Thank You

A note from the writer/producer to everyone who made opening night possible:

The opening of TWIN TOWERS at 440 Studios is truly special for me. More than a year ago I started jotting down bits and pieces of dialog I overheard on the subway and in the streets of my neighborhood in Brooklyn. Slowly, a story formed, and the characters took on a life of their own. I started submitting the play to festivals in September of 2008, but I never imagined that my play would every actually get produced. Yet here I am - no, here we are, with a cast of 6, a creative team of more than 10 and a score of friends and family who have helped out. Many others read the play, connected with the message and took on the responsibility of making it come to life, be it by learning lines and playing the parts, sending me books of stamps, buying T-shirts or simply buying a ticket. I'm very thankful to the people who have helped make this possible, I couldn't do it alone, nor would I want to. The fun of this show is seeing people interpret and internalize the work, to connect with the characters, to gte involved and be as enthusiastic about my vision as when I was writing it. I've made great friends with the cast and crew, I've learned about my play and about myself, and my friends and family get to see my art, my vision of the world, in a different way. I truly thank you all for being a part of this. - Damian Wampler

The Airport

I went to the airport on Monday, and for the first time in ages I wasn't the one leaving. Instead I saw seeing a good friend off to her native Indonesia. And while saying goodbye was sad, the place itself, the endless desks, huffy guards, clicking of high heels and squeals of luggage rollers, the smell of bad airport food and duty free perfume, the pushing and shoving and finally that last hug, it churned up a host of other memories, other airports, other times, other lifetimes. If I hadn't gone out there to JFK I probably wouldn't have reflected on my own departures and arrivals in this journey.

It reminded me that life is a continium of burying and rediscovering, rejecting and reclaiming, loss and gain. These cycles take place in the human heart, and can not be accessed on purpose. Try as you might to meditate on that which is most important to you every evening, if you didn't do anything during the day you'll find your soul is as empty as your cubicle- your inner you is a reflection of your outer expereince. I found that you have to go out and experience life, wherever it may take you, in order to have roughage to chew on when you do get down to meditate. You can't search an empty room. You have to fill it first, fill it with experiences. And in that sense you have to let life take you, and make opportunities of the randomness.

At the same time, your outer life is a reflection of your inner you. If your inner self is tarnished or tainted, so is your world, no matter where you are. Purifying yourself helps to clean the world you live in and move forward. When your soul is clear you'll find that although life does indeed take you places, the places you go will be nicer and nicer. So in a sense, when I went to the airport, I didn't have to go anywhere, because the moment took me to a dozen other airports- Bishkek, Istanbul, Vienna, Tashkent, Madison, Logan, and back to JFK. Reflecting on those airports will take several days, if not months. But it will insure that my next real flight is in the right direction.

My Reality

"Twin Towers" is without a doubt sympathetic to the hardships faced by our men and women overseas. Part of my inspiration for the play stems from my own wish to see my friends return from Iraq and Afghanistan safe and sound. Many of my closest friends from high school and one friend I served with in the Peace Corps are currently overseas. In fact one of them is in Afghanistan while is wife raises his newborn daughter. In a recent e-mail he told me, "It sucks being here and not being able to watch my one year old daughter grow up."

Some of my friends have commented that the military has diversified to a point where it is more about gaining necessary skills and less about drafting African Americans from the ghetto. This is a valid point- my friends in the military are right to remind me that the army of today is vastly different than the army of the Vietnam era draft, where the poorest and least educated were taken involuntarily. That being said, my play is set in New York City and all I can do is write about what I see. My point is that my play is not meant to represent the complete dynamics of the modern demographic. Hell, Trevor fights a swarm of zombies in Act I, so I'm not claiming to bring the truth, just a cross section of one man's struggle with his inner demons. Thanks to all of you who are reading my blog, your comments are appreciated.