I Interview Playwrights Part 1076: Mark Wilding

Mark Wilding

Hometown:  I grew up in Storrs, CT. It’s a university town about half an hour from Hartford. My dad was a professor at the University of Connecticut. My mom worked several jobs – including bank teller and school teacher. She was also a social activist.

Current town:  Studio City, CA

Q:  Tell me about Our Man in Santiago.

A:  In high school, I knew I wanted to be a writer. So I always clipped interesting magazine and newspaper articles. I guess it was instead of keeping a journal. At first, I thought I’d wind up being a journalist – which I was for a couple of years after college – but then I decided I’d give Hollywood a try. I’ve been out here for 36 years, the last 28 of which I’ve managed to make a living as a TV writer. Those yellowed articles have come in handy once in a while during that time – never more so than when I decided to write a play about Salvador Allende.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote a piece for Harper’s in 1974 which discussed the overthrow of the democratically elected leader. In the article Marquez referenced a plot hatched by the CIA to get rid of Allende in 1970. The CIA assembled a couple hundred operatives who were experts in government overthrow. They were supposed to fly to Santiago to help the Chilean military oust Allende. Their cover was as a Navy Glee Club. Unfortunately, they had to scrap the mission when they realized that half the operatives couldn’t actually sing.

I thought this was a perfect blend of human ineptitude and the U.S. always thinking they know what’s best for other countries. Our Man In Santiago takes place three years after that fiasco. When it comes to writing, I inevitably end up finding the humor in most situations. So even though the ouster and eventual death of Allende was terribly tragic, I also thought the situation lent itself to satire, as well as dark comedy.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I’m currently an executive producer and writer on the NBC/Netflix show Good Girls. I’m also noodling a couple of other ideas for plays.


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

A:  I don’t know that there’s a particular story that can explain who I am. I will say that I lost my dad when I was 14. And I think that greatly affected me. My mom did a wonderful job raising four young kids on her own. But as helpful as people were, there were some folks who also tried to take advantage of her – mostly in financial ways. It made me a little cynical towards human behavior. I think that’s translated to my writing and my general outlook on life. Although I’m always trying to be less cynical. Unfortunately, current events have made that very hard!

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

A:  I would want plays that are more about characters and less about ideas. When ideas take over, I’m bored to death.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Alan Ayckbourn, Martin McDonagh and Arthur Miller. I love the characters that Ayckbourn and Miller have created and I love the chances that McDonagh takes on stage. My admiration for these gentlemen goes a little bit towards what I was saying above. Ideas do percolate through their plays but they’re not front and center.

Q:  What kind of theatre excites you?

A:  Probably the same thing that excites other theatre-goers -- anything with interesting characters that tells a good story. I saw a production of Network in New York last year. Given that the play was based on a movie that’s over 40 years old, I had low expectations. But it was ingeniously staged and the characters were really compelling. I loved it.

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

A:  Have something to say and concentrate on creating fun and interesting characters. And remember, your mission is to entertain people, not to teach them.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Our Man in Santiago runs at Theatre West from March 13 thru April 5. Come check it out! Tickets at http://theatrewest.org/our-man-in-santiago/

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I Interview Playwrights Part 1075: Stephen Sachs

Stephen Sachs

Hometown: San Francisco

Current Town: Los Angeles

Q: Tell me about Human Interest Story.

A:  Like city traffic congestion, the homeless population in Los Angeles has grown to epic proportions and will only get worse. As a theatre-maker, I feel compelled to ask myself: What can I do as an artist to express what I see in my world?

Two years ago, driving down Hollywood Boulevard one warm afternoon, the classic Frank Capra movie Meet John Doe popped into my mind. In the film, Gary Cooper plays a homeless man (then called a “hobo”), who is hired by newspaper writer Barbara Stanwick and transformed into a national celebrity she names John Doe. An idea struck me. What if that story were told today in the fast-moving world of social media with homelessness, fake news and political corruption in our daily news feeds?

Meet John Doe is labeled today as a comedy but Capra’s view in the film is somber and ominous. Released in 1941, many of its lessons remain true today. How a greedy and ego-driven capitalist can crush the good of the common man. How quickly mob rule and public opinion can change. And how whoever controls the media, controls the masses. No wonder 1941 was also the release year of Citizen Kane, Orson Welles’ examination of a power-hungry fictional newspaper magnate.

In Human Interest Story, newspaper columnist Andy Kramer is laid off when a corporate takeover downsizes the City Chronicle. In retaliation, Andy fabricates a letter to his column from an imaginary homeless woman named “Jane Doe” who announces she will kill herself on the 4th of July because of the heartless state of the world. When the letter goes viral, Andy is forced to hire a homeless woman to stand-in as the fictitious Jane Doe. She becomes an overnight internet sensation and a national women’s movement is ignited.

Human Interest Story is about more than homelessness. It’s about all of us asking ourselves, in these unruly times, who am I? What do I truly believe? How am I not who I say I am? And, most important, how truth – in our press, in ourselves and our world – sets us free.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A:  Sleep. In addition to being a playwright and director, I am the Founding Artistic Director of the Fountain Theatre in Los Angeles. Now that my new play has opened, my focus is back on the daily operations of running a theatre. Supporting, nurturing and producing the new plays of others. I’ve completed the screenplay based on my play, Bakersfield Mist. Shopping that around.


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

A:  As a boy, writing was a refuge. A sanctuary. I would close the door of my bedroom at night and sit at my little desk and write stories to dissolve into an imagined world, or more into myself. I am now an adult. But I still love padding across my backyard to my home office each morning and closing the door behind me. I savor the time alone. The voyage inward.


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

A:  Its position in society.

A wondrous event happened a few years ago in Reykjavik, Iceland. I still think about it. The mind-blowing spectacle of the northern lights across the night sky. But that wasn’t the astounding event that evening. In a remarkable demonstration of forced reverence, the Icelandic city government ordered the power of all public lights be switched off for one hour so the citizens of Reykjavik would be forced to look up into the heavens to experience the splendor. Reykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland.

Think about that. The city government ordered — as a mandate of civic policy — that all its people must experience the aurora borealis dancing in the night sky above them.
Can you imagine such a thing happening in our country? Me neither.

In our country, art is a luxury, a non-essential extravagance. No longer taught in our schools, not adequately supported by our government. Politicians plot to eliminate the NEA entirely. Attention spans are shrinking. Seeing a meaningful play is more challenging than going to a movie or streaming a video. It requires more of us, demands a deeper concentration and emotional investment. Sometimes we drag ourselves to the theatre like we go to the doctor, not because we want to but because we know it’s good for us. I don’t care. Whatever it takes. Even if your city government has to switch off your lights at home to get you away from your computer and go to the theatre, so be it. As long as you come, sit in a chair, and view wonder.


Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My high school theatre teacher. He changed my life. Made me believe that a life in the theatre was magical, filled with passion and meaning. Everything I am is his fault.


Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love the magic that comes when something extraordinary appears out of nothingness. I love an audience to come into a theatre and look at a bare stage. The lights go down. The crowd quiets. The lights come up. And somehow in this empty space, an entire world is created. Characters appear, go on a journey. The audience gets swept up in the story. Then it’s all over. The lights come up. And there’s the empty stage once again. And you realize the whole thing has been created out of nothing.


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

A:  Discipline. Playwriting – any kind of writing – is a craft. Like building a table. You can’t Google it. You can’t just think about it, read books about it, do research on it, muse on it, talk about it. You gotta go the work shed, pick up your tools, and do it. Day after day. Get dirty. Sweaty. Frustrated. Bleed. The table won’t build itself. But when finished, if your table is sturdy and inviting, people come and they sit at your table and eat and share stories, and they laugh and they cry, they engage, pass their lives. And you feel the reward of having built something useful and meaningful.


Q: Plugs, please:

A:  The Fountain Theatre celebrates its 30th year in 2020. Go to www.fountaintheatre.com

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I Interview Playwrights Part 1074: Greg Kotis

Greg Kotis

Hometown: Wellfeet, Massachusetts.

Current Town: New York City.

Q:  Tell me about I Am Nobody.

A:  I Am Nobody is a low-budget, guitar-driven musical comedy about people grappling with the excesses of modernity. A tech worker ventures out into the American continent to find and stop his friend from destroying the modern world. Young lovers meet, fall in and out of love, and vice versa. Five characters, fifteen songs, about ninety minutes.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm working on a zombie musical with my longtime writing partner Mark Hollmann. It's a dark comedy about a fast food chain that launches an ambitious new menu item that, apparently, turns people into zombies.

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

A:  More public funding for smaller theater companies.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  David Mamet and Sam Shepherd are two favorites of mine. Both started in storefront theater, developed distinct voices, and wrote great plays. Also, anyone, anywhere who tried - or are trying - to create comedies.

Q;  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  This will sound vague, but I'm most excited by theater that feels like it's honestly pursuing a kind of truth. I trust comedy the most to do this because there's something about laughter, or the right kind of laughter, that's the closest thing we have to agreeing on what's true.

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

A:  I would give the advice that I got way back when from longtime Second City producer and director Bernie Sahlins. He said find a way to get your work in front of an audience. This may mean putting on plays in living rooms or cafe basements or converted garages (all of which I've done), but there is no substitute for feeling how an audience, even a tiny audience, is reacting to your work.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I Am Nobody opens March 5th and runs at The Tank (312 W. 36th Street) through March 28th. Come see! Also...

Necromancers of the Public Domain, Ayun Halliday's variety show inspired by books ninety-five years old or older, plays monthly at The Tank. Next up Perkin Warbeck: Pretender to the Crown of England, March 16th at 8P.

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I Interview Playwrights Part 1073: Lizzie Donahue

photo by Jessie Weiner

Lizzie Donahue

Home Town:  Staten Island, NY

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  Tell me about A Barn Play.

A:  It’s a quick-full length without an intermission. There are seven characters who go by the name of the animal they are. Owl, Chicken Cow, Sheep, Cat, Dog and Pig. We come upon them at the crack of dawn as they prepare to rehearse a play that Owl has written and is directing. Unbeknownst to them it also happens to be the day that something momentous is going down.

I wanted to investigate the inequity of life from the perspective of certain animals who have no agency. I absolutely mean it to be an allegory and at the same time quite literal. I would love for it to be performed anywhere from a real barn to a parking lot and in between. Maybe the lobby of the Pentagon.

I have only heard it read out loud a few times. It reads very differently than it plays. There is a lot of physicality and non-verbal moments that speak volumes.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  A play about a despotic Presidents last day in office. Working title “One Nation Under Water.” I’m working towards getting a couple of other plays into ‘good enough’ shape for a table read.

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

A:  Christmas Eve, 1972. I am 8 years old unable to sleep because of the presents waiting for me under the tree. Due to a major fear of the dark my bedroom door was ajar. I could hear my two oldest siblings Maura (14) and Bobby (13) discussing a major US offensive - “The Christmas Bombings.” Maura said, “Bob, isn’t it weird we’re all excited about tomorrow and there are kids being bombed in Vietnam?” In a flash my anticipation was obliterated. I cried myself to sleep.

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

A:  Intersectionality casting as the rule not the exception.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Lisa Kron, Lady Bunny, Basil Twist, Anna Deveare Smith, Lily Tomlin, George C. Wolfe, Caryl Churchill, Andrea Hairston, Linda Manning, Jane Wagner, Sarah Fearon, Sutton Foster, Joey Arias, Ntozake Shange, Jeff Baron, Wole Soyinka and Samuel Beckett. To name just a few.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Immersive theatre. Although I find I’m often disappointed because I think it doesn’t go far enough. I’d like to give it a go myself. I have a few big ideas.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Vote!

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I Interview Playwrights Part 1072: Kareem Fahmy

Kareem Fahmy

Hometown: Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada 

Current Town: New York City 

Q:  What are you working on now? 

A:  I’m both a playwright and a director. On the writing side, I’m doing some revisions on my latest play, A Distinct Society. The play's inspired by a remarkable real place, a library that sits on the border of the U.S. and Canada that has become a safe space for Middle Eastern families separated by Trump's “Muslim ban.” It's a little bit of all the things that define me: Canada, the Middle East, America. I’m also in the early stages of writing a play about a female college basketball star who decides to adhere to the Ramadan fast during her championship season. As a director, I’ll soon be at the helm of a workshop of a cool new Crystal Skillman play, Pulp Vérité, followed by a gig directing some 2nd year MFA acting students at NYU.


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 in French-speaking Canada, and my family was one of the few English-speaking ones in our neighborhood, and definitely the only Muslim one. That feeling of otherness and isolation was definitely a defining quality of my growing up. I managed to overcome that and find my tribe of theatre people (outsiders attract other outsiders!) but the characters in my plays tend to have that quiet loneliness that I was so familiar with in my youth.

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

A:  I’m the co-founder and co-chair of the Middle Eastern American Writers Lab at The Lark, and of Maia Directors, a consulting group that works with artists and organizations telling stories from the Middle East. Advocacy for Middle Eastern inclusion in the American theatre is what I do day in, day out, both as a writer and a director. While I think this change is already (slowly) happening, I would like to see the emergence of a real “canon” of contemporary Middle Eastern American plays, that provide a broad spectrum of stories, forms, and voices. My community is still hugely underrepresented compared to some of our sister communities, and I’m trying to change that one conversation and one play at a time. 

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

A:  Build your network. A huge part of what I do every day is connect with people: other writers and directors, actors, dramaturgs, literary managers and artistic leaders. You have to build relationships with people so they want to work with you. That takes years! A colleague and friend of mine said to me recently: “It's been AMAZING for me to see how well you leverage your authentic relationships.” I loved that! Because for me relationships in this field have to be authentic and meaningful, not opportunistic or surface-level. And it’s the support and encouragement I’ve received from this incredibly kind community of theatremakers that has kept me going all of these years and brought me to where I am today. 

Q:  Plugs, please: 

A:  My latest play, A Distinct Society, is part of New York Stage & Film’s Winter Season and will be getting a reading on Thursday 2/27 at 3pm at The Lark, directed by Taylor Reynolds. Info & link to RSVP is https://www.newyorkstageandfilm.org/nycprogramming

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I Interview Playwrights Part 1071: Chloé Hayat

Chloé Hayat

Hometown: Roosevelt Island, NYC

Current Town: Astoria, Queens! (I moved all of eight minutes away from my home-neighborhood, but the bar and restaurant options are so much better! And I absolutely can’t afford to live on Roosevelt Island these days…)

Q:  Tell me about His Majesty, Herself.

A:  I have been obsessed with the female Pharaoh Hatshepsut since I was little, but I only realized how important she was to me as a historical figure recently. She was famous for her seemingly deceptive depiction of herself as male during her reign as Pharaoh rather than accepting the position of female regent. There isn’t actually any evidence that she was queer, but the ancient Egyptians had no great fuss about homosexual behavior, and there aren’t records of Hatshepsut’s sex life so I’m going to believe what I want about that haha. There are so few queer Arab icons let alone queer female Arab icons who were also rulers of kingdoms that I feel like… just let us have this?? She was the first female pharaoh to come to the throne by merit over potential male heirs, and fought her entire reign to keep her power. When white guys working for the Met discovered her temple in 1927, it was mostly destroyed and her body was missing from the tomb. These men decided that the violence of the destruction and the implied disrespect to her physical body must mean that she had deserved this horrible fate. She was called the first evil stepmother for keeping her more deserving male stepson/nephew from his rightful throne throne. However, when her body was rediscovered in 2008 (with many more women in the field of archeology and Egyptology), they took a better look at Hatshepsut’s legacy and the merits of her reign. I’m fascinated by how culture and gender alter the perspective on someone’s legacy. This is also the first play I’ve written this blatantly about being a queer Arab woman and the challenge has been intimidating and exciting. But I am looking forward to having a play that I can point to and say “that’s me!” and feel like I’ve accurately depicted myself at this moment in time.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  This play has been so intimidating to tackle that I haven’t really been able to balance this and any other projects at the moment. I recently wrote a one-act I’d like to revisit at the next opportunity. The End of Incorporated Filth, is a real-time cabaret about the very last burlesque show in New York as Mayor LaGuardia began harshly enforcing the Hays censorship laws through queer communities.


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

A:  Oh this is fun! Uhm okay. I have two (I can’t pick)- 1. When I was really little, I had this box of little plastic figurines, and I would put together these wildly intricate and hard to follow storylines for my parents to play with me. I totally knew what was going on, but my parents were always playing catch up (they didn’t get the script I guess). But my dad likes to remind me of a time where he picked up a Simba toy and I stopped him, insisting that that wasn’t Simba it was The Wicked Witch of the West pretending to be Bugs Bunny wearing a Simba costume. And there were always **notes** when the storyline wasn’t being properly followed hahaha 2. When I was a preteen I was deeply obsessed with Victorian literature- specifically Charles Dickens and Victor Hugo. So, when I was 13 and my family went on vacation to Paris, I reread Les Miserablés and made a list of specific locations from the book and what happens in each scene, then I took my parents and 9 year old brother on a walking tour of Les Misérables through Paris. Needless to say, I had an incredible time hahaha

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

A:  Arbitrariness and funding. In relation to each other and individually. Who gets funding for what project what gets the most success- it all seems so arbitrary. This trend of blockbuster-movie-turned-Broadway-musical is going on much too long, and I know so many deserving playwrights who could use those insane budgets for shows with authentic representations of marginalized voices. The arbitrariness of getting a production or a residency with no distinguishable pattern.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Wow there are so many people, and so many different lists. My first theatrical heroes were cartoons like Bugs Bunny, Madeline, and Disney’s Robin Hood. Then it was Shakespeare, Albee, Pinter, and Beckett, but as I continued to study and research playwrighting I added contemporary writers- Lynne Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sarah Kane, Paula Vogel, Lucas Hnath, Christina Anderson, Sam Hunter, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, Simon Stephens, Will Arbery, Olivia DuFault, Jennifer Haley, Mona Mansour (wow I could literally list playwrights forever… and I know I’m still missing idols here). And there are more flamboyant figures who have influenced every part of my life as well as my theatrical tastes like John Waters & Divine, Liza Minelli, Joe Strummer, Noel Fielding, Billie Joe Armstrong, Bettie Page, David Bowie, Debbie Harry, and Freddie Mercury. (My friends make fun of me for having an endless list of “loves of my life” as you can see here, it’s very real and very long) Oh! And the people I admire endlessly for making things happen and giving artists a platform like Emily Morse and Joel Ruark at New Dramatists, Michael Bulger and Maria Striar at Clubbed Thumb, Emily Simoness at Ryder Farm. People who do the hard work of supporting and creating spaces for artists to develop work. They form spaces of excitement, community, and passion and that is incredible.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Right now I’m really interested in fully immersive storytelling. Theater that engages all five senses and keeps the audience moving. I’m obsessed with incorporating food and scent especially. I haven’t been able to enact this idea to the fullest extent yet, but I’m excited by the concept! Also, I’m fascinated by augmented reality storytelling!

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

A:  I am definitely still in the phase of “starting out” but what has been helping me move forward in my career so far has been applying to everything, and volunteering for and supporting as many projects as you can be a part of, while not sacrificing your ability to complete and enjoy your own endeavors.


Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I don’t know if this is a plug necessarily, but I made myself a website recently! https://www.chloehayat.com/

But- I do a lot of self-producing!! I started After-School Special Theatre https://www.afterschoolspecialtheatre.com/ with friends from college, a company of scrappy young female-identifying writer-producers that value accessible, organic, and experimental theatre. I am also a part of Breaking and Entering Theatre Collective, https://www.bethtrco.org/ dedicated to the Pre-Emerging theater artist.

We’re always up to something.

And this year I’m so excited and grateful to be co-producing the Hit and Run Reading Series with Matt Freeman and Theater Accident! Our first reading is **tomorrow!! 1/13/2020** of my play His Majesty, Herself!

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