Screenwriter and Playwright
When Bruce Whear was first asked to co-chair the speaker committee in our virtual environment, Mary Ruth Clarke was one of the first people who came to his mind. Bruce worked with Mary Ruth in the 1980s performing in summer stock theater in Maine, and he was thrilled to welcome her to speak to our Club this week.
Mary Ruth, a self-professed story geek, began her talk by sharing why homosapiens, who she refers to as “homonarrates,” tell stories. She cited three trivia facts about why our species tells, reads, writes, and watches stories. The first relates to the Chauvet Caves in the south of France. Discovered in 1990, these caves are open once a year for scientists who are required to wear hazmat suites due to toxic gases. Director Werner Herzog gained access to film a documentary within the caves and was granted permission to enter with a cameraman and lighting person. In this documentary, “Cave of Forgotten Dreams,” Herzog shows some of the oldest human-painted images ever discovered, proving that stories have been told for over 30,000 years in some form or another.
A second trivia fact Mary Ruth shared is that in 2001, the genome project discovered the FOXP2 gene, which supports narration. This indicates that humans are predisposed to the narrative at a cellular level. The last trivia fact which demonstrates that storytelling is inherent in our species is about two linguists who noticed that Emily, their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, babbled at bedtime. They wrote a book, Narratives from the Crib, about how as Emily’s language skills developed over time, this babbling proved to be Emily telling herself stories about her day with her reactions about what she experienced.
Mary Ruth discussed why we are compelled to tell, listen, and ingest stories. She mentioned reasons including learning, experience making, society, the betterment of people, rehearsal, warnings, healing, information retrieval, happily ever after, and hope. The biggest reason she noted, “according to story geeks,” is that human beings are driven to make sense of things, and stories help them do that.
Mary Ruth shared some of her background and how she got to where she is today. Her high school sweetheart, Scott McPherson, and she went to Ohio State and majored in theater. From there she went to Emerson for her BFA and met Bruce during summer stock in Maine. Following that, she moved to Chicago where she performed in musical theater for many years. She also did commercials and landed a grocery store jingle that helped pay the bills for a decade.
She became unsatisfied with musical theater until she joined a company that was performing original work. As the newest person in the ranks, she became the note taker and subsequently fell in love with the writing aspect of theater. She met a writing partner who needed a good screamer for one of his short films. She served in that role for him as an actor and then wrote a screenplay for a disaster comedy where everything that could go wrong did. They shot their movie where the lion’s share of the budget covered the actual film stock. The film was successful in its own way, but they wanted to re-shoot it and were seeking additional funds to remake it.
Their movie, “Meet the Parents,” caught the attention of Steven Soderbergh, and they signed with Universal Studios. Their original screenplay changed through this process as did the director. Then Robert De Niro signed on, and the film transitioned further. She was a little bitter about the transitions but was pleased to finally watch the Hollywood production in a small theater where she heard the laughter of people of all ages who enjoyed this film that was based on her work.
She continues to write screenplays and plays today, noting that the two disciplines are very different but inform each other. She also teaches at the college level, which is something she found by accident but finds a joyful experience. She revels in her students’ successes and shared that one of her former students is now writing for a show on Hulu and another is writing for a show on Netflix. She is currently writing her own sitcom with a comedian about his time as a corrections officer. Hopefully, we will get to watch that in the near future!
MARY RUTH CLARKE
Francesca Little kicked off our meeting by sharing what got her interested in Rotary. A newer member to our Club, 99% of her Rotary experience has been virtual! She joined our Club in March of 2020, and although she attended few meetings as Mike McLaughlin’s guest, her first official meeting as a Rotarian was our last in-person meeting. She shared that this has been an interesting ride so far! She became curious about Rotary when she was working with Mike on a real estate deal. While scheduling meetings with him, she noticed that he was unavailable every Tuesday at 12:15 because of Rotary. Her father was a Rotarian as well, so she asked Mike more about our Club. Knowing that Francesca was interested in becoming more engrained in the Salem community, Mike invited her to a meeting. She liked what she experienced and happily joined. She said that it has been awesome to learn about what is happening in Salem and looks forward to more time in the Club, hopefully in person. Francesca selected Siddhartha Shah to share next week.
Board Meeting Updates
Senior Fiesta Drive-Thru
Lifebridge Dinner Wednesday, May 12
