http://www.indytheatrehabit.com/2009/06/13/a-conversation-with-steven-yockey/
Jun 14, 2009
I Interview Playwrights Part 8: Madeleine George
Madeleine George
Hometown: Amherst, Massachusetts.
Current Town: Brooklyn, New York.
Q: Please tell me a bit about your show at Clubbed Thumb.
A: The play, Precious Little, is about a linguist who, in her early forties, decides to have a baby on her own and discovers through prenatal testing that the child may have a genetic abnormality. Through her encounters with an odd bunch of confidants (younger girlfriend, elderly speaker of a dying language, gorilla at the zoo) she tries to figure out whether she can deal with having a child who might never speak to her. It's a play about the limits but also the luxuries of language, about what we cherish about our uniquely human capacity for language as well as what it costs us to communicate in this way.
Q: If I remember correctly you were one of those people who was in a playwriting program in high school. What was that like and how did it affect your later playwriting?
A: I had the good fortune to participate in the Young Playwrights Festival when I was 17 and again when I was 18 years old. It was crazy to be produced Off-Broadway at that age, thrilling and destabilizing and I think a little warping--they put me up in the Chelsea loft of a pair of corporate lawyers who worked 20-hour days and were rarely home, so I would wake up every morning in this giant, off-the-hook beautiful apartment, stroll down the block for coffee and muffins, lie around the cavernous living room reading the Times and waiting to wander over to rehearsal, work on my play all afternoon and watch Mystery Science Theater and Beavis and Butthead with my fellow kid playwrights all night. Obviously it's been something of an adjustment growing into the realities of the profession since then. But I wouldn't trade the experience--it was an extraordinary first encounter with New York theater.
Q: You are also one of the members of 13P. When does your show come up? What kind of experience has it been to be part of an organization of playwrights producing playwrights?
A: My heart is full of love for 13P. I love being part of a group of writers whose work I admire, love to contribute to productions whose success ripples out to benefit more than just the people immediately involved in each show, love watching plays that might not otherwise reach the stage emerge fully formed out of a mist of eagerness, labor, and an Equity showcase budget. One of my favorite kinds of people is the Extremely Competent and Pragmatic Theater Person, the young producer or development associate or technical director or general manager who can anticipate any problem, fix any broken thing, handle any crisis. I'm emphatically not this kind of person, but I love to be around them--it calms me on a deep level--and 13P's all-volunteer staff is full of them, so even our staff and productions meetings are totally delightful to me. Next up for us is P#8, Lucy Thurber's Monstrosity, in July 2009, then P#9, Julia Jarcho's play American Treasure, in November 2009. My 13P show comes up in spring 2010, pending money, and then it's Sarah Ruhl, Young Jean Lee, Erin Courtney, and we're done. If people are curious to find out more, they could take a look at 13P's lovely new website: http://13p.org/
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: My two favorite things to do at the theater are weep and think, preferably simultaneously. I like plays that take as given the notion that thinking and feeling arise from the same impulse and are inextricably intertwined--Wallace Shawn, Tom Stoppard, Suzan-Lori Parks, Anne Washburn, Rob Handel, Dan LeFranc, etc. etc. etc. Also I've been thinking lately about the expansive, beautiful things farce can do--I recently saw all three plays of Ayckbourn's Norman Conquests trilogy in a single day and it was perhaps the most mind-bendingly joyful theatrical experience of my life.
Q: Your day job is writing young adult novels, one of the more interesting, (I would think) day jobs a playwright could have. How do you think that affects your playwriting, if at all?
A: Actually, "day job" is stretching it a little for my relationship to YA novels--it's more like a long-term side experiment in a different genre (my real day job is running a college program in a prison). But I highly recommend it for playwrights who are curious to work in fiction--first of all it's one of the only areas of the publishing world that isn't totally going under, at least so far, and second of all it's a flexible form, heightened and somehow inherently melodramatic, like adolescence itself, which makes it ideal for dramatic writers. I've found it educational to work out novel-length story problems in my books--we'll see in the long run what impact that experiment has on my playwriting.
Here is one of Madeleine's books.
Q: Where can people go to buy tickets for your show?
Jun 11, 2009
I Interview Playwrights Part 7: Sheila Callaghan
Sheila Callaghan Hometown: Freehold New Jersey
Current Town: Brooklyn, NY and Studio City, CA
Q: You've had quite a year. First an Off Broadway show which was the talk of the town and subsequently published in American Theater and now you're writing for Diablo Cody's Showtime show The United States Of Tara. How do you feel?
A: Exhilarated, terrified, in constant crisis mode, overwhelmed, exhausted, awed, thrilled. And other stuff.
Q: Tell me about your experience with That Pretty Pretty and with Kip and the Rattlestick. What were the reactions you were getting to the show?
A: For the most part, the responses were incredibly strong and often very personal, whether positive or negative. We got people who were in deep deep love with the project, grateful to see something like that on stage... I got a lot of emails from young female writers who said the play reaffirmed their faith in the power of theatre. And, we got people who didn't get the joke, who thought the play propagated the same ideas that in actuality it strove to critique. And of course there were a few furious people, some walkouts, etc. I'm not used to receiving personal attacks leveled at me because of my work, so it was a bit of a shock to my ego. But I've recovered I think, and perhaps my skin is thicker for it. The play had always terrified me, and I understand that kind of response in general is one worth following through for better or worse.
Q: You just had a kid very recently. How are you finding balancing your home and work life? You and your husband are on different coasts right now, aren't you? Do you get to see each other?
A: I don't know that I'm balancing it terribly well yet. On the sleep-deprived days I feel like I'm on the verge of mental collapse. But on good days, where the shit explosions and teething fits are at a civilized minimum, I feel like a superhero. But I love having this tiny being in my life. I am fully smitten. He's a very cheerful baby, very adaptable, which is good with all the traveling we do. This is an expensive, challenging, invigorating time for us. We've been doing a bunch of cross-country visiting, so he's been able to see his daddy every two weeks. Though often I feel like a single mom, which gives me a whole new respect for women who raise children on their own. I hope he brags to people someday about how we were able to pull it off. Right now I'm at my desk in my Tara office and he's next to me in his little musical walker. I'm so lucky I get to have him on the lot with me. I don't know how I would do this if I had a 9-9 TV job and a full-time nanny for him. I think we would have lasted less than a week.
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: Everything. Smart loud ballsy shit. Quiet pensive loaded shit. Quirky, absurd, silly shit. Romantic realistic heart-twisting shit. Long plays, short plays, plays that aren't plays. When stuff is done well, with commitment and vision and a fierce love of form, I get crazed and happy.
Q: What advice do you have for younger or less experienced playwrights?
A; None. I don't know what I'm doing.
Q: What time is Tara on or do you have a play coming up to plug?
A: Tara is between seasons, so you can check the website to see when season 2 airs. My play FEVER/DREAM is running at Woolly Mammoth Theatre right now. A huge wild fantastical modern adaptation of Pedro Calderon de la Barca's LIFE IS A DREAM. It's a monster.
Jun 7, 2009
I Interview Playwrights Part 6: Daniel Talbott
Daniel Talbott
Hometown: The Bay Area, California
Current Town: Brooklyn
Q: Tell me about the play you have going up at Rattlestick.
A; It’s the first play I ever tried to write and it’s called Slipping. It’s about this kid Eli who has recently lost his father in a car accident and then moves to Iowa with his mother from San Francisco to try to make a fresh start. I’m hoping it’s a simple love story about two guys and how getting what you want and being loved is actually sometimes the hardest thing. Having someone say I’m cool with you the way you are and I’m going to try to be there no matter what can often be the catalyst for the dam breaking and having to finally let go of stuff and deal with your life. It’s a play I’ve been working on and developing with a bunch of really cool peeps since 2001 and I feel like I finally have a small, simple play that focuses on the actors. I really hope it has a good honest heart to it and that people dig it.
Q: When did you write this play?
A: I started working on it during my third year at school and I can’t even remember why I started writing it other than I’d read an article in the New York Times about Sarah Kane and was so inspired by her story and her age and her writing that I wanted to try to write something myself, so I just dove in and gave it a shot and my first thought was like Damn, this is fuckin hard. As a young actor I hope I already had an immense respect for playwrights, but trying to do it myself gave me a whole new understanding of just how remarkable actual playwrights are and how insanely difficult it is to write a play, much less attempt to write a decent one.
Q: Isn't it true that while you were studying acting at Juilliard they did this play at the Royal Court in London? What was that like? Did you have to miss classes here to see your play there?
A: It was weird cause I didn’t know what the Royal Court really was until I started reading a lot about Sarah Kane, and then I found out they had a young writers program and that Sarah Kane I think had worked there, so I thought what the hell I’ll send it over to them and if they hate it and it sucks at least it was across the Atlantic and hopefully no one will give me a hard time for it being crappy. So I submitted it to them and then was so wrapped up in school that I kind of forgot about it until I got a call from them to be a part of Workers Writes and their Young Writers Programme. And to be honest when they called I actually thought it was one of my classmates fucking with me cause they all knew how obsessed I’d become with the writing over there and what was going on at the Royal Court and I thought they’d just left me a message to screw with me. So I went to class and was like, Ha ha you all are funny, and they thought I was insane, so finally Ola Animashawun called back and I literally almost passed out I was so excited. Juilliard was so supportive and cool about the whole thing and they actually helped work my rep season rehearsal around the time at the Royal Court so I didn’t miss anything, and I got to go back and forth about three times for rehearsals and opening and stuff. It was really amazing and Addie and I got to spend a week in London together in this amazing place in Sloane Square and it was just completely extraordinary and fun.
Q: You are one of those renaissance men of theater. You act, you direct, you write and you have your own theater company. How do you do all those things? Do you ever set about to direct say and an acting job comes along and you have to do that instead?
A: I’ve always just been in love with the theatre and said to myself that no matter what, whether I suck, or people think I’m bad or good, that this is it and I’ve always wanted to do as much in the theatre as I possibly can. I know this sounds dorky but it’s my life, along with my friends and my family, and there are so many aspects of it and I want to do as much of it as possible. I think that the more I do in the theatre the more I understand it from all these different angles and I think all of it’s helped to make me a better actor, director, artistic director, etc. When I work as an actor I think I understand directing better, and vice versa – it just opens me up and makes me a little less afraid of things, which is always my biggest battle. They way I deal with juggling stuff right now is that I’m first and foremost an actor and artistic director, and now one of the three literary managers at Rattlestick along with Julie Kline and Denis Butkus. So that helps me make decisions and so far I’ve been really lucky with being able to balance things, and my wife Addie and the rest of the RPRers have been insanely great about helping me do that. We all pitch in and pick up each others’ slack and I think are a really really wonderful team together.
Q: Right now you're in St. Louis acting in the Merry Wives of Windsor and Bailey and Addie are with you, are they not? How old is your son now? Do you find it hard to balance raising a kid with your artistic endeavors. (I'm sure Addie, your wife, gets much credit too) Do you go everywhere together every time you get an out-of-town job?
A: Yeah, we’ve been out in St. Louis working on Merry Wives with one of my favorite people on earth, Jesse Berger, for the last seven weeks or so and it’s been a really really great time with an awesome group of actors and Addie and B are both out here for the whole time. We try to go everywhere together and to not be apart as a family as much as possible. It kills me to be away from either of them for that long and I really didn’t want to get married and then spend half of each year away from each other. I think it’s a tough balance that most of the theatre folk I know go through, and I think we’re all trying to balance it and deal with it in the best way possible, and it can be hard. But I’m really lucky to have an extraordinary wife and son who really prop me up and are there for me and I hope I’m also there for them and they make me fight harder to hopefully be a better human being and man. I really struggle with confidence and fear and having them around reminds me of the important things and helps me be a tad more brave hopefully. B’s also three and half right now and school hasn’t fully come into play yet, so I think it will be even harder once he starts full time. I’ve actually been trying to do like one play out of town and then one play in town as much as possible so we can be home and stuff and also be working with RPR and with Rattlestick. At the same time though I tend to make a lot more money in regional theatre and we have to be able to pay our bills, and especially with not being able to sing most of what I go up for in town with theatre stuff is Off-Broadway which I love but doesn’t pay much. So the balance of the two makes it possible for us to make our living and hopefully get to be home and yet see a lot of the country too which is cool. I’m also not one of those actors that looks down on regional theatre. I love being able to travel around and work in a lot of different places and go with my family. I also believe in the regional theater and think it’s one of the great movements in American theatre history. I think it’s so extraordinarily important for theatre to be happening everywhere and it makes me sad when people rip on it, or act like it’s sub-par in some way. Theatre is theatre and there’s great and not-so-great theatre happening everywhere.
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: I love theatre that’s fucking with something and really trying to go there. I hate smug, cool theatre and theatre that’s hiding behind past achievements or snobbery. I think theatre has to have a great driving heart behind it and an extraordinary imagination and a searching for truth. I also like theatre that’s ugly and really risking something, not just pretending to. I think we all can dig deeper and work harder and have to do that as storytellers. It’s not about us, or our careers, and that can be really hard to remember sometimes but all that stuff can get in the way if you’re not careful. Not that we all don’t want to be successful, I mean we’d be crazy not to want that, but hopefully we all fight for it for the right reasons. I’ve been really impressed with Marin Ireland, Tommy Sadoski, David Adjmi, Mark Schultz, Lucy Thurber and Jessica Dickey this year and how all of their successes, at least to me, have come from the quality of their work and how hard they strive and how much they care about being artists and dedicate themselves. It’s so cool to see all that work pay off in such brilliant ways, and that their success comes from such humanity and quality. I think I also really love the way the Sarah Kane answered this same question: I love experiential theatre.
Q: I notice that your theater, Rising Phoenix does a lot of ghost story plays. Would you care to comment on your obsession with ghosts?
A: I’m actually not sure what that is other than that I love the supernatural and the unexplained. I love things that are mysteries; I kind of hate that so much of the time people need to know everything, or at least try to know everything. I love imagining the many, many things out there that we don’t know and that science and technology really can’t stake a claim to yet. I love the spiritual and the unknown, and I guess that means I love the supernatural. There’s got to be something bigger than you and me and something that’s not just blood and dirt, hopefully.
Q: What advice do you have for a young playwright starting out? (or a young theater artist of any ilk for that matter)
A: Do it with your heart and your work and be yourself. You also don’t have to be an asshole, no matter what certain people tell you and no matter how other people are acting. Be good to other people and it will hopefully empower them to do their best work which in turn will only make you better. Never think you’re better than someone else and/or look down on other peeps. We’ve all been good and we’ve all been bad and we’re all in this together as a team.
Q: Where can people go to get tickets to your play at Rattlestick? (link please)
A: Ticks will be on sale soon on SmartTix and it would rock to have you all come check out the play. http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showCode=SLI2&GUID=2712c77d-0d41-4c8f-b98e-ee9dd36d3fa9
Jun 6, 2009
I interview playwrights part 5: David Adjmi
David AdjmiHometown: Brooklyn, NY
Current Town: toggling Minneapolis and Brooklyn
Q: Tell me about your play Stunning.
Q: It's going up at Lincoln Center, right? That must be exciting.
A: It's really frightening and exciting, and I've never had a play on in New York before so I definitely feel the pressure. We're all working like dogs.
Q: You're one of those playwrights who write more than one play at a time. What's the most that you've had going at once? Do you have a bunch you're writing right now? What are they about?
A: Well I usually only am actively writing 2 plays at once, and I work on one in the morning and usually rewrite the other at night. And I'll jot ideas or dialogue for other plays while I'm doing that. But these last plays I wrote that way were kind of intense and I got really sick for writing sixteen hours a day so I had to stop that. Now I'm doing just one at a time. I'm writing a commission for Berkeley Rep which is sort of about the oil industry, and I'm working on a screenplay which is sort of about Shirley MacLaine, but that's all I'll say.
Q: What kind of theatre excites you?
Q: What do you look for in collaborators? (actors, directors, etc.)
A: Well with my director I need to work with someone who gets that my plays have very specific needs and really works to figure out what they are. I also like to work closely in the process and I need a director who's going to help carve out for me what my role is in the process. I don't like the ambiguity in the room of "oh, who is this scary playwright? why is he talking to us??" I like directors who are secure in who they are and in their work. In terms of actors, I love really generous actors who are deft with my style, which is not easy, and also have a real raw emotional access
Q: Do you have advice for the playwrights who read my blog? Is there anything you wish you had known a few years back that you could impart on the masses?
A: Well my plays and my experiences I think are specific to me and how I work and what I need, and we all have to come to it individually I think. That said, I think patience and faith and commitment to process both with yourself and your collaborators is enormously important. I didn't always have those things. I panicked quite easily and capitulated quite easily. I don't like to make choices out of fear -- in my writing or in production. There's always a moment where things can go south in production, or in development and it's usually when you are being asked to abandon your instincts when something doesn't work. It's extremely important for YOU, the AUTHOR, to understand for yourself WHY something doesn't work, and feel it on a gut level, before you change or abandon anything in the writing. That takes a kind of fortitude I didn't have when I started writing.
Q: You have a book of plays coming out, don't you? Can people pre-order that?
A: Oh gee, I don't know. I don't even have the galleys yet. It's not coming out til early 2010 so there's time.
Q: Where can people go to buy tickets to Stunning?
A: You can get them on the website for Lincoln Center, which is http://lct.org/showMain.htm?id=185, or at the box office of the Duke Theatre, which is where we're playing.
I interview playwrights part 4: Dominic Orlando
Dominic Orlando
Q: Tell me about this one man show you're performing. What is it about?
A: It actually started with a small idea, what KRAPP'S LAST TAPE would look like now, with video and sound and all the ways we can preserve and augment our memories. The Red Eye Theater here in Minneapolis has an amazing works in progress series and I got into it last year and explored that idea and it didn't interest me all that much--until Paradise Lost started creeping into it--I'm not sure how, exactly, but something about the pride of Satan, and his inability to see that being a King in Hell is not such a great deal--the idea of how stubbornness and misplaced pride can destroy your life. Maybe because of the Beckett influence, the main character also has trouble telling his story, so part of the drama of the event is can this guy get his shit together long enough to finish a sentence, never mind communicate these complicated ideas and thoughts.
Q: How did it come about?
A: I did it for The Red Eye's Works-in-Progress last year and they commissioned me to expand it this year for Isolated Acts, which is part of the same festival, but now I'm on the bill for an entire weekend, all by myself. Very new experience for a writer--I'm used to hiding behind many, many more people.
Q: Is this your first one person show?
A: Oh, yeah.
Q: Is writing a solo show for yourself to perform vastly different than writing a play?
A: This is a somewhat bizarre question coming from a playwright, but it's hugely different. Mostly because you can "compose" literally on your feet--basically write, act and direct (sort of) at the same time. And of course the structure is different, whatever the sense of--why are you asking me this, you know the answer already.
Q: I guess I just meant tell me how it’s different. Before Minneapolis, where were you living?
A; Brooklyn Heights
Q: You came to MN for a Jerome Fellowship, right?
A: yup.
Q; Do you think you'll stick around in MN for a while? What do you like about it?
A: There's a remarkable community of playwrights & theatre artists here--I'm not sure if it's because it's smaller (though, coming from a life spent in NYC, seeing "pop. 387,000" still gives me a kick)--but there's definitely a different vibe--the community feels more present. Of course, it could just be me, I was kind of a lunatic most of my time in NYC (a word we don't use lightly in my family). But it does seems unique. And I became a professional writer here, meaning I weaned myself off any kind of "survival job" so it will always have place in my heart because of that. I live in an actual house, and it takes me fifteen minutes (or less) to get to the airport. Which is really important because more than half my work is out of town--but, of course, New York is New York--so we'll see. And San Francisco/Berkeley is creeping into the mix as well.
Q; What kind of theater most excites you?
A: You know, The Walker used to send fellows free tickets, and we went to the first of Cynthia Hopkins' trilogy, and we walked in and I saw the set-up and I thought, "God, this is going to be unbearable"—but of course it was incredible. And I had the same feeling going into a Guthrie Production of "View From A Bridge"--which had some serious flaws, but overall knocked me out. So I think we're past the point of, you know, there's some Rule, or we should all pick a team and stick to it. There's definitely stuff that turns me off automatically, but I think most important is where is the artist coming from, is this the real deal or are they just shitting around or fucking with me or being fashionable (or trying to be)--so I guess "don't waste my time" is my only standard at this point.
Q: What advice do you have for my playwright readers about the business or act of playwriting?
A: Don't think of them as two different things. Other than that, it's extremely personal, how you work and how you deal with "selling" yourself (though you have to do it, there's literally no way around it). And maybe I'd come off my answer to the last question and say, Don't let some jackass from any school of thought tell you what a play is supposed to look like.
Q: What is the information for people who want to go see your show?
A: It's at The Red Eye Theater: http://www.redeyetheater.org June 11th, 12th & 13th @ 8PM.
Jun 5, 2009
I interview playwrights part 3: Matthew Freeman
Matthew FreemanHometown: I’m from all over. Grew up in PA, mostly.
Current town: Brooklyn.
Q: So tell me about this new play you have going up.
A: It’s called Glee Club. It’s about a group of men who want very much to sing well, despite their obvious, crippling flaws.
Q: Are you going to be sued by Fox?
A: I doubt it. I heard of their show well after I started working on mine. And mine is called Glee Club. You see the difference there?
What’s odd is that I’ve never heard of a high school “Glee Club.” I usually hear about high schools having show choirs or jazz choirs or whatever. Choirs. Glee Clubs, in my experience, are generally for adult hobbyists or colleges.
But what do I know? I’m just this guy, you know?
Q: You know that TV show was co created by a NYC actor who was in a couple readings of mine. Cool guy.
A: Didn’t know that. I thought this interview was about me, though. You’re bringing up the TV show and how you know people that worked on it. Would you rather talk about TV? It’s making me feel uncomfortable. I’m sweating a little. It’s like you’re just using this to name drop. Do you even really care about me at all?
Q: Do you think you're better than him?
A: Well..yes. I think so. I mean, I don’t know the man, but it’s my default response to strangers.
Q: You work with a lot of the same actors over and over. What are the pros and cons of that? Can I assume Matt Trumbull is in this?
A: He is. He’s awesome. So is David DelGrosso. Every actor in the show is someone I’ve worked with prior to this production.
I can’t think of any cons really. I love the guys I work with. They’re brilliant. I’m always looking for new people to add to my mental list, but I already know a ton of really spectacular actors. I believe in them, they believe in me, we all do our best for each other. That’s what it’s all about.
Q: Are you in it, singing?
A: No. I just wrote it. I sit in the back and eat ice cream and watch them sing.
A: Probably never again. I did it before as a joke on pretentiousness. Doing it again would be, well, actually pretentious.
Q: What kind of theatre excites you?
A: I don’t really know. Whatever has a lot of life, I guess. I don’t like watching plays that feel like exercises in certain theories, or try to impress us with their dexterity. I like watching writers who appear to be enjoying themselves. Some of the darkest plays out there have a real passion in them, virtuosity. Some guts. I like theater that’s got internal organs.
Q: And this show is with Blue Coyote. How many shows have you done with them? The last one was published by Samuel French, right? Where could people buy that? (link please)
A: Um… this is something like my eighth production with them, if you count smaller stuff.
The last one was published by Samuel French. That’s called When is a Clock. You can buy that one here: http://www.samuelfrench.com/store/product_info.php/products_id/7515
Q: Many of my readers are playwrights. Do you have any advice for people who write plays?
A: Don’t listen to people that try to give you advice, I guess. They’re also in the dark.
A: They can buy tickets here! (Thanks for the plug!) https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/122/1243909800000
Or get more info at http://www.bricktheater.com
Jun 4, 2009
I interview playwrights part 2: Anna Ziegler
Anna Ziegler
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Current Town: Brooklyn, NY
Q: Tell me a little about the play you have going up at Cherry Lane.
A: Dov and Ali follows the changing relationship between a Jewish high school teacher (Dov) and his Muslim student (Ali). Unfortunately, it's not a racy teacher-student romance. (Sorry, lovers of Notes on a Scandal'—and I am in your ranks, I assure you.) In this play, the two men help each other come to some important decisions regarding faith and love. The catalysts for these decisions are Dov's non-Jewish girlfriend, Sonya, whom he’s been hiding from his parents, and who all of a sudden wants to make their relationship more serious, and Ali's sister, Sameh, to whom something has happened that Ali can't discuss. Over the course of the play, these situations are blown wide open, forcing the men to reconsider everything they held dear.
Q: This play was just done in London. Were you able to go see it? What was that like? How were their American accents?
A: I actually was able to go over to London last summer for the entirety of the rehearsal period. I had a blast. The whole rehearsal process felt a little more laid back than I've been accustomed to over here -- until tech, that is, when there are only two days allotted to adding all the design elements into the play, as opposed to the luxurious three days that are typical over here. Getting to work with a British director and British actors on a play about a Jewish schoolteacher from Detroit was as fascinating and strange an experience as you would imagine it was. It was very different than working on the same play in New York. And their accents were great! It was funny to be there while the actors struggled with certain words. Just as there will always be one line that an actor gets wrong, there was one word each actor couldn't help but speak in a British accent.
Q: How did you come to write this play?
A: This play came from a number of places. First, I was teaching Lord of the Flies to my high school English class, as Dov is at the top of the play. I was working at a Jewish day school outside of Washington DC and was around a greater number of religious people than I ever had been. Inevitably, I began to question things based on the experiences of my colleagues and students. How are we supposed to handle situations in which things we want directly conflict with what our religion is telling us to do or be? Like Sonya, the non-religious character in the play, I started seeing religion as not simply something that comforts people in times of need and reassures us when we fear death, but as a source of difficulty and confusion. Particularly in the post 9/11 years, it seemed pertinent to write a play that questions the value of religion -- without, I hope, deriding it or those who choose to live by its rules.
Q: What are some of your other plays about?
A: All my plays are pretty different. I've got a play that's an adaptation of the Greek myth of Theseus and Ariadne, called The Minotaur; a play about Rosalind Franklin, the scientist who helped discover the double helix but whose work (controversially) was stolen by Watson and Crick; a play called Variations on a Theme about the aftermath of a break-up of a young couple in New York, among others...All my plays seem, however, to deal in some way with loss, forgiveness and the question of love's ability to endure.
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: I love theater that plays with language and creates worlds on stage that aren't quite naturalistic but aren't completely magical either -- lyrical places where realistic events or everyday matters take on new, heightened meaning. This is why I love Sarah Ruhl's work, Melissa Gibson's work, Rinne Groff's work. Anne Washburn's work. A totally incomplete list but those are the folks that popped to mind.
Q: Are there any plays up right now that you would recommend people go see?
A: Ruined. The Amish Project. The Norman Conquests. Others I haven't seen but want to: Night Sky, Our Town, Mary Stuart, Exit the King, The Dishwashers, West Side Story, Next to Normal, Into the Hazard, The EST Marathon...
Q: Where can people go to buy tickets to your play?
A:
Jun 3, 2009
James Comtois--interview one
Remember how I said I wasn't sure where this blog would go next? Basically, I said most of what I wanted to say about playwriting. I was wondering if I would continue to blog. Well, now I've decided to start something new where I interview playwrights. I'm starting off with the delightful James Comtois.
Photo by Randi Rosenblum.
Hometown: Candia, NH
Current town: Brooklyn, NY
So what do you have going on right now?
A show called Infectious Opportunity, playing at the Brick Theater's Antidepressant Festival. It's about a screenwriter who fakes being HIV-positive to boost his career. Is Infectious Opportunity autobiographical? No. How did you get into playwriting? Do you like it still? what makes you write?
I got into playwriting in college after a few aborted attempts at writing comics and screenplays. I still like writing plays a great deal. I think the two main factors that fuel my writing are the ideas behind the scripts themselves and the fact that, through my production company, Nosedive Productions, I know the scripts are going to see the light of day via production in a very short period of time. It's always good motivation to write something when you know it'll be staged within 4-8 months of completing the final draft.
What kind of theatre excites you?
Different kinds, although I mainly enjoy theatre that provides either a visceral or hypnotic experience. And if it can provide both? Hotness. Pure hotness. I think my favorite productions are those that find a way to immediately hook me in and make me forget I'm watching a play, and make the real world seem a bit distant and unreal after curtain call.
You're one of those playwrights with his own theatre company (Nosedive Productions). What are the pros and cons of starting and running your own theatre? How many shows does Nosedive do a year?
Nosedive produces two shows a year on average. As I mentioned before, it's always nice to know that your work will be staged in the very near future. Plus, it's cool to be able to oversee and be actively involved in the productions, which ultimately offers me more creative control of the work. In terms of downsides, I guess running a theatre company means an increased workload. You can't just write a script then send it off and be done with it. You need to participate in the legwork in getting the thing staged (which is both a pro and con). Also, you're partially responsible for either paying for the production or getting the money for it.
Many of my readers are playwrights. Do you have any words of advice for playwrights? Things to do, things not to do?
I think the best thing to do is to keep writing and to keep writing different things. If you write a script that you think stinks, don't spend all your time and energy rewriting it or fretting over it: just finish it, put it away (either for the time being or indefinitely, it's up to you), and write a new script. Perseverance and tenacity are pretty good traits to have when being a writer.
You work with a lot of the same actors over and over again. How does that feed into your creative impulses (or not). (or what are the upsides or downsides to that?)
It's always a lot of fun to be putting on theatre with a team, especially a team that knows each other really well. Even though I rarely (if ever) write for a specific actor in mind, it's good to know that members of the cast & crew will be familiar with my work and overall style. But sometimes we like to mix it up. I always like to have at least one or two newbie cast members for any given show. Oddly enough, most of the cast members for Infectious Opportunity are new to Nosedive.
And what's the show information for those people who want to see your show?
Infectious Opportunity is playing for four performances at the Brick Theater on 575 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: Sunday, June 7th at 5pm; Tuesday, June 9th at 8pm; Wednesday, July 1st at 9pm; and Friday, July 3rd at 7pm. You can get your tickets here
Photo by Randi Rosenblum.
Hometown: Candia, NH
Current town: Brooklyn, NY
So what do you have going on right now?
A show called Infectious Opportunity, playing at the Brick Theater's Antidepressant Festival. It's about a screenwriter who fakes being HIV-positive to boost his career. Is Infectious Opportunity autobiographical? No. How did you get into playwriting? Do you like it still? what makes you write?
I got into playwriting in college after a few aborted attempts at writing comics and screenplays. I still like writing plays a great deal. I think the two main factors that fuel my writing are the ideas behind the scripts themselves and the fact that, through my production company, Nosedive Productions, I know the scripts are going to see the light of day via production in a very short period of time. It's always good motivation to write something when you know it'll be staged within 4-8 months of completing the final draft.
What kind of theatre excites you?
Different kinds, although I mainly enjoy theatre that provides either a visceral or hypnotic experience. And if it can provide both? Hotness. Pure hotness. I think my favorite productions are those that find a way to immediately hook me in and make me forget I'm watching a play, and make the real world seem a bit distant and unreal after curtain call.
You're one of those playwrights with his own theatre company (Nosedive Productions). What are the pros and cons of starting and running your own theatre? How many shows does Nosedive do a year?
Nosedive produces two shows a year on average. As I mentioned before, it's always nice to know that your work will be staged in the very near future. Plus, it's cool to be able to oversee and be actively involved in the productions, which ultimately offers me more creative control of the work. In terms of downsides, I guess running a theatre company means an increased workload. You can't just write a script then send it off and be done with it. You need to participate in the legwork in getting the thing staged (which is both a pro and con). Also, you're partially responsible for either paying for the production or getting the money for it.
Many of my readers are playwrights. Do you have any words of advice for playwrights? Things to do, things not to do?
I think the best thing to do is to keep writing and to keep writing different things. If you write a script that you think stinks, don't spend all your time and energy rewriting it or fretting over it: just finish it, put it away (either for the time being or indefinitely, it's up to you), and write a new script. Perseverance and tenacity are pretty good traits to have when being a writer.
You work with a lot of the same actors over and over again. How does that feed into your creative impulses (or not). (or what are the upsides or downsides to that?)
It's always a lot of fun to be putting on theatre with a team, especially a team that knows each other really well. Even though I rarely (if ever) write for a specific actor in mind, it's good to know that members of the cast & crew will be familiar with my work and overall style. But sometimes we like to mix it up. I always like to have at least one or two newbie cast members for any given show. Oddly enough, most of the cast members for Infectious Opportunity are new to Nosedive.
And what's the show information for those people who want to see your show?
Infectious Opportunity is playing for four performances at the Brick Theater on 575 Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn: Sunday, June 7th at 5pm; Tuesday, June 9th at 8pm; Wednesday, July 1st at 9pm; and Friday, July 3rd at 7pm. You can get your tickets here
May 31, 2009
Jimmy Comtois and Matt Freeman
Podcast about Jimmy's new play and other cool things.
http://www.nytheatrecast.com/pcast/nythpod289.mp3
http://www.nytheatrecast.com/pcast/nythpod289.mp3
May 26, 2009
Next
Pretty Theft is over but don't despair. Here come some more shows of mine.
May 28-June 28, Miami and Ft. Lauderdale, FL, my short play Snow. (production #12 or so of this play)
July 10-26 Echo Theatre, St. Louis, MO, a production of Nerve (production #5)
June 16th, Jobsite Theater, Tampa, FL, a reading of Nerve
July 15-July 26, Doorway Arts Ensemble in the DC Fringe, Washington DC, a production Herbie: Poet of the Wild West. (production #1)
If you can't make any of those, but don't want to feel left out, Nerve and Food For Fish are published here and here. Also found at Amazon and other fine online bookstores.
Also I have a short play in the NYTR '09. Get your copy soon.
July 10-26 Echo Theatre, St. Louis, MO, a production of Nerve (production #5)
June 16th, Jobsite Theater, Tampa, FL, a reading of Nerve
no picture
July 5-August 1, Essential Theatre, Atlanta, GA, a production of Food For Fish. (production #8)
July 15-July 26, Doorway Arts Ensemble in the DC Fringe, Washington DC, a production Herbie: Poet of the Wild West. (production #1)
If you can't make any of those, but don't want to feel left out, Nerve and Food For Fish are published here and here. Also found at Amazon and other fine online bookstores.
Also I have a short play in the NYTR '09. Get your copy soon.
May 23, 2009
another summer show
I also have a short play at City Theatre in FL opening May 28
http://www.citytheatre.com/in_theatres.htm
http://www.citytheatre.com/in_theatres.htm
May 20, 2009
your favorites please
In response (sort of) to the conversation going on over here I would like to make a list of some of my favorite female playwrights who I would like to see produced more. Please add your own favorites in the comments section.
In no particular order, an incomplete list
Kia Corthron
Annie Baker
Anne Marie Healy
Anne Washburn
Lisa D'Amour
Liz Meriwether
Liz Flahive
Bekah Brunstetter
Boo Killabrew
Kristen Palmer
Julia Cho
Crystal Skillman
Gina Gionfriddo
Lucy Thurber
Jenny Schwartz
Sheila Callaghan
Brooke Berman
who else?
also this summer
These folks are doing a couple short plays of mine in Chicago July 17-August 9
http://www.lightsouttheatre.org/
http://www.lightsouttheatre.org/
May 16, 2009
summer shows
Photo: Isaiah Tanenbaum. Pretty Theft.
Tonight and tomorrow, last two performances of Pretty Theft in New York. (production #4 of the play)
June 5-June 20 Echo Theatre, St. Louis, MO, a production of Nerve (production #5)
June 16th, Jobsite Theater, Tampa, FL, a reading of Nerve
July 5-August 1, Essential Theatre, Atlanta, GA, a production of Food For Fish. (production #8)
July 15-July 26, Doorway Arts Ensemble in the DC Fringe, Washington DC, a production Herbie: Poet of the Wild West. (production #1)
If you can't make any of those, but don't want to feel left out, Nerve and Food For Fish are published here and here. Also found at Amazon and other fine online bookstores.
May 15, 2009
May 13, 2009
from Move On
5 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OBAMA'S PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE OPTION
The choice of a public health insurance plan is crucial to real health care reform. But right now, it's being smeared by conservatives and insurance-industry front groups. Here's what you really need to know:
1. Choice, choice, choice. If the public health insurance option passes, Americans will be able to choose between their current insurance and a high-quality, government-run plan similar to Medicare. If you like your current care, you can keep it. If you don't—or don't have any—you can get the public insurance plan.2
2. It will be high-quality coverage with a choice of doctors. Government-run plans have a track record of innovating to improve quality, because they're not just focused on short-term profits. And if you choose the public plan, you'll still get to choose your doctor and hospital.3
3. We'll all save a bunch of money. The public health insurance option won't have to spend money on things like CEO bonuses, shareholder dividends, or excessive advertising, so it'll cost a lot less. Plus, the private plans will have to lower their rates and provide better value to compete, so people who keep their current insurance will save, too.4
4. It will always be there for you and your family. A for-profit insurer can close, move out of the area, or just kick you off their insurance rolls. The public health insurance option will always be available to provide you with the health security you need.5
5. And it's a key part of universal health care. No longer will sick people or folks in rural communities, or low-income Americans be forced to go without coverage. The public health insurance plan will be available and accessible to everyone. And for those struggling to make ends meet, the premiums will be subsidized by the government.6
May 12, 2009
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