FRANKLINLAND?
Before I started, I read two different biographies, one by H.W. Brands and another by Walter Isaacson, along with a lot of Ben’s own writing. There has been so much written about Franklin (and by him), and thankfully a lot of it contradicts – which I take as an invitation to pick and choose what serves the play dramatically. Once I started actually writing the play, I tried to respect the simple truths and facts, but be less beholden to the depth and breadth of all that history. That lets me focus more on the speculative aspects that I’ve decided to run with.
Your previous plays all dealt with Asian American themes, American Hwangap, The Wong Kids in the Secret of the Space, Chupacabra Go!, among others. Does FRANKLINLAND represent a change in direction for you?
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2826","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"494","style":"line-height: 1.538em; width: 300px; height: 419px; margin: 10px; float: right;","title":"Michael J. Deas portrait of Ben Franklin for 2003 Time Special Issue","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"354"}}]]In some ways it does, but I’ve also written some other plays not so obviously rooted in direct Asian American themes. Even still, at least in my mind, they are all related in the sense that no matter what I’m writing about, I do so through my own personal lens. Especially because I think of this play as being very much about America. People are sometimes surprised to hear me say this for some reason, but I really love America. I am proud to be an American. And so in a big way this is an opportunity for me to explore those feelings about what I mean when I say that, and ultimately I just really love the notion of America as a grand social experiment, constantly evolving, constantly shifting, and yet always rooted in these ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When you take it as an experiment, which is how I believe Franklin looked at it, we all have a huge responsibility as citizens to what the results of that experiment are. It’s on us. I guess that’s a long way of saying that I think of this as a very Asian American play, as it’s a pretty deep dive into my personal relationship with the American part.
You’re an alumnus of EST’s Youngblood program. For how many years were you a Youngblood? How has being part of that program affected your playwriting?
I was in Youngblood from 1999, I think, until about 2003. I can’t really quantify how it’s affected my writing, but it was certainly an amazing community at a time when I needed exactly that. I can confidently say that being a part of it made me happier, and probably at least a little bit cooler.
What’s next for Lloyd Suh?
[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2821","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"700","style":"line-height: 1.538em; width: 250px; height: 301px; margin: 10px; float: left;","title":"Mather Brown's portrait of William Franklin, 1790","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"582"}}]]I didn’t do this on purpose, but I realized the other day that the two plays I’m simultaneously working on are intensely related. I thought they were wildly different, and they are in many respects, but I realize that FRANKLINLAND is ultimately about the creation of the United States of America, and the other play I’m developing (with the National Asian American Theatre Company), is very directly about the creation of Asian America – as a political identity – in the 1960s.
*The First Light Festival is a monthlong series of workshop productions and readings that is part of the play development process of The EST/Sloan Project, a joint venture of the Sloan Foundation and the Ensemble Studio Theatre.