I Interview Playwrights Part 560: Anna Greenfield

Anna Greenfield

Hometown: Carmel, California.

Home of Clint Eastwood, former mayor, home of my parents they moved there in the seventies and still rent their house, home of the ocean and a ridiculously beautiful beach. When I want people to think that I am like Steinbeck, I tell them I am from Salinas, California. When I want them to think that I am like Henry Miller, I tell them that I am from Big Sur, California. When I want them to think of me as a retired older gentlemen-and that identity is probably closest to my own in all honesty- I tell them where I am from which is Carmel.

Current Town:   Brooklyn, I like the word town it makes me feel like things are gonna be okay that home is wherever you are and of hearth fireplace conversations people might have during the holidays. But it also makes me feel like nothing ever will change which is a mind cage that I build for myself sometimes.

Q:  Tell me about All Girls.

A:  All Girls is a hyper real, sometimes surreal play about three teenage girls and one colossally scary mother. Trembling on the brink of womanhood, the girls act out with one another and their families in the most outrageous ways imaginable. It’s also funny.

Directed by Lee Sunday Evans. Performed by Zoe Costello, Anna Konkle, Judith Hawking, and me! Aaaaagh! These women who are making the show are incredible. We have an all women design team, production team and a female stage manager. It is All Girls working on this play All Girls and the energy of this piece is pretty amazing and scary and brave and real and raw and truthful and emotional and absurd and hilarious. I am exhilarated and exhausted by our rehearsals. We are doing some real digging deep work into this play and what we have to share is something that is very meaningful to all of us. I hope the connection with the audience works works works! I am working with a pretty big margin of fear with this play but also bravery. Mostly I am in awe and debt to the captain called Lee Sunday Evans, our director who is the most incisive, intelligent, brilliant director I have ever ever ever worked with.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I am also part of the 2012-2013 writer director lab at Soho Rep headed by the insanely great Jenny Schwartz and Ken Russ Schmoll. Mary Birnbaum is directing a reading of my play This Is Gonna Be Great April 29th!! Another play that makes me scared. I freaking love that lab though god it makes me sad and happy at the same time.

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

A:  I used to write stories in this legal pad when I was a child. I wrote stories about magic candlesticks and slavery. I think I was eight when I wrote story about a girl who was a slave in the South and worked on a plantation. Later I realized I had just copied an American Girl Doll story I had read about Abby who was the Doll who endured slavery. And then I passed it off as my own. So, plagiary. My dad is a writer and my mom makes up stories in her head so I think I just grew up thinking that when we feel things we write them down or act them out alone in our rooms. Instead of, you know, talking about it.

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

A:  I feel unqualified to change things about theater. I want theater to change things about me.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Lee Sunday Evans, Boo Killebrew, Jenny Schwartz, Heidi Schreck, and actually seriously anyone who gets a play up and running-it takes collaboration and love and I admire the instinct people have to dive into the unknown with a new play.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A:  anything goddamn moving. I freaking love to be moved. And entertained. But I want to feel like there is an emotional entertainment happening with a deep punch underneath.

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

A:  I am a playwright just starting out so my advice to myself is to just keep going.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  All Girls. March 28-April 13. Thurs, Fri, Sat at 8pm. The Kraine Theater, 85 East 4th street.
www.allgirlstheplay.com to buy tickets!

Thursday nights are pay what you can! Tickets are cheap anyways!

This Is Gonna Be Great, as part of the Soho Rep writer director lab.
April 29th, Access Theater Space
 
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Episode 4 of Compulsive Love

4th episode of my web series Compulsive Love is here!  Watch it and previous episodes on Koldcast or Blip or Daily Motion or Boomtrain or Youtube or JTS.

Embedded #4:



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I Interview Playwrights Part 559: Alvin Eng

photo by John Quincy Lee

Alvin Eng

Hometown: Flushing, Queens, NYC

Current Town: Manhattan

Q:  Tell me about Three Trees.

A:  It’s an historical drama about the unique relationship between 20th century Parisian artist, Alberto Giacometti, and his muse/model, Japanese Existential Philosopher Isaku Yanaihara. (Isaku also translated Camus “The Stranger” into Japanese.) During the 1950s, Giacometti created many portraits of Isaku in drawing, painting, and sculpture. For five years, Giacometti kept flying Isaku from Tokyo to Paris to continue their portrait sessions. Still, the artist felt that he could never fully capture the philosopher’s essence. A deep and complicated love, through art, grew. This love became an obsession, a force that upended everything and everyone in its path. This force forever changed Alberto’s intimate, insular home and studio life with his wife Annette and brother Diego. Isaku was also never the same. “Three Trees” is the first work of my Portrait Plays cycle of historical dramas about artists and portraiture. As such, the play also dramatizes the premise of a portrait’s spiritual ownership. When we become enraptured by a portrait, are we under the spell of the artist or model? Can spiritual ownership of a portrait ever be assessed?

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  “33 & 1/3 Cornelia Street,” the second Portrait Play! This historical drama examines the circumstances surrounding painter Alice Neel’s iconic and controversial portrait of poet/oral historian manqué, Joe Gould in 1930s Greenwich Village. The portrait had a profound effect on Gould in life and afterwards. Neel’s portrait indirectly lead to “Joe Gould’s Secret.” This novella framed Gould posthumously as a fraud and was also the swan song of legendary New Yorker writer Joseph Mitchell.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes? What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?

A:  I took my first playwriting class with Lavonne Mueller at ”The Writer’s Voice” program at the 63rd Street Y in 1988. The previous year I had just taken my first trip to my ancestral homeland of China. At that time I was a lifelong Flushing resident and worked as a “professional rock & roll fan” (i.e.) a music biz publicist and journalist. After China, it was hard to go back to my old life. I wanted more than a job or career, I wanted a creative life. While I had written 3-chord songs and “performance art” interludes for various teenage/college rock bands, I had never attempted any creative writing as an “adult.” As a pre-MTV rock and roll fan, rock & roll song lyrics (and LP liner notes) were what I lived for as a child. I particularly loved the extended storytelling of song cycles or “concept albums” like The Who’s “Quadrophenia,” Steely Dan’s “The Royal Scam,” Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” and Lou Reed’s “Berlin.” Concerts of this era were not live “infomericals” that recreated an artist’s latest music video. In this era the stage was where we experienced the transformative power of rock & roll—often in unpredictable performances that deepened our connection to the lyrics and music that were already tattooed on our souls. By offering the duality of the solitude of composing and the collaborative nature of production, playwriting resembled the rock & roll songwriter’s process of writing and recording the album, then touring.

During this heady, transformative period, three plays spoke strongly to me: John Guare’s “House of Blue Leaves” (’86 Lincoln Center revival); Eric Bogosian’s “Talk Radio” (‘87 Public Theatre) and David Henry Hwang’s “M. Butterfly” on Broadway, 1988.

“House of Blue Leaves” strongly articulated that quintessential Queens feeling of being so close yet so far away from the center of the Universe that is Manhattan––as well as the universal yearning to make meaningful changes in one’s life. “Talk Radio” felt like a graduation that I was looking to achieve. Before this production, Bogosian was part of a downtown performance art scene that channeled punk rock energy into theatre. With “Talk Radio,” he became a full-fledged playwright and still got to perform in his own work. Although he was still below 14th St., he had created a theatrical bridge between “downtown” and “uptown” sensibilities. “M. Butterfly” seemed to pull all these strands together—especially for someone who was just beginning to explore and embrace his Chinese-American and global identity. It was profound to see many of the east-west themes I was beginning to contemplate after my China trip being explored on such a grand theatrical scale . . . Then David and BD Wong won Tonys for “M. Butterfly”!!!

To become a playwright, I don’t think you need to reinvent yourself immediately. Find sources and inspiration that nourish you and help you build the foundation for that bridge between who you are and who you want to be.

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

A:  A few years after The Writer’s Voice, I was accepted into NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program. One of our first assignments was to write about a powerful turning point in your life. This assignment triggered a childhood memory that was so deeply repressed that I had never even discussed it with my family or closest friends. This assignment eventually lead to a monologue that I performed for years called “F.O.B.” This was a pun on the expression, “fresh off the boat,” as well as the title of David Henry Hwang’s breakthrough play. In my monologue, ”F.O.B.” stood for “Fat Oriental Boy.” In the early ‘90s it was very un-P.C. to use the term, “oriental.” (It probably still is.)

But back in the 4th grade I was a very chubby kid and the only Chinese/Oriental kid in my class. I was a prime target for what would now be called “bullying.” My nemesis collective were a bunch of girls—lead by a cute blonde girl on whom I had a huge crush. She knew this and, with her girlfriends, took turns teasing me mercilessly every day. One day, things got out of hand. This girl and her friends somehow started calling me “fat chink” and wouldn’t stop. Things got very blurry. I only wanted to get them to stop, but somehow wound up pushing the girl’s head into the corner of a chair. She started bleeding profusely from her forehead. No one was more shocked than me. Next thing I knew I was in the principal’s office––crying hysterically at the conflicting emotions running rampant through me. Finally, the girl’s mother sat down across from me and simply asked, “What happened?” Through my still uncontrollable sobbing and choking, I told the mother what her daughter and her friends kept calling me. To my astonishment, she apologized to me for the behavior of her daughter and her friends. That was the first time a grown-up outside of my family told me that I was right. It took almost twenty years to process this moment. I aspire to capture these profound moments in my playwriting.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  “Three Trees” will have its World Premiere production with the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, March 23 – April 14, 2013 at West End Theatre, 263 W 86th Street, NYC. http://www.panasianrep.org/three_trees.shtml  

“33 & 1/3 Cornelia Street” was chosen as one of three plays to be presented at the Comparative Drama Conference in Baltimore on April 5. (Edward Albee will be the keynote speaker.)

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I Interview Playwrights Part 558: Stuart Flack

Stuart Flack

Hometown: Evanston

Current Town: Chicago (Lincoln Park)

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  1) a evening length multi-displinary performance piece in collaboration with The Seldoms a Chicago based dance company run by the amazing Carrie Hanson about LBJ and the exercise of political power, which will premiere at the Museum of Contemporary Art in 2014.

2) Floaters -- full length play about hallucinations, reading at Chicago Dramatist in April 2013

3) A couple of other full length plays, one with puppets, one based on the weirdest story in the old testament.

4) Maybe a musical featuring people recently exonerated and released from Jail.

Q:  How would you characterize the Chicago theater scene?

A:  Wonderful in aggregate. Best in the U.S. Although many/most companies and artist live hand to mouth, which is a shame.

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

A:  Saw from up close world champ Milwaukee Bucks (1970) with Kareem and Oscar Robertson, play against the Bulls a bunch of times with my best friend (at the time) Steve and his parents at the old Chicago stadium. Back in the day when good seats didn't cost a fortune and were for people who loved the game, not silly celebs. The best two man combo ever on a basketball court. Who better? Maybe the best combination of two people doing anything together ever. Who knows? Bulls of that era also not so bad either.

Kareem was and still is a miracle.

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

A:  More people should come to things that aren't bway musicals and sketch comedy (both of which are fine by way, but come on. enough.)

Q:   Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Beckett and Brecht.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Plays that invite you to feel, think or experience something new; A Red Orchids recent production of "The Aliens".

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

A:  Fasten your seat belts and put your seat-backs and tray tables in the upright position

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Go see actual plays. Many worse ways to spend two hours and twenty bucks.

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We were SOLD OUT. Now we're EXTENDED.

Clown Bar Extended!

We completely sold out (like SOLD OUT sold out) our current run but luckily we figured out a way to extend.  Clown Bar will now run until April 12.  Three more weeks!  For a total of 7!

New dates--

Friday, March 29, 9PM
Saturday, March 30, 9PM
Thursday, April 4, 8PM
Friday, April 5, 8PM
Thursday, April 11, 8PM
Friday, April 12, 8PM
     
But please buy tickets now in the not-unlikely case we sell out all those performances too. http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/336282

The reviews have been great and the audience response awesome:

Critic’s Pick; “Adam Szymkowicz’s script is unabashedly silly but also shrewd, paying homage to film noir and pulp novels.” --New York Times

"Mr. Szymkowicz has created a new world out old parts, breeding a brand new species of creative animal. He is, in fact, making his own rules – and the pleasure of obeying them is all ours." –New York Theatre Review

“The script is tight and funny—hard-boiled schtick.” --The Fifth Wall

“Adam Szymkowicz’s script is a case study in meticulously crafted playfulness… some of the most quotable lines ever heard in a play… Clown Bar is a fantastic way to spend your evening. If you love clowns, go see this show. If you hate clowns, go see this show.” --nytheatre.com 

“Clown Bar does detective story spoofs one better by employing every single familiar crime-movie trope — brooding hero, crazy crime boss, conflicted gun moll, hooker with a heart of gold — and making them all...well, clowns. It’s weird how well this works: playwright Adam Szymkowicz has combined two inherently ridiculous forms of entertainment and created a perfect storm of ridiculousness.” --Theatre Is Easy

“There’s not a streak out of place in Clown Bar‘s greasepaint; I can’t think of a better nightcap than the shot of extra funny currently being served by Pipeline Theatre Company.” --That Sounds Cool

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I Interview Playwrights Part 557: Lindsay Joy

Lindsay Joy

Hometown: Hudson, New Hampshire

Current Town: Brooklyn!

Q: Tell me about The Rise and Fall of a Teenage Cyberqueen.

A: Rise/Fall is the story of a flawed American family uprooted and unhinged by the rapid pace of online chat rooms and video feeds. The play centers around Lyla, a 14 year old girl, and what happens to her family as videos of her go viral. I wanted to use the duality of our "online selves" versus our true selves to unravel the intertwining lives of a family. I don't want to give away too much, but I will say that I'm crazy proud of the play. Director Padraic Lillis and the entire cast have done an amazing job.

Q: What else are you working on?

A: I'm working on a few new projects. I'm working on a multi-writer, collaborative project based on the hero's journey with AMios Theater Company. I'm also developing two new full length plays with my company, the LabRats.

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 think that growing up in New England gave me a unique voice. New Englanders show their love by teasing...hard. It allows me to find laughter in awful situations.

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

A: The one thing that I would change about theater? Getting more people to come out and see it.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Martin Mcdonagh, Paula Vogel, Tracy Letts, Lee Blessing, John Patrick Shanley, Sam Shepard, Marsha Norman...I could go on and on!

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I love theater that makes me laugh hard really right before the bottom drops out in a scene (the big reveal in the second scene of Pillowman comes to mind). That excites the shit out of me. There's so much great new work out there right now- new voices. We are on the edge of a paradigm shift to new work and I'm all in.

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

A: Advice? Secrets. Secrets are your best friend. Give each of your characters (even the smaller characters) a secret and it'll open a new play right up for you.

Q: Plugs, please

A: Please come and see the show! http://www.facebook.com/l/zAQHBHaJqAQGwYPZRzHQbsjDkPUeuwweNQxo-VafkDZkgcw/riseandfall.brownpapertickets.com/
5 shows left. $10 tickets with pw: teenqueen

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Episode 3 of Compulsive Love

3rd episode of my web series Compulsive Love is here!  Watch it and previous episodes on Koldcast or Blip or Daily Motion or Boomtrain or Youtube or JTS.

Embedded #3:

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I Interview Playwrights Part 556: Stan Richardson

"I'm on the left; Matt Steiner is on the right."

Stan Richardson

Hometown: St. Louis, MO

Current Town: NYC

Q:  Tell me about the new Representatives show. 

 
A:  O Happy Happy Aztecs! is a short dark comedy about an aspiring actress and her gay best friend who move to NYC from Small Town USA. They have all the big dreams of 20-year-olds, but they are in their early-30's. And they carry with them their overwhelming need for safety and convenience which effectively castrates the dangerous and exotic city they have always wanted to call home.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I'm writing the next play for The Representatives which will be a loose adaptation of Turgenev's Fathers & Sons called Bazarov. It's about, among other things, the entrance of a nihilist into a haven of well-meaning, but sedentary liberals; he blithely suggests that all of their useless ideals and institutions should be obliterated and this causes some problems. Unlike most of The Representatives' projects, Bazarov is simply too large to be done in an apartment and will be presented in a larger venue this coming August.

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

A:  Aside from having it meaningfully subsidized by the U.S. government? I would like for playwrights to devote themselves to work that makes them extremely uncomfortable. That discomfort is inherently entertaining and relevant. If what you are currently working on does not absolutely scare the shit out of you, keep me in the loop about future projects.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Edward Albee; Pina Bausch; Caryl Churchill; Cherry Jones; Craig Lucas; Elizabeth Marvel; Jan Maxwell; Joe Orton; Wallace Shawn; Ivo van Hove; Lanford Wilson; and The Wooster Group.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm very drawn to theater that feels like it was created Just Now. The key to this, it seems to me, is not so much topicality but depth of feeling and conviction. Playwrights, unlike politicians, need not under-express their views in order to "stay in office." But another obstacle is the stultifying years-long wait to be produced. The Representatives has given me the opportunity to see my work onstage nearly as fast as I can write it. Matt Steiner, my co-artistic director and an actor for whom I've been ceaselessly inspired to write for the past seven years, and I try to streamline the production process. We figure out who we want to work with and where we'll be performing, then I start writing and a few months later we do the play. Most of these projects have been elegantly staged by Ben Vershbow, a pragmatic poet of a director. And we are continually having the pleasure of working with incredibly talented actors: mesmerizing ambassadors to whatever world we collectively dream up.

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

A:  I would give this advice to any playwright, including myself, at any stage of his/her career. It's a Godard quote: "At the moment that we can do cinema, we can no longer do the cinema that gave us the desire to do it." Let's acknowledge and honor our theatrical ancestry and then pop out some troublemakers of our own.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Nobel Peace Prize nominee Bradley Manning has a rather important new show running off-off-Broadway right now down at Fort Meade. It's called The Obama Administration Is Going To Destroy the Role of Whistleblower If We Don't Do Something About It. Seats are still available! Please show your support: https://www.bradleymanning.org/
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