Playwright gets to heart of the matter

By Bill SamplePrint Story | Email Story
Mark St. Germain during rehearsal for ‘The God Committee.’ (Photo by Dana I. Harrel)
SHEFFIELD — Mark St. Germain, a television comedy writer and award-winning playwright, has embraced the serious and controversial issues of organ donation and the selection process for recipients in his new play, “The God Committee,” which runs tonight through Aug. 7 at Barrington Stage Company’s MainStage. St. Germain said this week that he was compelled to write a play dramatizing the subject when he was drawn into the matter on a personal level. “A friend’s father had received a kidney transplant, and during the course of that process, I realized how interested I had become about the ethical and moral implications,” he said. “I started reading about it and got a doctor from Mt. Sinai Hospital to talk to me about the subject. At any given time there are about 80,000 people on the waiting list and only 10,000 donated organs available for use.” In “The God Committee,” a hospital-transplant selection committee meets under extraordinary circumstances to decide who will be selected for a heart that has become available. With the added pressure of a wealthy hospital patron, the seven committee members face a battle of personalities, prejudices and personal revelations, which culminates in a vote that will forever change not only their patients’ lives but also their own. “It’s a Monday morning. A selected patient has died before receiving a heart transplant, and the selection committee has only 45 minutes to decide which of three eligible patients will be the recipient. The decision process is unusual because a doctor is flying in with the already harvested heart and there is only a four-hour window in which the heart can be safely transplanted,” St. Germain said. “I feel confident that the play will provoke a lot of discussion.” The New Jersey-based playwright wrote last season’s hit “Ears on a Beatle,” which was produced this spring Off Broadway by Darryl Roth and will be soon published by Samuel French. He has written the plays “Camping with Henry and Tom” (Outer Critics Circle and Lucille Lortel Awards), “Out of Gas on Lover’s Leap” and “Forgiving Typhoid Mary,” later revised as “A Plague of Angels” and presented this season by the American College Theatre Festival and at the Kennedy Center. With Randy Courts, he has written the musicals “The Gifts of the Magi” for Lamb’s Theater in New York City, “Johnny Pye and the Foolkiller” (winner of AT’s New Plays for the Nineties Award) and “Jack’s Holiday” at Playwrights Horizons. St. Germain’s musical, “Stand By Your Man: The Tammy Wynette Story,” played at Nashville’s Ryman Theater, the original Grand Ol’ Opry, and will be touring nationally this fall. He’s co-written Carroll Ballard’s upcoming film “Duma.” He was also writer and creative consultant for “The Cosby Show.” He is an alumnus of New Dramatists, a member of the Writer’s Guild East and a board member of Barrington Stage Company and The New Harmony Project. He was awarded the New Voices in American Theatre Award at the 2001 William Inge Theatre Festival. The cast for “The God Committee” is “a remarkable group of actors,” said St. Germain, “and the director is incredibly good at what he does.” Director David Saint is the artistic director of the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey. He has directed on Broadway, Off Broadway, and at Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Horizons, Primary Stages, Long Wharf, McCarter, Pittsburgh Public, Wilbur Theatre in Boston, Papermill Playhouse and Seattle Rep. He has directed world premieres by Arthur Laurents, A.R. Gurney, Anne Meara, Wendy Wasserstein, Peter Parnell, Aaron Sorkin, Wendy Wasselman, and Jonathan Larson, among others. His recent New York credits include “Down the Garden Paths,” “The Spitfire Grill” (Richard Rogers, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Awards) and “The Fourth Wall.” Saint has received the Helen Hayes Award, Alan Schneider Award, L.A. Drama Critics Award and several Dramalogue Awards. Asked whether he enjoys writing more for television or the stage, St. Germain responded, “I like both, but I always like to see theaters take a risk. Less and less new work is being done on Broadway because of the scarcity of funding. To see a stage company take on the risk of a new production, then have it be successful and get published and then be picked up and produced by other groups is gratifying.” Barrington’s MainStage is at the Consolati Performing Arts Center. Tickets and information: 528-8888 or www.barringtonstageco.org. NOTE: Ethics specialist to talk after play Dr. Eric Bush, internal medicine specialist and director of Fairview Hospital’s Ethics Committee, will lead a discussion following the Tuesday, July 27, performance of Barrington Stage Company’s world premiere drama, “The God Committee.” Written by award-winning playwright Mark St. Germain, the play follows a hospital transplant-selection committee that must decide who will receive a heart that has unexpectedly become available. Ethical issues surrounding organ donation and recipient selection. The discussion is free and open to all ticket holders of that evening’s performance. Bush has led the Ethics Committee since he came to Fairview in August 1995. He has lectured in the region to health-care professionals and to the general public on multiple topics in the medical ethics field, including end-of-life issues, the right to refuse care, advanced directives, brain death, “the vegetative state” and other areas. He lives in South Egremont with his wife, Marci, and their three children. He is a partner at East Mountain Medical Associates with Drs. Andrew Potler and Dan Patel, practicing adult Internal Medicine, while focusing on preventive care. His special interests include medical ethics, Lyme disease, nutritional health, early diabetes and heart disease.
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Friends of Great Barrington Libraries Holiday Book Sale

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Friends of Great Barrington Libraries invite the community to shop their annual Holiday Good-as-New Book Sale, happening now through the end of the year at the Mason Library, 231 Main Street. 
 
With hundreds of curated gently used books to choose from—fiction, nonfiction, children's favorites, gift-quality selections, cookbooks, and more—it's the perfect local stop for holiday gifting.
 
This year's sale is an addition to the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce's Holiday Stroll on this Saturday, Dec. 13, 3–8 PM. Visitors can swing by the Mason Library for early parking, browse the sale until 3:00 PM, then meet Pete the Cat on the front lawn before heading downtown for the Stroll's shopping, music, and festive eats.
 
Can't make the Holiday Stroll? The book sale is open during regular Mason Library hours throughout December.
 
Proceeds support free library programming and events for all ages.
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