Notes From the Playwright

NOTES FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT

The incidents in The Incandescent Young Tom Edison are based on events in Edison's real life, but the play is not a literal retelling.  There are many myths about Edison's younger days—many Edison himself created or at least didn't refute. Whenever possible, I have used the most reliable sources I could find, but these sources often contradicted themselves. The account of the train conductor "boxing" (hitting) Edison's ears is a perfect example. Edison himself told this tale in several different ways over the course of this life, with the implication that this had led to his partial deafness.  While this incident may have happened, and might have contributed to his deafness, most scholars attribute his hearing loss to a childhood bout of scarlet fever. What is important, no matter the cause, is that Edison often saw his hearing deficit not as a handicap but as an asset.

Essentially, my overall goal in writing this play has been to find kernels of truth in Edison's stories and then to dramatically dramatize them. While most incidents in the play are based on actual events, often the chronology has been tightened, the details expanded and the actual conversations imagined. Most of all I have tried to remain true to Edison's view of how his inventive mind worked. He liked to debunk the myth that he was a natural genius. His famous saying that "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration" sums up his feeling that hard work and perseverance are as important as the creative process itself. Ironically, most people still presume Edison had the abilities the rest of us don't have. Certainly he was gifted, but he also made great use of his gifts, and he didn't let setbacks discourage him. This more than anything, I think, is the lesson of his life and the theme of this play as well.

As you can probably tell, Edison was a hero of mine when I was a kid. My first love was science, not playwriting. But as we learn from Young Edison's exploits, imagination can often lead us down unexpected paths. For me, this little play was a delight, allowing me to mix my love for science with my love for theatre.

Julian Wiles,
Playwright