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1.  

As part of MCC Theater's Playlab series:

Monday, October 25, 7:00 p.m.

THE FAT CAT KILLERS by Adam Szymkowicz

Directed by Ethan McSweeney

When Steve and Michael get laid off from their work-a-day “lives,” their heads start swimming with sexy possibilities – i.e., pristine Mexican beaches flush with bikini babes. The road to bikiniville begins with a plan to kidnap their ex-boss, and quickly devolves into a hilariously ill-conceived mission to bring down and destroy The System itself. One CEO at a time.

All readings are at Baruch (151 East 25th) and start at 7pm, followed by the customary hour of mingling, wine and snacks.


2. 

Nerve in London  (production #8)

I Interview Playwrights Part 264: David Simpatico

David Simpatico

Hometown: Palisades Park, NJ

Current Town: New York City

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I tend to work on several pieces concurrently, though I am trying to narrow it down to two at a time. I've just been accepted into a year long opera training program at the American Lyric Theatre, so that entail a series of short projects through the year.

New projects I'm working on right now: an adult horror film version of HANSEL AND GRETAL; organizing my thoughts for WAITING FOR THE BALL TO DROP, a full length play about a year in the life of seven friends; APOCOLYPSE WOW, a vaudeville about the end of the world; and ORACLE a musical fantasy for young adults set in the world of Greek mythology. Oh, I just finished some one minute plays that appeared in the One Minute Play festival, that was a blast.

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

A:  In the fourth grade, I played the title role in our full scale production of MACBETH. My mother made my tunic from a Simplicity pattern, and the day of the cast party, I hid my pants and shirt in my duffle bag claiming someone had stolen my clothes, so I had to walk home in my tunic; that was perhaps the happiest day of my young life, walking home and twirling in my shakespeare tunic. I've been dancing the same dance ever since.

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

A:  I would urge my peers and the next generation to write for the theatre, not for the sofa. The lack of theatricality in theatrical plays is astounding. Use the parameters of the living space rather than limiting the material to what we accept as familiar. Engage my imagination. Enrage me. Anything, just don't put me to sleep.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Caryl Churchill; Tennessee Williams; Euripides; Shakespeare; Franco Dragone; Martha Graham; Zero Mostel. August Wilson. Charles Ludlum.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Visceral theatre excites me; something that expands my engagement beyond the restrictions of my chair. Expand my experience to the four walls of the theatre, to the farthest walls of my heart. Theatre that entertains me, from Maggie Smith in Lettuce and Lovage to the flying acrobatic dancers at the Streb Lab out in Willamsburg. I have had my fill of courtroom dramas and lectures on art, thanks.

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

A:  Take acting classes, perform, get your ass onto a stage and understand from the inside out what you are asking people to do; perform solo, your own material; read the whole play out loud to a small group of friends so you can hear your 'voice' on all levels; band together with friends and put your work up ANYWHERE you can, but stay in the live element; there is nothing that will illuminate the live theatre experience more than actual live performance. Film and video will not teach you what you need to learn as a playwright. And never stop discovering what you don't yet know: push yourself into dark waters.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  new pieces I'm pushing: CRUEL SHOES, an adult backstage musical comedy about a killer chorus boy with four homicidal female multiple personalities (http://www.cruelshoesthemusical.com/)
and THE SCREAMS OF KITTY GENOVESE, a rock opera about the infamous 1964 murder of a young woman while 38 neighbors watched and did nothing (http://thescreamsofkittygenovese.com/)

I Interview Playwrights Part 263: Deborah Zoe Laufer

Deborah Zoe Laufer

Hometown:  Liberty, NY

Current Town:  Mt. Kisco, NY.

Q:  Tell me please about your play Sirens at Humana.

A:  I had the time of my life at Humana. It was the most collaborative process I’ve ever been part of. I went to the early design meetings which somehow, insanely enough, I hadn’t done in the past. It made me really consider the arbitrary walls that are put up in production – who gets to interact with whom. Great designers are so inspiring. And I had brilliant designers on Sirens. They made me fall in love with my own play through their visions. And, being in the room I could help problem-solve and clarify and rewrite. It seems such a mistake that we’re not always invited to work together.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  My new play is about gamers, and the thin line between “real” life and our on-screen lives. It centers around the military’s recruitment of expert gamers to fly remote drones in Afghanistan and Iraq out of trailers in the Nevada desert. These are often teenagers and they’re finding they have worse PTSD than soldiers “in the field.” I Just had a reading at the Missoula Colony in MT, and I’m ready to get out a second draft.

Q:  What else are you up to?

A:  I just started the BMI lyricists workshop!!!! I’m so crazy out of my mind thrilled. I love musicals and I love learning something totally new, and we just had the first class last week and I can’t stop smiling.

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 the woods. I raised woodchuck, beaver, deer, hawks, goats, ferrets, horses, swans, geese, pheasants, chickens, peacocks. (besides dozens of cats and dogs) I was a witch all through grade school. I was the only Jewish kid in my elementary school, and the only Jew many of them had ever seen. I trained a frog to come to me when I held out my hand. I was odd. And funny. Guess that about sums it up.

Q:  How do you think Paul Simon writes such amazing songs?

A:  Right?? He’s our national poet. If you read Adam’s website Paul, wouldn’t it be fun to work on a musical together? THINK ABOUT IT!

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

A:  Find a writer’s group of people you love and trust and respect.

Write.

Put together readings of your work. Just friends in your living room if you need to. Plays need to be heard.

Don’t say, as I did, “I’m not good at the business part – I’m just a writer.” I thought that was charming and artsy for a long time. But the business part is part of being a writer. And it’s really not as charming and artsy as we think it is to say we’re bad at it.

Don’t become addicted to online scrabble and chess! (As soon as I finish the 50 games I’m playing I’m DONE.)

I Interview Playwrights Part 262: Brian Polak

Brian Polak

Hometown: Keene, NH

Current Town: Pasadena, CA

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  This spring I finished a play titled “Underground” about a subway busker with an infatuation for the Unabomber. This play started off as an hour-long monologue almost five years ago. It has evolved into something decidedly not a monologue.

My wife, Jami Brandli (who is also a playwright), and I participated in challenge with each other during the month of August. We decided to use Facebook as a motivational tool rather than a constant distraction. We would work on a new play each day and update our status with our progress. The idea was to keep us focused on our work by proclaiming it publicly to hundreds of people. I finished a first draft of a play titled “moments before medicine” during the challenge. I’m really excited about it. It’s a two-hander about manipulation, drug addiction and abortion. Not really, but sort of.

Next up is a play about animal cruelty involving a matador who quits in the middle of a bullfight. After that is a play about the death penalty involving a prisoner who can’t be put to death by lethal injection because his veins are too small.

Jami and I are also finishing a TV pilot and a couple screenplays that we’re writing together.

Q:  Tell me about Boston Court.

A:  (I think most people in the LA theatre community see me as a marketing person at Boston Court and not a playwright. I get “Oh, you’re a playwright?” a lot when it comes up.)

I feel very fortunate to be employed full time not only in a theatre, but a theatre I would pay money to visit. Boston Court focuses on new works, although not exclusively. In 2009 we did two world premieres. This year we are doing four. The plays we do are all inherently theatrical, which is something I appreciate. The theater space itself is a perfect canvas for actors, directors, designers and playwrights. I know I work here and am supposed to say this, but if you live in the LA area and DON’T come to see the plays produced here you are really missing something special.

One of the greatest benefits of working here, other than the snacks in the greenroom, is the exposure I have to so many ridiculously talented theatre people. I bend the ears of our artistic directors, directors, playwrights, actors, designers, production manager and technical director as much as I can. I squeeze as much knowledge out of them as I can. And, fortunately for me, we hire talented AND generous people who are willing to talk to me. Sometimes I pretend I’m talking to them for “marketing purposes.” Usually it’s because I’m curious.

Whether you are in the area or not, follow us on Twitter and/or Facebook and you’ll have the pleasure of reading about some of my interesting and inane shenanigans at Boston Court. I’m lucky that part of my job is to be in Facebook and Twitter all the time.

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

A:  When the following took place I wasn’t a child as far as age is concerned, but as you’ll see I was still a child mentally. This is a story I have told many times over the years. I feel the need to repeatedly confess…

I was in New York for work many years ago. I had just been dumped. It was snowing. I was depressed, angry and short-tempered. I remember the day like it was yesterday and not almost nine years ago. It was a Friday. There was a blizzard. After work I had to get across town for something inconsequential. The office I was working out of was located on 8th Ave and 15th. The snow was coming down heavily and I was certain it would be difficult to hail a cab. As soon as I stepped out of the door onto the street an available cab approached. I thought I was lucky; my miserable, pathetic life was finally turning around. He pulled over and I stepped in "1st Ave and 1st Street," I told him. The nexus of the universe.

After telling the driver where I needed to go I sat back and sulked like a baby "my life sucks," I remember saying to myself. The cab driver was jabbering about something, but I wasn't paying attention. I figured he was on his cell phone or singing along to a song in a language I didn't understand. After a couple of moments I happen to lock eyes with him through the rear view mirror. He wasn't jabbering or singing. He was talking to me. I leaned in towards the opening in the plexiglass separating us "Excuse me?" I asked. "You shoulda caught a cab on the other side of the street," he barked. Was he serious? He couldn't have been serious. "Are you serious?" I asked. "If you know you have to go that way, that is where you catch the cab." I was dumbfounded. Or flabbergasted. Or flabberfounded. It took me about 2 seconds to lose my shit. "Just drive me where I tell you to drive me," I screamed. He screamed back. I wasn't hearing his words. All I knew was that he was yelling and I was pissed. "Just drive, you asshole." I heard him say something to the effect of "I'll drive you to Harlem and leave you there." I rattled of a series of "Fuck you's" for about 20 seconds straight. What he said in response was beyond my comprehension.

Why was I having this argument? I didn't really understand. I started to realize there was a chance I could end up in Harlem, about a bazillion blocks from where I needed to be, so I screamed "Pull over. Pull the fuck over NOW!" He kept screaming back at me, but he obliged at the next corner. I was out-of-my-mind at this point. As soon as the cab came to a stop I threw the door open and put one foot into the wintery-New-York-street-slush-muck. I looked back at the driver who was still screaming at me, his face perfectly framed by the rectangular opening in the plexiglass separation. I then reached down and grabbed a handful of icey-slushy-muck and threw it directly in his face, punctuated with a "FUCK YOU!" I slammed the door and walked off. Fifteen or twenty steps later I realized what I had done. There was something wrong with me and changes needed to be made or else I could end up in a gutter in with my face kicked in someday. I started to change that day. Today, nearly nine years later, I write about that guy a lot.

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

A:  It is logistically impossible for theaters to have an open submission policy. There are too many plays and not enough time to read and consider them all. I would like to change that.

On the other side of the coin, I’d like playwrights to really figure out if a theater is a good match for their work before sending it out. We are the ones who are creating the stacks of plays that nobody can get through because we’re sending our kitchen sink dramas to theaters looking for musicals.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My wife is my theatrical hero. Before I met her I was simply dipping my toe in writing while my primary creative impulse was acting. She got me to dive in completely and showed me how to be dedicated to the craft. I may not have ever considered myself a writer if not for her. She is also the first and primary reader of all my work. I trust her opinion more than anybody else. I’d be screwed without her.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Going to theatre is like playing “Duck, Duck, Goose” when you REALLY want the goose, but you just keeping getting the duck. It’s really thrilling when you finally get a goose. I guess what I’m saying is I really like geese.

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

A:  Listen to your work. It will tell you exactly what you need to do next. Don’t be afraid to follow it. It doesn’t matter what you initially set out to write, once you start, the play is in charge. Do what it says.

Live a life. Have fun. Leave the computer at home sometimes. You’re still a writer even if you aren’t writing 24/7.

Read what every playwright said in this space before me. I have learned so much from reading these interviews. I’m sure everybody who follows me will also have fantastic advice. Bookmark this blog.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I have a short story coming out in the anthology “The Commonplace Book of the Weird.” Check it out. Its chock full of HP Lovecraft goodness. The book launch is October 18 at Bar 82 in NYC. More info here: http://www.facebook.com/l/e3a9aMSTB6i2qppTDzjlxmyI2EA;www.commonplacebooks.com/

Boston Court is presenting the world premiere of Jordan Harrison’s “Futura” beginning October 9th. See this play if you are in the LA area: http://www.facebook.com/l/e3a9amjbcG6lezbQo3VGFN3qXag;www.bostoncourt.com/events/62/futura

My wife has a play, “Technicolor Life” being presented at the Ashland New Play Festival October 21 and 22. http://www.facebook.com/l/e3a9ao6gAhFPbapxmqDclMY6QZw;www.ashlandnewplays.org/

I’m on the Board of Directors for needtheater in Los Angeles. They just opened the world premiere of Michael John Garces’ “The Web.” It runs through October 17 at ArtWorks in Hollywood. http://www.facebook.com/l/e3a9aybF_HrJyph-AVCsoJIcK3w;www.needtheater.org/home.html

I Interview Playwrights Part 261: Kate Fodor

Kate Fodor

Hometown: I spent the first half of my childhood in Connecticut and the second in New York City.

Current Town: Doylestown, Pennsylvania. (It’s a long story. A beautiful place and a long story.)

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I’m putting the finishing touches on a play called Rx, which is a romantic comedy (of a sort) set in the pharmaceutical industry. Or maybe it’s already done and I’ll leave it alone! It’s always so hard to tell. Also, I’m on what might be the last draft of a film adaptation of Elissa Wall’s memoir Stolen Innocence; I’m reading everything I can about the history of the birth-control pill for a play I’ve just started that’s (maybe) called Bedfellows; and I’m thinking in the shower about a musical for young people. I’m also about to take my first-ever playwriting class: Jeffrey Hatcher’s Art of Adaptation workshop in Philadelphia. I’m nervous.

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 narrated everything I did -- in my head and sometimes even aloud. It was third-person, past-tense and pretty much constant. If I was trotting up some steps, I’d think (or say) to myself, “She trotted up the steps.” If I was drifting off to sleep, I’d think, “She drifted off to sleep.” I thought about everything in terms of how it could be told as a story, and pretty much still do.

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

A:  Oh, you know, I guess I’d make it a little less fucking heartbreaking for people. Especially actors.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Margaret Edson is one, because she came in, wrote a gorgeous, heart-stopping, fiercely funny, unbearably tragic play, and then went back to teaching kindergarten, because that’s important, too.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Anything that deeply excited the people who made it. I don’t like slick, I don’t like flippant, I don’t like wise-ass. I’m a post-ironic kind of girl. I want catharsis. I want to believe.

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

A:  This is, oddly, from Cary Tennis, Salon.com’s advice columnist. I stumbled across it when I was procrastinating by looking for a juicy story about someone’s lurid, kinky problems. Instead, there was a letter from a novelist who was thinking about giving up writing, and a beautiful, brilliant response that read (in part):

“Remember that as a writer you must find your motivation internally, not in external rewards, and you work in opposition to the system, not as a supplicant to the system. Whatever contingent truces you have maintained with the system in order to participate in its orderly orgies of consumption and distribution, good for you. But you are not a part of the system. You are a free creative worker. You do not need the system to do your creating. You only need it as a utility to reach your audience, and increasingly not even for that. On the other hand, the system cannot create anything on its own. It can only manage and distribute. So it needs you. It needs you but it is not on your side. Remember that.”

I Interview Playwrights Part 260: Sibyl Kempson

Sibyl Kempson

Hometown: Stockholm. NJ

Current Town: NYC and Tannersville, PA

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Grant applications

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 heard something in my dad's basement one night. It kept me up all night. I was a little kid. It was a like banging, which happened at intervals and culminated in a terrible grinding sound. It scared the living shit out of me. I never found out what it was. I am certain it was diabolical in nature.

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

A:  The idea of what theater is.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Mac Wellman.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that doesn't look like theater and feels like religious ritual.

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

A:  Use your right brain, not your left brain.

I Interview Playwrights Part 259: Gary Garrison

Gary Garrison

Hometown: Orange, Texas

Current Town: Westport, Connecticut

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  For work (at the Dramatists Guild), the first national conference for playwrights scheduled for next June in Fairfax, Virginia. Can’t wait. How cool will that be? Hundreds of playwrights in the same space talking about their art. For my work at NYU, we’re just starting the new semester and I have twenty-four graduate students that I have to pull, kicking and screaming, towards dramatic structure. (Everyone hates dramatic structure. Why? I have a theory . . .)

In my creative writer-life, I’m collaborating on a play with my good friend, Roland Tec, for this really unusual theatre event called Splash. Here's how it works: a play is written in which all characters in the story are meeting each other for the first time. If there are five characters in the play, five different theatre companies with unique casts and directors put the play into rehearsal. A design team designs the production and shares that work with all five theatre companies.

On each day of a public performance, the Production Stage Manager calls one character from each theatre company for the show that night. Actors are kept isolated from each other and meet one another -- like in the play -- for the first time on stage. It's balls-to-the-wall theatre, baby -- not unlike being thrown head-first into the swimming pool (hence, the name, “Splash.”) Everyone involved has to be fearless; I mean, you really have to have actors willing to take a risk few have ever taken. For the audience, it’s a total roller coaster ride; they get to share the excitement, tension and unpredictability of what happens on stage when strangers meet strangers.

The story we’re writing for the event is about the Rubber Rooms in New York City – those ridiculous holding tanks for middle to high school academics who’ve been brought up on disciplinary charges and are waiting trial. I don’t know how much you know about the Rubber Rooms, but they’re rooms spread across the five boroughs that hold hundreds of teachers on full-salary day in and day out. It’s insane! The city’s practically bankrupt, and yet we’re paying for teachers to sit on their asses all day long while the school board is waiting to decide if saying “shit” in class is an educational offense. WHAT? Of course, that’s simplifying it a bit, but not by much.

Q:  You are the Executive Director of Creative Affairs of the Dramatists Guild. Why should every playwright join the Guild?

A:  If nothing else, for the sense of community – to not feel so isolated as writer, no matter where you live. As I travel out and about meeting playwrights, listening to their concerns, talking to them about issues that effect their day to day writing lives, most everyone shares a common thread: that feeling of stark isolation. I mean, writing is a solo sport anyway. But once you’re written, you need to connect to your people, your tribe, if not for professional reasons, for reasons of the heart and soul. So one thing we do well at the Guild is build and foster community.

Probably most importantly, we protect the authorial rights of writers through contract advice and advocacy. What do you do when a director says to you, “I’ll direct your play, but in exchange for the value I bring to the experience, I’d like you to give me 5% of all future profits of your play”? And it doesn’t stop with 5%, believe me: 15%, 20% 30% and on and on. Well, if the director wants a chunk, and the producer wants a chunk, and the producing theatre wants a chunk, if you’re not careful, you’ll have nothing left over (you’d be surprised how often this happens). If you’re a member of the Guild, you just pick up the phone and call the Business Affairs office. We have a – errr – solid response for anyone asking you for money when you make so little money to begin with.

We also have a great magazine; really interesting with articles about the life of a writer, craft, career, trends, etc. And our website (under construction right now) will host member profiles and the ability to upload/download scripts, resume, etc., message boards (looking for a collaborator anyone?), searchable data base of members, reports from different regions of the country – stuff like that. Really helpful stuff for writers in all stages of their careers.

Q:  You are a tireless advocate for and teacher of playwrights. How do you find the energy?

A:  That’s an easy question: I like what I do. When you like what you do, it’s not really work. Yeah, sometimes I get a little crazy (particularly when I neglect my own work, and I often do), but I never feel like I should not be doing this. I love all three equally well: artist, educator, administrator. Yeah, seems to fit my heart and soul, and seems to fit my manic personality.

Q:  What are playwrights doing right?

A:  Writing the stories they want to tell. I know that may sound simple minded, but it’s too easy to be swayed by trends, or a producer’s heavy hand, or a director’s off-handed comment about Act One; it’s too easy to write a play by committee. Writers seem to be driven to tell their own unique stories in the their own unique styles and to allow that work to find the home it needs to live in. Look, a true writer, a real writer just wants to tell his/her stories to an appreciative audience. Who said that had to be Broadway? Or Off-Broadway? Theatre can be made anywhere, and playwrights are finally understanding that plays are only literature until they’re realize by way of some sort of public storytelling. And if that happens to be in a bowling alley, well, so be it.

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 in a play, Miss Hepplewhite Takes Over, in junior high school. I don’t remember shit about the play, but I do remember that at one point, I had to sneeze into a bowl of cake batter and ruin the proverbial cake. Well, that point came during the performance, and I sneezed a sneeze like no other. Unfortunately, the force of the sneeze was so big that I blew batter up my nose and in my throat, choked and passed out on stage – but not before I heard the audience roaring with laughter. They had to bring the curtain down and call an ambulance. But people talked about me for weeks! That’s all I needed. That’s how I knew I belonged in the theatre.

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

A:  Health care. I know, I know. But I can dream, can’t I? If not health care, at least government support for artists. We could learn a lot from our friends across the pond. Seriously, we have to find a way to take care of our own.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Really? Oh, God. So many. For inspiration: Ibsen and Williams. For wit and comic artistry: Wilde, Moliere, Faydeau, Durang, Simon. For character: Lillian Hellman, Lanford Wilson, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Peter Shaffer. For balls: Caryl Churchill. For scope: Tony Kushner. If I were going to the theatre tonight, I’d like to see a new play by Doug Wright, Lynn Nottage, Martin McDonaugh, John Logan, Carlos Murillo, Lucy Thurber, Anne Washburn or Gary Sunshine. If I could be anybody, or have their career: Theresa Rebeck. She’s a rock star.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Plays that can only really live in the theatre; plays that demonstrate why theatre is theatre – like Coram Boy, Angels in America, Red or The Pillowman.

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

A:  Don’t write “what you know.” Write what you don’t know. You’ll be forced to think harder, deeper, be more honest, research, think, think, think . . . And remember, structure is as much for you as it is for the audience. Nobody would strike out to drive to Hallifax, Nova Scotia without a map or some road signs or something that said, “this is the way, and you’re making progress.”

I Interview Playwrights Part 258: Saviana Stanescu

Saviana Stanescu

Hometown: Bucharest, Romania?

Hmm, Bucharest is actually my birth-town, I kinda hesitate to still consider it my hometown after almost 10 years of living in NYC… a hometown should be a town/city where you feel at home, where you pay rent to have a home :), where you struggle to pay that rent, and that’s New York for me now…

Plus, over there in Romania I spent my childhood raised by my grandparents in Curtea-de-Arges (Arges-Court, the first capital of Walachia), then my parents took me to Pitesti, a sort of Detroit of Romania known for the car industry, although they were making only one sort of cars with an ancient name: Dacia. I went to high-school there. During Ceausescu’s dictatorship of course. Then back to Bucharest for college, revolution, freedom, work, love, writing, fame :)

So I’m not sure which one is my hometown. I guess all of them. I’m a giant snail with her home on her back.

Current Town:

This one is clearer: New York, USA

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I am working on multiple “fronts” as always:

We are in final rehearsals with “Polanski Polanski” (performed by Grant Neale, directed by Tamilla Woodard) for a short run at HERE Arts Center, Sept 22-25.

I am doing some rewrites on ANTS, a new play that I developed at NYTW and will have a staged reading at EST, directed by Daniella Topol, as part of their Octoberfest, on Oct 9 at 7 pm and Oct 10 at 8.30 pm.

I am also re-looking at my plays “For a Barbarian Woman” and “Bechnya” as two directors expressed interest in them. They had developmental readings (Long Wharf Theatre, Lark, Women’s Project) but haven’t been produced yet.

And on top of everything, I am starting a new play at the Lark: “The Rehabilitation of Dracula” (working title) in which a character is challenging the well-spread iconic image of Dracula created by Bram Stoker with some “real” facts about the historical figure Vlad Tepes aka Vlad-the-Impaler, king of Walachia (he wasn’t even the king of Transylvania!), where I am actually from – see answer nr 1.

I kinda want to reclaim this character, Dracula, he has been over-exploited and over-commercialized, I feel the need to add my own fictionalization spiced up with the historical “truth”. Vlad-the-Impaler is still seen as a hero in present day Romania, most of the people are still proud of the way he led the country, with stamina and strength, fighting against the Ottomans and other super-powers, so it’s interesting for me to juxtapose a “patriotic” local image to the one created by the Western world. In a world full of constructed images, is there such thing as the “truth” about Dracula?

Q:  Tell me about your playwriting workshops.

A:  I’ve been teaching a lot lately. First of all, I’ve been teaching at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, in the Drama Department, as an adjunct instructor, for the last 7 years and I love it. I studied at NYU myself (MA in Performance Studies – Fulbright fellow, MFA in Dramatic Writing) and I enjoy the creative energy over there, at Tisch. That’s been my home here in the USA, I came to NYC in 2001, with a Fulbright grant, just a few weeks before 9/11. That traumatic moment made me a part of the NYC wounded fabric, I feel like we’ve been interconnected forever, like two old friends that shared difficult times.

Back in Romania, I was a respected journalist, published poet, award-winning playwright, y’know, sorta established, a big fish in a small vibrant pond. I had to start from the scratch over here, to prove myself again and again, and to do it with an accent… Dramatic living and dramatic writing. Good material for a playwright and a teacher :)

So in the last decade I’ve been teaching a bunch of playwriting workshops/courses here in the USA, but also in Mexico City, Stockholm/Sweden and Eastern Europe. This fall I am teaching at ESPA – Primary Stages and I am really excited to engage that wonderful community of artists.

Now a little self-praise paragraph: I’m a damn good teacher, I care about my students, I care about them learning something, being truthful to their voice, completing a draft of a play, having a product they’re proud of. I always try to organize a presentation of their work at the end of the course, it’s important for playwrights to see their texts presented with professional actors, in front of an audience. That’s the difference between literature and theatre, we as playwrights are part of a team that puts together a theatre show, a play can’t exist only in its literary form, without the actors, the director, the designers, the stage. Well, of course it can, but what’s the point? A play needs an audience, a playwright needs a team that showcases her/his play.

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

A:  Hmmm… my father, a former Balkan champion in high-jump, wanted me to be an athlete too, a champion, so I spent lots of years training in athletics, although my heart was in the arts. However, sports taught me something: to go on when you lose, to go on when you win, to engage in a fair competition, to rely on your team, basically to be a good… sport.

My values in theatre and life are similar. Paraphrasing one of my favorite playwrights, Samuel Beckett: I can’t go on. I can’t go on. I’ll go on.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre that’s… theatrical.

I like bold, provocative, political, visceral, thought-provoking, risk-taking theatre that’s still dramatic and touching. I don’t care about post-dramatic theatre too much. Or any other post- post- post-… form of anything, I’d rather have AVANT(guarde:) )

On the other end of the spectrum:

I get bored by plays that are just TV dramas or sitcoms put on stage. Too conventional, too talk-talk-talk about relationships, too kitchen&sink… I am much more interested in vibrant theatrical plays about something bigger than the ordinary human commerce of emotions, plays that make larger/bolder comments on socio-political issues, existential turmoil, the irony of history, the global world and its flaws.

Yes, big words that might sound bombastic. But if theatre doesn’t fill them with meaning and depth, politics will never fail to fill them with rhetoric and demagogy…

Oh, and I didn’t mention that I like humor in a play. Dark humor generally. Humor makes bitter pills easier to be swallowed.

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

A:  Well, Lillian Hellman said: “If I had to give young writers advice, I'd say don't listen to writers talk about writing.”

But the author of “Little Foxes” (I just saw it at NYTW, beautiful production, that’s why Lillian came to my mind) also said: “I am a moral writer, often too moral a writer, and I cannot avoid, it seems, the summing-up. I think that is only a mistake when it fails to achieve its purpose, and I would rather make the attempt and fail, than fail to make the attempt.”

I actually really like this piece of advice: make the attempt and fail, rather than fail to make the attempt.

To put it in a less wise “quote-able” form: write if you feel like writing, don’t listen to anyone who tells you that you shouldn’t. That you’ll make more money as a banker, lawyer, doctor, athlete or IT guy. Although… that’s true. You might not make any money, you might end up old, lonely, poor and bitter, crying at the “grave” of your creativity and “wasted” life. But, you know what, whatever the “results”, at least you tried. You created something. You added a little something to the virtual archive of this theatrical universe. And you were true to yourself. That’s the most important thing.

OMG, I sound so wise and boring. Delete the last paragraph. Wait! Don’t.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Come to see “Polanski Polanski” at HERE, Sept 22-25! It’s wild and dark and intriguing and provocative. Well, it’s Polanski!

(more info on my website www.saviana.com in the COMING UP section)

The staged reading of ANTS at EST, Oct 9 and 10 ! Directed by Daniella Topol. Featuring: Polly Lee, Alexis McGuinness, Robert Montano.

Oh, and I have a little one-min play "Boy meets Girl. Or not.", directed by Scott Ebersold, in the New York One-Minute Play Festival in Astoria - a cool festival, curated by Dominic D'Andrea, involving lots of playwrights friends. Sept 25-26.

I Interview Playwrights Part 257: Brian Bauman

Brian Bauman

Hometown:
I was born in a naval hospital in Groton, Connecticut. My family relocated often in my early childhood. My father was a supply officer on a nuclear submarine and the family would trail him as he moved from port to port.. I spent the longest part of my childhood in Burnt Hills, New York.

Current Town:
New York City

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I am writing a new play called A CRUCIBLE which is a riff on Arthur Miller's THE CRUCIBLE. The play's structure is a 9-month school year and is focused on a catholic school's drama club staging the original text. The questions I'm asking in the play are: how does playing a "witch" shape one's adolescent identity and how does it effect a budding sexual self? How and why are young people drawn to theater? How does teen pregnancy relate to quashed sex education programs? How do limited resources create a paranoid artistic society? Who/what is "in charge" of the literary canon, and why?

I recently collaborated with a Los Angeles-based choreographer named Alexandra Yalj for a piece going up at Highways Performance Space on September 12th called Dismantling Self. We re-appropriated text from the infamous spiritual leader OSHO's book Intuition, and combined it with writing I created about stripping & sex work, and the piece moved organically on from there into its present state, incorporating Lexie's personal love letters and more. I'm based in NY, so unfortunately I couldn't be in the studio with the group to watch it grow. I am very sorry to miss it.

I am looking for a place to remount a piece I created with Christo Allegra at the Broad Art Center in Los Angeles in May called ATTA BOY. The play is a two-hander collage-text and conflates popular culture's representations of the Columbine Massacre and the attacks on the WTC. I've always called 9-11 "Columbine for Adults"... it's had the same cultural impact, just on a larger, powerful and much more destructive scale. Essentially, two actors perform for each other (and us) in a quasi-erotic, quasi-repulsive fashion, excerpts and reinterpretations of hollywood films, polemic books, youtube footage, news articles, church bulletins, other found materials as well as my own writing all dealing with the two events. The two actors are on "internet dates", so their identities are as fluid as their source materials are slippery... The whole piece layers and collapses like a loud and beautiful engine on overdrive, and the performance takes place in conversation with installed elegant and austere artwork created by Mr. Allegra (who is my husband, btw). The play is asking a ton of questions about "official narratives" and mass media representation, xenophobia and homophobia in contemporary pop culture & political discourse, sexual violence and violent sex. It all sounds terribly academic but I can assure you that the performance was raw, visceral, sexy and full of impact. We had a full house and I'm very encouraged by the responses we received. We're looking to serve it up in New York next year.

I've also been free-writing over the last several years in response to the art and life of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, building a piece tentatively called F**G*T (VANISH). There's so much to consider in approaching a subject as momentous as his biography, but have been bouncing ideas back and forth with the Paris-based performance artist Ben Evans and LA-based playwright Ricardo Bracho to develop the text further into a more refined project.

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 seven I asked my entire family to proceed from the dinner table and come into the basement. I turned out the lights except for one lamp, put on rollerskates and queued up Joan Jett's cover of Gary Glitter's DO YOU WANT TO TOUCH ME on the record player (from a Ktel record compilation I begged my mother to buy at Kmart). I then performed the song in its entirety in a solid-gold inspired routine for them. Queer theater latent in my pre-adolescent bones.

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

A:  More courage, more risk, more access. (I guess that's three things, but they are interrelated into one giant clusterfuck as far as I'm concerned). I guess they could all be lumped under MORE GENEROSITY.

I have "respect" for "respectable" artists but I have unending, geyser-gushing crushes on playwrights who don't compromise their point of view. A play, as I understand it, is not a discreet object. It's not an insect trapped in amber that you can hold in your hand, nor a delicious amuse bouche before your dinner that you shit out tomorrow. A play is an experience, it's never objective nor should we pretend it ever could be. A play is a culture. It's a loose contract that invites a community of people to deliver it into being (which includes audience...Audience as midwife?)... Plays aren't alive until they are off the page, which is why it's so frustrating that so many incredible, smart, difficult plays haven't been produced. The reason is simple: Fear.

I'm always amazed when articles get published giving voice to "concerned playwrights" who speak out to defend "well-crafted plays" from the corruption of messiness, the erosion of form, and a general "descent" into language experimentation. Isn't there a place for everyone? Who are these people and what in god's name are they talking about? If the "well made play" is such an important and powerful object, why does it need defending?

I love and respect plays from the past...I quite enjoy reading and re-reading "classics", but if you look at hallowed texts objectively and not through an historical perspective, its incredibly eye-opening. The lens of history skews perspective. An experimental play competing with a more traditional new play to see the light of day illuminates this conversation on a micro level. Experimentation gets interpreted as a transgression. THIS and NOT THAT. What's interesting to me is this whole conversation about boundaries...what generic boundaries represent and their incredibly problematic and powerful place in this world.

I encourage Joan Retallack's metaphor of art as wager - that the purpose of art is to open up cracks for new possibilities, as opposed to circumscribing and re-inscribing authorized/regimented boundaries. I highly recommend her book THE POETHICAL WAGER. It's been an ethical guide for me as a playwright.

I write plays as a way to coax monsters up from underneath all this shiny surface simplistic "realism"... my husband describes my plays in terms of horror films, and I guess that is correct. Horror is such a powerful genre because it deals with identifying the uncanny, the unauthorized, the unarticulated. Not "THIS and NOT THAT", but "THIS AND THAT" - Jeckyll AND Hyde...writing is like playing with a powerful ouija board... What comes out is so much bigger than me, I can't contain it and I don't want to.

So far, the only way I've been able to get work up is to produce myself. I started Perfect Disgrace Theater after I finished grad school in 2006 in Los Angeles, and moved to Boulder Colorado. I tried sending scripts out across the country to literary departments but nobody was interested, so self-producing it was. I've done everything - fundraising & development, marketing, publicity, production. I made a big splash in a small pond in August 2007, when Josh and I cast Mike Jones in a production of my play, PORRIDGE. Mike was the male escort who outed Ted Haggard, then head of the National Evangelical Association - a powerful lobbyist organization for the Christian Right. By enlisting Mike in the production of the play, which concerned conflated repressed homosexuality in the military with fashion's stranglehold on contemporary culture, among other things, we created a meta-theatrical coup. In total, I've produced four Perfect Disgrace productions in California and Colorado, but am looking to make PD a thriving NYC-based company, after relocating to the city this year.

As for other potentialities, I'm very interested in what's happening in contemporary dance now. Current dance isn't bound by the same strictures as far as narrative goes, it's much blurrier and subjective, so there's an air of possibility - a practical atmosphere of risk and exploration. The boundaries are permeable. At a show at Dance New Amsterdam or Abrons Arts Center, you don't know what you're going to get until it happens in front of you. I'm particularly moved by artists like Trajal Harrell and Jack Ferver for their courage in plunging into subjectivity and its traps. Both artists make pieces that criticize AS they entertain. It's not one or the other.

"Twenty Looks: Paris is Burning at the Judson Church XS" at the New Museum last winter was so inspiring because it challenged assumptions and implicated its audience in such a profound way. Harrell references Jennie Livingston's film about nyc drag houses in the title as a way to create a desire for certain kind of performance (vogue, anyone?) and completely upends that desire by delivering a highly aesthetic, abstract dance piece with atonal soundtrack in the manner of Judson Church stalwarts like Merce Cunningham. When a hip hop loop finally does arrive, it serves as this great confrontational moment. The performance demanded attention and got it, even as it pushed me to consider identity politics vs. formal experimentation and how and who makes that call about which camp a particular piece falls into. Harrell rejects this kind of polemic and says, it's everything and nothing. "A Movie Star Needs A Movie" created invited its audience into an atmosphere of ironic cheese via popular dance forms, and then made a u-turn and dismantled itself into a naked portrait of alienated and insecure selves. Kudos to Jay Wegman and Ben Pryor for programming these and other performances that rode that edge last year, and to PS 122 for doing it this year.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  All of my heroes push for something larger in their work, are frank and not the least bit precious in their writing, but aren't afraid of ambitiously poetic "reaches" -- layering of metaphors, raising the roof (glass ceiling?) on representation, fucking with preconceptions. They ask difficult questions and avoid simple, pat answers. All of the artists below maintain an elegant complexity, are committed to justice in a practical and get-our-hands-dirty way, and are experimental in both form AND content, which, to me, is a sign of courage and, quite honestly, a necessity.

Jean Genet popped my theatrical cherry and Valerie Solanas loaned me a metaphorical gun.

I've learned more from Josh Chambers than any other director. I've had a tough road getting work staged, but Josh has stepped in often as a game collaborator, and his fearless approach to my plays is an incredible gift. I am very much indebted to his courage.

Luis Alfaro's potent greek-inspired plays are thrilling. I saw his Oedipus El Rey at the Boston Court last spring and it left the whole audience smoldering.

Alice Tuan for her great intellect and fantastic sense of humor.

Everett Quinton for his patience and commitment to a life in queer theater.

I checked out the lost films of Charles Ludlam at IFC last winter. Antony Hegarty and Everett introduced the recently rediscovered gems. Antony gave this beautiful speech about the influence a lost generation of artists destroyed by aids has had on our generation coming into our creative own now, and how beautiful and tragic it is that all these beacons from the 80's and 90's aren't physically present to advocate and encourage us... but the work survived and the work still guides. I think contemporary theater would be a more diverse and interesting art-form if many of the lost experimental artists making work during that period were alive today... either teaching and influencing a generation through faculty appointments, or leading us through example in their own growing canon.

A few years ago, I tracked down copies of all the Dar A Luz performances that Adam Soch burned to DVDs, and I return to them for inspiration again and again. Reza Abdoh's influence touches everything I make.

Suzan-Lori Parks -- her BOOK OF GRACE was not received well, but I thought it was incredible. A parable of contemporary American political quagmire, which is probably why it was so harshly criticized. That play should be remounted.

Romeo Castelluci's work takes my breath away. I saw Purgatorio at UCLA Live and it literally moved me to tears - the work was so insanely powerful, gorgeous, and completely committed to investigating very uncomfortable terrain. Half the audience walked out but those who stayed were greatly rewarded. Though his work is image-based, I feel a very strong connection to what he's attempting to articulate.

Harry Kondoleon's VAMPIRES speaks volumes about american hypocrisy and "morality".

Matthew Maguire's influence on my writing process is bedrock - he taught me to look at playwriting as a conversation with the universe..

David Adjmi's plays communicate gorgeousness and horror. Big fan.

Kevin Killian and his Poets Theater in SF are un-fadeable.

Last but not least - Big Art Group are the kindest and smartest provocateurs in NYC. Every person involved in their company is a complete and total sweetheart, and their work will slit your throat. I am in love with them.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  The kind that makes me sweat, tingle, induces tremors and gooseflesh, triggers fight-or-flight instinct. I like work that scares me to death.

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

A:  Write like hell.
Read EVERYTHING you can get your hands on.
Don't be afraid of confusion. It's a writer's friend.
Go swimming and running - get out of your head.
Find blood-siblings, compatriots you respect not for their success but for their bad-ass scripts. Keep these advocates on speed-dial.
Trust your gut.
Keep writing.
Produce yourself, don't wait to be asked to the dance. Produce your compatriots, too.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  On the self-promotion tip:
http://www.perfectdisgrace.com - my theater company.
http://www.solanasonline.com - a webzine i publish with my partner focused on queer artists.

For my peeps:
Jerome Parker's HOUSE OF DINAH will be having a reading this fall in NYC. Location TBA but it will include a full jazz band!
Luis Alfaro's OEDIPUS EL REY plays the Woolly Mammoth next february.
Sigrid Gilmer's AXIOM is a reason to live.
Sibyl O'Malley has a new script called RINGING ARTIFACTS that is melancholy in the best way.
Alana Macias' Zero LIbertad is coming for you.
Trajal Harrell is performing at Prelude for free next week!
PS 122's fall season is going to be KILLER, so get a passport for $55 (which gets you into 5 shows!)
In November, I will be at BAM's NEXT WAVE to devour THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN. Will you?

upcoming this month part 2

oh, also this:

The 4^th Annual New York One-Minute Play Festival

80+Plays. 40+ Playwrights. 30+Actors. 7 Directors. 1 Minute.

At the Astoria Performing Arts Center

Good Shepherd United Methodist

30-44 Crescent St (@30th Rd)

Astoria, NY, 11102

September 25^th & 26^th, 2010, 8:00 PM

Tickets are $18/ $12 Seniors & Students

for tickets and info visit: www.apacny.org

It’s theater boiled down to its essence. Sixty Seconds from lights up to lights down. The much-anticipated short-form theatre festival returns for it’s fourth year in partnership with the red-hot Astoria Performing Arts Center!  Curated by Dominic D’Andrea, the program will present over 80 plays all under sixty seconds by some of the most exciting emerging and established writers in the American Theatre.

The 2010 One-Minute Play Festival Playwrights Are:

David Simpatico, Daniel McCoy, Michael Golmaco, Meghan Sass, Josh Conkel, Matt Gunn Park, Corina Copp, Laurel Haines, Erica Saleh, Bekah Brunstetter, Janine Nabers, Alexis Clements, Eric Bland, Peter Gil-Sheraton, Jen Silverman, Mallery Avidon, Anna Moench, Eric Winick, Maya Macdonald, Paul Thureen & Hannah Bos, James Carter, Tanya Saracho, Micah Bucey, Tom X. Chao, Rose Martula, Andrea Ciannavei, Enrique Urueta, Ben Cikanek, Liz Duffy Adams, Michael Bradford, Robert Saietta, Tommy Smith, Alejandro Morales, Avi Glickstein, and more!

And Alumni Playwrights:

Matthew Paul Olmos, Michael John Garces, Adam Szymkowicz, Callie Kimball, Sibyl Kempson, Caridad Svich, Christine Evans, Clay McLeod Chapman, Anton Dudley, Qui Nguyen, & Saviana Stanescu.

Directed by:

Robert Ross Parker (Co-Artistic Director of the Obie Award winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company), Scott Ebersold (Co-Artistic Director, Packawallop Productions), Jordana Williams (Gideon Productions), Dominic D’Andrea (Festival Curator), Morgan Gould (Associate Director, Young Jean Lee’s Theatre Company), Melanie Williams (Artistic Director, Red Fern Theatre Company), & Tom Wojtinik (Artistic Director of APAC.)

upcoming, this month

1.

Reading of Hearts Like Fists 
at Flux Theater Ensemble's Food:Soul


8pm
Judson Memorial Church

55 Washington Square Park (Corner of Thompson Street)

New York, NY

Food:Soul features good food, good company, and a fully staged reading of a play Flux is passionate about developing and sharing with you - all for free!

The Play: HEARTS LIKE FISTS by Adam Szymkowicz
The Director: Keith Powell
 

...Dinner is at 7:30pm and the stage reading starts at 8:00pm (play runs 90min)
If some of you are itching to share your culinary expertise,
food donations are welcome but NOT required.

HEARTS LIKE FISTS is a superhero noir comedy about the dangers of love.
Dr X is sneaking into people's apartments late at night and injecting lovers with a serum that stops their hearts. Lisa joins the Crimefighters, a group of crimefighting women, to stop him. Peter, a heart doctor, is trying to create an artificial heart that can be mass produced so no one will fear to sleep with their lovers again.

2.

Reading of Fat Cat Killers

at the New Group

FAT CAT KILLERS by Adam Szymkowicz
Directed by Luke Harlan
Featuring:
Greg Keller, Michael Puzzo, Jeff Biehl

A dark comedy about aspiration and recession.  After getting laid off, Michael and Steve decide to kidnap the CEO of the company who let them go.

Prior developmental readings at LAByrinth Theater, The Lark, MCC Theater, The Working Theater, Ars Nova Play Group.

Monday, September 20th
7:00pm
Studio Theatre at Theatre Row
410 West 42nd Street
Fourth Floor
RSVP to James at james at thenewgroup dot org

 

--

If you're wondering which one to go to, go to Flux.  We may be a little overbooked for the New Group.   If you can't attend either, worry not.  There are a lot more Szymkowicz happenings coming up.

I Interview Playwrights Part 256: Mark Harvey Levine

Mark Harvey Levine

Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA

Current Town: Pasadena, CA

Q: Tell me about "Cabfare For The Common Man"

A: It's kind of like my first "album". I took a bunch of ten minute plays that I had written, and picked out the very best. The last play has the same title as the whole collection -- I really did want it to be like a record album. Er, CD. I mean a collection of mp3s. Anyway, it's an evening of romantic comedies. Some are naturalistic, some more stylized. Not every play is about romance actually -- but they're all about love. It's getting produced in New York this month, by Sweet & Tart Productions. The artistic director is Brad Caswell. He's directed a lot of my plays before. Every time he directs my plays I win awards. And "Cabfare" is also opening this month at Madlab Theatre in Columbus, OH. They're an excellent company. I've been honored to have plays in their "Theatre Roulette" evenings for years. And I'm so glad they're doing the whole evening now. Theatre Unleashed, in Los Angeles, will be producing another evening of slightly different plays, called "La Vie En Route".

Q: What else are you working on?

A: A bunch of different ten minute plays, two musicals and (gasp) maybe a full-length. I want to write a full-length, I really do. I just need to come up with an idea that I feel like I can sustain for an hour and a half. I feel like the cardinal sin of the playwright is to bore the audience.

Q: You are one of the modern masters of the short play. How many 10-15 min plays have you written and what is your current total number of productions?

A: Thanks! Not sure I'm quite at modern master yet, but I'm trying. I've got 40 ten minute plays, plus another dozen monologues and one-minute plays. I'm at 580 productions since the start of 1998!

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

A: In Junior High, we read a play adapted from a Mark Twain short story (The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg). This led me to reading all of Mark Twain's short stories, and then other great American short stories, like those of O. Henry and Ring Lardner. I think my love of short stories has led me to writing short plays.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: For short plays, definitely David Ives. For longer plays, I love Tom Stoppard and Alan Ayckbourn. And for musicals, Stephen Sondheim.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I love when theater is...well, theatrical! When they don't try to mimic film or television but do things you can only do on stage. I love a clever low-budget device more than lots of overhead projections or expensive sets. Some of the best theater I've seen was done on a nearly bare stage. I like when theater can produce a magical image in your mind, or a lasting impression in your heart.

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

A: Write. A lot. Try to write every day. (If you can get yourself to do this, let me know how). And read a lot of plays, and attend a lot of plays. Join a local theater company and help them out. Try to get your work read to you by actors. I've learned more by hearing my plays read out loud then by most playwriting classes.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: Upcoming productions:

Sep 2010: "CABFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN: An Evening Of Mark Harvey Levine Plays",
Sweet & Tart Productions, New York, NY
Sep 2010: "Surprise" and "The Prodigal Cow", Three Roses Players, Los Angeles, CA
Sep 2010: "Surprise", Minnesota Shorts Play Festival, Mankato, MN
Sep 2010: "Opening Line", Changing Scene Theatre Northwest, Bremerton, WA
Sep 2010: "Whatever I Want" (World Premiere), Claire Donaldson 8 in 48 Festival, Sioux Falls, SD
Sep 2010: "The Loose Ends" (World Premiere), Theatre Out, Santa Ana, CA
Sep 2010: "The Rental" (staged reading), Actors Anonymous, Sydney, AUSTRALIA
Sep 2010: "Drive-Thru" (staged reading), Words & Wine, New York, NY
Sep-Oct 2010: "LA VIE EN ROUTE: An Evening Of Mark Harvey Levine Plays", Theatre Unleashed, Los Angeles, CA
Sep-Oct 2010: "CABFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN: An Evening Of Mark Harvey Levine Plays",
Madlab Theatre, Columbus, OH

Oh, and of course there's my own website:
http://www.markharveylevine.com/

I Interview Playwrights Part 255: Lisa Soland

Lisa Soland

Hometown:  I grew up in a small town of only 350 people, but still knew the horses and the woods better than the individuals who lived there – Northern, Illinois.

Current Town:  Los Angeles.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Last week the director Charles R. Miller and I cast an evening of works of mine entitled “MEET CUTE,” which is a collection of six short plays on the topic of “boy meets girl” in a unique and cute fashion, and then hopefully falling in love. It opens at Pellissippi State College in Knoxville, Tennessee, October 15 and runs through October 24, 2010. Look for the publication with Samuel French, under the same title.

Also, I have just recently been invited to serve as one of seven playwrights-in-residence at the Tennessee Repertory Theatre in Nashville. Mentored by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright John Patrick Shanley (Doubt), my play The Family Farm will be part of the Tennessee Rep’s Ingram New Plays Festival next May.

Q:  What can a student in your playwriting class expect?

A:  I run a playwright workshop entitled The All Original Workshop. I teach both live workshops in Los Angeles and Eastern Tennessee, and online one-on-one through Ichat and Skype. I work uniquely with each student, regardless of where they are in the process, and what it is they want to achieve. Many of my students have been produced all over the country as well as being published by Samuel French, Eldridge Publishing, Smith & Kraus, JAC Publishing and others. When you work with me, you can expect professionalism, excellence and progress. Check out the website at www.PlaywrightWorkshop.com.

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 born sixth out of seven children and I remember thinking when I was very young, that God must have had a reason to place me sixth and that this reason would serve me somehow in what it was I was going to do with my life. I decided that I was supposed to watch and learn from them, both in their successes and in their mistakes; to watch their behavior, so as to save time and heartache with regard to the decisions I would be making in my own life.

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

A:  I think theatre is fine just the way it is. I think as artists, we are meant to strive and work hard and strain to see what is true and real about life. I think great work comes out of this struggling, and as much as we all wish we could make a living more easily at what it is we love to do, that very struggle is molding us into humble, compassionate, hard working playwrights, who have enough of a tiny seed of doubt within us to question even our own inner life. And that doubt is good.

Of course there are things to try to change, there always will be in all places and in all professions, but overall, I think it’s important for people to deal fairly with each other and to follow through on what they say they are going go do. If one is not worth their word, they’re not worth much.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Charles Nelson Reilly. Period. He was my mentor as I worked my way up through the theatre as an actress and he inspired me to eventually become a playwright. A bunch of us Florida people participated in his advance acting class on Wednesdays from 10 am to 2 pm at Chandler Studio in Studio City. Charles loved playwrights and spoke with such admiration of them to us actors, that six of us in his acting class became writers – myself, John D’Aquino, Cynthia Faria, Mark Fauser, Brent Briscoe and Kendall Hailey. Charles called us The Faculty Actor/Playwright Company. He wrote this, “The Wednesday class has amazed me. I’ve only had two other actors who wrote and that was in the late 50’s and early 60’s…they were Lily Tomlin and Robert Ludlum but I don’t know what happened to them. Readers?” He was always, always dropping seeds of hope and success into your mind, sometimes without you even knowing it.

Also, Burt Reynolds, who started The Burt Reynolds Jupiter Theatre in Jupiter, Florida so his friends in Hollywood would have a safe and fun place to recover and play parts they might not normally get to play due to their type-casted lives in the Hollywood film industry.  That same theatre also became home for many of us “up and comers;” a place for us to learn and grow alongside his famous friends. Burt continues to care about turning around and lending a hand to those who are coming up behind him. He did that for me and I will never forget it.

And I have to mention William Luce, my Jelly Bean. I met him when cast in his play “Luce Women,” playing the role of Zelda Fitzgerald with Charles Nelson Reilly directing. Bill has remained a significant role model for the playwright I have strived to become and more importantly, he has continued to be my friend. He is brilliantly talented and a very good man.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Any kind, anywhere, at any level.

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

A:  Make sure you love it and then…make sure you do it. No matter what, no matter who or what is in your path trying to oppose you. You won’t make it and you won’t make it good, if you have no opposers. So bless them and continue to work hard and do what’s right.

I Interview Playwrights Part 254: Sigrid Gilmer

Sigrid Gilmer

Hometown:  Pittsburg, California.

Current Town:  Pasadena, California

Q:  Tell me about your show with Cornerstone.

A:  It’s All Bueno was written for Cornerstone’s 7th Summer Institute that was stationed in Pacoima, California. The Institute is a program where theatre makers, social activist and students come, hang out, learn the Cornerstone methodology and help make a play. Based on Candide, It’s All Bueno was inspired by the two diametrically opposed ideas that I kept running into when I was gathering stories in Pacoima. On one side I would hear that Pacoima is dangerous, violent and full of poverty. On the other I would hear that Pacoima is a great place to live and filled with folks who are active in the community and participate in organizations that enriched the neighborhood. The story of the play is about a family, who has abandoned the Pacoima and because of the fears both real and imagined they have locked themselves and their two daughters behind the iron gate of their home. When their house is erroneously foreclosed the family sets off on a mad-cap adventure through Pacoima and comes to terms with the community they have forsaken. The play is a broad farce with lots of slapstick, chases and dance numbers (Yay! Ken Roht). There are dueling car washes, a gang of clowns, a street vendor with magic elotes. It was 90 minutes of goofy and silly, performed by the community members and Institute participants in the beautiful Project Youth Green community garden at Jessup Park. It was a great show and theatre making experience. The level of commitment, bravery and generosity of the community members-many who had never performed before-was amazing. In four weeks, these folks along with Institute participants and under the innovative and brilliant direction of Julliette Carrillo embraced the spirit of the play and created a beautiful show more rollicking, joyous and heart opening than I could have ever envisioned.

Q:  What else are you up to?

A:  I am beginning a new play called Frilly. Filled with Girl Group tunes, the story takes place at the turn of the 20th century and is about how a minister’s wife and daughter’s sexual awakenings leads to the invention of the ice cream sundae. I see ladies in big Sunday hats and high-necked dresses with cinched waists crooning the Chantels or the Bobbettes. It’s fresh. As in new, I am just tinkering with characters and research, which I love and fresh as in super awesome.

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 a latch key kid, so I spent the majority of my afternoons and summers home alone with the TV. When my favorite shows were over I would be so bummed that I would create extensions of the episodes I had just watched. I‘d make up new story lines and characters, embellish minor ones, give main ones different traits, take the show to a new location. I would perform these pieces-I played all the roles-for my dog Fluffy in the proscenium of arch of our living room. My favorite shows were Fame and Little House on the Prairie. Fame was the best because I would add dance numbers.

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

A:  A living wage for playwrights.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre with balls and brains.

Theatre that challenges assumptions about structure and storytelling.

Theatre by and about people whose stories don’t get told.

Theatre that titillates & entertains.

Theatre with a sense of history and humor.

Theatre that is socially and politically aware.

Theatre that is messy, filled with music, fearless and kicks ass.

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

A:  Write. Write. Write.

Persistence is the key.

Trust your own tastes and proclivities.

Don’t listen to anyone. No one really knows what’s going on. Especially me.

Write. Write. Write.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Brian Bauman. His plays are fearless, poetic ruthless beauties. If you are in NYC track him down!

In LA, Sibyl O’Malley is creating hysterical, intelligent and biting plays with tender centers.

In Austin, Alana Libertad Macias’ Zero Libertad! Revolutionary. Ritual. Fierce beats.

I Interview Playwrights Part 253: Anthony Weigh

Anthony Weigh

Hometown: Brisbane, Australia.

Current Town: New York.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: New commissions for The National Theatre, the Sydney Theatre Company, the Melbourne Theatre Company and Malthouse Theatre. Hopefully they won't all end up as one big really awful play.

Q: What was it like being in residence at the National?

A: Absolutely terrific. I was writer in residence at the NT for a year. I learnt a huge amount. Part of the position requires that you sit on the associates panel which aides and advises on repertoire etc. Wonderful to see how such a huge and important company operates from the insides.

But, the best bit was, I had my own office there for a year. Provided me the physical and psychological space to work. I will never work from home again!

Q: How would you characterise English theater?

A: Well, for a start, they spell it differently.

Secondly, English theater can tend to be preoccupied by a kind of politically topical social realism. John Osbourne casts a long shadow in England. There are exceptions to the rule, but they are rare. Churchill is NOT the norm. Quite a lot of plays set in living rooms on housing estates about two young lads smoking drugs, while one of their sisters comes of age, and another of their sisters struggles with obesity, and an uncle who's a bit of a paedo, a father trying in vain to get a job and/or come out of the closet, and a Mother who's battling the bottle and attempting to save the planet from global warming while breeding fighting dogs.

Also, the staged landscape is often benign. It's not for nothing that Pinters' plays happen in kitchens and living rooms and attics. The English natural environment is soft, toothless. There is nothing dangerous about place in England as there can be in Scotland or Russia or Canada or Australia. This is reflected in the writing. As a result you will almost always encounter a sofa in a room somewhere in an English play. One of the best English plays of the last few years was Jez Butterworths' Jerusalem and that was remarkable because he took the sofa and put it outside! Still a sofa though.

Having said all that, the English have a wonderful ear for the unsaid. Drama as a kind of dance of longing and unfulfilled hopes. The excruciating pain of the fumbled encounter. The badly handled joke. The silently cooling cup of tea placed on the kitchen table. The half remembered slight that led to the death of a child. No one does that better.

Finally, the nature of the funding structure there means that if you've written a half decent play it'll get on somewhere. That's pretty amazing.

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 told my next door neighbour that if he didn't let me kiss him he'd get pregnant. He agreed and to my knowledge has not fallen pregnant.

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

A: Attendance would guarantee you had a lot of really great sex? Would certainly boost box office.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Christoph Martaler, John Adams, Erik Ehn, Ontroerend Goed, Caryl Churchill, David Harrower, Bertolt Brecht, Kleist, Chekov.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Sadly, most theatre. I'm a slut to it. Even the bad stuff.

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

A: Think about keeping that MFA thesis play in the bottom drawer.

Do not allow anyone to have input into your work until they have agreed to produce it.
A reading is not a production.

Ask yourself; "What is theatre?", then "Is this thing I've written theatre?", then "Why does this have to be performed by bodies in space to other bodies in space?"

Q: Plugs, please:

A:
http://www.faber.co.uk/work/like-fishbone/9780571269754/
http://www.faber.co.uk/work/2000-feet-away/9780571242610/

I Interview Playwrights Part 252: Maria Alexandria Beech

Maria Alexandria Beech

Hometown:  Anaco, Venezuela

Current Town:  Manhattan

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm writing a commissioned play for Primary Stages and Theatre Masters based on the Aspen Ideas Festival which I attended last summer. I'm also working Little Monsters which will be co-produced (with Primary) at Brandeis Theatre Company next February. Little Monsters is also part of Octoberfest at Ensemble Studio Theatre in September so I'm trying to get the play in shape for that. I'm also starting the NYU Musical Theatre Writing Program. For my day job, I'm co-authoring a case study on the film industry and writing an article about the Ford Foundation.

Q:  Tell me about the The Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group at Primary Stages and the The Hispanic Playwright's Lab at Intar.

A:  Primary Stages has been really supportive. I was asked to join the writers group as grad school ended and that was a great transition into professional theater. I've had a home to write plays, (I write best under deadline and they require ten-twelve pages a week). I've also had a chance to work with fabulous directors and actors during our spring reading series, and I cannot say enough how amazing it feels when a theater treats you with respect and professionalism. They approached actors like Frances Sternhagen, Maria Tucci, and Laila Robbins for my readings, and working with those iconic actors was a great boost for my confidence as a writer. The greatest component of the writers group is that you get feedback from your colleagues who are some of the most talented and accomplished playwrights in the American theater today. Over the years, I've been in the group with playwrights like you, Julia Jordan, Katori Hall, Cusi Cram, Neena Berber, Courtney Baron (who is a fucking amazing dramaturg), Tommy Smith, Bekah Brunstetter, David Caudle...listening to colleagues has made me a much better (and thicker-skinned!) playwright.

The Hispanic Playwright's Lab at Intar was a great experience. I wrote with Matthew Paul Olmos, Andrea Thome, Cyn Canel-Rossi, Mando Alvarado, and other talented playwrights and some of them are my best friends today. I also became invested in the community of actors and directors associated with Intar, and they feel like an extended family to 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 had a really lonely childhood in Venezuela. I grew up in an oil city as the kid of a mainly absent American Father and therefore despondent Venezuelan Mother, and I didn't fit in anywhere. I spent long afternoons eating green mangos in my treehouse, or wandering around the oil camps looking for friends. (I don't blame my parents for anything...they were two incredible people who tried to love each other and us...but it was a challenging situation.) There were tons of secrets at home, and nothing was ever answered. Painful as it was, it truly forced me to live in my imagination, and writing became a creative way of approaching all those secrets.

Q:  In your life as a reporter, what was it like interviewing Latin American presidents?

A:  President Serengeti of Uruguay had the longest eyebrows I had ever seen on a non-camel, and it was difficult to focus on his eyes. My interview with President Ortega of Nicaragua was surreal because his handler wouldn't let me do the interview if I didn't lend Ortega my facial powder. I kept pretending that the request wasn't on the table but every approach for the interview was met with: "only if you have powder for his face." I was visiting Venezuela and the only "powder" I had was my own Clinique, and his face ended up caked with it. It was strange to see that vanity and insecurity in a revolutionary who years earlier had dressed in camouflage. Interviewing President Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela was like interviewing a wax figure. His answers were wooden and stale. He had just brokered talks between Palestine and Israel and I asked him about that. He was in the middle of a lengthy answer when his phone rang and he answered it. Nothing like losing a key moment in an interview. I met with President Chavez when I was at Lehman Brothers. He was shorter and more feminine than I expected. For some reason, he plays a very macho character during the hours (and hours) he spends on Venezuelan television but he has zero mojo in person. President Fidel Castro was a huge flirt. At first he was angry because I asked him about the poverty and recession in Cuba, and then he softened when I told him that I was frustrated that the US Federal Reserve had bailed out all those millionaires (longterm capital management) who had invested their money unwisely. President Toledo of Peru was tiny and perfectly lovely. I met with him when he was still a candidate, and I told him I didn't think Fujimori would ever let him win which is exactly what happened. President Menem of Argentina was running for office again so everything around us had his logo: Menem 2003, even the sugar packets that were served with our coffee. When I had to go to the bathroom, he insisted on accompanying me himself, so I was mortified to make any noise thinking he was waiting for me outside. President Fox was pragmatic saying, "I may sound like a populist but I have an election to win." Wouldn't it be refreshing if all candidates were as honest?

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Playwrights were originally called poets, and I love theater that feels like poetry. Words that are carefully chosen for their meaning, and strung together for their subtext. I love to feel that the playwright labored for just the right sentences. I love when the writing feels meticulous...Susan Lori Parks is a good example. I love work that feels real, and also that takes me on a strange journey like your pirates play or Courtney's play about heart break. I love intelligent humor, and also learning about other cultures...but it has to feel real. I think that what is incubating at the Public with the emerging writers group is VERY exciting - we need artistic diversity if we're going to survive as a culture - and I can't wait to see what comes out that project. I'm also into some musicals and experimental opera. Tod Machover and I are talking about writing an opera together, and to me, Tod is a glorious composer. Not only does he invent instruments but he envisions likely but non-existing worlds such as a future where we can download our brains into chandeliers. I also love simple writing that turns around and smacks you in the face - Matt Olmos or Andrea Thome come to mind. I love smart writers who forgo pretension like Chris Shinn. A favorite right now is Tanya Saracho in Chicago who writes these wonderful, ambitious plays sprinkled with Spanish. Last summer, I read over seven hundred scripts for two panels and a theater, so I could go on and on about the theater that excites me...your plays excite me, Adam. I'm really, really excited about the experimental theater movement in Mexico. (My essay on it for the Lark is here: http://larktheatre.blogspot.com/2009/12/december-2009-maria-alexandria-beech.html)

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

A:  This question is the reason it's taken me months to get back to you with this interview. So much to say.

- First, it's important to know that if you feel like you're a playwright, you probably are. It's an unsexy and unrewarding life for a long time...so you have to stick with your conviction that you're a playwright no matter what a million people tell you...your parents, people who give you tepid feedback...that feeling you have inside that you're a playwright is an avocado seed that takes years and years to grow into a tree. At first, you may be the only one who truly knows you're a playwright but if you stick with it, eventually you'll start to convince others because your work will get better.

- If you're thinking about grad school, go but try to get scholarships. Grad school forces you to write...and that's what you need to become a better playwright. You'll get feedback from other theater artists, and you might make friends. You'll also see your work staged and if you're fortunate enough to work with people like Anne Bogart or Kelly Stuart, you might learn a few things. If you can't go, don't worry. Public libraries and drama book shops will give you everything you need. All you really need is writing tools.

- Intern at a theater. I worked at the Cherry Lane for two years and it was a very important experience. Most theater appreciate the free labor, so just call up and offer your services.

- Take a production course. Often, playwrights are scared of numbers but it's important to know the "business" of theater. The idea that you can produce yourself will console you when there's no production on the horizon. Understanding how the "business" works gives you the option of producing smaller-scale projects that will keep you occupied and improve your work.

- Join or form a writers group. Writing with colleagues is cool as shit. Again, it forces you to write.

- Don't worry about getting an agent. A lot of people think that an agent validates them as artists but I've formed relationships with theaters (by submitting) and negotiated multi-thousand dollar contracts alone. More than once, I've been told that an agent will appear when my career is ready...and that's been my path. The deal is to become the best playwright possible so agents want you.

- If you're writing from your personal experience, you can protect your privacy. When people ask, "did that happen to you," you can say, "it's not really appropriate to ask an artist that question. I don't think Frida stood around a gallery and explained that the babies hanging from umbilical cords in her paintings were hers."

- The theater is small. I try to avoid gossip and mean-spirited conversation though venting is sometimes necessary. I've decided over time that I won't work with people who gossip a lot because gossips can ruin a reputation. I've seen it happen, and it's pretty sad when it does.

- If it's one of your first projects, understand what a director wants to do with your play. Also try to know whether he or she will listen to your input when you don't agree with their choices. I lost a wonderful friend once because I didn't understand at the start that he didn't want any input from the playwright, and that he wouldn't change important things I didn't like. Conversations are a must.

- Nurture relationships with mentors. That doesn't mean weekly meetings. It means having relationships with more experienced playwrights (and other theater professionals) who can guide you through a confusing situation when the time comes up. Sometimes, that means an email every few weeks or even months.

- I'm a naturally shy dork and I'm socially awkward around uber cool people. Since there's a hegemony of cool people in the theater right now, you may sometimes feel like an outsider. YOU'RE NOT. Just be yourself and eventually other dorks will find you. And some of the cool people may even eventually talk to you...but even if they don't, theater isn't high school. It's not a popularity contest. It's a place where people come together to create worlds and people that have never existed, and as such, our purpose is greater than liking each other.

- I remember every single compliment I've ever gotten over my work. If you like someone's work, tell them. It's a huge boost in a path rife with rejection.

- Rejection will become your best friend. Rejection letters, etc. (Don't save them.) Get used to it and also, get over it and move on to your next submission.

- Read tons and tons of plays (Drama Book Shop and public libraries let you read them without buying them) and also watch past productions at the 4th floor of the New York Public Library of Performing Arts. Don't let the people there intimidate you. When they ask what your purpose is for being there, say, "I'm writing a play and I need to watch this production for research."

- If you feel at home in the theater, you are. Take off your shoes and stay awhile. Don't wait for permission or a production. The most successful people in the theater often say they just stuck around long enough.

- Submit and submit. Join The Loop and Facebook playwrights groups that send you submission calendars. Rogelio Martinez once said, "you never know when someone out there is going to read your play and become your fan. Even if your play doesn't get produced, that person may eventually have a position of influence that allows them to re-visit your work." I've actually seen it happen.

- Have fun. Remember. This isn't an emergency room. We're not saving lives. We're storytellers, and in the best of circumstances, mirrors of what is and what could be.

Q:  Plugs:

A:
Little Monsters, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Saturday, September 25th at 4:30 pm
Little Monsters, Brandeis Theatre Company, February 17-21, 2011