Oren Safdie wanted to be an architect, like his father, Moshe Safdie, FAIA. He earned a master's degree in architecture from Columbia University, but in his final semester, he took a playwriting course and realized he wasn't going to follow in his father's footsteps.

	Photo © David Gochfeld

That playwriting course was the germ for Safdie to write the play Private Jokes, Public Spaces, a comedy set in an architecture school critique. "The grain of it started when I was switching from architecture to writing," Safdie says.

The play premiered in Malibu in 2001 and had a brief three-week run at La Mama E.T.C. Theater in New York City this past May. Now Safdie, 38, is gearing up to present the play in a longer run in the new home for the American Institute of Architects New York chapter, the AIANY Center for Architecture, in New York City's Greenwich Village. Previews of the play will coincide with the opening of the center in early October.

In the play, directed by Craig Carlisle, an Asian-American student (played by Safdie's wife, M.J. Kang) presents her thesis to two European critics and her wishy-washy American professor. The dialogue probes male-female power and control, sexism, philosophy, and the importance of challenging tradition. The European critics seem particularly harsh, but the resilient student deflects their snide remarks and observations with grace. "It's about somebody standing up for what they believe, for not wanting to bend," Safdie says. "Architecture school prepares a person for life—you have to be able to justify things."

He wrote the play over the course of 10 days after receiving particularly harsh reviews for one of his earlier plays. "That whole episode, with all those critics, brought up the architecture studio for me," he says. "It took me back to the feeling of being in front of a jury."

Safdie said his father was "extremely moved" when he saw the play in New York in May. "Margaret [the female student character] reminded him a little of himself," Oren Safdie says. "The philosophies in this play have a lot to do with what he's wanted to pursue in not bending to trends."

Previews begin October 10, 2003 for this limited engagement, tentatively scheduled to run through December 7, with performances every day except Wednesday. Tickets are $45, but a discount is available for AIA members. For tickets, visit www.telecharge.com or call 212/239-6200. For groups of 10 or more, call 212/354-6510.

By John E. Czarnecki, Assoc. AIA