Literary Manager Mark Routhier speaks with The Ice-Breaker author David Rambo about play, his work on the hit TV show CSI and how he came about to writing a play about science.

Mark Routhier: How did you originally become interested in climatology and the ice-caps as potentially fertile ground for a play?

David Rambo: The first I heard of ice-core drilling and how it could reveal climate history was when I read an article titled "Ice History" by Elizabeth Kolbert in The New Yorker.  This was in January 2002, as I was struggling for inspiration to fulfill a commission from ASK Theater Projects and the Geffen Playhouse.  What struck me immediately was the metaphoric quality of ice-core drilling, how much it suggested two people getting to know one another.  Layer by layer, we go deeper.  We learn a history, some of it from warmth, and some from cold.  I had a relationship with Cal Tech that led me to Dave Stevenson, a wonderful planetary scientist.  He gave me good initial direction, led me to texts and other scientists.  I am still reading and discussing these subjects as new information comes forth.  Interestingly, the best reporting on the ice cap and the implications of its evolution is in UK publications. US media rarely report on the subject, and it's huge.

Mark Routhier: The science in the play seems to forecast a pretty radical notion that Ice Ages may come after a warming trend.  Is this theory one that is kicked around by climatologists and other scientists concerned with global warming?

David Rambo: Actually, the notion has been kicked around by scientists for over a century.  Ice-core drilling is one way to explore the history.  Ocean sediments and other geologic exploratory techniques contribute evidence going back even further.  That is pure science (what in the play Lawrence calls being "an explainer").  The data becomes applied science – as Lawrence learned in a professionally humiliating way - when used as the basis of predictions, as is the case now in dialogues over global warming.  Some suggest that the current rise in surface temperatures is simply a function of nature's regular warming cycle.  Others counter that if warm periods do occur naturally and predictably, we're compelled to be more responsible stewards of the environment now that human population is at an all-time high, and our contributions to changes in the atmosphere factor in the severity of the warming.

Mark Routhier: Your research is obviously extensive.  As a playwright, is there any formula to balancing information from research and dramatic action?

David Rambo: I love the research phase of a new project.  Perhaps because my mother and grandmother were librarians and shared with me the joy of "digging for answers." Early drafts inevitably contain more of the research than ends up in production. That stripping away is a continuation of the process of discovery.  Extensive research helps an author make good editing decisions. We don't know as much as our characters do (I'd never claim to be a paleoclimatology expert), but deep research helps us render their universe more truthfully, which then enables the audience to participate to a fuller extent.

Mark Routhier: You are a staff writer for Crime Scene Investigation on CBS. What are the technical differences between writing for television and writing for the stage?

David Rambo: The key difference between the two is that television is a literal medium, and the theatre is a poetic medium. In film, the director fills a frame with detail to tell the story.  In the theatre, language, metaphor and allusion "fill the frame," allowing the audience to participate in the telling of the story.  Then there's subtext; it runs deeper and richer in the theatre.  An awful lot of the subtext of TV comes from the personalities of the actors rather than the delicate layering of character motivations and histories one can work with in a play.  This is due, in part to time: an episode of a TV series is written and filmed in a few weeks, as opposed to a play, which might be written over a year or more and rehearsed and refined over months.

Mark Routhier: In the process and product from the page to the stage, and from the page to the final edited program, have you been satisfied with the results? Is artistic control something you have to compromise as a writer?

David Rambo: Is any artist ever completely satisfied?  That said, I've been extraordinarily lucky in having productions successfully interpret my work. Especially in the theatre, where the role of the author is greater in the process. In television, there are so many hands needed to make the final product happen, that even the most aggressive authorial involvement is less than it would be in a stage production.  I've been lucky in television to be able to observe and be taught by some of the most skilled practitioners of the craft, working at the top of their games.

Mark Routhier: In The Ice-Breaker, Lawrence has chosen the desert as his home, which forms an intriguing counterpoint to his past “on the ice.” Why did you choose the southwestern desert for Lawrence and the setting of this play?

David Rambo: I thought Lawrence would want to have moved as far away from the cold as possible. As part of my research, I gave myself a three-week sojourn through the desert southwest. It just felt right.  One of the things that struck me about the landscape was its apparent lifelessness – that is, until one observes it patiently and unblinkingly, and its vitality is revealed.  It was also intriguing to note how the dunes and much of the geology resemble snowdrifts and Antarctic rock formations.

Mark Routhier: Any parting shots?

David Rambo: It's a joy and an honor to join the distinguished group of playwrights whose work has premiered at the Magic.  And while I think my TV writing job is one of the best jobs in the world, nothing is as gratifying as making a play happen with a live audience. San Francisco is one of the most beautiful, civilized, constantly surprising cities in the world.  I'm grateful to the Magic and its supporters for giving me the opportunity to do what I love most in a city I adore.