Playwright's Perspective: Ikechukwu Ufomadu

From the playwright: Ikechukwu Ufomadu

Dear Audience,

I have it on good authority that your time is limited, so I thank you in advance for taking a few moments out of your day to read this. My objective with this letter is two-fold: (1) to tell you a bit about myself and (2) to tell you a bit about the show.

Let’s dive into the first objective. 

My name is Ikechukwu Ufomadu, and right now, I’m addressing you in my capacity as a comic entertainer. Perhaps you’re curious about how I came to take on this role. While it’s hard to pinpoint an absolute point of origin, I can offer an early, formative experience. 

The year was 2010. The month: August. I found myself on the island of Bali, participating in a month-long dance-theater training intensive. It was coordinated and led by a mentor from college who always struck me as being as much a wizard as he was as a theater director. From early in the morning to late at night, the days were filled with rigorous movement exercises that pushed me beyond the limits of what I thought I was capable of as a performer. I’ve always felt that something in all of that movement rewired my brain somehow because when I returned to New York, all I wanted to do was write these little, odd, humorous solo plays. I’d always had some kind of comic sensibility that would bubble up every now and again in my civilian life. But it wasn’t until that trip that it occurred to me I could legitimately explore that sensibility on stage.

Amusements is but the latest effort in that ongoing exploration. 

But what exactly is Amusements? The time seems ripe to dive into objective number two.

Steve Martin once told me (by way of my reading his memoir Born Standing Up) that the late, great Johnny Carson — after doing a perfect impression of the Disney character Goofy on The Tonight Show — turned to him during a commercial break and said, “You’ll use everything you ever knew.” 

In many ways, Amusements is me using everything I’ve ever known, as I doggedly attempt to give you, the esteemed members of the audience, the best show I can in the time allotted to me by the theater. I have no conscious intention of having anyone leave the show with any big thematic takeaways (though I cannot speak for my subconscious). There are no deep moments of revelation (unless you think, as I do, that life itself is one grand, ever-unfolding moment of revelation). The show, indeed, only barely makes sense. My only aim is to entertain: to consistently create the necessary conditions for the spontaneous occurrence of laughter. There may be moments when I succeed at this. There may be moments where I fall short. And there may be disagreements from within your ranks about which moments are which.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am losing my train of thought and must go track it down before it’s too late.

Sincerely,

Ikechukwu Ufomadu