To all you genius people: Playwrites and Creative thinkers and such?

Question

Imagine that you recieved a grant to produce a play that you would either comission or write yourself. It could be in the theatre of your choice, with the cast of your choice. The only condition is that it has to be about some issue -personal, social, political, environmental-- that you strongly care about. What would you want your play to be about, and what would you want the audience to take away from the experience of seeing your play?

Answer 1

I do believe that I would write a play that would so profoundly move its viewers that men would suddenly leave each other's wives alone and pay more attention to their own.

Answer 2

My play would be about a group of friends who are well-known in the theater.  One would be a director, one a playwright, one an actor.  These three would spend their days looking down their noses at a very dedicated stage hand; a person they deem as "inferior."  They fall on hard times when their latest effort is panned by the critics, and they all have trouble finding work.  Not too long after, they get an offer to fund their own theater from an anonymous source, with one stipulation:  The "inferior" stage hand has to be named as their new stage manager.  Reluctantly, they agree.  Over time, as they work with their new stage manager, they learn that he has an MBA from Villanova and was an up-and-coming executive for a Fortune 500 company.  

So how did he end up as a stage hand?  Simple:  HE QUIT.  He decided that he wanted to do something he loved doing for a pittance rather than something he hated for riches.  He eventually reveals that it wasn't so much the job that irritated him, it was the people.  He got fed up with co-workers that were all about pretense and keeping up with the Dow Joneses than substance.  When he returned to the theater and worked as a stage hand, he found the other stage hands to be rather rough-looking individuals with good hearts who were real friends and real people.  At the end of the story, the three friends put on a production that gets them back in the public eye in a big way, and we learn that it was our "inferior" stage hand who actually funded their theater.

What these three individuals (and the audience) would take away from this is an object lesson in real life.  People believe that only those who are like them or believe like they believe are good people, and everyone else is somehow inferior.  This play would remind people that (1) There are things that are more important than fame and fortune, (2) You should never judge someone based on preconceived notions, and (3) We are often not nearly as open-minded, understanding, or accepting as we think we are.

P.S.:  I made this up based on your portrayal of playwrights and creative people as geniuses, as if to say people involved in the theater or people who create works that can be called art are the only geniuses in the world, or are somehow superior to people who work in the corporate world.  Oh, BTW -- I don't need a grant, I can write this one myself.  If it's any good, my brother (who is on the Board of Trustees at the community theatre in Trenton) will put it up for production.

Answer 3

there are many choices, but few make good play material.

eg, the interaction between population growth, global warming, wealth, food and water.

or the differences in opportunity around the world.

i'd like people to realize how incredibly fortunate they are and, i would hope, inspire them to share some of that fortune, in some way with people elsewhere in the world.