For me, controversial plays are different, in that I can see them again and again. Each new director, each new actor, in fact each overall production is different enough that it can touch me over and over again, but in different ways.
VIRGINIA WOOLF was certainly controversial the first few times that I saw it; but, to me, the play is so rich, that each production that I saw brought out different facets of the play that I hadn't noticed before.
As an actor, the most memorable experience I had with a controversial play was when I did SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION in Tacoma. It always amazes me that people in Tacoma will drive thirty miles to Seattle and see a play and never bat an eye at the language or theme; but produce the same show in Tacoma and these same theatergoers are horrified. Every night, we as a cast would wait for one particular monologue in the show, where this character says that he was f^&**d by Paul. Without fail, people would storm out of the theater, often using profanities at us for using profanities on stage.
