I Interview Playwrights Part 489: Steven Strafford

Photo by Kristin Donnelly

Steven Strafford

Hometown:  Born in Brooklyn. Grew up in Old Bridge, NJ

Current Town: QUEENS! (NYC)

Q:  Tell me about Methtacular.

A:  I call Methtacular a story with songs. I tell the story of my three year descent into crystal meth addiction. Through anecdotes, pop culture references and a whole heap of honesty, I show you how a sweet gay kid, with a few bad choices, found himself in a complete mess. Then, you get to see how, with a few good decisions, he found his way out. It's mostly funny, but then, you know, it gets serious and stuff.--- this may be the worst-written sentence of all time.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I just started working on a new play, but I don't know what it is yet. I like they way the characters are speaking though. They are making me laugh. I am also acting in a new musical piece about AIDS activist, Michael Callen. Hopefully, it will be produced in NYC soon!

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 in 4th grade, I wasn't very popular. That all changed, however, when a boy ran away from my 4th grade class. I mean, he really ran away...for 4 years. It all began when my teacher, who turned out was mentally unstable began pointing at this kid, Justin. Mr. Mitchell, the teacher, pointed with his middle finger. This elicited giggle from 4th graders because the middle finger is the funniest finger. Justin laughed, and Mr. Mitchell went into a rage....an unhinged rage. Justin, though, was not cowed at all. See, he lived in a house where the government had to step in and put a door on the front of the house because they just had a plastic sheet in the doorway. So, you see, Justin was no stranger to pain. So, when Mr. Mitchell screamed and screamed, it seemed to uncork something in Justin. Justin screamed back. And then they physically fought a bit. Justin was big for his age and old for our grade, Mr. Mitchell was an old man. The fight was not frightening, but rather messy to look at.
Then, Justin yelled that he was leaving. For good. Then, he ran away from the class. Beth, a girl who looked much like Sweetums from The Muppet Movie, ran after him almost all the way to parking lot, yelling after him, "Don't go, Justin! Don't go!"

It was sad and funny and weird, and I remembered details no one else could. That was my first good storytelling experience. I relayed that story over and over again, and it got me my first taste of popularity. A storyteller was born.

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

A:  I would make it illegal to make musicals out of movies. Even if it's a great musical... I would make it illegal....well, for at least a few years.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My theatrical heroes (playwrights) are Nicky Silver, Douglas Carter Beane, Leslie Ayvazian, Sandra Bernhard, Dan Savage and Morris Panych.

My theatrical heroes (actors) are Denis O'Hare, Mark Rylance, Patricia Clarkson, Amy Morton, Michael Rupert and Randy Graff

My overall theatrical hero is Mike Nichols.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love when it's a piece of theatre that makes you go fluidly between laughing and crying. If a show makes me laugh and cry out loud, then I am hooked.

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

A:  Write every day. Write shitty things. Write scary things. Write.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My twitter handles are @stevenstrafford and @methtacular
Websites: www.methtacular.com

The show runs Aug. 30-Sept. 23 at The Playroom Theatre at 151 W. 46th Street 8th Floor.
Ticket info at www.methtacular.com and www.kefproductions.com

I Interview Playwrights Part 488: Anne Phelan

Anne Phelan

Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York City

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A few years ago, I reconnected with my fellow Albee Fellow Jacob Ouillette, who’s a painter. (Believe me, you get to know people really well when you live in the same space with them for a month.) Jacob was getting ready for a solo show at Open Source Gallery, which happens to be in my neighborhood. We decided we should seize the opportunity to work together, and Open Source’s Monika Wuhrer thought that was a great idea. So I wrote a short play, “Brooklyn Lighthouse,” based on Jacob’s paintings: he paints a lot of seascapes- two of which I own- and lighthouses. It was performed twice at the show’s opening. The play went over so well, the gallery added additional performances. Monika was enthusiastic about it, so the next year I worked with another painter, and wrote a play about her work.

Last year, I wrote a one-act play about a series of paintings by Naoe Suzuki (“Mi Tigre, My Lover”) about tiger tamer Mabel Stark. The actors (Cotton Wright and Jacob Grigolia-Rosenbaum) and director (Tamara Fisch) and I fell in love with the story of this woman who grew up on a Kentucky tobacco farm and went on to headline at Ringling Bros. in the 1920s, and her favorite tiger, Rajah. So I’ve been working on a full-length version (The Tiger Play), and I’m starting another draft before our Open Source reading in mid-September. Answering these questions is totally helping me procrastinate!

I should also be working on a new musical with composer John Prestianni, which I am neglecting. But will return to.

Q:  Do you think the William Inge House is haunted?

A:  Uh, yeah. I’m not big on ghosts, but there are places where I get that vibe. Several apartments I’ve lived in, Glastonbury in England, and the Inge 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:  When we were little, my brothers and I (our sister is ten years younger) spent a lot of time with our maternal grandmother. She’d make up these games for us that were half-improv/half-creative visualization, not that she would have called them that. One of the games was pretending that the couch we sat on was a train, and that we were all in sleeper cars. It was exciting- being on the train, and heading toward some unknown destination. Much more exciting, I found out years later, than actually riding in an upper berth over the Alps.

In hindsight, I suspect the point of Grandma’s game was to get us to shut up, but at the time, it was magic.

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

A:  That everybody got paid a living wage, instead of juggling multiple jobs.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Edward Albee; Stephen Sondheim; Richard Foreman; Samuel Beckett; Ellen Stewart; Uta Hagen (I’ll never forget seeing her in Mrs. Klein); Rosemary Harris (ditto in All Over- she was so mesmerizing I forgot to breathe); Chris Durang; Naomi Wallace (how great is One Flea Spare?).

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre that’s truly theatrical- not trying to imitate film or television.

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

A:  Don’t take everyone’s criticism with equal weight. Some people will give you terrific insight into your work, but many are flapping their gums because they like the sound of their own voices. Learn to tell the difference.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My monologue “Jeanine Waits for the Train” is part of Mildred’s Umbrella Theatre’s Museum of Dysfunction V. It runs August 16-18 at 8:00PM at Studio 101 in Houston, Texas.

My ten-minute play “They All Know Me” is part Thespian Productions’ Slam-a-thon III showcase at Joria Productions, 260 West 36th Street, 3rd floor in Manhattan. It runs August 23 & 24 at 8:00, and August 25th at 3:00 and 8:00. Tickets are available at the door, or at Brown Paper Tickets.

The Tiger Play will have its first reading at Open Source Gallery, 307 17th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn on Friday, September 21 and Saturday, September 22. It’s part of 30 Plays for 30 Years, the 30th anniversary celebration of the League of Professional Theatre Women.

Another full-length play, The Benders, will be workshopped at the William Inge Center for the Arts in Independence, Kansas, the last week in October. It’s about our nation’s first serial killers (ca. 1873), who operated just down the road from Independence. I can’t wait to see it. I’ll be a playwright-in-residence there for 2 weeks.

Check out my website at www.annephelan.com

and my blog http://dramahound.blogspot.com/

I Interview Playwrights Part 487: Vanessa Claire Stewart

Vanessa Claire Stewart

Hometown:  New Orleans LA and Monroe LA (can I have two?)

Current Town:  Los Angeles, CA

Q:  Tell me about Stoneface.

A:  Stoneface is essentially the story of Buster Keaton: The redemption of a man who squandered his own success through a bout with alcoholism and his own career-obsession.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I have a few things in the hopper, but currently I've been hired to rewrite a 1960s Mario Bava film. It's the screenplay that's open on my desktop right behind this email window.

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 fifth grade, there was a contest at in our local elementary school where a kid could win a prize for writing the best book report. Well, none of the books on the list interested me, so I wrote my own book, and put it in the school's library, then wrote a report on that. For some reason, I thought it was much easier to write a book than to read one that I wasn't interested in. Of course, I won the contest.

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

A:  Right now, I'm really disappointed in the larger commercial arena. Producers are taking less chances by creating more derivative material. It's like what's happening in Hollywood. Everything's a sequel or a remake. And of course, the ticket prices make it almost impossible for newcomers to see theatre. Theatre audiences are becoming a rare breed because of this kind of inaccessibility.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Of course I have to give a shout-out to my home boy Tony Kushner! (ha,ha) Also- Stephen Sondheim is obviously a theatrical genius. Also- I really like the originality that Sam Mendes has brought to classic musicals as a director. As an actor, I really eat up Tennessee Williams. Maybe it's the southern girl in me. And I know that some of his shows are seen as "overdone", but there's a reason why they've lived on as long as they have. I always hope I bring that sense of heart and character to my plays.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I go to a theatre to see things I can't see on a movie screen. I want to see actors taking risks ten feet away from me. The biggest compliment that I got about Stoneface is that there's always a sense of danger happening at any given moment. Whether it's physical or emotional, we try to keep Stoneface constantly risky.

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

A:  Don't be afraid to put your heart on the page. Scare yourself. If you're scaring yourself, you're probably doing art. If you're boring yourself, your audience will be bored.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  The show can be found at www.sacredfools.org
My other show can be found at www.liveatthesahara.com

I Interview Playwrights Part 486: Diana Stahl

Diana Stahl

Hometown: Milpitas, California.

Current Town: New York City.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I've been commissioned to write a new play for Rising Pheonix Rep's CINO night series, which I'm thrilled about. That play's called KEY OF U and its going to be a play with music about letters. I love everyone involved with RPR, and their CINO series is one of my favorite things happening in the city right now so I am really pumped to be working with them. I'm also prepping my play HELPING PEOPLE for a reading at Rattlestick. HELPING PEOPLE is about a compulsive helper who finds these two odd guys who run a juice company and really can't get it together. Maybe she figures that out, maybe not, we'll see.

Also I'll be writing for Theaterspeak's WRITE OUT FRONT project, and you can read about that here.

Also I produce a bunch of different site specific projects here and there, so more of those are coming.

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 parents are both meditation teachers so things were always a little strange in my house. I remember a lot of transcendental meditations we used to do and some of those visualizations are stored like memory. Hope this doesn't sound too woo-woo and totally freak you out. Lots of medicine men. Lots of Tibetan singing bowls. Sage burning. Kombucha brewing. All of that. Because of this I do have a few crystals around my apartment and am pretty superstitious about them. We also used to go on these six week cross country road trips with my half brother and sister, parents and two dogs (Boots and Snuggles). We would totally lose our minds on these trips and go crazy so after a while my parents started giving me notebooks to write in and I'd fill them in between fits of cabin fever.

This one time my dad and I were hiking in Nevada and were being really quiet. When my Dad and I would hike we would spend about 20 percent of that time talking, the rest of it was silent and listening. So we turned this corner on this particular hike and there was this mountain lion just standing in our path. I think I was like eleven. I was totally freaked out! Then my Dad (who is NOT a scary man) lifted his arms and let out this roar and the mountain lion ran off. Later when I asked him about it he said he remembered that a Park Ranger had said to do that if you're ever in front of a mountain lion so he did. Without thinking because that's what he had to do. I like to think about this story when things in life get hairy or something in front of me really freaks me out. I can just raise my arms and say "You don't scare me!" or something.

These were all really weird trips. We met strange people and listened to loads of Neil Diamond.

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

A:  Crumble actor's equity and build a new one that isn't based on 1930s standards. Find some sort of amazing real estate loop hole folks found in the 60s and 70s to subsidize buildings and theaters so we can afford to take time with our work. Have more theater artists approach work like scientists approach theirs. Like we're all researching for a cure and if we fail we just get back up and try again and not get bogged down or take failure personally. Scientists can't throw hissy fits and neither should artists.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Brecht! Brecht! Brecht! Tony Kushner, Sarah Kane, Gwen Verdon (I really wanted to grow up to be Gwen Verdon when I was a kid...there's still time), Shakespeare, Emma Goldman, Walter Benjamin. There are so many writers out there right now that I'm totally crazy about. I hope you all know that. We are in an incredible age of the American Theatre.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Honest, large, and brave theater! Sarah Kane totally rocked my world when I read her for the first time because she uses high (and low) language in dangerously dramatic and theatrical situations. I love the Hypocrites in Chicago! They do some really killer work that's a-live! So I guess I love alive and honest theater that hasn't been over worked. Plays have a shelf life and when they are alive you've got to put them on a stage. When you're sitting in the middle of that life its very exciting. Don't feed me dead plays with tired ideas. I love those plays that sort of seduce you and then make you sit down and take care of business, Albee does this all over the place. Sheila Callaghan's plays always teach me that there are no rules in the theatre and I love that. Face those demons, face the hard stuff. Language, language, language. Games, games, games. Bravery. What bothers me is narcissism, irony, and clever theater. Like I loved that Jerusalem had folk lore, giants, and tribal drum chanting. This is what we want!

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

A:  I'm just starting out, do you have any advice for me? Seriously.

I can tell you what more established writers have told me: write every morning when you wake up for 30 minutes, write seriously, listen to your story, ask your characters questions, write long hand, find a community, make up rules because there aren't any actual ones, get together with friends and read your stuff out loud, be a part of a group, self produce, work with generous artists, write again. Read a newspaper. Read a novel. Avoid being insular or snobby.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Writing in front of Drama Books this month as part of the WRITE OUT FRONT project: READ FULL DETAILS HERE.

Acting in an awesome puppet project with strange men & co: strangemencompany.com

Upcoming reading with Tenement Street Workshop: tenementstreet.org

Upcoming reading at Rattlestick: www.rattlestick.org

For more Stahl info: dianacstahl.wordpress.com

I Interview Playwrights Part 485: Gina Femia

Gina Femia

Hometown: Brooklyn

Current Town: Brooklyn- currently the same house I grew up in

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm currently finishing up a new play that I've been developing in Crystal Skillman's class at Sam French called We Are the Gods, which I'm really jazzed about. It's definitely the biggest play I've ever worked on, with Greek gods falling from the sky and landing in a post-apocolyptic world where men have become extinct because Hera stole them from Zeus. It's just a little epic. Surprisingly, it's also a coming of age story about growing up in a hopeless time.

I'll also be participating in Write Out Front: A Playwright Happening which Micheline Auger is curating. It's an amazing event where playwrights are given time to write in the storefront of the Drama Book Shop while having their work projected on a screen behind them so people passing by can see what they're working on. It's a brilliant event; not only does it bring awareness to what a playwright needs, it will show what the playwright does. There's no escaping us!

And I'm working on my solo show, Happily Never Ever, which I'll be performing as a part of the Estrogenius festival in the fall. It's basically about a freaks show where all the "freaks" involved are fairy tale characters with both real and imagined "deformities"; for example, Rapunzel is the bearded lady while Beauty is the see-through woman.

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 in kindergarten, I always wanted to play with the legos during play-time, but the teacher would only let the boys play with them, probably because they weren't pink. I hate pink. I was really disinterested in playing house and too shy to make friends anyway, so I'd wander over to the round table in the corner that had packets of white paper stapled together and plenty of thick markers. I couldn't draw words yet, but I wrote stories anyway. I didn't let that minor detail stop me from having fun.

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

A:  I'd have people go to see theater in the same way they go see movies and I would have them be funded in the same way sports get funded. Everybody needs theater; I just wish they knew that.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I'm definitely inspired by the now, the playwrights and theatremakers of today who will become the legends of the future and I'm fortunate that there are so many (in no order)-

Crystal Skillman, Daniel Talbott, Erik Ehn, Dael Orlandersmith, David Adjmi, Jordan Harrison, Lucy Thurber and Cassandra Medley. Susan Bernfield and New Georges. And Stephen Adley Guirgis. The game changed when I saw Jesus Hopped the A Train.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Anything that breaks the boundaries of what is possible while telling a story.

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

A:  Don't wait; just do. Write on the subway. Have a reading in your living room. Buy the $1.00 deli coffee for 3 months instead of Starbucks' and spend what you save to rent a rehearsal room for 8 hours, grab a bunch of actors and jam on your script. Cry when you're sad, smile when you're happy or else you'll go crazy. And always be sincere, sincere to other people and sincere to yourself and the stories you want to tell and the theater you want to create.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Write Out Front: A Playwright Happening will start August 13th and run through September 1st. There are 70 playwrights participating and you can find all the information as it unfolds here.

I Interview Playwrights Part 484: D.W. Gregory

D.W. Gregory

Hometown: Lititz, Pa.

Current Town: Washington, D.C.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Revising A Grand Design, a dark comedy inspired by the sniper shootings of a decade ago and waiting for the composer of a new musical to crank a few more songs so we can set up a workshop.

Q:  How would you characterize the D.C. theater scene?

A:  It’s grown a lot since I came down here in 1991, a lot of young talent moving into the area and new companies springing up. Dog and Pony, Flying V, Pinky Swear are some of the newest, doing exciting new work. The Capital Fringe Festival infused a real sense of energy and purpose into the scene, I think, raising the profile of Washington as a theatre town. The city is still dominated by a few large companies that rake in the bulk of the funding and are reviewed on page one of the Post’s Style section, while the rest have to fight for attention. But it does seem to me there is a gradual movement towards more opportunities for local playwrights, which I find encouraging. Theatre J, for example, has launched its Locally Grown initiative---and that’s a real boost to have a theatre of that size and caliber taking a serious look at local talent.

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

A:  Sexual abuse at the hands of my oldest brother. The disconnect between what I knew of my own experience and what certain family members insisted my experience was became a powerful influence in my life and ultimately my work. I was essentially raised to lie to myself; becoming a writer was about unwinding the lies to find a truth. It wasn't until I was able to face my experience as a child that I found my voice as a writer. And now it’s the drive behind every play I write, to wrestle with a problem or a question and make sense of it, to arrive at the truth of something. There is a lot of power in the need to conceal, to rewrite history, or remake facts to fit the stories we tell about ourselves. Finding a way to blow all that apart is great drama.

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

A:  The fact that Americans don’t believe it is worth supporting through public funding. We’re the only country in the Western world that expects the arts to compete as if they are businesses. They’re not. They never can be. They exist to nourish the soul, not to make money, and we should value that. Unfortunately, many Americans do not.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  When I started to write plays I lived in upstate New York where the local library had scant offerings, but they stocked the major writers of the 1950s. So I read Inge, Miller, and Williams, which I guess is not a bad foundation. When I got into graduate school, the world opened for me and I discovered the Greeks, I read Marlowe for the first time, I stumbled onto Caryl Churchill and Irene Fornes, and I found a delightful and overlooked contemporary playwright named Mary Gallagher, and the biggest influence of all--Bertolt Brecht. But I have eclectic tastes. I’d always loved Chekhov but never fully appreciated him until I tried to teach a course in dramatic literature and found myself face to face with a roomful of undergraduates who thought he was a bore. And it was my challenge to show them how funny The Cherry Orchard really is. Chekhov was right when he said it was a comedy.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre that breaks away from naturalism without surrendering story or character. Something that is structurally inventive but emotionally wrenching. Theatre that goes to the heart, that is unabashedly lacking in cynicism without being the least bit cloying. Dramas that don’t blink. Comedies that kick you in the gut while you’re not looking.

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

A:  This advice is borrowed from Ira Glass. Be prepared to suck. Learning to write well requires a long, long apprenticeship. Mastering the form takes literally years and it takes a long time to find your voice and your style.

As for me, I would say the earlier you start, the better, but no matter when you start, give yourself five years before you write anything worth showing to a theatre. Don't try to get your stuff produced right away. Join a group or hire a tutor and write crappy plays. Write a lot of them, keep a journal, develop a keen eye for human foibles and a keen ear for natural language. Don’t underestimate the power of your own story, but don’t make playwriting your avenue for revenge or personal therapy. Nobody gives a shit what happened to you as a kid. Your job is to write plays so stunning that when I come to see them, I can’t get them out of my head; so make me stop and take a deep breath and think twice about something I never doubted before. Whether I laugh or cry, make me pay attention and never, never let me off the hook. You are not writing to make me feel good, you are writing to reveal the world to me in a way I never saw it before. You can't do that unless you are willing to go there yourself and bleed along with your characters.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Coming up in October, Salvation Road, a drama about a boy whose life is turned upside down when his sister gets involved in a religious cult. Opens October 26 at New York University’s Steinhardt School, followed by a production in November at Walden Theatre in Louisville, Kentucky, and a production at Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pa., in April 2013.

I Interview Playwrights Part 483: Samantha Macher

Samantha Macher

Hometown: Leesburg, VA

Current Town: Los Angeles, CA

Q:  Tell me about War Bride.

A:  WAR BRIDE is my newest play. It was written for and developed with the SkyPilot Theatre Company of Los Angeles where we exclusively mount world premieres of new work written (mostly) right here in town by our ten company playwrights.

Our Official Synopsis (because I can't give too much away): Controversy erupts in a small California town in 1945 when a local hero returns from World War II with his Japanese bride.

We open on August 11th and run through September 16th, Saturdays and Sundays at 8pm and 7pm (respectively) at TU Studios, 10943 Camarillo Street NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA 91602

Tickets available at skypilottheatre.com

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  Presently, I am working on a film project with the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota. Though we are unsure what form this project will take, I am helping them structure, and then writing a full-length film that will tell the story of Cpl. Nathan Good Iron, an American-Indian soldier who died fighting for the US in Afghanistan on Thanksgiving of 2006. The goal of the project is to educate non-native audiences about the military sacrifices made by a people historically oppressed by the country they fight for.

Coming up in 2012-2013 I will be traveling around opening some of my plays in Clarksville, TN at Fronkensteen Theatre Company, and in St. Louis MO, at Tesseract Theatre Company. After that, I may possibly head back east to Virginia to do some directing projects with the New Works Initiative sponsored by the Playwright's Lab at Hollins University. I may also do some directing here in LA this fall, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that too.

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

A:  Well, I suppose I can start by saying I've always been a drama geek. Fascinated with performance and stage, I did everything I could to always be in or around it. Whether it was being in choir, or being in a ska band (briefly), I always enjoyed expressing myself through the performing arts. When I did theater though, I really enjoyed it the most. I always felt at home, and I always felt like I was doing something important.

Needless to say that when during my senior year in high school, our drama teacher decided to indefinitely postpone our fall musical for one reason or another (probably budget), I was FURIOUS. So, in my fury, I sat down and just WROTE the fucking (fifteen-minute) spring musical. Then, cast all my friends, went into rehearsal, and after pestering the powers-that-be, performed it in front of everyone.

What was beautiful about that experience that I take with me even now, is that I wasn't the only one who wound up writing a play in reaction to the loss of that performance opportunity. It was couched in a festival of three new student works that ere all written in a reaction to losing our show. That was the best part.

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

A:  Theater needs to be relevant to their audiences. If more theaters and theater-artists considered their audiences more carefully, they would be able to sustain themselves. That said, I'm not suggesting that every theater in America needs to be doing a hit Broadway musical, or needs to pack a season with light comedies for the sake of ticket sales, but if you're going to present an audience with challenging work, make it a dialogue rather than a lecture. Figure out a way to engage your audience so they're excited to support you. If you start a conversation with your audience about your work, especially new work, they're often eager to talk to you about it. Those conversations can potentially make the one-time theatergoer into a consistent, passionate audience member. That makes for happy collaborators all around.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  1. Todd Ristau, the head of the Playwright's Lab at Hollins University is probably my biggest theatrical hero. He is a champion of new work, a fantastic playwright/director/actor/producer, a networker of epic proportions and an amazing and insightful professor. I'm not sure how he finds time for sleep.

2. Lady-playwrights all over America, but specifically in Los Angeles. Less than 20% of all plays being produced in the greater LA area right now are written by female authors (www.lafpi.com). Working against those odds is tremendously challenging, and often disheartening, so I give so much credit to the women who get up every day and fight those odds.

3. Otherwise, my theatrical heroes are my genius actors, my wonderful directors, my visionary producers and designers, my completely brilliant playwright friends... basically anyone who has ever invested their time and energy into my little plays.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Anything that is not boring. That's a loose definition, but I don't really know what excites me 'til I see it.

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

A:  There's a home for every play somewhere, you just need to find the right collaborators and the right audience.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Come see my play, WAR BRIDE!

Roles for (non-twenty year old) women are far too few in American theater, and this play has two leading ladies, and a strong ensemble of female actors and dancers. We have also authentically cast both Japanese and American actors and dancers, filling a gap in the Asian acting community.

Check out our trailer... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OwAM45Db5M

...Then buy your tickets at:
www.skypilottheatre.com !

Also, I'd like to take the opportunity to plug the best playwriting program in all the world: The Playwright's Lab at Hollins University.

http://www.hollins.edu/grad/playwriting/index.html

Then, I'd like to take a second to entice you to take a stand against discrimination in the arts. Support the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative.

http://lafpi.com/the-study/

Finally, I formally invite you to check out Original Works Publishing if you'd like to read my play THE ARCTIC CIRCLE *and a recipe for Swedish Pancakes
http://www.originalworksonline.com/arcticcircle.htm

Or YouthPLAYS Publishing if you need a charmingly irreverent Christmas comedy for your high school this year.
http://youthplays.com/plays/view/199/UnHoly_Nite

HLF opens tonight!

My play Hearts Like Fists opens tonight in L.A.  and runs until Sept 1.