If you are a theater buff, odds are you have seen a Ken Ludwig show.
Perhaps the most performed playwright of his generation, Ludwig has had 34 plays and musicals staged around the world.
His newest is making its world premiere at Asolo Rep in Sarasota.
WUSF's Cathy Carter recently spoke with Ludwig about the show, 'Lady Molly of Scotland Yard.'
Ken, your play is set in London during World War II and includes a plot involving Britains's code-breaking operations. How did writing this show begin for you?
I love reading about World War II and I love reading about Winston Churchill. I was on one of my reading jags when I thought, ‘I need to write a play set during World War II that really pays homage to the heroes who won the war.’ My father was in World War II, so its near to my heart. Let me add that when I wrote the play, we were going through the pandemic, so it was really something for us to fight against together as a country and as a world in that case. So, when you write a play, you want the stakes to be high. You want people to lean forward in their seats and listen, because it matters. And this was the ultimate story for that.
And that story centers on Lady Molly, a woman detective and her female sidekick in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. We should say this show is a comedy thriller, and I understand comedy is your favorite genre.
Ever since I was a child, I wanted to be in the theater. I lived in a small town in Pennsylvania, York, Pennsylvania, in the Amish country, a wonderful place, but there was not a lot of theater nearby. So, my access to theater was seeing plays, but especially reading plays. And as I started to read the great classical comedies in the English language, starting with Shakespeare, going right up through Farquhar and Goldsmith and Noel Coward, I was enchanted with them. They were my favorite form of drama. So of course, that's what I started to imitate.
Ken, this is your 35th show and its world premiere is right here in Sarasota, and I understand you were here for several weeks getting the show finalized. What was that process like?
Well, after I finished writing the play, and I write long hand, by the way, it gets typed up, and then what you do is- you get a group of people in a room who read it, and we rehearse them. And it means that I get to tinker with the text. I get to hear the play aloud for the very first time in the whole world. And I usually like to get an audience so I can get reactions. So having this kind of a workshop or reading is absolutely crucial to the process.
So now it's here. It's made its debut. What can you tell us about the production aspect of it?
The production, directed by Peter Rothstein, is magnificent. I'm not just saying that. I know you'd think, oh, I'm in an interview, I have to say it. But I think it's as good a production, or better production than I have ever seen. He has a set of great designers on this play. There are five major designers, there's the music people and the sets and the costumes and the lighting, and in this case, a lot of projections. Each of those is a separate designer brought from all over the country to do this play and it's magnificent. It's more than I deserve. I look at this and go, wow, I don't know that this will ever be produced this well again.
And how has your time in Sarasota been?
I love Sarasota. I could stay here forever. What I love about Sarasota in particular is that it has so many arts at their fingertips. It's got opera, it's got several theaters, it's got great bookstores, a great used bookstore, and I don't know any other city of this size that has so much arts at your fingertips.
Ken, I read something you once said, and I'd love for you to expand on it. You said, “Art can reorder our hearts."
Yes, when we go to the theater, go to great films, go to great opera, they are created by great artists who are thinking about things. They're not just trying to make us laugh, not just trying to bring us to tears over a dramatic situation. They have thought through what they're trying to say and how they want to change the world. And when you watch, you are moved and changed.
Lady Molly of Scotland Yard at Asolo Repertory Theatre through Feb 8.
