George Abud’s Playwrighting Debut
George Abud, esteemed Broadway actor and now playwright, has had a wonderfully varied career. From his moving work in The Visit, The Band’s Visit, and most recently his star turn in Lempicka, George has become a force within the theater community.
His latest venture is debuting his original work, The Ruins: a play through music, at the Dowling Studio within the Guthrie Theater. I was lucky enough to be granted an interview with him to discuss his process and the play as a whole. What follows is that interview:
ZR: In your interview with the Guthrie team, you mentioned the play was born out of your life’s philosophies. What are some of those?
GA: The Ruins represents so much of what I believe in this moment in time, the central belief being the fulfillment in the small. What I mean by small is literally something small. Can your life be fulfilled by small things? A day? A note of music? A connection? A conversation? A thought? The play explores many things, but at its root is the idea of ‘what is enough?’ This is very much my life philosophy. In a rushed world, where so much unhappiness dwells, so much pain, emptiness, and loss, where does one even begin to dissect meaning and fulfillment? It is my feeling that one must start from a belief that they are enough, that they deserve to be here, and that what they have done in their life up to this point is always enough. If one can believe that, then one can free themselves to the rest of their lives in a far more peaceful, coherent, and gentle way.
ZR: You have been able to help create some breathtaking shows from the ground up, what lessons did you take away from those experiences that helped you create your own piece?
GA: When I look back on my time in the theater so far, I am always deeply moved at how blessed I am to have been in so many extraordinary rooms, in the presence of such great artists, who believe deeply in what they do and the necessity of their art. I truly learned the most about the art of making theater from John Doyle. I’ve done five productions with John and many more developmental pieces. I idolize John for many reasons, not least of which is because he never ceased believing that theater has the capacity to change the world. John is, in his own words, an essentialist. Not a minimalist as many wish to generalize him. The difference is not being deliberately ‘less is more,’ but truly questioning every element, text, gesture, scenery, intention, and saying what is necessary to telling this story. What is essential? That is something I strive for in my acting. And now in my writing and directing. What’s the purest, most beautiful way of telling this story? And pure need not mean minimal. Pure could be elaborate, and glorious, and grand. But each element, each word is its own consideration.
A flower is pure, but a flower can be very small, and bear multitudes of color, have innumerable little brush strokes, and have radiant fragrance, and exquisite movement. But each little thing, essential. The other thing about theater that is consequential is collaboration. With whom are you making the thing? How do you speak to each other? How do you listen to one another? What does trust look like? Can you receive tons of stimulus and conflictions and still process everything through your center, where you always go back to what is the intention of the work, and focus everything on making the work better. What I have noticed from working on many new shows is the ones that have a better chance of being coherent and clear to a spectator are the ones in which everyone always knows what the piece is about and why they’re telling it. It’s a simple question that is terribly complex at times. But it is the question by which every thought can be checked. Being an actor helps writing so much, because the actor is the body and the voice. I speak things aloud as I write them so I feel the flow, the taste of the words, the development of the conversations. Once I am onstage, I know what feels false in my body that I myself also wrote on the page. You have to be quick, you have to be stable and grounded, and you have to want to tell others this story and about these people. If that ever gets lost, then it’s difficult to get it back. What I have learned, for myself at least, is that I cannot make art in chaos or with chaos. I make art in peace. Elements may have come from chaos but peace is the only environment I seek and what I wish to provide for my collaborators.
ZR: How long did it take you to settle on a story and script for the piece? Was it born in a day or over time?
GA: Artists, or any creative person, will very much understand me when I say this comment: sometimes it takes you months to get a single clear sentence out, and sometimes the idea pours out of you well-formed and full of details, and then it is yours for sculpting. The Ruins was written during the first months of the pandemic. It was not done, but it was very much full and realized. The question was then clarifying the two characters, their journeys in the play, and their seeking of the questions in the play towards some kind of fruition. The story was born out of a connection I felt with other musicians, and a particular moment I had often experienced. Being an Arab musician my whole life, it was always, and remains so, one of my great joys in playing the Oud for others, particularly musicians, singing Arabic songs for them, and seeing how it affects them. The conversation between two skilled musicians is always exciting and engaging to me, and it was something I wished to explore. Then there’s the details of what they would play and what that means. And then how they find connection between the minute elements of their lives through music. The needing of music.
ZR: Were these characters inspired by any real people or are they completely fictional?
GA: These characters are completely fictional but they are built out of the personalities and the dynamic of myself and Sydney Shepherd, who is my co-actor in the play. Sydney and I met while performing the musical version of August Rush at the Paramount Theater outside of Chicago in 2019, and we became fast friends. I describe the play as being “through music” rather than “with music” because the songs the characters play in the show are played and dissected in pursuit of getting at some new thought about life or discovering a truth that will help both characters find fulfillment in their lives. The songs played are based on songs Sydney and I would share with each other, and the effect of the others’ music on the other. The characters dynamic very much mirrors that of mine and Sydney, very silly, and intense, and mad, and explosively fun, and always seeking to discover something beautiful and new.
ZR: The characters know they are going to die, is this a somewhat sci-fi kind of world where they are told they will die? Or is it more grounded in reality?
GA: The characters enter the play knowing they are going to die. But they do not know of the specifics of the others’ death. The circumstances I’ve created and the information I provide about them and their surroundings are deliberately ambiguous. Though the play is very much grounded in reality and human truths, it does exist upon some suspensions of certain realities in order to help focus the storytelling towards the questions of the play rather than its circumstances. I am less interested in why these characters are dying and more interested in the how that knowledge affects and/or induces their search for meaning and fulfillment.
ZR: You are premiering The Ruins at the Guthrie, what drew you to Minnesota for the debut staging?
GA: The Guthrie remains one of the pinnacles of theater in the United States. It has always been a dream to work here in any capacity, but working here as playwright and actor is beyond my wildest thought. It was from my director, Osh Ashruf, who mounted the first presentations of the play in 2022. During this time, he sent the play and the video of our presentation to Joseph Haj, Artistic Director, at the Guthrie. Joseph, who is an artist to the core, as well as one of the finest leaders in the theater today, took this new play very seriously and read it within two weeks and got back to us. He said he understood it, he loved it, and he wanted to be part of its journey, regardless if we decided to bring it to the Guthrie or elsewhere first. It was Joseph’s belief and Osh’s resilience that finally got us over the finish line set to make our world premiere at the beautiful Guthrie Theater this weekend. I have never been to Minnesota before this, but I can honestly say it is a beautiful place that truly loves and nurtures theater. The community here is astounding. They love going to the theater, they are excited, they look forward to seeing work and engaging with it and its artists. It is a fertile place for creativity. I have worked at many wonderful theaters around the country, and the Guthrie has instantly become an artistic home and a place where I feel welcomed and encouraged to create the clearest vision of my work. If I had the chance to pick anywhere to debut my play, I would always pick the Guthrie. It is deeply meaningful to me to be here.
ZR: The play asks the question: was our life enough? That is a heavy question to ask, how do you feel you would answer that question today, if you knew you, yourself, were going to die in a few days?
GA: It is a heavy question if one thinks of the word ‘enough’ as something out of reach or hard to attain. I think of ‘enough’ as a sigh, a breath, a color, something that sits with me each day. Something I have every single moment that I am present, loving, going forward, and choosing to be happy. My life is more than enough. And I can define that easily by very small things that exist in so many of my days. And any one of those things, to me, is enough to fulfill my whole life and make me feel it was enough. I long for more, I am ready for more, but if today were my completion, then I could go with a full heart and a full soul. I truly lived. I am quite overwhelmed by how blessed I am. I have so much love in my life, so much art. I have the chance and ability to pursue my dreams, and I have safety and freedom in my life and work — things that so many others are denied or live without. Because of that knowledge, I take nothing for granted. And the idea of all of these small blessings together moves me to create and offer those kinds of moments to everyone around me through my daily work and art.
ZR: To piggyback off of that question, what would you do with your last few days, if posed with that reality?
GA: This is trickier to answer. One can never know ‘till you’re there. But I hope I would do a lot of what I do in the play. Make music, think, fight like hell for clarity, be silly, laugh, breathe, dance, and say these few days are enough. I was here and I did not give in, I made something, and I left something beautiful in my place.
ZR: What do you hope that your audiences take away from this piece?
GA: I hope audiences take what they need. Be it peace, be it stimulation of a new way of thinking, be it examining their own lives and discovering what makes their life beautiful and worthy and enough. I want people to leave and answer the question of the play which is what is enough for you? And if you were left with this one person and these few days, and some of the things you love, could that be enough? And could you release yourself to your own end. I think so many of the world’s problems stem from not answering what is enough and not knowing what is ever enough. It is the lust for more and this illusion of scarcity that creates much of the violence, separation, and madness in our world. You must seek to love your life, or seek to live a life worth loving, and you must know that you are meant to be here and that what you have is enough. You need nothing more. Just you. It is a vulnerable thought, but that is the theaters’ purpose.
The Ruins runs September 19th – October 12th at the Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio. Additionally, George has authored a book of poetry, A Day and Its Night, where he explores a variety of themes from his play in his own petic writing style. You can find a copy on his website georgeabud.com.
I would like to thank George and the Guthrie for this amazing opportunity.
