Made in America
Made in America (Mark Taper Forum, 1984)
"My heart has always been with the theater," Alvin Boretz firmly stated in an interview with Jean W. Ross when asked if his ideas for television shows often end up on the bigger screen or on the theatrical stage. Similarly to how radio helped Boretz develop his writing language, the theater reminded him to keep his characters grounded in reality and accessible to his audience.
After writing for anthology television series such as Armstrong Circle Theater, The Alcoa Hour, and Playhouse 90, Boretz knew how to write for productions that would be filmed or performed live within an episode's hour-long runtime. When the longest running series, Playhouse 90, ended in 1960, Alvin moved to other television series until 1965 when the studios attempted to revived the show as "CBS Playhouse." Boretz's first script for the new series explored the topic of a blue-collar worker's disillusionment with the "American Dream." Gene Hackman was set to star in the episode, but when the rating on the first few episodes were not high enough, CBS cut the project.
With a deep desire to showcase a project exploring the "hidden injuries" done to workers in America and the difficult struggles with identity, self-worth, and happiness, Boretz continued to work on his original plot. He re-wrote the script with the stage in mind and titled it Made in America. The story revolves around a second-generation Irish-American immigrant named Matt McAvoy, as he begins to fear that he might have wasted his life.
The play premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles in 1984. The play was directed by Steven Robman and starred future Tony winner Brian Dennehy. Richard Stayton's review in the Los Angeles Herald Examiner exclaims that the play "offers familiar, complex, normal Americans struggling with our most common enemies while speaking most beautifully rendered working-class dialogue" in a rare way that speaks to the author's writing skill. As his first play, Boretz advertised the play as a work in progress, but even in it's current form, the play attracted attention when the Forum's director wanted to bring the play back again and the director of the Finnish State Theater approached Boretz to have the play performed abroad in Helsinki. While Boretz chose to not to move forward with either of those paths, he did continue to re-work the play more as the years continued on in order to strengthen it.
Made in America (Mark Taper Forum, 1984)
However, as the years continued and Boretz resumed submitting the play into festivals and theater circles, he received rejections from numerous sources, including the Old Globe Theatre and the Philadelphia Festival Theatre for New Plays, both in 1988. In 1991, Boretz reached out to the director in Helsinki, Ralf Langbacka to see if the play could fit into his theater. While Boretz did not receive positive news on Made in America, Langbacka did ask to read his newest play, I Remember You.
The successes and disappointments that accompanied Made in America's production process were not new to Boretz in his writing career, but serve as a keen reminder of the continuously nebulous environment in which writers of all mediums must exist within in order to display their art to the world.