​Bob Bartlett worked on his play Swimming With Whales at Seven Devils Playwrights Conference in 2011. The story takes place in a secluded cottage on Nantucket Island where Owen, a typically urban fifteen-year-old boy, and his fisherman father clash until an unlikely and healing communion with an injured whale awakens in Owen a forgotten boyhood and connection with the sea.

​​The reading in McCall, Idaho was directed by frequent Seven Devils director and Board President, Christy Montour-Larson. The play received its world premiere last year at 1st Stage Tyson in Fairfax County, VA. It was nominated for six 2019 Helen Hayes awards, including Best Production of a Play. Recently, Bob and Christy chatted about the journey of Swimming With Whales and its impact on communities.

​Christy: Swimming with Whales actually began as the play Whales and had its first development at Seven Devils eight years ago. How did you come to submit your play?
 
Bob: Seven Devils was my first real development experience out of graduate school. I met Larry Loebell at the Kennedy Center's American College Theater Festival where he saw a reading of the play with student actors directed by a
Washington, DC-based professional director. Larry pulled me aside and encouraged me to submit to Seven Devils. And at this point, I never had submitted anywhere. So I was kind of clueless. I remember the day that Jeni called me to tell me the play was being invited and I immediately started freaking out. What have I gotten myself into?

The talkback for Swimming with Whales at the 2011 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference with dramaturg Larry Loebell, Bob Bartlett, Christy Montour-Larson and Artistic Director Jeni Mahoney (photo: Sarah Jessup)

​Christy: I remember during our first conversation on the phone that you had never been to Idaho.
 
Bob: I remember the trip and the drive north from Boise and how really amazing that was.
 
Christy: And you had broken your foot just before you arrived.
 
Bob: Oh, that's right! I remember sitting in Fogglifter Cafe every morning, reworking the play, reworking scenes.
 
Christy: That large armchair you always sat in is still there 8 years later. We call it the Bob Bartlett Memorial chair. What was some of the work that happened at Seven Devils?

Bob: I added new scenes that are still in the play. The prologue with Owen and Ketos was added at Seven Devils and was in the world premiere. It is such a beautiful way to enter the world on the beach and the world at the bottom of the ocean.  

Christy: Since 2011, you have been in several developmental experiences. What makes Seven Devils unique?
 
Bob: I came from a background of 20 + years in community theater and had never worked with professionals around the table. Seven Devils taught me what a valuable development experience should look like and how it should work. And that has never left me. It’s made me try to make whatever development experience I am in more like Seven Devils. I learned from Seven Devils that your play is only going to get the work that it needs if the artists who are working on it fall in love with the play. And I definitely felt that at Seven Devils.

​​Christy:   What happened with the play after your time at Seven Devils? 

​Bob: It was rejected for seven years before it finally got to production. The company that produced the world premiere was 1st Stage, just outside of DC. The company got on my radar when they hired a new artistic director, Alex Levy, and I got to know him and the company's work. I thought, “These might be the people who could really get this play.” So, I asked Alex out to coffee and talked to him about the play. I didn't hear from him for a couple of months, but he read it and he loved the play. I felt like I found someone who was going to do the kind of work that Seven Devils had done. I talked to him about the play’s experience at Seven Devils and he assured me that we were going to have that kind of a development experience and that he would put the weight of the company behind it. And he absolutely did.

Top: Doug Paulson and Christopher Curry in the Seven Devils reading of Swimming With Whales. Bottom: Evan Sesek and Doug Paulson in the Seven Devils reading of Swimming With Whales. (photos: Sarah Jessup)

​Christy: What has changed in the play since Seven Devils?
​
Bob: I wrote two new scenes, which the play really needed and which made all the difference.  I think, so I think the bottom line is Seven Devils showed me what I want in a development experience and what I don't want.   
 
Christy: What was the reception and impact on the community who saw the production? ​

Ethan Miller and Nate Shelton in "Swimming With Whales" (photo: DJ Corey)

Bob: I've experienced my share of loss. That's why I wrote the play; and, well, I'm not sure I always handled loss as gracefully as these characters. So, it’s a real catharsis for an audience, and for me. We had several talkbacks with audiences and the response was overwhelmingly beautiful. My play is more than a story of a kid dying of brain cancer. It's about learning how to live and love. The audiences came away moved by the journey that Owen and his dad go on together. And that journey really did solidify at Seven Devils. And then also it doesn't hurt that the production was really beautiful. When I was at Seven Devils, I don't think I fully appreciated the two worlds of the play. That strengthened while I was there and has stayed an important part of the play. The reviews were terrific. And then, all of the Helen Hayes nominations. Mathew Wilson, who played the dad, Patrick, won Best Actor in a Play.

​​Christy:   I love that character. 
 
Bob: That's also interesting because we talked about the dad a lot at Seven Devils and you at one point said the dad is the protagonist of the play. He's sandwiched between these two powerful losses.

Christy: And he has the biggest journey.

​Bob: Yes. I came out of the world premiere feeling he’s protagonist of the play.
 
Christy: Which doesn’t mean the other characters are not important.
 
Bob: Yes. The other development that happened at both Seven Devils and during the world premier is the female characters grew so much. I remember you were advocating for a scene between Patrick and his wife. I just wasn't feeling it so I resisted it for years. While working on the world premiere I thought back to what you said and talked to Alex, our director at 1st Stage, about writing the new scene. He agreed. And he said we need that scene. I didn't know where it fit into the play. Eventually we found it and it's the most beautiful, heartbreaking scene in the play.
 
Christy: I love how Seven Devils Playwright Conference remains in your heart to this day.
 
Bob: And I meet Seven Devils folks all over the country. I was just at the opening of my new play E2 and afterward I met an audience member who said, “You probably don't remember me, but I was at Seven Devils when you did Swimming with Whales .” I think he was a stage management intern. And now he's a professional stage manager, traveling all over the country. It's a beautiful collection of people scattered all over.

Teresa Castracane and Matthew R. Wilson in "Swimming With Whales" (photo: DJ Corey)