So I met Kenneth Einhorn, M.D., 2 years ago, when he secured my services to do a script consultation. I do lots of these script consultations, and I love doing them for as someone who has actually produced literally thousands of plays, I have a production eye when I look at a script so I see possibilities and ideas that most dramaturges, who are not involved in production, just don’t see.

I believe a play is an emotional experience and it really doesn’t exist on the page.

A written play is just a map for the playwright, director and actors to build on so that together they can create an emotion experience for an audience. This emotional experience is such an important distinction for a playwright to understand and to commit to.

Ken sent me a short twenty minute medical drama that took place in a Hospital Emergency Room called A SICKNESS OF THE MIND. I loved it. It had great characters, a clear through line and lots happening on stage. I love when things happen on stage. (That is rule number 2 for any playwright - Make things happen ON STAGE.) I helped Ken make some simple changes, and gave him some distinctions to streamline his play and to make it even more dramatic. We spoke on the phone and he was a charming, intelligent, just a wonderful guy and he loved my suggestions.

2 months later, with a reworked, streamlined, and awesome new Map for the creative team, Ken contacted me to produce A SICKNESS OF THE MIND as part of our Play Production Program.

I instantly said “ Absolutely!”

So I have to confess, A SICKNESS OF THE MIND was my first (and only) medical drama I have ever directed. There are hundreds of medical dramas on TV, but in theatre Medical Dramas are very rare. I was thrilled out of my mind to take on this challenge.

The set up for this play is this: A young ER doctor recently had his father killed by a thug on the streets, and this is this doctor’s first day back at work after taking two weeks off to handle the wake and the funeral and all that needs to happen when a family member dies.

It is clear at the top of the play, this ER doctor is not all together yet. He is abrupt with the nursing staff and with management, and he is just not in a good place.

Suddenly a screaming patient is rolled into the ER who was shot in the leg after brutally shooting and killing a police officer. This “thug” is rude, demanding and righteous. After finally getting him to settle down by giving him drugs, he falls asleep as they bandage his leg.

The ER doctor leaves to see another patient, and in the waiting room runs into the partner of the cop who was killed, who is crazy upset and angry and he tells of how his partner was brutally and purposefully murdered in cold blood by the “thug” in the next room.

Suddenly, the nurse runs in and says there are some emergency complications with “the thug” and they run back to the room. They are not sure what is happening and as they go about figuring it out, the patient suddenly FLATLINES and the nurse calls to the doctor to get the defibrillator and the doctor stops, freezes. It’s clear the doctor is thinking he should let him die. After a quick exchange, the nurse snaps him out of it, and they save the patient’s life.

So this was wild to bring to life. First off, it was clear we had to make all the medical equipment believable if not this play would prove laughable. Luckily, Ken had access to a real defibrillator and a whole bunch of other medical equipment that we could use for the production.

Next, I cast a kick ass team of actors: Jordan Allen Bell, Michael Dale, Hiro Takashima and Katherine Paulsen and we went about making this play soar.

Jordan Allen Bell, with who I had worked with before in THE COURT MARTIAL OF ADMIRAL MONTOJO by Dennis Posadas (he played Admiral Montojo,) was the ER doctor and he was perfect for this role. He has this unique sense of nobility, and he has a dark side too.

Hiro Takashima played the “bad guy,” and Hiro is the nicest guy on this planet. I remember at the first rehearsal telling him that he needed to be so friggin’ vile and that once he create this vile, evil guy, he will be able to use it again and again in his career, and probably get lots of TV work. (Isn't that fun?) He was psyched to make this happen.

Katherine Paulsen was the nurse, a super specific and talented actor who is flawless, and Michael Dale, was the policeman who’s partner was murdered in cold blood, and Michael is the consummate professional actor, so talented and so interesting.

The fun part for me was we had to amp this thing up in a big way to pull off the medical madness of this play. But with this team, I knew we would pull it off.

We started off by making the choice that Hiro as the “bad guy” was in incredible pain when he is rolled in, screaming in agony, and he was also being incredibly dramatic about it, to mess with all. He was unbearably loud, arrogant and vile, demanding for help. Hiro took it and ran with it, and it was super fun.

The choice we made with Jordan as the doctor was that he was incredibly reactive and unsettled from the experience and story of the death of his father. He was on edge and so friggin’ messed up.

Also Michael Dale, as the policeman, also like Jordan, was so so messed up. Almost wanting to bust into the hospital room and murder Hiro.

Katherine, as the nurse, was the voice of sanity and the professional. She could detach from emotion to get things done.

So we made some high stake and interesting choices and I let the actors go at it, and what theatrical fun it was. Hiro was despicable, and it was palpable, which fed Jordan. Michael was sick, sad and vengeful which also fed into what Jordan was experiencing, and I directed it with a fantastic high stakes urgency which made it super exciting. I was so please with the work we did as a team on this. So good. Just remarkable.

When we got to the defibrillator scene, we were lucky enough to have the playwright Ken Einhorn, MD, at the rehearsal and he went though the real process of what happens when someone flatlines with precision and great detail. We spent a long time just working that scene for the medical stuff, had to be real, and it had to have crazy urgency too. I was working the sound and light board for the production and I was responsible for the defibrillator sound so I had to be completely in tune with the actors, for if I messed up with the defibrillator sound, there goes the play. But we worked it and we worked it and we nailed it.

What fun this was for all of us, and the audiences loved it. We gave them an emotional experience and they went for the ride with us!

Ken wrote me a couple days after we closed, and he said “Seeing my play that originated in my mind coming to life onstage was the realization of one of my goals in life! Thank you so much!” He has since sent me another one act Medical drama for script consultation and it rocks!

Who knows maybe we will bring it to life sometime soon!

Remember the best theatre is an emotional experience!

And it is super fun too!