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May 28, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 459: Adrienne Dawes



Adrienne Dawes

Hometown: Austin, TX

Current Town: Austin, TX

Q:  Tell me about Am I White.

A:   I distinctly remember my senior year of college sitting behind a huge, messy pile of paperwork (old notes and shitty first drafts) and thinking out loud, “This is it. This is my play.”

I first read about Leo Felton in an article in MAVIN magazine and couldn’t believe I hadn’t encountered his story elsewhere (especially as I was living on the East Coast at that time). First incarcerated at age 19 for assault, Leo Felton entered the prison system with the word “Skinhead” tattooed onto his scalp. During his eleven year stint, he quickly rose in the ranks of the White Order of Thule, described as an "esoteric brotherhood” dedicated to “revitalizing the Culture-Soul of European people." Eighty days after his release, Leo and girlfriend Erica Chase were arrested exchanging counterfeit bills at a Dunkin Donuts. The subsequent search of their apartment found bomb-making materials, illegal weapons and plans targeting the New England Holocaust Memorial. Shortly after his arrest in the summer of 2001, the press revealed Leo’s mixed race heritage: his father, a Black architect and his mother, a former nun with Jewish ancestry. Leo’s parents married just a few years after Loving vs. Virginia passed.

I began the sort of draft that came quite naturally as a twenty-one year old playwright: “HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? WHO IS THIS PERSON? Blah blah blah add some AVANT-GARDE SHIT.”

Several years and several messy drafts later, Leo wrote me (via email through a pen pal on the outside) after he found out about my play. This was pretty unsettling for a number of reasons: 1) Aside from a reading at Salvage Vanguard Theater in Austin, TX, the play only existed in my brain; 2) someone actually reads my blog; and 3) my lead character basically wanted to talk to me - from prison.

I had never, ever had direct contact with anyone that inspired any of my plays, despite the fact that just about everything I write comes from what I read in the newspaper (or in the case of You Are Pretty, what I watch on HBO really late at night). It took a few letters for us to determine a comfortable communication process. I had to make it very clear that I was creating a fictional piece based on his story. Overall, our exchanges have been very positive. As Leo has been completing his memoir, I’ve been writing my play.

So I’m in this story now. This is it. This is my play.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  As if Am I White wasn’t heavy enough, I’m working on a play about the Haitian earthquake, violent sex and PTSD. I’m in a real mood right now . . .

I’m also developing two screenplay projects and in post-production on my web series, Completely Normal Activity. Completely Normal Activity is an improvised paranormal comedy about a twenty-something slacker who tries to document suspected paranormal activity in his apartment. Our second season is a prequel (a nod to the Paranormal Activity movies) so we like to pitch it as “what happened before nothing happened.” New episodes will be released this Fall but the entire first season is available online for free, forever, at http://www.completelynormalactivity.com

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 taught myself to read when I was three years old so very early on, I felt a sense of ownership of story. I could escape to my books whenever I wanted, with or without my parents. I experienced a great deal of emotional trauma as a young child and my transition to storytelling was extremely empowering. When I could not speak, I could always write and did so voraciously.

My earliest stories were autobiographical, attempts to explain my “difference.” Let me just say that I grew up in Central Texas in the early 90s (pre-Jolie-Pitt era). I’ll also say that I am mixed-race, I have White adoptive parents and come from an interracial, differently-abled family. There was a lot of explaining to do.

I was excited to find my first audience in my classmates, who would excitedly pass around handwritten pages of my Wiccan sagas and pester me for advance chapters. I was extremely shy and introverted, so this was a huge push of encouragement to share my voice.

Unfortunately, this also meant I could get in trouble for what I wrote. I’m embarrassed to admit that I authored and illustrated several inappropriate comic strips, based on playground gossip or national tragedy. I was in every other respect a model, straight A student so my terrible sense of humor came as quite a shock to my teachers.

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

A:   Lack of an inclusive community.

In part, it’s us. Theater folk. For all our ability to transform and transport audiences, theater artists lack a lot of basic social skills when the house lights rise. “Thanks for your $35, now get out.” Audiences and emerging artists desperately want in. Open a door or in the very least, open a window. There’s room for all of us.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:   Naomi Iizuka, Suzan Lori Parks, Vicky Boone, Jenny Larson and Christine Farrell. Special love to Mary Siewert Scruggs and to Paul Ryan Rudd, who helped me fall in love with Shakespeare again.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Two productions changed everything for me: Classical Theater of Harlem’s production of The Blacks and Propeller’s production of A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

Now I want every play to be dangerous, strange and funny. I want to be an active participant of a theatrical event that cannot be reproduced or accurately recorded by any form of technology. I want narrative in the moment and only in that moment. I want to go home after a show and dream about it that night.

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

A: Truth be told, I’m still just starting out. I’m about ten years into my career and I hope I get another ten to continue to “emerge.” I will say that it’s impossible to be a playwright without a supportive community. An academic environment comes with a lot of built-in resources but if you are just out of school or in an academic limbo (as I am), you have to find your artistic home(s). You have to seek out creative partners and collaborators. And quite frankly, you have to stage manage a whole lot of shows before anyone will remember your name.

I found a way to work with every company in Austin after college and that’s how I met most of my collaborators. I’m not particularly out-going or extroverted but I work really hard and am organized. I believe if you put good work karma out into the community, it will return to you.

Be grateful whenever anyone reads your work. Have a law school friend or family member to help you read contracts carefully. Expand your friend circle to include some non-theater friends. Find some “extracurricular activities” to exercise other creative muscles and distract from writer’s block. Go easy on yourself (playwriting is not a competitive sport) and your peers (please do not under any circumstances talk trash about a show in the theater lobby or bathroom directly after a performance).

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  like meat loves salt will be produced as part of Eat Street Players’ Fresh Bites One Act Festival (Minneapolis, MN) which runs May 31st thru June 9th: http://www.eatstreetplayers.org/onstage/freshbites.html

My short comedy LARPers in Love will premiere as part of American Theater Company’s Big Shoulders New Play Festival (Chicago, IL) June 19th at 7:30pm: http://www.atcweb.org/about/about.php

Am I White will receive a reading as part of Blackboard’s Reading Series (NYC) in November. More details will be up shortly on my website: http://www.adriennedawes.com and http://www.blackboardplays.com

May 27, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 458: Susan Soon He Stanton



Susan Soon He Stanton

Hometown: Aiea, Hawai‘i

Current Town: New York City

Q:  Tell me about your show at Clubbed Thumb.

A:  Takarazuka!!! is set in the Takarazuka Women’s Revue in Japan, where women perform all roles in lavish Broadway style musicals.

I was inspired to write this play after watching an interview of a Takarazuka “male star.” She explained, “I always dreamed of joining Takarazuka. I never imagined what would happen when the dream would end.”

After hearing this woman's bittersweet interview, I began to research Takarazuka. I became obsessed with the lurid, surreal, and oddly compelling performances. I was introduced to the strange ritual of forced retirement that these actresses undergo, a tradition unique to the Takarazuka Revue. This play is my imagining of what happens when “the dream ended.”

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  At the moment, I’m developing The Underneath (a commission from Kumu Kahua) with Rising Circle. The Underneath is a story about Col, a young man who returns home to Hawaii after receiving a mysterious SOS note from his estranged brother, whom Col had left behind. When Col returns home, nothing is the way he remembers and Honolulu becomes a dark and unfamiliar backdrop. Although this play is stylized and draws from film noir, particularly The Third Man, The Underneath is a very personal play for me that explores complicated emotions I have about leaving home and living abroad.

I’m also working on a play called Murdo at the Public’s Emerging Writers Group. Murdo is about hoarding as well as the exodus of a small town in South Dakota. The play focuses on Paul, a Desert Storm Vet, now a hoarder and possibly the town’s final resident, and Paul’s hyper-sexualized eleven-year-old daughter, Bitna. I’m really excited about Bitna. I had forgotten how terrifying eleven-year-old girls can be. Even though I’m from Hawai‘i, my father is from the Midwest. This is the first time I’m exploring that landscape.

In addition, I’m developing a few short films and working on my first musical with Michael McQuilken.

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

A:  There is no explanation for me. But here's a story.

When I was five-years-old, I was lost for hours in a Beijing market. There were stalls displaying pigs’ heads and innards, live turtles, and chickens. I was pushed to the ground by the shouting, jostling crowd. A tall stranger grabbed me by my wrist and lifted me into the air. He said, "Do you know what happens to little girls who run away from their mothers? Their eyes are gouged out and their hands and feet cut off. Then they are shipped to Malaysia to beg and they never see their families again."

I was pretty sure this was my fate until my mother ran up to me. Turns out this charming man was a business associate of my mother's, who was irritated to have been asked to look for me. The fear that I would be kidnapped, disfigured, and sent to an unfamiliar place haunted me for years. I will never forget that man’s face or the smells and sights of the market. I want audience to feel vulnerable and engaged while sitting in the theatre. I want my plays to terrify and overwhelm, but also be funny.

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

A:  I wish it was easier to convince people to see plays. People will shell out money to go to a concert but balk at $20 theater tickets. A bad play is far more torturous than any film could ever be. But a good play can change your life.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My mentors are Paula Vogel, John Guare, and Jose Rivera (they are also my heroes). My heroes also include Gabriel Garcia Lorca, David Lynch, Caryl Churchill, Witold Gombrowicz, and Charles Ludlam.

And if I can be old-school about this…Euripides. Even thousands of years later, his plays still feel shockingly modern. I also appreciate a controversial playwright. Euripides was controversial in life and in death. While in exile, it was said he was either killed by his rival’s hunting dogs or torn apart by women. That’s living life with the same intensity as your art.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I like spectacle and seeing how magic is created in small spaces with tiny budgets. I’m drawn to impossible plays, awkwardness, and stories in which anything can happen at any moment.

That said there’s no one particular kind of style that I favor over the other. I think certain theater-makers create work that challenges their audience and demands to be seen.

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

A:  I think every playwright should read Jose Rivera's 36 Assumptions.

I also received this piece of advice from Martin Epstein. His advice stuck with me because I received it at a time when I was questioning whether or not I should continue playwriting.

“If you haven't already begun, read. Cannibalize the classics and track down great plays of the present moment—discover what 'great' means, but never imitate until you've absorbed the influence in ways to stimulate your own take on things. And see as many plays as you can afford until you can't stand it. It's best to see amazing plays and terrible plays.”

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Running from May 26 to June 4, 2012 please check out Takarazuka!!! at Clubbed Thumb. http://www.clubbedthumb.org/

June 7th I have a reading of The Underneath at Rising Circle. [http://playrise2012.eventbrite.com/].

May 26, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 457: Kendall Sherwood



Kendall Sherwood

Hometown: Madison, GA

Current Town: Los Angeles, CA

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm honored to be working for 10 great writers on "Major Crimes" (TNT's new crime drama, a spin-off of "The Closer"), so I'm soaking up lots of knowledge about screenwriting and playwrighting, both. But as far as my own writing goes, I'm thinking about a new play - an absurdist drama about a woman who refuses to give birth to her baby when labor pains bring up suppressed memories. Unfortunately, I've been stuck in the thinking phase for a long time -- maybe I'm scared to tackle some of those issues. To balance it out, I'm working on an action-adventure Buffy-style TV pilot, which is so far out of my pocket that it's just a thrill to be able to write a single page.

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 have to tell a story about church, as a lot of my writing centers on organized religion, particularly of the down-home, rural Southern variety. I have a distinct memory of being in the basement of the baptist church for "Bible Drills." For those who are unfamiliar, you memorize bible verses and perform them for a judge, competing with your classmates (or - if you're lucky - against the whole county!). The teacher left the room for a minute and, in some conversation that I've now forgotten, I used the word "hell." Not even in a "go to hell" sort of way -- more like a "I don't know what the hell Ezekiel 14:3 is." Of course, the room erupted in a chorus of "oooos" and I was immediately humiliated and felt so, so, so much shame. I think it may have been the first time I ever cursed. I tried to explain myself - that I didn't mean to say it, I didn't know WHY I said it. Yikes, I'm practically blushing now, remembering it. So much shame over 4 letters. There's something in there about the power of language, I guess. And it's probably needless to say, but these days I swear like a sailor and stay out of churches.

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

A:  It should be free. I also think everything should be free.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  So glad I get to answer this in writing. In person, when I'm asked this, every name and title immediately leaves my head. It's like I've never read or seen a single play. At different times, I've found myself drawn to the works of Martin McDonagh, Edward Albee, Caryl Churchill, Rajiv Joseph, Lynn Nottage, Sarah Ruhl, and Rebecca Gilman, who I had the honor of learning from at Northwestern.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  To be honest, I'm fascinated by simple stories that are interrupted by horrible acts of violence. The intersection of the mundane with that kind of mortality is kind of the definition of humanity, I think. I also dig plays by chicks. They are much too few and far between.

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

A:  I want to say that a broke writer's best tool is a box of wine, but I also don't want to leave out people who don't enjoy alcohol. What I mean to say is: use whatever method you can to keep perfectionism at bay. Whatever seems perfect today will read like shit tomorrow. And vice versa. So trust your words and just keep going.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My play, THE RECORD BREAKERS, will be featured in the Athena Project Festival in Denver July 12-29. Find info here: http://www.athenaprojectfestival.org/events.html

And check out "Major Crimes," which premieres August 13th on TNT.

May 23, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 456: Wendy Dann


Wendy Dann

Hometown:  Morrisville, NY

Current Town: Ithaca, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm writing a play with music called The Liberator, a project I've been researching and writing for a few years now. Starting work with a composer soon. And revising everything else. As always.

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 grew up with two college professors as parents, and surrounded by eighteen acres of land...my parents were friends but never slept in the same bedroom my whole life...I don't think I ever put together what was going on until I was an adult, but I spent a lot of time in the woods playing make believe...turning rocks into horses and trees into gods...

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

A:  More people would go. Productions would all be great so people would come back.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I took a SITI workshop in grad school, so Anne Bogart. When I turned to her and said, "I feel like I need to think differently," she replied "No, you need to see and hear differently." That changed everything for me.

At the same time I was studying with Bob Moss, and learned a huge amount from his other directing proteges: people like Michael Mayer and Kevin Moriarty.

And from afar: George C. Wolfe, Tina Landau, Paula Vogel, Tony Kushner, Donald Margulies, Sarah Ruhl, Annie Baker, Tom Stoppard, Brian Friel.

Wishing they were still here: Harold Pinter. Samuel Beckett. Chekhov. Shakespeare.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Stories that feel so close to home I get embarrassed. They force me to reexamine my own choices, my own decisions, and how to move forward.

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

A:  Endurance. Sit down every day (jeez, Wendy, listen to that yourself)

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Check out our new theatre company:
www.breakingbreadtheatre.com

And my ongoing project:
www.sammyandme.com

May 21, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 455: Ken Kaissar



Ken Kaissar

Hometown: Indianapolis, IN

Current Town: Yardley, PA (Philly Suburb)

Q:  Tell me about A Modest Suggestion.

A:  A MODEST SUGESTION is a dark comedy that explores the absurdity of hatred and bigotry towards people of a certain ethnicity. It deals with genocide against Jews in a very flippant manner, which I know is incendiary because the reality of such a horrifying event has not been confined to fiction. I’m not trying to piss people off, though I know that has been the result on a few occasions. I’m sort of making a point that when it comes to genocide, although most people agree that it’s horrible and must be stopped, they are somewhat ambivalent and not all that concerned that it is taking place. It’s happening as we speak, and how many of us are going out of our way to stop it? For all intents and purposes, we’re all somewhat flippant about it. It’s as though our honest to god attitude about it is, “Eh, whatever. What’s for dinner?”

A MODEST SUGGESTION became complicated, however. I realized as I was writing that I was tackling more than just hatred and genocide. I was writing about identity as a whole. I didn’t mean to do this. It just happened organically through an earnest desire to find the comedy of the situation, making it all the more absurd.

As the 4 businessmen in my play decide they are going to kill a Jew to see how it feels, I thought, wouldn’t it be funny if these guys decided that their victim is not Jewish enough?

Jewish identity in America is complicated. There are Jews who observe their religion on so many different levels, and each group is constantly judging the other. The Orthodox judge Reform Jews for not being observant enough. And Reform Jews judge the Orthodox for not living in a more modern, American world grounded in the immediate needs and concerns of today. There is great tension between these groups. So I naturally wanted to poke fun at these disagreements and exploit the tension for comic affect.

The play is about an intensely serious subject and draws from a very dark moment in human history. But there are parts of it that truly make me laugh, and it makes me happy when I can get others to suspend their seriousness for a few moments and laugh with me.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I’m currently writing a comedy that takes place at a nudist colony. Good luck getting that one produced, right? But when we can get over our hang-ups about nudity and divorce the body from the usual sexual context that it’s always trapped in, I think the naked body is downright hilarious!

I hope this play will be another opportunity for people to laugh about something we take so damn serious. In general, I think everyone just needs to lighten up, about almost everything!

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 member of an immigrant family that constantly struggled to understand the culture in which it lived. My family was constantly trying to go with the flow as a way of getting a handle on American society. We were lost, and I learned very early on that my parents were not making headway on “getting it”. So I had to take initiative. I started becoming an astute observer and student of American behavior to try to figure out how I could fit in more.

To give you an idea of how lost my parents were, my father received a marketing call once and they told him that if he came into the office to hear a sales pitch, he would receive a free gift. Well, most Americans would hang up on such a call. Not my father. Not only did he go, but the entire family dropped everything we were doing, we all put on our Sunday best (I wore a suit), and we all attended a sales pitch on carving knives.

Another time, our next door neighbor knocked on our door to fundraise for some social cause that she was working for. My mother assumed the beer can she was holding was a receptacle for the collection. As she tried tenaciously to slip a bill into the beer, the woman jerked the can away with the following verbal reflex: “Get out of my beer.” My mother assumed the beer can was a pushke, a traditional Jewish can used for collecting charity. We were all lost.

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

A:  What I would change has less to do with theater itself and more to do with how people perceive theater. Everyone is so obsessed with content. What’s the play about? Who cares? It’s a play. It’s an expression of what it means to be alive. It’s about life. It’s about being a human being. Just come, someone has something to say. We are gathering to hear what it is.

I hate that content always makes or breaks whether someone will attend a piece of theatre. I write a lot about Jews and about the Middle East (I was born in Israel). Everyone is always interested in these plays, and I’m glad. I’m not complaining. But I’ve also written beautiful plays that are simple: a man meets a beautiful woman on a park bench. These plays always get ignored. People want the big stuff. The more subtle expressions just don’t get much stage time.

If I could, I would make people more open towards expression in the theatre and get them to stop asking, “What’s the play about?” as a determining factor of whether to attend or not? This question should always be answered as follows: “It’s about you.”

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Oscar Wilde. Anton Chekhov. Bernard Shaw. David Mamet. Charles Mee. Tony Kushner. Gina Gionfriddo. Annie Baker.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Incendiary theatre that tends to get the audience’s goat. Challenging theatre. Bold theatre. Theatre that is the opposite of PC. I also enjoy theatre that breaks all the rules. Work that excites me is work that someone once responded to with, “you can’t do that in theatre.” I like when opinions like that get shut down.

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

A:  Be kind and open to everybody. This business is all about networking and that doesn’t mean kissing up to famous people at a cocktail party. It means working with your peers and friends, and having them be excited about working with you. So be kind to everyone. Make every member of your community a friend. There is simply no room for bad blood in this field. Have lots of patience and enjoy the ride.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My play CEASEFIRE is being produced by the Fusion Theatre Company in Albuquerque running June 7 – 11th. My play THE VICTIMS OR WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT is being produced by the Jewish Theatre Workshop in Baltimore next June.


May 20, 2012

Right Now and Coming Soon

1.  I was a finalist at O'Neill for my play Where You Can't Follow.  If you work at a lit office and I haven't sent it to you already please let me know if you want to read it.  Description and sample here:

https://sites.google.com/a/theoneill.org/npc-2012-finalists/where-you-can-t-follow-by-adam-szymkowicz
  
2.  This weekend Incendiary opened in Chicago.

https://www.facebook.com/events/285741174849839/ 


3.  Next up is UBU in NYC. 
 

http://www.indiegogo.com/UBU?c=gallery


https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/244166

Thursday, June 7 at 9:00 pm
Sunday, June 10 at 6:30 pm
Tuesday, June 12 at 9:00 pm
Friday, June 15 at 7:00 pm
Saturday, June 16 at 4:00 pm

Inspired by Ubu Roi, UBU is the King of the Great Expanding Universe who will allow a privileged few into his mansion to watch him eat steak. Along the way, he may play music, read you poetry and tell of his lost loves and purchased politicians - it all depends on the mood of the King. A kinetic romp through the absurdist world of the most powerful CEO in the universe.






4.   Then Hearts Like Fists in LA in late July


http://www.indiegogo.com/heartslikefists



May 19, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 454: Norman Allen




Norman Allen

Hometown: Corte Madera, California

Current Town: Washington, DC

Q: Tell me about your show in the Source Festival.

A: On the surface, “The House Halfway” is about a bed & breakfast inn on an island in the Caribbean, where people go to commit suicide. But it soon becomes apparent that there’s much more going on than that. Audiences who come thinking they’re going to see an “issue play” about assisted suicide are going to be greatly surprised. I don’t want to say more than that, because I want the play to reveal itself, but folks should come ready to listen, and ready to argue on the way home.

I will add that the play comes from multiple and seemingly incongruous sources. There’s a hint of J. M. Barrie’s mystical Edwardian drama “Dear Brutus” in the structure of the piece, and a touch of Noel Coward in the rhythm of the comedy, but then the themes lying beneath that come from the work of folks like Joseph Campbell and Elaine Pagels, and the Gnostic Gospels themselves. And all with a comic tone.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  At the moment I’m packing for a trip to Slovenia, where my play “Nijinsky’s Last Dance” is part of the Mladinsko Theatre’s Overflight Festival, and where I’ll be leading a two-day playwrights’ workshop on using historic figures to reflect contemporary issues. I’m also in the process of adapting a big-ass Victorian novel, taking 750 pages and making it work for a two-hour performance with eight actors, which has been a blast. And I’m collaborating with a dance company for a piece that uses text and movement to explore Isadora Duncan’s years in post-revolutionary Russia.

Q:  Can you talk a little about writing documentaries? What is that like? How does it compare to writing plays?

A:  I loved working on those PBS projects. Each of them was a biography of a major artist, so I got to dig into the lives of Van Gogh, Cezanne, Cassatt and Sargent. It was a great lesson in structure, taking the mess of a person’s life and fitting it into the three acts that make up an hour of television. And I got to spend my days reading these people’s letters, or stories about them, and calling it “work.” How great is that? The actual paintings were shot in HD after the exhibits had closed for the day. We’d be at the National Gallery in the middle of the night, and I’d manage to stay one room ahead of the crew so I could be alone with these incredible works of art, with no one’s head in the way.

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, and my sister was ten, my mother sat us down in front a record player and put on the cast album of “My Fair Lady.” After each song, she lifted the needle and filled in the story, so we got the whole scope of the show. The next day we drove into San Francisco and went to a matinee (with Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., playing Higgins!) It was magic, but it was magic because we had been very carefully prepared for the experience. There are still certain images that I remember from that afternoon, specifically the green of Eliza’s dress in the Rain In Spain scene.

From that beginning, everything else unfolded. My parents recognized how important the theatre was to me and were diligent in expanding my horizons. We went to Shakespeare festivals in the summer, to ballet, to bag-lunch opera. At a very young age I saw productions that are now legendary – Peter Brook’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “Cyrano de Bergerac” with Peter Donat and Marsha Mason. All of that shapes who I am as a writer, and as a lover of theatre. But it all comes back to sitting in front of that record player.

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

A:  It needs to be cheaper, plain and simple. Commercial producers, in particular, need to recognize their responsibility to future generations of theatre artists by making their productions accessible to a larger range of people, especially young people. I saw the original “Angels In America” on Broadway by getting one of the cheap tickets made available each day to people willing to wait in line. I was so high in the balcony, I was practically in Jersey, but I got to see that amazing piece of theatre because the producers and author had a sense of responsibility to their audience.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  When I think of theatrical heroes, I think about all the artists whose work I’ll never be able to experience. I would give a lot to see Robert Armin play Feste at the Globe in 1600-something, or to see the premiere of Nijinsky’s “Rite of Spring” in Paris, or Ellen Terry in anything at all. I wish I could thank Rostand for Cyrano. I wish I could thank Arthur Miller for All My Sons.

Q:  What kind of theatre excites you?

A:  I like great story-telling. I especially like when great story-telling converges with the exploration of un-answerable questions, which makes me a huge fan of Tom Stoppard. I feel very lucky to live in Washington, DC, where someone with eclectic tastes has lots of choices. In the last month or so I’ve seen big-house productions of “Strange Interlude” and “Long Day’s Journey into Night,” and an incredibly funny and moving production of Mary Zimmerman’s “Metamorphoses” in a black-box space. And Capital Fringe is right around the corner.

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

A:  Don’t wait for someone else to tell you that your work is worthy of production – produce it yourself. But make sure you have the tools to make that production a success. I got my start self-producing in a 47-seat house at the Boston Center for the Arts, but I did it with a background in PR & Marketing, and some great press connections. We had word-of-mouth, we got some reviews and, eventually, I got an agent out of the experience. Just make sure you’ve got strong collaborators and supporters before you begin.

Q:  Plugs please:

A:  Come see “The House Halfway” at the Source Theatre Festival starting June 14th! And don’t miss all the other Festival offerings. This is a great opportunity to experience a wide range of new work.

May 17, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 453: Larry Pontius



Larry Pontius

Hometown: Normal, IL

Current Town: Los Angeles, CA

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Quite a few things, actually. My wife and I are making a short film, I'm Associate Producer on a film called Atari Christmas by Brett Neveu, I'm working on a new play called Analogue, about mourning and multiple Earths, and finally, I'm in LA, so, I'm working on specs and original pilots. And I'm having a baby.

Q: You write for Pakistan TV? How did that happen? What is that like?

A: It happened in New York. My wife is Indian and an actor. Someone was doing a Pakistani serial in New York, where she was living at the time. Urdu and Hindi are very closely related. The director, Mehreen Jabbar and my wife hit it off. Deepti introduced me, and Mehreen needed writers for an anthology, which I wrote a few episodes for. She and her father liked what I did, and got me a few more serials all of my own. It's weird. And great. (a fantastic story to tell at meetings.) I have to write an ENORMOUS amount of material by myself that can be shot very cheaply and for a culture that has grown even more conservative in the years that I've done it. I don't know if I would want to do it for the rest of my life, but it gave me the skills to create/rewrite on the spot. And sometimes write 20 pages in a day.

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 think I'm still figuring out who I am as a writer. And as a person. I'll tell this story... I was pretty young, maybe around 8 or 9, and I had been out that night playing cops and robbers--do kids still do that?---and once the sun went down, I headed home. I ended up in front of the TV, watching, of all things, this PBS documentary about Charlie Chaplin... and I was HOOKED. It was AMAZING. That's what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Be that guy. Which  as it turns out... I didn't become him.

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

A:  I'm gonna cheat and say two things: make it cheaper to attend and more local

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I have to admit, I'm a bit of a hero whore. For a while I was really into Stoppard--but then he got to smart for me. I love Lindsay-Abaire's work (both the old and the new) I like Brecht's ideas. I adore The Empty Space. Nicky Silver comes to mind. Commedia Dell'Arte. The Three Stooges. Alan Moore. Bugs Bunny. Richard Curtis and Ben Elton for giving us Black Adder. Oh, and mad props to Anton Chekhov. And any playwright that wrote behind the Iron Curtain. And Shakespeare.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that relies on the imagination of the performer and the audience. Playful theater. Theater that is hard to move into a different medium. Theater that moves me emotionally and can surprise me.

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

A:  Self produce, self produce, self produce. And meet people. And work FOR people. Learn. Read. If you're just starting out, most likely you're already fearless... hold onto that.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A: http://lpontius.com/blog/ , Happythefilm.com (the movie my wife and I are making, @LarryPontius (me on twitter), http://www.playwrightsunion.com/ (a group that I'm a part of in LA.)

May 16, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 452: Rinne Groff



Rinne Groff

Hometown:  Lutz and then Tarpon Springs, Florida.

Current Town:  New York, NY

Q:  Tell me about Compulsion.

A:  I wanted to respond simply with the Dickensian: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” and then I went a looked up the full quotation from A Tale of Two Cities, and I was reminded how all the rest seemed apropos as well: “…it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way…”

Compulsion is in many respects the play that means more to me than any other. I feel more connected to it than any other for reasons having to do with its content, the length of time I worked on it, its place in my career path, my collaborators, and more. But the journey was full of trial and heartbreak, and exuberant highs. And of course the journey continues now that it’s published and we’re figuring out where and when it will be performed next. There’s a chance it would be done in Israel which I am tremendously exited about.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  Mostly what I'm working on right now is caring for a newborn boy child and my two sweet girls, and figuring out how to maximize sleep for everyone in our two bedroom apartment. I’m doing some shorter projects: writing a monologue for Center Stage’s 50th Anniversary celebration, writing for a group project having to do with food for Berkeley Rep the research for which has already been intensely exciting and eye-opening, and working with the magnificent Anne Washburne and Lucas Hnath on a commission for Actors Theater of Louisville which explores various aspects of the science of sleep in a three part structure. I'm also doing long-range planning for some future projects: a new play which has something to do with the 1911 fire on Coney Island which devastated an amusement park called Dreamland, and an action adventure screenplay which I’ve been toiling at for a while sort of as a lark and really enjoying when I do find the time. I’m also discussing some musical and television ideas with some friendly bigwigs, but with that stuff, you never know.

Q:  Do you still work with Elevator Repair Service? What was that like?

A:  I haven't performed in an ERS show since getting pregnant with my first child. The last show for which I was a part of the development was the earliest iteration of GATZ. I dream sometimes that I'll find a way back into that creative process again because it's a way of working and a group of people who are intensely dear to me, but it's hard for me to connect the dots to where I can imagine that happening. That’s because it's a very time-intensive development and rehearsal process (which is hard to juggle with kids) and also because the end-result performances are built to tour a great deal (which is also hard to juggle with kids). There are other moms and dads in the company so it's do-able. It's just tricky. I always think of my days with ERS as my coming-of-age as a playwright. It was within the company that I began to interrogate how shows were put together. It was all found and repurposed text and improvisation at that point so it wasn't dialogue-writing which of course is what many people think of as playwriting; but it was playwriting as in what a playWRIGHT does, figuring out how a play should be "wrought."

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 have a strong memory of being cast as one of the dwarves in the third grade production of SNOW WHITE. (If memory serves Leslie Verkauf was Snow White; I was terribly jealous.) Not only was I relegated to being a dwarf, but I was made to play Dopey, and as I have ears that stick out pretty far, the casting felt like the deepest critique on both the physical and talent level. I think I had two lines neither of which I remember but what I do I remember was this. Gina Campanella was playing a different dwarf—can’t remember now which one—and her one line followed a line that was very similar to the cue to my line. During one of the probably two rehearsals which we had I noted the similarity of the lines and it occured to me—I remember the thought occuring to me—that the potential for a cue mishap was present. And sure enough on the day of the performance—there was only to be one—Gina jumped her cue and said her line when it was really my “turn” and a split second of confusion ensued as the other actors now were off the script. In my memory, which is probably overly grandiose, I barely hesitated before saying my line and then when it came time for Gina’s line I sort of improvised something there and somehow everything kept moving forward. And it was so tremendously exciting to me. The play would have rolled along regardless—I mean who really cares what the Dwarves have to say?—but inside, I was reeling with power and accomplishment and wonder. I held a terrific secret that no one else noticed or cared about, or I should say they would have cared had the play come to a halt, but it didn’t, so they didn’t have to care.

But I knew, and it was precious to me. That show-must-go-on mentality and the complicated, quick-thinking dance that allows that to happen still embody the thrill of live theater for me. The fact that so many actors are so gifted at keeping the ball afloat is why I love actors so much.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Maria Irene Fornes, Bertolt Brecht, John Guare, Tony Kushner are writers who made me excited about writing in my earliest attempts to do so, and they are writers that I return to again and again.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Difficult, unsettling, complicated, surprising. Although I can also get really turned on by the craft of something simply but solidly built. It's like looking at a beautiful wooden table. I deeply admire the craft of a smooth, well-built table fashioned from nice wood. I like to touch a work like that.

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

A:  I know that the trick for me is maintaining faith, and that's a hard one. I know community really helps. I know falling in love with other playwrights’ minds and visions, getting excited by their work, really helps. But I still struggle all the time with why am I doing this? When I teach, I can address certain elements of the craft that I consider to be helpful but in the end, each writer with a real future will find her own way. But in terms of the big picture—how to do this year after year—I feel like I seek as much advice as I could ever give.

May 14, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 451: David Robson


David Robson

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Current Town: Wilmington, DE, just thirty miles down the road.

Q: Tell me about Assassin.

A: “Assassin” uses a real event as its backdrop. During a 1978 NFL preseason game, Oakland Raiders’ safety Jack Tatum put a hit on wide receiver Darryl Stingley, paralyzing him from the neck down. My play takes place thirty years later: Jack seeks a meeting with the man he paralyzed, but standing in his way is a young attorney and a secret that may destroy them both. As a kid I was a huge football fan, and I remember being shocked and horrified by the incident. When Tatum died two years ago I read his obit; soon after I began writing what became Assassin. Most moving to me is the fact that Tatum and Stingley, who died in 2007, never met after 1978. There was no closure, if you will. That idea became the seed of the play.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A: I’m working on a new comedy called “Why I Want a Wife” with playwright John Stanton. (We stole the title from a famous feminist essay from the 1970s.) The play is about a family that literally hires a “wife.” Couldn’t we all—men and women—use a wife to help us navigate our busy lives? We have smart phones, sure, but where’s the love? And I’m not talking about the 21st century concept of a wife; I’m talking wives like Donna Reed, or the ones you find on Mad Men. The play will premiere in the spring of 2013 at Madhouse Theater Company in Philadelphia. Also, I’m still hammering away at an idea surrounding the first movie ever shown at the White House, the racist epic “The Birth of a Nation.” The 100 year anniversary of the film is coming up in 2015.

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 a teenager, my mother took me to the theater a lot, especially in Philly. One show called “Terra Nova” by Ted Tally really stuck with me. It is about Robert Falcon Scott’s journey to Antarctica. I loved the history—the truth is stranger than fiction aspect of the play. As I vaguely recall, the play flits back and forth between the Pole and the United States; the stage is all white, mostly empty. At one point, Scott and his men are sitting at a dinner table in a fancy restaurant. Suddenly, one of the men yanks the bare white tablecloth off and its whiteness becomes part of the South Pole itself; the men, on an otherwise barren stage, are now hunkered down and freezing, fighting for their lives. In that moment—that instantaneous transformation in space and time—my love of theater and my love of history merged. I haven’t been the same since.

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

A: The sometimes endless development process. Readings and rewrites are vital—I’m a big rewriter—but at some point they can start to have a detrimental effect on one’s play. It helps to have a sympathetic director—someone who understands the script and that the playwright can trust to provide some valuable perspective. Otherwise, the development process can go on forever in an unfocused way, until the playwright loses all sight of what works and what doesn’t.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Sam Shepard, early on. In high school, I acted in a weird one-act of his called “Icarus’ Mother.” Followed him with “Buried Child” and “True West.” I responded to the visceral nature and quirkiness of those plays. Eventually I found Samuel Beckett and Edward Albee. I’ve met Albee a few times, and one thing he said stuck with me: Write your play as if it is the first play you’ve ever written. In other words, try to come at it without preconceived notions, and throw out the rule book each time you write a play. Craig Lucas has been a recent mentor to me too.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I love physically small theaters—that intimacy. There, with a good play and good actors, the Earth can move under your feet. I like to be close to what’s going on: see the sweat beading on the actors’ faces, be almost close enough to touch them. I also appreciate theater that pushes my buttons, forces me, through its story and characters, to ask new questions of myself and the way I look at the world. I mean, many people use plays to reinforce what they already know or believe in. Why pay money for that? Instead, see plays that throw you off your game, force you to grapple with the beautifully ugly and complicated world we live in.

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

A: Trust your instincts. I’ve found that things work best when you don’t dawdle and just get to it. That way the doubting little voice in your head can’t throw you off your game too much. You don’t want to cloud or destroy the initial spark, so hit the ground running and only look back when the first draft is done.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: “Assassin” runs in a co-production by InterAct Theatre Company in Philly (Jan. 18-Feb. 10) and Act II Playhouse in Ambler, PA (Feb. 19-March 17). My pal Lowell Williams’ play “Six Nights in the Black Belt” opens in early February at the Youngstown Playhouse in Ohio. Another good friend, Michael Whistler, will open his play The Prescott Method at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philly in late March. Also, two great organizations that all theater people should look into are the Lark Play Development Center in NYC and the Great Plains Theatre Conference in Omaha. They love playwrights!

May 12, 2012

450 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
Zack Calhoon 
Sheila Callaghan
Robert Quillen Camp  
Darren Canady
Ruben Carbajal
Ed Cardona, Jr.
Jonathan Caren
Aaron Carter
James Carter
Nat Cassidy 
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
Jennie Contuzzi  
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
Michael Elyanow  
Libby Emmons
Jennie Berman Eng  
Christine Evans 
Jennifer Fawcett 
Joshua Fardon
Lauren Feldman 
Catherine Filloux   
Kenny Finkle
Stephanie Fleischmann
Kate Fodor
Sam Forman 
Dana Lynn Formby  
Dorothy Fortenberry 
 
Kevin R. Free
Matthew Freeman
Edith Freni
Patrick Gabridge 
Fengar Gael 
Anne Garcia-Romero
Gary Garrison
Melissa Gawlowski 
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
Trish Harnetiaux 
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
Monet Hurst-Mendoza 
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
Daniel John Kelley 
Sibyl Kempson
Jon Kern 
Anna Kerrigan
Kait Kerrigan
Boo Killebrew
Callie Kimball
Alessandro King 
Johnny Klein 
Krista Knight
Josh Koenigsberg 

Kristen Kosmas 
Sherry Kramer
Adam Kraar 
Andrea Kuchlewska
Larry Kunofsky
Aaron Landsman 
Eric Lane  
Jennifer Lane
Deborah Zoe Laufer
Ginger Lazarus
J. C. Lee
Young Jean Lee
Dan LeFranc
Forrest Leo  
Andrea Lepcio
Victor Lesniewski 
Steven Levenson
Barry Levey
Mark Harvey Levine  
Michael Lew
Alex Lewin  
EM Lewis
Sean Christopher Lewis
Jeff Lewonczyk
Kenneth Lin
Ethan Lipton 
Michael Lluberes
 
Matthew Lopez
Alex Lubischer 
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
Marc Palmieri 
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
David Rush  
Kate E. Ryan
Kate Moira Ryan
Riti Sachdeva 
Trav S.D.
Sarah Sander
Tanya Saracho
Heidi Schreck
August Schulenburg
Mark Schultz
Jenny Schwartz
Emily Schwend
Jordan Seavey
Adriano Shaplin 
Erika Sheffer
Katharine Sherman
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
Joe Tracz
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