Ark Valley News - Valley Center playwright reaches big stage

John Paul Porter is pictured with the electronic billboard of Off Broadway plays in New York City.

Valley Center playwright reaches big stage
By Chris Strunk
Last Updated: January 29, 2015

John Paul Porter has described his career as "frustrating" and even "torturous."

At the same time, the playwright who graduated from Valley Center High School in 1970 says it's been "exhilarating" and "full of joy."

Right now, Porter, who has been writing plays since the late 1970s, is in the spotlight.

His "Men and Women Talking Love and Sex" is running at the Davenport Theatre Off Broadway in New York City through Valentine's Day. It opened Oct. 30 and was extended twice.

"I have a body of work and I want my plays to have a life," said Porter, a 1975 Wichita State University graduate. "One reason for this production is to make that happen."

In an email exchange with The News, Porter answered questions about his hometown of Valley Center, his play and his "body of work."

AVN: Do you go by Paul or John Paul?

JPP: Most people in Kansas call me Paul. My mother called me Paul. But in my travels I have decided I like the extra syllable. I blame a French woman. She could pronounce John Paul like nobody else, like she knew me in a way I wanted to know her.

AVN: Describe your play, "Men and Women Talking Love and Sex."

JPP: A relationship is followed from its giddy beginning to its unhappy end, complete with a running commentary from a Peanut Gallery of friends. A couple is followed through the honeymoon phase to the bitter end as their friends offer poignant and funny insight, speculating on the battle of the sexes, what women and men want, the sexual nitty-gritty, how everything is wonderful until it all goes to smash, all done in a wildly exuberant theatrical style. Raucous, funny, and touching, an all too real look at how men and women think and feel.

Here's a brief explanation.

Let me assure the people of my hometown I will never let this play be performed at Valley Center High School, even if my old friend and debate colleague Kenny Carter directs. I have on good authority (his wife) that he knows nothing about the subject.

Further, if you look closely at the title you will see it contains a three-letter word not suitable for high school students or more importantly their parents. The kids would disagree, but on this one I will go with their parents, the PTA and local clergy. I know my audience and my town. A college production would be fine. A high school production, no, probably never, at least not in the lower 48.

You'll have to wait until Wichita State does this show. Please agitate Shocker Land until they do. In the meantime, there are certain plays of mine that could be done at VCHS, even if the estimable Mister Carter (and I estimate him at about a half acre), the Elia Kazan of the neighborhood, is now gone. Get him to unretire for one production or better yet, have him take over the Valley Players.

AVN: Is this the "biggest stage" on which your work has been performed?

JPP: Yes.

AVN: How does this stack up with other things you've done?

JPP: Periodically there have been great productions of plays of mine — "Trilogy Blue" in Los Angeles, 1978; "Thirty Years in Sixty Seconds," New York, 1985; "All God's Children Got Equipment," Los Angeles, 1991; "Men Talking Women Talking Men," Los Angeles, 1992; "The Clan of the Quillins" at the O'Neill, 1994. In the last decade, three one-acts three years in a row — "A Night on the Moon," "Funeral for a Friend" and "The Poison Party" at the Gallery Players in Brooklyn. Two one-acts two years in a row — "How Cool Is That" and "Every Pair of Blue Jeans Was Like A Bullet" at the Metropolitan Playhouse on the Lower East Side.

The production at the Davenport Theatre is by far the most important and one of the best productions of them all. Which is good, for on it hangs everything going forward. I have a body of work and I want my plays to have a life. One reason for this production is to make that happen.

AVN: Describe your career in a paragraph.

JPP: One should not tell a long story unless one can tell it well. There are too many stories to tell. Instead, I will mention words that describe my quote-unquote career: long, slow, frustrating, poverty stricken, enraging, on occasion even torturous, except for a handful, maybe a few hundred, maybe a few thousand, unknown; but also exhilarating, full of ecstasy, wonder, joy and lately an acceptance of the journey.

For more on the play and Porter, visit www.johnpaulporterplaywright.com or "Men and Women Talking Love and Sex" on Facebook.