TIME: The present
SETTING: Brooklyn, the East Village and Los Angeles
Playwright's Note
When I look back at Brooklyn now, from the vantage point of the middle of my life, I find that it is a place that no longer exists,
indeed one that may never have truly existed in my lifetime. Maybe it's because I no longer have a familial connection to the place;
my parents are long gone and my brother has moved to L.A. Maybe it's a feeling I've always had. I was nostalgic for my parents'
Brooklyn ever since I was a boy.
Brooklyn is the metaphoric home to anyone who has ever seen himself as an outsider, who has ever been torn between the powerful,
atavistic tug toward the traditional and familiar and the magnetic allure of the unknown.
Brooklyn is the past recorded in faded Super 8. It is innocence, childhood, family, community, a safe place. Brooklyn is Rosebud,
Camelot, Atlantis. It is the state of grace that exists solely in memory or fantasy. Brooklyn is the precious thing we've lost.
- Donald Margulies
Los Angeles Times
Sunday, September 5, 2004
