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Feb 24, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 430: Aaron Landsman


Aaron Landsman

Hometown:  Minneapolis, MN

Current Town:  Towns actually. I live part time in Urbana, IL, while my wife Johanna Meyer is in grad school, and part time in Brooklyn, NY.

Q:  Tell me about City Council Meeting.

A:  City Council Meeting is somewhere between theater and a kind of conceptual art performance. It's an interactive piece where audience members perform transcriptions of city council meetings from around the country, creating a fictional city that lives in the space as long as it's spoken. Audience members can choose to participate, or not, in several ways. The goal is, in part, to allow people to speak another person's words, often someone who is or believes much differently than they do. It's about both holding a mirror up to power, and learning to empathize with a stranger, in a room full of strangers. The piece is being developed concurrently at HERE in New York, DiverseWorks in Houston, ASU/Gammage in Tempe, AZ, and Zspace in San Francisco, with local cohorts of artists and non artists. It's not political theater as much as the theater of politics. In each city we're building the piece with a local cohort of artists, non-artists, politicians or their staff, and other citizens.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I have two more play-like plays that I am trying to get into production. One is called Running Away From The One With The Knife, about suicide and religious faith. The other is Special Tonight, which is about intimacy, voyeurism, nostalgia and something I can't put my finger on, in contemporary urban existence.

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

A:  Here is a triptych. 1) My mother started writing seriously when I was a kid, getting up at 5 AM to write for an hour, before everyone else was awake, before she had to go to work teaching high school. That made me understand the writing life in a way that made sense early. Later, when I was in high school, my friend Carl and I would sneak out of our houses at night to sit up at Embers' Grille on Lake Street, drinking coffee, plotting adventures and writing. Even now I find the best time to write is when everyone else is asleep, or is supposed to be. 2) I came to theater as both an actor and a writer, and the misfits and punks I encountered in the little Minneapolis church-basement theater troupe I was part of were the first community I ever belonged to, felt welcomed in. 3) I tried a lot of drugs in high school, and writing helped keep me from following several friends down a path of serious usage. I found myself the chronicler of our misadventures, and that demanded too much of my time to get hooked

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

A:  I would make it less formally conservative - I'd want more theater artists to think conceptually as much as narratively. I'd make it braver about formal risk and provocation.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  In no particular order: The Wooster Group, Roger Guenevere Smith, John Collins and ERS, Richard Maxwell, Tanya Barfield, Anton Chekhov, Mallory Catlett, April Matthis, Melanie Joseph, David Hancock, Rude Mechs, Free Theater Belarus.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that seems like it might derail at any moment. Theater that makes something abstract palpable. Work that can't quite contain itself, that doesn't explain itself fully, but that is just as carefully wrought as the most narrative fourth-wall play. Theater that finds the sweet spot of allowing me to suspend my disbelief while honoring the fact that we are all in the room together, now.

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

A:  Write a lot. Find ways to hear the work read out loud so you can hear your habits. Learn whose advice is helpful and whose is bullshit. Nod whenever people give you feedback and write it down.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  City Council Meeting in 2013, all over NYC!

Feb 22, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 429: Joe Tracz



Joe Tracz

Hometown: Northville, Michigan

Current Town: Brooklyn, NYC

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Two musicals. One is with composer Craig Carnelia, and it's based on a recent true event. The other, with Joe Iconis, is an adaptation of a young adult sci-fi novel called Be More Chill. Weirdly, both touch on the same concern -- the way we use technology to build an identity, and what happens when that technology betrays us. I don't recommend writing two musicals at the same time, but it seems to be working out: where one story is tragic and true, the other is poppy and genre-riffy, so it's like using the same DNA to build two very different monsters. Uh, children. Did I say monsters? I meant children.

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 middle school, I entered a competition sponsored by the Henry Ford Museum where you had to present a diorama of a futuristic city. My writer brain devised a future where overpopulation was solved by zapping cities with a shrink ray and launching them into space. I convinced my team (hardcore science kids, all) that we should wear flightsuits and pretend to be astronauts who discovered one of these cities in, like, a wormhole or something. The brilliant part -- or so I thought -- was that we could claim our diorama wasn't a scale model, it was the ACTUAL CITY ITSELF!! Also, there were puppets.

When we showed up at the museum, I realized I'd gotten it horribly, horribly wrong. The judges wanted science, not science fiction. They wanted a factual discussion of urban planning and we were giving them Farscape. I was devastated, I felt like I'd let my team down. Of course New Lilliput lost. But my teammates forgave me when the camera crew showed up and went straight for our table. It turns out puppets and flightsuits make great visuals for the evening news.

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

A:  Beyond the usual wishlist -- expanded audience base, lower ticket prices, fewer plays set in upper middle class living rooms -- I'd love to see greater national cross-pollination. While I heart localized theatre, as a New York writer I feel disconnected from what's happening in Chicago, or Atlanta, or California. Not to mention internationally. We live in the age of instant networks; we should be creating locally but sharing on a bigger scale.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  From Kushner, I learned to be unafraid of going big and risking messy (a lesson I maybe learned too well), and from Churchill I learned the power of letting content dictate form. Also, I just picked up the book Eminent Outlaws, which traces the LGBT progress of the 20th century back to writers, many of them playwrights, who challenged conventional notions on what stories could be told. So that's all in there. But regular shots of inspiration come from the writers I interact with -- the Ars Nova Play Group gang, my classmates from NYU, and, right now, the Sons of Tennessee, which is a group some friends and I just formed inspired by this gay poets' salon we read about in the Times. I get to grab a beer with my heroes on a regular basis. How many people in other professions can say that?

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Looking at all the remakes and sequels in movies and on TV, it sometimes feels like theatre is one of the last safe homes for truly original stories. I'd rather see a new play by a playwright I've never heard of and know nothing about, than another really solid production of The Seagull. I love sitting in the audience and having no idea what kind of experience I'm in for. And think about it: a play has never been ruined because they showed all the good parts in the trailer.

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

A;  Learn to take criticism well, and smartly. Even if a note seems wrong, don't dismiss it out of hand. Try to figure out what's really being asked, and how to incorporate it in a way that still honors your intentions. I watch shows like Chopped and Project Runway, and I scream at the TV because half the time, the contestants are too defensive to realize the judges genuinely want their work to get better. Then I realize I could take that to heart myself. So that's my advice: watch more Food Network. (But seriously, you can learn a lot about your own work from watching creative people in other fields.)

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  In March, I'm having a reading of my play UP NORTH with the awesome people at Playwrights Realm. Also, my day job is with Blue Sky Studios, the feature animation house at 20th Century Fox, writing on an action fantasy film called LEAFMEN. Our first teaser trailer should be coming soon to a big-screen near you. I'm a lifelong animation geek; my twelve-year old self couldn't be more psyched.

Feb 18, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 428: Nat Cassidy


Nat Cassidy

Hometown:
I was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, but apparently my parents decided that wouldn't do for our burgeoning meth habit (the family that tweaks together ... ), so we relocated to Phoenix, AZ when I was like 3, where I was raised. However, I'm really, really, really not a fan of Phoenix, so I tend to consider Tucson, where I went to school, my hometown (all of the desert loveliness, maybe 30% of the racism).

Current Town:
Right now, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I love my borough passionately, and Bay Ridge is a phenomenal neighborhood, but I'm definitely yearning to move a little further North. Although, I do get some good writing done on my often-more-than-an-hour commute.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm finishing up the first draft of a script that's actually been kicking my ass for many months now. It's the closest thing to a romance I've ever written, with none of the genre-y supernatural plot mechanics I usually like to play with, so it's been a big challenge on a whole host of levels. It's called Old Familiar Faces, and it's a four-hander concerning two couples: Charles and Mary Lamb, the brother/sister team (no funny business, don't worry) who wrote, among other things, the famous children's book Tales from Shakespeare, and who both suffered from severe mental issues (Mary had a breakdown and stabbed their mother to death with a carving knife one day), and a contemporary American couple modeled after Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh, who are similarly no walk in the mental wellness park. While their stories don't interact, they weave in and out of each other, along with scenes from the works of Shakespeare almost like numbers in a musicals, and the whole thing's a kind of love letter to the Bard, but also an examination of why such damaged people might find solace in his words.

After I finish this little beastie, I've got a number of other scripts lined up: an evening of monologues about a haunted house called Foundations, a sequel to my play The Reckoning of Kit & LIttle Boots called The Romantics' Comedy, a multi-play arc following a trickster god through different awful moments in history, and a couple of fun space dramas. I try to write two full-lengths a year, so these'll take a little while, but I'm kinda picking at them all at the moment, and I don't know which one will jump up and demand to be written exclusively next.

Q:  Tell me about your band.

A:  Nat Cassidy & the Nines is a melodicfolkrock outfit that's taken the world by storm (if by world, we mean very, very, very small rooms of people in, usually, Park Slope). The band is comprised of me and whomever I can trick into coming onstage and playing with me. But I like to track a lot when I record songs (I have three albums done now and am working on a fourth), so it's fun to pretend there's an actually band playing on my records and not just a sometimes-inept jackass with Garage Band. Hence, Nat Cassidy & the Nines. However, I do play a lot in a handful of other bands (usually "supergroups" with other singer-songwriters, like Brian Pluta, Alexis Thomason, and/or Angela Hamilton) that sometimes play as the Nines--it usually depends on who booked the gig.

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

A:  Well, there was that one time that Henrik Ibsen touched me in my bathingsuit area, but I'm not allowed to talk about that, legally, so here are two quick anecdotes I can think of that pretty much sum me up as a kid (and ex-kid), for better or worse.

I was raised by a single mom in a pretty poor area in Phoenix, where you can't really go out and play because a) there's not much you can do with concrete and weeds and b) you run the risk of immediately catching on fire. To make matters worse, we were only one of, I think, two families in our immediate area that owned a house--everyone else rented and would usually move away within a year or so--so, 90% of the time, there weren't even any kids around. Plus, my mom had MS and could only work part-time, so we really couldn't afford to do many fun things. This resulted in me being on my own most of the time, and usually left to entertain myself--so I read a lot and I got into A LOT of trouble (fights, setting things on fire, trying to throw rocks into passing cars, etc.).

So, I was a terror in school, and a teacher's nightmare. I was especially at odds with my first grade teacher (a shriveled, blue-haired goblin of a woman, if memory serves), who made me sit at her desk instead of having my own (something two other teachers would try in later years), and who put me on this ad hoc system whereby I had to bring home a red or a green card to be signed by my mom everyday, so she could know whether I had been good or evil. None of that really stopped me from being a general asshole, though - the one thing she did that actually succeeded in calming me down was one day, when she was giving a slide presentation of a recent trip to Greece, she showed a picture of a theatre where she saw a production of Macbeth. She started telling the basic plot of the show, and at the mention of witches and murder, she saw me perk up and start paying attention. After that, she challenged me to try to read the play - which I agreed to do immediately, most likely out of spite. And, though it took me pretty much the remainder of the school year, and though I make no assumptions about how much of it I actually *got,* I did it and it was then that I got hooked on Shakespeare. So, I've been reading Shakespeare since I was in first grade, thanks to a demonically cruel teacher who still somehow accidentally made a huge impact on my life, the hag.

The other quick illustrative anecdote is: when some kids finally did move onto our block when I was like 12 or 13, they were a few years younger than me, so I decided to see if I could convince them that I was a werewolf. I gathered up all these, for lack of a better word, candid photos of coyotes and wolves that I had taken at the Desert Museum (a big Arizona backyard that acts as a sort of zoo), along with some fake diary entries (torn and tattered, when appropriate, along with scrawled, werewolfic handwriting documenting The Change). It totally fucking worked. It also succeeded in preventing those kids from ever hanging out with me again. And if that doesn't sum up what I do as a playwright, I don't know what does.

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

A:  God, that's a great question. If I had to pick just one and only one thing, it would be: we'd be allowed to video tape our well-attended (thanks to cheaper, more efficacious wide-spread advertising and an audience more eager and prepared for live performance) productions, which were all taking place in one of the myriad affordable, modern theatres made possible by the staggering number of arts subsidies available. That's the one thing.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  As an actor, I was raised on the classic British Aaaaactors like Olivier, Burton, O'Toole, Gielgud, and the like. My capacity for such lugubrious lachrymosity has cooled in my ripe old age, but they certainly had their impact on me and kept my love of classical texts roiling for most of my life (I was also a HUUUGE Branagh fan when I was younger, but all it took was seeing his Frankenstein movie in my early 20s to snap myself out of that love affair). As I writer, I'd say I often go to the works of Shakespeare, Stoppard, Ionesco, and cats like that for inspiration--and, if I can plug a couple of non-theatrical people who were probably the biggest influences on me as a writer, it'd be Stephen King, Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show, and The Beatles. However, all that being said, these days my real theatrical heroes are the scrappy indie kids who are producing their own work and trying to make it better each and every time.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I absolutely love the kind of work that Nosedive, Gideon, Vampire Cowboys, Flux, et al. do - original scripts with often twisted mentalities exploring real people in somewhat unreal situations. Basically, if it's honest and it's a little fucked up, then count me in (but it's gotta be both. And a body count never hurts). It's seriously such an honor to be a contemporary in the independent theatre scene these days. It's maddening to have to choose what shows to see and what shows to have to miss forever, but, particularly with the companies above, I know that I'll come away from any production with that perfect combination of jealousy and excitement that drives me to try to make something as good.

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

A:  Not to sound like a shill for Nike or anything, but when it comes to writing, the biggest thing is to just fucking do it. Write that first draft. Let it be crap. Let it embarrass you. Just get it done. It can be helpful to think about having your characters say only what they absolutely need to say, no matter how clunky or obvious, to move the plot and the characterization along and worry about making it exponentially less shitty once it's out of you. It's about 4 millions times easier to rewrite than it is to write, so just fucking do it.

Beyond that, once you feel that your script is how you want it to be, you're going to experience about 8,000 people telling you all the things you could do with every single moment. Theatre, for some reason, is the most backseat-driver-prone artform imaginable. Listen, digest, never feel you've got to change a thing, but pay attention if there's a consensus.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  No dates are set at the moment, but I'm working on putting up one of my newest scripts called Songs of Love: A Theatrical Mixtape. It's a series of short plays--some dramatic, some comedic--all centered on one theme (in this case, bizarre relationships), interspersed with original music performed onstage by a singer-songwriter (in this case, me), creating, as it were, a theatrical mixtape. I wanted to combine my songwriting and my background in sketch comedy (especially as my full-lengths scripts threaten to get longer and longer) into one 90-minute evening that's essentially a celebration of those love-filled cassettes we're all still hanging onto somewhere in our hearts/apartments. Hopefully, we'll have firm dates for that soon, since it's a really fun show that I can't wait to share with folks, and doubly so because I'm hoping to make it the first in an indefinite series, with future mixtapes featuring different playwrights and singer-songwriters.

Beyond that, I'll hopefully be appearing in the Off-Broadway remount of Retro Theatre Productions' (another of my favorite companies) revival of THE RUNNER STUMBLES, which ran to much acclaim last November and is a really, really lovely piece of work. If you'd like to donate any amount of money to the cause and be a hero forever, you can find more information at www.retroproductions.org

Feb 17, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 427: David Rush


David Rush

Hometown: Chicago, the theatrical heart of the nation.

Current Town: Murphysboro, Illinois. I used to work at SIUC.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A couple things: a new play which is going slowly, and a book which is tentatively titled THE PLAYWRIGHT IN THE ROOM, which is about how to collaborate with one. I’m also looking for a composer to collaborate with me on an opera I’m playing with. And I’ve picked up some freelance content writing jobs.

Q:  Tell me about your guide to play analysis.

A:  For years I taught an undergraduate course in the subject, required of all majors and minors. One day I realized that if I put my lectures into a book, I’d never have to lecture again. So I did. The book is a self-contained one-semester course, looking at plays through various critical windows: a typical well-made play structure (using Freytag and Aristotle as models), classes of genres (tragedy, comedy, farce, melodrama and Chekov), and styles (the “isms”.) It also has a chapter on post-modernism, so you can get through Mac Wellman if you need to. They tell me it’s required reading in over a dozen schools. I think it’s particularly useful for playwrights, since it can provide you with templates to help jumpstart your creative flow.

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 in high school, I skipped classes one afternoon to sneak into the city to see a matinee performance of a touring production of “The Skin of Our Teeth,” starring Mary Martin, Helen Hayes, and George Abbot. There’s a spot in the last act when Wilder breaks down the 4th wall and presents a scene which is too complicated to explain here, but creates that magical sense of awe and wonder that great theater uses so well when it works. And it worked on that 17-year old kid. I was crying when I left the theater because I had been touched by beauty. And it was then I knew I would be a playwright. All the rest has been filling in the blanks with the rest of my life.

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

A:  (Does it have to be only one?)
I assume you mean theater as it’s practiced in the USA today? If so, here’s a brief list:
. I would find a way to legislate more government support. The Brits do it very well.
. I would eliminate age-ism from play buyers.
. I would make dramaturgs who work with new plays have to take some sort of exam to get licensed. They do that with horse doctors, people doctors, and finance doctors; why not with play doctors just as well. There’s a reason the Hippocratic oath says something about “do no harm.”

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Thornton Wilder, Eugene O’Neil, Chekov, Tennessee Williams,  Eric Overmeyer of “On the Verge,” Russ Tutterow.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that demands the audience join in. I don’t mean 60’s style “Get-up-and-hug-me” theater, nor do I mean “Sing along” theater. I mean theater that makes you pay attention so you don’t miss the
wonder that’s coming in just another minute.

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

A:  Several things:

When I teach, I write three words on the board: “Crap Is Good,” and  I elaborate by telling my students to eliminate fear when they sit down. Fear of “not being good” is a destroyer. Write it as best you can because you can always get rid of it. Even Shakespeare must have shredded garbage. After all, it’s why God made delete keys.

I also tell them to keep in mind that NOBODY EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THEATER has written or will ever write the kind of plays they will. They are unique. Discover what that means and go with it.

I also tell them to be very careful whom they show their plays to. Keep in mind that everybody in the world will see your play through THEIR eyes and not yours. Learn how to read their critics to understand whether or not their advice is any good.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I got accepted as one of the mainstage plays at this year’s Great Plains Theater Conference. There are some other potentially nice things in the wings I can’t talk about just yet. And I'm looking for a
composer.       
 

Feb 13, 2012

Upcoming

This Sat (Feb 18) a reading of Fat Cat Killers in nyc  http://fireworktheater.com/winter-reading-series-2012#4

Next Wed, (Feb 22) a reading of Where You Can't Follow in Orange County, CA  http://www.chancetheater.com/season_2011/sp_otr/index.php

Starting Feb 23, Pretty Theft at Beloit College in WI http://www.beloit.edu/news/?story_id=341770&textonly=1

In March, Food For Fish at Armstrong in Savannah, GA http://www.armstrong.edu/Liberal_Arts/amt_box_office/amt_masquers_present_food_for_fish

Coming in March, A web series I wrote--Compulsive Love  https://www.facebook.com/compulsivelove

This spring, Incendiary in Chicago  http://www.wishbonetheatre.org/

This summer, Hearts Like Fists at Theatre of Note in Los Angeles http://www.theatreofnote.com/

In the fall, Hearts Like Fists at Flux Theater Ensemble in NYC  http://www.fluxtheatre.org/2011/12/help-us-bring-alive-our-season-five/

And possibly 8 other productions this year which aren't online yet.  And plenty of readings too.

Feb 11, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 426: Josh Koenigsberg



Josh Koenigsberg

Hometown:  Greenwich Village, New York City

Current Town:  Park Slope, New York City

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Well I recently got hired to adapt one of my favorite books, "The Boys of Summer" by Roger Kahn. It's about the 1950's Jackie Robinson-era Brooklyn Dodgers and it's really exciting for me because I'm a sports nut and a theater nut, and it's rare when those two things overlap. The producers want to do it on Broadway in 2013, so fingers crossed. I'm also writing a play about a group of New York City bouncers in the meat packing district planning a heist during fashion week. It's not based on a true story but I might tell people it is.

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 little I used to sneak into my parents' room to watch movies on HBO. One day I turn on the TV and there's this cop movie on that looks like every other cop movie...until the cop suddenly jumps over a railing and lands gracefully about 20 feet below. I'm stunned. He grabs a dying man and wants to know where the villain is. "You're too late..." the man says with his last breath. "Hapsburg is...is..." but he dies before he can finish. So the cop goes "All right, who else is almost dead?" Another hand goes up. The cop goes over to him. "Okay now talk!" "You're too late..." the dying man says. "He already said that." The dying guy swallows. "Where did he leave off?" The movie was The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear and my life was never the same. I couldn't believe you could break the rules like that. So naturally I memorized the entire movie and would recite it for my really tolerant family when we went on vacation. All I hope for as a writer is that one day I can write a scene that blows a kid's mind as much that one blew mine.
(Here's a link to the actual clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJWLdQ9vylA&feature=relmfu)

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

A:  Well look, I think it's great that big New York theater companies like Roundabout, Atlantic, Lincoln Center and Second Stage all produce emerging writers at their 'supplemental spaces'...but if someone elected me "President Overlord of All Off-Broadway Theater" I would immediately double the amount of those productions and cut the current budget for each one in half. That way you could produce twice as many writers, just with more scaled down productions. I think if you asked most playwrights if they'd rather have a scaled down show or no show, they'd pick the former and be excited that more plays could now be produced as a by-product.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Oh man. Well writer-wise I really like Clifford Odets and August Wilson and George Kaufman and Moss Hart. And everybody in Play Group with me at Ars Nova. And also my fellow At Play writers, Bekah Brunstetter, Laura Jacqmin, Mike Lew, and Harrison Rivers. And Don Nguyen who runs Sad Playwright, which is a great simple site that I've lost many hours of my life to.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I like plays where things catch me off-guard. Not in the "we're gonna plant an actor under your seat who's gonna pop out and scare you" way, but I remember I saw this farce called "The Play What I Wrote" on Broadway several years ago, and there was this one moment I'll never forget. The two main characters are in a fight and one of them goes to the train station to leave and the other one tries to get him to stay, and says "Where are you even going?" And the second guy goes "I don't know yet." And the first guy goes "Well say your next line." And the second guy goes "Florida" -- then looks up shocked, like he really wasn't expecting to be going to Florida. I just thought that was so amazing.

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

A:  Write about something that really tickles you, get a good writing schedule down, and you don't always have to wait for the laundry hamper to overflow before you do your laundry.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Atlantic is doing a reading of my play "The Mnemonist of Dutchess County" on February 13th at 6:30pm at Stage 2. And go check out The Urban Dictionary Plays at Ars Nova if you haven't already. Also The Rockettes.

Feb 9, 2012

I Interview Artistic Directors Part 7: Chad Rabinovitz


Chad Rabinovitz

Hometown: Eldersburg, MD

Current Town: Bloomington, IN

Q:  Tell me about Bloomington Playwright's Project.

A:  The Bloomington Playwrights Project is the only professional theatre in the entire state of Indiana focused solely on new plays.

Q:  How do you create your season?

A:  We have two playwriting contests that are set in the season each year: the Woodward/Newman Drama Award and the Reva Shiner Comedy Award. Our literary committee which is comprised of about 30 readers go through the hundreds of submissions. Each one ends up on my desk and I either skim or read through each one (depending on the ratings from the 2 previous reads) and ultimately select a winner in each category. I then work with agents to find a new musical each year. I try to stay up to date as much as possible on what's going on in NYC for our Off-Broadway/On-Ninth slot where we produce a second or a third production of a show that premiered in the NY area. And finally I commission playwrights to write on a common theme in partnership with Indiana University.

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

A:  Senior year of high school I was president of the drama club (after having known what theatre was for a whole year at this point) and always tried to plan trips for my group to various theaters. At this time in my life I had never seen even a community theatre play so I was super excited to be scheduling them. Well my principal decided that I had gone on enough field trips so he turned down my request to rent a bus and go an hour north to Baltimore to see Les Mis. So I raised all the upfront money I needed on my own and did it anyway, separate from my school. I sold every ticket and seat on the bus.

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

A:  More new plays. I fear theatre is becoming a museum and that we're not training our audiences to take risks.

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

A:  We just finished a $100,000 renovation of the entire theatre and had our Grand Re-Opening a few days ago, so for now I think I'm perfectly happy with it. But ask me next week and I'll tell you that I want to enhance the lighting system.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  New Plays! I love plays centered around a unique idea or told through an original plot structure.

Q:  What plays or playwrights are you excited about right now?

A:  Laura Wade, Amanda Rogers, Henry Murray, Christine Whitley, Barton Bishop, Michael Lluberes, Jeremy Schonfeld and many more. I'm really excited about our theater's upcoming production of Three Views of the Same Object. The script is incredibly innovative and groundbreaking.

Q:  What do you aspire to in your work?

A:  To continue to be fortunate enough to be able to do it for a living.

Q:  What advice do you have for theater artists wishing to work at your theater?

A:  Submit. I can't produce a play that never comes across my desk. And keep your cover letter/synopsis short! I'm more likely to get excited about a play with an intriguing synopsis that keeps me wanting more than a list of all the plot points in the script.

Feb 8, 2012

425 Playwright Interviews (Alphabetical)

Sean Abley
Rob Ackerman
Liz Duffy Adams
Johnna Adams
Tony Adams 
David Adjmi
Keith Josef Adkins   
Derek Ahonen
Kathleen Akerley    
Zakiyyah Alexander
Luis Alfaro
Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro 
Lucy Alibar
Joshua Allen
Mando Alvarado 
Sofia Alvarez 
Christina Anderson
Eddie Antar
Terence Anthony
David Anzuelo
Rob Askins
Alice Austen 
Elaine Avila   
Rachel Axler
Jenny Lyn Bader
Bianca Bagatourian   
Annie Baker
Trista Baldwin
David Bar Katz
Jennifer Barclay 
Courtney Baron
Abi Basch 
Mike Batistick 
Brian Bauman
Neena Beber

Nikole Beckwith 
Maria Alexandria Beech
France-Luce Benson
Kari Bentley-Quinn 
Alan Berks
Brooke Berman
Susan Bernfield
Jay Bernzweig 
Hilary Bettis 
Mickey Birnbaum  
Barton Bishop
Martin Blank
Radha 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
Deborah Brevoort  
Delaney Britt Brewer
Jessica Brickman  
Erin Browne
Julia Brownell  
Bekah Brunstetter
Monica Byrne
Renee Calarco   
Sheila Callaghan
Darren Canady
Ruben Carbajal
Ed Cardona, Jr.
Jonathan Caren
Aaron Carter
James Carter 
David Caudle
Emily Chadick Weiss 
Eugenie Chan 
Clay McLeod Chapman
Christopher Chen
Kirsten Childs 
Jason Chimonides  
Andrea Ciannavei
Eliza Clark
Alexis Clements
Paul Cohen 
Alexandra Collier
James Comtois
Joshua Conkel
Kara Lee Corthron
Kia 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
Reginald Edmund 
Erik Ehn
Yussef El Guindi
Libby Emmons
Jennie Berman Eng  
Christine Evans 
Jennifer Fawcett 
Joshua Fardon
Catherine Filloux   
Kenny Finkle
Stephanie Fleischmann
Kate Fodor
Sam Forman 
Dana Lynn Formby 
 
Kevin R. Free
Matthew Freeman
Edith Freni
Patrick Gabridge 
Anne Garcia-Romero
Gary Garrison
Philip Gawthorne
Madeleine George
Meg Gibson
Sean Gill
Sigrid Gilmer 
Peter Gil-Sheridan
Gina Gionfriddo
Kelley Girod 
Michael Golamco
Jessica Goldberg
Daniel Goldfarb
Jacqueline Goldfinger
Jeff Goode
Idris Goodwin
Tasha Gordon-Solmon
Christina Gorman
Craig "muMs" Grant
Katharine Clark Gray
Elana Greenfield   
Kirsten Greenidge
David Grimm  
Jason Grote
Sarah Gubbins
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Lauren Gunderson
Laurel Haines 
Jennifer Haley
Ashlin Halfnight   
Christina Ham
Sarah Hammond
Rob Handel
Jordan Harrison
Leslye Headland
Ann Marie Healy
Julie Hebert 
Marielle Heller
Charity Henson-Ballard 
Amy Herzog
Ian W. Hill  
Andrew Hinderaker
Cory Hinkle
Richard Martin Hirsch
Lucas Hnath
David Holstein
J. Holtham
Miranda Huba  
Quiara Alegria Hudes 
Les Hunter
Sam Hunter
Chisa Hutchinson
Arlene Hutton
Lameece Issaq 
Tom Jacobson  
Laura Jacqmin
Joshua James
Julia Jarcho
Kyle Jarrow
Rachel Jendrzejewski   
Karla Jennings
David Johnston
Daniel Alexander Jones  
Nick Jones
Julia Jordan
Rajiv Joseph
Aditi Brennan Kapil
Lila Rose Kaplan
Stephen Karam  
Jeremy Kareken 
Lally Katz
Lynne Kaufman
Daniel Keene 
 
Greg Keller
Sibyl Kempson
Jon Kern 
Anna Kerrigan
Kait Kerrigan
Boo Killebrew
Callie Kimball
Alessandro King 
Johnny Klein 
Krista Knight

Kristen Kosmas 
Sherry Kramer
Andrea Kuchlewska
Larry Kunofsky
Eric Lane  
Jennifer Lane
Deborah Zoe Laufer 
J. C. Lee
Young Jean Lee
Dan LeFranc
Andrea Lepcio
Victor Lesniewski 
Steven Levenson
Barry Levey
Mark Harvey Levine  
Michael Lew
Alex Lewin  
EM Lewis
Sean Christopher Lewis
Jeff Lewonczyk
Kenneth Lin
Michael Lluberes
 
Matthew Lopez
Stacey Luftig
Kirk Lynn
Taylor Mac  
Mariah MacCarthy
Heather Lynn MacDonald 
Laura Lynn MacDonald
Maya Macdonald
Wendy MacLeod 
Cheri Magid
Jennifer Maisel
Martyna Majok  
Karen Malpede   
Kara Manning
Mona Mansour 
Warren Manzi 
Israela Margalit 
Ellen Margolis
Ruth Margraff
Sam Marks
Katie May
Oliver Mayer
Tarell Alvin McCraney
Mia McCullough  
Daniel McCoy 
Ruth McKee
Gabe McKinley  
Ellen McLaughlin 
James McManus
Charlotte Meehan
Carly Mensch
Molly Smith Metzler
Dennis Miles
Charlotte Miller 
Jane Miller  
Winter Miller
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Yusef Miller 
Rehana Mirza
Michael Mitnick
Anna Moench
Honor Molloy
Claire Moodey 
Alejandro Morales
Desi Moreno-Penson
Dominique Morisseau 
Hannah Moscovitch 
Itamar Moses
Gregory Moss
Megan Mostyn-Brown
Kate Mulley 
Paul Mullin
Julie Marie Myatt
Janine Nabers
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Brett Neveu
Don Nguyen   
Qui Nguyen
Don Nigro
Dan O'Brien
Matthew Paul Olmos 
Dominic Orlando
Rich Orloff
Marisela Treviño Orta
Sylvan Oswald  
Jamie Pachino
Kristen Palmer
Tira Palmquist

Kyoung H. Park
Jerome A. Parker  
Peter Parnell
Caitlin Montanye Parrish
Julia Pascal
Steve Patterson
Daniel Pearle 
christopher oscar peña
Begonya Plaza 
Brian Polak 
Daria Polatin
John Pollono 
Chana Porter
Craig Pospisil
Jessica Provenz
Michael Puzzo
Brian Quirk  
Marco Ramirez
Adam Rapp
David West Read 
Theresa Rebeck
Amber Reed
Daniel Reitz
M.Z. Ribalow
Molly Rice
Mac Rogers
Joe Roland 
Elaine Romero
Lynn Rosen
Andrew Rosendorf
Kim Rosenstock
Sharyn Rothstein 
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
Erika Sheffer  
Christopher Shinn
Rachel Shukert
Jen Silverman
David Simpatico 
Blair Singer
Crystal Skillman
Mat Smart
Alena Smith
Matthew Stephen Smith  
Tommy Smith
Ben Snyder
Sonya Sobieski  
Lisa Soland
Octavio Solis
E. Hunter Spreen 
Peggy Stafford 
Saviana Stanescu
Nick Starr
Deborah Stein
Jon Steinhagen
Victoria Stewart
Andrea Stolowitz
Lydia Stryk
Gwydion Suilebhan  
Gary Sunshine
Caridad Svich
Jeffrey Sweet
Adam Szymkowicz
Daniel Talbott
Jeff Talbott 
Kate Tarker 
Roland Tec 
Lucy Thurber
Paul Thureen
Melisa Tien   
Josh Tobiessen
Catherine Trieschmann 
Dan Trujillo
Alice Tuan
Jon Tuttle
Ken Urban
Enrique Urueta
Karen Smith Vastola 
Francine Volpe
Kathryn Walat
Ian Walker
Michael I. Walker 
Malachy Walsh
Kathleen Warnock
Anne Washburn
Marisa Wegrzyn
Anthony Weigh   
Ken Weitzman
Sharr White
David Wiener  
Claire Willett
Samuel Brett Williams
Beau Willimon
Pia Wilson
Leah Nanako Winkler 
Gary Winter
Bess Wohl   
Stanton Wood
Craig Wright
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Anu Yadav
Deborah Yarchun
Lauren Yee
Steve Yockey
Kelly Younger
Stefanie Zadravec
Anna Ziegler

425 Playwright Interviews

Philip Gawthorne
Eddie Antar
Begonya Plaza
Lameece Issaq
Reginald Edmund
Erika Sheffer
Kristen Kosmas
Jennifer Lane
Tasha Gordon-Solmon
Leah Nanako Winkler
Matthew Stephen Smith
Jerome A. Parker
Caitlin Montanye Parrish
France-Luce Benson
Kirsten Childs
Jennie Berman Eng
Anu Yadav
Sherry Kramer
Ian Walker
Sean Abley
Emily Chadick Weiss
Charity Henson-Ballard
Idris Goodwin
Hilary Bettis
Melisa Tien  
Julia Brownell
David Anzuelo
David Wiener
M.Z. Ribalow
Neena Beber
Joe Roland
Radha Blank
Kelley Girod
Sean Gill
David Bar Katz
Daniel Alexander Jones
Taylor Mac
Sharyn Rothstein
Jon Kern
Sylvan Oswald
Mickey Birnbaum
Jeff Talbott
Deborah Brevoort
Rob Askins
Paul Cohen
Stephen Karam 
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Karen Smith Vastola
David Grimm
Claire Moodey
Bess Wohl 
Wendy MacLeod 
Kate Mulley
Octavio Solis
Ian W. Hill
Monica Byrne
Don Nguyen 
Dana Lynn Formby
Dennis Miles
Marco Ramirez
Warren Manzi 
Mia McCullough 
Ellen McLaughlin
Tom Jacobson
Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro
Hannah Moscovitch
Alessandro King
Alex Lewin
Laurel Haines
Renee Calarco
E. Hunter Spreen 
Michael Lluberes
Kathleen Akerley  
Sonya Sobieski 
Gwydion Suilebhan 
Jane Miller
Eric Lane
David West Read
Katie May
John Pollono
Mona Mansour
Miranda Huba 
Lydia Stryk
Rachel Jendrzejewski 
Karen Malpede 

Daniel Pearle
Heather Lynn MacDonald 
Gabe McKinley
Keith Josef Adkins 
Brian Quirk
Israela Margalit
Kia Corthron
Christina Anderson
Jenny Lyn Bader
Catherine Trieschmann
Oliver Mayer
Jessica Brickman
Kari Bentley-Quinn

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