Through storytelling, we make sense of our experiences, find meaning, and even envision a better future. Storytelling is pivotal for maintaining a sense of optimism and empowerment in hard times. Ultimately, storytelling fosters empathy, resilience, and a sense of belonging.  All of which are essential for navigating the complexities of difficult times.

And so it is in the Wilbury Theatre Group’s return of the acclaimed and wildly successful production of the Tony Award-winning play “Indecent” by Pulitzer Prize winner, Paula Vogel.  It is directed by Susie Schutt,  which runs now thru December 23.

“Indecent” tells the true story behind Sholem Asch’s “God Of Vengeance,” a Yiddish play that transferred to Broadway in 1922 and was shut down by the police six weeks after opening at the Apollo Theater on 42nd Street, for offensive content. “God of Vengeance,” written by Asch when he was in his 20’s, tells the story of a bourgeois brothel owner whose daughter falls in love with one of his prostitutes.

 “God of Vengeance,”  the evocative work of Jewish culture, was praised and criticized for taboo themes of censorship, immigration and anti-Semitism. Inspired by these true events and the controversy, and pulsing with music and theatricality, Pulitzer Prize-winner Paula Vogel’s “Indecent” tells the behind-the-scenes story of the courageous artists who risked their careers and lives to perform a work deemed “indecent.”

I recently had the good fortune to interview Susie Schutt, the play’s Director, and to understand how the power of the play, “Indecent”  manifested itself from the 1922 play, “God of Vengeance.”

Zecco:  How does it feel to be directing “Indecent” again, at the Wilbury?

Schutt: It is wonderful. To have the opportunity to direct this play again, to work with the incredible and talented team, and to hone the things we learned from the first time we produced the show is a true gift.  And, to work on this play at this moment in time feels very important both to me and, I believe, to our audiences.  It is important that stories like this are told.

Zecco:  It was only last Spring of 2023 that Wilbury first presented “Indecent.”  Why is it so important to mount it again after such a short timeframe between productions?

Schutt: Not only did we have audience demand to bring this play back, but the Jewish experience is currently evolving.  The play offers a shared examination of our humanity, which is timeless.

Zecco:  What do you believe are the three most important connections between this play and the events currently going on in the mid-East?

Schutt: Who we hold accountable and why, how we examine persecution and the fear that surrounds it and how people explore identity as a member of a group and on a personal level.

Zecco:  How do you think this play compares the perceptions of sexual identity of the 1920’s to the perceptions of today.

Schutt:  The play explores how we respond to the representation lesbian relationships. Representation and the collective response certainly has improved since the 1920’s, however we still struggle with acceptance as a society.  The play helps to examine those questions and perhaps to examine our own perceptions more deeply.

Zecco:  What do you want theatergoers to know or feel when they leave the theater that they may not have known or felt before seeing “Indecent?”

Schutt: I like the play to speak for itself. My hope is that theatergoers have an individualized experience and that they see things in a new or different way.  Theater is an artform that poses questions and gives us the opportunity to answer them on our own. 

Susie Schutt is a registered drama therapist working out of Third Person Therapy, Thrive Behavioral Health, and Create Art & Wellness and an intimacy director for local colleges and theater companies. She served as the Gamm Theatre’s Director of Education & Drama Therapist from 2014 to 2022, assistant directing several shows during her tenure. As the founding Director of New Works, Susie helped establish Wilbury Theatre Group as an incubator for new works and emerging artists from 2013-16.  Previous productions with Wilbury include: It’s A Spaceship Now, The Teller, Cain + Abel, and Rapture Blister Burn as director, and intimacy direction for Lifted, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, and The Humans. Susie received her MA in mental health counseling and drama therapy from Lesley University and is a graduate of the University of Michigan, with a BA in sociology and social inequality.

Wilbury Theater Group
Inside WaterFire Arts Center
475 Valley Street, Providence
November 30 – December 23
Thurs - Sat at 7:00 p.m.; Sun at 2:00pm
Tickets for all performances are $5-$55 through the Wilbury Theatre Group’s innovative “All-Access” ticketing program, and are available at thewilburygroup.org/indecent.

This production of “Indecent” is made possible in part by the generous support of Elizabeth Armstrong.