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1100 Playwright Interviews

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Jan 30, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 421: Reginald Edmund



Reginald Edmund

Hometown: Houston, Texas

Current Town: Chicago, Illinois

Q:  Tell me about 1968: The Year That Rocked the World.

A:  1968 is a series of short plays written by various playwrights associated with the History Theatre and the Playwrights' Center. These plays bring some of the events and personalities of 1968 on to the stage from seven distinct perspectives. The war in Vietnam, the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy, the Mexico Olympics, Lyndon B. Johnson and Hubert H. Humphrey, the election of Richard Nixon, and even the Apollo 8 mission broadcast on Christmas Eve
My play titled 'Welcome Home' deals with a Vietnam Dog Scout named Jerry Miron who returns home from the war and has to readjust to society and married life. I pulled a huge amount of the content of this play from sitting down personally with Jerry Miron and conducting interviews for a few months.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm currently working on a 9 play series titled the City of the Bayou Collection, in which where one play ends, serves as the inciting incident for the next play to begin. and where one character serves as a minor character in one piece they spin off and become the central character in the next. Additionally, I'm working on several smaller pieces including a one man show, and a stage remake of Blacula, which I hope to put up on stage sometime this summer.

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

A:  I think I would change the mindset of theatre leaders concerning new plays. There seems to be a lot of fear about putting new works up, and then often times the new work that they are putting up speaks only to a certain demographic of America, but it doesn't speak to my soul and it certainly doesn't speak to others.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I got a lot of amazing heroes... August Wilson, Carlyle Brown, James Austin Williams, Marion McClinton, Charles Smith, Dominic Taylor, Jeremy Cohen, and Russ Tutterow to name a few.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm excited by the work that has an inherent soul to it, where you can feel that this script has meaning to the playwright. Where you can feel the sincerity in the script.

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

A:  I'd tell them to keep pushing even when everyone and everything tells them to stop. Those are just road blocks, and if you are really sincere about this business then just push through them. The business of playwriting, is an arena for fighters. More often than not talent isn't going to get you to be the best in this business but sheer will to fight hard and not be afraid to let your script and your life get a little messy and bloody.

Jan 24, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 420: Erika Sheffer


Erika Sheffer

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  Tell me about Russian Transport:

A:  Well, this is my first play, so I stuck close to home and set it around where I grew up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. It's about an immigrant family running a struggling car service. A mysterious uncle arrives from Russia, the teenage son and daughter become entranced and danger ensues. It's a family drama/comedy/crime story/thriller. That's a real genre.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm working on my new play, Point Shoot Score. It's about a group of teenagers in suburban New Jersey, one of whom is a recent immigrant from The Ivory Coast. I wrote much of my current draft at SPACE on Ryder Farm, a beautiful and magical place to create.

Q:  Tell me about 15th Floor.

A:  We're a group of playwrights who came together to support one another's work in a variety of ways. We've hosted a reading series, organized write-ins in Bryant Park and The Rose Reading Room, and are currently at work on a web series. Check out our website to see what each playwright is working on, and to read our blog where we post articles on everything from play development to hollandaise sauce.

http://15thfloor.org/

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 very young my family lived in Boro Park, Brooklyn. I attended an ultra orthodox/hasidic all girls’ school, where my grandmother worked in the kitchen. We weren't religious, but pretended to be. It was pretty weird and definitely left me with some lingering paranoia issues. So one day in kindergarten, I remember a girl throwing a tantrum and our teacher started yelling about what a baby she was for crying and that we ought to ignore her because of it. The girl laid down on the floor, hysterical, and our teacher, still screaming, started kicking her. I was about four, but I remember knowing there was something very wrong about what was happening. And I remember feeling like I should tell someone about it, but I never did. And I never helped the girl. My work always seems to deal with morality, when we show compassion, when we fail to, and why we fail to. I'm interested in characters on the edge of doing the right thing.

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

A:  I'd make it cheaper! I'd reach out to younger audiences, poorer audiences. I'd give more opportunities to writers of color, female writers, and older unknown writers. Sometimes the first story comes out when you're twenty-five, but sometimes it comes out when you're forty-five. Also, I'd put a bar in every theater, so people could stay after the show. Something I love about seeing a play in London is that it always feels like a social event. You get a drink, talk to a stranger, and listen to a story. The communion becomes central to the experience.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Clifford Odets, Arthur Miller, Howard Barker, Carol Churchill, Lynn Nottage, Lucy Thurber, Julian Sheppard, Tanya Barfield, Annie Baker, Daniel Talbott, Sarah Ruhl, Scott Shepherd, Stephen Dillane, Lillias White, Tennessee Williams, Stephen Sondheim, Bridget Carpenter, Marin Ireland, Bill Irwin. The list grows daily.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love a big idea. I love an audacious opinion. I get excited by theater that surprises me, that leads me down a dirt path that becomes a road that becomes a highway that becomes the ocean. I love when we get to the ocean even though I never even knew we were on our way there.

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

A:  I'm starting out myself, so I'd say let's stick together, support one another's work and be generous of spirit.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Russian Transport, produced by The New Group, is running at The Acorn Theater now thru March 10th.

Jan 22, 2012

Here's What I Like

In preparation for my upcoming web series, Compulsive Love, I give you Helen Pellet by the amazing Amy Staats who you will soon see in some episodes of mine.

Genius!







Jan 17, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 419: Kristen Kosmas



photo by Chris Speed


Kristen Kosmas

Hometown: New Smyrna Beach, Florida

Current Town: Walla Walla, Washington

Q:  Tell me about You, My Mother.

A:  It's a collection of three chamber operas commissioned by The Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf. Brooke O'Harra invited Lisa D'Amour, Karinne Keithley and me each to write a thirty-minute libretto, and we were paired with composers Chaya Czernowin, Brendan Connelly, and Rick Burkhardt, respectively. We were given a set of, I thought, terrifying and perfectly weird restrictions to work with, including the title. We also had to include an animal suit (preferably a gorilla); slides and/or a slide projector; and we were supplied with some very generous and risky personal narratives from members of the company about their own mothers, which we were allowed to incorporate if we chose. It was a great experience. I'd never written an opera before, and it allowed me to work with a kind of restraint that was difficult and exciting. Also, I felt like the luckiest person in the world when I learned I'd be working with Rick Burkhardt. Three Pianos and Storm Still were two of my favorite things I saw last year, or possibly ever, so I can't wait to hear what he's done with and to the text. Brooke is one of my favorite directors, too— Actually, everybody working on the project is really incredible at what they do, so I'm honored to be a part of it.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm working on a play called There There, which will be directed by my long-time friend and collaborator Paul Willis. It was commissioned by PS 122 and will go up at The Chocolate Factory in December. It's a monologue for two actors, a bilingual performance duet that happens simultaneously in English and Russian. It's inspired by the completely unsympathetic character Vassily Vasilyevich Solyony from Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters. He's the one who says he'd fry Natasha's baby up in a frying pan and eat him if it were his child.

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

A:  Hm. Well, I'm thinking right now about how I never liked to play with dolls when I was little. I could never think of anything for them to say to each other. Maybe because I wasn't so interested in the narratives suggested by Ken and Barbie et al. I did, however, very much enjoy setting up dollhouses. I loved making miniature spaces out of shoe boxes and milk crates and that kind of thing, with water beds made out of ziplock bags and stuff like that. The dolls would just lie off to the side on the carpet without any clothes on, but I could spend hours constructing these houses for them. I think this is related somehow to the kind of theater I make, which is as much concerned with space and architecture, construction and arrangement, as it is with any kind of story. Of course, I don't have actors lying around naked on rugs in my plays. And now I'm extremely interested in language, and what it does and what it sounds like. But that came later. Probably when I was about 15 and started listening to Laurie Anderson.

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

A:  I'd like to take away all the props and furniture for a couple of years and see what that would do.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Oh gosh. I have so many. A partial list: Maria Irene Fornes, Anton Chekhov, Mac Wellman, Anne Bogart, Richard Foreman, David Greenspan, Len Jenkin, Elizabeth LeCompte, Karen Finley, Ruth Maleczech, Kate Valk, Spalding Gray, Sam Shepard, Scott Shepherd, Samuel Beckett, Wallace Shawn, Joseph Chaikin, Laurie Anderson, Anne Magnusson, Paul Lazar, Radiohole, Sibyl Kempson, John Kazanjian, Yelena Gluzman, Steve Moore, Rich Maxwell, Will Eno, ERS, Erik Ehn, Daniel Alexander Jones, and weirdly, right now, I'm kind of obsessed with David Mamet. Also all the producers who put the work of those people in front of an audience. The producers are superheroes.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I really like not knowing what's going on. I feel the most excited when I have no idea what's happening or what's being done to me. Playwrights who excite me like that the most lately are Kristina Satter, Julia Jarcho, Greg Moss, and Kate Ryan.

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

A;  Just keep doing it. It's very rewarding if you stick with it. Don't listen to what anyone tells you about what a play should be. Say hello to people. Ask for help.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  If you want to come to Walla Walla, you can see a production of my play Hello Failure, which I'm directing with students at Whitman College in March.

Otherwise, of course, You, My Mother.

Jan 14, 2012

I Interview Artistic Directors Part 6: Jim Simpson



Jim Simpson

Hometown: Honolulu, Hawaii

Current Town: New York City

Q:  Tell me about The Flea.

A:  I started the Flea with my wife and friends. Acknowledging that most Off Off Broadway performing artists and their colleagues in design fields receive inadequate pay (a result of the small venue) for their efforts, at least the conditions in which they are essentially volunteering their time and artistry should be excellent. For audiences, a comfortable enough venue so that the adventure occurs in the work- not in the conditions you encounter it in. We’ve run a 2 theater venue for 15 years on White Street in Tribeca.

Q:  How do you create your season?

A:  I deliberately don’t plan too far in advance. I place a big value on “being of our time”- and reflecting what’s going on in the real world. So I like to find a relationship between our immediate lives and the work we do. What we do might not be strictly topical- but it should feel right- for right now. Or at least that’s the challenge that I’ve set for us. In our large theatrical community I also look for what is not going on- if there is a different game to play. To plan a year or two in advance guarantees irrelevancy. Typical institutional theater finds many values in advance planning- but I think that favors the institutional experience, not necessarily what happens between performer and spectator, which is what we’re focused on. As I write this it is early January- and I’m looking for something for the end of this month. (And yes, I am very, very picky.) We have a large young company of resident actors, The Bats, they change throughout a season, and our work often reflects what’s possible (and what’s going on) with them. Some of our best work has resulted from their insights, inspirations and proposals. I believe in young people and place a high value on them. We don’t “develop” work other than actually doing it- so when I read a piece or get interested in something we often chase it down on the spot. Why wait? Although Playwriting is a challenging form, we concentrate on realizing the work, rather than the development of the writing of it. That’s the Playwrights job after all, not ours. In the theater, we learn more by doing, in meeting our audiences than in a closed system. Nuts and bolts wise- I do a lot of reading, a lot of thinking and I hope a fair amount of listening in arriving at what we do. I realize that as an Artistic Director, I’m in a very privileged position with a working venue- so at the Flea, we feel that a dark theater is a shameful one. We do a lot. As a younger man, I spent a lot of time outside looking in at the stalwarts of New York Theater and wondered why they didn’t do more, or offer more opportunity- why so many performing spaces were deliberately kept dark. It bugged me.

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

A:  I was 4 or 5 and coming home from my first Choir Rehearsal at Church, proudly proclaimed to my mother, “I’m a monotone!” Although I developed my musical abilities beyond that early assessment, I realize that many of my values of theatrical performance come from my missionary Church upbringing in Honolulu as much as working with John Raitt, Grotowski or the Yale School of Drama. Although I’m a spiritual atheist New Yorker, I’m also very much a Keiki o ka Aina Congregationalist who favors Spartan settings and the congregation more than the minister’s sermon. This Haole grew up immersed in a Nisei neighborhood with Run Run Shaw movies and Samurai Flicks, surfing and eating Saimin. He's a strange duck who could only come out of that miracle chain of islands in the Pacific.

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

A:  I’d get Equity to value and even more- support what we do Off Off Broadway and to realize their adversarial stance is mystifying and counterproductive. Without our community developing the theater artist of tomorrow, we’ll all be left with just tourist trade work.

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

A:  I’d like to take all money out of the equation. Well, with a 72 and 40 seat venue there’s not much here anyway- so we’re close to that goal.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Good smoking acting- physicality, strength, terrific voices able to ring out and vibrate your soul, smart text, people onstage who look like our New York community- plays which offer me a chance to think about how I’m living my life, the world I’m living in and the possibilities of other worlds.

Q:  What plays or playwrights are you excited about right now?

A:  Right now? Plays written by actors: Greg Keller, Hamish Linklater, Donaldo Preston, Seth Moore. They really, really cook.

Q:  What do you aspire to in your work?

A:  My aspiration/inspiration is to be a theater artist as per Yevgeny Vakhtangov’s example and instructions. I’d like the Flea to be a tiny reflection of Minton’s Playhouse, when Teddy Hill ran it.

Q:  Has your practice changed in the last ten years? Do you see changes in technology and culture changing how you work in the next ten years?

A:  Lately my practice has veered into more literary realistic work- I hope to break back out into more physically exuberant theatrical work in the future. Kabuki is my porn. I’m predisposed against high tech. Usually it means they are hiding something- or not really able to get the human thing going on. I’m also a stone cold Grotowski acolyte- via negativa- Theater is what happens between spectator and actor- sets, lights, projections, video, whatever are extra- rich theater- and often get in the way. It’s not “Green” either. (what a geezer!)

Q:  What advice do you have for theater artists wishing to work at your theater?

A:  If you are an young actor- audition for the Bats- usually in Summer and Fall. If you are a young director- apply for our residency- it’s awesome. If you are a young playwright- come to the serials and insinuate yourself into our community- If you are a young designer apply for a residency. If you have a group- I want at least to meet/correspond with you- I have theaters to fill. If you are a established artist- and have something no one wants to do because it is too “out there” e-mail me.

Jan 11, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 418: Jennifer Lane


Jennifer Lane

Hometown: Troy, Michigan

Current Town: Astoria, New York

Q:  Tell me about Fizz.

A:  The Fizz Plays are a collection of 10-minute pieces written by the 2012 terraNOVA Groundbreakers Playwriting Group: Krista Knight, Crystal Skillman, Andrea Lepcio, Ken Urban, Matt Olmos and me. We were given the word "fizz" to inspire our plays, and mine is called Tummy Bubbles. It's about a gamer girl who has planned what she thinks is just the perfect night for her and her roommate, but her roommate has other things in mind... It's on Monday, January 16th at the 14th Street Y. More details can be found here. You should come! It's going to be a lot of fun!

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A;  For Groundbreakers, I'm reworking a play I wrote early in Grad school that used to be called Asylum, but is not called that any more. In fact, it is currently for want of a title. It's about women in mental institutions in the past and present and deals with gender stereotyping within the mental health system, as well as the rather tumultuous history of the system itself.

I'm also working on a solo piece called Convergence with actor Avery Pearson and director Calla Videt. I'm really excited about it because it uses video projection and I've never done that before. In fact, I've never written a solo piece before either, so there are a number of firsts for me in this project.

And I'm also working on a play called The Burning Brand, which is inspired by a town (Centralia, PA) that has been on fire since 1962. Like actually on fire. A coal mine has been smoldering steadily under the town for decades now, and yet as of 2010 there were still about a dozen or so people who live there. Fascinating stuff.

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

A:  So, in the 5th grade at the school I went to, they had this thing called the Young Authors Tea. Every year the 5th grade class would write a story and then bind it into a book using cardboard and fabric and staples and tape, and the books would be displayed in the library right alongside the real books. And the students could read them and write comments on them and everything. As a third- and fourth-grader, I read all of the 5th grade books, so I was pretty stoked when it was my turn to write. My story was based on something I read in the newspaper -- because I read the newspaper in the 5th grade -- about a woman who got drunk and took her baby for a walk in the middle of a highway. People tell me my writing is dark. Well, I started young. The kids who read it and left comments said things like, "This is good, but it should have a happy ending." or "I don't understand why a mother would do something like that." Well, kid. Me either. I wrote to figure it out.

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

A:  I would magically make it so that not only was it inexpensive and accessible to all, but all of the artists that worked in it would be able to make a comfortable living. And then I would magically make it so that there was gender parity. Boom. Just like that.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Chuck Mee, Lucy Thurber, Kelly Stuart, Sheila Callaghan, Sarah Ruhl, Stuart Spencer and Robert Murphy -- all such brilliant artists and teachers and people who have touched my life in innumerable ways. But I think the work I come back to the most frequently is that of Sarah Kane and Bertolt Brecht. When I'm stuck, that's who I read. Also, my dear friend Trystan Trazon, whose gift with music and language is what inspired me to write plays in the first place.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Things that use what one of my favorite collaborators (director Jess Smith) calls "Phenomenologically hot" -- running water on stage, for example. I'm also really into interdisciplinary performance right now, and to see authentic and human stories told through various mediums is really exciting to me.

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

A;  I myself am a playwright just starting out, but here's what I can offer from my limited experience: 1) Just ask. People are pretty nice, generally, and if you ask for help you will probably get it. 2) You don't know what you can do until you try it. So apply to that Thing You Think You Probably Won't Get, and write that Play You Think Will Probably Be Too Difficult To Produce. You may surprise yourself. And 3) Don't wait. If no one wants to do your play, do it yourself. Raise money, rent space, and do it. Or do it for free in a park, or read scenes of it form a coffee shop. But do it. And ask someone to help you.

And also? This might sound weird, but get on Twitter and follow the amazing conversations that are happening about theater and new play development. Start with @HowlRound and go from there.

Oh, and have a website. As a lit manager, I love looking at playwright websites -- it's a way that you can assert some control over your professional web presence. Take advantage of that.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: terraNOVA Collective - Fizz Plays, January 16th. And look out for our Groundbreakers Reading Series coming in April, 2012!

Also: The Washington Rogues are doing a reading of my play The Would-Be Room on February 17.

And finally: The Astoria Performing Arts Center has some great programming coming up (I am the literary manager there).

http://jennifer-lane.net

Jan 10, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 417: Tasha Gordon-Solmon


Tasha Gordon-Solmon

Hometown: Toronto

Current Town: New York

Q:  Tell me about the play you're having read at Dixon Place.

A:  The play is called Golden Water and it’s my biggest, weirdest, most theatrical, most ambitious play. It’s a collage, it has a cast of 10, and it takes place in heightened, magical world. It’s about story telling and identity and Jewish history –in a really twisted way.

I’m really thankful Dixon place is giving it a home. This will be the first reading of it.

It’s big and messy and I honestly have no idea what it’s going to look like, but I’m excited to find out. It’s being directed by the super cool Shira Milikowsky.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I’m writing a new play for the Dramatist Guild Fellows, which is still very fetal. It’s about a wedding. I’m kind of obsessed with weddings right now. They are pure theater. I wrote a short piece for the New Georges Perform-a-Thon this weekend and it also ended up being about a wedding – or someone who faked wedding--or rather, faked a groom for a wedding. I’m really interested in ritual and taboos and characters who are a little delusional - and weddings have all of that.

I just finished a play I’ve been working for a while called You, Me, Su-Yi and the Kitchen Sink. It’s about a 16 year old who returns home from a semester abroad to a very different family than the one she’d left, including a newly adopted 6 year old from China who doesn’t speak English. It’s a dark comedy.

And, I’m collaborating with the brilliant designer Lara de Bruijn on something so new we don’t know quite what it is yet, but I’m excited. And you should be too.

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

A:  Every weekend morning when I was around 5, I would get into my mom’s bed and pretend to give birth. It would involve my putting a doll under my shirt, and then dramatically wailing and screaming as I delivered it. I’d repeat this with about 20 dolls. 30 on a good day. I had no interest in doing anything with the babies once they were born, they were really just accessories to my performance. So I guess from an early age I had flare for drama.

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

A:  I think we get too caught up in definitions and roles. If you’re a writer, it’s crazy to think you could also be a director. Or we’ll decide you’re a certain kind of writer or actor and if you try to do something different, people get all confused. I often see friends trying to create the same thing over and over, because they feel this pressure to fit into a type. I think it’s funny that we’re supposed to be the progressive creative ones, but we can still be kind of rigid with our expectations. The best theater artists I know are the one who are constantly defying definition and crossing boundaries.

Otherwise the regular complaints: health insurance, money and free smoothies.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I was originally a dancer, so I love experimental companies who do really physical and theatrical – The Wooster Group, SITI Company. I adore Bill T. Jones – he’s created the some of the moving and powerful performances I’ve seen. There are probably 50 contemporary playwrights I could list, but for lack of space I’ll say Charles Mee, Sheila Callaghan, Sarah Ruhl and Kris Diaz. And pretty much everyone I was in the Ars Nova Playgroup with. Oh, and Shakespeare.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that crosses stylistic boundaries. Seemingly un-producible theater that gets produced. Theater makes me laugh. Theater that surprises me. Theater that tells new stories that haven’t been told. Theater that asks questions and doesn’t give answers. Theater that uses space in new or unexpected ways. I love ensemble work and collaboration. Good collaboration is the best.

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

A:  A friend once told me to have a glass of wine. I think that’s pretty good advice. Unless you’re an alcoholic.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My reading of Golden Water at Dixon Place on January 23rd at 7:30.

dixonplace.org

https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/171

I have a blog on the Huffington Post, where I discuss serious subjects like my cat and The Bachelor. You should read it because every time you don’t, a fairy dies a slow painful death.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tasha-gordonsolmon

Dec 30, 2011

My 2011 in review

I had 8 productions of full length plays in 2011 with 12 more planned for 2012, in theory. (although this time last year I thought there would be 12 productions this year). To make a living solely from playwriting I would have to have something like 5 times as many productions as I had this year. It’s true I doubled the amount of productions from last year, but still…I’m not sure how to make that happen.

This year I spent time in Anaheim, CA (2 readings, production), Los Angeles (2 readings, some meetings, wedding), West Virginia (reading), Westchester, NY (reading), Boston (reading), Bloomington, IN (reading), Montreal (just for fun), Seattle (for a wedding), Ft Myers, FL (production), Nazareth, PA (wedding), Philadelphia, PA (production). And was in and out of NYC frequently (2 productions, 1 public reading, 1 web series, 1 wedding, lots of private readings and other things.)

What else? The first season of my web series, Compulsive Love, was filmed and it should come out early in the new year.

I wrote a pilot, 3 full length plays, 1 half hour long play, started work on another pilot with two other writers, and am in the process of turning My Base and Scurvy Heart into a musical with the same composer and lyricist I was working with this time last year.

I was the resident playwright at the Chance Theater in Anaheim, CA even though I was living in CT most of the time. Got a grant from CT Commission on Culture & Tourism (from the Artist Fellowship Grant Program for playwriting.)

We moved back to Brooklyn.

The interviewing project continues -- It’s up to 416 playwright interviews now, which means I got 117 interviews this year. (I never thought it would continue this far, but really it’s less than 5 percent of the playwrights out there right now) I also started interviewing artistic directors—there are 5 of those up now.

I just finished a play so I’m wondering what’s next. Maybe get back to that novel, maybe write a screenplay. I’ll have to see which way internal and external forces push me in the new year. Here’s hoping to good winds for us all.

Happy New Year!

Dec 28, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 416: Leah Nanako Winkler




Leah Nanako Winkler

Hometown:  Kamakura, Japan and Lexington, Kentucky. I claim both places because I was born in Japan and spent most of my childhood there until my family moved to the United States, where I spent a lot of my formative years. There was also a lot of traveling back and forth in my early life to see my American family on my dad's side while I was living in Japan near my Japanese family on my mom's side and vice versa. I was always immersed in both cultures, and attended school in Japan in the summertime while living in America as well as hoshuko ( a Japanese school for Japanese kids the US) where my mom taught on the weekends, while also attending regular school in Kentucky. These opposite worlds had a severe impact on who I am today which is a defining characteristic of the "hometown" concept.

Current Town:  Astoria, New York.

Q:  What are you working on now?


A:  I'm working on a play with my theater company, Everywhere Theatre Group, and writer Teddy Nicholas , called FLYING SNAKES IN 3D!!! which was a part of the 2011 Ant Fest at Ars Nova and got picked up for the 2012 maintstage season at The Brick Theater in Williamsburg (running Jan 18-29th). It's a play essentially about class division in the theater world under the guise of a hilarious science fiction plot involving a group of multi-cultural heroes fighting mutant flying snakes (a.k.a. rich white people) that are taking over the Earth (a.k.a. theater). It's also about our company's struggle of making collaborative theater in general, especially when the core artists have the disadvantage of being unconnected and coming from poor families. I think it's a timely piece and a lot of sad hilarity ensues as we take on the enormous challenge of making a play about flying snakes, which is essentially better suited for an art form with a much bigger budget like film or television. Most importantly, audiences can throw rubber snakes at the actors during it. You should come!

I'm also working on two television pilots; one about a group of 20-something girl-roomies in Brooklyn who decide to start an escort business and another one with comedian Jen Kwok about an unconventionally beautiful girl who gets dumped by her boyfriend for a thinner woman and finds solace in the underground NY burlesque scene.

Lastly, I'm preparing for a mini-workshop of my play, Death For Sydney Black with New Georges set for April 2012.

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 in elementary school, my Japanese school friends and I were obsessed with Sailor Moon. We use to watch bootleg video tapes and act-out the episodes together after class at one of our houses. The original Sailor Moon stories are really messed up and deep....like they all die horrible deaths multiple times (because they have multiple lives) and lesbian cousins fall in love with each other and cats talk and say profound things about how amidst hardship, life is beautiful and stuff. It got me through a lot of hard times and that's when I started to really see how playing pretend and talking about confusing things with other people through the voices of pre-written dialogue (although we were paraphrasing anime plot-lines) could be really beautiful. I also read a lot of manga, and I'm pretty sure that's where I got my knack for dialogue.

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

A:  That playwrights and artists from underprivileged communities could have a voice on professional stages, instead of those who have no idea what they're talking about go and research them and take credit for their stories.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My teachers who let me explore and be free in theater as a child. One in particular, the awesome Lisa Osterman, who made me read The Deadly Theater when I was like twelve at a public school in KY in the middle of the projects. Also, any NYC theater artist who is constantly struggling but working hard and making beautiful things.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that makes me feel things that no other art-form can match up to. This can come in many forms for me, but I am particularly a sucker for visceral things, poetic language, singing, music, modern themes, young people, un-apologetic tones, sex, the combination of many elements, site-specific work, unconventional audience seating, chaos, subtly, slyness and anything that makes me feel extreme emotions. A fantastic movie can make me cry and laugh but a fantastic piece of theater can change my life and whole way of thinking.

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

A:  Take a gamble on yourself and write honestly about what you know. Formulas and insincerity are transparent and people can watch it on their laptops for free. Don't write for the stage unless it needs to be on stage. Also, go see other peoples plays as much as you can and find a mentor whose work you respect at least as much as your own. When you find them, treasure them. Same goes for collaborators.
Most importantly, be inspired by failure, because if you're a playwright, you should be willing to fail a lot or you're doing something wrong.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Come see Flying Snakes in 3-D!!! At The Brick Theater Jan 18-29th! Get your tickets here (https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/899505)

Use the code VENOM for the first two nights to get $12 discount tickets (applicable only for pre-sales, not walk-ups). Come on opening night and join ETG for an VIP after-party!

Also--go see the amazing Emily Davis perform my text in the encore performance of FORTH on January 7th and 8th at 11:30 pm at Magic Futurebox. Arranged by Tommy Smith, directed by Meiyin Wang, with additional text by Leah Winkler (read my text that Tommy used here!) Buy tickets here!
And for the latest news on me, visit www.leahwinkler.org!

Dec 24, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 415: Matthew Stephen Smith



Matthew Stephen Smith

Hometown: Yorba Linda, CA

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I'm working on three projects at the moment. First is a comedy, 7 Ways to Mourn the Dead, in which the ancient royal Trojan family members live their final days of life and/or freedom as neurotic contemporaries in grief counseling. The second is a full-length solo-show, A Gathering of Very Articulate Individuals, that follows a privileged, straight, white male as he attempts to reconcile himself with those he's loved and hurt most, all the while accidentally plunging to his death in two and a half seconds. The third is a three act play, Co-Op, that follows a few months in the life of a socialist student cooperative during the '07/'08 presidential primaries.

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 I attended a wedding--more specifically, a wedding reception--during which I had to sit between a man and a woman who were in the process of getting a divorce. Knowing no one else at the wedding except my immediate family, all of whom had other friends to chat/dance up, I was stuck fielding questions, insults, stories, etc., between the soon-to-be-not couple. Over the course of a few hours, they became these drunk, iridescent personalities that were funny, edgy, sad, insufferable, and still inconceivably in love (at least it seemed to me) all at once. That was the first time I could articulate to myself that battles between people don't exist primarily on binaries of right and wrong/good and evil, but in the messy matrices of the personal.

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

A: Money. I have three wishes for the genie in this lamp. Show me what theater is like when admission is always free. Show me what theater is like when every ticket is seventy-five (heck! one hundred!) dollars. Show me what theater is like when admission is a voluntary donation.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Panoply Performance Laboratory ( http://www.panoplylab.org/ ). They are my friends. Also John Guare. Even at this stage in his career, his writing takes exuberant risks that many writers half his age don't even dare approach.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I'm hard pressed to name a kind. But when I'm excited by a piece of theater, I can't shut up about it.

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

A; Sheila Callaghan already gave the perfect response on your blog... http://aszym.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-interview-playwrights-part-7-sheila.html ...I can't improve upon it..

Q: Plugs, please:

A: Monday, January 16th at Vaudeville Park http://www.vaudevillepark.org/ in Brooklyn, NY. A semi-staged reading of A Gathering of Very Articulate Individuals complete with a bar, large storefront windows, and a teeny chandelier.

Dec 23, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 414: Jerome Parker


Jerome A. Parker

Hometown: The South Bronx, NY

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Two musical projects. One is based on an opera and had a reading at the Public this summer. I'm spending the next months working on the music for that piece. The other is an actual opera - a jazz, opera - that I'm working on with some composer friends that I met while I was in LA. Also, I'm very into the web and the possibilities that come with viewing theater online. I just found out how easy it was to execute and I'm itching to start something on a more regular basis.

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 on the top floor of an apartment building. From my windows I could see Yankee stadium in the distance that would light up when games were being played or fireworks displayed. I felt as though we lived in a penthouse and that the fireworks were celebrating something that had to do with me and my family. Anyway, my brother is, and has always been, a DJ and would spend hours mixing music and making tapes/samples. He would be in the zone, and I would be found sitting in his room, staring out the window with music washing over me, thinking about my future. My brother, my family, music, my childhood, and being in the zone all influence me as both a writer and a person.

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

A:  One thing...?

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  As a young theater maker I devoured everything by Pinter, O'Neill, Genet and Sondheim. And I've never turned down a book by Baldwin, Morrison, Genet and D.H. Lawrence.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  The last great play I saw was Jerusalem. It was epic, the characters were grimy and smart, lots of storytelling within the story, and Mark Rylance - wow ! - a force of nature. I try to stay away from timid, safe plays and love plays that push the form in some way. The first great new play I saw: Our Lady of 121st Street. That one and King Hedley II made me want to become a playwright.

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

A:  Get it done, rewrite, apply! And then start all over again. Invest in your future now. The one play of mine I've yet to see/hear, is the one that opened lots of doors for me as a writer. It's epic with grimy, smart characters: Miracle on Monroe.

Q:  Plugs, please:




A:  The Fire This Time Festival - January 19th - 25th @ the Kraine Theater. My play, DIG, directed by LA Williams, will be featured. It's a short story of a homicide detective obsessed by one of his cases: an under-aged, street walker named Indigo.

www.jeromeAparker.net

Dec 21, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 413: Caitlin Montanye Parrish


Caitlin Montanye Parrish

Hometown:  Atlantic Beach, FL

Current Town:  Los Angeles, CA

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I just wrote a short play called 10 Dimensions for Ten at The Gift Theatre in Chicago, and I'm also writing a new full-length called Uncanny Valley that will be workshopped this summer in the DCA Incubator series. I'm also writing a number of TV pilots. And doing homework. And producing a monthly live variety show, the LA chapter of The Encyclopedia Show (originally created by Chicago geniuses Robbie Q. Telfer and Shannon Magnuson).

Q:  How would you characterize the theater scenes in Chicago and LA?

A:  I don't really feel qualified to comment on the LA scene, yet. I've been in grad school, and any spare time is immediately commandeered for sleep. The Chicago scene is my favorite environment on Earth, a loving and bracing community of insanely talented people with long memories: they remember who brought whiskey to strike, and they also remember who was a jackass to the crew. Forever. And, you can't beat the variety or quality of shows.

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 grandmother, a deliciously boozy WASP who somehow ended up in the South, told me when I was seven that you weren't really well-read until you'd read all of the Bible and all of Shakespeare, and decided which one to believe. And then she taught me how to make martinis. The combination set me on a direct course to theatre.

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

A:  I'd make it required in schools.

Q;  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A;  The playwrights I re-read the most are Mickle Maher, Tom Stoppard, Caryl Churchill and Margaret Edson. There's a heightened quality to their work that's always fun to revisit, because I know it's highly unlikely that I've caught every trick they've snuck in. I really wish Margaret Edson would write a second play.

Mike Daisey. Genius.

Robbie Telfer, Shannon Magnuson, Christopher Piatt, and Ian Belknap run three of the most original shows in Chicago. They're not theatre, per say, but they're sure as hell theatrical. The Encyclopedia Show (Robb and Shannon) is an amazing monthly combination of vaudeville and literature. The Paper Machete (Christopher) is a weekly live periodical, a salon in a saloon, he would say. And WRITE CLUB (Ian) is a monthly, three round, bare-knuckle writing match. All these shows boast a wide variety of contributors, many of whom spend the bulk of their time in Chicago theatre. All three shows are challenging the notion of what performance can and should be. Go see them.

Anyone who shows up and gives their all to a play, for little to no money, is my hero. Anyone who shows up and gives their all to a bad play is a hero by any standard.

But Erica Weiss, who's dramaturged and directed almost every play I've written, is my theatrical hero. She is the most steadfast and intelligent director I've ever encountered, and no one understands scripts better. No one. Any playwright who works with her is better for it. I understand when writers are reticent to take suggestions from directors - not every director knows what's best. But, I can count on one hand the number of times I've refused one of Erica's suggestions, watched it play out, and been right. It's like she has absolute pitch for theatre. She hears it and knows immediately if it's right or wrong. She's also very, very funny. And makes me tea when I write. She is, in short, a total baller.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Urgent, and current, and intelligent, and fraught. That's the sweet spot.

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

A:  Write. Constantly. Get feedback. Take feedback. But most importantly:

If and when you are lucky enough to have a play produced, it will have been the result of unbelievably hard work on the part of lots and lots of people. You did not do it all yourself. You are not magic. Thank every single person in your cast, on your crew, on the design team. Thank everyone who helped fundraise. Thank everyone who offered to run the box office for one night. They are showing up, and stepping up, because they love theatre. They are giving you a gift you cannot repay. All you can do is strive to be worthy of their faith, and their aid. If you are an asshole to the people who have helped you, because you are laboring under the delusion that you are the most important, sparkly cog in the theatre wheel, then you are useless, and you have failed as a human.

Q;  Plugs, please:

A:  Ten at The Gift Theatre, in Chicago, starting January 5th. (http://www.thegifttheatre.org/now.html) Pretty much go see anything they produce, their track record is ridiculous. My play A Twist of Water is going to be in New York at 59E59 in October of 2012, please come see that. And every month I host The Encyclopedia Show LA (http://www.theencyclopediashowla.com/), along with a number of wonderfully strange Angelinos. Please come and have a drink with us.

Dec 20, 2011

I've finally updated my blog to the new modern kind of blog

With all the buttons, etc.  Unfortunately, when I switched over it imported an old blogroll.  So I think some people are missing.  Am I missing you?  Pls tell me if I am.

Dec 19, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 412: France-Luce Benson



France-Luce Benson

Hometown: Miami, FL

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q: Tell me about The Talk.

A: One might describe it as a Caribbean /Immigrant take on an After School special gone horribly wrong. Seriously, it’s a comedy/drama about a woman who never had the freedom to explore her own sexuality confronting her adult daughter who after many long years of ambiguity has finally embraced her own. It also explores how time and loss can begin to bridge the gap between mothers and daughters. As a first generation Haitian-American, I always write from that perspective. It is who I am, what I know, and an important piece of my artistic mission. So this play continues my examination of culture clash, identity, and the complex social conflicts specific to immigrants of foreign lands. Manu, the mother, comes to realize that while holding on to the traditions and conventions that preserved her cultural identity – she sacrificed her own desires as a woman. I also thought it would be fun to write a middle aged woman from a foreign country trying to figure out how to use a sex toy.

Q: What else are you working on?

A: Boat People, a full length play about a family in 1980’s Miami who illegally shelter a political exile from Haiti. It is set against the backdrop of the Duvalier dictatorship in Haiti, and the increasing tensions that existed in Miami during this period. Hundreds of Haitians were risking their lives to escape the brutality of the dictatorship, only to be imprisoned under inhumane conditions in detention centers. Meanwhile, immigrants from other countries seemed to be welcomed with open arms. This was also when the A.I.D.S. epidemic sky rocketed in America. There was still not much information and research and the C.D.C. at one point declared it a Haitian disease. The protagonist in the play is a teenage girl ashamed of her heritage and we follow her journey into acceptance and pride. I am currently developing this play in the New Perspectives Theatre’s Women’s Work Lab.

I am also honored to be working on a screen adaptation of Edwidge Danticat’s “Caroline’s Wedding”. It’s a feature length film produced and directed by Easmanie Michel.

Finally, I’ve just submitted a proposal for a commission from the Alfred P. Sloan grant to write a stage play based on Jean Dominique.

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

A: I don’t know that I could pinpoint one defining moment. I do know, however, that when I was growing up there was a lot of discrimination in Miami and the Haitian community was the target of a great deal of negative stereotyping and even aggression. Many Haitian-American kids tried to hide who they were out of fear and shame. I regret to confess that I was one of them. But as I got older, and more informed, I started to appreciate my culture. I began to understand the historical reference point for the aggression. My turning point came when I wrote my first full length play in college. Silence of the Mambo was about a family living in Haiti on the night the Duvalier dictatorship was overthrown. I did extensive research writing this play; studying not only Haitian politics, but history, dance, music, spirituality- all things Haitian. I was fascinated and for the first time I felt an indestructible pride in who I was. It was then that I decided that I would write plays that would celebrate and elevate my culture, and educate others about Haiti’s rich history, legacy, and people.

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

A: More accessible/less elitist.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Anton Chekov, August Wilson, Lorraine Hansberry, Christopher Durang, and Lorca (just to name a few, but I have many). And, of course, my beloved mentor Milan Stitt.

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

A: Write, write, write. Write everyday, without fail, and make sure you write when you are at your best. Give the best of yourself to your writing.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: The Talk opens on Jan. 19 as part of The Fire This Time Festival

Caroline’s Wedding, my screenplay adaptation begins shooting in 2012

A staged reading of Boat People will take place in 2012 at New Perspectives Theatre


Dec 15, 2011

I Interview Artistic Directors Part 5: Marty Stanberry



Marty Stanberry

Hometown: Charleston, IL

Current Town: St. Louis, MO

Q:  Tell me about HotCity Theatre.

A:  HotCity Theatre was created from the merger of two small Equity Theatre Companies in 2005; HotHouse Theatre Company which was founded in 1997 and City Theatre which had its roots in a long-time community theatre which became professional in 2002. The company is dedicated to the development of new works as well as producing at least one modern classic per season. Plays must have an “edgy” quality to them in theme and/or subject matter.

Q:  How do you create your season?

A:  The season consists of 4 mainstage productions – one is “usually” a modern classic with some “name” recognition; one is a premiere of a script chosen from our “New Play Festival” the prior season and the other two are “usually” new plays straight from Broadway/Off-Broadway or Regional (such as The Humana Festival of New Plays). Our main theatre is a “less than 100 seat blackbox” so criteria includes size of cast (and cast-ability within the St. Louis artistic community) and technical requirements.

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

A:  I grew up in a small university town in Central Illinois. I was a child during the Vietnam Was era in the late 60’s/early 70’s and I remember all the cultural clashes going on in our country and on the local university campus. I had an Aunt who was very much into the arts and she would take me (along with siblings and cousins) to many of the university productions – one in particular was a version of Cinderella where somehow the production team had created a bubble around Cinderella during her transformation(s) – I remember being awestruck as a 6 year old, wanting to live in that magical world – a world that seemed more real to me than the one I was witnessing outside the theatre!

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

A:  This is a “domino” issue: More importance on the art of theatre as a cultural element which would come from our education system and government support as it is in Britain and Canada.

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

A:  A larger venue. We were formerly in a large blackbox (200+audience capacity). The smaller venue has limited our play selection choices and design options.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Plays with action (drama is happening rather than discussed); Plays that challenge social mores, Plays that stimulate conversation and foster multiple points-of-view.

Q:  What do you aspire to in your work?

A:  To emotionally and/or intellectually affect our audiences.

Q:  Has your practice changed in the last ten years? Do you see changes in technology and culture changing how you work in the next ten years?

A:  Yes, we are much more focused on new works which has willingly forced us to keep on top of technological and cultural changes as they happen. We recently received a grant from PNC Bank to develop a new script where social media is the topic. Luckily we have a plethora of local university staff and resources to borrow/rent from.

Q:  What advice do you have for theater artists wishing to work at your theater?

A:  Visibility! All production personnel are paid, including box office and running crew and NO ONE is turned away who wants to volunteer for on-going or special event planning/running. Rarely is someone hired based on resume alone.

Dec 14, 2011

I Interview Artistic Directors Part 4: Russ Tutterow


Russ Tutterow

Hometown: Straughn, Indiana

Current Town: Chicago

Q:  Tell me about Chicago Dramatists.

A:  Chicago Dramatists is a producing theatre and playwrights' workshop. We work with hundreds of playwrights every year, almost all from the Chicago area. Most of our work is done with our member playwrights. We have two playwright memberships: Residency (for accomplished playwrights) and The Playwrights Network (which any playwright can join at any time). We conduct a great variety of year-round programs to develop their plays and nurture their growth and careers: productions, workshops, private readings, classes, talent coordination, career guidance, panels, fireside chats with theatre leaders, and a public staged reading in our signature Saturday Series, every Saturday at 2:00.

Q:  How do you create your season?

A:  We choose the strongest plays from all the plays we have in some manner worked on from the last several years.

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

A:  I have been asked if there was a time when I knew I was a director. My usual answer was "in college." But then I realized I was actually 'directing' stories on the playground when I was maybe eight years old. I have always wanted to make things.

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

A:  Lower ticket prices.

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

A:  Higher salaries and fees for everyone.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A;  Theatre that is full of suspense and surprise.

Q:  What do you aspire to in your work?

A:  Perfection.

Q:  Has your practice changed in the last ten years?

A:  Yes. Because of computers and the Internet.

Q:  Do you see changes in technology and culture changing how you work in the next ten years?

A:  Yes. But I have no idea what to expect.

Q:  What advice do you have for theater artists wishing to work at your theater?

A:  Come here. Attend our readings and productions. Introduce yourselves.

Dec 12, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 411: Kirsten Childs



Kirsten Childs

Hometown: Los Angeles, California

Current Town: New York, New York

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Right now, at this very moment? A musical exploration of the African-American experience in the Wild West.

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

A:  Wilmington, North Carolina. Summertime. Visiting my grandparents. Happy as a clam, spinning around on the dirt road out in front of their house, singing a paean to the sun and sand and sky – the opening number to a nascent musical. Interrupted mid-spin and mid-song by the realization that my aunt was peeking out from the porch, watching me. Mortified, running to hide behind a vine gnarled fence.

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

A:  Its accessibility.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Edward Albee, Michael Bennett, Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, Anton Chekhov, Will Marion Cook and Bob Cole, Bob Fosse, Pamela Gien, Micki Grant, Lorraine Hansberry, John Jesurun, Cherry Jones, Sarah Jones, Ben Katchor and Mark Mulcahy, La Chanze, Frank Langella, James Lapine, Arthur Laurents, Robert Lee and Leon Ko, Audra MacDonald, Moliere, Lynn Nottage, Mandy Patinkin, Bernadette Peters, Gerome Ragni, James Rado and Galt MacDermot, Chita Rivera, William Shakespeare, Diana Son, Stephen Sondheim, Joe Stein, Stew, Peter Stone, Nilaja Sun, Ivan Turgenev, Gwen Verdon, August Wilson, George C. Wolfe.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater with music, dance, story. Theater that is not ashamed to be theatrical.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights, composers or lyricists just starting out?

A:  Keep writing.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Very excited to be working on a project with Lynn Nottage and Steve Cosson (The Civilians)

Dec 3, 2011

Coming up next/Purple Rep/ at the Monkey

DARK NIGHT SERIALS
- a FREE event to benefit our 2012 season!

Monday is a Dark Dark night, for Dark Dark plays followed by Dark Purple entertainment. We want you to wash it down with Purple Nurples. We want you to win a head shot package from Anna Flores, a new beautiful drawing by Carolyn Raship and free theater tickets to hot Off Broadway shows.

Join these purple playwrights for bold first stagings of new work followed by burlesque, music, daring physical theater and more.

Dec 5th- The Rockin' Kick off-

Hosted by John Hume ( JOHN HUME LIVE!)

plays by:
Johnna Adams
Brendan Burke
August Schulenburg
Adam Szymkowicz

musical guest: Stacy Rock
and additional rockin' performances by:
Daniel Irizarry, Laura Butler Rivera and Jody Christopherson

raffle: Tickets to 2nd Stage's Production of How I Learned to Drive, Jan 2012


Dec 12th- The Bitter Sweet Ball

Hosted by Susan Gardner of Sugar Shack Burlesque

plays by:
James Comtois
Larry Kunofsky
Charlotte Miller
Kristen Palmer
Adam Szymkowicz

Musical Guests: Dominic Frasca (http://www.dominicfrasca.com/index.htm) Floanne Anka (Edith Piaf Alive and Living in New York)

Raffle:an original one of a kind drawing by Carolyn Raship and tickets to Edith Piaf, Alive and Living in New York at the Metropolitian Room



Dec 19th- The Violet Orgy

Hosted by Floanne Anka ( Edith Piaf Alive and Living in New York)

A juicy surprise mash-up of the darkest purple writing, featuring your favorite Serial playwrights. We'll announce the winner of Anna's Flores Photography's headshot session and take you into the night with Burlesque by Dame CuchiFrita (Brown Girls Burlesque), The Rachel Klein Theater Ensemble presenting: A Tale of Sorrow and Sequins
Starring: Scooter Pie, Megan O'Connor, Miss Kristen Lee, Robyn Nielsen, and Michael Porsche and sexy painted guitar tunes performed by musician Adam Cohen.


Doors open at 7:30pm

Show at 8pm

ADMISSION IS FREE

Nurples $7 or 2 for $12


Raffle tix 1 for $2 or 3 for $5

**Thanks to a generous donation both events take place at The Monkey. for more info on the Monkey:
http://monkeywest.com/

*** check out the head shot raffle package/ Anna Flores Photography at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Anna-Flores-Photography/145718232104887

Dec 2, 2011

I Interview Artistic Directors Part 3: Andrew Leynse



Andrew Leynse

Hometown:
I was born in Pomona, California, but have lived in New York City since I was 8 years old.

Current Town:
New York, City, but my wife, actress Mary Bacon, and I also have a small country house in Arlington, Vermont.

Q: Tell me about Primary Stages.

A: Primary Stages is an Off-Broadway theater company, now in our 27th season, dedicated to inspiring, supporting and sharing the art of playwriting. We are currently the theater company in residence at 59E59 Theaters.

Q: How do you create your season?

A: Putting together a season is always a challenging process. As Artistic Director, I work closely with our founder, Casey Childs and our Associate Artistic Director, Michelle Bossy, in selecting the plays. It is important to look at the season as a whole so we find ourselves interested in themes and/or playwrights, their language and how they will challenge audiences in different ways. For example, we try not to produce four plays in a season that are all dark or all comedies. Also, as an institution, we have a responsibility both to the artistic community of New York City and to showing cultural diversity in our choices. In addition, we have ongoing relationships with many playwrights and work with them on multiple plays. We also seek out early career playwrights as well.

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

A: I had the fortunate opportunity to grow up in New York City. My mother exposed me to lots of theater on Broadway and off and I became fascinated with the art form. Also, because my father was a filmmaker, I grew up watching many classic films and studying plot and theme early on. When I was in high school, my school did not have a drama program, so I decided to create a drama club which I then wrote plays for and directed. I realized it was too much for me to act in them as well. During that time, I also had the opportunity to intern and later work at Playwrights Horizons when Andre Bishop was artistic director and my first show there was Lucky Stiff by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. It was an extremely exciting moment to be at Playwrights Horizons and I got the chance to work with some incredible artists.

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

A: Perhaps what people’s understanding of theater is. The French have two words for theater: theatre and spectacle, and audiences know when they are going to see a spectacle and when they are going to the theatre. Here in America, the two are often blended and audiences don’t know the difference.

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

A: It has been a goal of ours to try to expand our producing opportunities beyond four mainstage shows a year and perhaps even have a second stage where we could produce more artists.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Theater that is transformative, that challenges audiences; a playwright’s voice that is unique unto itself, subjects that are compelling and contemporary, that resonate with audiences today.

Q: What do you aspire to in your work?

A; I always aspire to excellence but I am always interested in growing and learning and discovering things in new ways.

Q; Has your practice changed in the last ten years? Do you see changes in technology and culture changing how you work in the next ten years?

A: Our culture is constantly changing and technology has been a large part of that. It affects how we market plays, how we think about and write and read plays and even how we see plays. The theater is constantly changing and continues to evolve in exciting and dynamic ways. But it is still a social event that needs to be experienced by the group and written and envisioned by authors.

Q: What advice do you have for theater artists wishing to work at your theater?

A: I think artists wishing to work at Primary Stages should get to know our work to understand who we are and what excites us. We are accessible in many ways. We have our Dorothy Strelsin New American Writers Group (which you are a member of), workshops and many playwriting programs through our ever growing school, the Einhorn School of Performing Arts (ESPA). There is an active community of artists here at Primary Stages.

Dec 1, 2011

I Interview Playwrights Part 410: Jennie Berman Eng


Jennie Berman Eng

Current Town: Rockville, MD

Q:  Tell me about Exit Carolyn.

A:  Exit Carolyn is a play about two best friends (Julie & Lorna) whose friendship struggles after their third best friend (and roommate) dies unexpectedly. Julie and Lorna are forced to confront the possibility that they don't really function without their third, Carolyn. It's about grief and loss and how we're forced, usually in our 20's, to decide who we are going to be as adults, and which friends we're going to keep from childhood. When I tell all this to people they wince and I can see their brains rolling around the words, "Wow. That sounds depressing." But actually, it's a comedy!

I wrote the play after a friendship breakup, that still leaves me unsettled. There is so much available information about how to deal with the loss of a romantic relationship, but so little guidance written about breaking up with a friend.

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

A:  This tells it perfectly: I'm in 7th grade. I had worked out the exact timing and location of a between-class, hallway run-in with my junior high crush, Howard Kozloff. I had staked the school, found out his class schedule, calculated for locker location and potential traffic patterns in the science hall, where my scene was to go down. I had my cutest, newest outfit on. My bangs were sprayed and teased till they arched in a large, cascading wave over my head (it was the 80s). The bell rang and everything went according to plan. Howard had written me a funny note and I had spent the previous evening penning the perfect, wittiest comeback. I would see Howard, and say something like, "Oh, hey, I have a note for you," and then casually reach in and hand it to him. He'd smile and say, "Cool. I'll read it in Math." It would be a great beginning to our lifetime love affair.

The bell rang. I walked the requisite steps at the appropriate speed. And there he was. And there I was. Face to face. I smiled and said, "Oh, hey, I have a....", and reached into my backpack. I pulled out the note, but in shuffling the bag a large maxi-pad fell out of my bag and landed at Howard's feet. My humiliation was complete with the addition of an exploded strawberry yogurt that had soaked the pad and appeared to be, well, you know. Howard was both repulsed and, I think, a little angry, as if I was purposely throwing used pads at his feet in some kind of preteen menstruating political statement.

As a person and a playwright, I am always the girl with yogurt exploding in my backpack onto something important. I am always the jokester, trying to recover from some kind of faux pas, which means I'm most comfortable writing comedy. That feeling of being the outsider has stuck with me, and I tend to write characters who don't quite fit in or do what they're supposed to.

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

A:  Getting theaters to produce work by women.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Wendy Wasserstein. I saw The Heidi Chronicles when I was 16 at The Kennedy Center in DC, and instantly knew I wanted to be a writer. I also really love Neil Simon, even though it's definitely not "cool" to. But what's not to love about well-structured plays that make people laugh? Nicky Silver appeals to my sense of being weird. All that being said, I like new plays by living writers. I like theaters that produce new plays.

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

A:  What Wendy Wasserstein said to me (at an appearance she did at the JCC in Maryland), "Get yourself into an MFA program." It was the best thing I ever did.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Come see Exit Carolyn! It's funny! It's dark! It's weird and unexpected, and magical things happen that challenged my lighting designer! The actors are extraordinarily good, and the director, Adam Knight, is truly a gift to me from the theater gods.