“My habits and the unchanging season sustain me. Evil is what questions and disrupts. … I started to establish the present and the present moved on. What I established is already buried under layers of tape. Before I can say I am, I was. … Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend.”

Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose, 1971

“Then possibly…life would open up for her, for it seemed as if its doors yielded more easily to the casual, self-centered individual than to the ranting, praying pilgrim. After all, it was the end that mattered, and one only wasted time and strength seeking facile open-sesame means instead of pushing along a more difficult and direct path…Her motto from now on would be ‘find–not seek.’ All things were at one’s fingertips. Life was most kind to those who were judicious in their selections, and she, weakling that she now realized she was, had not been a connoisseur.”

Wallace Thurman, The Blacker the Berry, 1929

Critics and authors alike have said, in one form or another, that all writing is a revenge on childhood and that when confronted with the profound effects of continuous family upheaval and the sense of one’s rootlessness, writers strive to reestablish their identities in the home of their spiritual self.

We may venture far from our childhood homes to fulfill the desire for personal and intellectual fulfillment but the unconscious impulse to reconcile and reclaim those earlier fleeting moments of love, approval, and a sense of belonging always is active even when they were obscured by the pain and disappointment of previous rejection and betrayal. The arc of the individual stories might be surprisingly familiar for their consistency but the experience of revelation almost always will take strikingly different paths. Nonetheless, the themes are virtually universal.

In Plan-B Theatre’s world premiere of Wallace, the seemingly disparate biographical storylines of two authors with Utah roots – Wallace Stegner and Wallace Thurman – harmonize in a provocative exploration of those universal pulses.

The production runs March 4 through March 14 in the Studio Theatre at the Rose Wagner Center for The Performing Arts. Performance times are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m.

While some may wonder about the artistic risks surrounding such a bold experimental production, this award-winning theater company in Salt Lake City, finding itself increasingly comfortable with staging truly original work that challenges jaded mainstream sensibilities, certainly will do its best to assuage any skepticism.

Perhaps the biggest challenge has already been successfully answered – the collaborative work of playwrights Jenifer Nii and Debora Threedy, who originally penned separate treatments of these writers, and producing director Jerry Rapier, who envisioned the creative potential of the harmonizing resonance in their stories. Threedy’s solo work, “Where I Come From,” was commissioned by the Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment, coinciding with the centennial of his birth (1909) while Nii’s treatment of Thurman, “Fire!” was commissioned by Plan-B.

At first glance, the contrasts of both writers run deep. Stegner had a long productive career, living into his middle 80s, while Thurman, who was born earlier in the same decade, died of tuberculosis in his early 30s. Stegner’s publication record was impressive: 13 novels, six collections of stories and essays, and a tireless track record as editor, contributor, and magazine journalist. He won many awards including the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for “Angle of Repose.”

Even 17 years after his death, Stegner’s presence in the literary world remains undeniable, especially in the West, and, in particular, among Utahns. He wrote highly praised books about the Mormons and naturalist John Wesley Powell and, by near-unanimous claim, his fiction and nonfiction works reflecting the geography and the historical essences of the West have secured his permanent place among the most influential figures in the American literary tradition. While the public record on his evangelism for the protection and the preservation of the environment is well known, Threedy draws her Stegner portrait inward, reflected in many ways through his fiction.

Although Thurman died at 32, his record suggests its own impressively prodigious output as a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He was a journalist, novelist, playwright, mentor, and ghostwriter. More often comfortable as a satirist than as a novelist, he was asked by Langston Hughes in 1926 to edit the avant-garde magazine “Fire!!” intended as a platform for young black writers to establish their own literary identities. Later, in his short career, he published the mainstream magazine “Harlem: A Forum of Negro Life.” Among his best-known works were “The Blacker The Berry,” a 1929 novel examining interracial prejudices among lighter-skinned and darker-skinned individuals, and “Infants of Spring,” a 1932 roman a clef perhaps far more noteworthy as biographical documentary than as character-driven satirical fiction.

However, it is the simple geographical fact that both considered Salt Lake City their home, especially during a good portion of their formative years, which gives the new play the genesis of its structural integrity. Thurman lived 19 years – more than half of his life – in Salt Lake City. Stegner, seven years Thurman’s junior, was born in 1909 and moved to Salt Lake City in 1921. In the nine years that Stegner lived in Salt Lake City, his family moved at least 12 times within the city. Stegner returned to SLC later on as a teacher and invited scholar at the University of Utah.

Both had disrupted family lives during their early years. Both were fiercely independent. Thurman, gay and a regular on the alcohol-fueled social party scene, could be a biting satirist, openly questioning the lasting artistic substance of the Harlem Renaissance. In fact, some cultural historians regard his importance more on terms of his influence with young black writers than in the merits of his work.

“The Blacker The Berry” received many scathing reviews at the end of the 1920s for its harsh – and what many critics considered as unacceptable – look at color bias among blacks. Yet, its impassioned defense of dark-colored skin finds similarly sensationalized tones in the more recent Oscar-nominated film “Precious: Based on The Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.”

Stegner grew up in impoverished circumstances and his parents never advanced past the sixth grade in their education. Yet, it is clear in the Q&A featured below, that both writers acknowledged and accepted the hardships in stride as part of the definitive American experience. That pulse echoes throughout the collaborative work of Threedy, Nii, and Rapier. And, the two men — just as the case in real life — never meet on stage.

The 70-minute production features Richard Scharine as Stegner and Carleton Bluford as Thurman. The creative crew includes Cheryl Ann Cluff, sound design; Phillip R. Lowe, costume design; Randy Rasmussen, set design; Cory Thorell, lighting design, and Jennifer Freed, stage manager.

Tickets for the production are $20 and $10 for students. For more information, call 801-355-ARTS or see here.

In addition to the production, there are numerous events related to the work of both authors, including Uconoclasts, an art gallery exhibition at the Rose Wagner Center, featuring a dozen word and visual portraits of major Utah literary figures prepared by Ken Sanders and Trent Call. Also, there is the 15th annual symposium of the Wallace Stegner Symposium (March 12-13), free screenings of documentaries featuring the Harlem Renaissance and Stegner’s life (March 8-9, respectively). A March 3 preview performance will benefit Wallace Stegner Center for Land, Resources and the Environment. There also will be a March 1 free reading of the Peoples Production’s The Talented Tenth by Richard Wesley. For information on these and all events related to the production, see here.

The Selective Echo also is pleased to feature this Q&A with Threedy, Nii, and Rapier.

SE: Individually, what particular aspects of each figure inspired you to write about them? And, how did you see your particular subject figure being presented to emphasize the notion of place and home?

NII: There was so much I didn’t know, but felt strongly that I should have known, about Wallace Thurman. He was such an interesting, unique, dynamic person. Someone who emerged at a time and from an environment that you’d think would have inhibited him from doing the things he did, and becoming the person he became. He didn’t let that happen.

In terms of place and home: Again, in many ways, Thurman (at least the Thurman that’s available to us through his and other peoples’ writing) was a product of both. Growing up black, and gay, and non-LDS in Utah surely shaped his perspective of the world, and strengthened certain aspects within him. Then, as a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance — which itself was a defining period in American and world cultural evolution — he was enveloped in, and helped grow and develop a safe place where people could come together and inspire one another and play and argue together.

THREEDY: In the fall of 2008, the Stegner Center at the University of Utah put out a call for submissions for ideas on how to celebrate the life of Wallace Stegner at the symposium honoring the centennial of his birth (he was born in 1909); I submitted the idea of a one-man play to be written by me and performed at the symposium. The idea was accepted and I asked Jerry Rapier to direct.

My intent was to focus on Stegner’s life; there were going to be a lot of people at the conference talking ABOUT Stegner and I thought it would be kind of cool to let Stegner speak for himself, as it were. I tell a story of his moving from homelessness (in the sense of moving all over the country and also in the sense of having an abusive father) in his childhood to making a home with his wife, Mary. So it’s a story of redemption, and of moving from “rootlessness” to being “rooted.”

SE: Initially each of you was writing a separate treatment of your respective figure. Was there any initial skepticism on either part when it was proposed to unite the figures together in the story? And, how did you see the stories being successfully joined into one piece – especially where one writer lived a long productive life but the other, despite his prodigious output, died at an early age?

NII: I wouldn’t call it skepticism, but certainly it was an idea I’d never have thought of. We were lucky, I think, or at least I felt lucky that Jerry just asked us to go and write our own pieces and not think about linking them together. That’d be all his.

Clearly, there are enormous differences between the two Wallaces. On the outside, it’d seem that they only shared a place and a name. But the really cool thing about this project is that there emerged so many commonalities, so many resonant images.

THREEDY: No skepticism on my part. It was Jerry’s idea, but I trust Jerry’s insights; I think he’s an incredibly creative person. From the beginning the idea was that Jen and I would write our separate pieces and then someone would combine the two stories into one story (at the beginning Jerry wasn’t sure if he’d do it or if he’d recruit someone else to do it). So I went into it knowing that I’d be relinquishing some control over the final product. I was okay with that — theater after all is an incredibly collaborative art form and no single person ever has complete control over the final product — and I still am okay with that. I’ve been amazed at how the two pieces create this resonance between these two men’s lives, despite them being opposites in so many ways.

There are times where Stegner says something and then a little while later Thurman says something that echoes that — not repeating, just echoing — and vice versa. And in most cases this was totally serendipitous. I can think of only one instance where, after I’d heard Jen’s piece, I said to myself — “Stegner said something like that” — and so I went back and added that little piece. Which was this: I’d deliberately chosen to not focus on Stegner’s environmentalism, because that piece of his public life is fairly well known, and I wanted to concentrate on his private life (which he made public in a way through his fiction).

But when I heard where Jen had Thurman talking about an artist’s obligations to speak out, and of course he was speaking in terms of racial discrimination, I suddenly realized that Stegner had said something similar about an artist’s obligation to pay attention to the world he lives in, from an environmental perspective, and so I added that piece. But other than that, any resonances you hear in the two pieces — and there are lots — are totally unplanned.

SE: What were among the surprising elements that you discovered in researching and writing about both Wallaces?

NII: See second paragraph above.

THREEDY: I knew nothing about Thurman, had never even heard of him until Jerry suggested this project, so everything about Thurman is new to me. And surprisingly, while I thought I knew a bit about Stegner it turns out there was lots I didn’t know.

The most dramatic piece of information about his life is — spoiler alert — I discovered that the scene in Big Rock Candy Mountain where the protagonist finds out his father killed a woman and then committed suicide was literally true. Stegner’s father, after the death of his mother, was involved with this woman and living in a fleabag hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. For reasons that are unclear, one day they had a fight and Stegner Sr. pulled out a gun and shot her in the hotel lobby, then walked outside and shot himself. I had no idea. Stegner’s father is buried in the Salt Lake Cemetery, as are Stegner’s mother and his brother. The father’s grave, however, is unmarked.

At the end of his second biographical novel, Recapitulation, the protagonist relents and buys a headstone for his father’s grave — but Stegner never did. When asked why not, he said: “I never felt the need.”

SE: In terms of casting, how did you settle on the actors portraying the two writers?

NII: Jerry’d be best to answer this one. All I know is that Carleton came in and from the first cold reading I heard out loud the voice I’d been hearing in my head during the writing process. It was freaky, and cool.

RAPIER: And that’s why I cast Carleton – when the playwright says the voice they’ve written is coming out of the actor in front of you, you have to listen!

THREEDY: We had open auditions for Stegner and both Jerry and I agreed that Richard gave by far the strongest audition. He just nailed it.

RAPIER: We knew Richard was our Stegner within the first few seconds of his audition.

SE: While most audience members likely will be familiar with Stegner, Thurman will be a new name to them. How did this influence the development of this production?

NII: I think it meant that in the writing I’d have to find ways to weave in biography, period and place. So part of my challenge, and I don’t know how effectively I addressed it, was to figure out ways and places to do that. To balance the introductory elements with the deeper layers.

THREEDY: Jen and I have talked about how we both had very different but intimidating challenges in doing this. Stegner is this iconic figure, he’s written a ton, there are two biographies of him, many people are familiar with his writing, he’s given a lot of interviews, and I wanted to use his own words as much as I could. So my challenges were first of all not to be intimidated by Stegner’s prose. After that, it was the job of going through this tremendous body of work, sorting and choosing, and cutting and pasting, to make some sort of new and coherent story.

But at the end of the day, I’d guesstimate that 75-80% of my piece is Stegner’s own words. Conversely, Thurman is pretty much unknown and his prose didn’t translate well to the spoken word. So Jen’s challenge was to be much more imaginative. I actually am in awe of Jen’s accomplishment; I think she had the more daunting task and the one that took more creativity.

SE: The biographies of both of these men serve to propel a deeper, expansive theme that underlies virtually every interaction and public discussion in contemporary Salt Lake City and Utah and that is the presence of the “Other,” the stranger in an unfamiliar place. This seems to provide that essential genesis, the impulse for creative work reflecting the individualistic, entrepreneurial spirit so characteristic in Utah. I would like each of your thoughts on this thematic aspect.

NII: Again, I think that while part of what makes Thurman so interesting is just how “Other” he seemed, I think the impression he ultimately left with me was that despite all the things that set us apart, or make us feel alienated or outcast, we are all, in the end, human. In the end, we are one. It was good for me to be reminded of that, and it’s one of many reasons I’m grateful to have participated in this project.

THREEDY: Absolutely both Stegner and Thurman were “outsiders” in Utah, but more generally as well. Neither of them were Mormon, so there was that. Stegner has a whole essay he wrote about how strange it was that he felt like Salt Lake was his hometown, given that he would forever be an outsider to a faith-based sense of the place. And, of course, Thurman’s skin marked him as an outsider, in more ways than one. But it goes far beyond these superficial marks of “outsiderness.”

And it’s a theme that resonates deeply with me. I have felt like an outsider my whole life, and I think I share that feeling with Stegner and probably with Thurman. Sometimes I wonder if it’s part of what it means to be an artist. To be on the outside looking in, even when you are the most engaged in living life. Or maybe it’s just part of being human.

It seems like some of us are just more in tune with the existentialist notion that all of us are alone in our own skins. Maybe being an artist is about trying to connect with another stranger across that existentialist divide.

CREDITS FOR PHOTOS AND ART: Art by Trent Call; Photos by Plan-B and Rick Pollock

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