I Interview Playwrights Part 293: Jennifer Barclay

Jennifer Barclay

Hometown: Rochester, NY

Current Town: San Diego, CA. I came here to get my MFA at UC San Diego, and my husband and I fell in love with the California life.

But my Artistic Home is still Chicago, where I lived for 10 wonderful years. It's the place that fostered my early career both as an actor and as a playwright, and I think of it as my artistic home away from home. So far, I've been fortunate to get to go back there lots for workshops and productions of my plays.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Two plays, a feature screenplay, and a TV pilot.

Writing in three genres at once sometimes creates a pressure-cooker in my brain (like now, when the deadlines are closing in), but for the most part I find it incredibly stimulating and healthy to have several balls in the air. I'm learning constantly about how to be a better story teller, and about all the visual and verbal tools I have at my disposal.

I started developing my play, QUARRY, while I was the Playwright in Residence at South Coast Repertory last year. It's set in Chicago against the background of northside gentrification and Cabrini Green relocation. My feature screenplay, THE RIGHT TRACK, is my first romantic comedy. TAKE TWO is my new pilot-- it's my first sitcom, and one of the most challenging things I've ever tried to write. And I've been developing a community-based play with the Old Globe about the foster system called EMANCIPATED. It's one of the most rewarding projects I've ever been a part of. I've had the chance to get to know 4 amazing young adults who went through the system, and who've been brave enough to let me interview them and share their stories on stage.

And, other than writing: my husband and I are on a quest to explore all the National Parks in California. So far we've done 7 of the 9. After that, we'll move onto other states...

Q:  How would you characterize Chicago theater?

A:  Nurturing, stimulating, and grounded. I feel it's incredibly open and welcoming to people who are hard-working and ready to collaborate and create. Part of that is the wealth of opportunities (over 200 theatre companies, constantly buzzing), and part of that is how easy it is to live there. Granted, you have to deal with the biting winters, but you don't have to work tons of hours in a day job to afford a nice apartment, time to do your art, and a pretty high quality of life. It's a place where, I've found, many theatre artists go out of their way to help others. Big theatres like Steppenwolf and Goodman not only co-produce with smaller companies, but their artistic staffs also help to make collaborative connections between emerging artists. For the most part, Chicago theatre people are game-- ready to take a risk and open up their doors, while still maintaining incredibly high standards. The theatre community is highly visible and clearly prized in the city. This, combined with its affordability, make productions accessible to a wide range of pretty diverse audiences.

Q:  Tell me about Vienna.

A:  Oh, Vienna. After graduating from Northwestern, I backpacked through Europe for 6 months on my own. Chicago veteran actor Greg Vinkler had told me about this great English speaking theatre company in Vienna, the International Theatre, and so when I was there I knocked on their door and asked if I could do a monologue for them. A few months later they had an opening in their company, so I moved there for a little while and performed the now-and-forever classic THE MOUSETRAP on weekends, and my one-woman show CLEARING HEDGES on off-nights. The company had a gorgeous apartment and a bike for me to use, and I used to go for rides down the Danube. I taught English for extra cash, learned enough German to order damn fine breads and coffees from the cafes and bakeries, saw the opera for $3, and took weekend road trips to Hungary and Italy. It was heaven.

Q:  What could a student in your playwriting class at UCSD expect?

A:  It's important to me to base a class in not only lots of reading of plays, but also in seeing as many productions as possible so that the students can constantly be reminded that it's a three-dimensional collaborative art, not just a literary one. Luckily, at UCSD, that's easy because there are several productions a week. I think it's essential to foster an atmosphere in the class which is completely supportive and collaborative; where students feel free to take risks and share their constructive feedback. I owe lots of my teaching techniques to my wonderful mentor, Naomi Iizuka.

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 5, I woke up in the middle of the night, padded downstairs, and announced to my parents that I was changing my name to Micky. When I was 7, I decided I wanted to be a boy, cut off my waist-length hair and renamed myself Chris. And when I was 9, I went up to the front of my fourth-grade class to announce that they should call me Fisher from now on. I've always felt the right and ability to reinvent myself; such an American sensibility. Now, through acting and playwriting, I get to keep trying to reinvent myself over and over again-- while still keeping my old common, feminine, given name.

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

A:  More new plays, less Shakespeare.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  The wickedly talented and generous teachers I've been so lucky to have, including David Downs, Allan Havis, Karl Gajdusek, Adele Shank and Naomi Iizuka.

My other theatrical heroes include Chekhov, Shepard, Pinter, Albee, Stoppard, Kushner, Steppenwolf, and the Donmar Warehouse.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Juicy, raw, surprising. Dark plays with a twisted sense of humor. Balls-to-the-wall acting. Stories which un-peel new meaning with each revealed layer, and leave me stewing for days or months or years after leaving the theatre.

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

A:  See lots of plays and set aside strict hours for writing. Find collaborators you love, stick with them, and organize your own readings so you can hear your work out loud. Don't get too hung up on one play; keep plunging forward. And this career requires a lot of stamina; make sure you surround yourself with people you love, and a life that inspires you.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My play, FREEDOM, NY, will have its world premiere at Teatro Vista in Chicago May14 - June 12, directed by Joe Minoso.
http://teatrovista.com/stage/freedom-ny.html

For updates on my work and to check out my favorite fiction writer (my husband), my favorite potter (my mother) and my favorite photographer (my father), check out our family's website:
http://www.barclaystudios.com/

I Interview Playwrights Part 292: Peggy Stafford

Peggy Stafford

Hometown:  Bainbridge Island, WA

Current  Town:  Brooklyn

Q:  What are you working on now? 

A:  I’m collaborating with Madelyn Kent and Maja Milanovic on an opera set in the former Yugoslavia during the 1984 Winter Olympics and also in 2008, the year Radovan Karadzic was captured on a city bus. I’m writing a stage adaptation of Marguerite de Angeli’s The Door in the Wall for Seattle Children’s Theatre. I just finished the first draft of Jewel Casket, a play inspired by a Joseph Cornell box.  And I’m working on the book for Sunrise at Hyde Park, a musical based on the 30-year correspondence between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok.

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

A:  In third grade we all sat at small wood desks (the kind with tops that open), in rows that faced the front of the class. Inside my desk, I kept hidden small eraser people with faces, tiny match boxes, and also some trolls with bright hair. I set up elaborate scenes for my eraser people and trolls, and as much as possible I’d open up my desk to look at them in there. I also ran into sliding glass doors three times throughout my childhood and nothing happened to me except the last time I cracked a tooth.

Q:  What kind of theatre excites you?

A:  The kind that wakes you up & is de-familiarizing. Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, Richard Maxwell, W. David Hancock, ERS, Young Jean Lee, Madelyn Kent, NTUSA, Caryl Churchill, Judith Thompson. Theatre/spectacle like Robert LePage, Dan Hurlin, Erik Ehn’s Saint Plays, Big Dance Theatre, Joseph Cornell boxes.  Funny plays by Charles Ludlam, Mac Wellman, Sibyl Kempson, Beckett. Chekhov, too, is exciting.

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

A:  See a lot of theatre. Listen to real people really talking.  It’s helpful & smart to write down things that you hear on the street or in the emergency room. Find collaborators who can interpret your plays.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Daniel Alexander Jones/Soho Rep,  Kristen Kosmas’ Twenty-Five Cent Opera of San Francisco at Barbes.

I Interview Playwrights Part 291: James McManus

James McManus

Hometown: Donora, PA

Current Town: Long Island City, NY

Q: Tell me about Cherry Smoke.

A: I wrote Cherry Smoke as my grad thesis. I literally wrote over 100 scenes for the play and then put it together like a jig saw puzzle in order to make a play. I based the story on the boys and girls I knew growing up. Our area was ravaged by poverty and many were not able to take advantage of even a primary education because of worsening family situations. But even in the ignorance, there was a beauty in both the language and the dreams. Many of them didn't make it off of those riversides whole, but I guess that I'm bold enough to think that all of those lost souls got together and want me to write their story. Cherry Smoke is enjoying its 6th production and I am keenly aware that the boys and girls I write about never got a chance to see places like Sydney or Scotland or even New York City where it has been produced...and I get an unending kick out of thinking about how these kids who could see every place that they had traveled by climbing a tree are now jet setters. I allow myself that little thunderclap of hope in the brutal world of Cherry Smoke.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I'm working on a play about meth addicts titled Blood Potato. A screenplay that I can't contractually talk about. And I've recently started work on a musical set in the early 1900's in the world of the County Fairs of Western PA. It's my first time trying to write a musical and it's just tickling me to death.

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

A:  One day, I was eating a McRib sandwich, fries and an orange pop at the Donora McDonald's, the next day it was closed. The local paper said McDonald's left town because the townsfolk could no longer afford to eat there due to the mill closing down. I wish I was making this up.

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

A:  I would love it to not be so cost prohibitive.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  As a kid near Pittsburgh, I knew nothing of theater until someone introduced me to free tickets to Two Trains Running by August Wilson. I've always had a soft spot for Wilson since then. I love so many of my contemporaries, but would leave someone out if I named just a few. I will say that seeing a production of MUD by Maria Irene Fornes 5 or so years back changed the way I look at theater and reading SCARCITY by Lucy Thurber was like taking brave pills.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Brave theater. I think the role of the artist is to not take one fucking step back from what the truth is no matter how it looks or how it makes you feel. I like theater that makes me uncomfortable. I like theater that turns a mirror on folks who I have never seen before.

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

A:  Write all the time. Write about big things. A hundred years from now no one will give a damn about conversations you overheard about the 7 train in New York City.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My play, Cherry Smoke, runs at The Side Project thru December 19th. thesideproject.net has all the pertinent info for tickets.

I Interview Playwrights Part 290: Philip Dawkins

Philip Dawkins

Hometown: Chicago (though, full disclosure, I was born in Phoenix, AZ. But it was never my hometown.)

Current Town: Chicago

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I just finished costuming an opera, which isn't writing, but it's story telling in a way, yeah? It's called "Boojum! Nonsense, Truth, and Lewis Carroll," and it's a co-production between my company, Chicago Opera Vanguard and Caffeine Theater. It's a really whacked out existential musical trip through the brain space of Lewis Carroll, and I'm proud to have worked on it, and happy to be finished.

Writing-wise, I'm working on a children's play for a theater in NY about death and grief. (!!!) And I just finished a first draft of a new play called FAILURE: A LOVE STORY.

In the new year, I'll be gearing up for About Face's premiere production of my play, THE HOMOSEXUALS. I just honestly couldn't be more excited about that.

Also, I'm nearing a test for my black sash in Shaolin Kung Fu, and trying my darndest to train for that.

Q:  How would you characterize Chicago theater?

A:  Blue Collar. Chicagoans take their theatre seriously. We've had a long day at work, and we're either going to put on our duck boots and Carharts to go to the bar where it's warm and we know we can count on good conversation, good whiskey, and a good fist fight; or we can put on something nice and try to find snowy parking to see a show. So, if we choose a show, it better be worth it. Which is not to say that a Chicago audience isn't cultured. No, Chicagoans know what they like, they know what's good, and if it isn't good, they're not going to give you a standing ovation on principal. They're going to stand up and say, "So that sucked. See you at the bar?" No phoning it in with Chicago Theatre.

Also, I think, Chicago theatre is accessible in a way. The cost of putting up a show here is . . . well, let's just say it's possible. And you can afford to take a big risk, do the show that maybe most people will hate but that you desperately feel needs to be seen. Why not? You won't go bankrupt. And if the people who need to see that show get to see that show, then Yahtzee! It's a success. A financial success? Maybe not. But it got done, it got seen, and no one went to the poor house.


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

A:  Growing up in Phoenix, a lot of my friends were Mexican or Native American. But, as a kid, of course, I didn't recognize any cultural distinctions. My best friend all through grade school was a Mexican American kid named Manny. We spent pretty much every recess together, and if I remember correctly, he was one of only two kids who bothered to show up to my tenth birthday party. Manny was very, very quiet, very shy, didn't say much, but a nice nice kid. We got along great.

A few years ago I was talking about Manny with my mother, and she said, "Philip, you know that Manny didn't speak English, right?"
News to me.

All this to say, I'm pretty comfortable with monologue.

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

A:  I'd like more people to go to it.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Personal mentors. I was a child actor, and I was very very lucky to be looked after by the most amazing roster of adult performers and theatrical nurturers. I dedicated my first published play to David Wo, who was sort of my theatre father. He gave me my first professional writing gig when I was sixteen, and then died later that summer. I had no idea he was even sick. He knew, and he went out of his way to give me that experience, to show me that I really could do this with my life. I don't believe in angels, but if I did ... David Wo.

And many others. A long list. I was a very, very fortunate child of the theatre.

Currently, my heroes are my students. Not all of them. Some of them are massive chores. But most of my students are, if not heroic, then inspirational to me. I think most teachers would agree with that...

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater with a story. There' s a lot of really excellent spectacle being done all over the place. I mean, REALLY excellent. Breath taking. But if there's no story, if there are no characters journeying against all odds toward something they want, then I'm out. Spectacle without story is, in my mind, circus. There's nothing wrong the circus, but I didn't say goodbye cruel world to join the circus. I left to join the theatre.

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

A:  Write, Listen, Relax. Repeat.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  The play at About Face
http://aboutfacetheatre.com/?pg=homosexuals

The Opera at the Department of Cultural Affairs
http://www.dcatheater.org/shows/show/boojum_nonsense_truth_and_lewis_carroll/

My published kids plays
http://www.playscripts.com/author.php3?authorid=928

Cino Nights, Chicago

Here is a great article about Cino Nights.  19 playwrights asked to write a full length for the 7th street small stage at Jimmys No. 43 in nyc.  I'm doing it.  Great insight into some of the playwrights involved.  It's a lot of fun.  And it's free.  I suggest you see as many as you can.  The schedule is here.  Pretty much one a month through March 2012.

You in Chicago?  Come see my reading of Elsewhere at Chicago Dramatists at 7pm on Mon the 6th.  I will be there.

I Interview Playwrights Part 289: Jen Silverman

Jen Silverman

Hometown: I was born in Simsbury, CT & went to high school there later. Between being born and being officially educated, I lived in Europe, Asia, and Scandinavia, returning to Simsbury from time to time to learn how to be American. Let me know if it paid off.

Current Town: Iowa City, Iowa. Finishing up my MFA at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A few different things, all at once, including trying to type this, pack a suitcase, make a sandwich, and drink a mason jar full of coffee without spilling it everywhere. Oh, you mean theatre?

I’m working on a final draft of my play “Gilgamesh’s Game” that I workshopped at Seven Devils Playwrights Conference this summer (playwrights, these people are gold, apply!), and on a second draft of a new play called “Still,” which came from a series of conversations with writer and professor Lisa Heineman about stillbirth and homebirth. Until this project I’d never thought much about the kind of reverberations (both personal and political) that the loss of a newborn sends through a family and a community. Lisa is currently working on a book about her experience of stillbirth, and our conversations have been quite a learning experience for me as a person and also as a writer—how to interrogate questions of loss, choice, and community in a way that is new and fresh while also being honest.

I’m also starting work on a new play for which I got a research grant this summer. As a kid I lived in Tokyo for a bit, then after undergrad I moved back to live in the rural south, in Okayama. I’ve been back to Japan every year since I moved away from Okayama, and this past summer I came back specifically to conduct interviews in the small but vibrant community of South Africans living and working in Japan. Many of the interviews have to do with their reasons for coming to Japan, the lives they’ve created there, the ones they’ve left behind, and the intricate balancing act of positioning themselves between worlds.

The impetus for the research and the play came from conversations I’ve had for the past four years with my close friend, South African photographer and writer Marilu Snyders. In some ways this project is a continuation of the conversations we started in 2006 when we were kicking around the mountains of Okayama together, drinking terrible vending-machine coffee and talking about identity, culture, place, roots.

Marilu and a number of other friends have been telling me that incredible things are happening in South Africa right now—musically, artistically, in terms of creativity and self-expression, despite (or in response to) violence and poverty and political corruption. So for them there’s this thing of, “Do I have the responsibility to go back and be part of that? Or do I want to stay in this life I’ve built for myself here?” And for me—I feel like I’ve spent maybe 95% of my adult life asking myself that specific question: Do I stay or do I go, where do I belong, how does the life I’m building in this particular country/ state fit into the one I left and the one I’m moving toward. I have a complicated relationship with my nationality—as, perhaps, do most American artists—and embedded in that are questions about my responsibility to America as an artist, as a citizen, as someone who has had ample opportunities to cut ties and run, but keeps coming back.

Which is all to say: I’m starting work on the first draft of the play now. It feels harder to write and larger than almost anything I’ve worked on recently. Which means I’m looking forward to it.
Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A:  I was homeschooled until high school, which meant that upon completing the requisite lessons in the morning, I spent a lot of afternoons running around the streets of various towns, cities, and countries, improving my language skills by talking to strangers. Almost without fail, they would ask if I was cutting school, and I’d explain that I was homeschooled, and then all hell would break loose. They’d want to know if I was locked in the basement every morning with stale bread and Bible verses, if my parents believed in electricity, and if they needed to call the cops to rescue me. Some of the more enterprising ones (particularly in English-speaking countries, and almost invariably in the US) would administer impromptu reading tests, or assign me math problems. Their shock at my ability to read and do math was always a mixture of gratifying and insulting. As a kid I became very stubborn about knowing how to do things that I knew I wasn’t expected to know how to do.

I still find moments as an adult in which I recognize this. When I first moved to Okayama I started training martial arts there. The moment that clinched my absolute determination to train was the moment in which a group of extremely well-intentioned town ladies asked me if I wouldn’t rather learn how to arrange flowers, as young women aren’t conditioned to be able to fight. (I said No thank you, I'd rather fight, and for a precarious moment we all balanced on the edge of an international incident.)

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

A:  More affordable for audiences. While lucrative enough to sustain the lives of playwrights. Oops, that’s two.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Sarah Kane—I find her fearless and angry and hopeful, and I take comfort in seeing those things coexist in her work. Naomi Wallace, who taught me that politics onstage can be a visceral, personal, impact on flesh. Caryl Churchill, Jose Rivera, Martin McDonagh. Sherry Kramer, who has been a wonderful and generous teacher. The class about to graduate from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop: Kevin Artigue, Jess Foster, Andrew Saito, and dramaturg Christine Scarfuto—all four have had a deep impact on my work and my hopes for theatre over the past almost-three years. Finally, the novelist Haruki Murakami and the film directors Takashi Miike and Wong Kar-Wei have had a huge influence on what I find compelling, beautiful and exciting.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre of hunger & desire. Theatre that tells driving difficult stories. Theatre that is visceral, that leaves bruises—you don’t walk out the way you walked in. Theatre of fluid lines and easily crossed boundaries— multilingual, multi-national, multi-mythic. Anything that surprises me, that plays with or complicates its structure in a way that feeds its content. Theatre that feels like a shared secret.

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

A:  Be bold. Write all the plays you’re scared to write because you think they’ll cause trouble or offend people. BUT: take responsibility for your choices—don’t be provocative because it’s stylish, be provocative in response to something, to interrogate something, to accomplish something.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you should not write genders, ethnicities, or cultures that are not your own—BUT (and this is a big BUT) do your research. Listen to authentic voices coming from the communities you’re trying to write. Let those voices tell you when you’re offbase. Make sure at all moments that you are writing with integrity and not clinging to a preconceived story you want to tell. The minute you write outside of your identity, it isn’t about you anymore, it’s about a responsibility you have to the community you’re portraying.

Finally, advocate for each other. We’re in this crazy world together. That pretty much makes us family.


Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Check out Counterpoint Theatre Co (counterpointtheatre.org/), a new international US/UK group based out of New York. They just produced a short play of mine called “Love In the Time of Dolores” in their festival called What’s Love Got To Do With It?—my play was about cannibalism, as one might expect. Also, I have a reading of a new full-length play coming up March 21 with id Theatre’s NYC Sit In reading series (http://www.idtheater.org/). And if you're in New Mexico, check out FUSION Theatre Co (http://fusionabq.com/)— they've been a creative home for me for some time, and I've been in residence there on and off since 2008, developing a trilogy of plays based in Albuquerque. Lastly, these are two groups that I love more than hot chocolate (with a splash of rum) on a cold winter day: larktheatre.org/ and http://newgeorges.org/

A last plug— My brother is a graphic designer and visual artist who's designed a number of posters for shows of mine. I've always found his work unusual, quirky, and inspiring. Check him out at csilverman.com/.

I Interview Playwrights Part 288: Lally Katz

Lally Katz

Hometown:
I was born in Trenton New Jersey. But we moved to Miami when I was three, and then to Australia when I was eight and three quarters.

Current Town:
Melbourne, Australia.

Q:  Tell me about your upcoming play with the Production Company.

A:  In the play, the internet has its own cities. They're cities you can physically go to. The city this play focuses on is Myspace New York. It's about this girl who leaves her hometown for Myspace New York, and when she gets there, she falls in love with someone who's not capable of being a true part of life anymore. The play follows her journey in Myspace New York. It's kind of a comedy and kind of a tragedy. Oliver Butler, the director from the Debate Society is directing it. He's really very brilliant. I'm loving working with him and the cast.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I've got three premieres coming up in Australia next year, they're called 'A Golem Story', 'Neighbourhood Watch' (which is about the 84 year old Hungarian lady who lives across the street from me in Melbourne and is kind of my best friend and sometimes enemy) and 'Return to Earth'.

Q:  How would characterize Australian theater?

A:  Gosh, there are so many different kinds of Australian theatre. But I think that a lot of Australian theatre that really works kind of subtly sidles into what it's doing- so that you don't realise where it's going until it's there.

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

A:  Sorry this is really long!

When I was about fourteen years old, I want caving (spelunking) with my outdoor education class at high school. We repelled deep into this cave called the Punchbowl. It was dark and you had to negotiate your way down, wearing a headlamp, and bouncing off of and scrambling down a forty meter (don't know what that is in feet or yards) cave wall. Once in the cave, we went for all these adventures. In the dark. Through chambers full of bats. Sliding down a wall in a place called The Ballroom Chamber where it sounded like music was playing because of the voices of the bats. Over never ending holes in the ground, that you had to kind of edge around or jump over. After these adventures we went back to the base of the forty meter cave wall that we had repelled down. The only way up, was by climbing a very thin, shaky sort of silver metal and chain ladder. I was very scared about this. At the bottom of the ladder, was a sort of grave, made of rocks. Our teachers said this grave was fake and a joke that spelunkers had made. But the longer I was down there, at the bottom of the ladder, the more I began to feel that this grave was real.

I started to think that the grave was for this half bat, half man creature that now roamed the cave, looking for young girls as victims. I got more and more frightened. It became kind of an intense claustrophobic feeling.

When it finally came my turn to climb up the ladder, I was terrified. I was pretty sure I would fall down it and die. But I was sure that if I didn't climb it, then the I would be killed by the creature from the grave.

When I finally reached the top of the cave wall, I sat down, so relieved, in the opening of the cave. It was mostly closed in, but from the top, I could see the sky and all the bright, bright stars. I guess I was kind of halluncinating. Because when I sat there, watching the remaining students climbing from the pitch black, up out of the cave, I would see the light of the headtorches gliding over the cave walls. And I could, so clearly and realistically painted into the cavewalls portraits of young women. Their faces, their expressions, their personality. And I knew these were the young women that this half bat, half man had kept in the cave, sacrificing so that he could taste life and light. I was so sure it was real.

When I got home, I wrote about this giant bat/man creature sacrificing a girl in the cave. For some reason, I decided to write it as a play. I'd never written a play before. But it just seemed right. I haven't stopped writing plays since then.

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

A:  I guess I would change it so that mainstream theater was made for audiences of all different ages, of all different demographics and that we trusted that audiences wanted to launch off into places they haven't been.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Here are just some- I have more- but it will start getting crazy if I list all the people and companies I admire in theatre: Mac Wellman, Robyn Nevin, Caryl Churchill, Thorton Wilder

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  It doesn't matter what style it is. As long as it's true to itself, has a pulsating heart that you can feel, and that humbles you, changes you, challenges you.

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

A:  Just put on a play. Get anyone you can- even if the only people you can find aren't quite right- just get them and put something on. That's how you learn. By seeing and hearing your work. Also, see as much theatre as you can. Go and see all the theatre- every different type as often as possible. Also, read your own work outloud to someone you trust- it helps you to know exactly what it is, what parts work and what parts need work.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: Plug for 'Goodbye New York, Goodbye Heart' at the Here Center:
http://www.productioncompany.org/productions/goodbye.shtml

I Interview Playwrights Part 287: Anne Garcia-Romero

Anne Garcia-Romero

Hometown: Wellesley, MA

Current Town: South Bend, IN

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm working on my play, Paloma, which had a great reading at the Open Fist Theater Company in Los Angeles last August. The play explores the lives of a young inter-faith couple in 2004 New York City and Madrid and how their religious differences threaten to demolish their love. The play is inspired by a gorgeous fourteenth century Muslim Spanish text, Ring of the Dove by Ibn Hazm, that considers all the permutations of love.

I've also translated an acclaimed Spanish play, The Gronholm Method, by Jordi Galceran, which was produced in Australia last summer. Galceran's play has already been successfully produced in Spain, Latin America, Europe and Russia with a current revival recently opened in Barcelona. A dark comedy about four job applicants vying for a top corporate position, The Gronholm Method examines the question: How far would you go to land your dream job?

I'm also just starting a new play so I can't say too much yet only that I've been studying the works of Mexican visual artist, Martin Ramirez, as inspiration. I'm working on the play as part of my Moreau fellowship in the department of Film, Television and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. We're aiming to workshop the play next year at Notre Dame.

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 traveled to Barcelona from Massachusetts with my Spanish father when I was seven. We went to visit my great great uncle, a celebrated Spanish painter and sculptor. I walked through Tio (uncle in Spanish) Vicente's home gallery in awe of his work ranging from striking portraits to an expressionistic series on circus performers to stunning sculptures of voluptuous women. Tio Vicente wore a burgundy bathrobe and had long white hair down to his shoulders framing his cool chunky horned rim glasses. I held onto my dad's hand as my young mind soaked in this artistic abundance. I treasure the black and white photo from that day: I lean into my smiling dad, holding his index finger with a look of contentment on my face, next to my serene Tio Vicente.

This story contains many elements of my journey as a writer. As a Spanish-American, I gain much of my inspiration from the Latin world and often write about how the Anglo and Latin worlds collide, intersect and transform each other. I also draw huge inspiration from my father's Spanish family of artists. Dealing with loss has also been an area I've continually explored as a writer. My father passed away while I was in college. Surviving the death of a parent has greatly shaped who I am. Learning how fleeting life can be fueled my passion to pursue my writing.

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

A:  If I could change one thing about U.S. theater, theater companies would produce a wider, broader range of plays by women and men who fully represent the cultural complexity of twenty-first century U.S. culture. Theatergoers would then have access to a huge selection of diverse theatrical worlds that would challenge, entertain, delight and intrigue them. The U.S. theater would be on the cutting edge of social change and an apt mirror to contemporary society.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My theatrical heroes who are with us in spirit only include Federico Garcia Lorca, Lope de Vega, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, William Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams.

My theatrical heroes who are still with us in body and spirit include Maria Irene Fornes, Nilo Cruz and Griselda Gambaro.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I am excited when I go to the theater and see a play that is culturally complex, linguistically innovative, aesthetically adventuresome, impeccably produced and has a running time of less than two hours.

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

A:  Keep writing. Trust your instincts. Find your tribe. Produce your own work at least once. Try directing your own work. See a ton of theater to hone your skills and discover what you really like in a play. Read widely. Know that in most cases you will have to do something in addition to playwriting to earn a living so find that work which you enjoy and gives you time to write. Buy the Dramatists Sourcebook and submit your work to lots of places that appeal to you. Cultivate a spirit of generosity toward your peers. Playwriting is a marathon, not a sprint. Continue on the journey and know that there are many definitions of success. And above all, always, always keep writing.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My play, Desert Longing, was just published by Playscripts. It's part of a wonderful collection of short plays about Latino history in California. http://www.playscripts.com/play?playid=1544

Visit my website: www.annegarciaromero.com



Check out these wonderful playwrights' websites too:

www.adrianasevan.com

www.brookeberman.net

www.caridadsvich.com

www.elaineromero.com

www.juliehebert.com

www.quiara.com