I Interview Playwrights Part 519: Chelsea M. Marcantel

Chelsea M. Marcantel

Hometown: Jennings, Louisiana

Current Town: Abingdon, VA (by way of Chicago)

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I'm editing one of my very first plays, A Place to Land, which is getting produced in a new draft at the beginning of 2013 by Acadiana Repertory Theatre. I'm also completely overhauling a recent play called Even Longer and Farther Away, which has had readings at the Dramatists Guild in NYC and at the Barter Theatre in Virginia, but the newest draft is an utterly different beast. I've just barely begun writing a one-person show about the war on women, specifically focusing on how it affects women in different generations within the same family. That play doesn't have a title quite yet.

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 started writing stories as a child because I was a big reader, but sometimes I didn't appreciate the way stories ended and felt I could improve upon them. I remember specifically feeling extremely distraught at the ending of Carousel, and knowing in my heart it was my duty to "fix" it, so I did, on paper. I think I've carried a version of that same idea with me into adulthood -- some of the most honest work I've ever done are fictionalized rehashings of actual conversations and confrontations from my life. The second time around, I get to say everything I want to. I get to dictate a different ending for momentous events. As a writer, I get to live twice, and I think that's part of what people mean when they say that writing is therapeutic. I take a childish delight in crafting happier or more interesting dialogue and endings for everyone involved, real or fictional.

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

A: I wish that theatre could be honestly regarded as community service, and the people who make theatre could be compensated accordingly. I feel like theatre for young audiences is very often seen as life-enriching, but for some reason theatre for adults is viewed as a luxury. Bill English of San Francisco’s SF Playhouse says that "theater is like a gym for empathy. It’s where we can go to build up the muscles of compassion, to practice listening and understanding and engaging with people that are not just like ourselves." I believe in the truth of that statement, and as the world gets flatter and more diverse and more conflicted, I wish that audiences and governments and even some theatre-makers could acknowledge the magnitude of the function that theatre plays in society.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Anne Bogart, Sarah Ruhl, Tom Stoppard, Young Jean Lee, Samuel Beckett... oh, the list goes on and on.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I like theatre that focuses outward -- it starts in a relationship that then explodes and turns us outward to a greater view of our surroundings and our world, but everything is still seen through the lens of a handful of people. I love non-realistic, physical, and non-linear theatre that manages to retain a strong, rooted heart. And I'm a total sucker for endurance theatre -- give me a six-hour, eight-hour, ten-hour play or cycle and I'm in heaven.

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

A: See theatre, especially at theatres you'd like to work with. I'm always amazed when I meet a playwright who can't tell me the last show they saw, or which theatres in town they'd like to work with. You can't stare at your computer for weeks on end and never venture out to see what work is being made. I recommend seeing shows on opening night, especially at small theatres, because the director of the play and the artistic director of the company are usually in attendance, and you can tell them what you thought of their work and begin to build personal connections.

Q: Plugs, please.

A: I just wrapped up a play called "Independence Day" that was part of the Hobo Robo 5 Festival in Chicago. Now I'm focused on getting my playwrighting students at Virginia Intermont College through their final exam readings! Check out www.chelseamarcantel.com for information on upcoming productions.

I Interview Playwrights Part 518: Adam Hahn

Adam Hahn

Hometown: Burlington, IA

Current Town: Los Angeles

Q: Tell me about Kong.

A: KONG: A Goddamn Thirty-Foot Gorilla started as a project in a class on adaptation in the Hollins Playwright's Lab, taught by Jeff Goode. I told Jeff that I was considering adapting King Kong, but I had convinced myself it was impossible. He pushed me to try it anyway.

My first resistance and attraction to the idea came from the physical impossibility of the staging: I knew Ann and Kong would need to interact with each other. I knew I would want a gorilla fighting a dinosaur--preferably on a small stage, with the audience just a few feet away.

My script evolved through a lot of riffing on the source material: I connected to a couple of characters with monologues several years after Kong's death. I twisted conversations from the original to springboard farcical scenes about gender and power. I got to the racial subtext by talking about Noble Johnson, one of the biggest African American actors of the era.

I ended up with something that is part commentary, part parody, part history lesson, part sincere re-telling of the greatest ape/human love story of all time. It's also a playground for designers and a ride for the audience. It's a show that takes people a lot of places in a very short period of time.

For the premiere production by SkyPilot Theatre in Los Angeles, I was able to get a team (many people, but I want to mention director Jaime Robledo and scenic and prop designer Tifanie McQueen) who could stage the impossible, along with actors who could perform it.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A: I'm at the early stages on a project I'm calling The Mermaid Wars. I'm conceiving this more as a collection than an individual play: Some monologues and scenes should stand on their own, sections that could be serialized, and other scenes that could be added or removed for different theatres. I want to create an experience that's different in every production, with audiences getting a complete evening of theatre but not every piece of the puzzle.

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 went through elementary school right after D.A.R.E became popular. This is an anti-drug program that most American children in public schools go through, despite decades of research finding no discernible benefit. In fact, there is evidence that students who go through D.A.R.E actually become more likely to use drugs.

In the fifth grade, a police officer came to our school every couple of weeks to teach us the difference between stimulants and depressants, give us a list of ways to say no, or show movies about teenagers getting high and living to regret it.

Our last assignment before the "graduation" ceremony where we would be issued our D.A.R.E t-shirts was an essay on what we had learned from the program. I wrote a page or two stating that the program had been a waste of my time: by the age of ten I had already decided not to do drugs, and I didn't need to have my school day interrupted to have that decision reinforced.
The police officer read my essay and thanked me for being honest.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Fortunately, a lot of people I've been able to know and spend some time working with or being instructed by.

Jeff Goode. I encountered his play The Eight: Reindeer Monologues in high school, and that did a lot to inform my thinking about what a play could be. He's become a friend, a mentor, a guide as I wrote KONG, and my MFA thesis advisor.

As much as any individual, the institution of No Shame Theatre. This was started at the University of Iowa in 1986 by Todd Ristau (now program director of the Hollins Playwright's Lab), Jeff Goode, and other unruly theatre students as an anything-goes late-night venue for short new pieces of theatre. Anything is acceptable, within three basic rules: original works only, every piece must end within five minutes, and no piece can break the theatre/audience/performers/law. Every show is assembled by accepting the first fifteen writers standing in line: no selection committee, no censorship, little technical support, and sometimes very little rehearsal. Not every piece is good. In fact, some pieces are terrible, but five minutes later something completely different has taken their place. Every show I've seen has included some piece that made the evening worth it, and the best shows include a couple of bad pieces, a couple of interesting pieces that don't quite succeed, several good pieces, and a few minutes of transcendent theatre. By the time I started going to No Shame in 1999, there were a handful of active chapters scattered across the country. I've participated in No Shame in at least five states. I can't name all of the people who have won my respect by taking the freedoms of this venue and running with them. My heroes are the people who experimented, expanded their skill sets, or worked their way toward perfection in whatever form they pursuing. There are a few monologues, songs, thirty-second comedy sketches, juggling acts, or creative pieces of staging that will probably inform my writing for the rest of my life.

And some of the improv performers/teachers at iO West (formerly Improv Olympic West) in Los Angeles. Again, there are way too many individuals to mention. You can sit in this theatre any night of the week, and you'll see something amazing, at least for a few minutes. Craig Cackowski and Shulie Cowen are just two of my heroes, for their work on stage and in the classroom.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I'm excited by theatre that isn't afraid of being more than one thing. I like shifting between comedy and drama.

I'm excited by small spaces and the innovations that come with small budgets.

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

A: Don't limit your definitions of "play" or "theatre." There's no hard line that separates what we do from sketch comedy, stand-up, ballet, rock concerts, professional wresting, magic shows, theme park design, or kindergarten teaching. Pretending that playwriting is something else will only limit your toolkit and imagination. You can learn as much about theatre watching a church service or children's storytime as you can watching a play.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: SkyPilot Theatre, which is presenting KONG: A Goddamn Thirty-Foot Gorilla through November 25th. This is one of the few companies in Los Angeles that devotes itself completely to new works, developed by a group of resident playwrights.
http://skypilottheatre.com/

The Hollins Playwrights Lab in Roanoke, VA. A low-residency MFA program, where students from around the country come together for six weeks of classes every summer. Like the program Facebook page for more information, as well as updates on student and alumni productions.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hollins-Playwrights-Lab/127852567252421

I Interview Playwrights Part 517: Devon de Mayo

Devon de Mayo

Hometown: Tustin, California

Current Town: Chicago, Illinois

Q:  What are you working on now?

A: Guerra: A Clown Play - a show that I developed with Seth Bockley and La Piara (a clown troupe based in Mexico City). We have spent the last year between Chicago and Mexico City creating the show and are now polishing it and taking it to a few international festivals.

Everything Is Illuminated - I'm directing an adaptation of the novel at Next Theatre in February 2013.

Dog & Pony Theatre Co. - The company that I co-founded with Krissy Vanderwarker. We're currently working on four projects in various stages of development, the ones that I'm entrenched with are a re-envisioned re-mount of As Told by the Vivian Girls, a devised piece about outsider artist Henry Darger that we created in 2008; a new play about the relationship between Richard Wagner and Ludwig II; and a piece about the Dill Pickle Society, a bohemian hang out that existed in 1920's Chicago.

Q:  Tell me about the process by which you devise something.

A:  It's really good for me to spell this out as I'm trying to solidify my process after a number of years of trial and error. The process is different with each project, partly because each piece I've devised has been so different, partly because the collaborative team varied on each project, and also the process shifts as I learn what works and what does not. Generally, I like to spend a year researching the topic of the show. This research time is usually spent passing books and other sources around with my collaborators. I have co-directed all of my devised work, and co-written it as well. So, it's never a process that is not immediately shared.

After or during the research phase, I generally create a map of the show. I'm a visual learner, so this is often more for me than anyone else involved in the show, but it tracks the main events of the play and charts the journey. For "Vivian Girls" this map was our script. Each character had different color that tracked their journey and the major plot points were indicated by specific Darger paintings. Ever since that show, I've been creating maps for each show I work on - sometimes for others to see, sometimes just for me to have a touchstone for the piece at home.

Then, there is a workshop phase. This has taken various forms over the years - sometimes it's weekend workshops with script pages being shared with actors and then, writing/developing sessions without actors in between workshops. Sometimes, its ensemble building and movement exploration with no text in the room for a weeks at a time. Sometimes its an extension of the rehearsal process with found text, everyone writing and movement work all being shared. Most recently, we worked on The Whole World is Watching, a play with music, and realized that the music was too hard to play around with in workshops, it's such a technical skill to find harmonies and set rhythms, so we put that off for the first week of rehearsals and just spent workshops on story development. Generally, during workshops actors are not cast in roles. They know that they'll be in the show, but for workshops everyone plays every part. Side note: I stole this from the Royal Shakespeare Company's development of Nicholas Nickleby. They asked actors to sign on to the project, not a specific part, and that way the play was #1 in the room and everyone was working in service of that during workshops. I thought it was a great idea. And it's worked really well, especially to help the ensemble's bond. No matter what, the workshops are all of us exploring the subject matter and story together. I try to include designers in all workshops. Also, workshops are active dramaturgy time. Everyone is doing research assignments and sharing with the group what they've learned by leading exercises that relate to the dramaturgy.

Then, the rehearsal process follows. This has been as long as four months and as short as four weeks. During this time, we try to lock in the scenes and text. Lately, I have been interested in building the script as we work as a separate document from the devising process. So, we end up with both a production and a script. They may be slightly different from one another, but that way we have a record of what we've created, regardless of the specific production restraints we faced, and lock in any language that is non-negotiable.

Most recently, I have also made a priority of more rehearsal time after a couple previews. So, we preview for a weekend, then head back to the rehearsal room for a week and keep re-working before more previews. Often, the audience adds a whole new understanding to the devised work, and this time is important to refine and shift based on audience reactions.

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 15, I applied to be a foreign exchange student. I left on my 16th birthday to Italy because I was convinced that the world must be bigger than Tustin, California. When I arrived, I was told that my host family could come and pick me up in Rome, but I insisted on taking the train alone to Perugia (their hometown), and meeting them there. I transferred trains on my own, using my week-old, broken Italian to get myself to the right place. I arrived at the train station in Perugia and disembarked, so proud that I had gotten from California to Perugia on my own. I sat for two hours waiting for my host family. They didn't come. They didn't come. I tried to use my Italian to find out if I was in the right place, and yes, it was Perugia. Finally, I broke down and called California. My parents were out of town, so I called my best friend's parents from across the street. I was now in tears. I was lost in a foreign country. I'd never traveled out of North America, and now I could not find who I was supposed to meet. My friend's dad calmly asked me, "Have you asked if there is more than one train station in Perugia?" This was the answer. I found out that there two stations, was able to call the other station, they paged my worried host family who had thought that they had lost their new American child. They came and found me, and we were able to laugh off our collective panic in how we met. I guess, this typifies me in a few ways. First, I needed to travel and live outside of the US at 16, and I still need it today. I needed push myself past what was comfortable and try to do things on my own. I can be fiercely independent sometimes. But also, I need collaborators. I don't problem solve on my own, I need to collaborate with people I admire and trust. I rely on them. And sometimes, I fail. I learn a lot from taking big risks and occasionally failing.

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

A:  The rate at which we innovate. I think we're too slow to push the form. Our audience is dwindling, and we don't fight hard enough to push the form and reach a new audience.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Caryl Churchill, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Harold Pinter, Ian Rickson, Wendy Wasserstein, Sheila Callaghan.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre where the audience relationship with the play is part of the experience - for instance, Punchdrunk, Shunt Collective, the National Theatre of Scotland, Pig Iron, The Hypocrites, Frantic Assembly, Kneehigh. Also, theatre that includes movement as a vocabulary with which to tell stories.

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

A:  Don't be afraid to write protagonists who aren't a version of yourself. Develop your own method to create new work, there's no right way to do it.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Go see - The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Heart by the National Theatre of Scotland touring around the country, Failure: A Love Story by Philip Dawkins at Victory Gardens in Chicago, Guerra: A Clown Play at the Tricklock Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico in January.

I Interview Playwrights Part 516: J. Julian Christopher

J. Julian Christopher

Hometown: I was born and raised in Levittown, Long Island. Actually the first full-length play I wrote was about my experiences living in Levittown. It is an interesting place. I still go back there often, not by choice really. My sister bought the house we grew up in. It's very odd to go back. It feels like a lifetime ago. Levittown is not necessarily a place I associate with positive memories. My family was great, but outside of the house within the rest of the community I was always an outsider. Qué sera, sera... right?

Current Town: Currently I reside in Briarwood, Queens New York... but I seem to have lived a nomadic existence for the past decade (13 moves in 10 years) so... who knows?

Q:  What are you working on now?
A:  Right now I'm working on two new plays, one revision on an older play and a pilot. I'm definitely A.D.D. when it comes to writing. If I get stuck, I need to move on to something else or I'll obsess which is never good for anyone!!!

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

A:  This relates to what I began to touch on about living in white, suburban, Levittown Long Island. I grew up as a “white boy." As a child, I never really had the understanding of what it meant to be Dominican and Puerto Rican. As my parents, sister and I could “pass” for white, my parents kept the “white” façade up and even furthered it by never teaching their children Spanish. I understand why they took these actions, to keep me from experiencing the prejudice they had experienced during their childhood. But I wasn’t white. My name made that apparent to people. But neither was I Latino. This “Americanization” alienated me from my Latino roots as well as distanced me from White America. I was in the middle somewhere -- stuck between the Latino I am and the Latino I was supposed to be. The disassociation I felt towards my heritage continued throughout my adult life extending far into my career. Casting directors and agents saw my name (Christopher Julian Jiménez) and automatically assumed I could speak Spanish. Upon discovering that I could not, they did not know where to place me. And I didn’t know where to place myself. I felt divorced from the name Jiménez, but I wasn’t quite ready to give it up completely. I changed my name professionally to J. Julian Christopher, placing my last name first. That way, for me, it was the most prominent, but I didn’t have to answer the questions that have plagued me most of my life: What are you? How could you not speak Spanish? Aren’t you ashamed that you can’t speak Spanish? Do you eat tacos?

These identity issues manifest itself all over my writing. I'm constantly writing about identity.

Q:  How does your directing inform your playwriting and vice-versa?

A:  I sort of fell into directing. I was actually an actor for many years before writing or directing so actually my experience as an actor informs my writing tremendously. My first drafts tend to be double of what anyone actually gets to read. I come at writing from an acting standpoint so I end up writing everything down, every thought and feeling a character may have. I find that writing out the subtext helps me discover what the character really needs to keep private. I have had drafts where there was a four-page monologue that ended up becoming one word, "No."

Directing has come mostly from a dramaturgical need. When I'm directing anything, I'm trying to make sure the story is clear. Many times an actor and playwright can lose sight of that because they are too attached and precious about the words. Directing has informed how I approach a script and has given me a great revising eye towards my own plays. I do not like to direct my own work though. I thrive on collaboration and I need that give and take. Recently during the workshop of my play Animals Commit Suicide at terraNova Collective, José Zayas would challenge me to re-examine the script and get to the heart of the story. Since working with him I cut about 24 pages. The play in its current state wouldn't exist without him and I now can't see it any other way. A good director challenges me and I appreciate that.

Q:  Tell me about Bulk.

A:  BULK-The Series is a webseries created by myself and a dear friend of mine, D.R. Knott. D.R. and I went to high school together. She went to Columbia for film, and we had been looking for a way to collaborate. We wanted to write about under-represented communities and I automatically thought, “Why don’t we do something in regards to the Gay Bear Community?” A Gay Bear, according to the always reliable *ahem* Wikipedia is, "an LGBT slang term for men that are commonly, but not always, overweight and often having hairy bodies and facial hair. It is a subculture in the gay and bisexual male communities and to an emerging subset of LGBT communities with events, codes, and a culture-specific identity." These types of gay male characters are not the norm in mainstream media so we thought that creating a story within the backdrop of the bear community would be an interesting perspective for a webseries. It also doesn't hurt that I'm a member of the Gay Bear Community. We got together, wrote the characters, and created a series from it. You can see the first season at www.bulktheseries.com.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I would say Clifford Odets, Paddy Chayefsky, and Federico García Lorca are my theatrical heroes. The beauty of their language, the power of their message and the brilliance in structure... I just marvel at the craftsmanship without it ever feeling like a craft. Their work feels like life, so effortless. I am in awe every time I read or see one of their plays. I'll never forget reading Chayefsky's THE LATENT HETEROSEXUAL... changed my life.

I also would be completely ridiculous not to mention Martha Graham, José Limón, and Merce Cunningham. It's a toss-up between playwrights and choreographers for me. Well... they are one and the same, really. The body doesn't lie so when I can't intellectually get to the truth of a scene and I need a way to unlock it... I dance it. Works every time.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I'm excited when I see theater that challenges the way I think. I'm excited then I see theater that makes me angry. I'm excited when I see theater that takes risks. No further explanation necessary.

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

A:  Honestly, sometimes it feels like I'm just starting out and could use advice myself. I've been writing plays since 2008 and from what I have learned thus far is to write everyday. Even if you think it's crap. It's really hard to write and not judge the writing as you go. I'm still learning that. Sometimes you just have to get whatever is in your head, out. Maybe it will be good. Maybe it won't. Maybe there will be a moment that is excellent and will take you to place you never thought you'd go. But I try to write at least an hour everyday.

Also get your work out there and submit it. It's the only way to make it happen, because no one is certainly going to seek your play out when they don't know it exists. Send it out. You have nothing to lose.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I just completed a workshop of my play Animals Commit Suicide with terraNova Collective, directed by José Zayas as part of the Fall Groundbreakers Series. In Animals Commit Suicide, Chance Stevens has a high-end job, classic good looks, and the attention of anyone he wants in the NYC gay scene. Yet something is missing in his life that he cannot live without. He embarks on a dangerous journey of self-discovery only to find the very best and the very worst of a new community of which he so desperately wants to be a part.

Locusts Have No King will appear in the November installment of Salvaged Space Reading Series at Personal Space Theatrics (PST) . In Locusts, four closeted gay men get together for a dinner party and, over the course of the evening, all hell breaks loose…literally.

Nico was a Fashion Model will be workshopped with Variations Theatre Group at The Chain Theater in Long Island City this winter. Set on closing night of the NYC punk club CBGB's, Nico Was A Fashion Model is an intimate look at race relations from a suburban teenage perspective.

I Interview Playwrights Part 515: Aaron Bushkowsky

Aaron Bushkowsky

Hometown: Edmonton, Alberta

Current Town: Vancouver, BC

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A new black comedy, Play With Monsters.

Q:  How would you characterize Canadian theater?

A:  Canadian theatre is in vital need of more funding but thematically, things are exploding all over the place!

Q:  Tell me about Solo Collective.

A:  Solo Collective is one of Vancouver's most recognized Indie theatre companies that produces consistently entertaining and evocative comedies. The company -- now in its 13th year -- has been recognized with 30 Jessie Richardson Theatre nominations and has received a number of awards for acting and writing in particular.

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 as the second oldest kid in a family of five. My father was a prairie Baptist preacher who moved from rural community to rural community preaching hell and brimstone. I've been an agnostic since I was 14 and my family has never recovered; they all still go to church... I go to theatre.

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

A:  I would eliminate plays that have no relevance on our immediate lives... particularly old, dusty plays from several hundred years ago written by privileged, rich old white dudes.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I love Mamet and Stoppard... but my relatives could be fairly theatrical, particularly around Christmas when the egg nog started pouring.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm into the surreal black comedies ... and anything that is outside the box with a clear narrative. I also love theatre where things go wrong and end up being funnier and better than intended.

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

A:  Sit on your hats...it's gonna get dangerous soon! And advice from my film mentor Norman Jewison, there are five things you need to make it in theatre or film and number five is talent. In order they are “Persistence, Who You Know, Timing, Blind Ass Luck, and Talent.”

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Play With Monsters plays at Vancouver's Granville Island Performance Works from Nov. 9-18, 8 p.m. Don't miss it, there's Zombies and Ninjas in it!

I Interview Playwrights Part 514: Brian Golden

Brian Golden

Hometown: Davenport, Iowa

Current Town: Chicago, Illinois

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I'm working on JOHNNY, a new play about missing children inspired by a famous case from Iowa in the 1980s, which will World Premiere at Theatre Seven of Chicago in June, as well as on curating a series of short plays about great Chicago women from the last 100 years to mark the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in Illinois. That's called UNWILLING AND HOSTILE INSTRUMENTS and will go up in late summer 2013.

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

A: Wouldn't life be easier to understand if there were one specific moment you could point to dramaturgically and say: here is why! But I don't think there is. As ridiculous as it might sound, I think that being a hugely passionate Iowa State Cyclones fan growing up in enemy territory (right near the University of Iowa) really shaped a lot of my personality. My team was also bad, so bad, and I'd just get made fun of constantly for all of grade school and junior high for being a State fan. I think it built a real empathy for the underdog, not just in sports, but in the way I look at the world, and maybe some of the characters I enjoy reading and writing about on stage. I admire people who stand strong against the conventional social order and who fight to change it. My biggest enemies are people who have power and use it recklessly, to hurt someone else, or keep them down. I remember one time when I was maybe 11 sobbing after Iowa State lost to Iowa in football for what was probably the 10th year in a row and my Mom sat me down to say "you know, you don't have to cheer for Iowa State, it is a choice." And I remember feeling like "no, it is not a choice. This is who I am." So I think there was an identity really crystallizing in terms of being comfortable bucking the status quo.

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

A: Wow, I don't know. I think theatre's power is really as an engine for local storytelling. Doesn't mean there shouldn't ever be any plays produced in Chicago that are set in London, but I wish that more work was really local - about the city, region or even city block where the work is being shared. I think that as the world shrinks, and TV news and movies can take us global so quickly and easily, the power of theatre will always be to tell a story really relevant to the 100 people in the room that night. In Chicago we have a nice culture of Chicago-based storytelling, and Theatre Seven (the company where I am the Artistic Director) is a part of that. But I wish that in Davenport, Iowa, Omaha, Nebraska, Santa Fe, Tupelo, everywhere - that we could commune over more stories told about local history, people and problems. I think that if an alien race were learning about America from its plays, it would make some interesting observations, among them that 80% of the American population lives in Manhattan.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Too many to name, truly way too many to name. Chicago is a city full of hard-working, ass-kicking, new work making, next generation theatre makers. I admire anyone willing to start something new and say "I have a vision for the future of this form," but I also admire the people who have gone before, like the folks who made Steppenwolf, Goodman, Victory Gardens, Black Ensemble, Lookingglass who have helped theatre carve out a place in the conversation in our city. I truly admire arts administrators, who get an awful name among playwrights and artists. But someone who can run the business end of an arts organization that truly serves a mission and a population is someone who is really special. I'll always have on my list of heroes Andrea, Anna, Carter, Bill, Jeffrey and all my professors at Washington University. I guess my personal heroes are anyone who has ever entered a collaboration with me and given me their trust - whether that was as a director or producer and believing in my work, or as an actor and saying the first line and trusting the play would carry them through. 100% selfishly, those are my personal heroes. I hope I haven't let them down.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Theatre that matters. It doesn't have to 'change the world,' but don't waste my time. Make it count. I'd rather see a flawed play that matters than a perfect play that makes me wonder why it exists.

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

A: Write. Be persistent. Seek advocates, not attention. If they tell you to submit the play a certain way on their website, believe them. If they tell you they like your work, hold them to it. Have a good website so they can find you. Don't overcommit. If you can figure out how to get productions, please email me.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: Directing Professional World Premiere of Carter W. Lewis' AMERICAN STORM at Theatre Seven of Chicago, opening November 16th. (www.theatreseven.org)
Directing Staged Reading Fouad Teymour's THE NIGHT JESUS JOINED THE REVOLUTION at Silk Road Rising in early December. (www.silkroadrising.org)
Writing World Premiere of JOHNNY for Theatre Seven in June. (www.theatreseven.org)
And recently published in THE CHICAGO LANDMARK PROJECT, along with short plays about Chicago by Brooke Berman, J. Nicole Brooks, Aaron Carter, Lonnie Carter, Laura Jacqmin, Jamil Khoury, Rob Koon, Brett Neveu, Yolanda Nieves, Marisa Wegrzyn and the Red Orchid Youth Ensemble, available on Amazon.com here: (http://www.amazon.com/The-Chicago-Landmark-Project-Premiere/dp/1463573936/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1351026336&sr=8-2&keywords=the+chicago+landmark+project)

I Interview Playwrights Part 513: Greg Romero

Greg Romero

Hometown: Greenwell Springs, Louisiana.

Current Town: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I am cleaning up the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia.

I love this river and want to create a performance project about it. But I want to learn the river more completely so I can best know how to express it. So I am asking the river to speak to me and hoping an appropriate return gift is to pick up the trash and litter and debris along its banks and in its waters. I have made the commitment to clean-up the river for 50 – 60 hours from now (mid-October) through the end of 2012. I have already gone out several times and loved every minute of it. I wish I could work for the river every day.

If a performance project results from this work, I will be thrilled. If not, I still will be thrilled, and for reasons I probably haven’t imagined yet (maybe it is a performance project already?).

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

A:  First-- I have three sisters, one of which is my twin. That explains me a little bit.

Also, several years ago I wrote to my mother, telling her I was looking closely at my name—that I was trying to discover things about it, trying to decide if it was best keep it, or if I should work to take on a new one.

This is her reply:

On Monday, July 27, 2009 4:52 PM, Nancy Mouton wrote:

Dear Greg,

A few weeks before you were born - and I didn’t know then what sex each baby was - your dad and I couldn’t come up with two girls names, nor two boys names, so we went with Melanie Claire, and Gregory John. Each name was different enough so that neither of you would have to follow in the shadows of the other.

We decided that when you were born, if you were girls, then we’d pick another girl name, and vice versa. I remember researching name meanings so that I wouldn’t call you both something that meant something awful. Also, having two older sisters I wanted each of you to have a unique name, not unusual, but not commonly used. I had a lot of down time while waiting for you, so I read a lot. I don’t really remember all the meanings from different languages, but I knew you needed a strong name.

And yes, you were not breathing when you were born.

They revived you then and they revived you again in the isolette. You actually died twice. Remember, I was there. Right before you were born, feet first I might add, the doctor and nurse worked hard to turn you so you could be born naturally. No such luck, so out you came breached and bruised. I remember telling you how I watched the clock for more than three minutes. My elbows were bruised because I was in shock while waiting and I shook so hard I rattled the gurney. I knew they were about to give up on you. Too much time had passed and chances for a healthy infant were almost none.

Greg, be prepared for what follows, as I never told you this. I am just remembering this now. It’s like I just went back in time. I stared at the clock, then the nurse, then the doctor’s face while he held you cradled face down in his arms - the doctor and I caught eyes and I held his eyes with mine and silently begged him not to give up on you. Minutes passed. Finally, like a miracle, your tiny cat’s cry sounded and I knew you were alive. The nurse cried out, “He’s breathing!”

How could I have forgotten that moment?

I can truly say that time stood still in that room. Since you and Melanie were 7 ½ weeks premature, Melanie’s cries were so soft and kitten like. Not like a full term baby’s cry. Maybe she couldn’t communicate loud enough with you through her cries. You just couldn’t hear her that’s all.

Whatever you decide about your name, know that your given name bonded with your soul long before you took your first breath. You are who you are. Use your name.

Have to close, my heart threads are raveling.

Love now and always, Mom.

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

A:  More animals.

Q:  From Greg’s 6 year-old nephew, Brody: What would it be like if people spoke in numbers?

A:  It would be awesome!

I wonder if it would make us better listeners. Would we learn more just by how things sounded?

I bet it would make our voices more expressive.

Also—it would be really fun to talk to someone who spoke another language, if we were speaking in numbers.

Also—I think it might make us funnier.

I think we should try it. Five three three four five six. Nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine nine. One.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Wolves, Richard Foreman, wales, Jerzy Grotowski, Pina Bausch, August Wilson, trees, Tennessee Williams, Zeami, elephants, Erik Ehn, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sam Shepard, oceans, Samuel Beckett, children, dreams, bison, and stars.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Fewer words and more action (and again, more animals). Impossible things happening. Images I’ve never imagined. Music in it. Rituals and rites of passage. Movement. Gift-exchanges. Discovering things deeply human and personal. When there is food and drink. Theater that cares, profoundly, about the people participating in it; theater whose creators have taken the time to ask,

“why would people come to this?”

Q:  From Greg’s 6 year-old nephew, Brody: Are there really negative numbers?

A:  Uncle Greg: Yes.

Brody: So that means they don't like people, right?

Uncle Greg: Good question! I really don’t know. Maybe negative numbers only know how to speak in words. Maybe if they’re so negative they should do something fun (like dance like a bear). Maybe we should ask them? What do you think?

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I just closed a production of my all-ages play, Of Plastic Things and Butterfly Wings, in the 2012 Philly Fringe Festival. The wonderful producing company (who also commissioned the work), Little Fish Theatre, is now touring this production to Philly/New Jersey-area schools in partnership with Fernbrook Farms Education Center.

Of Plastic Things and Butterfly Wings also opena in Phoenix on December 1st, running through December 16th, produced by the good folks at Space 55.

I am also looking for homes for two of my collaborations with electronic music composer Mike Vernusky—Radio Ghosts and The Babel Project—hoping to continue their lives.

Lastly, the work on the Schuylkill River Project is ongoing.

I Interview Playwrights Part 512: Luis Enrique Gutiérrez Ortiz Monasterio

 
Translated from Spanish by Maria Alexandria Beech

Luis Enrique Gutiérrez Ortiz Monasterio

Hometown: Guadalajara, Jalisco.

Current town: Xalapa, Veracruz.

Q:  Tell me about "I Hate Fucking Mexicans" at the Flea.

A:  In formal terms, it’s a departure from my body of work because it’s not a study on the structure of character which comprises most of my plays. When Ana [Graham] asked me for a play for New York, we chose this one because of its potential to establish a dialogue with american culture, instead of the obvious option of sending a more conventional play as a calling card. In Mexico, this play has evoked extreme reactions. Either they like it a lot or they hate it, and they say I’m an idiot and that I shouldn’t write again. I don’t want audiences to say my plays are pretty; if that were the case, I’d rather knit acrylic sweaters. What I care about is making the audience uneasy in their seats. If that means I feel vilified in the process, well, what a pussy. For me, the theater is a political act, not about immediate politics, but of the other kind, of a courageous man, who is the actor embracing the words of a coward, who is the playwright, in order to confront his community, which is the audience. I don’t think there’s a more political act than this one.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  This year, ironically, I’ve written a lot. In March, I started undergoing tests for a [kidney] transplant and my wife left me for a fucker. So I had to re-think the plan and I gave away my dogs who were my adoration. Bottom line, I was left alone like a Mennonite at a street corner. And it was for the better because I’ve been able get a lot of work done in bed. I finished the first part of a trilogy in collaboration with Ana Lucía Ramírez; I wrote the first five chapters of a theatrical police series, and I finished the first draft of my book on the theory of character.

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 decided to become a writer at the age of eight. Back then, they were preparing me to be a Marist [Catholic] priest and I wrote poems to the Virgin Mary. Since I’m the child of two sociopaths, I would hide in my closet with a reading lamp and I would read a lot, above all, nineteenth century poetry and novels about pirates. The first narrator I envied, to the point of wanting to write like him, was Joseph Conrad. I arrived at drama late; I was thirty years old when I started writing it formally. What I really wanted to be was a novelist, like Conrad, but no one liked my novels. For years now, I’ve hardly read anything. I only write.

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

A:  I don’t understand the question. In my thirteen years as a playwright, I put forth two different models for writing theater which in my country and other places are constantly imitated. First, I developed a model in which everything begins from nothing, and that entails hiring the least number of actors and using minimum set design and props. The other model is related with the language of comics to achieve the opposite: developing a play with the most plots, characters, and transitions possible in an hour and a half. The idea is to create a novel that can be staged. I’m very ignorant about the theater which makes me certain that I didn’t invent either one really. Someone must have done it before. But in my arrogance, I’d prefer to think that I’m a genius who achieved twice what no one had achieved even once.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Aeschylus, Aeschylus, and Aeschylus

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I don’t really go to theater. I have problems socializing and sitting in a fist of strangers and laughing at what they laugh at and crying with them. It’s not a big problem but I’d rather not do it.

*After the Mexican artists community raised $20,000 of the $30,000 Legom needs for a kidney transplant in Mexico, a group of artists in the United States launched a campaign to raise the remaining $10,000. So far, $4,366 has been raised. To donate, go here: www.indiegogo.com/legomproject.

Entrevisto a Dramaturgos: Luis Enrique Gutiérrez Ortiz Monasterio

Luis Enrique Gutiérrez Ortiz Monasterio

Adonde nacistes?

Guadalajara, Jalisco.

Adonde vives ahora?

Xalapa, Veracruz.

Háblame sobre "I Hate Fucking Mexicans."
En términos formales es una obra fuera de corpus, pues no hace un estudio formal sobre la estructura del personaje como casi todas mis obras. Cuando Ana me pidió una obra para NY preferimos esta por lo que tiene para establecer un diálogo con ustedes, contra la opción obvia de mandar una obra representativa como business card. Es una obra que acá en México siempre ha desatado reacciones encontradas, o gusta mucho o la odian y dicen que soy un pelmazo y que no debería volver a escribir. No me interesa que el público diga de mis obras que son bonitas, de ser así tejería suéteres de acrilán, lo que me interesa es mover al espectador de su asiento, si eso implica que se sienta mancillado, pues qué marica. Para mí el teatro es un hecho político, no de la inmediatez política, sino de la otra, la de un hombre valiente, que es el actor, que asume las palabras de un cobarde, que es el dramaturgo, para confrontar a su comunidad, que es el público. No creo que se puedan nombrar actos más políticos que este.

En que estas trabajando ahora?

Este año, paradójicamente, he escrito mucho. En marzo estaba iniciando los estudios para el transplante y me dejó mi esposa por un pendejazo, así que tuve que reordenar el plan y regalé a todos mis perros, que eran mi adoración. El caso es que me quedé más solo que un menón en el semáforo. Y fue para bien, porque desde la cama he podido trabajar ampliamente. Terminé la primera parte de una trilogía en colaboración con Ana Lucía Ramírez, escribí los primeros cinco capítulos de una serie teatral policiaca y terminé el primer borrador de mi libro sobre teoría del personaje.

Cuéntame una historia de tu niñez que explica quien eres como escritor o como persona.

Yo decidí a los ocho años ser escritor. Entonces ya me preparaban para ser hermano marista y le escribía poemas a la Virgen María. Como soy hijo de dos sicópatas, me escondía en mi armario con una lámpara para leer, y leía mucho, sobre todo poemas decimonónicos y novelas de piratas. El primer narrador a quien envidié, al grado de querer escribir como él fue a Joseph Conrad. Al drama llegué tarde, a los treinta años fue cuando comencé a escribirlo con intenciones formales. Realmente yo lo que quise fue ser novelista, como Conrad, pero mis novelas no le gustaban a nadie. Desde hace años ya casi no leo, solo escribo.

Si pudieras cambiar algo del teatro, que seria?


No entiendo la pregunta. En estos trece años como dramaturgo ya propuse dos modelos diferentes de escribir para el teatro que en mi país y otras partes me imitan por todos lados. Primero desarrollé un modelo donde todo parte de la nada y se presenta el mínimo de actores y elementos escenotécnicos. El otro es un modelo que tiene mucha relación con el lenguaje del cómic para lograr todo lo contrario: desarrollar una obra con el máximo de situaciones, personajes y cortes diacrónicos en hora y media, la idea es llegar a la novela en la escena. Soy muy ignorante del teatro, por lo que estoy seguro que ninguno de los dos los inventé realmente, que antes alguien debió hacerlo, pero en mi arrogancia prefiero creer que soy un genio que logró dos veces lo que prácticamente nadie ha hecho ni una vez.

Quienes son o fueron tus héroes teatrales?

Esquilo, Esquilo y Esquilo.

Que tipo de teatro te emociona?
Realmente yo no veo teatro. Tengo problemas para socializar y sentarme entre un puño de desconocidos y reírme de lo que ellos se ríen y llorar con ellos. No son problemas fuertes, solo prefiero no hacerlo.

*Después que la comunidad de artistas Mexicanos recaudo $20,000 de los $30,000 que Legom necesita para un transplante de riñón en México, un grupo de artistas en Estados Unidos lanzo una campana para recaudar los restantes $10,000. Hasta ahora, $4,366 han sido donados. Para donar, por favor visite: www.indiegogo.com/legomproject.

I Interview Playwrights Part 511: Colman Domingo

Colman Domingo

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Current Town: New York City

Q:  Tell me about Wild With Happy.

A:  Wild With Happy is a zany, crazy, out of it's mind new play that I both wrote and am acting in which is currently having it's world premiere production at the Public Theatre. It's about a forty-something year old man named Gil, played by yours truly, who loses his mother and the drama, hilarity and insanity that ensues. I've been calling it a "dark comedy about death and Disney World."

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  Well, at the moment, I don't have a free moment between the hats I wear as actor and playwright at Wild With Happy, but I am really excited to say I'm in Steven Spielberg's upcoming film Lincoln - which I have seen and is spectacular as well as Lee Daniel's film The Butler, which will come out next year.

Q:  How does your acting work inform your playwriting and vice versa?

A:  Well, I feel that they really go hand in hand. I've always considered myself an actor's playwright. I am very sensitive to what is happening on stage, both when I am on and when I'm off. Making sure I am sensitive to how particular bits as well as the piece as a whole land on the tongue and then tweaking to make the piece sound and feel very clear.

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

A:  Ticket prices! To make sure theatre is available for everyone regardless of your economic situation.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Geoffrey Holder, George Wolfe, David Belasco, Uta Hagen, The Lunts!

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre that slaps you in the face, makes you think, inspires you and shatters you to your core.

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

A:  Follow your own voice - learn to be a storyteller based on what excites YOU about theatricality.