Three Movements Premieres
As Trinity senior Martin Zimmerman moves through his last semester at Duke, he has one major goal yet to accomplish -- his senior distinction project. Zimmerman has written a play called Three Movements that will be produced February 8th-11th in Sheafer Theater as his honors project.
While some might assume college students would write about what they know--their contemporaries--Zimmerman has chosen a different stage of life to explore. In fact when he first gave a draft of his new play to people to read, they expressed surprise that he would write about an older character, especially when one of the character's main obstacles is his own age and the breakdown of his body. But Zimmerman thinks people of every age can relate to change and loss.
Zimmerman's play is a fictional play inspired in part by the life of the famed ballet choreographer George Balanchine. It follows the efforts of a fictional choreographer (also named George) and his relationship with his wife, Sonia, who was one of his greatest dancers. In the play she has recently contracted polio at the height of her career.
"I think the theme of loss is something most people in college can relate to, if not physically, then at least psychologically," he says. "All of us in some way long for a past part of our lives where we were healthier and happier, where we were allowed to be more naive and idealistic. In many ways, the play is about someone trying desperately to preserve a more glorious past.
"We see both George and Sonia trying to negotiate what their relationship will become in the wake of her illness, while George still has to keep running his ballet company," says Zimmerman. "As George continues to keep the company, he discovers Lindsay, a gifted young dancer who he believes is the future of his company and the perfect dancer for his choreography. His infatuation with her puts a serious strain on his relationship with his wife, and the complex relationship he develops with Lindsay brings about many problems of its own.
"I was at a point where I knew I wanted to write a love story," says Zimmerman. "I had just come off writing a play that was largely inspired by ideas, and a love story by definition revolves around human relationships. I wanted to write a play that was more rooted in human relationships than anything else.
Zimmerman has been working on this play for more than a year. He wrote a first draft over semester break 2005 and developed it over spring semester last year and also during a fellowship with New York Stage and Film at the Powerhouse New Work Festival last summer.
He is also currently working on developing several other plays and is in the process of writing a libretto for a collaboration on an opera with George Lam, who is a graduate student in Music Composition at Duke. The opera is being developed in conjunction with the American Opera Project.
He is planning on pursuing playwriting in the future and has applied to several graduate programs in dramatic writing. He is currently looking into opportunities (fellowships, grants, etc.) that will allow him to write over the summer. One of his goals for this production of Three Movements is to polish the play to a point where it is ready to send out to contests and professional theaters.
Zimmerman has the full confidence of the Theater Studies faculty. Department Chair John Clum says simply, "Martin Zimmerman is the most gifted and dedicated playwriting student we have had at Duke."
So while Zimmerman may be moving toward the finish line at Duke, he clearly is nowhere near the end of his writing career--far more likely this is just the beginning.
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