A new play called “A Black-Billed Cuckoo” focuses on a group of birders in search of the rare and elusive bird.
But there’s much more than bird-watching happening in Mat Smart's play that makes its leap from the La Jolla Playhouse’s acclaimed DNA New Works Series to a world premiere on the main stage.
During the pandemic, Smart answered an ad about birding at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Little did he realize how impactful taking up that casual hobby would be or the role a black-billed cuckoo would play in his life.
"I'd been bird watching about four years with this group, and the very first day I went out in the Vale of Cashmere, which is a very cool part of Prospect Park, we saw a black-billed cuckoo, but I didn't see it because they stand perfectly still," Smart said. "They blend in color-wise with the trees behind them. So it was like 10 feet away. Everyone's trying to tell me where it is. I just don't see it. It flies away. I don't think much about it. But everyone in the group was like very excited. They were kind of freaking out about it. And then as time went on, I realized how much I had missed out on. As I learned more about birdwatching, I was like, wow, that was a really rare bird to see in Prospect Park. So it wasn't until about three years of pretty avid birding in New York City that I was finally able to see one. And I only saw it for about five seconds."
Not seeing something right in front of him was one of the inspirations for his play, named after the secretive songbird.
Smart is still with his birding group and he uses his experiences with them to provide a rich backdrop for the story about a small community of birdwatchers who lift each other up and challenge each other in different ways. They also happen to be on a quest to see a black-billed cuckoo.
Smart took members of the cast and crew out birding to Doyle Recreation Center in San Diego.
Some of the "cast members are like completely drinking the Kool-Aid and like love birding, and like during breaks they go out to the back patio and we look for the birds at the La Jolla Playhouse," Smart said.
Although birdwatching is a key element in the play, you do not have to know anything about birding or be interested in birds to enjoy the story.
"The main character is grieving the loss of her husband almost five years before the play starts, and so there is a lot to do with grief and how her and her daughter navigate that differently and move through it differently," Smart said. "So that's a very serious part of the play that's very important to me, but I feel like it always is dealt with with humor and with kind of a good-natured approach that it's not a dark play, I don't think it's even like a sad play, but there is a longing in it and a grieving that keeps revolving around the play."
The play takes place in one day in one location, a park bench. In that respect, it is like his previous play, "Kill Local," which also ran at La Jolla Playhouse.
"A lot of times my plays are saturated in place," Smart said. "I love writing plays that have one location where there's a sort of arena where all of it's going down. And so in 'Kill Local,' there was like this abandoned building, one floor, it all happened here. It's just this one bench in Prospect Park in front of a Sugar Maple Tree. But I think all of my plays have to do with community, building community, fracturing community, having community lift you up or push you down."
The community in "A Black-Billed Cuckoo" gathers around birdwatching. Smart also notes that San Diego is "known as the birdiest county in America."
So if you wander out during the intermission of the play or listen carefully as you exit the theater at night, Smart said you might hear crows, ravens, lesser goldfinches, house finches, or Anna's or Allen's hummingbirds.
Smart added that he doesn't expect people to leave the play wanting to start birding, but he'd be delighted if that was a byproduct of seeing his play.
The world premiere play "A Black-Billed Cuckoo" runs through Oct. 11 at The Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Forum.
