<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Before Roger Crane\u2019s The Last Confession<\/em> closes next week at the Ahmanson, it\u2019s worth taking a glimpse into how his play got produced. (The Last Confession <\/em>is a mystery-thriller starring David Suchet and Richard O\u2019Callaghan, about possible shenanigans at the Vatican pertaining to the very short tenure of Pope John Paul I after only 33 days in in office, in 1978.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Though Crane is an American attorney, his play premiered in Britain at the Chichester Festival before transferring to the Theatre Royal Haymarket. Its run at the Ahmanson is the first stop of an international tour.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Crane tried to get it produced in the U.S., he really did. In a rehearsal room at the Taper Annex, he mentions theaters in his home town, the Public, the Lincoln Center, that he sent it to. He also sent it to the Taper, the San Diego\u2019s Old Globe, Chicago\u2019s Steppenwolf — nada. Then again, he was, at that time, a 50-something NYC lawyer with no track record in the theater, and a play with dozens of characters. Most of them never even bothered to read it, he says without a twinge of bitterness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Curiously, and this is the part I find most intriguing, Great Britain\u2019s National Theatre read it, and sent him back notes. He sent a re-writes, then sent him more notes. Finally, they said they really liked it but wouldn\u2019t do it. Still, he was grateful to be taken seriously as a theater scribe, from the power of his rather than from his credentials and contacts. It wasn\u2019t even submitted by an agent. He just sent it, blind, to the National Theatre\u2019s literary department..<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Through a circuitous route, it got read by RSC\u2019s Terry Hands, Canadian director David Jones and the Chichester Festival\u2019s artistic director Jonathan Church. \u201cThe only people who would do it were the best people in the world,\u201d Crane reflects. Nobody else was interested.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing boastful about Crane. His tone is bemused.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n He started law school at NYU and dropped out because he really wanted to be a playwright. So he entered the drama program at Tufts University. They put on a play he wrote about Malcolm X.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe conservatives all hated it because I wrote about Malcolm X,\u201d Crane explains. The liberals all hated it because I made it funny. After that, I said forget it, I\u2019m going back to law school.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And he did, at Fordham University. He graduated and became a partner in a law firm, specializing in securities litigation, and keeping public utlilities regulated.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thirty years later, without having given any thought to former ambitions as a dramatist, he handed his Malcolm X play to a mentor, who praised his dialogue and said he should really write a mystery. And so he did. It was called The Last Confession<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t write another word [in playwriting] until I was 52 and started this play. Not a single word.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n But his career as a lawyer aided his ability to unveil a mystery in the theater, he explains.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I try a case, I try to tell a story. That story may have a couple of themes, and that\u2019s how you win cases. A play is the same, except I can create words rather than relying on witnesses.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Crane is also no fan of florid speeches.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you write briefs, the language becomes very lean. Malcolm X<\/em> waxed somewhat poetic. There are very few adjectives and adverbs in The Last Confession. <\/em>It\u2019s all nouns and verbs, very, very lean dialogue. Each scene is very lean.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Last Confession, is being performed at the<\/em> Ahmanson Theatre through July 6. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Have eyes peeled for Son of Semele\u2019s Ensemble Solo Creation Festival<\/a>, featuring Kendra Ware, Abbie Schachner, Melissa Randel, Susan Tierney, Mike Schlitt, Joe van Appen, and Tiara Jackson and Heather Hewko<\/strong> . It plays for three weekends, starting July 2.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Roger](\"https:\/\/stageraw.com\/oldStageRaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/RogerCrane2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/a>Solo Creation Festival at Son of Semele Ensemble.<\/h1>\n