I Interview Playwrights Part 105: Lucy Alibar

Lucy Alibar

Hometown:  Monticello, FL/Thomasville, GA

Current Town:  New York

Q:  Tell me about Too Little Too Late coming up at Here.

A:  It will be so much FUN!  The other plays are funny and sweet and dazzling.  I am so thrilled to be working with the other playwrights, and I've wanted to work with Portia Krieger for so long.  So I'm greatful and very happy about all of it.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  Benh Zeitlin and I adapted my play, "Juicy and Delicious", into a Southern Apocolyptic kid's comedy movie.  We're up for this really amazing grant/award through Sundance called NHK that gives your movie Japanese distribution rights and some money.  So we're headed to Sundance in a few days for that and pre-production meetings.

And I'm starting a new play about kids in a little school in south Georgia in the 1970's on the eve of Jimmy Carter's space program.

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

A:  My dad and my brother are amazing bluegrass banjo players, and that kind of music had a big effect on my own work.   What I love about bluegrass is you have to do it with total sincerity. There's no irony or trying to pretend like you don't care.  And the subject matter is so great and all over the place.  There are songs that are just about how you're happy to be walking around outside, and songs about food, and songs about how you've killed somebody, even though you really loved them, but they just couldn't act right.  They're so heartfelt that they're beautiful, no matter what they're about.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love anything that goes balls to the wall.  I bet there's a classier way of saying that--"fully realized"?  I think "balls-to-the-wall" is closer, though. 

So, Wooster Group, Justin Bond, Dolly Parton, Radiohole, ERS...Charles Mee, I love him.  Sibyl Kempson is a total genius.  I could keep going!

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

A:  As theatre-makers, we all need for each other's work to succeed.  It proves that theatre is alive and multifaceted and engaging.  So be supportive!

I Interview Playwrights Part 104: Nick Jones

Nick Jones

Hometown: Anchorage, Alaska

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York

Q:  Your rock pirate puppet musical Jollyship the Whiz-Bang just had another run at the Public.  How was that? 

A:  It went great, but it was intense. We never even got to run through the show in the space. We loaded in the day of, did a cue to cue, and then they let in several hundred important people.  But we knew it was going to be like that, and I think we were all mentally prepared. I watched the Tyson documentary a few nights before and I took great inspiration from that.  I didn't have sex that morning, then worked myself into a frenzy before the show, and went out there prepared to bite ears off! 

Q:  Are there any other performances of it coming up or of your band?

A:  There continue to be interested parties in JOLLYSHIP, but as usual, it's a matter of financing that will determine where we go next.  I don't think we'll play out as just a band anymore. After our Ars Nova run, we did a few shows just as a band, and I felt like people were disappointed, because they wanted the whole extraganza. Fair enough... We'll only do the full version of the show from now on, if we're able.  We're trying to get over to Europe this summer. 

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I have a commission from Center Theater Group for a new musical called HOMUNCULUS, which is a fake German folktale about an innkeeper who makes a little man from the notes of an alchemist who dies in this lodge.  Everybody is incredibly awful to the little man; they make him fight chickens and sneak into ladies' homes to spy on them, and then he grows up with serious...issues. I've just started writing it, but I'm imagining it like Pinnochio, as told by Bukowski or Kroetz. Dave Malloy is doing the music and Sam Gold is directing.

Q:  You're at Juilliard right now.  Who are the other playwrights there at the moment?

A:  My esteemed colleagues include: Fernanda Coppel, Fia Alvarez, Greg Keller, Andrea Ciannavei, Joshua Allen, Molly Smith Metzler and Jon Caren. We all go sledding together every Sunday.  They're all great writers. 

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

A:  Okay well I grew up in Alaska, and when I moved to New York I realized I wasn't nearly Alaskan enough.  I mean, people seemed interested in my being from such an exotic place, but I didn't have very many experiences climbing mountains and fighting bears and whatnot.  I hadn't even seen very much of the state. So when I went home for the summer, I decided I wanted to stock up on Alaskan experiences.  This ended up meaning taking a bus to Fairbanks by myself, then hitchhiking to a random mountain I found on a map in the Park and Game office.  I had wanted to go with friends, but couldn't find any who didn't have to work, or who weren't more interested in hanging out in Anchorage smoking pot.  The first 3 guys who picked me up asked me to show them my gun before getting in the car.  I didn't have one.  They did, every single one.  They all wanted to show me their guns.  One of them even stopped the car in the middle of nowhere so he could shoot off a few rounds.  He told me it would be "short and sweet" so I assumed there was a chance I was about to be murdered, but he only sprayed a bunch of bullets into the trees, with a machine gun, and I was grateful, because that was actually pretty exciting.  I can't remember his name, but he said he was in Vietnam, and that he ate porcupines.  Anyhow, eventually I went so far north that I couldn't really hitchhike anymore, because there were no cars passing, which is when I realized how stupid my whole idea had been.  The Vietnam guy let me off at some kind of trailhead, and I pitched my tent for the night, planning to hike in the next morning.  It doesn't get dark in the summer in Alaska, so I spent most of the night staring at the silhouettes of 2 million mosquitos trying to stick me through the walls of the tent.  And the sound of them!  My god, it was deafening!  In the morning, I walked about 100 yards and then freaked out. I ran back to the road where the Vietnam guy was waiting in his truck to take me back to Fairbanks (he must have had a good read on me).

So, I think that was supposed to be my rite of passage into manhood, and I failed it.  So now I remain eternally youthful, immature, and fancy free.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Right now I'm trying to see as much as possible of the Under the Radar shows, and I'm having a great time.   I loved "L'Effet de Serge" and "Once and For All We're Going to Tell You Who We Are... (the thing with the Belgian teenagers).  Both of these shows are really smart without being pretentious.  They are humble, and they express joy, in a way you can only really appreciate as a live experience. I try to see all kinds of things, but I try to get recommendations first, before seeing things with pretentious sounding titles.  I'm a little scared of titles with parentheses and slashes in them. I think seeing a bad play is about the worst bad art experience you can have, because you're stuck in it, and in most cases, you paid a lot to be there, too. Seeing bad self-indulgent experimental theater is a whole another level of awful - its total torture.  But anything that I leave feeling it could have gone on longer...I think is brilliant.  And I saw "Gatz" in Portland which was at least 6 hours long, and that was one of the most amazing things ever.

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

A:  Do a lot of different things, work in a lot of different fields.  Don't just write; act, and direct and play the ukulele. All those things reinforce each other, and they get you out in the world where real things actually happen (off the laptop, out of your head).  Most importantly, don't just wait around for someone to do your play.  Why would anyone want to do that?  You're the one who wants your play done, so you go do it!  You can fail as many times as you want while nobody cares. Do so. Those pie in the sky mythical producers aren't going to help you with your play until it's already a proven commodity (or you are).   Make plays to entertain yourself and your friends, and if you keep doing it (like if you keep doing anything long enough) you will develop, and you will wake up one day and realize you have a THING...a THING you do which is your own, that you do really well.  Don't be ashamed by that thing, just keep developing it until its too huge and awesome to be ignored, even by the square old people we all so desperately want to impress, so we get a BIG SHOW produced somewhere. 

Q:  Any plugs?

A:   "STRAIGHT UP VAMPIRE: The History of Vampires in Colonial Pennsylvania as Performed to the Music of Paula Abdul" is performing 2 shows at Joe's Pub on February 10 and 11th. This is a co-written show, with serious copyright issues, so was never meant to be more than a one-off lark.  We've brought it back at least once a year for over 3 years because people like it so much, and its so easy to stage.  A great, fun, totally retarded ("but surprisingly intricate" - the New Yorker) play for Valentine's Day.  The great Corn Mo plays Benjamin Franklin. 

Also, the JOLLYSHIP CD "It's Not the Moon's Fault" is finally finished and available for purchase through paypal (http://thewhizbang.org/moonsfault.html).  It will be on Itunes in a few weeks...

I Interview Playwrights Part 103: Dylan Dawson

Dylan Dawson

Hometown: Minneapolis, MN

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q: I just saw a reading of a play of yours with Naked Angels. Can you talk a little about that play and how it came about and the horrible discrimination tall people have to deal with?

A: Yes, thank you, Adam, it’s a serious problem. “TALL (A TALE)” stars and centers around Will Rogers – the actor soon to be seen in Lincoln Center’s When the Rain Stops Falling, not the vaudevillian cowboy – and what happens when he decides to have his shins removed in a questionable (and completely non-existent, I hope) medical procedure so that he can star in a major Hollywood film. Having once been a struggling actor “of height”, I thought it would be nice to write something for a bunch of similarly un-stunted actors, and finally reveal some hard truths about what it’s like to get hit in the face by umbrellas all the time. People just don’t know.

Q: What else are you working on?

A: I just wrote a short little something for the 52nd Street Project, which is where all the cool 9 to 18 year old kids in Hell’s Kitchen hang out apparently. I started mentoring there a few months ago, and fell completely in love with the work they do. It’s great to see kids learn about conflict resolution through the creative process of making a play. And selfishly, it’s good for me to be reminded of the freedom theater allows, like, oh I can write a play about a pair of dice, and the problems they face while randomly doling out the fate of others! You know, or something…

I also have a short play coming that’s a part of the goddamn incredible Ars Nova’s Play Group show, Missed Connections NYC. The evening is based on those guilty pleasure craigslist posts of the same name. Mine is titled “Chuck E. Cheese” and explores a meeting that takes place in the seventh circle of Hell that is that loud and grimy institution. There might be a full length in there, who knows?

Other than that, I’m trying to choose what next to write. I tend to go off of titles, and so far I have “Models In Space!”, “…I’m Going To Find Out!” and “These HANDS!” Something with an exclamation point at the end of it. We’ll see. I’m also working on a play about a pair of dice and the problems they face while randomly doling out the…no I’m not, just kidding. Maybe.

Q: Are you still driving a truck or do you have a different day job?

A: I am no longer driving trucks at the Public Theater, no. You know someone just reminded me that it was about three years ago this week when I knocked down pretty much the entire scaffolding structure they have out front there, endangering the lives of dozens of hip and innocent Under the Radar patrons in the process.

No, these days I’ve been doing work as a documentary researcher, or rather rockumentary researcher as the subjects I’ve been dealing with thus far have been the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, exclusively. It’s a sweet job, ideal for me as a writer really. And I work from home, so the only life in jeopardy is my own.

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

A: I don’t know what it is with kids and potions, but when I was in kindergarten, my friend and I agreed to make these secret magic potion thingies that we thought, or rather decided, would turn us into werewolves. And by potion I mean just every awful thing I could find around the house. Pickle juice, chocolate sauce, rubber cement – I think my mom stopped me just in time from adding Clorox or something. And then I drank like two unfortunate sips and waited, and at dinner when nothing happened, I broke down crying because I wasn’t the Wolf Man. So my mom did the logical thing and took me to the store to get werewolf makeup, which I immediately applied and ran outside, howling at the moon for the rest of the evening. I proceeded to tell my friend the next day that my potion had worked brilliantly and that I couldn’t understand why his hadn’t.

I don’t know if that explains my writing, but as a person I’ve matured very little since then.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Boy, you know, I’d like to say something important here, but really just anything that entertains me or keeps me riveted in the theater excites me. Anything that doesn’t make me wish I was at the movies instead. Maybe that makes me part of the problem, I dunno. I just saw L’effet de Serge at Under the Radar, and that was about the most entertaining thing I’ve seen all year, but entertaining in a way that could only happen in a live, shared space. L’effet de Serge and Avatar. That’s entertainment.

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

A:  I still consider myself very much starting out, and therefore feel weird giving out advice. Writing is such a different shitshow for everyone. All I’d say is share your work. When you finish a draft of something, buy three bottles of wine, invite your friends over, get them as drunk as you can while making sure they’re still cognizant enough to be critical, and just have them read the damn thing. My other motto is “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” So be sure to get people who challenge and even intimidate you to take a look at what you’re doing. Also, apply for everything, and don’t worry about getting rejected. I love collecting things, and am garnering a fine collection of rejection letters, I must say. All I can hope is that someday they’ll be worth something.

Q: Any plugs?

A:  The aforementioned:

YOU ARE HERE: NEW PLAYS IN NEW PLACES at the 52nd St Project. The other writers include: Carly Mensch, Don Nguyen, Lloyd Suh, Karen Trott, and Emily Chadwick Weiss. All shows are free, but reservations are strongly recommended. You must call 212.642.5052 to book seats

Friday, January 29 @ 7:30 pm
Saturday, January 30 @ 7:30 pm
Sunday, January 31 @ 3:00 pm

MISSED CONNECTIONS NYC at Ars Nova. The other writers include: Annie Baker, Bekah Brunstetter, Kristoffer Diaz, Zayd Dohrn, Tasha Gordon-Solmon, Amy Herzog, Sam Hunter, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Steven Levenson, Matthew Lopez, Janine Nabers, and Samuel Brett Williams. (You are missed, sir!)
January 27 – 30th at 8pm. Tickets at https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/704705.

I Interview Playwrights Part 102: Pia Wilson

Pia Wilson

Hometown: Hillside, NJ

Current Town: Montclair, NJ

Q:  Tell me about the reading you have coming up in Harlem.

A:  I'm going to be a part of Classical Theatre of Harlem's Future Classics reading series with my play, RED ROOSTER. We're going to be at The Schomburg Center on January 20th at 7pm. 

I really love this play.  It's about a Hurricane Katrina survivor and her hopes for a new home.  It was inspired by a trip I took to New Orleans about 18 months after Katrina hit.  When I went into the Ninth Ward, it looked like Katrina had hit the day before.  Talking to the people, they said they needed the story told.  They didn't think people in the rest of the country knew how much they were still suffering.  This is partially my way of telling the story.  The play is also infused with family stories, since both of my parents were from the South: Mom, Alabama, and Dad, South Carolina.

Q:  You're a part of the Public's Emerging Writers Group.  What's that like?

A:  It's like being part of this really talented family.  Before I was in the EWG, I was sort of an island in the theater community.  With the EWG, I'm part of an intimate community of artists, and through the EWG, I was introduced to the NYC theater community at large.  And the theater community is just full of some fun people!

During our year, we met some fantastic playwrights.  We also got to observe two shows behind the scenes.  So, I got to watch Oskar Eustis direct HAMLET and Liesl Tommy direct THE GOOD NEGRO.  They were amazing experiences, and I got to work with Liesl on my EWG reading in June 2009.  Don't ask me what kind of deal I had to make with the Devil to make out like that.

I really view The Public as my artistic home.  Mandy Hackett, Liz Frankel and Lisa Kopitsky all worked so hard to make sure we felt like a family.  And we do!

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 is no one story that explains who I am as a writer. I meandered about, experimenting with different kinds of writing, until I hit on playwriting, which was right for me.

If I remember correctly, I started writing poems in a class in grade school because we were making calendars for our parents.  The teacher really loved my poems and so did my parents.  From that point on, my mom and dad pretty much decided writing was my gift from God and that it should be encouraged.  My entire family -- brother, aunts, uncles and cousins -- pretty much accepted that as fact, and there was never a moment I wasn't encouraged to write. 

I remember one line from a poem I wrote in 7th or 8th grade.  I was in the Hillside Enrichment Program, and some of us got to take a summer course at Montclair State University.  The courses were just for us kids though.  We were asked to write a poem in which each line of the poem described a color in the rainbow.  I don't know what kind of dark rainbows I was looking at, but the last line of my poem said, "Black is silence."

Q:  What is Pia Quarterly?  Where can I get my copy?

A:  Ha! Pia Quarterly is my blog for now, though I do plan to publish an issue or two!  You can help me write it. 

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I am a big fan of plays with rich characters and a message.  I like political plays, and that doesn't mean you're getting lectured. For instance, I think David Henry Hwang's YELLOW FACE is a brilliant discussion on race.  It's funny and has a strong human element.

Tracey Scott Wilson's THE GOOD NEGRO was a great piece of work to me.  Well-crafted with a beautiful realism to it.  I actually felt like I was watching a piece of history unfold on stage.  The story was strong as was the message behind it.

I like plays with heart like Eisa Davis' ANGELA'S MIXTAPE.  It also asked the question of "Who am I in relation to my family?" It was a fun, engaging piece. 

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

A:  For writers just starting out, I'd advise them to read some books on drama writing.  Look at your scripts with a hard cold eye.  Read them out loud to hear them.  Then start rewriting.  The writing is in the rewriting.  Don't hand over a piece of work, promising to fix it later. 

On the fun side, get out at mix and mingle.  Go see plays and get to know the community.  The New York theater community is wonderful. 

Oh! And write how you write -- not what you think people are going to produce.  Have an artistic vision and be yourself.

Q:  Any plugs?

A:  Aside from the reading with The Classical Theatre of Harlem, I'm also going to be a part of three short play festivals in February:

- A GODDESS ONCE will be part of Horse Trade Theater Group's The Fire This Time Festival (Feb. 4-7) in NYC.
- WHATEVER AND DELICATELY will be part of Teatro del Pueblo's Political Theatre Festival (Feb. 18 - March 7) in Minnesota
- THE OTHER SIDE OF THE RED SEA will be part of Three Monos Ensemble's Minutes Before... Short Play Festival (Feb. 28) in NYC.

I Interview Playwrights Part 101: Theresa Rebeck

Theresa Rebeck

Hometown: Cincinnati, Ohio

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q: Can you tell me a little about The Understudy now at Roundabout?

A: It's a backstage comedy about an understudy rehearsal for an undiscovered Kafka play which is running on Broadway, starring two action stars. It was a complete fluke that our play ended up running in New York at the same time Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman did A Steady Rain. We thought that was pretty funny. Anyway we are running now until January 17. The play stars Mark Paul Gosselaar as Jake, the movie star, Justin Kirk as the understudy, and Julie White plays the stage manager.

Q: What else are you working on?

A: I'm working on a new play for The Magic Theater in San Francisco. It's based on a one act I wrote in 1992. I'm also working on commissions for Denver Center Theater and Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park.

Q: You have also written TV, films and novels. What sort of mental adjustment has to be made to move from one medium to another? Which come(s) most naturally?

A: Well, it is easiest for me to write plays. I like every aspect of working on them, the first draft, the characters talking in my head, taking it all apart again for later drafts, readings and rehearsals. On the other hand I HATE the politics of New York theater and it's really taken a toll on my interior life. I like writing novels because it takes so much more time and it's a much less brutal world, politically. My editor and publisher, Shaye Areheart at Random House is extremely rigorous with me but so kind and supportive--which finally I feel like writers need. And then there's television, which can be brutal as well. But I like how fast television is, and right now I'm working with collaborators who are wonderful.

Q: The life of a writer has ups and downs. Do you have any advice on how one navigates that?

A:  I actually have written a whole book about this, Free Fire Zone. So for my full answer to this question you should go read that book. The thumbnail answer is that Show Business truly can and will drive you crazy and so you have three choices: 1. Quit; 2. Stay in it and be driven crazy; or 3. Stay in it and figure out how to be happy and sane in spite of the horrors. For me that means a lot of things like going to the gym, taking yoga classes, meditation, reading the Tao Te Ching, going to the movies. Trying not to care that other people are more famous and successful than me. You just have to work on it every day: Don't get driven crazy by Show Business.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I like theater that tells a story, that has great acting, that has beautiful language and at least a few really good laughs. I want to be emotionally moved and intellectually provoked. I want to see something that opens my spirit and moves me to empathy.

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

A:  I think that young playwrights should spend more of their time working on the basics of playwriting--scene work, dialogue, character, action. I think they should try to hear the rhythms of language in their own idiom. I think that they shouldn't worry so much about being "unconventional." A friend of mine recently confessed that younger writers are being taught, in some programs, that anything "conventional" is not cool. I think that's catastrophic thinking. Too many young writers spend so much time trying to be post modern that they don't finally write about anything at all.

Q:  Plugs please:

A:  I have a new novel coming out in May, Twelve Rooms With a View. Also I want to reiterate that I think Free Fire Zone really is a good read for anyone in this crazy business. I tell a lot of funny stories about horrible things that have happened to me, and there's also lots of useful information in it, like what the difference is between a studio and a network, or how to talk to movie stars. You can get them both on Amazon, or Barnes and Noble.com.

requests, please

Who are the playwrights you would most like to see interviewed that I have not yet interviewed?  I can't do everyone, and not everyone may necessarily want to do it but I am interested to hear who you want to hear from.