I Interview Playwrights Part 45: Joshua Conkel

Joshua Conkel

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

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York

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

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

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

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

 Q: What are you working on next?

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

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

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

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

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

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

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

I Interview Playwrights Part 44: Kyle Jarrow

photo by Lauren Worsham 

Kyle Jarrow

Hometown: Ithaca, NY

Current Town: New York, NY

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

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

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

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

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

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

I Interview Playwrights Part 43: Christina Ham

Christina Ham

Hometown: Los, Angeles, California

Current Town: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Q: What are you working on right now?:

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

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

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

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

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

Q: What kind of theater excites you?:

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

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

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

I Interview Playwrights Part 42: Rachel Axler

Rachel Axler

Hometown: New York

Current Town: Los Angeles

Q: What are you working on now?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Philly Premiere of Nerve in April

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

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Three posts from Stephen Adly Guirgis at the Ojai Playwrights Conference

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

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

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

I Interview Playwrights Part 41: Laura Lynn MacDonald

Laura Lynn MacDonald

Hometown: Orland Park, Illinois

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q: What kind of theatre excites you?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I Interview Playwrights Part 40: Steve Patterson

Steve Patterson

Hometown: Spokane, Washington.

Current Town: Portland, Oregon.

Q: What are you working on right now?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

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

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

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

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