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Oct 15, 2009

I Interview Playwrights Part 74: Patrick Gabridge





Patrick Gabridge

Hometown:  I've moved a lot.

Current Town:  Brookline, MA (Boston)

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm feverishly working on rewrites of Constant State of Panic, a new full-length play that will be produced by the Madcap Players in DC in January. I was just out there for a weekend-long workshop that was tremendously helpful. I'm always trying to explore different models to develop new plays, and the Madcap weekend was especially well run and thoughtful.

As soon as the rewrites are done, I'm hoping to start on a new novel, a young adult historical piece (set in the Civil War) (it does not have any vampires or werewolves). Plus, I'm part of a playwrights group, Rhombus, that meets every two weeks and we're required to bring in material to every session. So if I want to keep playing with my pals, I need to write a new play. I'm stumbling my way into a new full-length play--I'm curious to see what happens with it.

Q:  If I came to Boston tomorrow, what theater companies or shows would you suggest I check out?

A:  Boston Playwrights Theatre is one of the hotspots for exciting new work. I'm off to see a new play by Ronan Noone tomorrow night, Little Black Dress. The American Repertory Theatre is working with with Punchdrunk, a British company, on this odd site-specific treatment of Macbeth in an old school near my house. I'm pretty excited about that one--I think it's the first time they've worked in the U.S.

Company One is a young company that does some interesting new plays. And the Beau Jest company does some amazing physical theatre work that knocks me over. There's a lot happening in Boston.

Q:  Can you tell me about the playwright binge and how it came about?

A:  I'm always looking for ways to make the chore of marketing more fun (and easier) (which is why I started Market InSight for Playwrights back in the early 90s). So, I'd heard about a whole town that went on a diet together, and it worked, because there was a whole social, community aspect to it. So I thought, what if we sort of did the opposite? Rather than diet, we'll binge on sending out our plays--a play a day for 30 days. So I e-mailed playwrights that I knew on a bunch of lists and asked if they wanted to join. I think for the first one, we maybe had a dozen writers. Word got out that it was a helpful thing and more people joined. And everyone was incredibly generous about sharing information. Then an article or two got written about it, and membership jumped. As of today, we have 520 members from around the world, and we binge twice a year (and there's an associated "purge" group that writes every day for 30 days). The cool thing is that it's turned into this very active, very supportive year-round online community.

Q:  Is writing a novel anything like writing a play?

A:  Not really, though I did make a conscious effort when I started writing novels to use some of my playwriting strengths--so my first two novels (I've written three) were first person stories, so I could look at them like extended monologues. But the development of a play is so different from a novel. A novel is much, much longer. There are just so many damn words to write--my latest adult novel runs around 84,000 words. That's the equivalent of about 3-4 full-length plays. So they take a lot longer to write, which makes it even more important to have a certain level of discipline when it comes plugging away at a first draft.

For a play, the development process is so much more external and social. I do have a writer's group where I bring my fiction, but other than that I'll just have a couple other readers. For a play, getting it down on paper is just the start. I'm constantly working on material with actors in Rhombus, and then in readings, and then in production there will be more changes, and even in subsequent productions. The upside is that you keep getting chances to fix problems in a script, the downside is that the blasted thing is never done. When I have a novel published, and someone comes up to me and says, "Oh, that part didn't work for me, I wish they'd done so and so," well, I can smile and nod and think, "Oh, well." and not worry about it. But with a play, I might think, "Oh, crap, maybe I should go back and fix that."

Q:  You recently got rid of your car. How are you adjusting to life without a motorized vehicle?

A:  It's been fun. We live in the city, so we have the subway, buses, and Zipcar, which is great. We ride our bikes a lot--my kids are old enough now (9 and 14) to ride most places. We figured if we couldn't do it here, we could never do it. It gets us lots of exercise and saves us a bunch of money. What's not to like? (See how I feel at the end of the winter.)

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I like plays that don't make me fall asleep. Seriously. That's my basic criteria (and I fall asleep easily). I like plays where stuff happens on stage--it can be physical, psychological, internal/external, I don't care, but I don't want to just listen to a long conversation. I want to see or experience something interesting.

I'm involved in leading some workshops here for StageSource called Playwriting in 3D--basically panel discussions with designers, to engage them with writers in an extended conversation about how we can make our plays more fully theatrical. The last one we did was with two lighting and two sound designers. Next up is an afternoon with costume and set designers. Soon, I hope to have one where we bring in some magicians to talk to us about the principles of what makes magic work for an audience. How can playwrights and directors and producers expand our tool box? I'm not interested in seeing something on stage that could have been done on TV.

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

A:  Get your hands dirty. Start a theatre company or join up some up-and-coming group of theatre folk and learn every aspect of theatre. Act, direct, design a set, tear tickets, design programs, run lights. Produce some shows. You might not be good at all of these things, but trying them helps you to fully understand the whole theatrical package, which is what you need if you want to write something that comes life on stage (and actually is chosen by theatres). And realize that playwriting is a very slow process--when you're just starting out, you want everything to happen right now. But plays can take a long time to develop, and it takes a while to build your skillset and a body of work.

Q:  Any plugs?

A:  I have a couple short plays in Los Angeles, being done in coffee shops by Theatre Unleashed. I wish I could be there, because I get a kick out of site specific work. And on January 14, Constant State of Panic opens in DC at the H Street Playhouse. I'm excited to see how it turns out--we've got a great team for the show.

Read more from Patrick here.

Oct 13, 2009

I Interview Playwrights Part 73: Mike Batistick



Mike Batistick

Hometown:  Red Bank, NJ

Current Town:  Sunset Park, Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm currently working on the final cut with director Nick Sandow for the film version of my play PONIES (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1462765/), for which I wrote the screenplay. Greenbox Entertainment produced it, and we shot it in the Bronx (among other places) where we built an entire OTB out of a closed Washington Mutual bank. The place looked so authentic the Morris Park Community Board got upset because they thought a betting parlor was moving into their neighborhood.

In addition to that, I've also been working on a few TV projects--including a pilot I've got in development--and putting the final touches on my latest play RECURSION. Sometime next Spring, director Arin Arbus and I will be developing my latest play GAIL with the Working Theater.

Q:  How many plays of yours were done by Studio Dante? What was it like working with them?

A:  I have had two plays produced by Studio Dante, PONIES (http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3510) and CHICKEN (http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3888), both of which were directed by Nick Sandow, who also directed the film version of the PONIES. Dante basically helped me achieve everything I have in my career; my first (and second) NY TIMES review, published plays (including another play, PORT AUTHORITY THROW DOWN (http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=3846), and television work. Working with Michael Imperioli and his wife Victoria was perhaps the greatest development I've had in my creative life so far. They introduced me to many of the people I work with now.

Q:  How did you like Juilliard?

A:  Marsha and Chris were crucial in my development as a writer. They taught me to write quickly and with quality, as well as continue to always work on narrative structure, which has always been one of my weaknesses.

Q:  What do you like most about the MCC Playwrights Coalition?

A:  I've been out of town a lot lately, so I haven't much time to work with Coalition as I did when I first joined, in 2002. But recently I did a playwriting intensive with Mark Schultz, Annie Baker, Blair Singer, and dramaturge Jamie Green. The intensives are by far my favorite part of the group.

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

A:  My dad was the landlord of a few buildings in Asbury Park, NJ when I was a teenager. I just remember always collecting rent, fixing those dilapidated buildings up, and trying to keep drug dealers and squatters away. I think those experiences inform a lot of the stuff I write.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Tom Bradshaw's PURITY at PS 122 was a really exciting piece, and I still think about it even though it was produced over two years ago. The play pushed the envelope and didn't try and put a nice button on its plot. I also really enjoyed Theater For a New Audience's production of OTHELLO, which Arin Arbus directed. What I was left with from that production was the claustrophobia and obsession that envelopes the main character, and how thoroughly contemporary his struggle felt to me. I really respond to shows that are dangerous and that play with style and structure, like the Elevator Repair Service's NO GREAT SOCIETY and WOMEN DREAMT HORSES by Daniel Veronese. I also like the work of the Debate Society.

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

A:  Produce your play yourself, or submit to the Fringe or Midtown Theater Festival. Don't wait for producers and big theaters to come calling; if you put it up on your own dime, it's a perfect opportunity for them to come see your work. Also never be afraid to send that 10-page sample to the big Off-Broadway theaters if you don't have agent. Literary departments will respond.

Q:  Any plugs?

A:  Well my friend Jake Hirzel's musical DIAL 'N' FOR NEGRESS just finished its run at Theater Row, so no, but you can check out the awesome music at the website, dialnfornegress.com.

Oct 12, 2009

I Interview Playwrights Part 72: Mariah MacCarthy

 
Mariah MacCarthy


Hometown: San Diego, CA

Current Town: Astoria, NY


Q:  You have a couple shows coming up.  Can you talk a little about the plays and productions?

A:  The first play I have coming up is Ampersand: A Romeo & Juliet Story, the first act of which will be performed as part of the Looking Glass Theatre's Winter Forum (December 17-20).  It's a contemporary cynical lesbian adaptation of, you guessed it, Romeo and Juliet--with music and cross-dressing.  The title characters are two midwestern girls in their early twenties whose mothers are running against each other for mayor.  My approach is pretty un-romantic - I really don't think Romeo and Juliet would have worked out as a couple had they lived, or that killing yourself over grief for your lover is particularly romantic, and this rendition reflects that attitude.  I also had elections on the brain after last year's epic race, and am simultaneously tickled and disgusted by how much we know about politicians' children--and wouldn't it be wild if, say, Chelsea Clinton and Meghan McCain were a secret couple?  As all this was swirling around in my head, director Amanda Thompson asked me if I'd like to write something for the Looking Glass's Winter Forum, and the rest is history.

Then in the spring, the awesome Rapscallion Theatre Collective is projected to produce The All-American Genderf*ck Cabaret.  This project started as my senior thesis at Skidmore College, which I co-created with a fabulous student cast; then I reworked it in June in a staged reading with a different, though also fabulous, cast.  Genderf*ck takes eight gender stereotypes and, well, fucks them.  The characters, guided by an androgynous, omnipotent MC, morph from full-on cliches to actual human beings.  There's dancing, making out, assault, heartbreak, and peanut butter banana sandwiches.  The staged reading in June was one of those magical nights you dream of as a playwright, where the house is packed and you get a standing O and it leads to a production offer.  And I'm so excited to be working with Rapscallions; I've worked with them as a director several times, and in addition to being incredibly warm and welcoming people, they're always doing fresh, beautiful work.  (Shameless plug: check out their upcoming production of Naomi Wallace's Trestle at Pope Lick Creek - it's going to be gorgeous: http://www.rapscalliontheatrecollective.com/productions/2009_trestle.html)

Q:  Tell me what it was like to intern at New Dramatists.

A:  Interning at New Dramatists was my wonderful crash course introduction to the New York theater scene that every theater artist should get when they're just starting out.  Not only are there absurdly brilliant playwrights hanging out at ND all the time, you're also being constantly inundated with new work - through stage managing the readings, seeing bucketloads of free theater, reading the plays in the library, etc.  I learned a ton, drank a lot of free wine, and met some delightful people that I'm still working with--Amanda Thompson, director of Ampersand, was a fellow intern there.  And if you intern with them, you get a reading of one of your plays, so I had an awesome reading of my play A Man of His Word there in January.  Yes, New Dramatists interns make coffee and get very familiar with the copier, but when something like PlayTime happens in the fall, you actually get really excited about making coffee and copies.  I'm serious.

Q:  You took a class with Lucy Thurber at Primary Stages.  What was that like?

A:  My class with Lucy was the beginning of a hugely important turnaround for me as a playwright.  I've always had a restless imagination, and as I've gotten older my work has become increasingly gender-political, so I waltzed into Lucy's class thinking I was rather clever.  She was the first teacher to kind of kick my ass and say, "OK, yes, you're very clever, but what's actually happening in this scene?"  She taught me that theater can't just be pretty; it has to be active.  Since then my work has changed significantly, and for the better.  (Side note: if you're in New York and haven't seen Lucy's Killers and Other Family yet, I don't know what you're waiting for.  See it before it closes this weekend.)

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

A:  When I was three, I used to pick up my uncle's cats by their tails and throw them in his pool.  I didn't mean the cats any harm - it was hot out, and I thought the cats would want to cool off, and it seemed obvious to me that cats were meant to be picked up by the tail.  This, of course, was not the case, and very quickly these cats started avoiding me, but I didn't know why.  I just loved them so much and didn't understand why they didn't want to play with me anymore.


Q:  How do you feel about dating a fellow playwright?

A:  I feel pretty great about dating Larry Kunofsky.  We're both huge fans of each other's writing, but more importantly, we're madly in love.  It's a very convenient arrangement.  It's nice to feel both inspired and inspiring.

Q:  Tell me about Writers Group for Minions.

A:  Writers Group for Minions is the brainchild of me and my former co-minion Krystal Banzon (who will be directing Genderf*ck in the spring).  We created it to give our fellow office bitches, interns, and assistants a forum where they could bring and share work.  I've always found it hard to write without some kind of structure or deadline, so WGFM is our attempt to motivate ourselves and our peers.  Feel free to email us at writersgroupforminions@gmail.com with a description of your minion experience if you'd like to join us!

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Really, even if I don't like something, I'll congratulate anything that's doing something I've never seen before.  But beyond that...Theater with visible strings.  Theater where someone totally rocks out.  Theater with longing or war or ugliness in it.  Theater that makes me go, "Oh no they didn't!"  Theater with awkward moments.  Theater that is socially aware without being self-congratulatory, or celebratory without being mindless.  Theater with guts.  From this year:  Monstrosity, That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play, Red Fly/Blue Bottle, Rods and Cables, Chautauqua!, Bird House, Ruined, Expatriate, Our Town at Barrow Street...I could go on.

Probably my favorite person making art right now is Amanda Palmer, performance artist & former frontwoman of The Dresden Dolls.  Her solo album provided a lot of the inspiration for Ampersand (the title is lovingly lifted from the third track).  This year, she collaborated with a group of high schoolers in Lexington, Massachusetts to create one of the most memorable theatrical experiences I've ever seen, With the Needle that Sings in Her Heart.  It was an ensemble piece based on the Neutral Milk Hotel album, In an Aeroplane Over the Sea, in which Anne Frank uses her imagination to escape the horrors of the Holocaust - until eventually she can't anymore.  It was epic and broken and devastating and just...stunning.  And you can feel that theatricality in Amanda Palmer's music.  I wish she'd come to New York and bring her high schoolers with her.

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

A:  I consider myself to be very, very much still in the "just starting out" category, but here's what I've learned so far: people love free labor.  Give your sweat to theaters you admire, even if you already have a "job-job" - help with mass mailings, help with load-ins and strikes, be an usher, be a PA, whatever you can do (without adding too much to the debt you've likely already accrued from college).  Some people will take the free labor and run, but others will bend over backwards for you again and again.  Do it now, while you have the energy.

Also, remember that networking is often as simple as just making friends.  Your fellow intern today is tomorrow's Anne Bogart, so don't worry if you didn't get to share your poetic prowess with the big boss of your favorite theater company; your friends, your peers, are your future collaborators.  Toward that end, fill your friends' houses - karma works.  Befriend directors until you meet the ones that get your work.  And if you've just graduated college, contact your fellow alumni.  I wouldn't have gotten anywhere without the support of my more established fellow Skidmore College alums: Allison Prouty at the Women's Project, Jessica Davis-Irons at Andhow!, Yehuda Duenyas at NTUSA.  They enabled me to hit the ground running when I moved to New York, and I haven't stopped running yet.

Q:  Links for shows, please:

A:  There's no info online for Ampersand or Genderf*ck yet, but definitely check out both theaters' websites...
Rapscallion Theatre Collective: http://www.rapscalliontheatrecollective.com/ (And seriously, go see Trestle at Pope Lick Creek.  Fo'real.)

Q:  And other plugs?

A:  Check out my blog, A Rehearsal Room of One's Own: http://nicefeminist.blogspot.com/ - I love getting feedback on my ramblings, so please feel free to drop me a line there!

Again, to come to a Writers Group for Minions meeting, email writersgroupforminions@gmail.com with a description of your experience as a minion.  We'd love to have you.

Also, my friend Heidi Handelsman runs an awesome reading series called The Potluck out of her living room (and yes, it is an actual potluck) - email potluckplays@yahoo.com to sign up for updates.

Oct 10, 2009

I Interview Playwrights Part 71: Jay Bernzweig





Jay Bernzweig

Hometown: Freehold, NJ

Current Town: Los Angeles, New York

Q:  Tell me about your play, Made in Heaven going up soon at the Soho Playhouse.

A:  "Made in Heaven" is a comedy about conjoined twins who share a penis. On the night they are about to propose marriage to their girlfriend, one twin reveals that's he's gay. The twins and their girlfriend concoct a plan to make the arrangement satsfying for all of them. The plain involves a bisexual hustler, whose behavior wreaks havoc on the household and forces all four characters to rethink their notions of love, family and self-acceptance.

Q:  How did you come to write this play?

A:  For a few years I walked around with the one-line idea of conjoined twins, one gay and one straight, who share a penis. Anyone with whom I shared the idea laughed out loud. But I wasn't able to start writing until I discovered who the other two characters were and realized the play would be about the self-destructive and uncomfortable knots we'll all twist ourselves into for the sake of what looks or feels like romantic love. In 2004 I was one of the producers of an Off-Broadway musical, "Dr. Sex." There were long periods if idleness as we waited for the show to be rewritten, or waited for various creative talents to become available. I took advantage of the fact that I had a quiet, cozy office overlooking Broadway, and wrote the first draft of "Made in Heaven."

Q:  What are you working on next?

A:  A play tentatively titled "Madame Mesmer." It's a contemporary farce that deals with marriage, money and hypnosis.

Q:  You used to be a film exec. What does it feel like to be on the other side of the desk? Is it vastly different?

A:  It's way more fun ruining my own ideas that it was helping to ruin others.

Q:  Do you have any advice for young writers trying to get their screenplays made?

A:  Yes. View your career as a marathon, not a sprint. Hope for the best with every script, but understand the following: A lucky few achieve success with a single, brilliant screenplay. But many, many writers succeed as the result of eight or ten years of consistent, ever-improving work.

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

A:  I fell in love with Eugene O'Neill when I was twelve and read everything he wrote. Didn't understand at least half of what I was reading, but I was captivated by the language and the theatricality and decided I wanted to be a playwright.

Q:  What theaters or shows in LA would you recommend?

A:  The Actors' Gang, Theatre at Boston Court, "99-cent Only Show" at Bootleg Theatre, drag revue at the Plaza bar on LaBrea.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Anything fresh, original and astonishing.

Link for Jay's show:
http://www.madeinheavenbackstage.blogspot.com/

Oct 8, 2009

I Interview Playwrights Part 70: Gina Gionfriddo


Gina Gionfriddo

Hometown:  Washington DC

Current Town: NYC

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  It's not a go yet, but I am working with a film producer to option and then adapt a book by Joy Williams called "The Changeling"--no relation to either of 2 movies with that title.  The book is scary and sort of hallucinogenic; an alcoholic narrator is seeing stuff that may or may not be real.  The story draws a lot on fairy tales and myths.  So I have been researching myths and fairy tales--"animal groom" stories, specifically--for that project.  I'm also researching/reading for the next play I want to write which, I think, has something to do with internet pornography.

Q:  You're one of the playwrights who has written for Law and Order, that New York institution.  What was that like?

A:   It was very, very good for me in a couple of ways.  It disabused me of some romantic notions about writing.  The time pressure to getting the episodes written helped me see that showing up really is half the battle.  Inspiration and ideas spring from the action of writing, so a lot of the mooning around and planning I tend to do before I really get in the saddle and START seems like procrastination now.  Not entirely, but... I've learned to do less of it, to have the guts to sit down and write before the play in the brain feels 100% there.  And writing TV is a good paycheck.  I was hand-to-mouth for such a long time, it was a big relief not to be living in financial panic.  Also, I think that show in particular was a good adjunct to playwriting because it was so plot driven.   I never felt creatively split and I think I might have if my TV job had been, say, "Madmen" or some other show where you're crafting long-range, nuanced character arcs.

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

A:  I was a really macabre, little gothette of a child.  I was fixated on dead children.  In the village in Pennsylvania where we spent our summers, I went to the graveyard and wrote down the names and dates from all the kids' graves.  Then I went around interviewing my elderly aunts about why they had died.  And I saved all the news clippings about a boy who disappeared near my home in DC.  I had a Life Magazine about the Yorkshire Ripper that I used to read and reread obsessively.  I think I still have that, um, orientation.  My pleasure reading is true crime and my Tivo is backlogged with it.  So I think a lot of my writing has been about figuring out where that impulse comes from and what it serves for me.

Q:  How did you like Brown?

A:  Loved it.  I got paid to write for 2 years and the plays I wrote were produced.  They were shoestring, throw 'em up campus productions, but you learn stuff from productions that you just can't learn from readings.  So that was invaluable.  And Paula Vogel gave me some amazing tools that I can pull out of my back pocket when I'm stuck.  She's a purist.  She really believes that great writing will come if you push yourself beyond your safety zone.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I am never happier than when I leave a theatre feeling the stirrings of a good argument.  I like plays where the audience fractures over who the good guys are.   I used to love teaching "Oleanna" for that reason.

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

A:   Read plays.  Read a play a day.  Some of my best ideas have come from reacting to plays... wishing the writer had gone further, sometimes, or feeling an ending didn't ring true.  I'm inspired when I feel my needs and expectations aren't met and I have to go fishing in the deep Gina waters to ask why.    Also, read for structure.  There are plays I have read and re-read and mapped because they work so well.  It's good to, like, take the back of the watch off and see how the gears move.  Donald Margulies' "Dinner with Friends" is one that I really studied because it packs such a wallop and looks, on its face, so simple.

Q:  Any plugs?

A:  Not for my own work.  I've got nothing up right now!  I liked Tracy Letts' new play, "Superior Donuts," a lot, and Annie Baker's "Circle Mirror Transformation."  And I think I liked them for the same reason.  The characters are living "small" lives, by which I mean... no blood, death, war, politics.  But within "small lives" (see "Our Town") there are enormous cataclysms and I love to see writers that appreciate that and truly care.

Oct 7, 2009

I Interview Playwrights Part 69: Darren Canady



Darren M Canady

Hometown: Topeka, Kansas

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY (Bed-Stuy and proud of it!)

Q:  Tell me about the play you're doing with the BE company. (and link please)

A:  The play is called MUDDY THE WATER. It's about what happens when a prominent minister at a Kansas City church disappears after an arrest for cruising and solicitation in a local park. The focus of the play isn't so much the minister, but how everyone within the church community is forced to reveal their own secrets, prejudices and examine their relationships with each other and their faith.

I'm supremely lucky because this is a pilot program being offered by the BE Company that they're calling The WorkBEnch Series. It's a developmental opportunity where the script is workshopped with staging and design elements thrown in. Then, we take a break in the middle of the performance period to take in audience reaction, rework the script, rehearse and then complete the rest of the run. So far, the experience has been sort of like being a theatrical mad scientist, but the collaborations with my fantastic director (Martin Damien Wilkins) and this ridiculously amazing cast have really helped move this piece along.

http://www.thebecompany.org/home.php

Q:  While you were at Juilliard, you had a show at the Alliance. Can you tell me about the play, the program there and what it was like? Also what did you think of Atlanta? (My current town)

A:  So. The play I had up at The Alliance was called FALSE CREEDS--it's the story of how a young man discovers his family's involvement in the Tulsa Disaster of 1921. For anyone who might be in the dark about that historical event: 1920s Tulsa, Oklahoma was the home of Greenwood, one of the most prosperous black communities in America--so prosperous, in fact, that it was known as "The Black Wall Street." In June of that year, however, a white mob swept through Greenwood, burned it to the ground and murdered hundreds of residents. My play dealt with not only that one horrific day, but also how a family began to try to put their life back together.

The Alliance production came about because FALSE CREEDS won their Kendeda Graduate Play Competition while I was at New York University. The competition is aimed at playwrights who are in their final year of a graduate program--the winners are given a full production in The Alliance's season. In addition, that year The Alliance partnered with The O'Neill Playwrights Conference to offer me a residency there that summer to do some intense development of the piece ahead of the Alliance premiere.

Honestly, that entire experience was sick--I mean, just truly amazing. When Celise Kalke called me from Atlanta to tell me I had won, I was at a place in my head/life where I was seriously doubting my abilities as a writer, I really needed to hear that I was saying something worth hearing. That phone call began a year-long process of really learning what play development was like from the inside. Throughout the O'Neill and Atlanta productions I got to knock heads with some of the most gifted artists and professionals I have ever encountered. What really floored me though, was that all of these people were really earnestly working to make this play the truest representation of my vision possible. Which is not to say that everything was all bubble gum and lollipops (Drama draws drama, folks), but it was an experience that there is no substitute for.

As for Atlanta, heck, who could complain about being below the Mason-Dixon Line in the middle of February?! The Alliance was a great temporary home--they took such excellent care of this know-nothing kid from Kansas clutching his little script. What I think would surprise some people is just how vibrant the arts scene in general is in Atlanta. While I was there, I had the chance to see gospel performances, the premiere of Pearl Cleage's A SONG FOR CORETTA, artwork on loan from the Louvre, local rock bands...there is plenty going on. I'd do a show down there again in a heartbeat (y'all heard that, right?!)!

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm trying to wrap my head around some new play ideas I've had recently: History colliding with science fiction and social politics. There are some musical pieces as well that I provided text for that could seriously use some rewrites (as long as play development takes, operas and musicals are a flippin' eternity). Right now though, most of my attention is on shaping MUDDY THE WATER and getting as much out of that experience as possible--multi-tasking has rarely proven to be my friend.

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

A:  When I was a kid, I remember one of my uncles was known to be quite the Ladies' Man. Despite having been in a loooooooooooooooooooooong term relationship with a very lovely woman, he would quite often bring his latest jump-off over to my parent's house, believing full well that he needn't worry about my parents revealing his indiscretions. One day, after my uncle introduced me to his latest "friend" (she said I was very charming), it became quickly apparent to all the adults that I was no fool and that I knew this cheap broad was certainly not the "Auntie" I was used to seeing my uncle with. My dad pulled him aside and said: "Hey man, look here now, don't you get angry at Darren if he starts runnin' his mouth one day and lets loose that you been bringin' all these women by here. That's your fault brotha, and then, I'd have to kick your ass myself."

Now, what I find interesting is less that my dad threatened my uncle (that was par for the course), more that he already knew my personality even at that young age. To this day, I am still nosy, messy, and occasionally itchy to instigate conflict. So instead of subjecting real people to that, I do it to my characters.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Anything with an element of surprise and some theatrical magic. A compelling story that won't let me turn away.

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

A:  I have to sort of laugh at that one--that's pretty much giving advice to myself. I guess I'd say two things I've done for myself so far that I think were truly worthwhile were 1) I got over the fear of exposing myself in my writing--whatever is the most personal tends to be the most compelling, and 2) started to surround myself with creative, diverse theatre artists whom I could respect and look to for both inspiration and support.