The age of innocence

My work as a queer, feminist playwright is centered around reimagining the presentation of women and other marginalized people on stage. I write highly theatrical comedies meant to highlight and satirize aspects of presentation and representation related to gender, race and power. This play is titled The Age of Innocence, like the Edith Wharton novel which I have never read. I learned from the internet that Wharton wrote the novel in 1920 when she was 50 years old and thinking about her childhood days in New York City in the 1870’s long before the horrors of WWI. The novel is about the forbidden love and extramarital affair between very wealthy white people who cannot deny their love but are afraid of any impropriety that could threaten their wealth and social status. My play of the same title is inspired by Wharton’s novel and also by the very public breakup announcement made by famous television writer-director Jill Soloway and famous poet Eileen Myles. Soloway and Myles announced their breakup at a museum lecture that was supposed to be about queer media and queer literature. They decided to use the public speaking opportunity to publicly announce their breakup and process details of their relationship with the audience. My play is a comedy that borrows the premise of the Soloway Myles breakup announcement and a little of the structure of Wharton’s novel to examine gender presentation, race, privilege, romance and age.