National Book Award-winning novelist ("Tree of Smoke" 2007) and short story writer ("Jesus' Son") Denis Johnson hosted nine Cornell undergraduates enrolled in his seminar at a staged reading of his play "Des Moines," Feb. 29 at The Flea Theater in Manhattan's SoHo district.

Bendi Barrett '08 noted how Johnson's play mirrored the workshop he is teaching at Cornell: "As a teacher, Denis Johnson is the guy you can relate to, and the dialogue in his play reflects that. There's a realism in his characters' banter that's hard to conjure ... he achieves [humanity] with this group of terrific actors and his script, which puts them through the paces emotionally and constantly tips the scales between horror and humor."

The title story of Johnson's 1992 collection "Jesus' Son" was made into a film and the book was recently selected by The New York Times as one of the 25 best books of the past 25 years. Johnson, a Cornell visiting writer this semester and also a poet, playwright, essayist, memoirist and journalist, conducts workshops for Cornell graduate students as well.

Johnson welcomed and chatted with the undergraduates in the theater lobby and introduced them to producer Elizabeth Cuthrell. In his introduction of the play to the cozy audience of 40, Johnson said the Cornell group came from "a very good institution."

A staged reading presents actors reading from scripts and using limited props as well as a narrator reading stage directions. Directed by Obie Award-winning actor Will Patton and produced by the team that adapted "Jesus' Son" to the screen, "Des Moines" features a middle-aged couple; their wheelchair-bound, recently sex-changed, Santa-hat-wearing granddaughter; a widow in search of her lost wedding ring; and a priest wearing makeup. The troubled but sympathetic group takes solace in each other's stories, in their strange-bedfellow obsessions and in potent cocktails called "depth chargers."

The play takes place the day after the end of daylight saving time and transpires in a nebulous space between the hours of night and day, on the cusp of seasons and between life and death. Tension culminates when the husband breaks a beer bottle over his head, shattering the balance on which the play rests. One by one, each character takes a turn at karaoke, microphone in hand, and this seems to be the moment of their fate, a soul-reckoning with what lies beyond the darkness underneath the glow of colored Christmas lights.

Studying with Johnson is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, said Peter Rawlings '08: "It's incredible having Denis as a teacher for me, because he's my favorite author. And he's great to have in class. He's not afraid to give his own personal take on things, and he's a pretty funny guy, too."

"Des Moines" contains the dark humor and poetic revelation that characterizes Johnson's fiction as well as reflections that sing like forgotten music across the stage of existence. Rawlings reflected, "It was pretty dizzying. ... The most remarkable part for me was the end, where the situation and events had reached a point where things were simultaneously so funny and so touching that it was unbelievable. Like an emotion scrambler."

The reading electrified the rest of the Cornell cohort as well. Said Katie Magee '08: "I can't stress enough how much I enjoyed it ... it was the most rewarding emotional roller coaster I have ever experienced."

Johnson said that it was the best night the actors had put on so far and attributed it to the Cornell students' "happy energy."

Jackie Reitzes, MFA '08, a former writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle, is a lecturer in the Creative Writing Program.