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1100 Playwright Interviews

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Mar 26, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 331: Jenny Lyn Bader





Jenny Lyn Bader

Hometown: New York City

Current Town: New York City

Q: Tell me about You Are Now the Owner of This Suitcase.

A: It’s a collaboratively written play inspired by tales from different cultures. We started by collecting tales from memories and street interviews. In Jackson Heights, we asked members of the diverse community about fairy tales and folk tales they remembered from childhood. They told us stories from around the world — Burma, Iran, Ireland, Germany, Latin America, Mexico, Pakistan. Then we transformed and reimagined those tales into a contemporary story. It’s not seven one-acts but one play written by seven playwrights, melding our different styles into one voice while also trying to honor the sounds of different voices in the neighborhood.

Q: You Are Now the Owner of This Suitcase is the first premiere by a new ensemble, Theatre 167. You’re one of the founders of this company. Can you tell me how it got started?

A: A few of us worked on a show called 167 Tongues, which was premiered by Jackson Rep when our director, Ari Laura Kreith, was Artistic Director there. That show was inspired by a news story she read that said there are 167 languages spoken at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, so the hospital’s own staff had to do some translating — they’d page the janitor or the night nurse, say, if someone came in speaking a particular dialect of Slovenian or Swahili. Ari had initiated multiply authored plays before but this one was special in its scope and depth. The writers collaborated early and often. There was a word or line in a foreign language in every scene. The director and dramaturg found translators for us for anything...Tibetan, Cantonese, Urdu. We had 11 playwrights, 29 actors, 37 characters. It seemed like a madcap, impossible project.

And suddenly it came together… the show sold out, and we had people in the audience who’d never seen a play before, and international audience members— from Guatemala and Bangladesh, from all over — saying they had never seen someone like themselves in a performance before, thanking us for putting people like them in the stage.

So a few of us decided to start Theatre 167, an ensemble entirely dedicated to creating new and deeply collaborative work, investigating cultural collisions, and making theatre that brings community together. We presented 167 Tongues again at Queens Theatre in the Park, and then we created You Are Now the Owner of This Suitcase for our first world premiere because we wanted to do a play that would include the whole community, all ages as well as all cultures.

Q: Isn't that a challenge, to co-author a play with so many people?

A: It's certainly not for everyone! But some of us love it. You have to shelve your ego and sometimes one or two of your initial impulses, but in exchange you get a gigantic puzzle to solve, a huge tapestry to embroider. It feels like you are making an oversized piece of art that requires more than one person.

Q: A new play of yours just opened this weekend in Boston: Mona Lisa Speaks. Can you tell me about it?

A: Mona Lisa Speaks was commissioned by a group called Core Ensemble. They’re pioneers of chamber music theatre, doing pieces that interweave theatre performance with music, and they’ve got an intriguing process. First they decide what music they want to perform, then research the era when it was written to find a subject of interest, and then find a writer. In this case they decided they wanted to perform composers such as Stravinsky, Poulenc, and Satie. Then they looked at what was happening in Paris around 1910, and found the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre Museum in 1911, and among other improbable events Picasso was questioned by police and the avant-garde poet Apollinaire was arrested and interrogated. The painting lived in a Paris garrett for two years.

I thought it should be told entirely from the painting’s point of view when she’s been stolen — after all, the woman’s smiled quietly for over 400 years, it’s time for her to talk already. So I wrote it as a one-woman show, imagining all the complaints and insights the Mona Lisa would have. I explored the mysteries that have built up around the painting over time and then tried to solve as many as I could in the play. The Core Ensemble production premiered last week in South Carolina at a women’s and gender studies conference and at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Q: How did they find you?

A: They read a script excerpt on my web site where I made a joke about Apollinaire. Not necessarily what you expect would land you a job.

Q: What else are you working on?

A:  Another play I’m writing is set in that same historical era: Petticoat Government begins in 1912, and is about Edith Wilson, Woodrow’s wife who famously ran the White House during his illness. When I began researching it, I had a received idea of her as a feminist heroine. So I was disappointed to learn she not only made some devastatingly bad policy decisions, she was also an opponent of women’s rights. I started thinking of her as a villain. But the more research I did, the more I realized she was neither a hero nor a villain. I think she was a woman of her time who lived vicariously through the men she was with — and then turned into them. And that’s what the play’s about.

I’m also writing book and lyrics for a new musical, an adaptation... and I'm writing the book for an original musical with four characters called Suburban Revolutionaries. It’s a coming of age story about growing up during the peace movement and making peace with your family.

Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A: I've always had a tendency to get lost in other worlds. When I was ten, a teacher saw me sitting on a fire hydrant that protruded from the school building with my coat covering it and thought I was levitating… Later that year, my friend Clarissa and I would walk home together every day. We started playing a game where she would invent a title and I would have to make up a story to go with the title. I would tell the whole thing by the time we got to my building, three blocks from school, and then she would walk a few more blocks home. Sometimes we would stand outside for an extra minute while I wrapped up. But one day, the story kept going. It was getting cold so we went into my lobby. I thought the story would end soon so we didn’t go upstairs, just sat on a bench by the elevator… but the story took on a life of its own. Two hours later I was still in the lobby telling the story, while both of our mothers were calling the school and reporting us missing. No one had thought to check the lobby. They were about to call the police. Since then I have tried to get out of the way of a story that wants to be told, while also trying to keep my loved ones informed of my whereabouts.

Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A: I would make it more central to the life of all people, as it was in ancient Athens. That means everyone goes to theatre, it’s part of what you do. I’m not just talking about federal funding. It’s more than that. It means public awareness of all that live performance can do, that audiences know to stop texting for a couple of hours and engage in an invented world, that folks from all walks of life show up to see a play. I know it can happen. It happens in Ireland, where anyone you talk to goes to see plays. It’s what we’re trying to do with Theatre 167.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Molière showing that comedy can change the way people think and even alarm the authorities, Richard Wilbur for making it possible for a small child who only speaks English to understand Molière, Peter Brook for changing what is possible onstage, Anna Deavere Smith for changing what is possible for one person onstage.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: A play with a unique voice. I don’t make false distinctions between types of theatre — the most traditional or the most experimental artist might have that voice that makes you want to gather and listen.

Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A: Don’t isolate yourself, meet other playwrights. Share theatre tickets and dramaturgical insights. So many playwrights help and mentor each other. They can also offer one another particular tips, as opposed to blanket advice for all playwrights starting out. They may know you are for instance writing an epic play involving silverware, and have just heard about a theatre with a call for large-cast scripts about forks. Fellow playwrights can also give you a sense of community. Have compassion for your characters. And have compassion for your audience. Think of the audience as another character that you need to care about. I know some writers and even some theatres have contempt for their audience, and I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s better to understand the audience. Notice them. See when they’re fidgeting because they shouldn’t be. They shouldn’t even want to feel like texting!

Q: Plugs, please:

A: For updates & whimsy see my web site. You can read a review of You Are Now the Owner of This Suitcase, now extended through April 3rd, on NY Theatre and you can buy tickets at Brown Paper Tickets. To get involved with Theatre 167, visit our company's site. If you want to see a musical in development, there will be a reading of Suburban Revolutionaries at the JCC in NYC on May 23. In Florida? Core Ensemble will perform Mona Lisa Speaks at the Kravis Center in Palm Beach on April 21. Need a 2-hander for young actors? Read my play None of the Above about a girl and her S.A.T. tutor. Also available online at Amazon or in life at the wonderful Drama Bookshop. If you’re a female playwright you should know about New Georges, 50/50 in 2020, and the ICWP. If you’re a playwright of any gender or sensibility looking for great places to develop your work, check out the O’Neill Center and the Lark Play Development Center. They care.

Mar 23, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 330: Catherine Trieschmann



Catherine Trieschmann

Hometown:  Athens, GA

Current Town:  Hays, Kansas (also known as "Hays America" in these parts--I have no idea why). It's a small town in Western Kansas, pretty much in no man's land.

Q:  Tell me about your play coming up at Pacific Playwrights Festival.

A:  How the World Began was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club through the Sloan Foundation. It is about the firestorm that results when a new teacher makes an off-handed comment about the origins of the universe in a small Kansas town recently felled by a tornado. It's my first Kansas play and is, in many ways, an exploration of where I live now.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  My second Kansas play and a screenplay set in my hometown.

Q:  What's it like pursuing a professional playwriting career while living in the middle of nowhere?

A:  Challenging but also possible/rewarding. On the one hand, I love that my cultural experience is unique and that definitely stands out in my writing. I love having a big organic garden and not having to have a day job. I'm constantly amazed at what great feedback I can get from my local friends when I invite them over to sit around the fire and read my latest play. Since moving out here, my career, such as it is, has progressed slowly but surely, and I don't sense that I'd be that much further along if I lived in NY or LA (excluding TV/film opportunities, of course). On the other hand, boy, I really wish I had a writer's group. I really regret that I was never able to pursue the opportunities at Julliard, Ars Nova and the like.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  In no particular order:
Less talking about doing and more doing
I wish the Times coverage was more in depth
Rush tickets for all ages across the board
More women on Broadway--but really excited for Katori Hall and Lisa D'Amour this year!
Closer to home

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  The Irish, especially Brian Friel. Horton Foote. Naomi Wallace. Lately, I'm in love with Annie Baker, but it's unrequited. She doesn't even know I exist. *sigh*

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  When I don't know what's going to happen next. When the poetry is organic yet memorable. When characters are led astray from the PLOT, like when the son kisses the father in Albee's The Goat. I wasn't really caring for the play and then *that* happened, and I was suddenly led into deep waters. I really like being led into deep waters.

When plays are funny without being precious or quippy or whimsical. That's a very hard funny to achieve.

A really good musical can rock my world.

A really good production of Beckett can send me weeping into the void.

Just thinking about all the great new writing happening in NYC as I type this fills me with longing. Today, I wish I could find a sitter for the kids and go see Bathseba Doran's Kin and then maybe take her out for sushi afterwards, b/c there is no sushi in Hays America. We would gossip and talk shop and get drunk. (Yeah, she doesn't know me either. Do I seem like a stalker? I'm not a stalker. Really.)

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  Much has been covered on this topic, but I don't think we can stress the benefits of self-production enough. I produced my play crooked at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with my friends, and it took me to SPF, the Bush Theatre in London, Off-Broadway, and now all over the country and even abroad. I never would have written that play if I hadn't wanted to do Edinburgh with my friends.

Obviously, not all self-producing ventures have a happy ending, but you will learn tons of things along the way, even if you lose all your money, friends, and self-esteem, which has also been known to happen. In which case, you may learn that what you really want to do with your life is to go into banking or speech therapy. There are worse things, as my Mother constantly reminds me.

Secondly, while it is ever so important to master the discipline of writing daily, there is also something to be said for recognizing your own creative rhythms and allowing for gestation to take place. There may come a time when actively NOT WRITING actually helps your writing. I find fallow periods can be very productive, and I always write better plays when I allow for them. Not everyone needs to write five plays a year, and let's be frank, nobody writes five good plays a year.

And finally, everyone writes some duds along the way. Even Tennessee Williams. Even Tony Kushner. It's okay.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  How the World Began at PPF and then look for it Off-Broadway in January 2012.

Also, a film I wrote, Angel's Crest (featuring Jeremy Piven and Elizabeth McGovern, among others) is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival: http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/features/TFF_11_World_Narrative_Features.html

Mar 21, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 329: Oliver Mayer


Oliver Mayer

Hometown:  I'm born and bred here in LA, grew up in North Hollywood/Studio City. For awhile I lived in Echo Park and loved it.

Current Town:  Now I live at USC, where I am a resident faculty master of the Parkside International Residential College. It's amazing to live on campus where I work. I live with my wife Marlene Forte, our daughter Giselle, our dog Don Aldo, and two cats. It's a great place.

Q:  Tell me about your new play with Son of Semele.  How do you create shows together?

A:  This is my first show with SOSE. Don Boughton invited me in to work on this nearly two years ago. Usually, when I write plays I do the work at home alone, then present it to directors and actors. This time Don had me join the rehearsals with the ensemble and watch them work on improvs, exercises and story theater techniques. Then I would go home and write a scene or character based on what I learned from them. We did this a little at a time, but the piece came together organically and in record time. I still work this way, receiving notes from Don, watching the work, then going home to rewrite or create new stuff. It's addictive.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I have a play in workshop at The Blank Theatre in Hollywood of a new play called DARK MATTERS. My wife Marlene Forte is in it, along with Arye Gross and Pedro Pascal. The play is about two particle physicists trying to unmask the mysteries of dark matter via the idea of supersymmetry breaking. My wife plays the non-physicist, and gets to sing bits of Leonard Cohen and Donna Summer throughout. It was super fun to write.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  I was a bus boy at Vitiello's Italian Ristorante in Studio City for a grand total of two weeks when I was a teenager. I was a lousy bus boy, and the head bus boy was really pissed off with me. One evening with all the tables full, he came up and said rather loudly that he was going to kill me (I'll never know why). I had plates on both arms and said, "why don't you wait to kill me till I put these plates down." The diners who heard this laughed. I set the plates down in the kitchen, turned around, and the guy hit me. I was a boxer then, so I hit him back. We were pretty well matched and started going at it. The owners pulled us apart, and since he was a valuable bus boy and I wasn't, they fired me. I went home fuming, saying I would never go back to that restaurant ever again. My dad responded quietly and firmly, "Yes you are. We'll go tomorrow night." And we did. They all had to serve us. Turned out I became friends with the owners for years afterward. That was my last restaurant job.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  The best plays in town, and in the nation, are coming from smaller theaters. I'd like to see more attention paid to those of us striving to find the voice of our moment. I don't necessarily want us to move small company shows to the Taper (it's a tough space to play); rather, I want to celebrate the good work and full houses and high quality writing and acting that takes place at theaters like SOSE. I'm proud to be part of it.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Luis Valdez, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams and Wallace Shawn are my fab four.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I like total theatre -- live song and music, dance, violence, sex, humor and drama. Can't be beat.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  Open your heart and take advantage of every moment in your story to find the drama, and to ask what's really going on in your life, my life, our lives.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Plug who? SOSE? I adore them. Plug you? How shall I do so? Tell me what to plug and I'll do so.

Mar 19, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 328: Jessica Brickman



Jessica Brickman

Hometown: New York, NY

Current Town: New York, NY

Q:  Tell me about your upcoming show.

A:  An LA-based theater company is producing The Insomnia Play. It’s about how weird insomnia can be (it often has no cause and no cure) and also the ups and downs of sleeping in a bed with someone you love. My hope is that it will keep the audience awake. And then the title won’t be in vain.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I’m working on a play that takes place in a Kinkos at 2 am. There’s an old joke: A guy goes into a deli and asks for a chicken sandwich. And the guy behind the counter says: We’re out of chicken. So the guy says: Okay, make it a turkey sandwich. And the guy behind the counter says: Listen, if we had turkey we’d have chicken. In a way that sums up what the play’s about. Right now it’s about ritual, the perversion of the ritual – and imitating and copying in all senses. And it’s a love story. It started out as a play about the monks who were scribes and mis-copied the bible (i.e. Oh! That was celibRate not celibate. Damn.) so who knows what it will be about next month.

I just finished writing a screenplay for hire. And this past year I directed two short films. Never had so much fun in my life. The plan for this summer is to use this new-fangled digital technology to make a feature on the fly in NY.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  In second grade we did a play about the sun rising and setting and I guess to go along with it there were a few lessons about theater. On the way home from school Nina Pike (the gorgeous babysitter/struggling artist) asked what I had learned in “drama class” and I announced that “Every good story has a cornflake” Without dropping a beat my younger sister, Sophie, chimed in disgusted with “Conflict”. (Sophie is four years younger but four inches taller – probably by force of will.) I guess that story says more about who my second grade teacher is as a person. But, I’m still looking for good cornflakes.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  As in Ancient Greece: in order to be a citizen and run for office you gotta go to the theater. Also: Tickets to every show, no matter where it is, are 10 bucks. Every revival produced has to be coupled with a new play. And if you own a theater and you don’t produce a new show every three months it is taken away from you.

It seems like everyone’s always saying: The theater is dying. But no matter how hard they try they can’t seem to kill it off. So, maybe it should just keep going on as it has.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Actors. And I think Bill Goldman said that the thing that interests writers most is how other writers do it. So, too many writer heroes to mention.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I get unbelievably excited every time a theater gets dark before a show. Can’t help it. Always have. What that means I guess is that I can be unnecessarily furious a few minutes later if it’s not as good as I’d hoped. (I suppose if I’m gonna be a cliché of something I’d rather be a cliché theatery person then say, a cliché of a Republican Nazi Comptroller.) At this point a well-structured story excites me. Probably because I’m not sure how to create one and I’m constantly trying to figure that out. That said, I don’t like it when everything is tied up with a nice bow. A good absurdist play has, at its heart, a clear story that can be explained in a few un-absurd sentences. I suppose for me a good piece of theater starts with a question and ends with another one that lingers.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  I feel that I’m just starting out so I’m not sure I would take my advice. I’d say: Follow your instincts (harder than you think). Find some good friends who you believe in and who believe in you. And if you get stuck take a walk, it’s not a faucet. You can sit in front of a computer for hours struggling and then get up to brush your teeth and as the water’s running you realize – oh! That’s what I’m trying to do. I guess you can only have the tooth brushing moment if you have the struggle first. Glenn Gould said in an interview that when he couldn’t get a phrase right he’d turn on seven radios and then just play through the section without listening to what he was playing. He said it allowed his sub-or-unconscious to absorb what he was doing. Kind of like a misdirection in a magic trick. Look over here, but the real thing is happening over there. And usually when he turned the radios off whatever he was practicing had gotten into his fingers. So, hold on tightly, let go lightly.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Come see The Insomnia Play at the Lyric Hyperion Theater in LA. March 18-April 10. Link here:

http://vitality.publishpath.com/

And you, Adam S. I’ve always loved your writing and I’m very excited to be part of this.

Mar 18, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 327: Kari Bentley-Quinn


Kari Bentley-Quinn

Hometown: Stratford, CT

Current Town: Astoria, Queens, NYC

Q:  Tell me about Paper Cranes.

A:  PAPER CRANES follows five people in a modern American town who are connected through a chain of surprising relationships. Maddie, a rebellious and precocious young woman, is balancing the social implications of her burgeoning sexuality with the responsibility of supporting her bereft mother, a woman who finds solace in the folding of origami paper cranes. Maddie escapes the confines of her stifling home-life by entering into a tumultuous relationship with Julie, an older woman. Julie's best friend and one-time lover Amy, in a renewed search for acceptance and love, enters into a dangerous S&M relationship with a mysterious man protecting a dark secret. Each character is desperate to break away from their haunted pasts to embrace a better future.

PAPER CRANES was partially inspired by a book I read when I was little called Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. The book tells the story of Sadako Sasaki, a twelve year old Japanese girl who lived in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped, and ten years later died of leukemia as a result of the radiation. Sadako wanted to fold a thousand paper cranes (called senbazuru; once completed, it is supposed to grant a wish to the person who folded it), but passed away before she could finish them. Her friends and family finished them for her after she died. The story has stayed with me ever since. I think loss and death have always fascinated and terrified me (with love and sex on the other side of that coin, two things that definitely come into play in the piece), and I'd always dealt with loss on some level in all of my work. PAPER CRANES is the play where I finally addressed it head on.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I'm currently working on writing the book for a musical, which is a brand-new and scary thing to do for me. It's a comedy about a Christian MMA Fight Club (yes, they exist!). I'm working with my friend Jason Loffredo, who is an amazing composer and songwriter. I've been friends with his wife, the uber-talented Melanie Kann, for many years. It's really fun to work with good friends, but writing a musical is incredibly challenging. It is stretching me as a writer in a huge way.

I also just started a new full length play about a flight attendant who is the sole survivor of a plane crash. It is (very) loosely based on this woman named Vesna Vulovic who was a flight attendant in the 70's from the former Yugoslavia. She was the sole survivor of a mid-air bombing of the plane she was on and fell something like 30,000 feet. They found her alive in the rear section of the plane, and she became a national hero. I wanted to explore what her story would be like if it happened in modern day America and our crazed celebrity/political culture.

I was commissioned to write some ten minute plays last year, and they were a lot of fun, so I'm doing more of those. I just started writing my first spec script for television. I'm also joining up with some cool folks to start a collective of Queens theater artists. Oy. I need an assistant.

Q:  Tell me about the PACK. How did it come about?

A:  The Pack was started by Scott Ebersold and Alejandro Morales. They came up with this idea to have an offshoot of Packawallop Productions, their theater company, that gave a space to actors, directors, and writers to meet once a month and develop new work. Alejandro is a dear friend of mine, and we were always talking about how writers groups kept us focused, and how cool it would be to make theater with people we liked. I'm so glad they did it. Since the inception of The Pack, I have had a public reading of my play UNBLESSED as part of The Lounge Series, and I wrote the entirety of PAPER CRANES through working with The Pack. I have met so many ridiculously talented artists and have made wonderful friends. We have almost doubled in size since our first meeting. It's truly a once in a lifetime type of group. It is so easy to feel free and create in such a mutually supportive environment. I am so proud to be a part of it. It makes me really happy.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  When I was seven or eight, my grandmother and my mom pitched in to buy me an electronic typewriter. We couldn't afford a computer, so this was the next best thing. You couldn't keep me away from it. I used to sit in a huge wooden chair at our huge dining room table and just click click click away at the keys. I loved the tactile feedback from it, the instant gratification of words on a page, the bell that indicated the end of a line. I wrote a book of poems about endangered species affected by the Exxon oil spill in the 80's. I am, to this day, obsessed with humpback whales.

When I told my mom years later that I didn't want to write anymore, she showed me a box of stuff I'd written as a kid and said "This is who you are. You've been doing this since you were old enough to pick up a pen". It's the most loving and selfless thing my mother has ever done for me, because I know she would have much rather I quit writing to do something sensible like be a lawyer or doctor. I bet she still has that box. One day I want to go back and read all of it.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  The stodgy elitism of it all, the inaccessibility both culturally and financially. We need more revivals of dead playwrights like we need a hole in the head. I know it's important stuff, but come on, it's 2011. There are amazing contemporary playwrights (without MFA's, even!) doing great work. New plays should be the focus. If you can't find one great new play to do, you just haven't been looking hard enough.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Tony Kushner, first and foremost. ANGELS IN AMERICA made me want to be a playwright. His work is such a gorgeous hybrid of intellect and emotion. The man is a genius. Then - Lillian Hellman, Edward Albee, Caryl Churchill, August Strindberg, Eugene O'Neill. Right now there are so many playwrights making amazing work that I can't possibly name them all, but I will say that Sheila Callaghan is a big hero of mine at present. THAT PRETTY PRETTY spoke to me so much as a female playwright and theater artist. It inspired me and made me want to take bigger risks. I stood up and cheered my face off at the end of that play.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love big, emotional, poetic, messy plays and I don't think there are enough of them. I feel like sometimes plays get overdeveloped and the soul of the work gets whitewashed. While there is no question that pristine, polished shows have their place, I'd rather see something with rough edges and a whole lot of heart than see something pretty that leaves me feeling like I just spent two hours staring at the equivalent of a Faberge egg in a glass cabinet. When I'm at the theater, I want to be ALIVE. I want theater to smash the hell out of that precious glass cabinet, and have the bloody hands to prove it. I want to feel, to think, to hyperventilate, to cry, to laugh, and to feel connected to humanity.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  Find your people. Submit to everything. Make new friends in real life and on the internet (get on Twitter, people, seriously) who love theater as much as you do. Read everything you can get your hands on. Luxuriate in your aesthetic obsessions. See as many shows as you can. Take care of your mental and physical health. Do not be afraid to introduce yourself to people. Take as many classes and workshops as you can afford. Make sure you have an income doing something, preferably something with health insurance. Nothing will kill your creativity more than poverty, and it's not super likely you're going to get paid for writing for a long, long time.

Most of all, write. Write what you like. Write what scares the crap out of you.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  PAPER CRANES will be at the Access Theater in NYC, directed by Scott Ebersold, April 15-May 8. Tickets can be purchased at www.packawallop.org.

Also, I have a website: http://kbquinn.wordpress.com

Mar 17, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 326: John Kolvenbach





Hometown: Mount Kisco, NY

Current Town: New York, NY

Q:  Tell me about Love Song.

A:  The show was produced at Steppenwolf, originally, in 2006. Then a West End production under John Crowley's direction. It's been many places since then (Rome, Aukland, Melbourne, Seoul, Tel Aviv among many others) but never in New York. The original idea was to write a love song, something tuneful and romantic, an adult fable that sneaks in under your radar to access something deep in you. It's about a very lonely guy who finds love.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I just wrote a new one, a backstage comedy about a veteran actor trying to hold his marriage together.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  I'm interested in how people select stories from their lives to explain themselves. (explain themselves to themselves or to others.) We choose our biography. The idea that your character was formed by some event, by this event, and not that one, is usually false, I find. The stories we select excuse us, or explain us, or hide us. Playwrights especially love to burnish their myths. Then they hide behind them, especially in the press. I've also heard the following: playwrights hide their secrets in public. (By writing plays.) I say all this to avoid the question.

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?

A:  More legroom.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  David Rabe. Arthur Miller. I like Beckektt. Checkov. Feydeau.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I want to be owned. I want the writer to take possession of me, I want to be at his/her mercy. I'm not picky about form, or style, anything good is good, but I want to have the music of the play infect me.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  oh boy. Write. I would try to identify your mission and then break that down into practicable parts. Then do those all the time. I find that swimming and talking help. write.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  We're doing Love Song at 59e59 starting April 5th. Tickets are on sale at 59e59.org.

Mar 14, 2011

About the interviews

Many times I thought I was going to stop doing these interviews.  The thing is, I'm not running out of playwrights.  There are scores of exciting, interesting and intelligent people writing plays right now.  I'm constantly overwhelmed by it and I continue to learn a lot.  So the series goes on.   But while we're at a stopping point,  (number 325, whooo!),  I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about something.

I have been working hard trying to interview a balance of playwrights.  It continues to be heavy on New York playwrights and there are probably still too many white people but I'm doing my best to show a snapshot of the playwriting world right now.  One thing that continues to be a challenge is keeping a 50/50 balance of men and women.  I felt like this is an important thing to do because there are an even number of men and women writing plays right now, but it's getting harder and harder for me to do this.  Let me tell you why.

Women are not getting back to me with their interviews in the same numbers men are.  I understand that playwrights are a busy people.  If you didn't get back to me this is not me chastising you.  It's just something I noticed.  Also, when people approach me to suggest playwrights to interview, I get two male playwright suggestions for every one woman. 

This is all to say that apocryphally I'm noticing women are not advocating for themselves as well as I wish they were and people of both sexes are not advocating for women as much as I wish they were.

If you want to tell me about some awesome playwright I haven't interviewed yet, by all means, please do.  I have a long list of names already but I can always add to it.  This is all I ask--try to give me two women for every one man you give me.  Just try.  And just in general, make a conscious effort to advocate for women.  Thanks.

325 Playwright Interviews (alphabetically)

Rob Ackerman
Liz Duffy Adams
Johnna Adams
Tony Adams 
David Adjmi
Derek Ahonen
Zakiyyah Alexander
Luis Alfaro
Lucy Alibar
Joshua Allen
Mando Alvarado 
Sofia Alvarez
Terence Anthony
Alice Austen 
Elaine Avila   
Rachel Axler
Bianca Bagatourian   
Annie Baker
Trista Baldwin
Jennifer Barclay 
Courtney Baron
Abi Basch 
Mike Batistick 
Brian Bauman

Nikole Beckwith 
Maria Alexandria Beech 
Alan Berks
Brooke Berman
Susan Bernfield
Jay Bernzweig
Barton Bishop
Martin Blank  
Lee Blessing
Jonathan Blitstein
Adam Bock
Jerrod Bogard
Emily Bohannon
Rachel Bonds
Margot Bordelon
Deron Bos
Hannah Bos
Leslie Bramm
Jami Brandli
George Brant
Tim Braun
Delaney Britt Brewer
Erin Browne
Bekah Brunstetter
Sheila Callaghan
Darren Canady
Ruben Carbajal
Ed Cardona, Jr.
Jonathan Caren
Aaron Carter
James Carter 
David Caudle
Eugenie Chan 
Clay McLeod Chapman
Christopher Chen
Jason Chimonides  
Andrea Ciannavei
Eliza Clark
Alexis Clements  
Alexandra Collier
James Comtois
Joshua Conkel
Kara Lee Corthron
Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas
Erin Courtney
Cusi Cram
Lisa D'Amour
Heidi Darchuk
Stacy Davidowitz
Philip Dawkins
Dylan Dawson
Gabriel Jason Dean
Vincent Delaney
Emily DeVoti
Kristoffer Diaz
Jessica Dickey
Dan Dietz
Lisa Dillman
Zayd Dohrn
Bathsheba Doran
Anton Dudley
Laura Eason
Fielding Edlow
Erik Ehn
Yussef El Guindi
Libby Emmons
Christine Evans 
Jennifer Fawcett 
Joshua Fardon
Catherine Filloux   
Kenny Finkle
Stephanie Fleischmann
Kate Fodor 
Sam Forman
Kevin R. Free
Matthew Freeman
Edith Freni
Patrick Gabridge 
Anne Garcia-Romero
Gary Garrison 
Madeleine George
Meg Gibson
Sigrid Gilmer 
Peter Gil-Sheridan
Gina Gionfriddo
Michael Golamco
Jessica Goldberg
Daniel Goldfarb
Jacqueline Goldfinger
Jeff Goode
Christina Gorman
Craig "muMs" Grant
Katharine Clark Gray
Elana Greenfield   
Kirsten Greenidge
Jason Grote
Sarah Gubbins
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Lauren Gunderson 
Jennifer Haley
Ashlin Halfnight   
Christina Ham
Sarah Hammond
Rob Handel
Jordan Harrison
Leslye Headland
Ann Marie Healy
Julie Hebert 
Marielle Heller
Amy Herzog
Andrew Hinderaker
Cory Hinkle
Richard Martin Hirsch
Lucas Hnath
David Holstein
J. Holtham
Quiara Alegria Hudes 
Les Hunter
Sam Hunter
Chisa Hutchinson
Arlene Hutton
Laura Jacqmin
Joshua James
Julia Jarcho
Kyle Jarrow
Karla Jennings
David Johnston
Nick Jones
Julia Jordan
Rajiv Joseph
Aditi Brennan Kapil
Lila Rose Kaplan  
Jeremy Kareken 
Lally Katz
Lynne Kaufman
Daniel Keene 
 
Greg Keller
Sibyl Kempson 
Anna Kerrigan
Kait Kerrigan
Boo Killebrew
Callie Kimball
Johnny Klein 
Krista Knight
Andrea Kuchlewska
Larry Kunofsky
Deborah Zoe Laufer 
J. C. Lee
Young Jean Lee
Dan LeFranc
Andrea Lepcio
Victor Lesniewski 
Steven Levenson
Barry Levey
Mark Harvey Levine  
Michael Lew
EM Lewis
Sean Christopher Lewis
Jeff Lewonczyk
Kenneth Lin
 
Matthew Lopez
Stacey Luftig
Kirk Lynn
Mariah MacCarthy
Laura Lynn MacDonald
Maya Macdonald
Cheri Magid
Jennifer Maisel
Martyna Majok 
Kara Manning
Ellen Margolis
Ruth Margraff
Sam Marks
Tarell Alvin McCraney
Daniel McCoy 
Ruth McKee
James McManus
Charlotte Meehan
Carly Mensch
Molly Smith Metzler
Charlotte Miller
Winter Miller
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Yusef Miller 
Rehana Mirza
Michael Mitnick
Anna Moench
Honor Molloy  
Alejandro Morales
Desi Moreno-Penson
Dominique Morisseau
Itamar Moses
Gregory Moss
Megan Mostyn-Brown
Paul Mullin
Julie Marie Myatt
Janine Nabers
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Brett Neveu
Qui Nguyen
Don Nigro
Dan O'Brien
Matthew Paul Olmos 
Dominic Orlando
Rich Orloff
Marisela Treviño Orta

Jamie Pachino
Kristen Palmer
Tira Palmquist

Kyoung H. Park

Peter Parnell
Julia Pascal
Steve Patterson
christopher oscar peña
Brian Polak 
Daria Polatin
Chana Porter
Craig Pospisil
Jessica Provenz
Michael Puzzo
Adam Rapp  
Theresa Rebeck
Amber Reed
Daniel Reitz
Molly Rice
Mac Rogers
Elaine Romero
Lynn Rosen
Andrew Rosendorf
Kim Rosenstock
Kate E. Ryan
Kate Moira Ryan
Trav S.D.
Sarah Sander
Tanya Saracho
Heidi Schreck
August Schulenburg
Mark Schultz
Jenny Schwartz
Emily Schwend
Jordan Seavey
Christopher Shinn
Rachel Shukert
Jen Silverman
David Simpatico 
Blair Singer
Crystal Skillman
Mat Smart
Alena Smith
Tommy Smith
Ben Snyder
Lisa Soland
Peggy Stafford 
Saviana Stanescu
Nick Starr
Deborah Stein
Jon Steinhagen
Victoria Stewart
Andrea Stolowitz
Gary Sunshine
Caridad Svich
Jeffrey Sweet
Adam Szymkowicz
Daniel Talbott
Kate Tarker 
Roland Tec 
Lucy Thurber
Paul Thureen
Josh Tobiessen 
Dan Trujillo
Alice Tuan
Jon Tuttle
Ken Urban
Enrique Urueta
Francine Volpe
Kathryn Walat
Michael I. Walker 
Malachy Walsh
Kathleen Warnock
Anne Washburn
Marisa Wegrzyn
Anthony Weigh   
Ken Weitzman
Sharr White
Claire Willett
Samuel Brett Williams
Beau Willimon
Pia Wilson
Gary Winter
Stanton Wood
Craig Wright
Deborah Yarchun
Lauren Yee
Steve Yockey
Kelly Younger
Stefanie Zadravec
Anna Ziegler

325 Playwright Interviews

Daniel Keene
James Carter
Josh Tobiessen
Victor Lesniewski
Abi Basch
Matthew Paul Olmos
Stephanie Fleischmann
Chana Porter
Elana Greenfield 
Eugenie Chan
Roland Tec 
Jeff Goode
Elaine Avila 
Ashlin Halfnight 
Charlotte Meehan 
Marisela Treviño Orta
Quiara Alegria Hudes
Kait Kerrigan
Bianca Bagatourian 
Kyoung H. Park
Honor Molloy
Anna Moench 
Martin Blank
Paul Thureen
Yusef Miller
Lauren Gunderson
Jennifer Fawcett
Andrea Kuchlewska

Sean Christopher Lewis
Rachel Bonds
Lynn Rosen
Jennifer Barclay
Peggy Stafford
James McManus
Philip Dawkins
Jen Silverman
Lally Katz
Anne Garcia-Romero
Tony Adams
christopher oscar peña
Lynne Kaufman

Julie Hebert
Aditi Brennan Kapil
Elaine Romero
Alexis Clements
Lila Rose Kaplan
Barry Levey
Michael I. Walker
Maya Macdonald
Mando Alvarado
Adam Rapp
Eliza Clark
Margot Bordelon
Ben Snyder
Emily Bohannon
Cheri Magid
Jason Chimonides 

Rich Orloff
David Simpatico
Deborah Zoe Laufer
Brian Polak
Kate Fodor
Sibyl Kempson
Gary Garrison
Saviana Stanescu
Brian Bauman
Mark Harvey Levine
Lisa Soland
Sigrid Gilmer
Anthony Weigh 
Maria Alexandria Beech
Catherine Filloux 
Jordan Harrison
Alexandra Collier
Jessica Goldberg
Nick Starr
Young Jean Lee
Christina Gorman
Ruth McKee
Johnny Klein
Leslie Bramm
Jennifer Maisel
Jon Steinhagen
Leslye Headland
Kate Tarker
David Holstein
Trav S.D.

Ruben Carbajal
Martyna Majok
Sam Marks
Stacy Davidowitz 
Molly Rice
Julia Pascal
Yussef El Guindi
Meg Gibson
Daniel McCoy
Amber Reed
Joshua Fardon
Dan O'Brien
Jonathan Blitstein
Dominique Morisseau
Fielding Edlow
Joshua Allen
Peter Gil-Sheridan
Tira Palmquist
Sarah Hammond
Charlotte Miller
Deborah Yarchun
Anna Kerrigan
Luis Alfaro
Jonathan Caren
Jennifer Haley
Sofia Alvarez
Kevin R. Free
Ken Weitzman
Michael Golamco
J. C. Lee
Ruth Margraff
Kirk Lynn
Tanya Saracho
Daria Polatin 
Delaney Britt Brewer
Alice Tuan
Alice Austen
Jeffrey Sweet
Dan LeFranc
Andrew Hinderaker
Brett Neveu
Christine Evans
Jon Tuttle
Nikole Beckwith
Andrea Lepcio
Gregory Moss
Hannah Bos
Steven Levenson
Molly Smith Metzler
Matthew Lopez
Lee Blessing
Joshua James
Chisa Hutchinson
Rob Ackerman
Janine Nabers
Cory Hinkle
Stefanie Zadravec
Michael Mitnick
Jordan Seavey
Andrew Rosendorf
Don Nigro
Barton Bishop
Peter Parnell
Gary Sunshine
Emily DeVoti
Kenny Finkle
Kate Moira Ryan
Sam Hunter
Johnna Adams
Katharine Clark Gray
Laura Eason
David Caudle
Jacqueline Goldfinger
Christopher Chen
Craig Pospisil
Jessica Provenz
Deron Bos
Sarah Sander
Zakiyyah Alexander
Kate E. Ryan
Susan Bernfield
Karla Jennings
Jami Brandli
Kenneth Lin
Heidi Darchuk
Kathleen Warnock
Beau Willimon
Greg Keller
Les Hunter
Anton Dudley
Aaron Carter
Jerrod Bogard
Emily Schwend
Courtney Baron
Craig "muMs" Grant
Amy Herzog
Stacey Luftig
Vincent Delaney
Kathryn Walat
Paul Mullin
Kirsten Greenidge
Derek Ahonen
Francine Volpe
Julie Marie Myatt
Lauren Yee
Richard Martin Hirsch
Ed Cardona, Jr.
Terence Anthony
Alena Smith
Gabriel Jason Dean
Sharr White
Michael Lew
Craig Wright
Laura Jacqmin
Stanton Wood
Jamie Pachino
Boo Killebrew
Daniel Reitz
Alan Berks
Erik Ehn
Krista Knight
Steve Yockey
Desi Moreno-Penson
Andrea Stolowitz
Clay McLeod Chapman
Kelly Younger
Lisa Dillman
Ellen Margolis
Claire Willett
Lucy Alibar
Nick Jones
Dylan Dawson
Pia Wilson
Theresa Rebeck
Me
Arlene Hutton
Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas
Lucas Hnath
Enrique Urueta
Tarell Alvin McCraney
Anne Washburn
Julia Jarcho
Lisa D'Amour
Rajiv Joseph
Carly Mensch
Marielle Heller
Larry Kunofsky
Edith Freni
Tommy Smith
Jeremy Kareken
Rob Handel
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Kara Manning
Libby Emmons
Adam Bock
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Liz Duffy Adams
Winter Miller
Jenny Schwartz
Kristen Palmer
Patrick Gabridge
Mike Batistick
Mariah MacCarthy
Jay Bernzweig
Gina Gionfriddo
Darren Canady
Alejandro Morales
Ann Marie Healy
Christopher Shinn
Sam Forman
Erin Courtney
Gary Winter
J. Holtham
Caridad Svich
Samuel Brett Williams
Trista Baldwin
Mat Smart
Bathsheba Doran
August Schulenburg
Jeff Lewonczyk
Rehana Mirza
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
David Johnston
Dan Dietz
Mark Schultz
Lucy Thurber
George Brant
Brooke Berman
Julia Jordan
Joshua Conkel
Kyle Jarrow
Christina Ham
Rachel Axler
Laura Lynn MacDonald
Steve Patterson
Erin Browne
Annie Baker
Crystal Skillman
Blair Singer
Daniel Goldfarb
Heidi Schreck
Itamar Moses
EM Lewis
Bekah Brunstetter
Mac Rogers
Cusi Cram
Michael Puzzo
Megan Mostyn-Brown
Andrea Ciannavei
Sarah Gubbins
Kim Rosenstock
Tim Braun
Rachel Shukert
Kristoffer Diaz
Jason Grote
Dan Trujillo
Marisa Wegrzyn
Ken Urban
Callie Kimball
Deborah Stein
Qui Nguyen
Victoria Stewart
Malachy Walsh
Jessica Dickey
Kara Lee Corthron
Zayd Dohrn
Madeleine George
Sheila Callaghan
Daniel Talbott
David Adjmi
Dominic Orlando
Matthew Freeman
Anna Ziegler
James Comtois