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1100 Playwright Interviews

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May 22, 2013

I Interview Playwrights Part 584: Ron Klier


Ron Klier

Hometown:  St. Louis, Missouri

Current Town: Los Angeles, CA

Q:  Tell me about COPS.

A:  My dad was a police officer for the city of St. Louis for forty-plus years, much of it spent either as a district detective, undercover in Narcotics, or heading up the Street Corner Apprehension Team (S.C.A.T.), a unit that targeted drug dealers and gangs in the city’s worst neighborhoods. So we always had cops coming in and out of the house. A colorful way to grow up. In this particular telling, a stranger, a civilian, walks into a bar on a night dedicated solely to police officers and their friends. Half-priced drinks, three or four dollar pitchers, that sort of thing. Trouble ensues. Cops and Friends of Cops takes place in real-time, so the audience is right there in it with the actors. A true ensemble piece, you could make the case it’s any one of the five characters’ play, a mash-up of genre storytelling: thriller, western, morality play, classic tragedy. Plus it’s visceral. Very visceral. There will be blood. At the end of the day, what I hope most is that it’s a meditation on what it means to be a good man.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I just finished a play called You Must Be Certain of the Devil, but it sucks, so it’s getting shoe-boxed. There’s an old acting truism, “Don’t play a mood.” You’ll hear it, “Mood spelled backwards is doom.” Well, don’t write a mood either. Sometimes, it takes you eighty-three pages to learn what you already knew. I’m about one for three with plays working out. I admire playwrights who write something fantastic, or seem to, every time out, but for me, I’m happy (“happy” being a relative term) with the end product about a third of the time. That’s okay. A lot of them turn into pretty good one-acts. I’m a big fan of the short story writer George Saunders and he talks about intending to write a novel and then somehow two hundred pages winds up as a workable ten or twenty. No problem. Not if you’re committed to the process. Beckett said it best: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” I just started a kind of crabby love story called Nobody Wants A Lonely Heart. Got my fingers crossed it’ll work out.

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

A:  I grew up in a pretty diverse neighborhood in North St. Louis County: black, white, burnouts, good ol’ boys, skaters, punks, skinheads, wanna be gangstas -- I kinda floated from group to group, hanging out with everybody. Nobody had a lotta money, or they would’ve probably lived somewhere else, but you couldn’t’ve asked for a better to place to spend your formative years….I was about six. First grade. Had to walk to school. Lusher Elementary. Mile or so from my house. Far enough, you’d never let a six-year old do it by themselves now. Anyway, this third grader D’Ron would wait for me at the intersection, and try to beat me up. Sometimes, he’d catch me in the morning, sometimes the afternoon, but he’d always catch me. Unless he skipped school or something. I’m sure if I could see him now, I’d see D’Ron for what he probably was: this sweet-faced little boy. But he might as well’ve been Ray Lewis or Mike Tyson to my first grade self….Today, I’m going to win. I’d view it as a challenge. Today’ll be different. Why it didn’t occur to me just to take an alternative route, I have no idea. I’m not sure why I didn’t tell my parents either. But everyday we’d battle it out and, gradually, I’d do a little better, the next day a little better maybe. Crowds would gather. A time or two, I swear I almost won. That’s how I choose to remember it….Until…one day…D’Ron had me on the ground, pounding me, and some lady pulls up in her beat-to-shit-Chevette, wearing pink plastic curlers – this is three o’clock in the afternoon – engine running, traffic’s stopped, she gets out, stands on the grassy boulevard, screams, “Get Off Him, You Nigger!” I remember feeling momentary relief. Thank God someone was helping me. Then I looked up and saw D’Ron, crying. His tears falling on my face. Running down my cheeks like they were mine. Had this look, too -- I’ll never forget it – like he’d been scooped out from the inside. D’Ron took off. Bolted. I was devastated. Never saw him again. When I think about that, I consider how much power words have and the concept of communion and how sometimes the same exact moment you get your life saved can also break your heart, and that’s what I’m after, I guess, in my work. That.

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

A:  Folks bemoan the high cost of ticket prices as being the main reason why people don’t wanna go to the theater, and that’s a big part of it obviously, the economics, but I think the real problem runs deeper. The fact is you see a bad movie, and it’s just not that bad, or rarely that bad, particularly if you exercise any degree of selectivity before you buy your tickets. The editing, the music, the performances, usually they add up to some sort of emotional experience, even if it’s fleeting. You see a bad play, it’s like a piece of your soul has been ripped outta your body wholesale. You’re held hostage in that theater, no way out, and you wanna be polite, supportive, but the whole time you’re dying inside. Too often, even with good productions the experience ends up more of an intellectual one than an emotional one, and it’s emotion that’s at the core of all decent storytelling, all art for that matter. Which brings us to acting. Theater is an actor’s medium, more so even than a playwright’s, and yet, I can’t tell you how many directors, playwrights, artistic directors I know who expect the actors to just fend for themselves, that’s “their” thing. Cast well and you’re done. Worse, they rarely create an environment that’s loving and supportive, where an actor is encouraged to do their best work. Many of them even actively despise actors, or at least distrust them, and if you don’t love actors – I mean, they can frustrate you as individuals, sure, but if you don’t love actors and acting in general -- then do everybody a favor, and get the hell outta theater. I mean it. For a play to be great, I don’t care if it’s a world premiere or a chestnut, the actors hafta be willing to put themselves through the ringer. Fight the good fight. Again and again. I see too many productions where the actors live through it once, and then the next night, the next ten nights, become a representation of that first night, dress rehearsal, whatever. When it worked. An approximation. The actors act the “idea.” They don’t always know it either. If life could be so easy. Rarely, does anybody walk out on stage intending to go through the motions. It’s usually a gradual creep to mediocrity and listlessness and nobody does anything to stop it. Every production needs chemistry. A play isn’t a film. You’re gonna see these people, work closely with them, depend on them every night, for however many nights. It’s not about the “take.” I’m not saying you have to love them, but you have to trust them, know they got your back. Collaboration’s not just a touchy-feely word to throw around until it loses its meaning. Anybody that’s drawn to the theater has been damaged in some profound way, whether they realize it or not, and yet I can’t tell you how many toxic production environments I’ve witnessed over the years. The opposite should be the case. The theater should be a safe haven. A place to experiment. To seek our truest selves. Why do you think some of the best work is being done by small collectives rather than institutions? Clearly, they don’t have a monopoly on the best actors or material or money. Far from it. It’s because they’ve created an environment akin to a fairly functional family, or a championship-contending sports team, where people feel supported, they know their roles, and they can call each other out on their bullshit, driving one another to new heights nightly. They’re invested. 100%. They bleed for their art and all of us can feel it out there in the dark somewhere and it’s awesome.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I think heroes are important, and I have lots of’em. I mean, I like who everybody else likes: Eugene O’Neill, August Wilson, David Mamet, Sam Shepard, Wallace Shawn, Arthur Miller, David Rabe, Caryl Churchill, Christopher Durang, John Osborne, Kopit, Chekhov, Beckett, Pinter, Strindberg, Ibsen, Odets, Inge, Tennessee Williams, Maria Irene Fornes, etc., etc…all the big dogs….But I’m also inspired by a ton of contemporary playwrights whose new works I look forward to reading the minute I can get my hands on’em: Annie Baker, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Tracy Letts, Adam Rapp, Neil LaBute, Bruce Norris, Theresa Rebeck, Kenneth Lonnergan, Leslye Headland, Rebecca Gilman, Jez Butterworth, Martin McDonagh, John Kolvenbach, Brett Neveu, Bekah Brunstetter, Amy Herzog, Stephen Belber, Will Eno, Itamar Moses, Melissa James Gibson, Sarah Ruhl, Thomas Bradshaw, Suzan Lori-Parks, Sheila Callaghan, Steve Yockey, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, John Pollono, Rajiv Joseph, Blair Singer, Yasmina Reza, etc., etc. By the way, that list includes you, too, Adam….I do most of my work with the Vs. Theatre in Los Angeles, so I’m also indebted to theater companies, past and present, whose work evolved from a committed ensemble -- the Group Theatre, of course, the early days of Steppenwolf, LAByrinth, Naked Angels, Rattlestick, etc. Companies I’ve, unfortunately, had to admire from afar.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I like theater that allows actors to act. What I call the magic of sustained performance. Fewer blackouts. The less interruptions the better. Where I feel like the actors’re out there on a high wire, risking emotional life and limb. A giant master shot. There’s nothing better. The flipside is that on the rough nights, where the acting’s heady or overly crafted, it’s tough to think of a whole lot worse places to be. I’m not a big fan of the prevalence of direct address either. I understand narratively it works, and can work really well, in fact, when used judiciously, I just prefer to have the story happening in front of me rather than recounted. But you do what you want.

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

A:  Read everything you can get your hands on. Write a lot. Check. Check. But the single most important thing a playwright can do – and this took me a long time to realize -- is find a community. As a Literary Manager, I can tell you your odds of getting pulled off the slush pile are practically nil. You need to create your own opportunities. Seek out people who excite you. Join a playwriting group. Most theaters need help. Especially smaller theaters. Offer to work in the literary department, or as a dramaturg, an assistant director, whatever. Stage manage. If you’re at all handy help build the sets. Get out of your shell. Even if you’re shy, just do it. See where it takes you. Don’t wait for validation from an institution. Create art with your friends. At the same time, don’t rush a production either. I know so many writers who finish a rough draft of a play and then right away wanna schedule a public reading. Remember what Nabokov said, “Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts.” Take the time to get it right. Nabokov again: “My pencils outlast their erasers.” If you don’t take the music of your play seriously, then how can you expect anybody else to, particularly your actors. Write plays that can expand and become something bigger than they are on the page with the help of your collaborators. Learn to write for actors. Do yourself a favor, and assume they’re great actors. Two, three, four Daniel-Day Lewises and Meryl Streeps. Write parts that will challenge them, scare the hell outta them, parts they’ll crawl through fiery broken glass to play, even if it’s for free, and that they’ll still be talking about ten years after your play’s closed. Let your stories spin out of the characters, not the other way around. If you got the cojones, take an acting class. I’m not an actor, but I’ve taken several. It’s no coincidence that some of our best playwrights were actors first. Some of them very good ones. The better you understand the actor’s process, the better you’ll be as a dramatist. Then, when somebody finally blesses you with a production, and you’re invited into the rehearsal room for the first time, shut your mouth. Fight the urge to spout result-oriented, panicked nonsense, understanding that people need to be bad for a while before they can be amazing. After all, nobody was sitting over your shoulder chiming in when you were writing the thing. Allow them the same freedom. Unless the director sucks. Then good luck.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A: If you’re in the Los Angeles area, please check out Cops and Friends of Cops at the Vs. Theatre Company. It runs Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm thru June 1st. The plan, then, is to extend it Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 8pm thru June 29th. Tickets available at www.vstheatre.org. Now that Cops is up and running and I got a little more time on my hands, I’m also looking forward to seeing Annapurna by Sharr White at the Odyssey, The North Plan by Jason Wells at the Elephant Theatre, Neil LaBute’s take on Miss Julie over at the Geffen, and The Size of Pike by Lee Wochner at Moving Arts Theatre, all of which I’ve heard wonderful things about.


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May 21, 2013

I Interview Playwrights Part 583: Andrea Thome



Andrea Thome

Hometown: Madison, WI

Current Town: New York City (uptown, baby! 207th st)

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Besides my play PINKOLANDIA which recently opened at INTAR, I'm working on a new play called THE NECKLACE OF THE DOVE, which integrates text, music and movement. It tells interwoven stories and moves between 2 eras: the world of 21st-century immigrant, transsexual women who gather at an underground club in Queens, and the 11th-century love stories of Arabic-Spanish philosopher Ibn Hazm. These refugees from different eras travel between languages, genders and ways of loving – enacting their own Reconquista and reclaiming a pluralistic world. My collaborators are composer Amir Khosrowpour and director Lisa Rothe, and a kickass group of performers including David Anzuelo, Mariana Carreño, Maria Christina Oliveras and more wonderful artists. We all worked on our feet over several months and shared an initial version through Mabou Mines' Resident Artist Program in January. It's not something that I want to (or can) write alone in a room and then just hand a script to actors -- it needs to come into being on its feet, in time and space, and the writing process integrates what we all discover there.

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

A:  I'm so bad at remembering stories! But here are some random details: I did get into a big fight with my whole 7th grade Social Studies class (and teacher) about Ronald Reagan, like the character Beny in my play Pinkolandia. This was in Madison, Wisconsin in the 1980's, and even though there's big progressive university there, in a public middle school the atmosphere wasn't quite the same. I used to get really fired up about Latin American politics, which other kids thought was weird and unpatriotic. My Dad took me to a march against the invasion of Granada and frat boys threw beer cans at us and called us commie pinkos. I thought it was fun. That's in the play too. Besides the politics, I was kind of a dreamer and loved, loved to read..the crossing guard used to yell at me because I'd cross the street reading books. When I was eleven I tried to invent a contraption that would let me read in the shower without getting the book wet. Nerd!

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

A:  Oh man. I think the following is the result of a limited kind of thinking in our field: lack of access, low presence of artists and audiences of color and less economic privilege, too-high ticket prices (should be no more than the cost of a movie)... Corporate thinking has been embraced too far, to the point where many so-called 'artistic' decisions are made based on what will sell, and even organizational hierarchies and payscales mirror corporate stratification (where often low-paid playwrights and other artists are subsidizing much higher salaries). This can veil an insidious colonialist kind of thinking, where stories by and about people who don't inhabit the 'usual' places of power (or cultural dominance) in our society aren't produced because they're 'unsellable,' or their stories are used to demonstrate a theater's 'diversity' on a superficial level. That's why...we have to keep producing ourselves! And why we still need theaters like INTAR that nourish Latino/a artists, places where we can be our full artistic selves. We can't just wait for people to get a clue. As Patricia Araiza, brilliant Colombian theater artist, once said, if we 'on the margins' keep doing what we're doing, then eventually the center of gravity will move, and the margins will become the center.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Maria Irene Fornes is still my theatrical hero -- even now, with Alzheimer's, when I go see her in the nursing home, her creative spirit. mischievousness, and sensitivity to life are still so present. I never stop learning from her. Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas, Migdalia Cruz, Emily Morse, Deb Margolin, Jose Rivera...these and many more are also heroes of mine, as theater artists and as human beings.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that doesn't just let us stay in our heads, removed, comfortable sitting on our asses (either metaphorically or literally) and which instead affects us viscerally or opens up our emotional and sensory receptors, and connects us more deeply to our whole selves -- which reminds us that we're part of a human community too. Sometimes we need to be surprised into this, to take a ride off the logical path and to have to trust other ways of making sense of things. Like how satire uses laughter to get us to open up on a gut level, so we're more receptive to the suckerpunch of the truth.

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

A:  Just MAKE SHIT! Nourish your relationships with collaborators and create your own work together. Don't just send your plays off to people you've never met and wait for someone to produce you. The best theater education I ever got was running our tiny theater with 4 friends in San Francisco: we each took turns writing or creating the next show, and the rest helped make that person's vision a reality. We did everything from cleaning toilets to building sets out of cast-off construction palettes to acting to writing. We had to have a new play up almost every month in order to pay the rent on the space, and we gave each other complete freedom to make whatever kind of play we wanted -- the rest of us would help. We were very broke and all working other jobs, but in 5 years we created 22 original pieces, grew a wonderful community, and learned the stuff you only learn when an audience is showing up in 5 days and you're still trying to finish the play. This is how I started playwriting (I had been an actor mostly). This was back in the late 90's...13P has done something similar more recently here, which also was a great model. Like them, we decided to end it when we were done and go out with a bang. So please, please, keep making stuff!

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My play PINKOLANDIA is currently playing at INTAR Theatre (through May 26), directed by José Zayas. It's about 2 young sisters, daughters of Chilean exiles, who are growing up in 1980's Wisconsin and who create fantastical worlds to make sense of their parents' experiences and figure out their own story. There are talking bears, Nazis and satirical takes on political figures like Reagan and Kissinger. They just added a special matinee on Saturday May 25 at 3pm, for which all tickets are just $15!

http://www.intartheatre.org/on-stage-now




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May 20, 2013

I Interview Playwrights Part 582: Kemp Powers



Kemp Powers

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

Current Town: Los Angeles, CA.

Q:  Tell me about One Night In Miami.

A:  When I was a freshman in college, if you would have asked me who my biggest inspirations were, I would have said four names. Muhammad Ali. Jim Brown. Malcolm X. And Sam Cooke. So, when I found out as a young man that these four were actually friends, my mind was blown. It's the equivalent of accidentally stumbling upon a black Justice League of America. Only the thing bonding these four at the time wasn't their collective status as heroes, but as outlaws. One night was especially fascinating to me. February 25, 1964. That was the night Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion of the world at only 22 years of age. Everyone knows this. Many people also know the very next morning, he announced that he was a member of the Nation of Islam, a group personified by its fiery minister, Malcolm X. But what hardly anyone knows is that between the end of that fight and the announcement the next morning, the new champ spent the night in a tiny motel room with his friends Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown. One night and four not-yet-legendary men seemed like too juicy a setting for me not to explore in a play, and that seed became the basis of One Night in Miami..., where I imagine all of the many things these men could have discussed, disputed and possibly resolved when left alone in a room for one revelatory evening.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm putting the finishing touches on a new play, The Two Reds. Another fun exploration into history that finishes my little "cycle" that began with One Night in Miami... Though this story takes place much earlier. When Malcolm X was still a young hustler named "Detroit Red," he worked in the kitchen at a jazz club alongside another, more outspoken young redheaded black guy called "Chicago Red." Of course, this person would go on to be known as the great comedian Redd Foxx. My play takes place in the kitchen of that jazz club, and includes a greater cross-section of characters, races and personalities from the time. It explores issues of class and race that, though historical, I feel are quite relevant in a contemporary setting as well. But the central protagonists are definitely the two reds, though at no point do we ever call them by their actual names (Malcolm and John). I'm also very excited about this one, and hope to start having some staged readings by the end of this year.

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 started writing more out of necessity than desire as a young man. My buddies and I would create little comic books in our spiral notebooks, and I was always tasked with writing the stories. I guess I was just the best at articulating an idea within our little group of neighborhood kids. I guess you could say that skill has served me well throughout life, as I ended up becoming a journalist and having to give a voice to many people who can't quite put into words what's going on in their world.

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

A:  I'd change the perception that great theater can only originate from a couple of key "theater cities" around the world. It can come from anywhere.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  August Wilson. Sam Shepherd. My fellow Rogue Machine Theatre resident playwrights, such as John Pollono and Henry Murray. It's great to be in a community of playwrights. They are an invaluable sounding board.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love seeing new plays. And I feel lucky to be in a city where so many writers are taking risks and creating new works on a regular basis. It also gives me a window into the issues that are important to writers of different age, sex and background.

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

A:  Above all else, hone your craft. I participated in so many short-play and 24-hour playwriting programs at Rogue Machine before I had the confidence to begin writing full-length plays. And even then, the painful process of rewriting ends up being how I spend most of my time. It's always wonderful to have a great idea for a play, but it is so much more important to have the skill and craft to execute it. I'd rather see a well-executed play based on a subject I'm less interested in than a poorly-executed play based on something about which I'm passionate.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  One Night in Miami... has its world premiere on June 8 at Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles. The play will be running June 8-July 28, and tickets can be purchased here: http://roguemachinetheatre.com/wordpress/show-info/one-night-in-miami/ I'm very proud of it, and so many people have poured their hearts and souls into this production, so I really hope as many people as possible have an opportunity to see it. It will be a fun night of theater! 



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Books by Adam

Compulsive Love Outtakes and All of Season One

Outtakes:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drdYDiJxl8c


Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/compulsivelove
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CompulsiveLove

Directed by Kevan Tucker
Written by Adam Szymkowicz
Produced by Aaron Edell, Tim O'Neill and Kevan Tucker

Director of Photography: Will Boisture
Edited by Tim O'Neill
Music by Eli Bolin

Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFOoTipWNZY

Starring:
Alex Anfanger
Laura Ramadei
Amy Staats
Mary Rasmussen
Penny Lynn White
Bethany Heinrich
Matthew Hampton

Episode 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJLUl27dxr4

Starring:
Alex Anfanger
Laura Ramadei
Amy Staats
Maureen Sebastian
Wai Ching Ho
Travis York

Deleted Scene Episode 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcUmrC3d65g

Episode 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LujPn8-zIO4

Starring:
Alex Anfanger
Laura Ramadei
Amy Staats
Molly Ward
Allison Altman
Chris Morris

Episode 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6O1sDXGVgI

Starring:
Alex Anfanger
Laura Ramadei
Saramoira Sheilds
Travis York
Bianca Caruso
Aaron Edell

Episode 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LrLBTlEvYo

Starring
Alex Anfanger
Laura Ramadei
Amy Staats
Liz Holtan
Marnie Schulenburg
Anna Greenfield

Episode 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdiDyrTRZv4

Cameo by comic book Legend Fred Van Lente (http://fredvanlente.com/)

Starring
Alex Anfanger
Laura Ramadei
Amy Staats
Sierra Marcks
Travis York
Tyson Frawley
Fred Van Lente

Episode 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq0IheFoX5g

Starring:
Alex Anfanger
Laura Ramadei
Amy Staats
Anna O'Donoghue

Episode 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCXps_ViFfg

Starring:
Alex Anfanger
Laura Ramadei
Amy Staats
Travis York


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May 19, 2013

Two Readings of my play Mercy

I have two readings in June of Mercy, the play which was the first runner up for Yale's Horn Prize this year.

First MCC Theater in New York presents it as part of Playlabs. Ethan McSweeney directs

June 3
7pm
Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street).

The series is offered free of charge, but reservations are recommended. Reservations can be made by visiting www.mcctheater.org.




Then The Asylum Theatre in Las Vegas is flying me in for their reading

June 22
7:30 pm
The Art Square Theatre


synopsis of Mercy:


Orville is grieving the vehicular manslaughter of his beloved wife. When by chance he faces the driver who killed her, he begins an agonizing conflict between revenge and forgiveness.



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May 12, 2013

I Interview Playwrights Part 581: Claudia Haas



Claudia I. Haas

Hometown:   New York City (Queens)

Current Town:  White Bear Lake, MN

Q:  What are you working on now?
A:  Right this very, absolute-minute, I am adapting My Father's Dragon - a children's book I came across this winter that enchanted me. All of a sudden I started seeing puppets. Crocodile puppets... monkey puppets. That's new for me!

And I am slogging away editing my "Russian-explorer-Otto-Schmidt-North-Pole-Universe-Physics" play And the Universe Didn't Blink. It's about a young girl coming to terms with her father's death. And all that other stuff in quotes.

Q:  Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.
A:  Grandma Gresio and I played "make-a-believe" from the time I could speak. I probably was about 9 years old when I found out it was "make-believe" and only "make-a-believe" if you had an Italian accent! But you know, I still play "make-a-believe." Every time I sit down at my desk and write. 

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?
A:  Getting down to basics - the ticket prices. For someone who has been in theatre for many decades, I have missed many shows because I could not afford to go. In New York City, there were more opportunities to see shows at reduced prices (or free if you were in the biz) than there are in Minnesota. Although it has gotten better.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
A:  You are speaking to someone who has had AARP on her tail for a number of years! I have gone through stages. 

In my teens and twenties, I did the "soup to nuts" routine of seeing every play I could ... the plays of Shakespeare, O'Neill, Miller, Simon, Albee, Wasserstein, Durang, Wilson, etc.  Growing up in New York City was a playground for a teen who was head-over-heels, wildly in love with theatre. And for $5 - you could  sit in the back row of any Broadway or Off-Broadway show or musical! Can you imagine? I'd babysit on Saturday and take my money and go to a show on Sunday. Almost every week. Who can do that today? I was a sponge and those years were invaluable in helping me create works for young audiences. Anything is possible in this field.  My exposure to so many types of theatre gave me permission to play with my work.

The work of playwrights in the youth theatre field is astounding. The care, the risks, the breadth of the genre just gives me sweet tingles.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?
A:  I'm a theatre slut. I am as spellbound by a grand tap-dancing number as I am by six actors in t-shirts and jeans spinning a tale in a black box. If you're making theatrical magic, I'm there.

Q:  What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?
A:  Be kind. It takes a lot of people to bring you work to life. Be kind.

Q:  Plugs, please:
A:  An excerpt of And the Universe Didn't Blink will be part of The Twin Cities Playwright Tease on June 29th. It's an evening designed to bring local playwrights in touch with local theatres. Conceived by Victoria Pyan and Erin Denman, the idea of one night of showcasing local playwrights to local theatres is an idea that should go viral.

La Bella Cinderella will be part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival August 1-11, 2013. Pure clowning and silliness for the younger set - Cinderella and pasta - in Italy. Grandma Gresio - she's a-smiling.

And my first booked 2014 production: Cap o' Rushes will be produced by East Valley Children's Theatre in Mesa, Az. I am doubly excited about this because I will be going there ... in February 2014. As someone who lives in Minnesota, you can understand why February in Arizona holds great appeal.

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May 11, 2013

I Interview Playwrights Part 580: Kimber Lee



Kimber Lee

Hometowns: Pyungtaek, South Korea; Nampa, Idaho; Seattle, Washington

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Playwriting: Getting ready for the Lark Playwrights Workshop reading of my play brownsville song (b-side for tray), working on new pages for another new play that I'll take into our last Playwrights Workshop meeting this coming Monday, and doing some prep for upcoming workshops of the Brownsville play this summer at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

Boxing: Trying to re-tool my jab and right cross. Learning to fight in the pocket and go to the body. Footwork.

Other: Catering gigs, when I can get them. Ongoing assessment of my internet habits - addiction or useful engine of engagement?

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

A:  Jeez, I dunno. I was a weird kid, but I guess I am learning that a lot of people feel/have felt that way; maybe they just figure out how to hide it better than I did. Was I weirder than the average kid? Who can say. I do know that I was the only Asian American kid in my neighborhood, at my school, in my parents' church - in the whole town, basically. I guess that'll do something to ya, to be the only one of something, and I wonder how much of my ability to absorb an environment is a direct result of being the only Asian person in a small Idaho town. Actually, this is a lie. There were occasionally other Asians. There was a Japanese exchange student in my high school for our junior and senior years. But for the most part, walking into any situation, I was the only one. And I kept thinking I could blend in by feathering my hair and wearing blue eyeshadow and watching Hee-Haw. Live and learn - Hee-Haw is not the key to racial integration. I know this now.

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

A:  I wish we had multilateral (multi-operational?) channels of access, rather than the fairly vertical paths we all currently traverse - for both theatre-makers and audience members. For theatre-makers, I wish the "system" could recognize and embrace a much broader recognition of what theatre can be. For audience members, I wish ticket cost was not prohibitive, and also that there were artistic community-organizers who could lead meaningful cross-community engagement in the work - not just by inviting the "Asian audience" to the one "Asian play" in the season, but by creating an ongoing relationship across an entire season of plays. I wish theatre could stop insisting on silos of "identity" in the way they select, produce, and package work for marketing, and instead engage in the complications and contradictions that exist in everyone's experience.

Have I said too much? This is more than one thing. So. If one thing? That fear would cease to be a significant motivator for any artist, administrator, or audience member.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Anyone who has been knocked flatsplat and then gets back up and keeps going.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  You know, I don't have a genre or form or type. Anything with guts. Moments that hold me in the palm of their sweaty hand, tickle me, then punch me in the face. Bravery. Fuck-expectations-this-is-who-I-am writing. Willingness to risk being thought of as uncool. Ambition riding hell-for-leather toward the edge of current ability.

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

A:  Aigooahhh...I am just starting out myself. And I find that my writing time consists largely of me telling myself "It's okay. You can do this. Go ahead. Okay, maybe eat some boneless pork and jujubes first, then go ahead." And then I flail around. One bit of sanity I could offer is a quote from Melissa James Gibson, "Be kind to your impulses." That has helped me immeasurably, cuz I don't know about you, but for some reason, my tendency is to jump all over my impulses and bludgeon them to death with rancid dead fish thoughts like "YOU CAN'T WRITE THAT IT'S STUPID AND EVERYONE WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE A MORON IN PLAYWRIGHT'S CLOTHING." Not helpful.

Being kind to impulses doesn't have to mean you end up using all of them, but the practice of kindness can make a sort of slip-n'-slide from your soul to your typing fingers, and once the flow is going, that's the sweet spot. You can sort it out later.

Q: Plugs, please:

A:  My pal, the great Chisa Hutchinson has a play at the Wild Project May 4-18th, 2013 called ALONDRA WAS HERE - get there if you can! I am going tomorrow and I am so excited! Go here for tickets: http://www.thewildproject.com/performances/index.shtml

The other Lark Playwrights Workshop Fellows have readings coming up too:
PING PONG by Rogelio Martinez
DEAD AND BREATHING by Chisa Hutchinson
SKELETON CREW by Dominique Morisseau
All free but ya gotta reserve a spot there's a link on this page: http://www.larktheatre.org/playwrights-workshop-2013/

brownsville song (b-side for tray)
@ Lark Play Development Center Playwrights Workshop reading on Tuesday May 14th 7:30pm
@ Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, June 2013 - if you're in Idaho (heh), check out the free reading
@ Bay Area Playwrights Festival, July 2013 - if you're in the Bay area, the BAPF website has info about reading time/dates.
 
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May 10, 2013

I Interview Playwrights Part 579: Lindsey Ferrentino

 

Lindsey Ferrentino

Hometown: Merritt Island, Florida

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I've been polishing up some plays, ironing out wrinkles for upcoming readings.

But I'm excited to be diving head first into researching and writing a new play, BURN GAME about female soldiers coming home from Iraq, reintegrating burn victims through virtual reality, video game therapy. The research phase is incredibly important to me when I write and I'm getting to work with a dear friend of mine who is a psychologist at a VA center, do some volunteer work, and interviews. Reading and hearing these first hand trauma testimonies has been so informative about how we write our own narrative, or avoid doing so.

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

A:  My dad is a professional magician and comedian, who, throughout my childhood, practiced his illusions at the dinner table until I understood the mechanics behind his tricks.
 
I grew up in the back row of comedy clubs and theaters, watching rooms full of adults miss the sleight of hand that I knew so well. Having already memorized my dad's act, I'd instead watch the faces in the audience-- eyes wide, laughing hysterically, eating out of the palm of his hand, wanting so deeply to be transported and believe in the impossible.

When I was about six, and my dad was out on the lawn talking to a neighbor, I kept opening the front door, waving my behind, clapping my hands, obnoxiously vying attention. After several requests to stop interrupting, my dad asked me why I'd continue... I said, "I'm like you. I have to go for the laugh."

Q:  If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?
 
A:  Okay. Here we go--
Cheaper to produce, cheaper to see.
That new work was a nationally cherished pastime, like baseball! With football stadium crowds knocking down the doors of theaters across the country, not just New York.
...And that a fairy flew to readings of all playwrights everywhere, turning them into realized productions.
One can dream...

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
 
A:  Finding Edward Albee, back in high school, was like taking a sledgehammer and breaking open what I thought a play was and could be, how our failure to communicate was a greater tragedy than any plot I was trying to wring out. Katori Hall's plays feel to me like beautiful explosions that make me want to wake up from a sort of dream.

Also, my extended family is made up of many brilliant storytellers who trade punchlines, sarcasm, and gossip... where conversation is treated as entertainment.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?
 
A:  Theater that feels present.
That addresses what it means to be alive right now, in this year.
That makes me laugh and then punches me in the gut.
That finds poetry in the mundane and magic in the most unlikely of places...

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

A:  Find actors who understand the worlds you create, your words and rhythms. Find directors you trust to enhance your vision. And readers who are willing to tackle your early drafts, and identify your intentions.
 
Surround yourself with positive people whose talent and opinions you respect, cherish, and need... Whose work inspires yours... who dream of the same kind of uptopia... then fight like hell for your people.

Oh yeah... and also, just write... All the time...

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My MFA comrades Kristen Palmer, Daniel John Kelly, and Rob Cardazone will face the world with beautiful new works in hand, outside the doors of our grad. program. Watch our for them!

In June, my play--
MOONLIGHT ON THE BAYOU will have a second reading, directed by Patricia McGregor whose specificity in a rehearsal room is astounding.

Another play of mine MAGIC MAN will have a workshop at NYTW, directed by the wonderful Tamilla Woodward - who I can't wait to collaborate with for the first time.

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May 7, 2013

I Interview Playwrights Part 578: Jeff Augustin




Jeff Augustin

Hometown: Miami, FL

Current Town: La Jolla, CA (For only another year. Currently in grad school at UCSD)

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I’m working on two plays. Both at very different stages.

The first is THE LAST TIGER IN HAITI, which is mostly an idea right now. I’ll get a chance to write it this summer at Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor. It draws from a form of Haitian Storytelling known as Krik? Krak! In villages in Haiti, when a storyteller is ready or wants to share a story they say “Krik?” and if the other villagers want to hear a story they say: “Krak!” These stories come from a catalogue of folktales shared and passed down from generation to generation. What makes the stories special is the storyteller and how they embody it. The play is about three friends who, as children, would meet up and tell these stories. Ten years later they’re reunited by the alpha of the group for unknown reasons. It’s pretty much as far as I’ve gotten so far.

The other play, LITTLE CHILDREN DREAM OF GOD, I’ve been working on for a year now. It’s an eight-person ensemble piece revolving around a woman who travels from Haiti to Miami on a car tire eleven months pregnant. It deals a bit with Haitian mythology and voodoo. And explores what happens when we hold on to the fantasies we create as children. It’s a lot further along than the other play, but I’m still trying to figure out how it works. I’ll be developing it this summer at the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference.

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 mom was obsessed with family time activities that didn’t require us going out. So even though I grew up in Miami we had picnics in our living room or elaborate singing contests with costumes and dance routines.

But my favorite thing we did was story time. We'd shut off all the lights and other electronics, light some candles and tell stories. My mom would tell these urban legends about the town she grew up in in Haiti. And she was really good at telling stories. The worlds she created would fill the room. They were simple stories, but she told with great care and passion. It felt like being part of some great tradition. It’s really what got me into theatre.

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

A:  Offer cheaper tickets and more diverse voices in programing. I know that’s two things, sorry.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Jose Rivera, Dael Orlandersmith, Adrienne Kennedy, Tennessee Williams

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that excited those who made it. Theatre about a deep, human need. Theatre that feels personal and heartfelt, even if it’s sentimental. And I can’t get enough of beautiful language.

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

A;  Read and see a lot of theatre, especially new plays. Get to know other writers, both your heroes and peers. There is a wealth of knowledge and inspiration to be mined. And write more than you think you’re capable of.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Two fellow UCSD playwrights have things going on this summer: Look out for David Jacobi’s EX MACHINA in this year’s NY Fringe Festival (August) and Kristin Idaszak’s THE LIAR PARADOX as part of LeapFest at Stage Left Theatre in Chicago (June).

Also check out QUEERSPAWN by Mallery Avidon running at HERE Arts Center in May. She's awesome.

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May 6, 2013

I Interview Playwrights Part 577: Ken Ferrigni


Ken Ferrigni

Hometown:  St. Louis, Missouri

Current Town:  Astoria, Queens

Q:  Tell me about Occupation.

A:  OCCUPATION takes place a few years from now. A series of economic catastrophes have struck the US and it can no longer borrow money. China, depending on American as a trading partner, offers America 5 trillion dollars in exchange for the state of Florida. A group of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans form an insurgency behind an evangelical Christian leader, protesting what they see as the illegal transfer of Florida to China. The play concerns the final days of that insurgency.

The play started as kind of a thought experiment. I had just seen Sebastian Junger's documentary “Restrepo” and I thought that the Afghan insurgency might be the most interesting story in the world. But I didn't know any Afghani actors, had never been to Afghanistan, etc. So I thought could I create an American analog? So I swapped Afghanistan's Korengal valley for the Everglades, the Afghani Mujahideen for this next generation of American veterans, Islamic fundamentalism for Evangelical Christianity. And of course instead of an American occupying force, it would be America's creditor: the People's Republic of China.

My goal was to see how big a story I could tell. I'd seen a lot of family dramas, plays about 26-year-olds who were having trouble in their dating lives, and what I thought were essentially indie films masquerading as plays. So, the goal here was to personalize some of these extraordinary geo-political and religious conflicts into an American idiom. The result has been really exciting.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I just finished a short film that's going to be shot this May about an assistant in HR department who is tasked by the president of the company to to fire the head of HR, sort of an Apocalypse Now meets Office Space thing. I'm also working on a couple of full length plays as well as continually revising my 19th Century bomb-throwing epic about Felice Orsini. I write nearly every month for “Our Bar,” an hour-long series of vignettes at an upstairs bar in Murray Hill produced by Jessi Blue Gormezano and Project: Theater.

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

A:  Having worked a lot regionally as an actor in St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Florida, I guess the thing I'd love most would be if the regional theatre model wasn't just a New York play distribution model. I remember working in St. Louis and watching plays about Manhattan roll in and they really had nothing to do with the people in the audience. I kind of wish that theatrical regional tastes were like culinary regional tastes and we might know the differences between a Arizona-developed play and Nebraska-developed play enough to celebrate them. Of course, it's entirely possible that there are tons of people in the US theatre establishment who already have this awareness and I'm just slow on the uptake.

Also, I wish Broadway theatre tickets didn't cost more than a day's wage for most NYC theatre practioners. If you bought tickets at the box office to all the shows that were nominated for the Tonys this year, you dropped more than 3 grand.

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 started doing theatre in Boy Scouts when I was ten and it wasn't called theatre. They were just called 'skits.' It sounds wholesome but this was in the city of St. Louis in the late 80s. I was a Boy Scout in a troop where kids stole bikes from each other. Fights were pretty regular. Standing up in front of that group felt really dangerous and rarely went well. I think that aesthetic – that the audience is hostile, they want to be entertained and quickly, that the stage is not a nice place but a place of danger- has been a big part of how I developed in the theatre.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  The ones who persevere. I've been at this for a while as an actor and a playwright and I've watched a lot of friends hang it up. So when I see a guy like Alex Roe at Metropolitan Playhouse whose been at this a lot longer than I have and he's producing great shows and he seems not only happy and talented but also sane, it's an inspiration.

I also love actors who dive in on to new plays. Actors who aren't content to give their special spin on established roles but who want to create new people and new characters and give voice to things that nobody's ever seen. It takes guts and smarts and talent.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  OCCUPATION runs June 6 to June 23 at TBG Theatre (312 W. 36th Street). You can find out more at chinabuysflorida.com. And if you want to come have a beer with me and catch some short plays, stop by “Our Bar” on the first Wednesday of the month at Failte Irish Whiskey Bar (531 2nd Avenue) or ourbarnyc.com.

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May 4, 2013

I Interview Playwrights Part 576: Eliza Bent



Eliza Bent

Hometown: Brookline, MA

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  Tell me about The Hotel Colors.

A:  Allora. I wrote The Hotel Colors my first semester at Brooklyn College. I was impressed by those beautiful poetic Beckett plays and how he was translating from French into English. My teacher, Mac Wellman, suggested I try using a similar technique with Italian. So I ended up writing a play set at a hostel in Rome where the characters speak in a very direct literal translation from Italian into English.

So there’s a strong language device happening in the play (and the result is not at all like Beckett) but underneath the language game a gentle story emerges about these weirdos coming together and spending a night with each other at a hostel. Nothing super monumental happens… the group eats pizza, they play drinking games, someone turns a year older, an ex-lover appears, but the evening is memorable to these characters for the same reasons you might remember certain vibrant nights while traveling more than others.

Incidentally, I have stayed at a place called Colors Hotel. I lived there for a few weeks when I landed in Rome after graduating from college. (Clearly, I’m not very original with titles…!) This play is loosely inspired from time spent there and at other hostels, mostly in Italy.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I’m working on a show about wizards who live in a modern and mundane age. It’s called Blue Wizard/Black Wizard and it’ll be at the Incubator Arts Project in December 2013 directed by Dan Safer. I’ll play the Blue Wizard and Dave Malloy, who is writing the music, will play the Black Wizard. It’s staged like a sporting event and Nikki Calonge and Mikéah Ernest Jennings, preside over the ongoings.

But one of the referees used to be a wizard. And the wizards misbehave and one of the referees quits and leaves the theatre. Plus, there’s a trombone player jester. And video sequences. So there’s a lot. And the referees and wizards must do an elaborate series of warm ups that takes them in and out of epic historic moments and quotidian life. They battle each other via song. There is a series of contests. The audience will have to pick a side when they enter the theatre. It’s ultimately kind of a “philosophy-off” where the wizards and referees duel over ancient ideals in order to save the world from the Great Mediocrity. Or something like that.

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

A:  I will tell you about three movies which contribute to my personality. The 1986 PBS version of Anne of Green Gables starring Megan Follows, Wayne’s World and Cinema Paradiso. Anne sparked to my love of words and florid vocabulary, Wayne affirmed my deep commitment to scatology, while Toto and Alfredo introduced me to the most musical and beautiful language, Italian.

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

A:  One thing? Hmm. I love to complain—and I excel at all manners of lamentation— but I would probably like all us theatre artists to moan a little less. Making theatre can be sucky but it’s also pretty amaze. We are lucky to make theatre!

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I only have anti-heros. They include Anne Brenner who is directing The Hotel Colors, all my Half Straddle compatriots, Brooklyn College peeps, Oma-whores (ie people that attend the Great Plains Theatre Conference), the Fusebox Festival folks, Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin, and anyone who runs a theatre space, and also those old playwrights like Chekhov and Tennesse Williams and Lorraine Hansberry.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I am very excited by theatre that plays with theatrical convention and form. I am thrilled when I see a show that could have only been performed as theatre (as opposed to something on TV). I like it when theatre has good visual design and also interesting words and that manages to make me feel and think and laugh.

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

A:  Don’t do it!
J/k.
I would advise young playwrights to find people who they enjoy working with and who inspire them. I’d also recommend maintaining a non-theatre life. Keep up with other interests and friends. I am terrified by theatre theatre people, whose only interests are theatre, how myopic! Oh and it doesn’t hurt to figure out a way of making money that can maintain your theatre habit.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  As the great Becca Blackwell says, “Butt plug hugs!”

The Hotel Colors runs May 8-25 at the Bushwick Starr.

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