The Playwright

Rob Lauer

Writer of the book and lyrics for “First Freedom”

The main debate that we dramatize in ‘First Freedom’ was between the Founding Fathers and concerned the purpose of government. There were those who believed then—as now— that it was the purpose of government to make sure that people were virtuous, and that if people were virtuous, liberty would be maintained. There were others who believed that the purpose of government was to protect the rights and the liberties of the individual, and that if the laws were rational in the end people would choose to be virtuous on their own accord. And so the debate was whether to have a state church, state sanctioned religion, state supported religion, or no state-endorsed religion whatsoever. The battle was won over 200 years ago when it was decided that liberty and individual rights should be defended by a completely secular government. In that way people would be free— completely free without government interference—to pursue their own religious convictions and beliefs."

—Rob Lauer

Rob. Lauer is an award-winning playwright and director. His first play "Digger" won the 1982 Mayhew Award, was later produced to critical acclaim and published in 1988. In 1990 he became the first playwright to win both the Best Play of the Year Award (for his satire, "Tom and Penny's Yard Party") and the Paul T. Nolan Award (for his urban drama, "The Church Street Fantasy") at the Deep South Writers conference.

In 1986 Rob founded the Olde Theatre Company in Virginia, serving as Artistic Director until 1990. From 1996 until 1999, Rob served as Artistic Director of Sail Productions in New York City, writing, directing and designing three national tours annually of new family-oriented musicals. These productions—which continue to tour the country annually—include the authorized stage version of "The Hundred and One Dalmatians."

In 2000 and 2001, Rob served as production manager and head writer of MGA Films, Inc. in Colorado, where his projects included the award-winning documentary, "Terror from Within"—an investigative documentary on the Oklahoma City Bombing—and the treatment for the upcoming film, "The Great Dane Thor"—based on the classic teen novel by Walter Farley. He also wrote and directed the documentary "Fear No Evil"—an exploration of the lives of the survivors of the bombing.

From 2002 through 2005, Rob served as Artistic Director of the State of Georgia's "official folk-life play," the nationally renowned "Swamp Gravy" in Colquitt, Georgia. In this position he also founded and served as Artistic Director of a professional theatrical company at the Cotton Hall Theatre. Casting all productions out of New York City, Rob directed productions of "Smoke on the Mountain," wrote and directed a new version of "Huckleberry Finn," and for three years directed his critically acclaimed musical, "A Southern Christmas Carol."

Rob’s most recently produced works include the new musical “My Jo” (based on the works of Louisa May Alcott) and the comedy “Geeks & Gangsters” (inspired by the true story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster—the Cleveland teenagers who, during the 1930’s, created Superman.)

You will need the Adobe Flash Player plugin to play this video.		You will need the Adobe Flash Player plugin to play this video.
You will need the Adobe Flash Player plugin to play this video.		I am something of a philosophy nerd. I love reading and studying philosophy—especially the ideas that emerged in the 1700s during the Enlightenment. These are the same ideas that influenced our Founding Fathers in organizing our government. And so when I was approached in 2003 with the possibility of writing “First Freedom,” I was very excited...” —Rob Lauer

I understood right away that an audience would never sit through a two hour philosophic debate. Entertaining theatre—good theatre is about creating on stage the illusion of life, of real human beings engaged in conflict—engaged in action. If you simply put a bunch of actors on stage, dress them in powdered wigs and stockings, and then have them do nothing more than argue political and philosophic principles—well, that’s a recipe a theatrical disaster no matter how noble those principles may be. And a ‘theatrical disaster’ consists primarily of one thing: boring the audience.

“From the beginning I was determined that ‘First Freedom’ not be the kind of theatrical disaster that one typically finds in so many historical shows. Too often creators of such shows assume that the audience will bring with them a sense of reverence for the historical events being presented; that because of this reverence the audience won’t expect to be entertained in the way they would if they were going to a movie on a Friday night, or watching a favorite TV series, or attending a popular Broadway musical. And unfortunately audiences themselves have tended to buy into this approach. They go to see an historically-inspired show with the same attitude they have when going to school or to the dentist: ‘I know this will be good for me, but I’m pretty sure the experience itself is going to be boring or painful.’ Too often audiences feel that they should see an historical show; the sheer entertainment value of the show is not something that they even consider.

“So from the start my intention was first and foremost to write an entertaining show—one that would inspire audience members to say to their friends, “You’ve gotta see this show! It’s really fun—and it makes you think!” You can only inspire that sort of reaction in audiences by presenting the Founding Fathers are real human beings who disagreed with one another, who often saw one another as political enemies—who, in short, had the same weaknesses and strengths we all have.

“Because in this particular story the conflict arose from a philosophic debate—that of separating church and state in order to preserve freedom of religion and thought—the challenge was to help the audience grasp certain philosophic concepts without resorting to preaching and lecturing. Musical theatre is a very stylized form of storytelling; in real life people don’t burst into song at times of intense conflict and emotion. But with musicals, an audience will buy into the illusion—they’ll put their disbelief aside and accept it when a character suddenly goes from speaking to singing.

“In ‘First Freedom’ music became the device through which we could explore philosophic and political ideas—the way to bring big broad concepts down to earth. Always the story—the characters, the action and the conflict—are front stage and center; but through the songs we found a way to help’ the audiences grasp the philosophical ideas of the day so that they could share the characters’ excitement about those ideas.”

—Rob Lauer