Lotus Flower, Hinduism, and 'Playboy'

Sipping late-night coffee with undergraduate playwright Molly Rhodes, MC '98, I found myself wondering how one begins to write a play about a place foreign to both the body and the imagination--or, for that matter, a play with a title like Lunar Odyssey Through an Unfolding Story. Picking up my pen and swallowing the thick dregs of my java, I was led on a journey through the mind of one of Yale's most innovative playwrights as Rhodes revealed her inner-most thoughts on Eastern mysticism, Playboy, and her new, soon to be performed, "visual epic."

Yale Herald: What is the meaning of the title of your new play?

Molly Rhodes: Lunar Odyssey Through an Unfolding Story is actually an acronym for "lotus." It's a Western journey though an Eastern land. I liked the idea of the Lotus flower, the symbolism and mystique. It's Chinese. I liked the idea of exploring it more, and wanted to adapt the idea to my senior project in Theater Studies.

YH: Briefly, what is the play about?

MR: It's the life story of one woman. It moves through China, Thailand, and India, involving Hinduism and Buddhism--it crosses religious lines. There's an East Asian forum in Luce Hall, and I've been going there and watching videos on things like Chinese foot-binding, and what the land looks like, so I can...evoke it on stage.

YH: Is the play an adaptation?

MR: It's mainly adapted from Asian children's stories. I was in Seattle this past summer, and I would go to the Seattle Asian Art Museum and read stories from the children's books there. They had these big cushions, and I'd read for hours, and watch videos on, among other things, ceramic making.

YH: How did you come up with the plot idea?

MR: I had an actor and actress definitely involved in the project from the start--Alexandra Tekerian and Ben Mazzotta. So it became a story of one woman, played by Alexandra, through her life. Ben is her main love interest. If there is one theme through it all, it is the history of their love affair. This play could easily become exclusively a "woman's play," but Ben is a definite male force. He grounds me in reality, and doesn't let me get away with anything.

YH: Is this the first play you've written?

MR: No. Last semester all of my friends graduated (I used to be class of '97), and I did a series of monologues about saying goodbye. One was about someone telling a person that I had a crush on them for four years, one was about a job interview...they were very personal. Junior year I wrote a less personal one for the whole campus about the Yale Playboy situation. I wanted to generate discussion for and against the issue. I used sex to sell the show...I have no shame about that. It was a series of monologues written to generate ideas about the whole thing. It was called Required Reading, after a billboard at News Haven, advertising a special signing of the issue.

YH: Is there anything you'd like your potential audience to know?

MR: The play is meant to be a visual epic. Especially at Yale, we tend to do very academic pieces, but this is not a literal piece...I want to try a different type of theater, where you are transported to another time and place...you can lose yourself. I like the idea of being a little outrageous.

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