I Interview Playwrights Part 248: Jessica Goldberg

Jessica Goldberg

Hometown: Woodstock, NY.

Current Town: LA.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm working on a new play with Darrell Griffin Sr. who lost his son in Iraq. Darrell, a CPA from Van Nuys, became obsessed with what happened to his son there, and decided he needed to go to Iraq to find out--together we've turned his extraordinary story into a piece of theater. I'm writing an adaptation of the book PASSING STRANGE by Martha Sandweiss for HBO, a pilot for ABC, and rewriting the film Heart of a Soldier for Universal.

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

A:  My parents used to pile the three of us kids into their beat up yellow station wagon to visit the grandparents in Connecticut. Ten minutes into the drive, we'd be beating the shit out of each other. The only way our parents could get us to calm down was to put a Leonard Cohen in the tape deck, soon we'd be singing along.

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

A:  Support, support, support.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Chekhov, Fornes, Churchill, Shepard... those are the first to jump into my head.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Character, story, language, imagination...

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

A:  Build community. If you cant get your work up, put it up yourself. And, most importantly, always be writing.

I Interview Playwrights Part 247: Nick Starr

Nick Starr

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York

Q: Tell me about The Awesome Dance

A:  It follows for souls through four lifetimes as they try to work out mutually inflicted traumas and find harmony. I guess what I was hoping to do with this play was examine the idea of good guys and bad guys and try to turn the whole notion of victimhood on its ear. David Mamet says that we watch television in order to see good people do bad things and bad people do good things. I think this is a very intriguing claim: that in some way we have a deep desire to see the good and the bad transposed. I believe this desire - perversity? - is driven by a deep and maybe unresolvable understanding that good and bad (people, actions, ideas) are nearly impossible to distinguish from one another, at least in real time.

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

A:  I have this idea for a season of theater, the working title of which is "Off Off is On" where the best Off Off Broadway productions are staged in the biggest Broadway houses and the big Broadway musicals are crammed into tiny grungy fourth floor walk up black box theaters. What appeals to me about this idea is...well it's kind of perverse. But also, I think we're hiding a lot of the best things that happen in this city in very small, hard to find places as if we're ashamed of them. So, the world of theater is like the world of everything else: upside down. I would like to change that.

Q:  What else are you up to?

A:  I was just hired to write and perform a rap song for a viral video promoting a new e-reader. I'm also working on a movie about body switching and a play about cults.

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 standing in the backyard with my little brother Jim. I’m seven, he’s five. And I have decided to invent my own martial art. So, I ask my brother to kick me. The plan is, he will try to kick me, but I will block the kick. Then I will respond with an inspired combination of punches, kicks and eventual chokeholds that will comprise the basis for a New Era in the world of self-defense.

So, I’m in the process of asking Jim to kick me when I’m interrupted by this strange ringing, noise. I cannot figure out where this noise coming from, but it’s very loud and very high pitched. And what I realize, after a moment, is that the ringing is actually coming from within my own head.

When I asked my brother to kick me, he responded with a lightning fast exquisite roundhouse to the left side of my jaw. At the same time I experience all this, I watch it all unfold from above. It’s a classic slapstick: the bully suddenly in the shoes of his intended victim.

It’s a transcendent moment and my first moment of theatre. Not only am I the older brother, I’m the younger brother, too. More strangely, I’m the backyard and the roundhouse kick. I relive this experience every time I work on a new play. I watch the characters, and I am the characters. I think that day in the backyard truly injured my brain.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I like plays written by Checkov, Caryl Churchill, Annie Baker, Conor McPherson; directed by Les Waters, Sam Gold; staged in gyms or churches or converted gyms. I prefer humor so dry it could burst into flame at any moment; drama that makes you laugh and you don't know if you should be laughing; plays like The Weir that are so much scarier than horror movies.

I Interview Playwrights Part 246: Young Jean Lee

Young Jean Lee

Hometown: Pullman, WA

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I have a 13P show coming up in the spring, which is called ONE-WOMAN SHOW and which will be performed by me. Singing and dancing will probably be involved. I can't act and hate performing, so it should be interesting to see what happens. The YJLTC show I'm working on is called UNTITLED FEMINIST MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY SHOW, which is basically what it sounds like, and which we'll be workshopping at the New Museum in December. I'm also writing a horror movie set at an artist colony for Plan B and Paramount. I'm preparing for YJLTC's fall tours of THE SHIPMENT, and I'll also be directing a production of PULLMAN, WA in London with an all-British cast in the fall.

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 first memory of writing for an audience was in math class. I was sitting at a table with a bunch of other girls, and I had written really disgusting erotica involving each of them and whatever boy in school they happened to find the most unappealing. I remember reading the stories out loud and watching each featured girl writhe around in grossed-out agony while the other girls laughed hysterically. It never would have occurred to me at the time that I would someday make a living doing something very similar.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Shakespeare, Beckett, Ionesco, John Ashbery (he's written some amazing plays), Richard Foreman, Elizabeth LeCompte, Richard Maxwell, Mac Wellman, John Jesurun. There are a lot of other theater artists who inspire me, but those are the ones who made me want to make theater in the first place.

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

A:  If you want a playwriting "career", then you have to think of it as a business. Get to know your market. Think from the perspective of the producers and presenters. What do they need to do in order to keep their jobs? What has succeeded and failed for them in the past? How do you fit into that equation? Find people for whom you'd be the perfect fit and convince them of this. Don't ever think of yourself as a supplicant, hoping you're what they're looking for. Figure out what they're looking for, and if you're not it, then either become that thing (if that's what you want to become) or don't waste your time on them. Someday they may change their minds and come to you. If someone they respect likes your work, then tell them so (instant door-opener). Apply for things--even if you don't get them, important people will see your work. If you end up working for someone who could help your career, WORK YOUR ASS OFF FOR THEM (unless they are ungrateful pricks, in which case quit immediately). Don't fall into the trap of feeling entitled to career success solely on account of your talent. There's a huge market for mediocre art, and the less-talented wipe the floor with the more-talented every day.

I Interview Playwrights Part 245: Christina Gorman

Christina Gorman

Hometown: Colts Neck, NJ

Current town: Westchester, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  The play is titled Orion Rising. It’s about a woman who becomes obsessed with a dilapidated store window display, convinced it depicts her recent near-drowning in the sea. All kinds of strange events start happening inside and outside the window display, causing the woman to start questioning what’s reality and what may be her insanity.

In its first draft, Orion Rising was this quasi-fairy tale of a play. Then my father died, and now the play has taken, perhaps not surprisingly, somewhat of a dark turn. It’s become very, well, personal—more personal than any other work of mine. But I have this quote from Craig Wright that I read everyday about writing to save your own life, about sharing your dreams, fears and obsessions. So, yeah, I’m going with it and we’ll see where it takes me.

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

A:  I was raised in central New Jersey, and every year for my birthday, my parents would bring me to see a Broadway show. (I saw The Tap Dance Kid. Oh yes I did.) This once-a-year business wasn’t near enough to satisfy me, but my mother would have none of it. As far as she was concerned, “the city” was this nearby yet faraway place where no decent parent allowed their innocent children venture alone. So I did what any self-respecting teen would do: I lied. I’d tell my mother I was going to a friend’s house for the day. Then I’d take the train into Penn Station, snag a ticket at the TKTS booth, see a matinee, and take the train back home.

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

A:  Paychecks, as in, will and/or wish them into existence.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes.

A:  Stoppard, Kushner, and Vogel, for starters.

Q:  What kind of theatre excites you?

A:  I love the kind of theatre that hits me in both the heart and the head. If I walk out of the theatre having been intellectually challenged and at the same time having been incredibly moved, I’m so wound up I don’t sleep the whole night. It’s the best kind of exhaustion there is.

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

A:  Unless you’re incredibly lucky or immensely talented (and often even if you’re immensely talented), this profession is a war of attrition. Be patient. Very very patient. Keep at it. Try to enjoy the small successes along the way. And for God’s sake, get out there and meet people. So much of this business is about relationships, and next to no one produces a play by a playwright they’ve never heard of or met.

I Interview Playwrights Part 244: Ruth McKee

Ruth McKee

Hometown: Ottawa, ON, Canada

Current Town: Los Angeles, CA

Q:  Tell me about Full Disclosure.

A:  Full Disclosure is a one-person show that my company Chalk Rep just produced site-specifically in Los Angeles. I started Chalk Rep about two years ago with a bunch of friends from grad school (at UCSD). Our mission is to do intimate plays in unconventional spaces and create theatre that is always an event to attend. Full Disclosure is about a real estate agent who is trying to sell a house, and as she gives the audience her sales pitch, plying them with wine and cookies, she starts to disclose a few things that she probably shouldn't. We performed the play in actual homes that were on the market, so the piece doubled as an open house for those sellers. It was a very successful run.

Q:  What else are you up to?

A:  I've just finished a first draft of a new play called The Rubber Room, which is about a teacher who finds himself in professional limbo after one of his students commits suicide. I wrote it as a part of Center Theatre Group's Playwrights Workshop this past year. Other than that, I had a bunch of readings of my play Hell Money this summer, and I'm spending a good amount of time chasing after my seven-month-old, who has just learned how to crawl.

Q:  Tell me please about Young Playwrights.

A:  I worked for Young Playwrights for about four years, first as a Teaching Artist, then as their Literary Manager and Educational Coordinator. This was in the years between undergrad and grad school. It was an amazing experience: I learned how to teach playwriting, read thousands of plays by young people, met tons of amazing theatre artists, and was given responsibilities and experiences far beyond my years. I was also moonlighting as an Off-Broadway sound and light op during those years, so I consider that time my practical theatre education. But I wasn't getting a whole lot of writing done, so grad school eventually called.

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 thirteen, my father got a job with Unicef and moved our family to Bangladesh. A few months into our stay there was a coup, and the ousted President was put on house arrest at the end of my block. The soldiers guarding him camped out in the empty lot next to my house. Then a month or so after that the Gulf War broke out. There was anti-American rioting, half kids at my school evacuated, and our bus was followed by a jeep full of armed guards every morning. Then in the spring there was a massive cyclone and over 100,000 people were killed. Bush sent Marines from the Gulf to help with the clean-up operations, and they camped out in the school gym. It was a dramatic year. I had no friends. I wrote a lot.

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

A:  I would change the way theatre is taught in schools. Shakespeare is important, but I don't think it's a great entry point. We're losing a lot of potential audience members because we're not giving them exciting first experiences.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My first obsession was Stoppard. I actually read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead before I read Hamlet. After that it was Fugard. I wanted to grow up to be him. Now Albee, probably. I'd love to still be as relevant as he is when I'm his age.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love small plays that make a big explosive mess. When I go to the theatre I'm always hoping for a story that makes me laugh so hard that I'm not sure when I started crying. Or the other way around.

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

A:  Don't wait for someone else to produce your work.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A: 
My play Stray was just published by Playscripts: http://www.playscripts.com/play.php3?playid=2097
And please check out Chalk Rep: www.chalkrep.com

I Interview Playwrights Part 243: Johnny Klein

Johnny Klein

Hometown:  Roseville, CA

Current Town:  Los Angeles

Q:  Tell me about your upcoming show in NYC.

A:  It's called Auto Graphic Novel and it's part of the Dream Up Festival at Theater for the New City. One friend described it as a William S. Burroughs pop-up book for kids. It's about the visions you get from a child's eye, the soft space behind your skin which is spirit and death and being interested in sex and the girl you like and your best friend and not being able to put it in any other words. It's set in my two favorite and most formative decades--the 1990's and the 1970's.

Q:  What else are you up to?

A:  Nothing. This is all that I'm doing. I'm writing, directing and acting in this play and I'm so happy to be doing nothing else.

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

A;  There was this crooked bridge in Roseville that I loved to cross. It went over these railroad tracks and I loved everything about that place. There were hobos in dark clothes sitting in the bridge's shade, and there was the smell of iron and oil, and trash littered from the time and I always felt alone and so happy to be alive watching all of this. The place made me feel very watchful.

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

A:  I guess I'd erase it. I mean completely erase it so that none of us knew anything about it or what it was. Then if something wanted to come from that place, we'd all be here to make it.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I think anybody who ever taught me anything about theatre. I really love and miss my elementary school teachers and librarians who told me stories, and my first mime teacher who gave me my first wordless event to tell, and all my subsequent teachers who really loved theatre and taught it to me heart to heart. That's a cheesy 80's tv show, but you know there's even love in that if you break it down into the individual people who told those stories.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I need to sense that whoever made this thing spent a lot of time not knowing what was about to happen.

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

A:  Find a way to surprise yourself. Constantly.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  If there's time to publish this we're having a Benefit Performance in LA on Monday, August 23rd at 7pm at the new space Circle X and EST share in Atwater. 3269 Casitas Ave, LA, CA 90039.

Also, come to Theater for the New City
155 First Ave, NY, NY 10003
www.dreamupfestival.org

August 29-31 7pm, Sept 1 9pm, Sept 4 2pm.

I Interview Playwrights Part 242: Leslie Bramm

Leslie Bramm

Hometown: Mostly San Francisco.

Current Town: Washington Heights, New York City.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A children’s play for adults. “Molly Jones Steals Home”. I’ve been reading a lot of Joseph Campbell lately and wanted to write a hero’s journey. I do so in the context of this 9 year old girl, who’s terminally sick, and trying to, as the Irish say, “have a good death”. She must escape the clutches of the hospital bureaucracy, and her zealous parents and doctors, all bent on keeping her alive out of their own fear. I like the idea of a children’s play, because it will force me to keep the structure, dialog, and metaphors as simple and pure as possible. Plus I’ve never written one. So, the break from my “usual” is very stimulating. If it weren’t for the encouragement of one of my publishers I don’t know that I would have.

Q:  Tell me about Diz Dam.

A:  We were an Indie Rock Band in the 80s and 90s, made up of film star Kevin Corrigan, and our dear, late friend, Angelo Alvanos. We wanted to live out a rock n’ roll fantasy and boy did we. We played around the city, recorded some songs and even got a little radio play. We played CBGB’s which is a great memory. Standing on that stage, surrounded by all the graffiti, knowing who had been there, it was an honor to paint another layer of sound on those hallowed walls. In the middle of one number the drum kit fell apart. Angelo was able to keep the beat on just the high hat. He reassembled the kit with one hand while we covered him. He never missed a beat. The gallery next door, CBs 313, was a theatre and I had a play produced there. So I actually gigged CBs as a playwright and a musician. I’m very proud of that. I was walking down Bowery the other day and it looks like they turned it into a Citi Bank, or something. Very fucking sad.

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 Aunt gave me my very first Beatle Album. “Beatles ’65”. I placed the needle (yes it was vinyl) on a random track. “No Reply”. I was hooked ever after. My Lennon obsession has guided me through adolescence and adulthood. Every great piece of writing should strive to capture the details and emotions textures of a Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane combo.

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

A:  I’d make all tickets, for every show, anywhere in New York, 25 bucks. Make them accessible to everyone. I’d beg the audience to raise their standards and redefine what entertainment is. Once they demand better, deeper, more raw and real art, theatre makers will change the way they create.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Don’t have any. I don’t mean to sound smug, but the hero idea, in real life, makes me feel like an imitation of an imitation. Two plays drew me into wanting to be a writer. “House of Blue Leaves”, and the “Pirates of Penzance”. Other wise my muses come from the most unlikely, often no-theatrical places. I thank the Gods for them.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  That’s tough to put into proper prose. So let me throw some adjectives out there. Raw, bold, daring, human, emotional, messy, cheeky, abstract, real, hilarious, compelling, truthful, beautiful, provocative, political, imaginative, and almost anything that has a couple of comp tickets attached to it. Rock my world with your work. For the 90 minutes I’m in the world of your play, make me forget about my real world. Entertain me.

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

A:  Drop out of college. Forget Tisch. Forget Yale Rep. Leave Julliard in the dust. Those institutions are fine, but they teach you how to write safely. How to make correct theatre. I’ve seen an awful lot of safe, academic plays out there. They lack dare, emotional courage and a sense of gamble. If you want to write great plays sit down and write them. Write, and write and write. Write and fail, write and fail better. Have the guts to give them to actors, and then give them to the world. Let the theatre scene hammer them like there’s no tomorrow. Then go back and rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Stack page on page. Eventually, if you have the chops, a certain kind of magic will start to happen. Elements and characters will start peeking through your blur of words. Your voice will begin to emerge. If you must read a book, then I suggest Aristotle, “The Poetics”. It’s a great guide for the practical mechanics on how to make a play.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  VENUS AND MONA is currently running in the New York International Fringe Festival. Fringenyc.org, venusandmona.com, and check out nytheatre.com for our great review. Here’s a teaser so you can get an idea of what the play’s about:

“Junky/drunk's dying, there's a demon in the heap, and the Tredwater twins are trapped on the roof of their mother's doublewide. They slug it out in this black comedy, about the battles fought to grow up and learn love.”

The play is directed by the amazing Melissa Attebery, with fight direction supplied by Carrie Brewer. Two heavy hitters in the Indie Theatre scene. We also have a stellar cast.

I Interview Playwrights Part 241: Jennifer Maisel

Jennifer Maisel

Hometown: East Rockaway, N.Y.

Current Town: Los Angeles

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I’m tinkering with OUT OF ORBIT – the play I workshopped at The Sundance Theatre Lab at Mass MoCA this year. It’s about a woman who is a scientist at JPL (Jet Propulsion Lab), working on the Mars Rover Expedition. When the rovers first landed on Mars the scientists and engineers lived on Mars Time (a martian day or sol is about 39 minutes longer than an earth day) and I became obsessed with the theatricality of these people living on Mars Time while their families were living on Earth Time. So the play focuses on the scientist and her teenage daughter who are going out of sync with each other and living on different planets. It’s very much about exploration on a personal and universal level and the yearning for connectivity in our increasingly disconnected world. This is one of those plays that I kept getting stuck in and going back to and getting stuck in again for years, and the Sundance Lab created a huge opening for me where I got through that stuck-ness and the play took off in an absolutely unexpected direction. I can’t believe I finally I have a full good draft – I was sure it was going to be one that was stuck in the drawer forever.


And I’m about to dig in to rewrite my newest piece, MATCH. It’s about altruistic kidney donors who are not necessarily so altruistic. It’s a journey into the underbelly of bartering for organs and explores the question of whether there really is any such thing as a gift with no strings attached.

Q: You also write TV and film. Do you have to mentally adjust when writing for the screen vs theater?

A: In the ideal world one feeds the other. A play’s form is more organic and writing one can be incredibly freeing after working in the stricter structure of television and film, but I also find that having practiced the craft of screenwriting makes my story and structure stronger for theatre. I am always about bringing a great depth of character to the screen work – and people in that arena credit my theatre background for it - but it may just be me, I like character, I need to know what makes people tick in order for a story to satisfy me.


Some of the mental adjustment comes in who I’m writing for – when the stars align and the film/tv writing is a paid gig there may be a huge number of cooks weighing in on the process who I must listen to because I’m doing it for them. In theatre I’m doing it for me – the cooks may weigh in but I have the final say.


I do tend to find myself yearning to work on one when I should be working on the other. A great form of procrastination.

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 in a picture perfect suburb where every house on our side of the street was the same. I came home one night when I was in high school and parked my mom’s station wagon, only to have to go back to the car when I realized I forgot to lock it. Then next morning – it was February and freezing - I went out to walk the dog and there was a dead man in our driveway. The rest of the day unfolded in a bizarre comedy of errors that culminated in my high school boyfriend telling me he loved me for the first time. I felt like I was trapped in a surreal nightmare where no-one stopped to think about this person whose life ended so sadly. We never could find out who he was - but for years after he came to me in my dreams, telling me if I hadn’t gone back to lock the car doors he would have been able to keep warm inside and would still be alive.

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

A:  I’m on a council for the college I went to for undergraduate and it’s comprised mostly of these incredible professional women in very high-powered, well-compensated careers ( I’m one of their few artists). I got into a conversation with one woman, a corporate lawyer I believe, about the intricacies of theatre in Los Angeles and which of the smaller theatres she liked. It came up that the actors in showcases make about $7 a performance. She gasped in horror and said “why would they do it then?”. At the time I thought, oh she just doesn’t get that that’s what theatre is about – it’s not about the money. She doesn’t get the love for it. That we have to do it. It’s the only way to do it. But now her reaction resonates in me as a deeper response – one that opens up the door for questions about what is valued and how value is assigned. A long way of saying “the ability to make a living as a theatre artist”.


By the way, we never even got to how often playwrights are compensated with the phrase “you should just be honored we’re reading your play.”

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Maria Irene Fornes, Paula Vogel, Joseph Papp, Tom Stoppard, the late great Los Angeles actress Pamela Gordon who I am still writing parts for…


- and every single one of the playwrights that belong to the playwrights groups I’m part of - The Dogear Playwrights Collective (http://www.dogear.org), Playwrights Ink and Circle Rising (originally formed out of Paula Vogels ASK Theatre Projects Bootcamp). These playwrights are my greatest champions, I am their biggest fan. Their work always inspires me to better mine. Their support, friendship, honesty and challenges have gotten me through many dark periods in my life and in my writing.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre that’s written for the theatre – things that couldn’t be done anywhere else. Scenes that are impossible to stage staged. Those moments when the play crystalizes and you become enraptured.

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

A:  Form a writers group. Stick by those people. They will be your constant.


Write for actors you know will speak your language as if it is their own.


Be open to someone doing it in a way that is absolutely not how you pictured it.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:

KINGDOM OF IF – a short kids play written specifically for my fabulous 15 year old actress, commissioned by the Virginia Avenue Project this weekend in Los Angeles

http://www.virginiaavenueproject.org


THE LAST SEDER at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul

http://www.parksquaretheatre.org/plays/2011_lastseder.php


An upcoming reading of THERE OR HERE by KPCC and Pacific Stages and a reading of OUT OF ORBIT in Ensemble Studio Theatre – LA Project’s Winterfest, dates to be determined.