Divine inspiration leads to 'Grace'

(FREDERICK M. BROWN/GETTY IMAGES)

A Master of Divinity degree is not usually a prerequisite for playwriting. For Craig Wright, though, the time he spent thinking about questions of morality and ethics while earning that degree at the United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities has encouraged him to write about them in his plays and his TV scripts for "Six Feet Under" and his new show, "Dirty Sexy Money," which premieres on ABC in the fall.

Starting Wednesday, the Chester Theatre Company in the Berkshires will present "Grace," Wright's most overtly religious play.

Over the phone from his busy Los Angeles office, Wright handles a myriad of decisions about "Dirty Sexy Money," which he created and for which he is executive producer, while talking thoughtfully about the state of "Grace."

"Grace is talked about in Christian thought as a kindness or benevolence on the part of God," he says. "But the reality is that bad things sometimes make good things happen. Life is complicated. Thanks to the Holocaust we have Israel. Sometimes out of the greatest pain comes the greatest creative thrust."

In "Grace," an unlikely quartet of characters meet in a Florida condominium complex. Each neighbor, including an exterminator and a NASA computer programmer, has a different idea of the place of religion in their lives, but the most overtly religious, a developer who wants to build a chain of Gospel-themed hotels ("Where would Jesus stay?"), turns out to be struggling the most with his faith.

Chester Theatre director Byam Stevens says he was drawn to the play because the characters are so complex. "Each of the characters is having a reawakening of their faith on some level," Stevens says, "and the journey they take in their quest for faith is quite moving. But Wright also has a slightly loopy sense of black humor, which makes scenes that may seem desperate play with a lot of humor."

Stevens theorizes that the dark, edgy nature of "Grace" may be why it hasn't been staged as much as 'The Pavilion,' Wright's earlier play about alumni returning for a reunion. Part of the darkness comes from the way the play is set up. The ending is the opening scene, and then the action goes back in time. The audience knows how the story will turn out, even as the characters work through it.

Wright says he's fascinated by notions of time and space. "The play works on two axes," he says. "One axis is time. To be ethical, you're always looking forward at a choice, and then you look back and assess the choice you made, so it makes sense that the action goes forward and backward in time. The second axis is space, and although the action takes place in two apartments that are next to each other, it's staged in one space. The whole play takes place in a compressed place where forward and backward and left and right all get smushed together."

Wright says that his plays are usually about the folly of fixing things. "As I get older, there's only one aesthetic that appeals to me: baffled fascination," he says. "But I think all of my work is very moral in its concerns. 'Dirty Sexy Money' is about a guy in the middle of his life who gets lost. He becomes the lawyer for this very rich family and has to make difficult choices. I'm thinking of following 'Dante's Inferno' for plot development. My next play, which I'm co-writing with Larry Gelbart ("M*A*S*H"), is called "Better Late," which reunites a woman and her current husband with her ex-husband as he's dying, and follows her attempts to correct past mistakes."

Storytelling for Wright, he says, is "all about pushing together impossible paradoxes and making them walk around."

At the Chester Theatre Company, Chester, Wednesday through Aug. 26. Tickets: $22.50-$27.50. 413-354-7771, miniaturetheatre .org.

Inspired by Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues," Dutch playwright and actress Adelheid Roosen approached Muslim women living in the Netherlands to ask them questions about their lives, traditions, and sexuality. The resulting work, "The Veiled Monologues," premiered in the Netherlands. Now it comes to local audiences: After two workshop performances Aug. 27 at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox ($15, Shakespeare.org), the provocative piece will be staged at the Zero Arrow Theatre Oct. 16-21. Tickets: $39-$59. 617-547-8300, am rep.org. . . . Zero Arrow welcomes "Sxip Shirey's Hour of Charm" Sept. 14-28. For those three weekends, the Club at Zero Arrow will be home to circus acts, burlesque, storytellers, songwriters, and comics in a show that has been a regular at Joe's Pub in New York. Six to eight acts will appear, with different combinations each weekend. Amanda Palmer of the Dresden Dolls appears the first weekend. Tickets: $25. 617-547-8300, amrep.org.

"The English Channel," a new play by critic, playwright, and director Robert Brustein, will have its world premiere at Suffolk University's C. Walsh Theatre Sept. 6-15. The play imagines William Shakespeare holed up in a tavern with other playwrights and artists when theaters were closed due to the plague. The production heads to the Vineyard Playhouse after its Suffolk run. Tickets: $30. 866-811-4111, TheaterMania.com.

To kick off its season, the Lyric Stage Company is offering tickets to "Man of La Mancha" for $25 Monday and no handling fees on all other tickets. The tickets are valid for performances Sept. 7-13. 617-585-5678, lyricstage.com.