I Interview Playwrights Part 47: Brooke Berman

photo by Jennie Livingston 

Brooke Berman

Hometown: Born in Detroit, raised in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, re-raised in New York City, where I have lived ever since.

Current Town: Los Angeles

Q: Tell me about your book coming out. Can it be preordered?

A: The book becomes available this Spring, publication date is Summer 2010. There will absolutely be pre-ordering through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Borders.com, but probably not for a few more months. It's being published by Harmony Books at Random House. In addition, I am going to build a website, which will have links to those e-commerce sites. But if you notice, if you go to say, brookeberman.com, I have not yet built said website. (actually, brookeberman.com links you to an art gallery in texas. no joke.) The book is a memior about coming of age in New York City and trying to find one's way as an artist and person, but really, it's about the 30-odd apartments that I have lived in over the past 20 years. My fiance calls it "Eat Pray Move." And it's been a joy to write. I'd been wanting to write about The East Village in the early 90's (I arrived in 1988) for some time, trying to figure out what story to tell, whether it was a play or a movie -- and then, the book came, and my love for that time and place could be channeled effectively.

Q: What else are you working on?

A: I'm finishing a new play called CASUAL ENCOUNTERS, about people who meet through NSA sex sites. The play posits that no encounter is ever really "casual" and that the people who think you know are often the ones who wind up feeling the most like strangers, while actual strangers can provide startling insights and intimacy. And I'm working on the second draft of a movie for Steve Shainberg's company, Vox films. It's an adaptation of a beautiful Jane Hamilton novel, DISOBEDIENCE.

 Q: Can you tell me a little about your experiences writing for film or your time in LA?

A: First of all, I love LA. I live in an arts colony here, a converted PBR Brewery downtown -- something like Westbeth in New York -- in a loft. So, there's that. But also, working in film has taught me how to think about structure differently and how to write from a more ordered and linear part of my brain. It's like calling one's shots in a pool game. In playwriting, I don't call my shots - I just write. But in screenwriting, there's this sense of needing to know where you're going to end up, or at least, being able to project, for the other people involved, producers and whatnot, where you think the game will go, before you ever write a word of the script. So this has been a great education. The two divergent processes ("let the writing guide you" versus "call your shots") have a lot to say to one another -- neither presents a full picture. Anyway, once I realized I had to learn some new tricks, it became less frustrating and a whole lot more fun. And now I'm having a blast learning. I've developed a great deal of respect for what screenwriters do. They're like detectives, looking for clues, building plots; I'm more of a dream analyst, interpreting what the unconscious mind presents. I could say way more about this, because I love process, but we'd be here all day.

Q: Are you teaching now? If so, where? What do you like most about teaching writing?

A: I just taught a two-day workshop with Karen Hartman in New York City called "Pleasure and Risk". I plan to do another (with her) the next time I'm in New York for an extended period. I also teach roughly once or twice a year with Anne Garcia Romero in LA. And occasionally I do workshops through Primary Stages Theater School. At the moment, I'm immersed in finishing all three projects - book, play and movie - and have to put teaching on hold. But I'll probably teach somewhere this winter. January is always a good time for a workshop. New Years resolutions and all that. What I like most about teaching writing is the chance to engage directly in the creative process, both mine and my students. It's my favorite thing in the whole world. In class, we are explorers, astronauts, spiritual seekers looking for new terrain, new states of consciousness, excavating the imagery and sensibility of the unconscious mind and then, sharing what we find there. It's exciting! It's where everything starts.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Well, I'll tell you what excited me last year: Becky Shaw. And Trip Cullman's revival of "Six Degrees of Separation" at the Old Globe. I also have a great love for very physical imagistic theater. Meredith Monk. The late Pina Bausch. Pippo Del Bono. And theater that deals with the transcendent/sacred and the physical as part of the same conversation. Tony Kushner's work thrills me. Irene Fornes. Caryl Churchill. I really, really wish I'd been able to see "Wig Out." I loved reading that. I love drag.

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

A: Write, write, write, write, write. And self-produce, so that you can see what your work looks like in three-dimensional space, with design and lights and sound and all that, before you start to get produced by institutional theater. Hear your work out loud, however and wherever you can. Work with actors. And have faith. Despite what everyone says, if you keep at it long enough, you do get somewhere.

I Interview Playwrights Part 46: Julia Jordan

Julia Jordan

Hometown: Mostly St. Paul Minn. But we moved around a lot. England and back.

Current Town: Just above the Bronx, Fleetwood, NY

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I'm working on two musicals. One is about the closing of the N. Orleans red light district just as we were entering WWI, with a hopefully juicy melodramatic story... One is an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first published story, BERNICE BOBS HER HAIR. It's set in the same time period. I'm not sure why I keep going back to the turn of the last century. It's my favorite short story ever, bar none. And I'm working on a film version of my last produced play, DARK YELLOW. The film however is called TELL ME SOMETHING I DON"T KNOW which is a vastly better title. And it has become a very different narrative.

Q: According to Wikipedia, you were a painter, CNN copywriter and actor before you started writing for the stage. How did you become a playwright?

A: I was a mediocre to bad painter, a mediocre to bad actress, and a mediocre to bad journalist. I just kept trying things. I always tell my students that it's almost more important to know where you talents do not lie. I turned to writing while in acting school at the Neighborhood Playhouse. They had us write personal monologues to perform. I just didn't feel comfortable letting my personal demons out or spilling any deep dark secrets in that venue, so I made one up. Went over gangbusters. Made my teacher cry. I enjoyed it immensely.

Q: You've also done some film and TV. Can you talk a little about what that was like?

A: Didn't love the TV writing. But that was probably more to do with the shows I worked on. I'm really enjoying this film script, but its kind of an ideal situation. The director and I are completely in tune and our producer has worked on some of my favorite films so I trust him completely. Plus, he loves theater, and he was a jeopardy contestant, so I know he's smart.

Q: How does musical book writing compare to playwriting?

A: Musical bookwriting is more concrete. You have to be crystal clear about who is doing what when and why. Music is many things but it is better at expanding a moment than progressing the plot. That said, when in the hands of certain composers and lyricists it can be done beautifully. I adore plot. I think it's the hardest thing to do well and the most delicious. Plot with music, double delicious.

Q: Why do you think there aren't as many women as men being produced on American stages?

 A: Okay so here's the deal. We can prove bias is at work. It's been proven over and over and over again in many different fields. When respondents believe work, or a resume, belongs to a male they rate it higher, are more likely to produce or hire than when they believe it to belong to a woman. Men and women both hold this bias, though possibly, I think probably for different reasons. In Emily Sands' study of theater, she only found bias by women. This doesn't mean that she found that men don't hold bias. Not finding something means little to nothing in economics. You can't prove a null hypothesis. Bias is easy to hide. Finding something however means that there is AT LEAST as much as was found. What Emily found was that the female respondents rated scripts purportedly by women as having overall lower value, but it was entirely due to their belief that others would discriminate against the work. They rated the artistic excellence the same whether they thought the script was written by a man or woman. They thought however that audiences wouldn't buy tickets, that awards committees wouldn't honor the work and that the theater would suffer financially if they produced scripts by women (and specifically scripts they thought were by women that had female protagonists) so ultimately they said that though they would like to produce them they would not. This has been entirely missed in the media... They reported women hate women. So there's bias, and then there is discouragement. Just as in all cases of discrimination, whenever the possibility of making a living is lessened you will have fewer people going in to a profession, and those already in will be more likely to leave or to stay in only part time. So fewer women become writers, fewer are able to find representation (agents know they don't make as much money) fewer are produced, fewer find work in TV and Film (the numbers in hollywood appear to be worse that theater and have taken a dip in recent years.) So for more women than men, writing becomes something on the side or is given up completely. As much as we seem to love the idea that the truly talented write no matter what, I find it hard to believe. Economics plays a huge part in everyone's lives. Only so many folks have trust funds. We need health insurance and roofs and food. And even for those who are independent of these concerns, writing plays that never get produced is obviously discouraging and... pointless. Its hard for anyone to be a playwright. But it's easier if you are male. So it's a vicious circle. The theaters are getting fewer scripts from women, and they are producing even fewer, and of the ones they do produce, they are usually off on the second stages without the degree of talent and names and money afforded mainstage work. The bar is set higher for women's work. And the proof of that is in the simple fact that though less that 20 percent of the productions are by women, around 40 percent of the most successful plays in the past ten years were by women. Basically there are two choices, women are vastly better playwrights than men OR only the best women are being produced and the men's average is being dragged down by lesser works by men. I don't think men or women are inherently more talented by virtue of their gender. There are just way too many excellent male writers out there and thru history. All this bias is largely unconscious and maybe a bit willfully misunderstood. There is comfort in stasis. And a lot less work involved. A lot fewer scripts to read. So there's my two cents and then some. I find the whole thing endlessly fascinating.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: What kind of theater do I like? I like plot. And I love a little political intrigue. And a good fight. And bad language. Martin McDonagh is a huge favorite. And a guy.

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

A: Advice... Send out your plays yourself. Move to Chicago, LA or New York. I think being present is an even bigger factor than gender in whether or not you get produced. Know what kind of theater you hate and address it in your work. When you are young, go ahead and be reactionary. It's not the time to emulate, its the time to create something new, something else.

I Interview Playwrights Part 45: Joshua Conkel

Joshua Conkel

Hometown: I'm originally from Kentucky, but my dad joined the Navy so we moved around a lot. I'll say Hansville, WA, a teensy-tiny town across the Puget Sound from Seattle. That's where we ended up and where I spent most of my formative years.

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York

Q: Tell me about your play coming up, MilkMilkLemonade. What is it about and who is the artistic team?

A: In the abstract, MilkMilkLemonade started as an experiment in memory. It's like a collage of images, ideas, and memories (many of which are completely false) from my childhood. I'm interested in they ways in which our memories are misleading or completely false. I wanted to write a play about growing up queer that takes place in a nightmare landscape that expresses how terrifying life can be for gay kids in an expressive, rather than strictly literal way It's also an exploration of how our bodies change, how they limit us or trap us, and whether or not we even have control over them. That's all pretentious gobbledy-goo though, because MilkMilkLemonade is a comedy about an effeminate little boy named Emory who lives alone on a farm with his sick grandmother. His only friend is a chicken named Linda and together they dream of auditioning for the televised talent show, Reach for the Stars. On the day that Emory's grandmother forces him to give up his favorite doll, Linda is to be "processed" and Emory has to figure out how to save her. Obviously, many things get in the way, not the least of which is Elliot, an 11-year-old pyromaniac and semi-rapist who lives down the road. It's very funny and dark and sort of melancholy. It's children's theater for grown-ups. Also, there's dancing! We have an amazing artistic Team for this one. Isaac Butler is directing. I'd read his blog, but had never worked with him. He's so warm and confident, which nicely sets off my crippling insecurities. It's also nice to work with somebody who is so much smarter than you are. I reccomend it. In the cast we have Jennifer Harder, who has become the Laura Dern to my David Lynch or the Mink Stole to my John Waters over the past five years. She plays Linda the Chicken. My good friend Nikole Beckwith, a Youngblood playwright as well as a performer with the Story Pirates, plays a "Lady in a Leotard". Jess Barbagallo, another playwright/actor, is another newbie to The Management and has worked with Ontological a lot. She plays elliot, the little boy from down the road. Andy Phelan, who is incredibly sweet and talented and was just in The Chimes by Kevin Christopher Snipes, takes the lead as Emory. It's impossible not to fall in love with Andy when you watch him work. Lastly, we have the hilarious Michael Cyril Creighton, who has his own web series called Jack in a Box and was one of the hosts of VH1's Best Night Ever. He plays Nanna. All amazing.

Q: Tell me about your company The Management. How long have you guys been around?

A: The Management started in 2004 as part of the UnConvention Festival, which was a response to the Republican National Convention that was being held in New York. I took over as Artistic Director in 2005 and we've had residency with Horse Trade Theater Group for two years now. Basically, we favor new plays that explore contemporary American life. We like plays that are unpretentious, young, and bold.

 Q: What are you working on next?

A: I'm writing a comedy sopa opera entitled Sinking Hearts. It's about Navy wives. Misty and Crystal are both housewives (played by drag queens, obviously) on Thomas Hartman High Security Submarine Base somewhere in rural Washington State. There's a malevolent force in the old woods that surround their houses and it takes Misty and Crystal on a strange journey. It's Desperate Housewives meets Twin Peaks. It's really fun to write, because I get to mess with genres, which I love. It's also fun to write for the same characters for a long time and watch them change and grow. Who knows how and when it'll be produced. What a logistical nightmare!

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

A: I was a very shy and meloncholy child. Like now, I prefered my own company to the company of others. I used to pretend I was a horse. I'd spend hours in my front yard galloping and neighing. All by myself. God knows what the neighbors thought. When I was a teenager my mom and I were having a late night heart to heart wherein a lot of family secrets were finally coming out. It was my moment. I finally had the courage to bring up a subject nobody had ever discussed out loud; why my family really left Kentucky. I was two or so. My Granny owned a beauty shop at the bottom of our apartment building and cut all of our hair. I very clearly remember her giving me a perm. Why a grown woman would give a toddler a perm, let alone a male toddler, I have no idea. I remember running out to the front of the building as the school bus carrying my brother and sister and the other big kids arrived. I was excited to show off my new do. Then Robbie, a slightly older boy who lived upstairs from me and teased me mercilessly, started making fun of it and saying that perms were for girls etc. I have no idea what happened, but I completely lost it and smashed a bottle over this poor kid's head and he fell to the ground. The last thing I remember is kids shouting and my mom and Granny running toward me from the shop. So I'm up late with my mom years later and I'm crying and finally getting this off my chest. I felt like I was a monster. Why did nobody ever bring up the fact that I killed another kid when I was little? It had tormented me for years. Well, apparently nobody ever talked about it because it never happened. All that guilt and torment for nothing. My mom looked at me like I was insane. "are you kidding?" she said. "You never had a perm." I suppose it was all a dream.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Well, I love plays that aren't boring. Honestly, my taste runs the gamut, but I like work that is accessible (which is not to say dumbed down). I don't like feeing like I'm just pounding my head against a wall of "art", you know? Also, I like plays that are a little raw and a lot bold. I admire cheekiness. Also, aesthetics go a long, long way for me. Even a fringe show that costs nothing can have an aesthetic to it. I like style.

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

A: I'm just starting out myself and sometimes it seems to me that the answer to this question should be "have rich parents" or "go to Yale" but I'm trying not to be cynical. I think support is great. Join a writing group. Youngblood has been one of the best things that's happened to me. An artisitic home helps too, so I'd suggest starting a theater company with like minded actors, directors, writers etc. Lastly, be as critical of your own work as you can stand. That way, by the time it's produced you can advocate for it. Always fight for your work. Be your own advocate, because nobody else will. Fight, fight, fight! You can get tickets here: http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=MIL6 It runs Sept 10-26

I Interview Playwrights Part 44: Kyle Jarrow

photo by Lauren Worsham 

Kyle Jarrow

Hometown: Ithaca, NY

Current Town: New York, NY

Q: You're one of those people who is always working on twenty things at once. You write plays, music, musicals, you're in three or four bands and now you've started a publishing company. Tell me about this publishing company. How did this come about?

A: Several years ago, my friend Jeffrey Dinsmore (“Jeffrey” D for short) was one of the founders of an indie publishing company called Contemporary Press. They concentrated specifically on pulp fiction and crime stories — and they published quite a few books, with an impressive amount of success. Then a few years ago that company folded, and so Jeff was looking for a new project. He approached me and another friend, writer Clay McLeod Chapman, to see if we’d be interested in working with him on starting a new publishing venture. Awkward Press was the result. The idea is to focus on publishing imaginative, story-based fiction, and to do it in an affordable format with an eye toward design. Really treating books as an art object, but trying to do it without making them too expensive.

Q: What else are you up to now? You have a play or musical in the works?

A: I just got done workshopping a new musical at Williamstown that I wrote with Nathan Leigh, called THE CONSEQUENCES. We’re doing rewrites now, based on what we learned at that workshop, and hoping to do another workshop this fall and move toward a production in the spring. Meanwhile, I’m preparing to do WHISPER HOUSE, another musical (this one I wrote with Duncan Sheik) at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. That opens in January.

Q: How is writing a musical different than writing a straight play?

A: There are two main differences, it seems to me: One, in a musical you’re able to go more deeply into character’s thoughts and feelings. Songs allow you to have characters sing directly to the audience about what they’re feeling. In a straight play, you have to work in a more round-about way to show this kind of inner life. The second difference is that musicals tend to be a more collaborative process. Even if one person is writing book, music, and lyrics (which I’ve done on a few occasions) there’s still an arranger involved, and a music director in addition to the director. Having more people involved in the creation process can be challenging, but ultimately I think it ends up being more exciting.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I like theater that surprises me. Far too many of the new plays I see are traditionally structured pieces about upper middle-class white people with dark secrets. There’s a place for that, absolutely, and plays like that can be amazing, but they’re hardly surprising. I like to see a wider range of subject matter and more experimentation with form. I like to be made to think about things I wouldn’t have thought about otherwise.

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

A: The theater industry is a fairly conservative industry, in my experience. Probably because of the generally geriatric age of the core audiences at many theaters. This can make it frustrating when you’re first starting out and you’re trying to make a name for yourself. The best (and most fun) way to get started is to band together with other likeminded peers — actors, directors, designers — and get your work produced. Even if it’s on a very small scale, you’ll learn things from seeing your plays produced that you’ll never learn from reading them on the page. And through these productions you’ll gradually build a name for yourself, on your own terms. You won’t be dependant solely on the whims of theater literary departments.

Q: Plugs here and links for the publishing co, your bands, anything else:

Check out my new band Super Mirage! We have a record coming out in January. http://www.supermirage.com The publishing company can be found at http://www.awkwardpress.com And my website, that has more on all the crap I do, is at http://www.landoftrust.com

I Interview Playwrights Part 43: Christina Ham

Christina Ham

Hometown: Los, Angeles, California

Current Town: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Q: What are you working on right now?:

A: Two full-lengths - "The Tiny Soldier" which is a classic ghost tale (with a twist) and "Tar's Children" which is an apocalpytic tale set in a truck stop. Q: How long have you been in Minneapolis and where did you move from?: A: I've been in Minneapolis for 4 years now. I moved here from Los Angeles, California after receiving the Jerome Fellowship.

Q: Tell me a little bit about what you do at the Playwrights' Center:

A: I am the Program Coordinator for the Many Voices Residency Fellowship Program that's funded by the Jerome Foundation. I facilitate weekly workshops for beginning and emerging playwrights that allow them to hone their craft. In addition, I am constantly looking for opportunities to network with theaters where the artists whose work is being developed at the Center could grow beyond our walls and ultimately be produced.

Q: Could you tell my audience how you got involved in writing plays for children? How many of those have you written now? What do you like about it?:

A: When I first moved to Minneapolis for the Jerome Fellowship I was commissioned by the Guthrie Theater to go into a regional high school and work with the students to develop a one-act play. I worked with a group of drama students at St. Francis High School in St. Francis, MN to develop my play "County Line" that was published by PlayScripts. That was my first opportunity to write for a children and I thoroughly enjoyed the process. So far I have written four (I wrote one while in graduate school at UCLA, the one for the Guthrie, and the two I've been commissioned to do for SteppingStone). I am in the process of preparing to write another one for SteppingStone who has commissioned me once again. What I like about writing for children is that it really frees you up to have fun on the page and really let your imagination run wild. It really asks you to use the "play" part in playwriting. In addition, it allows you to teach life lessons to kids in a way that will hopefully have an indelible impact on their lives.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?:

A: Theater that really wants to take chances. I know people throw that phrase around a lot in our line of work, but I really mean it. I don't like seeing things that have clearly been done over and over again. Theater that takes place in unusual worlds or plays with language and structure is always interesting to me. I do believe there's a place as well for the classic kitchen sink play, but that's not the kind of theater I generally gravitate towards.

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

A: Try many different types of things on the page. Keep writing and, as I always tell my residents, the advice Jose Rivera gives to playwrights -- strive to be your own genre. There's nothing worse than reading a new writer who's trying to imitate someone else. Don't be afraid to be yourself. Plugs: Cold reading of "Tar's Children" coming up at Penumbra Theatre. Production of "Henry's Freedom Box" at SteppingStone Theater in February 2010, and a production of "After Adam" at Luna Stage in Fall 2010.

I Interview Playwrights Part 42: Rachel Axler

Rachel Axler

Hometown: New York

Current Town: Los Angeles

Q: What are you working on now?

A: Right now, I'm writing for a sitcom, which doesn't afford me a ton of time to do playwriting. But my play, Smudge, will be produced at The Women's Project in January, which is tremendously exciting. And I do have the beginnings of two new plays...one's a farce and one is kind of about an atheist's late-life potential conversion. Other than that, I write a lot of useless cartoony things on index cards.

Q: How long did you write for the Daily Show? What was that like?

A: I wrote for the show from May of 2005 through the conventions this past September, so that's...math years & something months. Figuringggg... it... ouuuttt... Okay, about 3 and a third years. Actually, almost exactly that, to the day. Is this answer too specific? Have you stopped caring? I find this very interesting. The job was amazing, and I adored it. Not only did I get to work with some of the brightest, quickest, funniest people I've ever met, but I was in the enviable position (especially, I think, for television) of truly, truly believing in the quality of our output. A lot of people ask why I left -- like, how anyone could ever leave a job like that? My background is in theatre and playwriting, and I started to feel a strong desire to combine joke-writing with writing for characters and working with story again. So while I certainly wasn't looking to leave, when the opportunity came along to be on the original writing staff of a new sitcom, I was excited to try my hand at it.

Q: You write for Parks and Rec now, right? What's that like?

A: I do! It's fun, and very different -- far more collaborative than it was at The Daily Show. We actually have a writers' room here, in which the bulk of our day is spent, and although we're all in front of computer screens all day (that part's the same), the joke/dialogue pitching process is primarily out loud, rather than turning in a written packet of work. So while I used to think of something, work it out on paper, craft the sentence, make it as funny and concise as possible, etc...I don't have the luxury of doing that, now. I'm working on censoring my thoughts less, and just spitting out the raw joke idea -- recognizing that the editorial process is split among numerous brains, rather than taking place in mine alone.

 Q: I just started writing for TV about a month ago. It's so tiring. How do you find time to work on your own stuff?

A: I don't. I wrote a bit during our last hiatus, which was several months ago. Annnnd now I'm pretty much waiting for the next one, to finish drafts of these new plays. But here's where I got lucky: In New York, I had a wonderful writing group, and we'd get together to read each other's work every few weeks. (I also had The Lark for a year, which was how I got SMUDGE finished.) When I arrived here last September, I was contacted by this amazing chick named Jennifer Haley, who was starting an LA-based group called The Playwrights Union (http://www.playwrightsunion.com/). We've met numerous times, now, to read each other's work out loud, and it's definitely kept me somewhat moored to the world of playwriting, even when I can't submerge myself fully. ...What's up, boat metaphors!

Q: What theaters or shows would you recommend for someone who just moved to LA?

A: Have you heard the expression, "Aaaaaaauuuugh?" If there were theatre in my office or my apartment, I'd be able to recommend it. As is, I don't get out enough. Oh, but several friends of mine (and fellow UCSD MFA alums) have started a theatre company called Chalk Rep (http://www.chalkrep.com/), which does site-specific work -- new and classical plays. You should check them out. And I've seen readings at The Black Dahlia Theatre (http://www.thedahlia.com/), which I think always chooses good new scripts -- and they're doing my friend Ruth McKee's wonderful new play, STRAY, this fall. But if anyone's reading this who lives in LA and wants to recommend theatre or shows to me, please do! I...probably won't be able to go. But I want to know about it.

 Q: Tell me a story about your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person. A: I used to fill out credit card and college applications, with all fake/pun information, for fun. Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Stuff with music. Stuff without fixed walls. Funny stuff, but with real emotion.

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

A: I'm still just starting out, too. But for people, say, writing a play for the first time: Find a playwright you love. Copy his/her style. Never show this play to anyone, but learn from it. Let it mature/grow/evolve into something that's yours.

Q: Tell me about Smudge, the play you having coming up this season.

A: I'm so, so, so excited about it. It's a play that began, in seedling-idea form, during my last quarter of grad school. For a long time, I had a draft with ten excellent pages, followed by about 50 pages of dreck. Then I scrapped everything but those ten pages, added a third character, and turned what was initially an argument about what constitutes a life into a play. I workshopped pieces of it at The Lark, then had my first readings of it through The Playwrights Foundation in San Francisco, where I discovered that people really responded to it. It was at The O'Neill two summers ago, which was an absolutely amazing experience. And now it's going to have its first full production at The Women's Project. It's about a young couple having their first child, and learning to be parents. It's also sort of about what might happen if a mother hated her first child. It's sort of about developing a relationship with something you've created. I hope it comes off funny, and a little creepy, and a little sweet, and a little sad. And it should have, if all goes well, some uber-cool lighting and sound. Go see it!!

Philly Premiere of Nerve in April

http://news.yahoo.com/s/playbill/20090824/en_playbill/132168

3

Three posts from Stephen Adly Guirgis at the Ojai Playwrights Conference

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/08/stephen-adly-guirgus-at-ojai-playwrights-conference-.html#more

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/08/stephen-adly-guirgis-works-with-the-interns-at-ojai-playwrights-conference.html

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/08/steven-adly-guirgis-the-communion-of-plays.html

I Interview Playwrights Part 41: Laura Lynn MacDonald

Laura Lynn MacDonald

Hometown: Orland Park, Illinois

Current Town: Milwaukee, Wisconsin - via Chicago and New York City.

Q: Tell me about your adaptation of Peer Gynt playing in Central Park.

A: Christopher Carter Sanderson, the Founding Artistic Director of Gorilla Rep asked if I’d write a new adaptation/translation of Ibsen’s epic play. Neither of us was interested in creating a direct translation (or a four hour production!) Instead, I was given the freedom to fly with my own writing as I followed the adventures of Peer Gynt as laid out in the original text. What we’ve created is a two hour production with nine actors playing fifty-six roles and two brave souls playing Peer. The production is underscored with some inspired songs and sound effects by Andre-Phillipe Mistier. The Great Boyg, an ominous force that intercepts Peer’s life, sounds like an echo from the underworld. The characters in the play are enhanced by imaginative masks and costume pieces by Mikaela Holmes and Benjamin Heller. There’s a fabulous pig and a three-headed troll. And like all Gorilla Rep shows, this one will keep the actors and the audience moving from scene to scene around Summit Rock in Central Park.

Q: You were one of the founding members of Gorilla Rep. How did the theater come about?

A: Sanderson had been creating theatre in public spaces in New York City since 1989. In 1992 he decided to form his own company out of a group of actors he’d cast in a production of UBU IS KING! (performed in Grand Central Station) and two board members. I was one of the band of actors wielding a large phallus at Grand Central Station. It was powerful and fantastic. We were all very serious about our artistic intentions in those first company meetings. I have some great photographs of all of us reading over the first contract at Jy Murphy’s apartment. There was a feeling in the air that we were making something memorable that afternoon. Gorilla Rep has grown and refined since that time, but the mission remains the same: “...to provide the highest quality productions of classical dramatic material with the flavor of contemporary immediacy to people where they are FOR FREE.”

Q: What's the theater scene like in Milwaukee? If I came to town tomorrow, what shows or theaters would you suggest I check out?

A: Milwaukee has a significant arts and theatre scene for its size. It’s such a beautiful, accessible city. Several artists have moved here for work and stayed here to live. Right now, I’d recommend The Chamber Theatre’s production of Mark Brown’s AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS, with a phenomenal scenic design by Keith Pitts. Milwaukee Rep will soon be producing THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR, Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of Gogol’s play, which is sure to be a hoot. One of my favorite theatres to recommend is Next Act - a wonderful intimate theatre that does consistently lovely work. They will open their season with MARY’S WEDDING by Stephen Massicotte. Another gem is Renaissance Theatreworks, our only company founded and run by women. Milwaukee sadly lost The Milwaukee Shakespeare Company to the economic downturn. Hopefully, she will rise again.

Q: Tell me about working in the literary department at Milwaukee Rep.

A: Joe Hanreddy, the Artistic Director, introduced me to Kristin Crouch, The Rep’s Literary Director. I assisted her throughout last season by reading new play submissions, writing production articles and doing dramaturgical research. Beyond reading so many wonderful (and not so wonderful) scripts, the most fun for me was sitting in on first rehearsals where the vision for the production is shared with the creative team. The Rep allowed me to meet directors and designers I admired and watch them work. I was given a commission to write their educational touring show, then later, I taught playwriting workshops in Milwaukee area schools. It was a tremendous opportunity to get a glimpse of what it takes to put on a 14-show season.

Q: You’re also a dramaturg. What do you like most about dramaturgy?

A: I love collaborating. I also love storytelling. Dramaturgy for me is taking off my playwriting hat and discovering how I might best serve the script or production at hand. It’s collaborating to tell the story the playwright or director wants to tell. Sometimes it’s creative or critical feedback, sometimes it’s editing, researching, or writing marketing material for shows. It’s all part of the experience - from what you see when you enter the lobby, to what you hear during the show. Every project I’ve worked on has been different. And often, especially in the creation of a new script, we’re all surprised at the outcome.

Q: What kind of theatre excites you?

A: I like plays that mine language. I like plays that make me laugh during the sad parts. I want to watch people (or other-worldly creatures) struggle for meaning - struggle for love - maybe reach for God. And I’d rather be terrified in my mind than see long bloody knives. So many plays and playwrights inspire me. Some favorites are Chekhov, Euripides, Shakespeare, August Wilson, Stoppard, Rajiv Josef, Nilo Cruz, Sarah Ruhl, Naomi Iizuka, Anna Deavere Smith, Arthur Miller and Mary Zimmerman’s adaptations.

Q: You started off as an actress in NYC, then you took a long break, finding your way back to the theatre over ten years later. What was that journey?

A: In 1995 my mother was injured in a car crash that subsequently changed the trajectory of my life. I was just thrown in another direction. Eventually, I expressed myself creatively through bodywork. I was a certified massage therapist, Spa Manager and National Trainer for Elizabeth Arden Salons and Spas. I loved the travel and teaching for the first time. Several years passed before I got the performing bug again. I’d moved to Milwaukee and was cast in a few plays and commercials. I got married and had a baby, ... then another baby... One sunny January day I thought I was going to combust if I didn’t do something, write something, express something - so, I wrote a screenplay. Over the next year it turned into WELCOME TO FREEDOM, this intricate love story about two gay teenagers - one shipping off to Iraq. I just lived and hid inside that story and it fed me when I really needed to be fed. Since then I haven’t stopped writing dramatic stories - either films or plays.

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

A: I’ll just tell you what I’m trying to do. Having kids, I try to write as often as I can. I do a lot of my writing long hand, so there are pads of paper everywhere, especially the car. I don’t know why my characters like to talk to me while I’m driving, but they do. I get out of my own back yard. I go to classes, workshops, free talks by so-in-so who wrote this-n-that. I often see 1-2 shows a week. I try to go to previews or performances with talk-backs whenever I can because there’s a chance to learn more about the show or say “hi” to the director. If there’s an opportunity to volunteer at a theatre I’d love to work with, I try to be there. If there’s a benefit, I try to go. I’m a member of several organizations (The Dramatist Guild, Chicago Dramatists, The Playwrights’ Center) and writing groups that have allowed me to meet some fantastic colleagues. I read books about history. What I do know, I teach - and the classroom gives huge returns to me. I try new genres. I push my boundaries because I don’t want to keep writing over the same territory or writing in the same form. I improvise. I just sit down and start banging it out. And if I’m in a writing groove, I let everyone know I have to disappear for a while.

Links for Laura Lynn’s show: www.gorillarep.org , www.lauralynnmacdonald.com

5 Questions with Leonard Jacobs: http://www.clydefitchreport.com/?p=3684

I Interview Playwrights Part 40: Steve Patterson

Steve Patterson

Hometown: Spokane, Washington.

Current Town: Portland, Oregon.

Q: What are you working on right now?

A: Of late, I’ve been playing with twisting “genres.” Last year, I wrote “Bluer Than Midnight,” which took film noir conventions into the afterlife (and the Mississippi Delta blues country), and I’m currently revising “The Rewrite Man,” which overlays the spy genre with sort of Phillip K. Dick questions about paranoia and reality. Good times.

 Q: Everyone says that Portland is the greatest place to live in the world. Is this true? How long have you been there?

A: I’ve been here since 1989. Christ, that’s 20 years, isn’t it? Doesn’t seem that long. When I left the Northwest for New York in 1982, Portland seemed like this kind of weird, dark, alcoholic town; when I came back at the end of the decade, it had transformed into a sparkly boho paradise. Currently, we’re really suffering from the recession—unemployment’s quite high—but, if you’ve got work, it’s pleasant. Everything’s moderate: temperatures, prices, traffic, crime. It’s very easy to get around. Gardens bloom from March to November. We’re rotten with parks, coffee shops, book stores, and indie bands. And the library system’s one of the best in the country. Plus, as you might have heard, it rains a bit here, which is conducive to staying inside and writing.

Q: What is the theater scene like in Portland. If I moved there tomorrow what theaters or shows would you recommend I check out?

A: It’s really quite remarkable. Although we have only two Equity houses—Portland Center Stage and Artists Repertory Theatre—we have some 100 theatre companies. Not all of them produce consistently, most produce now and then, but that’s still pretty amazing for a mid-sized city. Right now, Third Rail Theatre’s probably the most universally respected house in town, but Vertigo Theatre, Miracle Theatre Company, and defunkt theatre all have consistently interesting seasons. Portland Playhouse is a new company making waves, doing some new plays. FUSE also does new plays, and the terrific Portland Theatre Works specializes in readings and development of new work. There’s also a…hmm. For now, let’s just say there’s a new theatre company in development, and, once it launches, it may be very important to Portland’s new play scene. Portland Center Stage’s JAW Festival is still kind of the Big Kahuna of new play development in town and pulls in some pretty major names from around the country. I was fortunate enough to have a play featured there in 2006 (“Lost Wavelengths”), and the experience was just way too much fun.

Q: I loved your post about learning the guitar over the last year. ( http://splattworks.blogspot.com/2009/08/365-days-of-being-experienced.html ) I especially was interested in the part about the learning curve. Can you talk a little about the learning curve as it relates to playwriting for you?

A: Playing barre chords is almost as hard as plotting. I’d already put in a good ten years writing fiction and journalism before I kind of fell backward into writing plays; so it didn’t seem too hard at first. It was only after I began to learn more about it that I found out how difficult it is to do well. I guess there’s a loose analogy there in that I played piano and organ as a kid, then gave it up, and guitar put music back in my hands. But guitar, frankly, has seemed hard from the beginning, and, like playwriting, every time you think you’ve achieved a certain mastery, you find there’s so many more steps to climb. They’re both terrifically fun…but not every time you sit down to write or play.

Q: Besides being a playwright, you are also a photographer. Are there similarities for you between these two kinds of art or are they wholly different kinds of creation?

A: No matter how quickly you write—and I’ve been known to write quickly when it’s hot—playwriting is a slow process, with the story revealing itself at its own pace, whereas photography occurs in the moment. You’re there, you see it, you own it. (Unless you’re shooting a studio still life or building images in Photoshop.) I do think many good pictures have their own narrative, though. It may be elliptic, compressed, and a little mysterious, but there’s a story there. And just as you learn where to start and end a scene on stage, you have to know how much (or how little) to show in a photograph. I spent a couple years shooting theatre rehearsals in black and white because the results reminded me of movie stills and seemed to tell their own stories independently of the plays being rehearsed. Henri Cartier-Bresson told short stories as well as Raymond Carver.

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

A: I grew up in the rural Pacific Northwest, had chickens, ducks, horses—all that. And I was an only child, so I spent a lot of time alone with my imagination. One time, I was busy spreading hay in the horse stalls, and I looked up to see my uncle curiously watching me. Apparently, I’d been lost in some internal narrative and unconsciously doing all the characters’ voices aloud. My uncle thought I was talking to someone. When he realized I was alone, he kind of lowered his chin and asked: “And who did you think you were talking to?” At the time, I was mortified, but it seems funny and natural now.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Dark, twisted weird stuff that plays inside your head as well as on stage. Stories and images that haunt. Plays willing to take chances, trash the narrative, or thwart your expectations to find a deeper truth. As much as I admire the genius of “King Lear” and “Death of a Salesman,” I probably consider “Waiting for Godot” the closest thing there is to a perfect play…and nothing happens. On purpose. Of course, I also appreciate good acting, directing, and designing. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some very talented people, and I’ve come to appreciate how terribly difficult their work can be. One of the sad facts about working in theatre long enough is that you end up going to a play, buy your ticket, get settled in your chair…and then look up to check out the lighting rig before you open your program.

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

A: Besides the obvious—read plays and go to the theatre—I’d say listen for the character’s voice. Just like actual people, characters all have their own idiosyncratic way of speaking that reflects their thought patterns, upbringing, geography. If you can channel that, you can often find a story just by asking: why does this person talk this way? And if your characters all sound the same, you need to get to know them better. That and if you find a theatre in your town that does work you like, hang out after the show, introduce yourself, see if they need help—theatres always need more help. Even if you end up distributing posters or doing box office, it introduces you to some interesting people you might end up collaborating with. Finally, have a Plan B for paying the bills.

Update: You can get one of Steve's plays here.

I Interview Playwrights Part 39: Erin Browne

Erin Browne

Hometown: Southern California and Michigan- including but not limited to San Diego, El Centro, Palm Springs, Indio, and Dearborn

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q: Tell me about your radio play and the award you just won with it.

A: It's actually a play I wrote as a stage play called Trying in a flurry of about 3 days. My family had just been staying at my apartment for Christmas and after they left I had 3 quiet alone days before going back to work. I just started writing and didn't stop until the play was almost done. I was remembering this girl I knew when I was 7 years old, who had a belt buckle scar on her forehead and wondered what had happened to her after my mom and I moved out of town. I was hoping she'd found happiness, support, and love. Part of moving so much as a kid meant that I knew a lot of people and was part of their lives for a short period of time, so I can make up any future I want for them. This was pre-Facebook and email. I could probably find them now if I thought they had computers. This is a play about a girl with scars she doesn’t really want to talk about and family, whatever that happens to mean. Anyway, after writing it - I worked through it scene by scene with some amazing actors and directors at Flux Sundays (with Flux Theater Ensemble) who really illuminated the humor and innocence of the play and made me excited about it. http://fluxtheatreensemble.blogspot.com/2008/02/trying-by-erin-browne.html After that there was a reading in Actor/Producer Jody Christopherson’s living room with a small group – then a more public reading at the Saltbox Theatre in Katonah. http://saltboxtheatre.org/ Basically, on a whim – I submitted it to the BBC Worldservice Radio Play Contest as is. My “A Meth Play” had been a finalist last time around – and so figured it was worth a try. I was really, really shocked when “Trying” won because to me it feels so small and specific. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specialreports/radioplay_2008.shtml I guess I don’t really think I know what a radio play is since we don’t have radio drama here in the same way they do in the UK. But I’m excited to see what it is and learn more about it. I’ve gotten notes from the producer that suggested nods and smiles might be changed to something more verbal – so I’ve been working on that. It will be taped in mid-October with an airdate sometime in November.

Q: And then after the taping, there's going to be a reading coming up too of that play, right, in nyc?

A: There’s going to be a reading of the play, in it’s original stage version, Monday Sept 28th at the East 13th Street Theatre with the hopes of a production sometime in February of next year. Jody Christopherson has been working really hard to make it happen and I’m getting pretty excited about the chance to see it eventually on its feet. It will be my first produced full-length play.

Q: Have you written many radio plays? Do you find them easier or harder than normal plays?

A: I guess I’ve never technically written a radio play before. I’ve written a few plays that could work on radio maybe (although it’s still hard for me to imagine how the setting and action plays out without any real examples but I’ll soon find out). I do think I write plays that have a lot of low-key overheard type conversations that reference physical action without needing it to tell a story. I love to listening to people, mimicking their dialect and cadences– I think that’s pretty typical playwright stuff -so it doesn’t take much to cross over into radio.

 Q: What are you working on next?

A: Mmmm good question, I’m at a point where I’m not quite sure. I’m headed to the Flux Retreat at Little Pond with something that’s currently called Crimes that builds off my experiences in my day job (I’m working on the A&E series The First 48, on the update show called After the First 48) and tangentially on the Strindberg play There Are Crimes and Crimes which I love. But I’m at a beginning point where I’m not sure if it’s going to take flight or go anywhere or be worth anyone’s time. I’m also hoping to organize a reading of a really dense play called Return that I finished a draft of a while back.

Q: You're a couple years out of a Columbia MFA. How was that for you? Was Eduardo still there when you were there? I'm still in a great deal of debt from that program.

A: I forgot that you went there too! Eduardo was still there when I was there. Hmmm, Eduardo. I can’t say that we really connected as teacher/student but that’s okay because I connected with other teachers and collaborators and friends – and I still think grad school was one of the most valuable experiences in my life. Just like not every play is for everyone – every teacher is not for everyone. I think it’s really important to know that when you’re studying the arts anywhere, that not every teacher’s word is gospel. Yeah, debt is really lame. I feel like I escaped a bigger portion of that because I was working full time while going to school – plus a fellowship job my 2nd year – and then turned in my thesis early and graduated early to avoid some 3rd year costs. But I also think about what I missed being sleep deprived and delirious through the whole thing… I guess the point for me is that if you want to go to grad school or undergrad or any kind of school and you don’t think you have the money – you can do it – there are always ways. Which is kind of another theme in Trying. Debt is lame but sometimes it’s worth it. It was worth it for me, I hope it was worth it for you.

 Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: A lot of different kinds of theater, and it changes all the time. I like abstraction when it works because I don’t write like that anymore. I like theater that pushes boundaries and mixes media. I love plays mixed with dance – which was exciting to me about Pretty Theft. I really dig dance and it’s ability to be enormous and emotive and beautiful and epic. I like smart theater for children and teens. I like theater for adults that uses the magical and stretches logic in the same way those plays do. Pretty much the roster of Under the Radar at the Public makes it one of my favorite times of year. I absolutely always see any show I can directed by Anne Bogart or Robert Wilson. I’m totally obsessed with Brecht and Ibsen (especially Brand and Peer Gynt). I’m excited to see the remounting of Killers and Other Family by Lucy Thurber at the Rattlestick this Fall.

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

A: Write, write, write. Don’t worry if something’s good – just finish it. Find a group of friends who will read your stuff back to you without judgment (you’ll probably judge yourself enough). Find directors you connect with and adventurous actors who will take risks with you.

Q: Any other plugs?

 A: I have a non-theater related plug. I’ve been volunteering at an Ali Forney Center apartment for the last half year www.aliforneycenter.org And it really makes my Wednesdays something I look forward to every week. I want to plug volunteering and donating to theater and non-theater related charities if you can because I know they are really hurting right now. NY Cares is a great way to be involved when you’re a busy New Yorker trying to work a day job and be artistic and have a life. And keep your eyes on Flux Theater Ensemble because I don’t know about your experience but in my experience is they are really the most awesomest awesome group of people.

I Interview Playwrights Part 38: Annie Baker

Annie Baker

Hometown: Amherst, Massachusetts

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q: You have two Off Broadway shows going up this coming season. Very exciting! Can you tell me a little about the plays and who is involved? I heard one of these at Ars Nova, didn't I?

A: So my play CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION (which we did read in the Ars Nova Play Group) is going up at Playwrights Horizons this October, and my play THE ALIENS is going up at the Rattlestick in the spring. Both plays will be directed by the mad genius Sam Gold. CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION is about five people doing Creative Drama exercises in a windowless room in Vermont, and my cast is incredible: Didi O’Connell, Reed Birney, Heidi Schreck, Peter Friedman, and Tracee Chimo. I wanted all of these people to be in the play very badly, and so far none of them have dropped out, thank god. THE ALIENS is about three dudes who are sitting outside a coffee shop in, big surprise, Vermont. It’s the first time I’ve ever written music into my play—two of the characters break into song every once in a while. I’ve always been interested in writing a naturalistic play with music, because where I grew up dudes sitting outside coffee shops really did just break into song every once in a while. The music in THE ALIENS is by Michael Chernus and Patch Darragh, who are allowing me to use these wonderful trippy songs they wrote ten years ago when they were out-of-work actors living in Greenpoint. Both plays are also explorations of my two long-time obsessions: silence and stillness. During one scene in CIRCLE MIRROR TRANSFORMATION the stage is completely empty for like thirty seconds. THE ALIENS is only 71 pages long, but I’m hoping it’ll be like a two-hour play after we put the pauses in.

Q: What are you working on next?

A: I’m just starting work on two new plays. I haven’t totally figured them out yet, but in one the audience will be forced to hear a middle-aged man recite the same poem over and over again. The other takes place in a bed and breakfast in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the audience will be forced to hear the elderly woman who runs the bed and breakfast tell the same boring story over and over again. I guess my third long-time obsession is repetition.
 
Q: Who are your heroes?

A: Chekhov. Chekhov. Chekhov. Chekhov.

Q: How did you come to start writing plays?

A: I started writing plays, sort of, in fifth grade, because of this weird perverse game my friends and I would play after school. It was called The Jewish Game. We all must have been super-confused about our Jewish identities, because the game involved simultaneously running away from the Pharaoh, hiding in the basement while Cossacks rode through town, and screaming and weeping while Nazis separated us into two lines. I grew up in a small town, so there were lots of barns and trees to crouch behind and lots of berries to ration while we were fleeing our various oppressors. I played Rifka, the slutty 17-year-old daughter who was always running off into the forest to make out with her burly bearded woodcutter boyfriend, Schmuel. So I would spend hours writing these passionate romantic scenes for Rifka and Schmuel. Then I would go stand by myself in the middle of a meadow and whisper both parts to myself while my best friend Molly, who played my Papa, would yell “RIFKA! RIFKA! GET BACK HERE! NIGHT IS FALLING!” from the edge of the forest.

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

A: See above.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I’m reading this amazing book by Susan Howe about Emily Dickinson, who also grew up in Amherst, and at one point Howe says that Dickinson “audaciously invented a new grammar grounded in humiliation and hesitation.” And I think that describes the kind of theater that excites me. I really loved Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s NO DICE. I really loved Richard Maxwell’s THE END OF REALITY. I really loved Young Jean Lee's PULLMAN, WA. I really loved Caryl Churchill’s A NUMBER. And I really love seeing Chekhov performed. For years Brian Mertes and Melissa Kievman staged a Chekhov play at their house every summer and it was consistently some of the best theater I’ve ever seen. A million times better than those horrible, horrible, stodgy, expensive British productions of Chekhov.

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

A: Oh boy. It’s rough. Don’t give up. Don’t love everything you write, be hard on yourself, but don’t become so crippled by self-hatred that you can’t finish a draft. Apply to everything—every writers group in New York, every developmental festival in the country. If you’re interested in grad school and you like weird plays, go study with Mac Wellman at Brooklyn College. He is one of the smartest and most generous people on the planet. And maybe this is me being a curmudgeon, but I think way too many New York theater people just see plays and watch movies and TV and don't read novels or poetry or philosophy or try to learn about history. A lot of young playwrights are weirdly anti-intellectual. That pisses me off, man. And I think you can see that reflected in all of the boring paint-by-numbers theater out there. So I guess I also recommend reading lots of books that have nothing to do with theater/film/TV (which is not to say that I think plays should be written for an audience full of intellectuals; quite the opposite. That kind of play makes me want to die).

Next

My play Nerve in Asheville, NC

http://www.ncstage.org/pages/on-stage/catalyst-series.php

I Interview Playwrights Part 37: Crystal Skillman

Crystal Skillman

Hometown: Born in San Diego but mostly grew up in Wappingers Falls, Upstate NY

Current Town: Brooklyn!

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m currently writing my new play Hack which will debut in the Vampire Cowboy's Saloon Series kicking off Sept. 12th. It's about how three hackers, who all work on the same I.T. team, are forced to pull an all nighter at their big shot company to fight a virus but things get personal when they discover it must have been planted by one of them. I actually just started writing it at the Voice & Vision Theater’s Envision retreat up at Bard this summer. It asks what's more important in these troubled economic times - keeping your job, friends or challenging the system and ultimately climaxes into a kinda showdown of the Good, the Bad and the Geek. When I was asked to be a part of the Saloon Series with the other amazing writers (Dustin Chinn, James Comtois, Brent Cox, Jeff Lewonczyk, Mac Rogers) I thought this idea would be a perfect “serialized play” as the work is shown "episodically" one Saturday a month at Battle Ranch from September to January. It’ll be directed by John Hurley who I’m excited to work with. Also the recent workshops of The Sleeping World (Rattlestick, Side Project in Chicago, MCC Theatre Playwrights Coalition), which is about four playwrights who come together to read their dead friend’s play, have been incredible. I’m on the verge of finishing the next draft that is really exciting.

Q: Can you talk about your musical? What's going on with that?

 A: That’s Andy, about a boy who wants to play Annie, is a musical that I'm working on book/lyrics for with the creative team (Kevin Carter, Bobby Cronin). It's a terrific piece that was conceived by Bobby who brought us together. We've all learned a lot working on the piece over the years and something recently just clicked - there's something about where we all are now creatively that is resulting in some of the best work we've ever done in our development of it this summer. Whole new opening and direction that’s rocking my world. Kevin Carter’s kick booty score blows me away. Like Daniel Goldfarb just expressed in your interview with him – seeing a song or a musical moment come to life that you were a part of is really thrilling. It’s some of the hardest work you’ll ever do because ultimately you’re working hard to create something to exist effortless on all three levels – book, lyrics & music – yikes! - but it can reach people emotionally in a whole new way. And what I’ve always loved about this musical is how it's so unpredictable and fun but asks tough questions about the times we live in. It also features a chain smoking Mary Martin dressed as Peter Pan – and what is there not to like about that? I'm happy to say it'll be directed by Clayton Phillips in a workshop at the York Oct. 6th at 3 PM. It’ll feature a slew of awesome talent including Beth Leavel and Lauren Kennedy.

 Q: You've worked with Rising Phoenix a bunch. Can you talk about the plays you did at Jimmy's No. 43 and your collaboration with Daniel?

 A: If you've met Daniel Talbott, you know he's awesome. If you haven't, then you'll meet him at some point and think - oh, he's awesome! I was lucky to work with Daniel, Artistic Director of Rising Phoenix Rep, as he directed my "ghost story" plays The Telling Trilogy a few years ago which were done at Jimmy's No. 43 by the company. It was an amazingly fruitful collaboration. We’re really proud of the work we did, and of the great actors work on it - for those who haven't checked it out - it's published in Plays & Playwrights 2008, along with two other plays produced by Rising Phoenix Rep (by Daniel Talbott & Daniel Rietz). We also became really close friends over many chai lattes, and various NYC adventures while chatting about plays. This year Daniel directed my two new plays Nobody and Birthday for Rising Phoenix Rep which was a huge step for me artistically. The given circumstances for Birthday – why Leila & Kyle needed to stay in that room – the outside world they were trying to escape - was so clear to me through our process that it really created a believable 45 minutes where two strangers changed each other's lives. It captured a personal truth that was new for me in how it unfolded in the room - a real turning point that I dove back into all my plays with. Rising Phoenix and my work with Daniel is a major part of that artistically for me and it has been really cool.

Q: What's it like to be married to a comic book writer?

A: Super-tastic and full of sound effects like super-tastic! Seriously. How could it not be crazy good fun? Putting my wife-hat aside, Fred is one of the best writers I’ve ever known – his comics, screenplays and short stories continue to be a great influence (now more than ever as I’m working on DougToons, a webtoon online). And it’s the best to hear when a director or playwright friend of mine loves X-Men Noir, Hercules or Action Philosophers as much as I do.

Q: What's your day job now?

A: Part of the reason that Hack, the new play, is so timely for me is that I just found out that I’m going to be laid off from a dayjob I’ve had for about three years as a receptionist in an architectural firm (where I've pretty much written everything from Telling Trilogy to Sleeping World to Birthday). But it’s time. The past year has been a great step for me and almost all my work has been commissioned or paid for. So I’ll be putting my efforts towards writing for a living and developing opportunities for that.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: 1. Theatre that has a personal, unique story told in an original way. 2. That has real truth. 3. That has beer. A play that lets you drink booze while watching is awesome.

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

A: Each new play is another step on your journey. It may get produced tomorrow or in five years. Who knows? Yikes! Write it, and develop it, but also at the same time move on. The answer always seems to be in the next play. And keep sharing your work – that’s how you find the right folks to work with!

 Q: Any plugs?

A: Join me at the Vampire Cowboys Saloon Series – where there’s beer)! (http://www.vampirecowboys.com/index2.htm). And if you like musicals or want to check out That's Andy, play hooky or get canned like I did and come on down to the York Theatre (http://www.yorktheatre.org/) on Oct. 6th at 3 PM.

I Interview Playwrights Part 36: Blair Singer

Blair Singer

Hometown: Woodland Hills, California.

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY (like every other playwright you've interviewed.)

Q: Tell me about your play Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas which is going up at the Geffen. How did this come about?

A:  I met Matthew while I was working on the TV show "Weeds". I was a big fan of his work prior to meeting him and an even bigger fan after I'd met him. He's not only a brilliant actor but he's a terrific human being. He's kind, he's honest, and he's generous. When I left to come back home to New York, Matthew and I vowed to work with each other on a play. Six months later, I pitched him the basic idea of MMSTA, he loved it, and we were off.

 Q: A friend of mine recently took your TV class. He said you were a great teacher. Can you talk a little about how you set up your class?

A: I focus on the business of making television. I assume that everyone who takes the class can write. I would rather focus on how good writers can break into television and how to become aware of yourself as a commodity to be sold to the marketplace. Pretty much, the class is me talking a lot. I talk about my experiences in TV, good and bad, I share my very strong opinions, and spend the rest of the time begging them to take everything I say with a huge grain of salt.

 Q: What TV shows did you write for?

A: Weeds, Monk, and Book of Daniel.

 Q: What are you working on next?

A: You got a job for me, Adam? I'd love to live in Atlanta and have a free maid! I'm very fortunate to have found Mark Armstrong and the Production Company, an excellent off-off Broadway theater company. I've been named their playwright-in-residence and have written a play for the company called MEG'S NEW FRIEND that Mark will direct at Manhattan Theatre Source in November and December.

Q: Who are your heroes?

A: I am in awe of playwrights. EVERY playwright. I began as an actor and I am always amazed at the unique worlds that playwrights construct. Herb Gardner once said, not to me, but to someone, "How do you ask a kamikaze pilot if his work is going well?" Playwrights are kamikaze pilots, trying to find targets that doesn't exist. How can you not find the lifetime pursuit of an ever-moving target heroic?

Q: You are, like me, married to another playwright. Would you recommend marrying a playwright?

A: I would recommend marrying my wife. She's really spectacular. Everyone should get the chance to be married to my wife at least once.

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

A: Marry my wife. That, and put the name of a famous actor in the title of your next play. Matthew Modine is mine but I think Judd Nelson is looking to do some theater.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I love watching great acting-- that's why I go to the theater-- so any play that offers actors the ability to stretch themselves excites me. I also like anything written about farm animals. Link for Blair's show: http://www.geffenplayhouse.com/180

I Interview Playwrights Part 35: Daniel Goldfarb

Daniel Goldfarb

Hometown: Toronto, Ontario Canada

Current Town: New York City

Q: Tell me about your play The Retributionists going up at Playwrights Horizons. Who is your artistic team? What is the show about?

A:  We are at the end of our second week of rehearsal and it has been very intense and exciting. I am in awe of the cast and the creative team. Leigh Silverman is directing and it has been the best collaboration. I think she's amazing. Our young, sexy, charismatic Jews are Adam Driver, Margarita Levieva, Cristin Milioti and Adam Rothenberg. Lusia Strus, Rebecca Henderson and Hamilton Clancy play the Germans. And we have an all Tony award winning design team. Derek McLane is doing the set, Susan Hilferty the costumes, Peter Kaczorowski is doing the lights, Jill BC DuBoff the sound. My friend Tom Kitt has written a beautiful original score. Playwrights Horizons desribes the play like this: Spring 1946. The plan was simple: a German for every Jew. Its execution would be swift, clean, its impact undeniable. In this daring new romantic thriller inspired by actual events, a band of young Jewish freedom fighters attempts to avenge a society’s wrongs – if they can keep from tearing each other apart in the process.

Q: How long have you been teaching at NYU?

A: Amazingly, I am about to start my 11th year teaching at NYU.

Q: Are you also working on a musical, tv pilots and screeenplays while writing new plays and raising a family? How do you find the time?

A: The busier I am, the more productive I am. And as I get a little older, the scope of my voice and my dreams have broadened. I love working on musicals - I find the collaborative aspect of it thrilling. And there's nothing like being in a room with talent and hearing a song come to life. It has also been very satisfying to work a little bit in film and television. It's great to stretch those muscles. Having a family gives me perspective and forces me to spend less time on myself, which is so easy and so dangerous for artists. I have actually been more productive since my daughter was born. And fatherhood has been the most rewarding and joyful experience of my life.

Q: Marsha Norman talks about us all having areas of expertise--that there is something specific that each of us writes about really well. What do you think that thing is for you?

A: I am a big believer in 'write what you know'/'write what you're confused about'. My plays tend to focus on various aspects of Jewish identity. Hopefully, in being very specific and personal, the work can find a universal truth.

Q: How would you fill in this blank? The job of a playwright is to ______

A: provoke, question, entertain, challenge.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Good theatre. It can be anything, anywhere. But I love good acting and great storytelling. Not so interested in too many bells and whistles and concepts.

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

A: Finish what you start. Don't underestimate the accomplishment of getting out a draft. See as much as you can. Be a fan.

Link for the PH show: www.playwrightshorizons.org

I Interview Playwrights Part 34: Heidi Schreck

Heidi Schreck

Hometown: Wenatchee, WA

Current Town: New York City

 
Q: Tell me a little about this play you have coming up. What is it about, who is doing it and what is the artistic team?

A: My play is called Creature and it's loosely based on a 15th century autobiography called The Book of Margery Kempe. It's about a woman who desperately wants to become a saint even though she's totally unsuited to this vocation. Margery is vain, selfish, carnal, gluttonous, a loud weeper, materialistic, jealous, prideful - well, utterly human, really, and the book is a hilarious and kind of heart-wrenching account of her campaign to remake herself. I have great fondness for people who attempt things they can't possibly succeed at, and I fell in love with her and now I have this play. A weird play set in 1401 featuring demons and talking hazelnuts and saints - and rife with historical inaccuracies. New Georges and Page 73 are co-producing Creature which is a dream since I'm a huge fan of both these companies. The brilliant Leigh Silverman is directing and we have a terrific design team: Rachel Hauck is designing the set, Matt Frey, lights, Theresa Squire, costumes and Katie Down is composing music. At our first meeting Leigh made the designers read the play out loud and they were pretty good.

Q: You spent the last year as the P73 Playwriting Fellow. What was that experience like?

A: I'm in the middle of my fellowship right now and it's fantastic to feel so supported. I traveled to Moscow in May to research my new play There Are No More Big Secrets and this week I'm directing a workshop of it myself. P73 has given me great actors, a beautiful rehearsal space, a stage manager, a dramaturg and an assistant director. A whole staff! Also, Asher and Liz are great about helping me organize a writing/development schedule and giving helpful feedback. I'm so spoiled right now. I don't know how I'm going to go back to my regular life.

Q: You are also an Obie winning actor. How does your acting inform your playwriting and vice-versa?

 A: Well, obviously I identify with the actors when I'm working as a playwright and I want to give them interesting things to do onstage. I could never write a character who just brings in the samovar, I would feel too guilty. And when I'm working on a new play as an actor, I feel a tremendous responsibility to the playwright, to do right by their play. Actually, I've had to learn to turn the volume down on that feeling because it can be paralyzing. Sometimes the best way to look out for someone's play is to really look out for yourself, your role. Actors and playwrights have a unique relationship and I'm lucky I get to experience it from both sides. When you're a playwright and an actor shows up and gives life to your play that's a remarkable achievement in human communication. It's better than ESP. And as an actor, when a playwright gives you a great role to inhabit, well, you've seen All About Eve? When Karen asks Eve, "You'd do all that just for a part in a play?" I'm not as evil as Eve, but I totally get her answer, "I'd do much, much more for a part that good."

 
Q: In the nineties, you were a member of the infamous theater company in Seattle, Printers Devil. What was that experience like and what sort of theater foundation did it give you?

A: Infamous? Yikes. We were a small company, so in addition to acting and writing, I got to direct, work at fundraisers, find props, sew curtains, even run the sound board, which they asked me to please never do again. I learned about every aspect of making a play. Also I met great playwrights - Sheila Callaghan, Naomi Iizuka, Anne Washburn, Chay Yew, Erin Cressida Wilson, Dan Dietz. Melissa Gibson and her husband Matt Frey stayed at the apartment I shared with your wife, Adam. And now Matt is designing the lights for Creature. So many of those relationships have come back around in wonderful ways.

Q: Who are your heroes?

A: I have too many, so I'm just going to name one playwright: Maria Irene Fornes. In my twenties, all of my plays were - well I called them homages to Fornes, but really they were blatantly imitative. Also, my mom. She directed me in my first play when I was 7 years old - I was Hermia in A Midsummer Nights Dream. She made me fall in love with theater.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Good theater? I'm an omnivore. ERS's Gatz is still one of the best things I've ever seen and I also cried all the way through Next to Normal. Tony Kushner, Paula Vogel, Mac Wellman, Caryl Churchill, Chuck Mee, and Craig Lucas have all influenced me tremendously and are the people who first made me excited about playwright. I also love Lev Dodin, Robert Woodruff, the musical Annie, puppet theater, Anne Reinking, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which is where I saw my first play (Macbeth). Plus, I'm a huge fan of so many of my peers, the list is too long. The only stuff I don't like is theater that's predictable, cynical, shoddy, pretentious. Actually, sometimes I like pretentious. Also, I'm in constant peril of making theater I would hate myself.

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

A: Invite friends over to your apartment and make them read your plays out loud. And see as much of your peers' work as you can. By which I mean to say: Find your people.

Q: What advice do you have for actors starting out?

A: Whew. This is the toughest question. I did everything wrong, but I'm pretty happy, so: Skip grad school, move to NYC when you're past a "marketable" age, don't get a headshot until you're 30?

What I did right - and what I recommend to younger actors - is to seek out playwrights and directors you admire and find a way to work with them. My relationships with directors Brooke O'Harra (Two-Headed Calf) and Ken Rus Schmoll (who just won the Obie for Telephone) have been immensely gratifying and provide a sense of artistic continuity in my life as an actor.

Also, when we were living in Seattle my now husband, director Kip Fagan, had a copy of David Adjmi's play Strange Attractors lying on his bed. I picked it up and after reading the first three pages knew that I had to be in it. So, I called Adam Greenfield, who was working at the Empty Space then, and got myself an audition. I'm making it sound more All About Eve than it was. I didn't try to seduce Adam, it was just a phone call. It turned out to be one of the most exciting roles I've ever played.

Q: Link please for your show:

A: http://www.p73.org/programs/productions/creature/

http://www.newgeorges.org/ce.html

Q: Any other plugs?

A: I'll be acting in Annie Baker's terrific new play Circle Mirror Transformation at Playwrights Horizons in the fall. I was working on it yesterday and I'm really jealous of Annie. Her writing is stunningly precise and nuanced, she's able to conjure the private suffering of her characters through these hilarious, often tiny public moments that make you laugh and also feel deeply uncomfortable. .Okay I'm not telling you any more because Circle Mirror Transformation starts previews on September 24 and you should just come see it..

http://www.playwrightshorizons.org/current_season.asp

Next

in Portland, OR

Sept 21

a reading of Food For Fish

http://www.theatrevertigo.org/