TDF Stages

Playwright Phillip Howze and director Dustin Wills on their latest collaboration

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Bring your curiosity and an open mind when you go to see Six Characters, a provocative world premiere by Phillip Howze, now running at Lincoln Center Theater as part of its LCT3 new play initiative. Directed by Howze's frequent collaborator, Obie winner Dustin Wills (Wolf Play), this experimental work about the dangers of a white-centric society, in theatre and beyond, isn't afraid to take the audience to uncharted territory. "Night to night, it is spectacularly different," says Wills. "No two shows have been the same."

That's in part because the audience is invited to participate in Six Characters upon entry—not on stage, per se, but as active listeners and learners. With a title and themes inspired by Luigi Pirandello's absurdist metatheatrical milestone Six Characters in Search of an Author, this form-breaking play also explores how authors, actors and audiences interact but centers Black artists chafing against a culture that was not built for them.

Despite these heady concepts, Howze insists you just need to bring yourself to the theatre, no preexisting knowledge required. "There are likely going to be some people who come because they think there is some referential aspect to the work, but there are some people who don't know who the hell Pirandello is, and neither should they," he says. "We want to give everyone a good night at the theatre."

Howze and Wills met as students at the Yale School of Drama in the 2010s and soon realized their artistic priorities were aligned, especially where the audience is concerned. "Oftentimes in the American theatre, there's an expectation that one will become docile and receive what the artist intends for you to receive," says Wills. But he and Howze believe what audiences bring with them to the theatre—knowledge, misconceptions, life—are as much a part of the experience as the performers and the text.

According to Wills, "The actors have rehearsed together, the actor-to-audience relationship is sort of anticipated, but then the audience-to-audience play that's happening in real time is very unrehearsed." Howze takes that idea one step further: "It's like another play happens in the post-show conversation, and that's the whole point—for me, at least."

That shared outside-the-box sensibility brought them both to Yale, where Wills now teaches; Howze is on the faculty at Harvard. But it was already evident in their lives before drama school. Both spent time working abroad—Howze as a human rights activist with the Open Society Foundations, and Wills "in Rome, Italy, being a Vatican tour guide and making weird itinerant shows at various theatres." (Howze is tickled by that part of Wills' biography: "Isn't that hilarious?")

Those international experiences impacted their interests and their work. Wills directs opera as well as plays, with a buzzy production of The Marriage of Figaro soon to premiere on Little Island. Meanwhile, in 2017 at The Bushwick Starr, Howze made waves with Frontières Sans Frontières, a play about teenage refugees directed by Wills. "Aside from being neighbors, being friends, being longstanding collaborators, Dustin and I are engaged citizens," Howze says.

As with their previous projects, Six Characters tackles many weighty issues but is propelled by an anarchic sense of humor. Narrative convention, linear time and the fourth wall all go out the window. "Anything could happen, I mean, Robert Downey Jr. is in the building. Maybe he's gonna walk across the stage," Howze jokes. "That's the beauty of what we make: We don't know what's going to happen."

It's such an audacious and ambitious piece, Seret Scott, who was in the original Broadway company of Ntozake Shange's for colored girls… but now works as a director and hasn't appeared on stage since the mid-1990s, wanted to be a part of it. "She came out of semi-retirement to do this play," says Howze. "She said, 'This is fun, and I want to have fun.'"

Six Characters marks Howze's Off-Broadway debut, but he'll return soon—he's been commissioned to write a new work for Playwrights Horizons. "Lord knows how I got here," he says, then stops himself. "Actually, I know exactly how I got here: I have followed my curiosities every step of the way. It's very possible that two, three years from now, I might be doing something else—not running away from anything but running toward something."

Wills feels the same way: "I've always been very nomadic—I just signed a lease for the first time in years. You can't tie me to the ground… I need to be able to pursue those curiosities."

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TDF MEMBERS: At press time, discount tickets were available for Six Characters. Go here to browse our latest discounts for dance, theatre and concerts.