{news} Bill C. Davis in Litchfield County Times

[David Bedell]

(The 5th district includes most of Litchfield County as well as Danbury, 
Waterbury, Meriden, and New Britain)

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15018544

08/11/2005

County Playwright Announces Congressional Run-in Dialogue
By: E.L. Lefferts

KENT-At a Green Party meeting Saturday in Kent Town Hall, playwright Bill C. 
Davis, who is best known for the Broadway hit "Mass Appeal," fully admitted 
that his challenge to Fifth District Congresswoman Nancy Johnson wouldn't be 
typical.

"For lots of reasons I'm a very unique candidate," he said, "but I think 
that's what the country needs."

And in truly unique fashion, Mr. Davis announced his 2006 congressional run 
and introduced his platform by premiering a play he wrote titled "Green 
Dialogues."

The action of the drama takes place in a kitchen, occupied as the play 
begins by Lester and Evelyn, a fictional married couple that were 
wonderfully played Saturday by real married couple, writer William 
Kinsolving and poet Susan Kinsolving.

The pair has just learned that their son, Devon, also nicely performed by 
Rob Richnavsky, registered with the Green Party.

Through these characters, Mr. Davis introduces Green Party issues he feels 
strongly about, and counters the arguments of Republicans through Lester's 
character and of Democrats though Evelyn.
"The thought of talking in speeches just isn't where my brain goes," Mr. 
Davis said, explaining why he wrote the play. "I think in dialogue. It was a 
natural response to how I would communicate these ideas, and I thought it 
would be more engaging as a piece of theater."

Among other issues, "Green Dialogues" expresses Mr. Davis' feeling that 
ingenuity and inventiveness are natural resources that are largely neglected 
in the U.S. Devon, an inventor, tells his parents, "... I'll return the 
favor one day and support you, maybe."

"With what?" Lester asks, "The royalties from all your inventions?"

"No," Devon replies with equal sarcasm, "with all the money I'll have from 
my private Social Security investment fund."

On prescription drugs, Devon tells his parents, "Rob got those tics-like 
Tourrette's-and Mark became a complete insomniac, and Greg, well, I don't 
think he had a learning disability, he had a great imagination and he was 
bored with the teacher."

Differing opinions on gay marriage are also discussed. Evelyn declares, 
"civil unions-fine-but that's enough for now." Lester claims to be, "One 
hundred percent opposed to any of it," and Devon says, "Being gay is 
neutral. It's a simple variation of the human experience, and part of being 
human, for some people, is to be married."

The play further touches on the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib, 
campaign finance reform, global warming and the subject nearest and dearest 
to Mr. Davis' heart, renewable energy sources.

"Don't worry, Mom," Devon says at the conclusion of "Green Dialogues," "I'm 
staying. I'm not a big fan of indignant exits. You and Dad need me too much. 
I will stay under this red and blue roof until it has been retrofitted to 
solar."

"Ooh, and a green roof will solve everything," sneers Lester.

"It will be a start, Dad," Devon replies.

"Mass Appeal" is a play about a young idealist who chastises a popular 
priest for offering a faith that asks little of its believers. Devon in 
"Green Dialogues," and by extension, Mr. Davis, also advances the notion 
that making moral choices is not easy. "If I don't vote for what I believe 
in then that would be a wasted vote," Devon tells his mother when she claims 
he'll throw his vote away on the Green Party.

It's not enough for Mr. Davis to pull a lever in a voting booth, though. 
Unhappy with what he's seen happening in Washington D.C., the playwright 
decided that it was time to stop complaining and step in to the fray.

That's something he came to understand when he was at Emerson College in 
Boston, where he roomed with the son of a "hotshot television director."

Excited by his father's commanding nature, the son described waiting in line 
with his dad at the airport. Impatient with the slowness of the line, the 
father elbowed his way in front of the 10 people standing ahead of him and 
demanded that the ticket taker allow him to board. The airline employee 
declined, and the father caused a scene, calling in the manager to get the 
employee in trouble. Ultimately the father got his way.

"I think that kind of personality-that's what we're in the grips of now," 
Mr. Davis told the audience, "And why didn't the ten people standing on line 
do anything about him? ..."

How serious a challenge Mr. Davis may be to Ms. Johnson is yet to be seen. 
The congresswoman was elected in 1982, and she wields a lot of power as a 
member of the House Ways and Means Committee and as chairman of the Health 
Subcommittee.

But Mrs. Johnson, according to Mr. Davis, has become "prototypical" of many 
congresspersons. They become "double agents" for the companies from whom 
they garner campaign dollars. "Everyone is left questioning, whom are you 
representing?" Mr. Davis said. "I see the government as a sort of immune 
system that should protect people from corporate thugs."

His candidacy offers an "opening for citizens in the Fifth District to 
pursue a forward vision," Mr. Davis, who lives in Plymouth, explained. "A 
new way of looking at their place in the country and their place in this 
national infrastructure." President John F. Kennedy said, "Ask not what your 
country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Mr. Davis says, "I ask, 'What can you do with your country?'"

The next step, according to the playwright, will be to hold a series of 
forums on green issues, and issues important to the Fifth Dstrict. He is 
also contemplating a video recording of "Green Dialogues" that would play on 
public access channels and he said he'd tweak the drama to accommodate 
different venues. One version could be an interracial marriage or a Hispanic 
couple, he said. "So many political decisions happen in the kitchen before 
dinner, instead of dinner, after dinner...," Mr. Davis commented. "I'll add 
to the play as events unfold."

More information about Mr. Davis and his campaign can be accessed via the 
Web site www.votebillc.org.

©Litchfield County Times 2005