Well into the first act of Seamus Sullivan’s (SFS ’08) “Harlan at the Rockpile,” presented in the Kennedy Center’s Page-to-Stage Festival, the eccentric character called the Chorus points out the dual definition of the word “campaign.” It’s a word that seems to be on the front page of every newspaper, one that catches our attention despite its meaning: an offensive push, a struggled operation or a crusade. It could be political, religious or both. Perhaps, as Americans, we think of it in terms of our democracy and a political campaign with speeches and posters — but as the play goes on to demonstrate, democracy has different associations in other countries.

The play follows the separate yet intricately intertwined stories of two Americans and their very different campaigns in Afghanistan. The first is based on the true events of Josiah Harlan’s 19th-century pursuit to find and rule Kabul, while the second follows fictional ex-reporter and election monitor Harlan O’Neill’s pursuit to explore the crises of present day Afghanistan’s corrupt political system.

Sullivan’s script delves into relevant and compelling themes while at the same time maintaining a sharp wit and smart comedy. “Seamus has a special way of bringing together the simple and the complex and a very special way of exposing great truths with great humor,” said Professor Susan Lynskey, who mentored Sullivan for last year’s Donn B. Murphy One Acts Festival and read the role of Maggie O’Neill in the Page-to-Stage Festival.

The character of the Chorus, whose role in the action is based on Shakespeare’s character of the same name in “Henry V,” exemplifies Sullivan’s intelligent and well-developed talent for playwriting. “I thought the idea of a character who is pure description and who embodied that contradiction and the idea of ‘don’t really trust anything too much, don’t believe this play completely,’ I thought that made for a really compelling character,” he said. “The Chorus was one of the first characters that got written, even before Harlan, the modern protagonist. He has been, apart from Josiah, one of the most consistent characters.”

The setting and content of the play are also testament to Sullivan’s keen perspective and his ability to put this point of view on stage. “Afghanistan is a place that is increasingly important, or at least we’re paying more attention to it,” he said. “It’s become a major part of both parties’ platform speeches; we’re starting to turn our eyes to it again, just as we did after Sept. 11. It’s a place that never goes away, just fades in and out of the American consciousness.”

The process of writing the play began last fall, when Seamus enrolled in Karen Zacarias’ playwriting class. Professor Tim Raphael, director of the Kennedy Center reading of “Harlan at the Rockpile,” incorporated the students of the playwriting workshop into his spring introduction to directing class by dedicating a section of the course to doing short readings from each of the plays. “Seamus’ play was first read in the directing class in the spring last year,” Raphael said. “I thought it was a really promising play and encouraged Seamus to try and complete a draft of the play by the end of the year, and when he did it and it was really strong, we submitted it to the Kennedy Center for the Page-to-Stage Festival, and that’s how it began.” Raphael, along with Derek Goldman, director of Georgetown’s Program in Performing Arts, handled most of the paperwork and processing of the play, as Georgetown has participated in the festival in past years.

This festival, now in its seventh year, featured more than 30 theater companies from both the D.C. and the larger American theater scenes. It is a three-day event offering free readings and open rehearsals of performance art that is still in the development-workshop stage. “The Kennedy Center Reading Series is a wonderful opportunity for Seamus and for all of our Georgetown student actors, current and alums, to work alongside professionals and bring fresh inventive ideas and a new work to an audience,” Lynskey said.

When the play was accepted, Raphael and Sullivan worked together over the summer to revise the script and select a cast. “One of the reasons I agreed to work with him on the play over the summer and into my sabbatical year,” Raphael said, “is that it is one of the best, most exciting plays by someone his age that I’ve read — and I’ve been working with professional theater for 25 years. It’s a truly fascinating and unique play.” Raphael shared his experience to assist in Sullivan’s editing. “He really gets the play, which has been part of what’s been so nice about all this,” Sullivan said. “His ideas were usually spot-on, and he gave me a lot of good insight about what to do next.”

The first time the entire cast sat down together was a mere three days before the performance date; on the day of the Kennedy Center reading, it was the first time that they read the entire script with no interruptions. “Having the audience there helped, being in space helped,” Sullivan said. “Everyone brought it to the next level of drama and commitment. They really did a great job carrying it, I thought.”

Now that “Harlan at the Rockpile” has been presented to an audience in a major venue, Sullivan plans to use it to expand his career as a playwright. He hopes to get his name around the D.C. theater scene as well as to continue writing new material. “Every time I’ve done something, I’ve been able to do something new with it — I’ve been able to do something more difficult and broader-sweeping,” Sullivan said. “This has definitely been the biggest, longest, most complicated thing I’ve ever written to date, which I think is a good sign. I think I’m moving in the right direction.”