Tesla's Letters
Encyclopedia
Tesla's Letters is a play by Jeffrey Stanley
.It opened at the Ensemble Studio Theatre
in New York City
in April 1999, directed by Curt Dempster. The cast included Victor Slezak
and Judith Roberts
. It later opened at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2000 produced by the USC
School of Theatre. The play went on to many other productions and public readings including the November 2007 Chicago premiere at the TimeLine Theatre Company which was nominated for 3 Joseph Jefferson Awards
.
in Belgrade
, Serbia
, a bus on the Serbian-Croatian border, and Tesla's birthplace in Smiljan
, Croatia
in 1997 two years after Operation Storm
and the Dayton Agreement
and two years prior to the start of the Kosovo War
and the US-led 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Daisy Archer is a trendy young Ph.D. student from the US who has won a research grant to fly to Belgrade to research the life of eccentric electrical pioneer and arch-rival to Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla
. Tesla was of Serbian descent but was born and raised in Croatia, and spent 60 years of his life as a US citizen; this tri-national pedigree alone will present Daisy with semantics problems more complicated than she imagined.
On her first day in Belgrade she meets museum director Dragan and his elderly secretary Biljana. Dragan will decide whether Daisy is to be granted access to an archive of Tesla's personal letters. He begins making aggressive advances on her, and his plan seems simple: sex in exchange for the letters. But Dragan explains that he wants Daisy to go into a dangerous part of Croatia to take photographs of Tesla's house and the church in which his father was a Serbian Orthodox
priest. If Daisy will do this he will give her access to Tesla's letters. She agrees to strike the dangerous bargain.
On the bus to Croatia, Daisy meets Zoran, a handsome, charismatic young man and ex-Croatian soldier. When he learns that she is planning to drive to the remote village of Smiljan, an area which US State Department travel advisories have warned Americans to avoid, he insists on coming along as her guide. In Smiljan, Daisy witnesses the immediate aftermath of a military attack on a civilian neighborhood and sees a moment of deadly violence as it occurs. She takes photographs of Tesla's birthplace and returns to Belgrade for a final confrontation with Dragan.
In the end Daisy rejects nationalism in any form, refuses to take sides and arrives at a cynical and seemingly prophetic conclusion that the war will soon resume in the Balkans and around the world because humans, including even her hero Tesla, are savages who enjoy plotting, planning and executing it.
Jeffrey Stanley
Jeffrey Stanley is a playwright born in Roanoke, Virginia. He began writing in elementary school, and graduated from New York University Tisch School of the Arts Undergraduate Film Program and Graduate Dramatic Writing Program...
.It opened at the Ensemble Studio Theatre
Ensemble Studio Theatre
The Ensemble Studio Theatre is a membership-based, developmental theatre located in New York City. It has a dual mission of nurturing individual theatre artists and developing new American plays.-Overview:...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in April 1999, directed by Curt Dempster. The cast included Victor Slezak
Victor Slezak
Victor Slezak is an American stage, television and screen actor who has appeared in numerous films, including The Bridges of Madison County , Beyond Rangoon , The Devil's Own , The Siege ,The Cat's Meow , Timequest as John F...
and Judith Roberts
Judith Roberts
Judith Anna Roberts, whose birthname is Judith Lebreque, is an American stage, film and television actress best known for her role as the Beautiful Girl Across the Hall in the 1977 film Eraserhead...
. It later opened at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2000 produced by the USC
University of Southern California
The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
School of Theatre. The play went on to many other productions and public readings including the November 2007 Chicago premiere at the TimeLine Theatre Company which was nominated for 3 Joseph Jefferson Awards
Joseph Jefferson Awards
The Joseph Jefferson Awards are given annually by a volunteer non-profit committee to acknowledge excellence in theatre in the Chicago area. Founded in 1968, the awards are given in tribute to actor Joseph Jefferson...
.
Plot
The play takes place at the Nikola Tesla MuseumNikola Tesla Museum
The Nikola Tesla Museum is located in the central area of Belgrade. It holds more than 160,000 original documents, over 2,000 books and journals, over 1,200 historical technical exhibits, over 1,500 photographs and photo plates of original, technical objects, instruments and apparatus, and over...
in Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
, a bus on the Serbian-Croatian border, and Tesla's birthplace in Smiljan
Smiljan
Smiljan is a village in the mountainous region of Lika in Croatia. It is located northwest of Gospić, and fifteen kilometers from the Zagreb-Split highway; its population is 417 .-Tesla:...
, Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
in 1997 two years after Operation Storm
Operation Storm
Operation Storm is the code name given to a large-scale military operation carried out by Croatian Armed Forces, in conjunction with the Army of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to gain back control of parts of Croatia which had been claimed by separatist ethnic Serbs, since early...
and the Dayton Agreement
Dayton Agreement
The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on...
and two years prior to the start of the Kosovo War
Kosovo War
The term Kosovo War or Kosovo conflict was two sequential, and at times parallel, armed conflicts in Kosovo province, then part of FR Yugoslav Republic of Serbia; from early 1998 to 1999, there was an armed conflict initiated by the ethnic Albanian "Kosovo Liberation Army" , who sought independence...
and the US-led 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. Daisy Archer is a trendy young Ph.D. student from the US who has won a research grant to fly to Belgrade to research the life of eccentric electrical pioneer and arch-rival to Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
. Tesla was of Serbian descent but was born and raised in Croatia, and spent 60 years of his life as a US citizen; this tri-national pedigree alone will present Daisy with semantics problems more complicated than she imagined.
On her first day in Belgrade she meets museum director Dragan and his elderly secretary Biljana. Dragan will decide whether Daisy is to be granted access to an archive of Tesla's personal letters. He begins making aggressive advances on her, and his plan seems simple: sex in exchange for the letters. But Dragan explains that he wants Daisy to go into a dangerous part of Croatia to take photographs of Tesla's house and the church in which his father was a Serbian Orthodox
Serbian Orthodox Church
The Serbian Orthodox Church is one of the autocephalous Orthodox Christian churches, ranking sixth in order of seniority after Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and Russia...
priest. If Daisy will do this he will give her access to Tesla's letters. She agrees to strike the dangerous bargain.
On the bus to Croatia, Daisy meets Zoran, a handsome, charismatic young man and ex-Croatian soldier. When he learns that she is planning to drive to the remote village of Smiljan, an area which US State Department travel advisories have warned Americans to avoid, he insists on coming along as her guide. In Smiljan, Daisy witnesses the immediate aftermath of a military attack on a civilian neighborhood and sees a moment of deadly violence as it occurs. She takes photographs of Tesla's birthplace and returns to Belgrade for a final confrontation with Dragan.
In the end Daisy rejects nationalism in any form, refuses to take sides and arrives at a cynical and seemingly prophetic conclusion that the war will soon resume in the Balkans and around the world because humans, including even her hero Tesla, are savages who enjoy plotting, planning and executing it.