I Interview Playwrights Part 49: Lucy Thurber

Lucy Thurber

Hometown: Huntington/Northampton MA

Current Town: New York City

Q: Tell me a little about the play you have going up at Rattlestick?

A: Actually it is a remounting of my play Killers and Other Family. Killers was my first reviewed production. It did not go well. I had wonderful actors but the directors interpretation of the play was a mile away from what I wrote. I was to young as a writer to communicate well or even be sure what I wanted to communicate. For years David Van Asselt the artistic director of Rattlestick has wanted to remount the play and do it right. He finally gave in to his temptation and I'm very happy about it.

Q: You just finished a run of Monster at 13P. You must be exhausted. Is it hard going from one production right into another?

A: They are both so different in terms of size. Killers is my only 4 character play where as Monstrosity was 30 people. So from a writing perspective the characters in Killers are easier to keep track of because there are only 4 of them. But at the same time, I wrote them both so it's me and more of my age old obsessions--loyalty, love, violence, sexuality, class issues, power and family. But I love being in production. It's such a relief to have other people to help make the world of the play actual and bigger than what I wrote.

Q: What are you working on next?

A: My play Dillingham City. It's another big cast with a singing chorus this time, but same old obsessions.

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

A: One day my Mom and me where walking home from the local country store. It was the end of the month and we had run through most of the money and food stamps. My mother had splurged and bought us a bottle of pickled bean salad. It was spring and sunny. I was carrying one of the food bags and dropped it, smashing the bottle of bean salad. My mother freaked, she was always scared at the end of the month and the treat she'd bought us to give a little luxury was broken on the ground. My mother yelled at me, The broken glass looked pretty in the sun with all the different colored beans. I bent down and picked one bean out of all the other beans and broken glass. It was unbelievable delicious. I was so happy to eat it and so sad I couldn't eat more.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Daring theater. Whether it's big and theatrical or small, gentle and romantic I like theater that asks me to be human and I also sometimes just like a bit of fun, gorgeous entertainment.

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

A: Be brave. Write a lot. Make your own work.

Link to Lucy's show here: http://www.rattlestick.org/

Pretty Theft from Sam French

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I Interview Playwrights Part 48: George Brant

George Brant

Hometown: Park Ridge, Illinois Current Town: Providence, RI

Q: Tell me a little about your show Elephant's Graveyard going up at Balaban Theater in Seattle.

A: Elephant’s Graveyard is the unfortunately true story of Mary, an elephant who went berserk during a parade through the middle of a small town in Tennessee in 1916. The townspeople demanded justice for her actions, which led to a very unfortunate set of circumstances. The play combines historical fact and legend, exploring the deep-seated American craving for spectacle, violence and revenge.

Q: What are you working on next?

A: Next up is Any Other Name, a very different play, one about identity theft in Victorian England. Any Other Name actually makes its debut at Premiere Stages the same day as the Balagan production of Elephant’s Graveyard – it’s quite thrilling to have two plays opening on the same night!

Q: How did you like the playwriting program at the Michener Center at UT Austin?

A: My time at the Michener Center and UT was a truly transformative experience. In my fellow students, I was surrounded by wonderful and generous playwrights, as well as poets, novelists, and screenwriters – having all that creativity and energy around me was inspirational. I was also fortunate enough to study under four very different but equally wonderful professors: Suzan Zeder, Steven Dietz, Daniel Alexander Jones, and Sherry Kramer. I miss Austin daily!

Q: You've written scripts for a clamation company. What is that like? Is it much different than writing plays?

A: A great experience. That was when I was in Chicago – I was the head writer for Bix Pix Entertainment, a claymation company. It’s very different than writing for theatre, primarily in its length. We had a few programs that made their way onto the Disney channel, and some of them were as short as 30 seconds! It was quite a challenge to tell a story and get a joke or two in there in such a short time. Another big basic difference was the visual aspect of claymation, or any kind of animation, I suppose – it was all about telling the story with as little dialogue as possible. Looking back, I think that the work probably taught me a lot about the use of rhythm in writing, which definitely is a major component of Elephant’s Graveyard.

 Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I’d say anything that respects its audience, that engages them and doesn’t leave them out of the room. That could be as varied as keeping us guessing like Pillowman or acknowledging our shared experience of existence like Our Town. But once you get the sense that a play could exist without you there, you’ve lost me. It all happens in the audience.

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

A: Write what you want to write, what engages you, excites you. I’ve certainly found in my own work that the surest way to write a lifeless play is to write one for an imagined audience that doesn’t include you.

Links: The Balagan production of Elephant’s Graveyard: www.balagantheatre.org The Premiere Stages production of Any Other Name: www.kean.edu/premierestages/

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