M.R. and EVELYN HUDSON FOUNDATION
presents
WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTION
dont u luv me?
by Linda Daugherty
APR 3 - APR 26, 2009
Angela has a new boyfriend. C.J.'s romantic. He sends her flowers.
He texts her day and night. But C.J. has his own struggles. Soon his
devotion feels like control and the relationship spirals dangerously
downward. This powerful world premiere by award-winning
playwright Linda Daugherty, author of The Secret Life of Girls and
EAT (It's Not About Food), explores the hidden world of aggression
and violence in teen dating while encouraging young people to make
choices that result in healthy relationships.
This production presented at
Studio Theater/Rosewood Center
Map & Directions
Most enjoyed by
AGES 13 AND ABOVE
CONTAINS MATURE SUBJECT MATTER AND STRONG LANGUAGE
STUDY GUIDE - click to download
Actor returns from NYC to star in DCT’s “dont u luv me?”
Montgomery Sutton, recent grad of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts Acting program, began taking acting classes at DCT when he was 3! Now, all grown up with a BFA in Drama from one of the nation’s most prestigious acting training programs, he has returned to Dallas to star in DCT’s “dont u luv me?”
Here are some of his thoughts about the show:
I think the timing of this show is staggering; though it's an age-old issue, Chris Brown and Rhianna have really thrust it back into the spotlight. Taking this kind of look at dating abuse, how it springs up and what it costs, is always important, but now I think people will hopefully be even more receptive and willing to engage in a discussion.
I wish I'd been able to see something like this when I was in high school. Even when abuse doesn't reach the violent heights of the play or Chris and Rhianna, the "small" abuses -- emotional and mental as well as physical -- can seem normal when you don't have the relationship experience to see them for what they are. The way that playwright Linda Daugherty, and the director, Nancy Schaeffer, have crafted the play, deep complexity and shades of gray in the characters give us a personal sense and almost emotional understanding of not just how horrible these situations can be but how difficult it is for the victim to let go of the memory of how good things were before the storm, in ways that I hope and expect will not only enable abused partners to get out of their relationships but also help potential abusers see their own actions in a new light before they lose control.
And I think teens will also latch onto this show because Linda taps into the very specific nature of their world in the 21st century -- and makes a great, entertaining, and tragic story that is focused right at them in a way that almost no other theater does. The abuse is certainly at the center, but the dynamics of friendships in high school, relationships with parents, and the 24/7 prevalence of cell phones and the internet in teenage life today -- along even with a good touch of humor, in the beginning especially -- are all reaching out directly to high schoolers.
There is a lot to experience in the show about relationships in general -- from abusive to healthy dating relationships (there is a second couple in the show whose relationship is presented in a strong counterpart to the abuse between Angela and C.J.), to various levels of friendships, to interaction with parents (though you never see a parent on the stage, they communicate with their children through text messages and phone calls and their offstage presence is very strongly felt).
As far as whether this is something deep in human nature, I wish I had the experience or credentials to make some kind of significant answer. All I can say is that it seems to crop up all over storytelling, from the myth of Heracles to Othello to Raging Bull, and that resorting to violence as an answer to our outlet for personal troubles does seem to be a part of human nature that we've been struggling with from the beginning.
I was listening to a book review on NPR the other day of Leslie Steiner's "Crazy Love," about her personal experience with abuse, and there's a quote from her first chapter posted on the NPR website that I think is applicable here:
"If I were brave enough the first time I met you, I'd try to share what torture it is to fall in love with a good man who cannot leave a violent past behind. I'd tell you why I stayed for years, and how I finally confronted someone whose love I valued almost more than my own life. Then maybe the next time you came across a woman in an abusive relationship, instead of asking why anyone stays with a man who beats her, you'd have the empathy and courage to help her on her way." (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102553556)
It's easy to stand outside and judge victims who go back to the abuser, but like you can see in that quote, I really hope and believe that "dont u luv me?" will help people learn not to scold the victim who can't escape, but to lend them a compassionate hand and help as best they can.
Mr. Sutton took his first acting class and had his first “professional” role at DCT. More recent roles include Romeo in Romeo & Juliet and Ferdinand in The Tempest with SHAKESPEARE DALLAS, and in New York, Yang Sun in The Good Person of Szechuan, Claudio in Measure for Measure, and Lomov in The Marriage Proposal. He holds a BFA in Drama from NYU.