The Intimacy of Centering Jewishness and Judaism on Stage
An Interview with Lauren Gunderson, playwright of The Catastrophist
Lauren Gunderson has been one of the most produced playwrights in America since 2015 topping the list twice including 2019-20. She is a two-time winner of the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award for I and You and The Book of Will, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation’s Residency with Marin Theatre Company. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU’s Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her newest play, The Catastrophist, about her husband virologist Nathan Wolfe, premiered digitally in January 2021. She co-authored the Miss Bennet plays with Margot Melcon, and her audioplay The Half-Life of Marie Curie is available on Audible.com. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You; Exit Pursued By A Bear; The Taming, and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists Play Service (The Revolutionists; The Book of Will; Silent Sky; Bauer, Natural Shocks, The Wickhams and Miss Bennet) and Samuel French (Emilie). Her picture book Dr Wonderful: Blast Off to the Moon is available from Two Lions/Amazon. She is currently developing musicals with Ari Afsar, Dave Stewart. and Joss Stone, and Kait Kerrigan and Bree Lowdermilk. LaurenGunderson.com
On July 14, 2021, JTS will host the team behind The Catastrophist, the newest play by Lauren Gunderson. The Catastrophist is the story of real-life virus hunter Nathan Wolfe and a stirring meditation on scientific discovery, Judaism, family, life, and loss.
I spoke with Lauren to discuss the process of writing The Catastrophist.
This interview has been edited for the sake of clarity.
Kendell Pinkney: Lauren, you've penned a prolific number of plays spanning unexpected theatrical topics like science, math, feminism, technology, and so much more. Now, you have arguably written your most "Jewish" play. What was that experience like for you?
Lauren Gunderson: It started with an appreciation of [my husband,] Nathan and his dad, Chuck Wolfe. Chuck was in many ways defined by his Judaism. And he imparted that to Nathan and Nathan’s sister, and all of them imparted this importance of Judaism to me. I’ve always felt great honor to be a part of a Jewish family as a non-Jewish person, even though it was not a set of traditions I grew up with. In writing this play, I got the chance to appreciate the intentionality, the soulfulness, the community, and the deep meaning of Jewishness and Judaism with fresh eyes. So, this play is incredibly special and important to me.
KP: Can you say more about those experiences of community and intentionality within Judaism that gave context to your writing?
LG: Personally, experiencing various holidays and ceremonies - even experiencing the really hard moments of life - are profound. After spending so many years as part of the family, I felt like I could write some version of that experience with authenticity, care and honor. In many ways, I was writing a play that Nathan’s dad would have liked.
KP: (laughing) I imagine he would have given you high marks. So, tell me more about how you all landed on highlighting the Jewish themes that you did in a play that uses your husband and his family as a key source of inspiration.
LG: While I was writing, I had a collaborative back-and-forth with the others on the creative team, including the actor, Bill [DeMeritt], who is Jewish. He was the one who brought up the nuance of tikkun olam as “global do-gooding” (lit., repairing the world) versus pikuach nefesh, that is an individual “saving a life.” It was so special to have Bill share his wisdom and knowledge of Judaism throughout the process and he was very generous with his mind and his heart. As the process continued on, we would even do the whole phone-a-rabbi-game to figure out exactly what we meant with Jewish elements and how it fit the purpose of the scenes. It was interesting to dig deeper into those nuances.
Nathan [Wolfe] would also respond to questions we had and give his perspective, which was obviously very valuable since, you know, it is a play about him. That being said, I also acknowledge that there is so much that I do not and cannot know. It’s a monumental task because I care so much about Nathan’s family, and their Judaism is so definitional to who they are, so I wanted to do a good job.
KP: That’s lovely and poignant. To go back to something you said that piqued my interest: you said that you all would “phone-a-rabbi”? Was Bill the functional rabbi of the group, or did you actually phone a rabbi?
LG: (laughing) No, Bill was actually texting his friend who was a rabbi.
KP: Wow. That’s great.
LG: Yeah. We definitely had some moments of, “Wait. We’ve got some questions.” And that would lead to texting the rabbi, and Googling, which would lead to different rabbinical sites. We did our best.
KP: Rabbi Google is my favorite rabbi, sometimes. I would imagine the fact that Nathan would sometimes come to rehearsals and add his perspective also helped give depth. I say this because one of the things I was impressed by was how the show explicitly addressed Jewishness in a way that seemed more than incidental or kitschy. Don’t get me wrong, I love some well-placed kitsch, but The Catastrophist seems to steer away from that. In fact, at moments it feels like a meditation on Jewishness.
LG: Coming from a non-Jewish background, the first thing I noticed about being Jewish was that there are a lot of holidays, celebrations and time together to reflect, and wonder, and question. To me, the “continuousness” [of Jewish time and tradition] feels supportive. I mean, whether you are a socially Jewish or religiously Jewish, you don’t go long in the calendar without thinking about Judaism, which I think is pretty amazing. So, there was no way that I could write this story about Nathan and his dad and our kids without talking about Judaism and Jewishness and the way in which Nathan sometimes bucks against it and his father deeply embraced it. In some larger way, too, this play is a chance for people who are not Jewish to also reflect on faith, and science and questioning; they all require thoughtfulness.
KP: Indeed, they do. Lauren, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and process with me, and I look forward to speaking with you on July 14th!
LG: Thank you. Take care.
Watch a brief interview with Lauren and Nathan discussing the background of The Catastrophist in a recent segment from “The PBS News Hour” below.