"The Western is our Greek tragedy," Jim Glossman observes. He's speaking of "The Road to Jerusalem," a play he's directing set in New Mexico in 1879. The comedy-drama will have its world premiere at Shadowland Stages in Ellenville on October 4. (Shadowland held a staged reading of the play in February, featuring Judd Hirsch and Joe Morton.)
As the title suggests, the town itself is the play's main character. Though New Mexico didn't become a state until 1912, the pure freedom of the frontier was beginning to fade by the 1870s. "It's the point where what we think of as the Wild West was starting to get domesticated," remarks playwright Nicky Glossman (Jim's son). The citizens of Jerusalem, New Mexico, are creating the foundations of a stable community. The play's characters include the town physician, the madame of a brothel, the sheriff, and "Bloody Evers," an outlaw. All of them must contend with Orin Haggert, the ruthless plutocrat who runs the town. Four actors play 22 roles in an ensemble marathon. One of them, Eilis Cahill, takes on both male and female identities. There are seven scenes with, of course, no more than four people in each scene.
The name of the fictitious town is not accidental. Early European immigrants to this continent believed they were building a New Jerusalem, a holy dwelling place. The word itself means "city of peace"—an etymology that is, in fact, discussed in the play. But the American "experiment" has rarely been peaceful.
The theme of most westerns is the rule of law. If the criminals are stronger than the sheriff, what happens? Hopefully the Lone Ranger rides in to save the day—but what if he doesn't? Will the "good people" of the town band together, or will they lose courage?
Nicky Glossman was a history major at Brown University, and many of his plays are historical dramas. "The Road to Jerusalem" was informed by his reading, including Ulysses S. Grant's memoir and Son of the Morning Star by Evan S. Connell. But fiction can speak where a textbook is silent. A character in a play may utter a cry of desperation that history books ignore. This play began as a single scene for a contest on the subject of "The Genesis of Evil."
Nicky was also influenced by director Anthony Mann's psychological westerns, including Winchester' 73 and The Man from Laramie.
He has been writing plays since he was 15. Nicky estimates that he has written between 15 and 20 scripts. "Because I grew up around the theater, it came naturally to me," he recounts. In high school Nicky won a contest resulting in his play being published by Samuel French, the preeminent theatrical publisher. Some of his college professors allowed him to write plays in lieu of papers. Nicky, now 30, is currently a graduate student at Georgetown University, in a department called "Engaged and Public Humanities." He will receive college credit for this play (though his main emphasis is a drama about Benedict Arnold). "In everything I write, I've got to have humor, because it seems unrealistic to me if someone's not trying to crack a joke," Nicky reveals.
Jim has been directing at Shadowland for 25 years. His first play was Jeffrey Sweet's "Bluff," starring John Astin, famous as Gomez on the original "Addams Family" TV show. Shadowland has premiered important works, including the US debut of John Cleese's farce, "Bang Bang!" (in 2018) and the first production of "Safe Home" by Tom Hanks, cowritten by Jim Glossman (2022).
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