Episode 2 of Compulsive Love!

Second episode of my web series Compulsive Love is here!  Watch it on Koldcast or Blip or Daily Motion or Boomtrain or Youtube or JTS.

Embedded #2

And here is episode 1 in case you missed it


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I Interview Playwrights Part 554: Cory Finley

Cory Finley

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I’m working with a director friend, Ashley Rodbro, on a romantic comedy about loneliness, addiction, and illegal pharmaceutical testing. A character transforms over the course of the play from a 25-year-old man to a 61-year-old woman. I’m in the Shaping The Mess stage of writing, which is the best one.

I’m also continuing work on SUNK, a domestic horror play, and UGLY PEOPLE, about a group of friends gathering after a death and jockeying for control of the deceased’s tech startup. I’m doing research for a play about cybersecurity and Midwestern power companies.

I’m also putting in some serious time in the gym – it’s cold out now, but beach season is right around the corner.

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

A:  My elementary school used to show videos of this dude McGruff the Crime Dog, a cartoon bloodhound who wore a trenchcoat and talked about crime awareness ("Take a bite out of crime," if that rings bells for anyone)

For some reason, I created a pretend game with my little brother wherein we were secret agents working for said Crime Dog, fighting the invisible criminals living in our front yard, under our beds, behind our television, etc.

Over time, the pretend game became increasingly paranoid and hysterical, until we were stalking on our own family members, who, we’d been “told” by this anthropomorphic dog, were actually sinister lookalikes. This so rattled my brother – maybe 6 or 7 at the time – that he asked me to step out of character for a moment and reassure him that we were playing a game. I refused.

As a writer, I’m always trying to create illusions as detailed, persuasive, and unnerving as the ones that fueled those games.

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

A:  I have an impossible dream of a world where no one reads reviews and marketing blurbs, where audiences walk into plays with no expectations. I actually love reviews and learn a lot from them, but when read BEFORE playgoing, they compromise surprises and revelations. They frame the audience’s experience of the play, and therefore cripple the whole enterprise of good storytelling. I always most enjoy plays and movies (and books, and magazine articles -- and kind of even dates) when I go in without any idea what I’m about to see. I love just being along for the ride.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:   Theater that I can’t imagine coming up with myself. Plays that locate a totally surprising source of conflict and action.

Dialogue that’s full of silent menace and accidental grace. Devised work in which the elements of spectacle – light, sound, projection – are deployed not to overwhelm and astound but to punctuate, emphasize, dilate, disorient.

Stories that ask me not just to admire likeable people but also to extend my empathy to profoundly unlikeable people.

Theater that, like artfully mussed hair, works really really hard to appear effortless.

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

A:  Be humble, make bad jokes, put yourself in odd situations, run toward rather than away from worldviews you find strange and wrong, stay until the tail-ends of parties.

Basically just this.

And apply to Youngblood – you can't find better people in this city!

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Grace, a short musical I wrote with Mark Sonnenblick and Stephen Feigenbaum about a forlorn Kansas native finding his voice in a church talent show, is running as part of Prospect Theater Company’s PORTRAITS, through this weekend.

And this Sunday is EST/Youngblood’s EINSTEIN ON THE BRUNCH, where you’re likely to find, if not the best audiences in NY theater, then certainly the best matinee audiences in NY theater.

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Two Things

Two Exciting things in my world today.  The first episode of my web series Compulsive Love is here!  Watch it on Koldcast or Blip or Daily Motion or Boomtrain or Youtube or JTS.



And today is the first performance of my play Clown Bar in New York with Pipeline Theater.  It runs until march 23 at the Parkside Lounge on East East Houston.

Promo video here:  www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Ct6c7V6VxXU

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I Interview Playwrights Part 553: Jenelle Riley

Jenelle Riley

Hometown:  Salem, OR

Current Town:   After 16 years, the post office tells me I'm no longer in Culver City, I'm in Los Angeles proper.

Q:  Congrats on the LA Weekly nomination.

A:  Thank you! Can I tell you the weirdest story about how I found out? I was interviewing Jim Leonard, the writer of "Bad Apples" (my day job is the Film and TV Editor of Backstage Magazine.) He got a text informing him he had received 12 LA Weekly nominations for his show. I was trying to pull up the list to find out if my friend French Stewart was nominated for "Stoneface" because it was his birthday and I was hoping he would get a sweet present in the form of a nom. As I was scrolling through the list, I saw my name. Somehow, I had forgotten I had even done a show that was eligible--it just wasn't even something I was considering. I kind of blurted out in shock: "Oh! I'm...nominated...too!" Jim was so gracious and excited for me, and told me this was his best interview ever.

Q:  Tell me about the show you were nominated for.

A:  "A Kind of Love Story" is a parody and homage to the romantic comedy genre. It's the story of two people who were made for each other, true soulmates, who have never met. We follow the comic and tragic misadventures of Mark and Ally as their lives crossover and intersect, hoping for the day they might meet. Along the way, each has to overcome their own obstacles (Mark is the perpetual "good friend," Ally can't seem to shake her loser boyfriend) and hope for the day they find each other.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A film adaptation of "A Kind of Love Story," hopefully to shoot this year. It's being produced by Andrew Carlberg, who is responsible for a few of Neil LaBute's screen adaptations, including the upcoming "Some Girl(s)," so I'm in good hands. Awaiting word on a pilot I worked on for FX. Also, my first novel, currently titled "Not the Girl." None of those things are theatre related, so I guess I'm a big sell-out.

Q:  How would you characterize the LA theater scene?

A:  It's my home, my community, my refuge. Sacred Fools Theatre is full of amazing, talented people who have become my family. I've been allowed to experiment, fail, and succeed on their stage through their various programs and shows. For better or worse, they're responsible for the writer I am today.

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

A:  Much of "A Kind of Love Story" is very autobiographical. Like the heroine, my first kiss was the result of a bribe. In first grade, a boy I had a crush on wanted to see this fossil I had found and I told him he could see it if he let me give him a kiss. He did, I kissed him, he was disgusted and pushed me down. Kind of a perfect metaphor for both my love and writing lives. But putting it on stage and making people laugh was more healing than thousands of dollars in therapy.

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

A:  That more people would go see it.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  First and foremost, Martin McDonagh. Theresa Rebeck, Stephen Sondheim, David Mamet, Neil LaBute, Stuart Gordon, Neil Simon. On the acitng side, Mandy Patinkin, Jessica Chastain, and Hugh Jackman, who gave one of the most perfect performances I've ever seen in "Boy From Oz."

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm not someone who seeks out a certain kind of theatre. Honestly, I just want to be entertained. If that means a community theatre production of "Into the Woods," I'm in. I do have an aversion to one-person shows but having said that, I've seen some pretty perfect ones, like Denis Leary's "No Cure for Cancer."

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

A:  Write. It's a cliche for a reason; the people who I know that are getting things up are the ones who never stop writing. Don't wait to get paid for it.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Check out www.sacredfools.org to see what my company is up to, it's got some wicked talented people. And some talented wicked people. But we won't do "Wicked," I promise. My blog at www.goodanotherblog.wordpress.com, and my writing at backstage.com and backstory.net. Follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jenelleriley where I occasionally post "Futurama" porn.

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I Interview Playwrights Part 552: Jonathan Rand

Jonathan Rand

Hometown: Jacksonville, FL

Current Town: Santa Monica, CA

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  An evening of short comedies

Q:  Tell me about Playscripts. How did it come about?

A:  Fifteen years ago my brother Doug and I were two playwrights baffled by the lack of innovation in the play publishing and licensing industry. We founded Playscripts to fill that need and provide playwrights an opportunity to have their work read and produced as much as humanly possible. What started with eight plays in a dorm room has now become a fully-staffed Manhattan enterprise that represents over 1,800 plays by over 900 playwrights, and was ranked by Inc. Magazine as one of the nation’s fastest growing companies. It's been an exciting time.

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

A:  In the sixth grade I wrote and directed a play in English class called A Nightmare on Sesame Street, in which Big Bird and the gang turn to a life of crime. Huge Pulitzer snub.

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

A:  I'd like to say something profound, but my knee-jerk answer is to have a machine that automatically powers down all audience members' cell phones. I'd like to see this for movie theaters, too. And at funerals.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My grandfather Jerome Sorkin was a master carpenter who made a career building Broadway sets and working as a stagehand. I'd like to think he's the genetic force behind my entire family's theatre obsession.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  The kind where I forget I'm in a theater.

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

A:  You'll hear that it's healthy to write as much as possible, to write first and edit later, and so forth -- and that's all great advice. But in order to even get started, you need to sit down and do it. And that means powering down email, Twitter, your iPhone -- everything. If you have to lock all your devices in a safe, do it. Once you've truly eliminated all distractions, you'll have no excuse but to focus on nothing but the page in front of you.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  jonathanrand.com, playscripts.com


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I Interview Playwrights Part 551: D.L. Siegel

D.L. Siegel

Hometown: Staten Island, NY

Current Town: Astoria, NY

Q:  Tell me about Chosen.

A:  Chosen is a one-act play about cultural pride, racism, family, and love. It is without a doubt the most personal play I've ever written. But it's a comedy! Because I think the most painful stories in our own lives should always be funny to other people.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm in the research stage for a few big projects right now, which is a fun and terrifying place to be. One play is a collaboration with Melissa Crespo (the director of Chosen and my spiritual other half). Melissa and I are working on a devised piece together that's going to be really politically charged and personal for both of us. Or at least that's the hope.

And then I'm also moving towards the early workshop stage for a new full-length play commissioned by IVP, a really fantastic group of female performers, co-founded by my childhood friend, Ashley Adelman.

Honestly, I feel very lucky to be so busy right now.

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 around 9 years old, my parents, my older brother and I all went to see Miss Saigon on Broadway. I don't remember feeling very affected by all the sexy stuff happening on stage -- I just thought all the dancing and noise was exciting. Besides...we had really great seats and it was my 2nd Broadway show ever; so they could have been sacrificing a live goat up there and I would’ve been enthralled. Anyway. When the lights came up during intermission, my mom took a deep breath, turned to me and blurted out ‘honey, do you know what a prostitute is?’ I honestly don’t remember my exact response. But I figure it was the kind of rushed affirmative response that attempts to steer clear of having ‘the talk’ in the middle of Miss Saigon. I think that’s still how I look at theater…the ideas I love to see portrayed on the stage, the taboos I most love to see broken and opened and re-purposed, those are the topics I am least likely to willingly discuss with my mother.

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

A:  The emphasis on first-runs is a killer. When and why did the branding of a ‘world premiere’ become so important? Given how many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows are revivals, it seems ridiculous to me that new work at the ground level often gets only one shot to it get it right. Bonkers.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I love the Greeks, especially Sophocles and Euripides. So I’m a sucker for writers and directors who don’t just re-translate these classics but adapt them in new, crazy, remarkable ways.  Like Ed Sylvanus Iskandar with his food and his gorgeous stage pictures and his generally jaw-dropping direction of 'These Seven Sicknesses.' And Charles Mee, who would be one of the guests at my dream dinner party.

Also, Sarah Ruhl, Erik Ehn. Shakespeare. Tony Kushner. August Strindberg. Laura Maria Censabella, who made me braver than I thought possible.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I want the passion, the risk. I don’t want to see a slice of life, I want a peek at the characters’ most lurid secrets and dreams. I crave magic, and not just in the stagecraft. Get the actors out of their chairs, away from their tables, and give them some choreography or some puppets or some confetti to throw around. I like to leave the theater feeling like I just saw an almost supernatural event in front of me. Plays where the actors sink into the upholstery for two hours do not generally interest me.

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

A:  Don’t expect all the people in your life -- even the really important ones -- to fully understand what you do or appreciate how hard it is. Because most of them just won't. They can't, and they'll frequently doubt your sanity. So get a therapist and a gym membership and do what you can to surround yourself with people who make you laugh. And don't let anyone tell you that romantic relationships distract you from your work. Because true love inspires. Also, unrelated to that last point, take naps. Lots of naps. Writing's exhausting.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Chosen @ HERE Arts Center, presented by the Downtown Urban Theater Festival. Wed. March 13th at 8:30pm. For more info and tickets: http://www.here.org/shows/detail/1148/

My website, hot off the presses: www.dlsiegel.com

IVP, a great group of gals making theater together. http://infinitevarietyproductions.com/

Corey Pajka, my boyfriend, is also a playwright, and he's got a play coming up in the Midwinter Madness Short Play Festival next week. http://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?showcode=OLD10 Oh, and one more plug! The New Voices Festival is about to start up at the New School for Drama. The MFA Playwriting thesis plays are serious business, go if you can.
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