By: Sheila Daniels

On July 3 Theater Under Ground will be reading Steven Dietz’s play City of Ghosts for the monthly On The Table Reading Series in CHAC Lower Level.

Steven Dietz is one of America’s most widely-produced contemporary playwrights. Since 1983, his twenty-plus plays have been seen at over one hundred regional theatres in the United States, as well as Off-Broadway. International productions have been seen in England, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, Sweden, Austria, Russia, Slovenia, Argentina, Peru, Singapore and South Africa. His work has been translated into seven languages. His play God’s Country was produced by CHAC in January of 2006, directed by Sheila Daniels.

Theater Under Ground’s Co-Artistic Director Sheila Daniels caught up with the playwright on behalf of Live Wire.

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Live Wire: What was your impetus for writing City of Ghosts?

Steven Dietz: I suppose it is an obsession with an obsession. The conspiracy theories which have sprung up in the wake of 9/11 are, to my mind, a sort of Rorschach test of our own modern psychic condition. I began exploring some of these wilder claims, and in doing so came headlong into the paranoia and intense passions that this event continues to inspire. I am an avid news-watcher, but in researching this play I discovered that nearly everything I thought I knew about 9/11 -- the lead-up, the events, the aftermath -- was wrong.

Live Wire: Is this your ffiirst foray into the world of conspiracy theories since Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith in God’s Country? Do you see any connection between the two?

Dietz: I think the conspiratologists in God’s Country probably whetted my appetite for the much larger exploration of that mind-set in City of Ghosts. I also resent how “conspiracy theory” has become a stand-alone term of criticism. World history is ffiilled with conspiracies that toppled rulers and governments -- and thus, even though many are foolish and outlandish, we ignore the full roster of them at our own risk.

Live Wire: What do you believe has changed most in this country since 9/11?

Dietz: If there was any innocence left in the American heart, it is now gone. On 9/11 we became part of the world community, no longer separate from it. Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Central America, the former Soviet states -- all of these regions have lived with terrorism and inexplicable violence for decades. We seemed to think this could not happen to us. Now it has.

Live Wire: How does it feel to be back in Seattle?

Dietz: It’s great. This theatre community is still my artistic home and I look forward to seeing my friends, attending their work, and getting some writing done. Unless the Mariners are on TV.