I Interview Playwrights Part 181: Rob Ackerman

Rob Ackerman

Hometown: Columbus, Ohio.

Current Town: Upper West Side, Manhattan

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A short play called RAW HEAT, a new musical called VOLLEYGIRLS, and a dramatic memoir called THROWING GUMBALLS. Just finished a new draft of CALL ME WALDO, a play about an electrician who becomes possessed by the spirit of Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Q:  Can you talk about dropping gumballs on Luke Wilson?

A:  It's one of things I had to do at work this year. I earn a living as a union prop master, a film craftsman, and I devote many hours to TV commercials. It’s a good job. I like the crew people, and the work is intense yet sporadic, so it allows me time to write. This year AT&T made a whole series of commercials, and for one of them, my colleague Paul Kineke and I had to drop hundreds of big red gumballs onto Luke Wilson, again and again. We do that sort of thing all the time, but this job grew into a play. Plays are just transmuted pain.

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 four years old, all I wanted for my birthday was a Flintstones lunchbox, and I insisted that I wanted that and only that, nothing else, just the lunchbox. I was too young to go to school, so the Flintstones lunchbox would serve no purpose whatsoever. I knew the classic stamped steel container would include a little themos for beverages tucked beneath a spring-loaded clip. That was cool.

When my birthday came and there was only one gift, it turned out to be a Flintstones lunchbox, and I was astonished. Couldn't believe it. Hadn't thought it was possible. My mom made a sandwich and poured milk into the thermos, and I took the lunchbox into the dining room, sat on the floor, and feasted alone beneath the table, studying cartoon artwork. I was impossibly happy.

For me, having a career in theatre is like getting that lunchbox. I really hoped it was possible, but never thought I could be so lucky. I’m still amazed and grateful.

Q;  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  The first great stage production I saw was Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT in Stratford, Ontario, with Maggie Smith and Brian Bedford. I had no idea theatre could be that good. My first acting opportunity was in A THURBER CARNIVAL. I had no idea writing could be that good.

I played Tobias in A DELICATE BALANCE, which taught me the wonder of Albee. Helped build sets for Steven Sondhiem’s COMPANY and learned every crystalline lyric and melodic line. Got to play the boy opposite Amanda Plummer in THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED by Tennessee Williams, an indelible experience. Directed THE LEARNED LADIES, which proved to me that Moliere ranks among the greatest dramatic craftsmen ever, along with Noel Coward, who took a few pages from his playbook. Staged THE GONDOLIERS, a lucky way to appreciate the art of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Then, when I saw A.R. Gurney's THE DINING ROOM, it felt like it had been written specifically for and about me. Pete Gurney later became my mentor and friend, and that’s a blessing I still can hardly fathom. When I first heard a snippet of Theresa Rebeck's THE WATER'S EDGE in a workshop at the Lark, I had that same feeling of falling in love. Theresa’s generosity has helped keep me afloat for years. I have a lot of heroes.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm thrilled by the ineffable-- Lindsay Kemp, Andre Gregory, Mary Zimmerman, Simon McBurney, Julie Taymor. They’ve all created works of genius that I'll never forget. The production of LONG DAY’S JOURNEY with Robert Sean Leonard. THE SEAGULL with Kristin Scott Thomas, HEDDA GABLER with Kate Burton in the wake of 9/11. Lois Smith in A TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL. Lin Manuel Miranda in IN THE HEIGHTS. When theatre is at its best, there’s nothing better.

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

A:  Love and you shall be loved. Emerson said that. He was right. You have to be willing to give yourself over to plays if you want people to do the same for you. Go to plays, and read plays, lots of plays. The other day, I heard Bill Clinton give a speech to graduating seniors. He told them that critics mauled Washington and Lincoln in their times, and nobody remembers the naysayers. They remember builders, people who took risks and dared to do difficult things. Nothing's more difficult than writing a play. You're gonna crash and burn again and again. Might as well get started.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Flux Theatre Ensemble. That's where I first met you, Adam. Your writing blew me away. And you didn't want to hear how moved I was by your words, but I freaking forced you to listen. Flux Artistic Director, Gus Schulenberg, is a god on earth. He's also a great curator of new work. That's why he picked your play, PRETTY THEFT. Gus and Flux rescued me from the scrap heap. I'm forever in their debt.

The Lark Play Development Center. John Eisner and his beautiful company have supported me, year after year, play after play, regardless of the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

The Working Theater. Mark Plesent has the perfect surname-- he's a great gentleman of theater-- and he and Robert Arcaro and Connie Grappo have pursued a noble mission for 25 years. Love them all.

Craig Slaight and ACT in San Francisco-- the only theatre that's given me a paid commission, and it meant the world.

Hal Prince, my first boss in NYC. The man is still a beacon.

I Interview Playwrights Part 180: Janine Nabers

Janine Nabers

Hometown:  Houston, Texas

Current Town:  New York, NY

Q:  Tell me about Welcome to Jesus.

A:  WELCOME TO JESUS was developed during the 2009/2010 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab series. I started writing the play in October of last year and finished it this spring. My director was the incomparable Adam Greenfield (Most of you may know him as the literary manager at Playwrights Horizons). Working with him is pretty amazing. He’s like a dramaturgical jedi.

The play is a dark and epic story of a football-crazed town in Texas that begins to fall apart after a mysterious murder that causes some people in the town to lose their faith. The fictional town is located in the Bible Belt of Texas... A lot of people say the play reminds them of “Friday Night Lights” meeting “Twin Peaks” or a really twisted version of “The Blind Side.” I haven’t watched any of these things but if the story rings true and weird to people who have then that’s fine with me. My main influence when writing the play was “Our Town.”

I rewrote the majority of the play while in residency at the Sundance Writers' Retreat @ UCross earlier this year before bringing it back to NYC for the lab.

The reading went really well. I’m kinda freaked out by how well it went. Right now I’m just rewriting and will hopefully hear it read aloud again in the near future.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  ANNIE BOSH IS MISSING is another play that I’m currently working on. The story centers around a biracial girl who returns home to Houston after a stint in rehab right as Hurricane Katrina hits the ground in Louisiana. It’s a play about an unstable girl who’s searching for connection in a once familiar place that’s now chaotic and unsafe.

I started writing the play with Ars Nova last fall and finished it at the MacDowell Colony this March. It’s currently nominated for the Cherry Lane Mentor Project.

In addition, there are plans for a professional reading of it this fall.

I’m also working on the very beginning stages of a musical. And finishing a TV pilot.

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 10 years old I was obsessed with the fastest woman in the world (Jackie Joyner-Kersee). I wrote her a letter telling her I wanted to one day run in the Olympics. Joyner-Kersee liked my letter so much she called me and told me that if I never made it to the Olympics I should consider becoming a writer.

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

A;  I think it would be amazing if there were therapy group sessions for playwrights. Free cheese, wine and a big circle. Each meeting would be a new topic of theatre discussion and we could all share our fears and wants and in the end work towards a solution.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: 
Anton Chekhov.
William Inge.
Alex Haley.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Right now I’m excited by NEW PLAYS. I’m currently in three writers' groups and the plays that these people are writing blow my mind. I mean…damn. I’m excited by the originality of every piece and the voices of writers that are screaming so loud it will knock your socks off once you hear their latest stuff. Writers like: Matthew Lopez, Branden Jacob-Jenkins, Erica Lipez, Annie Baker, Bekah Brunstetter, Liz Flahive, Amy Herzog, Kate E. Ryan, Andrew Rosendorf, Gabe McKinley, and Victor Lesniewski.

All of these writers are insanely talented and I can guarantee you their best plays aren’t even finished yet. I’m excited by their potential.

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

A:  - Don’t be afraid to ask other theatre professionals questions.

- If you find out about fellowship/grant/writers' group submissions tell your playwright friends about it. Help one another out. Don’t be competitive when it comes to things like that. Trust that your work will speak for itself and you’ll get whatever it is you’re applying for.

- Try to out do yourself with each new play you write.

Q:  Plugs, please:

Matthew Lopez's play THE WHIPPING MAN is currently playing May 26-June 13th here:
http://www.barringtonstageco.org/currentseason/index-detail.php?record=84

Branden Jacob-Jenkins adaptation of the OCTOROON is at PS122 from June-July here:
http://www.ps122.org/performances/the_octoroon.html

Kate E. Ryan's play DOT at the Ohio Theatre here:
www.clubbedthumb.org

Victor Lesniewski's CONSPIRACY: A LOVE STORY (a musical comedy) will be produced at the Midtown International Theatre Festival July 14th-21st here:
https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/740895

I Interview Playwrights Part 179: Cory Hinkle

Cory Hinkle

Hometown: Bartlesville, Oklahoma

Current Town: Minneapolis, MN

Q:  What are you working on now?


A:  I’m writing a solo piece for a Minneapolis actor, Terry Hempleman. Terry’s the kind of actor that can say almost anything onstage and the audience will still like him, which works perfectly for the character I’m creating. He’s a disgruntled American loosely inspired by the tea partiers and also a bit by Dostoyevsky’s Man from Underground.


I’ve been fascinated by the tea party movement if for no other reason than a lot of my family is very much involved. I’m interested in exploring the kind of paranoia that seems to have taken hold of so much of the “real America.” I’m also interested in writing a play from a more right-leaning perspective because I think this may actually be a play that provokes an American theater audience. I’ve read a stack of solo plays in preparation, so I feel I should know what I’m doing with the form but still it’s really challenging, but helps to have an actor in mind.


I’m also re-writing my play The Killing of Michael X, A New Film by Celia Wallace, which will be in this year’s Bay Area Playwrights Festival. It’s a play about grief and one young girl’s ability to deal with the loss of her brother only by seeing his death through the lense of the film she plans to make about him. The problem is she can’t start the film, so she can only imagine the film she might make, which the play becomes.

Q:  How would you characterize the Minneapolis theater scene?

A:  The exciting thing is there are some really talented people here and some good small theater companies – Ten Thousand Things, Walking Shadow Theater, Workhaus Collective, Red Eye, Bedlam, Open Eye Figure Theater, and a few others. There are also some good physical theater companies and devisors who are carrying on the work Jeune Lune was doing for 25 years like Jon Ferguson Theater and Live Action Set. Also, the Jeune Lune artists are still doing really exciting work.


And the presence of the Playwrights’ Center for so many years has created a community of actors that are very good with new plays. The one real negative about the Twin Cities is that even with so many playwrights here and so many new plays there are only a slim number of quality productions by the larger or mid-sized companies. You pretty much have to do it yourself, or very occasionally one of the larger theaters does a new play. That part is disappointing, but it might be changing. Smaller companies are doing a lot more quality new work now than when I first moved here so maybe the larger theaters will catch on, or maybe the smaller companies will take over.

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 dad grew up on a farm, but moved to the “big city,” (Bartlesville, OK, a town of 35,000) after my parents got married and when I was young (usually on a Sunday) he would say “you wanna drive up to Cow Town?” which was his name for Copan, OK (pop. 560) the little town where he grew up. And we would drive up there and go from farm to farm and talk to whoever happened to be around. I was a quiet kid and would watch these strange, grizzled farmers (the kind of farmers who probably don’t even exist anymore) talk about all sorts of things. My dad grew up there and was just as interested in how different they were from our regular lives just half and hour away. It’s a long road from Sunday drives with my dad to writing plays, but they’re connected – I learned early to watch for the idiosyncratic in other people.

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

A:  More artists on the payrolls. If an Artistic Director is going to get a salary of over 600,000 dollars (like one of our large theaters here in Minnesota) there should be artists on the payroll, all year round.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Beckett, Tennessee Williams, Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, Shepard, Fornes, Len Jenkin. Recently, I discovered Bernard Marie Koltes and was blown away (Battle of Blacks and Dogs is one of my new favorite plays).

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Workhaus collaborated on a play this year called Fissures (lost and found) and the entire play was delivered directly to the audience. For me, the most exciting thing was how immediate and theatrical it felt for the audiences who saw it. We got rid of any pretense of reality and created a purely theatrical reality. I don’t think every play should be direct address, but it’s a good way to cut the distance audiences seem to feel now between themselves and new plays. I’m excited by theater that engages the audience in the theatricality of the play and asks them to participate one way or another.

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

A:  As this interview series makes clear there’s a lot of competition out there. It also seems there are fewer and fewer opportunities. So you have to be unbelievably prolific. And you have to create your own opportunities.

Q:  Plugs, please:


A:  Our resident company of playwrights here in Minneapolis: www.workhauscollective.org


In June, we’re doing a workshop of Deborah Stein’s collaboration with Suli Holum, Chimera.


And our entire next season is exciting: Carson Kreitzer’s Freakshow directed by Ben McGovern in the fall. My play, Little Eyes directed by an awesome director Jeremy Wilhelm (http://jeremywilhelm.com) in February. And Christina Ham’s Glyph directed by one of the best directors in the Twin Cities Marion Mcclinton in April.


My wife, Victoria Stewart has a production of Hardball at Seattle’s Live Girls Theater in October.


And fellow Workhaus-er Dominic Orlando has two productions of Danny Casalaro Died for You at Next Theater in Chicago and Well Fleet Harbor Actor’s Theater both happening in the fall.


And I would love to see Greg Moss’ new play opening at Soho Rep in the fall, or his House of Gold at Woolly Mammoth.

I Interview Playwrights Part 178: Stefanie Zadravec

Stefanie Zadravec

Hometown: Chevy Chase, MD

Current Town:Brooklyn, NY

Q:  Tell me about The Electric Baby.

A:  The play follows a group of fractured souls who, after a young man is killed in a car accident, are brought together to care for a magical dying baby. It's about the stories we create for our lives in order to find meaning in tragedy. As each character comes in contact with the baby, they begin to recreate themselves. I use traditional African and Romanian folklore, as well as my own invented modern folk tales, to explain the circumstances of the strange baby that mysteriously glows in the dark. As in a fairy tale, the characters connect with an unquestioned immediacy, they make mistakes, they reach clarity. Did I mention there's a baby that glows in the dark?

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  There will be developmental reading of The Electric Baby at The Working Theater on May 24th, directed by Daniella Topol. In June, I will be in D.C. to workshop The Electric Baby in the First Light Discovery Program at Theater of the First Amendment. I'm revising Colony Collapse, a play set on a California almond farm against phenomenon of the disappearing bees, a young girl disappears. I'm also starting work on a new comedy, as well as a TV pilot I've had in the back of my mind for a while now.

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'm the youngest of six. For the most part, my home was filled with immense humor and love, but there was also mental illness, alcoholism, drug addiction, as well as my mom's battle with cancer for 13 years before she died; the basic 1970s domestic potpourri. When I was very little, there were times that we would be called out of bed in the middle of the night and made to participate in a terrifying kind of kangaroo court. Sometimes my mother would announce that she was leaving, and we would beg her to stay. Sometimes we were made to "testify" against one of our siblings. The next day everything would return to normal, and no one would talk about it.

Years later I asked my brother, who is ten years older than me, about those nights. He said, "I was a teenager, so I saw the drinks being poured at dinner and knew what we were in store for. Since you were so young, it must've been scary not to know where it was coming from." It was, and thankfully at some point it stopped. Elements of those nights inhabit my writing: themes of despair and redemption; forceful anger erupting out of some seemingly minor moments; bad language; cutting humor; children in peril; and the circus atmosphere of madness. At least, that's what my husband says!

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

A:  I'd get rid of the sexism and the ageism that playwrights face. The idea that the next great play can only come from a 25-year-old male baffles me. Why? In fact, we could solve a host of problems by producing the work of a greater diversity of emerging playwrights.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  One of my first acting jobs in New York was in the original Off-Broadway production of Charles Mee's Orestes. It was directed by Tina Landau and was produced by En Garde Arts, a company that used to produce site-specific plays in fabulous abandoned spaces all over Manhattan (probably all luxury condos by now). This show turned everything I knew about theater on its ear and made it exciting again. We performed on the waterfront at West 59th Street where the iron frame of a Parthenon-shaped pier tilted and fell into the Hudson. Jefferson Mays, who played Orestes, climbed the frail structure every night and somehow managed to avoid getting tetanus.

I came in late, so my first day of rehearsal was on day two of a Viewpoints workshop. I didn't actually know what we were doing, yet I loved it and viscerally it made complete sense. There were 30 or so actors in the show, and there were rewrites, rainstorms, and technical glitches…yet everyone had a great time, including the audience. It was an extraordinary collaboration. At the time I didn't know I would ever find myself a playwright, but I remember inspiring conversations I had with Chuck about his approach to writing. I was in awe of Tina's vision, humor, and humble leadership. Anne Hamburger had an amazing ability to make things happen. For those reasons and this amazing experience, Chuck, Tina, and Anne are my heroes.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm excited by plays that really use the medium of theater, pushing the bounds of realism through language or the physical elements of storytelling. Jason Grote's 1001 did that for me. Something that can only happen live. As an audience member, I like being caught off-guard. But I also love plain old good acting and well-crafted plays of any kind.

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

A:  Write and be generous with your peers.

I also suggest becoming familiar with Liz Lerman's Critical Response Format (http://www.facebook.com/l/ccfeb;www.danceexchange.org/performance/criticalresponse.html). Use it when responding to the work of others, and insist people use it during talk-backs about your work. It will allow you to see your work objectively and help silence the disruptive types who can ruin a feedback session.

Also, seek out directors at all levels whose work you admire. You want to have people whose taste and vision you trust bringing your plays to life. Directors can help get your work read by the right people and, ultimately, produced.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  167 Tongues at Jackson Rep. It runs through May 28th. I was one of the contributing writers on this project and it was an amazing collaborative experience.
http://www.facebook.com/l/ccfeb;www.jacksonrep.org/JacksonRepertoryTheatre.html

If you're in D.C. on June 12th at 3 pm, please come see The Electric Baby at Theater of the First Amendment. It will be directed by the talented Jessica Lefkow, and it's free!
http://www.facebook.com/l/ccfeb;www.theaterofthefirstamendment.org/events.php

I'm looking forward to seeing Jack's Precious Moment, This Wide Night; and the entire Clubbed Thumb Summerworks season.

I've also been following The Civilian's, You Better Sit Down — Tales from my Parents Divorce on Brian Lehrer. The submitted stories are great.

I Interview Playwrights Part 177: Michael Mitnick

Michael Mitnick

Hometown: Pittsburgh

Current Town: Brooklyn

Q:  You have a play coming up with Studio 42 in June. Can you tell me about that?

A:  The title is: “SPACEBAR: A BROADWAY PLAY BY KYLE SUGARMAN”

It’s about a disgruntled 16-year-old boy named Kyle from Fort Collins who has written a 259-page play set 7,000 years in the future – SPACEBAR (which is not about the space key on the keyboard, but is, instead, about a bar in outer space). He knows in his heart that it is the best play ever written. And he won’t stop submitting copies to Broadway until he hits it big.

We move in-and-out of Kyle’s real life, his imagination, and the play-within-the-play. It’s a satire on the current state of American non-profit and commercial theatre. It’s also about how loss affects children and about the universal need to be taken seriously when you’re a teenager.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  In July there’s a workshop at the Kennedy Center of my play SEX LIVES OF OUR PARENTS, which is about all the things our parents will never tell us under any circumstances which are mostly the things we wouldn’t want to hear anyway.

In August there’s going to be a developmental production in California of a new indie-rock musical I co-wrote with Kim Rosenstock and Will Connolly. It’s about to be announced.

Also, Simon Rich and I just finished the first draft of a musical for tweens called PENCILS DOWN. It’s about the awkward, humiliating cruelty / beauty that is high school.

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 wanted to be a professional magician all the way up until I was 15. This pretty much explains why I turned out the way I turned out.

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

A:  SPACEBAR goes too deeply into this question. I mostly wish theater tickets cost the same as movie tickets.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  At the moment (and in no order): Stephen Sondheim, Caryl Churchill, Paula Vogel, Kaufman & Hart, August Wilson, Tennessee Williams, Richard Nelson, John Guare, Frank Loesser, Richard Greenberg, Henrik Ibsen, Adam Guettel, Nicky Silver, Ken Prestininzi, Gregory Mosher, Hal Prince, Naomi Wallace, Ahrens & Flaherty, Peter Shaffer, Michael Korie, Wallace Shawn

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that isn’t boring or unintentionally confusing

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

A:  Write a lot

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Come see SPACEBAR @ Studio 42. There may be anti-gravity. There will be free drinks.

I Interview Playwrights Part 176: Jordan Seavey

Jordan Seavey
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  Tell me about the play you're doing a reading of at Rattlestick.

A:  My play THE TRUTH WILL OUT is having a reading this Sunday (tomorrow, as of this writing) at Rattlestick. It's a "100% non-fiction anti-fantasia" about a closeted celebrity cable news journalist and an out 15 year old who's the victim of a hate crime (inspired by the murder of Lawrence King in 2008), and how their stories intersect. I think it's sort of gotten this reputation, in a way, for being a bit "epic" and challenging due to it's subject matter, themes, and bulk. It also has a tricky tone to balance, I think, and there's one actor who plays eight roles, including a fifteen year old girl and Edward R. Murrow. If something isn't challenging, I'm not really into it frankly. And I do pack my plays with a lot -- a lot of thoughts and ideas, characters, times, scenes -- I tend toward episodic structures, and TTWO in particular jumps around a lot chronologically. I don't enjoy safe theatre so I attempt not to make safe theatre. It's our job to remind theatres that challenge is good! Anyway, it's received development at the Old Vic in London (which was fun and fascinating), the New York Theatre Workshop (awesome), the hotINK Festival (which I highly recommend all playwrights apply to -- great, great people there), and Orlando Shakespeare's new play festival, Playfest (which was incredible in that I watched a non-NYC-based audience respond unbelievably strongly to the piece). And was a finalist for the O'Neill's National Playwrights Conference this year. Soooo. I guess you could say it's been making the reading rounds. I'm hoping workshop and production will follow.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I am also co-artistic director of the theatre company CollaborationTown. We've been in rehearsals workshopping a new play called THE PLAY ABOUT MY DAD by another company member, fantastically gifted playwright/performer Boo Killebrew. And then we'll be developing and mounting (in NYC Fringe this August) a piece we began co-creating at Robert Wilson's Watermill Center in February. It's a comedic, collage-like look at The Momentum, a fictional self-help movement inspired by The Secret and also Abraham Hicks -- if you don't know them, look them up -- it's some pretty crazy shit.) Self-help is a nearly 10 billion dollar industry in America right now, so we're going to taking a look into the why's and wherefore's of that.

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 grew up watching my mother perform. She was a professional clown, Ringling Brothers trained, and an actress/singer prior to that. And mime...she actually has a Fulbright in mime, which she used to study with Marcel Marceau's teacher in Paris. I think this sort of explains a lot. Everything? Hahaha. I also became obsessed with the movie JAWS when I was 4, and watched a lot of horror films and Stanley Kubrick growing up. Yeah.

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

A:  Larger non-profit theatre companies' fear of risky plays. Semi-related note: Great article in this week's Village Voice about New York needing to cherish its artists. http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-05-18/theater/welcome-to-nyc-s-hidden-golden-age-of-theater/

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Caryl Churchill and Robert Wilson come immediately to mind -- she's just such a brilliant writer (I wrote her a love letter while studying abroad in London and as I write this am looking at the framed note she wrote back), and he's so unafraid of theatricality and insane choices and fucking with time and what time is in a theatrical space. But I also love Ludlam and Albee and Durang and Vogel...maybe I'm a little all over.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Dark and funny theatre about unfunny things. Preferably things that are pertinent to us as a society right NOW and/or things that are personally pertinent to the artist(s) creating the work.

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

A:  Oh boy. Hm. If something makes you angry or scared, write about it.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:   www.collaborationtown.org, and if you're in NYC and this gets published in time, come to THE TRUTH WILL OUT at Rattlestick tomorrow!

175 Playwrights

Andrew Rosendorf 

Don Nigro 

Barton Bishop

Peter Parnell 

Gary Sunshine

Emily DeVoti

Kenny Finkle 

Kate Moira Ryan

Sam Hunter 

Johnna Adams

Katharine Clark Gray

Laura Eason

David Caudle 

Jacqueline Goldfinger

Christopher Chen

Craig Pospisil

Jessica Provenz 

Deron Bos

Sarah Sander

Zakiyyah Alexander

Kate E. Ryan 

Susan Bernfield

Karla Jennings

Jami Brandli

Kenneth Lin

Heidi Darchuk

Kathleen Warnock

Beau Willimon

Greg Keller

Les Hunter

Anton Dudley

Aaron Carter

Jerrod Bogard

Emily Schwend

Courtney Baron

Craig  "muMs" Grant

Amy Herzog

Stacey Luftig

Vincent Delaney

Kathryn Walat

Paul Mullin

Kirsten Greenidge

Derek Ahonen

Francine Volpe

Julie Marie  Myatt

Lauren Yee

Richard Martin Hirsch

Ed Cardona, Jr.

Terence Anthony

Alena Smith

Gabriel Jason Dean

Sharr White

Michael Lew

Craig Wright

Laura Jacqmin

Stanton Wood

Jamie Pachino

Boo Killebrew

Daniel Reitz

Alan Berks

Erik Ehn

Krista Knight

Steve Yockey

Desi Moreno-Penson

Andrea Stolowitz

Clay McLeod Chapman

Kelly Younger

Lisa Dillman

Ellen Margolis

Claire Willett

Lucy Alibar

Nick Jones

Dylan Dawson

Pia Wilson

Theresa Rebeck

Me

Arlene Hutton

Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas 

Lucas Hnath

Enrique Urueta

Tarell Alvin McCraney

Anne Washburn 

Julia Jarcho

Lisa D'Amour

Rajiv Joseph

Carly Mensch

Marielle Heller

Larry Kunofsky

Edith Freni

Tommy Smith 

Jeremy Kareken 

Rob Handel

Stephen Adly Guirgis

Kara Manning 

Libby Emmons

Adam Bock 

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Liz Duffy Adams

Winter Miller

Jenny Schwartz

Kristen Palmer

Patrick Gabridge 

Mike Batistick  

Mariah MacCarthy

Jay Bernzweig  

Gina Gionfriddo

Darren Canady

Alejandro Morales

Ann Marie Healy

Christopher Shinn

Sam Forman 

Erin Courtney

Gary Winter

J. Holtham

Caridad Svich

Samuel Brett Williams

Trista Baldwin

Mat Smart

Bathsheba Doran

August Schulenburg

Jeff Lewonczyk

Rehana Mirza

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb

David Johnston

Dan Dietz

Mark Schultz

Lucy Thurber

George Brant

Brooke Berman

Julia Jordan

Joshua Conkel

Kyle Jarrow

Christina Ham

Rachel Axler

Laura Lynn MacDonald

Steve Patterson

Erin Browne

Annie Baker

Crystal Skillman

Blair Singer

Daniel Goldfarb

Heidi Schreck

Itamar Moses

EM Lewis

Bekah Brunstetter

Mac Rogers

Cusi Cram

Michael Puzzo

Megan Mostyn-Brown

Andrea Ciannavei

Sarah Gubbins

Kim Rosenstock

Tim Braun

Rachel Shukert

Kristoffer Diaz

Jason Grote

Dan Trujillo

Marisa Wegrzyn

Ken Urban

Callie Kimball

Deborah Stein

Qui Nguyen

Victoria Stewart

Malachy Walsh

Jessica Dickey

Kara Lee Corthron

Zayd Dohrn

Madeleine George

Sheila Callaghan

Daniel Talbott

David Adjmi

Dominic Orlando

Matthew Freeman

Anna Ziegler

James Comtois

I Interview Playwrights Part 175: Andrew Rosendorf

Andrew Rosendorf

Hometown: McLean, VA.

Current Town: West Palm Beach, FL.

Q:  Word on the street is you have a play at Florida Stage in the fall. Tell me about that.

A:  That street is all about getting the word out. I have to be careful what I tell it.

Last May, Florida Stage commissioned me to examine the water shortage in South Florida. I’m not from Florida so I knew very little about its history. Essentially, I had to go from being an ignorant American to someone who understands the complexity of the political and environmental issues that face Florida, the United States, and the world. The result is Cane – a play that examines how a state that was once drowning in water is now so dry. If I’ve done my job, the issues all take a backseat to a very specific human story i.e. no talking heads. And, I’m using Florida as a microcosm for the issues involving water that are currently facing the world.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  There are a few things I’ve been kicking around at various stages. I’ve worked at a sleep-away summer camp for more than half my life, so I (like many) have a camp play in me. I do feel summer camp has been romanticized while the truth of the situation gets lost. I’m getting close to being finally able to write my version.

I’ve also become fascinated by social media. I’m interested in how it affects the way we now are touching one another. Is it bringing us closer together or actually isolating us further?

Lastly, I’m bandying about a short film that I haven’t found the right way to describe yet. It has to do with how we derive pleasure from pain...I know how that sounds... It scares me...on many levels...why I feel I have to write this...

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

A:  Oh man. My childhood. Does that mean I can no longer claim that I’m a child? You know, I’ll share this because I think it is my way of answering this question: I don’t remember much of my childhood. I had thought that this was common for most people, but only within the last five years have I learned that it’s not. I remember images or get flashes of moments when I see something or hear something or smell something that reminds me of a moment, but as quickly as it appeared it disappears. I think this inherently influences – consciously & subconsciously – why writing was the way I had to go.

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

A:  The worry of producibility. I understand it. I get it. I wish it wasn’t there.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  This is going to be an uncreative list: Arthur Miller, Eugene Ionesco, Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, Samuel Beckett, Sarah Kane, Tony Kushner, Sarah Ruhl, & Aaron Sorkin

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Playwrights that have a handle on their story and find the best theatrical way to tell it. Knowing that the story could be told no other way. That the structure is influenced by the story. And theater that uses everything at its disposal – not for spectacle but because it’s in support of the emotion.

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

A:  Two things. The first is to emotionally risk in your work. When this was first told to me, it seemed as if I was stupid. Why hadn’t I figured that out? The more vulnerable you are in your writing the more it will connect with an audience. The more it will set your writing apart.

The other is not to preplan. Do your character work. Know what you want to explore. Research when you need. Have some plot ideas and signposts. But as soon as you start writing trust the subconscious. Just be there with the characters. Don’t impose or impede them. It’s worrisome, exhilarating, frightening. Inevitably your characters will take over and say something or do something that is a hundred times better than if I had their every moment planned out.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Jack’s Precious Moment by Sam Hunter which is now being produced through P73. I’ve only just begun to get to know his work and man am I blown away and inspired by what he’s doing. And Janine Nabers. Full disclosure – she and I went to grad school together. She’s sorta been all over the place this year from the Soho Writer/Director Lab to a Dramatists Guild Fellowship to Sundance. Amazing writer...taught me so much. I’m a wee bit in awe, but don’t tell her I said so.