I Interview Playwrights Part 738: Abby Rosebrock

Abby Rosebrock

Hometown:  Summerville, South Carolina. And two years in glorious, burgeoning Greenville, South Carolina.

Current Town:  BROOKLYN!

Q:  Tell me about SINGLES IN AGRICULTURE.

A:  SINGLES IN AGRICULTURE takes place on the last night of an annual dating convention for farmers in Texas. A South Carolina army widow who loves MODERN FAMILY and talks to her pygmy goats angles for romance with a fundamentalist dairy farmer from Oklahoma. It's dark and sad and not a little erotic. But most importantly, it's hilarious.

I've been developing the play with some phenomenal actors and director Stephanie Ward of Beth Dies, Inc., the company behind Chiara Atik's hit play WOMEN. After readings with IRT and Marrow's Edge, we're bringing SINGLES IN AGRICULTURE to The Brick's summer festival in Williamsburg this June and to Dixon Place in September. The cast includes myself and Graeme Gillis of Ensemble Studio Theatre in the lead role of Joel.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I always try to act and write in equal measure; otherwise I'd go insane. I get to wear both hats for the webseries MY EX IS TRENDING, which I make with the brilliant actress and my artistic soulmate, Layla Khoshnoudi. As far as plays go, I'm writing an adaptation of the ancient story of Dido and Aeneas. Biscuit, my alter ago who is also a puppy (and who cameos as a goat in SIA), is playing Hitler's dog in Mac Wellman's play THE OFFENDING GESTURE.

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

A:  One of my earliest memories is locking myself in a closet when I was five or six and crying all afternoon. When my mom found me and asked what was wrong, I told her I had just realized I was the youngest person in my family and might be the last to die. She told me not to worry; “that's why people grow up and get married, so they don't die alone.”

Then I think we watched I Love Lucy.

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

A:  As most of your readers know, a lot of producing organizations operate under the bizarre misconception that a play will be more successful if it involves "name talent" than if it retains the artists who built it from the ground up. "Bizarre," because name talent in this context usually refers to actors who are only marginally recognizable at most. This model makes producers feel safe and keeps casting directors in business. But it's poisonous to artists, their partnerships and the work they make. I also strongly believe that it's economically short-sighted. Nurturing fiercely committed ensembles and prioritizing artistic integrity and raw expression would make plays more popular and profitable in the long term and would help revive theatre as an industry. Superior TV networks and platforms have realized how important it is to let creators control their own projects and ensembles. If theatre wants to enjoy a golden age like the one happening in television, more large and powerful producing organizations need to risk doing the same.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Chekhov and Ibsen may be a boring answer, but their plays do exactly what I want my plays to do. They mine contemporary suffering for truthful, precisely timed and often uproarious comedy. The uproarious part isn't always achieved in translation or performance, but it's there.

Chaucer is huge for me, too. I studied medieval poetry for several years, and the greatest thing I got out of that experience was the chance to spend time with Chaucer's comedy. It's rooted in hyper-specific and multidimensional character studies, a special sensitivity to the intelligence of women, and minute attention to language and cultural context. Chaucer taught me that, paradoxically, you have to polish the hell out of written language in order to make something honest and raw out of it. I can't think of a more masterful performance piece than THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE.

More heroes: Amy Poehler and other innovators of longform improv, Madonna as a live performer, the actress Layla Khoshnoudi and the director Stephanie Ward.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Writing that's crafted and acting that's raw. Fierce ensembles like The Debate Society and Lesser America, who prioritize clarity in storytelling. The playwright Chiara Atik for infusing her twenty-first-century comedies with literary tradition. DAISY, her recent adaptation of Henry James' DAISY MILLER, makes me giddy.

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

A:  I'm going to steal Amy Herzog's succinct answer, because I couldn't have said it better: “Be patient. Be happy for your friends and colleagues. Avoid reading theater news; read novels instead.”

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  For tickets to SINGLES IN AGRICULTURE at The Brick this June, check www.bricktheater.com or call 866-811-4111, and keep an eye out for us in September at dixonplace.org. You're gonna love it.

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Ways To See My Plays

PUBLISHED PLAYS

UPCOMING READINGS

Colchester
Primary Stages
NYC, NY
May 21, 2015 4pm


Project Y Theater
NYC, NY
May 17, 2015 3pm

UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS of My Plays--

Hearts Like Fists

Production #14 of Hearts Like Fists
Know Theatre of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH
Opened March 27, 2015

Production #16
Clark University
Worcester, MA
Opens April 15, 2015

Production #17
Actors Bridge Ensemble
Nashville, TN
Opens September 11, 2015


Clown Bar

Production #6 of Clown Bar
The NOLA Project

New Orleans, LA
Opens October 22, 2015

Adventures Of Super Margaret

Production #1
Oddfellows Playhouse
Middletown, CT

Opens May 28, 2015.

Nerve

Production #17 of Nerve
DePaul University
Chicago, IL
Opens June 5, 2015

New Play (TBD) 
Workshop production
Chance Theater
Anaheim, CA
August 19, 22, 23

Pretty Theft

Production #10 of Pretty Theft
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA
Opens April 26, 2016

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I Interview Playwrights Part 737: Josh Drimmer

Josh Drimmer

Hometown:  N/A. My family moved about the Americas, including Guayaquil, Ecuador, Curacao, Mexico City, and….Connecticut.

Current Town:  Brooklyn, NY for over 10 years now. It feels like home, but there’s also a giant new apartment building going up on my block as we speak, which makes my building feel a bit like the doomed little building in Batteries Not Included.

Q:  Tell me about your show with Sanguine.

A:  the lighthouse invites the storm is about two people who feel something powerful and uncontrollable for each other, the two times they meet—once at 16, at a Vermont pre-college program, once at 32, with the scars to prove it—and the ways, each time they meet, it’s the right and wrong time, whether due to the presence of a boyfriend, child, or wife, or simply because being together with someone is always difficult. It’s a character-driven piece, and Sanguine has assembled an excellent cast to occupy it, and a director in Logan Reed who knows how to turn the literary elements of the script human. So it’s definitely been a nice couple of months.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I’ve been writing a first draft a year since 2009, although this year’s challenge, When I’m/ When You’re/ When We’re Gone, a triptych on different forms of death partially inspired by the last days of James “J-Dilla” Yancey, may be the play that breaks that streak; then again, I’ve said that at once every year since this began. Other plays I’m currently tinkering with include a boxing play (Puncher’s Chance) and a re-telling of Othello in blank verse and modern New York (Iago, of W. 95th Street).

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

A:  There are many dream answers I could place here, from the existence of so many ( Blank ) The Musicals, the degree of star power over substance in New York theater, and the way ticket pricing shuts out younger and more diverse audiences no matter how many rush offers are put out there, but no easy solutions exist to any of these.

What doesn’t seem impossible to change is the general concept that a new American play should be 2, 3, maybe 5 characters as most: lighthouse happens to fit into this box, but many of my scripts do not, and those will remain hard to produce. I understand that theater sometimes needs to be broad to strike at a wide audience, but it’s a shame that new plays, no matter their subjects, are frequently, instantly forced to be narrow.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Henrik Ibsen can be an inspiration to anyone, because all of the prose plays he’s known for were written when he was in his late 40s and beyond: at their best, they are also message plays that actually work as plays, although I have a fondness for his later, darker oddities like John Gabriel Borkman and When We Dead Awaken. Caryl Churchill is another hero of mine for the daring way she plays with and invents form. I wish I had the chance to see Love and Information more than once to figure out more of the ways that play’s playlets connected to each other, because what could have been just an advanced form of sketch comedy there really built into something bigger.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  A couple years back there was a Richard Greenberg play at MTC with the unfortunately bland title The Assembled Parties that wasn’t perfect that touched so many of the things I seek in theater. It was funny, it was sad, it had radically different first and second acts yet everything connected, it seemed to create a world as detailed as a novel yet it left many elements elusive and unspoken. The play even had a revolving set that served a genuine purpose, evoking the many rooms of the play’s giant apartment setting.

I enjoy a good farce or a lead-heavy tragedy every now and again, but even The Iceman Cometh has some genuine zingers, and even The Odd Couple has suicide. Work that is hard to categorize has an actual chance of surprising an audience,

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

A:  Absorb as much theater as you can: while you’re young enough for the plethora of ticket deals available to students and semi-students, take advantage of them to see anything even vaguely interesting, and if you can afford to, join TDF and similar organizations. Read plays, consciously paying attention their structures and what does and does not work about them, and read globally rather than specifically: get a library card and purchase any collection of plays you find at a thrift store.

Join writing groups and classes so your work doesn’t only remain on your computer, where it is perfect but meaningless. If you have actor friends, get them to do kitchen table readings of your drafts when you’re ready to face them. Just be good to your actor friends, and don’t forget to buy alcohol. And cake.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  the lighthouse invites the storm runs from April 30th through May 17th at the Chain Theater in Long Island City: for tickets go to lighthousestc.brownpapertickets.com For more about me and my work, go to joshdrimmer.com, or attempt the various social media. My Instagram captions are among the best writing I do, sadly.

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I Interview Playwrights Part 736: David Meyers

David Meyers

Hometown: Fort Lee, NJ

Current Town: New York City

Q:  Tell me about Broken:

A:  BROKEN tells the story of a mass shooting from the shooter's perspective. It's a two-character pressure cooker between the shooter and a prison psychiatrist (who also has ulterior motives).

I read a review of The Library last year, which was a play that also touched on the topic of mass shootings. The reviewer praised the play for not making the "mistake" of trying to find clear motivations for the crime.

While I agree that there isn't a single answer or neat explanation as to why someone commits an act like this, I think we need to explore what motivates these shooters if we ever hope to learn why they did it. And if we hope to learn what - if anything - we can do to prevent similar acts in the future.

BROKEN doesn't offer easy answers - but it does offer some troubling thoughts about society's role in these killings. And most importantly, I hope the play will open up a debate on the subject.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I've got a few other projects coming up - including a play I'm very excited about called "We Will Not Be Silent." It's an incredible, true story that takes place in Germany during World War II - but has nothing to do with the Holocaust or Jewish persecution. We'll be doing a reading on Cape Cod this summer, and I'm really excited about it.

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

A:  When I was in elementary school, I loved musical theatre. All I wanted to do was to sing and perform. But the school music teacher hated me. She was never encouraging; in fact, she was the opposite. Once when I was cast in a production, she told me to mouth the worlds during group numbers because my singing voice wasn't strong enough (I was 9).

Then she retired and a new music teacher came in. Not only was he encouraging, but he thought I was talented - and was soon giving me tons of solos and opportunities to perform.

It's a lesson that's been relevant to almost every aspect of my life: one person's trash is another person's treasure. And if someone doesn't like you, there is probably someone else out there who does.

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

A:  That there were more opportunities for us to do what we love as a full-time occupation - whether it's act, write, direct, etc. Most people I know (even the very successful ones) are always hustling to find time and money to do these things...

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I don't want to sound cliche, but I am constantly inspired by everyone I know who is still pursuing a career in theatre despite every reason in the world not to.

Seeing other people continue to write, act, and produce their own work in the face of an industry that is constantly telling so many people that they shouldn't be doing this truly inspires me - almost every day.

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

A:  I've read this blog many times - and people have given so many great answers to this question. I'm also, of course, starting out myself.

Among the advice that has stayed with me: rejection (even lots of it) doesn't mean your work is meritless; spend as much time as possible thinking about things outside the industry; don't give up - the only way you are guaranteed to fail is if you stop trying.

And the best piece of advice I ever got is the one I was most resistant to: don't wait for others to give you opportunities, make them yourself. It's hard - but incredibly worth it.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  BROKEN runs from April 9-26 starring Broadway's Michael Pemberton (who you'll see a lot on "Veep" this season).

All details are at www.BrokenThePlay.com . If the the subject matter interests you, come join us - and please say hi after. My favorite part of working in the theatre is meeting people in the community.

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I Interview Playwrights Part 735: Barbara Hammond

Barbara Hammond

Current Town: New York City

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Three plays set in three different countries – VISIBLE FROM FOUR STATES, a play about modern small-town America, Christianity, cell phone towers and the death penalty; WE ARE PUSSY RIOT, which centers around the 2012 Moscow trial and imprisonment of a feminist art collective called Pussy Riot for their performance of their song “Virgin Mary, chase Putin Away!” in the Russian capital’s main cathedral, and TERRA FIRMA, a play about the building of a nation with no natural resources, no allies or enemies, and one citizen.

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

A:  I am the youngest in a huge family so, as one friend recently put it, I was “born into chaos and raised by children.” Amidst this, the following points have impacted my work, for better or worse: my father was the mayor, so the home was steeped in the day-to-day ins-and-outs of local politics; I went, against my will, to Catholic School for ten years; and, throughout my childhood, my grown-up brothers and sisters traveled, for varied reasons, all over the globe – to Africa Central America, England, France, the U.S.S.R., China and Hong Kong. So even though I was born in an industrial town on the shores of Lake Michigan, I always felt like a citizen of the world.

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

A:  I see devoted fearless theatre-makers all over the world creating art from the complexities of our human existence. That is what draws me to theatre. That in a classroom in a 14th century university in Kiev or in the basement of a luxury high rise on the Lower East Side of New York City, actors and directors and designers and writers gather to invent a reality that explores or reveals something vital about who we are, as homo sapiens. Put that way, it’s almost a science, and it’s a group effort – it cannot be achieved through the playwright’s will alone.

So I would say that when the human is ignored and a “show” is being put on – I stay away from that kind of theatre. I would even say that, when given an opportunity to make people more understanding of one another, if you choose to make them less than they are, you’re actually doing some harm.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My mentor, the film and theatre critic Stanley Kauffmann, who died last year at 96. I came to New York at twenty-one wanting to make theatre and film, and I audited many of his classes at Hunter College, where he taught after he retired from Yale, and we became fast friends. I think he was 78 when we met – Marlon Brando had been in a children’s play he had written in the 1930’s. Stanley witnessed all of twentieth century American theatre – and had anecdotes to prove it. He made legends like Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller real to me. He made a playwright’s life feel like a vocation. His passion for theatre – for the great playwrights and directors and producers– and for what theatre can do and be and become – has been as important to me as the artists who make theatre. Stanley lifted the work he witnessed to greater heights and recognized their value even when the playwrights themselves didn’t know what they had wrought.

I would say that my theatrical heroes are theatregoers who enter the theatre open to letting in something new, thrilled to share in the ritual of live performance.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre with mature urgency – that pulls from the realm we all intuitively know exists, but seldom visit.

You know how the best music does that – moves you and you’re not sure why? It’s rare that a play can do that, but when it does – that’s the best.

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

A:  Observe your own thoughts and feelings while you are observing the world. If you don’t know the filters through which you are seeing the world, you are not seeing the world accurately.

Notice, especially, what you really love to do, and don’t forget that life is for THAT, too.

Think about integrity and what it means to you; think about what your values are. Write them down and ask yourself if you live in communion with them, if you write in communion with them.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My new play WE ARE PUSSY RIOT opens the Contemporary American Theatre Festival July 10th. The cast will be announced in the next few weeks but it will be directed by Téa Alagic and the set designer is Peter Ksandr so I’m already in fantastic hands. I started writing the play because I was compelled to understand why the girls in Pussy Riot did what they did in the Cathedral, and questions of church and state are always on my radar, but as I began to research what has been happening in Russia, especially since 2012, and the slide into what they call “the power vertical” -- the scope of the play exploded. Last autumn I went to Moscow to talk to as many people as I could and absorb as much as I could about Russian culture and, this past week I went to Kiev, Ukraine, a country at war, to meet with theatres about a translation and production of WE ARE PUSSY RIOT there. I am not writing for a U.S. audience even though the play will debut in this country. My next play is a commission for the Royal Court called TERRA FIRMA and explores nation-building at a micro-level. So watching a country like Ukraine try to do it with all the real-world problems of corruption, war and bureaucracy is sobering and, unavoidably, heart-rending.

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I Interview Playwrights Part 734: Heloise Wilson

Heloise Wilson

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I am about to start rehearsals for '' The Great Osterlin Colony '' in June at Dixon place for a show that my theatre company Little y is producing. I can't sleep at night thinking about the stage design ( How are we going to bring a bed to dixon place ?? ) but I am super excited. The play is about an artist's colony in a mansion on a secluded island surrounded by a dried out sea.

I'm finishing my last semester at Brooklyn College with Mac Wellman. We have a workshop every week and have to bring a full length play once a semester. So I am working on my full length play which is due last month. It's about objects and belongings left in garages, closets or given to relatives and charity after someone passes away. But I am not even sure it's about that yet.

I'm also writing a play for children about outer space, love and Blaise Pascal. Mac Wellman asked me to write it. He's nutty.

And I'm also an actor and I'm working on my actor's things. Just finished a film called Elans which is in post prod.

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

A:  I don't think I have one particular story. I think I was a dramatic person and a narcissist since day one. I would direct plays about llamas and baby pandas and cast and boss around my brother. Or I would pretend I was a BBC broadcaster and give the weekly summary for the Archers ( Sorry for the extra British references here). I think I have always had an interest in dramatic structures and story telling.

My dad is a musician and film composer and looking back I think this had a huge impact on who I am today. He dragged me from one jazz club to another growing up and it has taught me a lot. It taught me about creative pursuit ,finding the balance with a day job, about work ethic and collaboration. I spent a lot of time in rehearsals, sound checks, and I went to a lot of gigs. A lot of these people my dad was hanging out with were super odd but always had great stories to share with an eight year old. I am so grateful for the bohemian artsy upbringing I have received.

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

A:  I know everyone says theatre is in very bad shape but I disagree. I think American theatre is thriving. If I could change one thing however, it would be how the government and tax payers are involved. In Europe, making theatre is also a nightmare, but the government and the arts council help so much more. So yes- stronger arts councils and big private companies more involved.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  The productions at the National Theatre in London have had a great impact on me in my teenage years. Same for Ariane Mnouchine, Robert Wilson, Irina Brooke, Wajdi Mouawad and a French director named Phillipe Hadrien. Nowadays I would say my theatrical heroes are the people around me. Mischa Ipp my partner in crime with Little y is a great producer, a great actor and dramaturg. She is my everyday hero. Mac Wellman, Erin Courtney and Anne Washburn, who I all studied with at Brooklyn College are also my mentors and heroes. They totally changed everything about who I am. And I love the writing of fellow playwrights Zarina Shea, Zohar Tirosh-Polk, Kristine Haruna Lee, Kate Benson. So I would say that my heroes are the people who blow my mind every week - I am lucky that I get to hang out with them and see their shows and read their work.

There are also institutions like the Women's projects or The Bushwick Starr that I think we should look up to as role models.

I also have a mega girl crush on Heidi Schreck because she is also an playwright/actress and she is simply amazing at everything she does. I really want to be Heidi Schreck when I grow up.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Everything excites me. I love good writing but I also love strong directing choices. In Europe, theatre is so much more director oriented, so I love when I can see the director's trademark. I like things to be visual, with a strong use of space. So I would say I like strong physically told narratives.

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

A:  I have recently received two great pieces of advice. Mac Wellman once told us that the most important thing we can do everyday is to feed our creative ego.

The second one, is something Anne Washburn told me after I asked her how on earth I was supposed to make it through my twenties pursuing theatre and making seven dollars a year ? Should I quit everything and start writing commercials ?

She told me that no one would be interested in my sold-out soul. So you really have to write what matters to you and you have to keep doing it. Because eventually that's what brings exposure and attention.

I am also learning right now the importance of momentum. If you write a play it is important to have a reading pretty soon after. If you have a reading it is important to self produce pretty soon after and not wait around.

Also, on a more practical level, find a day job that stimulates you and allows you to meet people but does not suck you out of your creative energy. If you have to write all day at your job and you are too tired at night to write again maybe find something that doesn't involve writing.

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I Interview Playwrights Part 733: Ben Jolivet

Ben Jolivet

Hometown: Fall River, Massachusetts.

Q:  Tell me about your play next season at Wilbury.

A:  It's called Cain + Abel, and it's sort of this mashup of biblical myth, theatre, and reality TV. I call it a "riff" on the Cain and Abel story, partly because it doesn't owe all that much to any source text. When I got the idea, I went back to the Bible and discovered the story is, like, a paragraph long, and doesn't say anything about anything. Had it been a fuller story, I might not have touched it, but I loved there was so little information and I could make up whatever I wanted. I love doing that. The play actually owes as much to these statues I saw in a Humanities textbook in college. I can't remember what civilization they were from, but it was one of the earliest, and they were these statues of these tall, thin people, with these giant eyes and these gaping mouths, staring up in awe--or horror. I can't remember who they were, from when or where, but I remember realizing in those pictures that the sense of "what-the-hell-is-going-on-in-the-world-why-is-everything-so-terrifying" has been part of human life since the start of human life. So that’s a big part of it. And Lilith is a part of the story, and she's sort of a gollum; God is sort of a wandering artist with a name that can't be said aloud; Abel has a wife we've never heard of... and then there are these brothers who can't find each other. And of course (because why wouldn’t there be), there’s a nod to reality TV-style confessionals, and sex, and, of course, a little bit of gore. It’s going to be a ride, for sure.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm working on new drafts of things that have been on my desk for a while. I write first drafts incredibly quickly--generally, within two weeks. But then it takes me a couple years to figure out what to do with the mess I made so gleefully. I'm also about to start grad school at Hollins Playwright's Lab, so I’m getting ready for that to be part of my life.

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

A:  I grew up Catholic, and I was pretty devout. But the Judas story always puzzled me. Jesus says to him, something like, "It would have been better for you never to have been born..." And I couldn't wrap my mind around that. If Judas didn't do what he did, Jesus wouldn't have been crucified, and the whole central event of Christianity wouldn't have happened, and then what? So I couldn't fathom how Judas was a bad guy. Yeah, he did something crappy to God--but he kind of had to for the story to unfold. So for him to do that thing that "needed" to be done, and for God to be all, "you're evil" really upset me. And when I tried to express that, nobody got what I was saying. And this was when I was, like, 10 or 11. I was young. But nobody could tell me why Judas was a bad guy. And I think so many of my plays (including Cain + Abel) are about "bad guys" and why they do what they do--how people are driven to it. In a weird way, I'm like a defense attorney. Many of my plays are about people doing the wrong thing, often, and getting audiences to empathize with that at least enough to say, "gee, well, that's effed up, because s/he's not bad..." And then, maybe, maybe, to get themselves to see themselves doing the same things.

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

A:  Nothing is more alive than theatre, and yet so much of what is produced is so dead to modern life—I think. Maybe that’s a cliché. I think we need to honor the classics, yeah; they taught us everything we know, but audiences--the audiences we hope to attract, the young folks--can't draw a line between old, stiff clothes and birch trees and samovars. They don't see a relationship to their lives. So why go? I go because I worship Chekhov, but why would someone who doesn’t come from this world go? Or even care? And why spend the money? It's cheaper to see reflections of your experience in a movie or, hell, on YouTube. somehow theatre needs to CARE about the lives of its audience more. For whatever that is worth.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  When I was a kid: Tennessee Williams and Christopher Durang. As I got older, Paula Vogel, Tony Kushner, and Richard Greenberg. Sarah Ruhl always makes me want to sit down and write. Now, though, it’s also the amazing collaborators and friends I get to work with.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre that surprises me and makes me feel like a kid again. When a piece of theatre can surprise me, God it's exciting! I love to gasp at a play.

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

A:  Talk yourself into a realistic idea of success, and hold on to it. When I decided to take writing seriously, I felt like, "oh, I'll just get into Yale, and then Playwright's Horizons will start doing my plays, and that'll be that." Totally unrealistic. Now, I tell writers who take my workshops that success is getting your work in front of people who want it. To me, that’s success (when I’m clear-headed enough to believe myself). It doesn't have to be that to a writer starting out, but something reasonable needs to be the goal. Also, be, just, a delight to work with. Be an exceptional collaborator. That doesn't mean be a pushover, but be generous. Listen well. Learn to shut up and take feedback and not defend yourself, and divorce yourself from the very human feeling that you are what you write. You aren't. Any feedback, even if it doesn't seem helpful in the moment, will often yield new and better things. Take the feedback, be silent, and then go back to work. It’s OK to throw feedback away, but not if you haven’t wrestled with it a bit. And don’t take yourself too seriously. This isn’t rocket surgery. We’re playing make believe. That should be fun.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Cain + Abel @ The Wilbury Theatre Group, October 2015 www.thewilburygroup.org
Communion staged reading @ The Wilbury Group, April 21 2015.
I’m also leading a playwriting workshop there, starting in early May.  www.benjolivet.com

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I Interview Playwrights Part 732: Matthew Capodicasa

Matthew Capodicasa

Hometown: Scotch Plains, NJ

Current Town: New York, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  My play, You Remind Me of You, is going up as my final production with the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA in Playwriting program, so I’ve been working on that pretty regularly.

I’ve been wanting to write a love story—a girl meets boy, etc., etc. kind of love story—for a long time. And then I started to read about face blindness, a condition where you are neurologically incapable of recognizing faces, even those of people you see and interact with every day. I thought that each of those things might be a way into writing about the other.

The play is about Adele, who dropped out of law school to take care of her father when he had an accident that caused him brain damage. She meets Vincent, a musician with face blindness. It’s really bad timing, but the two start to fall in love, and try to figure out what that means and what it demands of them and how they can maybe begin to make a life together.

I’m pretty excited for the production. We’re at the Flea Theater, and I’ve got the amazingly generous, insightful and formidable Sarah Krohn directing a fantastic and super smart cast, and a design team brimming with beautiful and intimidating ideas. I’m a very lucky, and anxious, person.

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

A:  I was obsessed with The Wizard of Oz when I was little, and maybe perhaps filled my imaginary world with people like Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion and the occasional post-witch Winkie. One day when I was maybe three years old, my dad took me for a ride into town in a little red wagon. We stopped for ice cream, sat outside for a bit to eat, and then it was back into the wagon for the ride home.

After a little while, I suddenly screamed, “Stop! We forgot Dorothy!” and demanded my father take us back to town. My dad dutifully turned around and pulled me back to go get her.

My fianceé loves this story.

I think the whole thing is actually mostly a credit to my dad, who was willing to just go with what was either a really involved bit or an early-onset personality disorder.

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

A:  I would make the ticket prices lower. A boring answer, I know. But important, I think.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Edward Albee, Annie Baker, Samuel Beckett, Georg Büchner, Chekhov, Caryl Churchill, Cusi Cram, Bathsheba Doran, Christopher Durang, Will Eno, Maria Irene Fornes, Melissa James Gibson, Amy Herzog, Naomi Iizuka, Rajiv Joseph, Sarah Kane, Tony Kushner, David Lindsay-Abaire, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Marsha Norman, Nick Payne, Sarah Ruhl, Jenny Schwartz, Shakespeare, Diana Son, Stephen Sondheim, Paula Vogel, Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, August Wilson, Lanford Wilson.

I realize that I just spewed a gigantic list of writers I’m a fan of, and I have many theatrical heroes who are directors, designers, actors, producers, dramaturgs and teachers. But I figured I’d just go with writers here.

Q:  What kind of theatre excites you?

A:  I’m a fan of all kinds of theatre, honestly, but I really fall in love with plays that make beautiful, richly imagined worlds, and explore those worlds in theatrical, surprising ways. A theatre of language, of invention, of ridiculousness, of engagement, of diversity. Theatre that aspires to something. A humane theatre. Also, a really good fart joke goes a long way with me.

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

A:  As a playwright just starting out, I am wildly unqualified to answer this question. So I’ll just rattle off some of the things I try to tell myself: write every day, remind yourself you don’t know anything, read broadly, read generously, see as much as possible, find like-minded collaborators, strive for empathy, resist the urge to retreat and hide in your apartment, look for the joy in the crazy process of making something from nothing in dark rooms, floss.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Come see You Remind Me of You! April 16-19 at the Flea Theater!

Tickets are available here: http://yrmoy.brownpapertickets.com

Also, my 10-minute play, Of Our Own, is going up April 28-May 2 as a part of Theater Masters’ Take Ten Festival. My play will be directed by the awesome Margot Bordelon.

Tickets are available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/take-ten-2015-national-mfa-playwrights-festival-nyc-tickets-16138886845

And come see the work of my fellow grad students in the Fordham/Primary Stages MFA program:

Mêlisa Annis’s United Front (http://unitedfront.brownpapertickets.com)

A double-bill of Alessandro King’s Aykroyd and Julian Giat’s Kid’s Choice (http://aykroydkid.brownpapertickets.com)

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I haven't written this play yet but I will

Studio 42’s below-the-belt, no-holds-barred, best of the best heavyweight championship returns to rock (and shock)
…for the LAST TIME…EVER!

Saturday, May 2nd at 8pm
Don’t miss the city’s most deliciously “unproducible” playwrights battle it out for fame, glory, and the title of Most Unproducible Playwright.

Your 2015 contenders are:
Meghan Deans (Ashore) – 2 Time Returning Champ!
Christopher Oscar Peña (a cautionary tale)
Lauren Yee (The Hatmaker’s Wife)
Krista Knight (Salamander Leviathan)
Adam Szymkowicz (Clown Bar)

Featuring: Brian Belcinski, Dana Berger, Adam Blodgett, Brian Burns, Kristen Harlow, Megan Hill, Alex Herrald, Polly Lee, David Mitsch, Lynne Rosenberg, Natalie Saibel, Risa Sarachan, Julie Sharbutt, and Liz Wisan

May 2nd – $35 advanced tickets on sale now!

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