Episode 3 of Compulsive Love

3rd episode of my web series Compulsive Love is here!  Watch it and previous episodes on Koldcast or Blip or Daily Motion or Boomtrain or Youtube or JTS.

Embedded #3:

---
Book Store
Books by Adam

I Interview Playwrights Part 556: Stan Richardson

"I'm on the left; Matt Steiner is on the right."

Stan Richardson

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Current Town: NYC

Q:  Tell me about the new Representatives show. 

 
A:  O Happy Happy Aztecs! is a short dark comedy about an aspiring actress and her gay best friend who move to NYC from Small Town USA. They have all the big dreams of 20-year-olds, but they are in their early-30's. And they carry with them their overwhelming need for safety and convenience which effectively castrates the dangerous and exotic city they have always wanted to call home.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I'm writing the next play for The Representatives which will be a loose adaptation of Turgenev's Fathers & Sons called Bazarov. It's about, among other things, the entrance of a nihilist into a haven of well-meaning, but sedentary liberals; he blithely suggests that all of their useless ideals and institutions should be obliterated and this causes some problems. Unlike most of The Representatives' projects, Bazarov is simply too large to be done in an apartment and will be presented in a larger venue this coming August.

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

A:  Aside from having it meaningfully subsidized by the U.S. government? I would like for playwrights to devote themselves to work that makes them extremely uncomfortable. That discomfort is inherently entertaining and relevant. If what you are currently working on does not absolutely scare the shit out of you, keep me in the loop about future projects.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Edward Albee; Pina Bausch; Caryl Churchill; Cherry Jones; Craig Lucas; Elizabeth Marvel; Jan Maxwell; Joe Orton; Wallace Shawn; Ivo van Hove; Lanford Wilson; and The Wooster Group.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm very drawn to theater that feels like it was created Just Now. The key to this, it seems to me, is not so much topicality but depth of feeling and conviction. Playwrights, unlike politicians, need not under-express their views in order to "stay in office." But another obstacle is the stultifying years-long wait to be produced. The Representatives has given me the opportunity to see my work onstage nearly as fast as I can write it. Matt Steiner, my co-artistic director and an actor for whom I've been ceaselessly inspired to write for the past seven years, and I try to streamline the production process. We figure out who we want to work with and where we'll be performing, then I start writing and a few months later we do the play. Most of these projects have been elegantly staged by Ben Vershbow, a pragmatic poet of a director. And we are continually having the pleasure of working with incredibly talented actors: mesmerizing ambassadors to whatever world we collectively dream up.

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

A:  I would give this advice to any playwright, including myself, at any stage of his/her career. It's a Godard quote: "At the moment that we can do cinema, we can no longer do the cinema that gave us the desire to do it." Let's acknowledge and honor our theatrical ancestry and then pop out some troublemakers of our own.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bradley Manning has a rather important new show running off-off-Broadway right now down at Fort Meade. It's called The Obama Administration Is Going To Destroy the Role of Whistleblower If We Don't Do Something About It. Seats are still available! Please show your support: https://www.bradleymanning.org/
----
Book Store
Books by Adam

Finding Collaborators

It’s been a while since I posted an actual blog post that I wrote myself that isn’t to promote one of my projects. Here goes.

I’ve been reading a bunch of plays recently for contests and such as well as in my new role as a Lit Mgr for an off off theater in town. (Yes, I’m being intentionally vague)

As a reader of over 200 plays in the last six months, I get really excited each time I read something really good. The other day I read a funny heartfelt play by an emerging writer that I was blown away by. (Again, intentionally vague.  Please don't try to guess.)  I immediately started to wonder who I could show the play to. Was there a theater in New York who could do the play? After a quick google search, I realized the play had already been done and had gotten mixed reviews in New York. The times had not been kind. And I knew a couple of the cast members and knew them to be very talented and I knew the play and knew of the director. And I wondered…

What Went Wrong?

1. Was I mistaken in my assessment of the play? That’s certainly possible, but I don’t think so.

2. Did the play just have bad reviewer luck? Did the wrong people see it and not get it? That is a definite possibility and frequently happens.

3. Were the wrong people involved in the production? Was it miscast? Was it the wrong director? Were there communication problems? Has the very talented writer not yet learned how to explain the play to her collaborators?

It could be any of these but let's suppose it’s # 3. Let me ask you, how did you learn how to find the right people to work with? Does it continue to be a struggle? Do you know when to say no? How does a talented writer learn how to cast and choose a director and work with a team to realize the best possible production of a play.  How do we make necessary compromises while keeping intact the vision and structural integrity of the piece?  How do we find the people who will make the play better than it should be?

I’m still wondering if there are theaters out of town I could recommend the writer send the play to, theaters who are young and exciting. The trouble is, how does one recover from bad reviews? The play which should be published, is not. And what to I say to this writer? And how does one talk theaters into it who are leery of multiple bad reviews?

I don’t have the answer to this. What do you think? Certainly, write the next play. Continue. Can anything be done?

---
Book Store
Books by Adam

I Interview Playwrights Part 555: Basil Kreimendahl

Basil Kreimendahl

Hometown: Louisville, KY

Current Town: Iowa City, IA

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A new play, that takes place in Louisville, KY; it's about an unconventional drag house on the wrong side of the Ohio River flood wall, and their desire and need for dignity and belonging. They take performing realness to another level by preparing to give the performance of a lifetime at the Kentucky Derby. It's a play that explores "passing" not in terms of gender but in class.

I'm also working on an adaptation of La Ronde, with one of my favorite directors at the University of Iowa, Nathan Halvorson.

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

A:  Because I quit school young, at 14, I've been working full-time for a long time. Back then, one of my jobs was doing yard work for a lawn company. One day, I had a toothache, the summer heat was suffocating and the weed whacker kept breaking. I'd have to stop and fix it over and over again. In a moment of frustration, I stopped for a minute and sat down on the grass. It was the first time I actually took in the house and the neighborhood. There was a fountain in the yard, a statue and a Mercedes parked in the driveway, and I thought just one of these things could fix a whole lot of toothaches.

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

A:  At this moment, what I wish for theatre is that we stretch our ideas about what  we think is commercially viable. I hope that the kind of theatre our audiences want to see encompasses a broader range of forms, stories and experiments than we give them credit for.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My heroes are not just my heroes because their work inspires me, but because I like how I see them walk in the world. So just to name a few, Naomi Wallace, Lucy Thurber, Christina Anderson, Polly Carl, Jen Silverman, Kia Corthron, Francine Volpe, Bonnie Metzgar... apparently, a lot of amazing women.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  This is one of those things that's bound to change with time, I'm still discovering things that excite me. I'm interested in work that I want to be in conversation with, because it challenges me and moves me. Plays that queer everything. Work that has a bold sincerity, even when it's being ironic. Theatre that goes to those places we don't often go, where it's a little frightening to go, but once we've been we're not the same anymore.

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

A:  Write the next play. Read something other than plays. Finally, to quote Mama Cass, "You gotta make your own kind of music, sing your own special song."

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My classmates, the group of talented playwrights I'm about to graduate with: Kat Sherman, Bonnie Metzgar, Deborah Yarchun, and I have to include a graduating director from Austin, Will Davis. A new project Gabrielle Reisman and I organized, The Iowa/Austin Exchange. Last but not least, a big congrats to my dear friend and fellow Iowan, Andrew Saito for his playwright residency at Cutting Ball.

---
Book Store
Books by Adam

Episode 2 of Compulsive Love!

Second episode of my web series Compulsive Love is here!  Watch it on Koldcast or Blip or Daily Motion or Boomtrain or Youtube or JTS.

Embedded #2

And here is episode 1 in case you missed it


-------
Book Store
Books by Adam

I Interview Playwrights Part 554: Cory Finley

Cory Finley

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I’m working with a director friend, Ashley Rodbro, on a romantic comedy about loneliness, addiction, and illegal pharmaceutical testing. A character transforms over the course of the play from a 25-year-old man to a 61-year-old woman. I’m in the Shaping The Mess stage of writing, which is the best one.

I’m also continuing work on SUNK, a domestic horror play, and UGLY PEOPLE, about a group of friends gathering after a death and jockeying for control of the deceased’s tech startup. I’m doing research for a play about cybersecurity and Midwestern power companies.

I’m also putting in some serious time in the gym – it’s cold out now, but beach season is right around the corner.

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

A:  My elementary school used to show videos of this dude McGruff the Crime Dog, a cartoon bloodhound who wore a trenchcoat and talked about crime awareness ("Take a bite out of crime," if that rings bells for anyone)

For some reason, I created a pretend game with my little brother wherein we were secret agents working for said Crime Dog, fighting the invisible criminals living in our front yard, under our beds, behind our television, etc.

Over time, the pretend game became increasingly paranoid and hysterical, until we were stalking on our own family members, who, we’d been “told” by this anthropomorphic dog, were actually sinister lookalikes. This so rattled my brother – maybe 6 or 7 at the time – that he asked me to step out of character for a moment and reassure him that we were playing a game. I refused.

As a writer, I’m always trying to create illusions as detailed, persuasive, and unnerving as the ones that fueled those games.

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

A:  I have an impossible dream of a world where no one reads reviews and marketing blurbs, where audiences walk into plays with no expectations. I actually love reviews and learn a lot from them, but when read BEFORE playgoing, they compromise surprises and revelations. They frame the audience’s experience of the play, and therefore cripple the whole enterprise of good storytelling. I always most enjoy plays and movies (and books, and magazine articles -- and kind of even dates) when I go in without any idea what I’m about to see. I love just being along for the ride.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:   Theater that I can’t imagine coming up with myself. Plays that locate a totally surprising source of conflict and action.

Dialogue that’s full of silent menace and accidental grace. Devised work in which the elements of spectacle – light, sound, projection – are deployed not to overwhelm and astound but to punctuate, emphasize, dilate, disorient.

Stories that ask me not just to admire likeable people but also to extend my empathy to profoundly unlikeable people.

Theater that, like artfully mussed hair, works really really hard to appear effortless.

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

A:  Be humble, make bad jokes, put yourself in odd situations, run toward rather than away from worldviews you find strange and wrong, stay until the tail-ends of parties.

Basically just this.

And apply to Youngblood – you can't find better people in this city!

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Grace, a short musical I wrote with Mark Sonnenblick and Stephen Feigenbaum about a forlorn Kansas native finding his voice in a church talent show, is running as part of Prospect Theater Company’s PORTRAITS, through this weekend.

And this Sunday is EST/Youngblood’s EINSTEIN ON THE BRUNCH, where you’re likely to find, if not the best audiences in NY theater, then certainly the best matinee audiences in NY theater.

---

 

Book Store
Books by Adam

Two Things

Two Exciting things in my world today.  The first episode of my web series Compulsive Love is here!  Watch it on Koldcast or Blip or Daily Motion or Boomtrain or Youtube or JTS.



And today is the first performance of my play Clown Bar in New York with Pipeline Theater.  It runs until march 23 at the Parkside Lounge on East East Houston.

Promo video here:  www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ct6c7V6VxXU

---
Book Store
Books by Adam

I Interview Playwrights Part 553: Jenelle Riley

Jenelle Riley

Hometown:  Salem, OR

Current Town:   After 16 years, the post office tells me I'm no longer in Culver City, I'm in Los Angeles proper.

Q:  Congrats on the LA Weekly nomination.

A:  Thank you! Can I tell you the weirdest story about how I found out? I was interviewing Jim Leonard, the writer of "Bad Apples" (my day job is the Film and TV Editor of Backstage Magazine.) He got a text informing him he had received 12 LA Weekly nominations for his show. I was trying to pull up the list to find out if my friend French Stewart was nominated for "Stoneface" because it was his birthday and I was hoping he would get a sweet present in the form of a nom. As I was scrolling through the list, I saw my name. Somehow, I had forgotten I had even done a show that was eligible--it just wasn't even something I was considering. I kind of blurted out in shock: "Oh! I'm...nominated...too!" Jim was so gracious and excited for me, and told me this was his best interview ever.

Q:  Tell me about the show you were nominated for.

A:  "A Kind of Love Story" is a parody and homage to the romantic comedy genre. It's the story of two people who were made for each other, true soulmates, who have never met. We follow the comic and tragic misadventures of Mark and Ally as their lives crossover and intersect, hoping for the day they might meet. Along the way, each has to overcome their own obstacles (Mark is the perpetual "good friend," Ally can't seem to shake her loser boyfriend) and hope for the day they find each other.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A film adaptation of "A Kind of Love Story," hopefully to shoot this year. It's being produced by Andrew Carlberg, who is responsible for a few of Neil LaBute's screen adaptations, including the upcoming "Some Girl(s)," so I'm in good hands. Awaiting word on a pilot I worked on for FX. Also, my first novel, currently titled "Not the Girl." None of those things are theatre related, so I guess I'm a big sell-out.

Q:  How would you characterize the LA theater scene?

A:  It's my home, my community, my refuge. Sacred Fools Theatre is full of amazing, talented people who have become my family. I've been allowed to experiment, fail, and succeed on their stage through their various programs and shows. For better or worse, they're responsible for the writer I am today.

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

A:  Much of "A Kind of Love Story" is very autobiographical. Like the heroine, my first kiss was the result of a bribe. In first grade, a boy I had a crush on wanted to see this fossil I had found and I told him he could see it if he let me give him a kiss. He did, I kissed him, he was disgusted and pushed me down. Kind of a perfect metaphor for both my love and writing lives. But putting it on stage and making people laugh was more healing than thousands of dollars in therapy.

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

A:  That more people would go see it.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  First and foremost, Martin McDonagh. Theresa Rebeck, Stephen Sondheim, David Mamet, Neil LaBute, Stuart Gordon, Neil Simon. On the acitng side, Mandy Patinkin, Jessica Chastain, and Hugh Jackman, who gave one of the most perfect performances I've ever seen in "Boy From Oz."

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm not someone who seeks out a certain kind of theatre. Honestly, I just want to be entertained. If that means a community theatre production of "Into the Woods," I'm in. I do have an aversion to one-person shows but having said that, I've seen some pretty perfect ones, like Denis Leary's "No Cure for Cancer."

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

A:  Write. It's a cliche for a reason; the people who I know that are getting things up are the ones who never stop writing. Don't wait to get paid for it.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Check out www.sacredfools.org to see what my company is up to, it's got some wicked talented people. And some talented wicked people. But we won't do "Wicked," I promise. My blog at www.goodanotherblog.wordpress.com, and my writing at backstage.com and backstory.net. Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jenelleriley where I occasionally post "Futurama" porn.

---
Book Store
Books by Adam

I Interview Playwrights Part 552: Jonathan Rand

Jonathan Rand

Hometown: Jacksonville, FL

Current Town: Santa Monica, CA

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  An evening of short comedies

Q:  Tell me about Playscripts. How did it come about?

A:  Fifteen years ago my brother Doug and I were two playwrights baffled by the lack of innovation in the play publishing and licensing industry. We founded Playscripts to fill that need and provide playwrights an opportunity to have their work read and produced as much as humanly possible. What started with eight plays in a dorm room has now become a fully-staffed Manhattan enterprise that represents over 1,800 plays by over 900 playwrights, and was ranked by Inc. Magazine as one of the nation’s fastest growing companies. It's been an exciting time.

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

A:  In the sixth grade I wrote and directed a play in English class called A Nightmare on Sesame Street, in which Big Bird and the gang turn to a life of crime. Huge Pulitzer snub.

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

A:  I'd like to say something profound, but my knee-jerk answer is to have a machine that automatically powers down all audience members' cell phones. I'd like to see this for movie theaters, too. And at funerals.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My grandfather Jerome Sorkin was a master carpenter who made a career building Broadway sets and working as a stagehand. I'd like to think he's the genetic force behind my entire family's theatre obsession.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  The kind where I forget I'm in a theater.

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

A:  You'll hear that it's healthy to write as much as possible, to write first and edit later, and so forth -- and that's all great advice. But in order to even get started, you need to sit down and do it. And that means powering down email, Twitter, your iPhone -- everything. If you have to lock all your devices in a safe, do it. Once you've truly eliminated all distractions, you'll have no excuse but to focus on nothing but the page in front of you.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  jonathanrand.com, playscripts.com


---
Book Store
Books by Adam

I Interview Playwrights Part 551: D.L. Siegel

D.L. Siegel

Hometown: Staten Island, NY

Current Town: Astoria, NY

Q:  Tell me about Chosen.

A:  Chosen is a one-act play about cultural pride, racism, family, and love. It is without a doubt the most personal play I've ever written. But it's a comedy! Because I think the most painful stories in our own lives should always be funny to other people.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm in the research stage for a few big projects right now, which is a fun and terrifying place to be. One play is a collaboration with Melissa Crespo (the director of Chosen and my spiritual other half). Melissa and I are working on a devised piece together that's going to be really politically charged and personal for both of us. Or at least that's the hope.

And then I'm also moving towards the early workshop stage for a new full-length play commissioned by IVP, a really fantastic group of female performers, co-founded by my childhood friend, Ashley Adelman.

Honestly, I feel very lucky to be so busy right now.

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 around 9 years old, my parents, my older brother and I all went to see Miss Saigon on Broadway. I don't remember feeling very affected by all the sexy stuff happening on stage -- I just thought all the dancing and noise was exciting. Besides...we had really great seats and it was my 2nd Broadway show ever; so they could have been sacrificing a live goat up there and I would’ve been enthralled. Anyway. When the lights came up during intermission, my mom took a deep breath, turned to me and blurted out ‘honey, do you know what a prostitute is?’ I honestly don’t remember my exact response. But I figure it was the kind of rushed affirmative response that attempts to steer clear of having ‘the talk’ in the middle of Miss Saigon. I think that’s still how I look at theater…the ideas I love to see portrayed on the stage, the taboos I most love to see broken and opened and re-purposed, those are the topics I am least likely to willingly discuss with my mother.

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

A:  The emphasis on first-runs is a killer. When and why did the branding of a ‘world premiere’ become so important? Given how many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows are revivals, it seems ridiculous to me that new work at the ground level often gets only one shot to it get it right. Bonkers.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I love the Greeks, especially Sophocles and Euripides. So I’m a sucker for writers and directors who don’t just re-translate these classics but adapt them in new, crazy, remarkable ways.  Like Ed Sylvanus Iskandar with his food and his gorgeous stage pictures and his generally jaw-dropping direction of 'These Seven Sicknesses.' And Charles Mee, who would be one of the guests at my dream dinner party.

Also, Sarah Ruhl, Erik Ehn. Shakespeare. Tony Kushner. August Strindberg. Laura Maria Censabella, who made me braver than I thought possible.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I want the passion, the risk. I don’t want to see a slice of life, I want a peek at the characters’ most lurid secrets and dreams. I crave magic, and not just in the stagecraft. Get the actors out of their chairs, away from their tables, and give them some choreography or some puppets or some confetti to throw around. I like to leave the theater feeling like I just saw an almost supernatural event in front of me. Plays where the actors sink into the upholstery for two hours do not generally interest me.

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

A:  Don’t expect all the people in your life -- even the really important ones -- to fully understand what you do or appreciate how hard it is. Because most of them just won't. They can't, and they'll frequently doubt your sanity. So get a therapist and a gym membership and do what you can to surround yourself with people who make you laugh. And don't let anyone tell you that romantic relationships distract you from your work. Because true love inspires. Also, unrelated to that last point, take naps. Lots of naps. Writing's exhausting.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Chosen @ HERE Arts Center, presented by the Downtown Urban Theater Festival. Wed. March 13th at 8:30pm. For more info and tickets: http://www.here.org/shows/detail/1148/

My website, hot off the presses: www.dlsiegel.com

IVP, a great group of gals making theater together. http://infinitevarietyproductions.com/

Corey Pajka, my boyfriend, is also a playwright, and he's got a play coming up in the Midwinter Madness Short Play Festival next week. http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=OLD10 Oh, and one more plug! The New Voices Festival is about to start up at the New School for Drama. The MFA Playwriting thesis plays are serious business, go if you can.
 ---
Book Store
Books by Adam