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Mar 27, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 920: Lauren Wimmer



Lauren Wimmer

Hometown: Milwaukee, WI

Current Town: Pittsburgh, PA

Q:  Tell me about Divorce Party.

A:  Melanie and Eugene, a freshly divorced couple, decide to throw a party to prove to their friends they are truly happy to disastrous effects. Parties are interesting to me as a playwright, because they are escapes from the real world where everyone's all smiles so I wanted to explore what happens when those facades are tarnished and we start to see these people for who they really are. The play employs surreal elements that will consistently surprise the audience as these friends forge new relationships with each other and themselves. I began writing this play during my senior year at Sarah Lawrence. My writing up until that point veered toward morality plays reminiscent of Arthur Miller. Before I graduated, I wanted to stretch the boundaries of my writing and this was a large step in a completely different direction, almost in a different universe. I'm inspired to write plays by an image, or a tableau and I write the play around it. How do we get to, or how does the play surround that image? With this play that image was a smiling person holding a cake with only the word "Happy" frosted on it. So that catapulted this play forward and, four years later, I am thrilled to have Cave Theatre Co. produce it.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  Many things. Maybe too many things, but I don't think that's possible. Attending Carnegie Mellon's School of Drama where I'm pursuing my MFA, I have written more than I could ever imagine. I also have a ten minute play "Everything You'll Miss In Minutes," heading into rehearsals in April as part of Theater Masters. The play takes place in a chair lift so that's been a fun challenge. I am also working on other plays with elements ranging from baby dolls to hand models and child prodigies to a Christian children's television show to a drama set in a college dorm room.

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 don't have a particular moment, but I was the quietest child growing up. I would see how long I could go without talking at school like it was a competition with myself. Some days I wouldn't talk at all in public. By choice. At home, as my family can attest, it was a very different story. So, I think that made me interested in exploring our private selves versus public selves. And I also noticed being a shy kid that I was easily forgotten by teachers and classmates so I'm also drawn to people on the outskirts.

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

A:  I would swap out quite a few of the Shakespeare festivals and put New Works festivals in their places. This way we could discover bold, diverse voices and maybe even the next Shakespeare.

Q:  Who are, or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I distinctly remember reading How I Learned To Drive by Paula Vogel my first year in college. I was struggling in my first playwriting class as I tried to imitate the Tony-winning family dramas around that time. I thought about quitting and it was reading Vogel's play that I discovered so many things. It showed me how you could handle dark subject matter with humor while not diminishing the trauma associated with it. I then read Edward Albee, Ionesco, Maria Irene Fornes, Beckett, Joe Orton, Christopher Durang, Caryl Churchill, Suzan-Lori Parks, John Guare, and Nicky Silver, whose writing was also influential to me during my college years. Currently my theatrical heroes are, but not limited to, Annie Baker, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, David Henry Hwang, Mark Schultz, Jenny Schwartz, Erin Markey, Duncan Macmillan, Simon Stephens, and Ike Holter. I am also drawn to theatre ensembles like Kneehigh, The Debate Society, and The Civilians.

Q:  What kind of theatre excites you?

A:  Theater that keeps me guessing, that causes me to think about something in a different way even if I may disagree with the position the playwright takes. Theatre that I don't forget about a week later.

Q:  What advice would you give to playwrights starting out?

A:  Submit your plays everywhere. Be persistent. Read and see plays, even readings of plays. Have a trusted friend, or family member with a law degree look over contracts from theaters. As far as writing goes, if your brain is telling you not to write something, you should write it. Also, I think this is common problem for many writers starting out, never apologize for your writing. Be your work's greatest advocate.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Divorce Party
Produced by Cave Theatre Co. at UNDER St. Marks
4/21-5/7: Friday & Saturday performances at 8pm, Sunday matinees at 3pm
Tickets are $20 and available at cavetheatre.org

Theater Masters' National MFA Playwrights Festival
At Theater For The New City
5/2-5/6 at 7:30pm
Tickets are $18 and available at theatermasters.org

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Mar 25, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 919: W.M. Akers




W.M. Akers

Hometown:  I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, home of Bobby's Dairy Dip.

Current Town: Since 2006, I've lived in New York City, which must be home to something as notable as Bobby's Dairy Dip, but I can't think what.

Q:  Tell me about your upcoming show.


A:  Dead Man's Dinner is a very dark comedy about starvation, cannibalism and rent control. At least, I think it's a comedy. The last time I thought a play was a comedy, it turned out it was actually just really sad, and it's possible the same thing will happen here. Dead Man's Dinner is being produced by the exceptionally excellent women of Squeaky Bicycle, whom I've been working with since 2011. Directed by Kathryn McConnell, who is my favorite director I've ever worked with, bar none, it runs from March 23 to April 9 at Theater For The New City. (That's the theater on First Avenue in Manhattan—not Theater For a New Audience, which is in Brooklyn. FWIW, TNC had the name first.)

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  When we were auditioning the women of Dead Man's Dinner, I had an experience I've had several times before—seeing ten or fifteen amazing actresses, and being frustrated that we couldn't cast them all. I told Kate that I was going to write a six woman farce, so that the next time we do auditions, we wouldn't have to make so many hard decisions about who not to cast. Last week, I started writing it! It's tentatively called Body Snatchers, and it's set in a half-finished apartment building on the Upper West Side in 1880. I was halfway through it when I realized that it probably takes place in the same building as Dead Man's Dinner. Maybe we can use the same sets…

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 love that question! When I was in high school, I had a bad habit of assuming that anything that interested me would interest everyone. This meant that I wrote a lot of fiction that contained duels, just because I thought duels were amusing and neat. But I didn't realize that just because something amused me didn't mean anyone else would care, and that throwing esoteric nonsense at an audience is a really good way to turn them off. I still like to write about esoteric nonsense, but now I know that you have to sell the audience on it, or you're just writing for yourself.

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

A:  I wish there were an online service, like Netflix or Filmstruck, that offered a streaming library of great recorded plays. I wish it was combined with a Spotify-like service featuring an infinite number of original cast recordings, and LPs of straight plays, which used to be a thing. And I wish it also offered an online rental service that let you read every play published by Dramatist's Play Service. Shoot, I'd pay a ton for that.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  The first name that comes to mind is Joe Papp. Anyone who went toe to toe with Robert Moses is an automatic legend, whether or not they were successful, and Papp was fighting for the right to do free Shakespeare. That's cool.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I like plays that don't waste my time. You can tell in five minutes if a play is going to be well-constructed or not, and there's nothing worse than the slow, sickening realization that you're in for 2:30 of tedium. A play should go off like a cannon and never slow down. Every writer is given the same advice—start a scene as late as possible, end it as early as possible, and cut every wasted word—for a reason. Those are invaluable cliches! But really following that advice is hard, and so you end up with a lot of really boring plays.

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

A:  Well, see above. Also, read Lajos Egri. His writing is amazingly over-the-top, but everything he says is valid and surprisingly practical, once you penetrate the bluster. Read books that you find on the street—it's a good way to get ideas from a totally unexpected source. When you can't sleep, try to break stories in your head. And whenever you finish something you really love, take a half hour to write down everything that went into writing—all the little tricks you used to keep yourself motivated, everything you learned about character and drama from working your way through the play, all the mistakes you made and how you solved them. The next time you start something, you will reach a point where you look longingly at the prior work, and think, "How did I make something so perfect? It seemed so easy at the time." Having the old document to read over will remind you both of how hard it really was, and of the ways you dragged yourself through it.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Besides Dead Man's Dinner, which you should really go see because it is wonderful, I'm currently running a Kickstarter to raise money for a board game called Deadball: Baseball With Dice. It's fun as hell, and you should check it out. You'd be surprised how many theater people love baseball.
 
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Mar 20, 2017

Rare Birds in New York

Previews start this week!




RARE BIRDS
By Adam Szymkowicz
Directed by Scott Ebersold

Featuring: Robert Buckwalter, George Colligan, Joanna Fanizza, Tracey Gilbert*, Jake Glassman*, and Dylan Guerra

The worst thing you can do in high school is admit you love something. A play about adolescent violence and your mother's new boyfriend.

RARE BIRDS will run March 23 - April 9, 2017, at The Theater at the 14th Street Y located at 344 East 14th Street between First and Second Avenues.


TICKETS


Performance Schedule:
Thursday, March 23 @ 8pm - Preview
Friday, March 24 @ 8pm - Preview
Saturday, March 25 @ 8pm
Sunday, March 26 @ 3pm
Thursday, March 30 @ 8pm - Press Opening
Friday, March 31 @ 8pm
Saturday, April 1 @ 8pm
Sunday, April 2 @ 3pm
Monday, April 3 @ 7pm
Thursday, April 6 @ 8pm
Friday, April 7 @ 8pm
Saturday, April 8 @ 8pm
Sunday, April 9 @ 3pm - Closing

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Mar 7, 2017

PLAYS BY ME COMING TO PLACES

PRODUCTIONS
 
KODACHROME

Production #1 of Kodachrome
Portland Center Stage
Portland, OR
February 3-March 18, 2018


Production #1 of Rare Birds
Red Fern Theater
14th Street Theater, NYC
March 23-April 9, 2017

Clown Bar

Production #21 of Clown Bar
Charleston Alley Theater
Charleston, IL
Opens March 17, 2017.

Production #22 of Clown Bar
The Duluth Playhouse
Duluth, MN
Opens March 30, 2017.

Production #23 of Clown Bar
University of Kentucky
Lexington, KY
Opens March 31, 2017.

Production #24 of Clown Bar
Corn Productions
Chicago, IL
Opens May 12, 2017.

Hearts Like Fists

Production #32 of Hearts Like Fists
Naugatuck Valley Community College
Waterbury, CT
Opens April 6, 2107

Production #33 of Hearts Like Fists
Keizer Homegrown Theater
Keizer, OR
Opens May 4, 2017

Production #34 of Hearts Like Fists
Norwood High School
Norwood, MA
Opens May 4, 2017.

Production #35 of Hearts Like Fists
John Glenn High School
Norwalk, CA
Opens May 5, 2017.

The Why Overhead
Production #2 of The Why Overhead
Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter
Midland, PA.   
Opens April 21, 2017.

7 Ways to Say I Love You 
(a night of short plays)

Production #11 of 7 Ways To Say I Love You
Black Hills High School
Tumwater, WA
Opens March 16, 2017.

Production #12 of 7 Ways To Say I Love You
Centralia College
Centralia, WA
Opens March 17, 2017.

Production #13 of 7 Ways To Say I Love You
North Mecklenburg High School
Huntersville, NC
Opens April 1, 2017. 

Production #14 of 7 Ways To Say I Love You
Taunton High School
Taunton, MA
Opens April 28, 2017.  

The Adventures of Super Margaret

Production #5 of Super Margaret
United Activities Unlimited
Staten Island, NY
Opens March 1, 2017

Pretty Theft

Production #12 of Pretty Theft
Norwood High School
Norwood, MA
Opens March 2, 2017.

Production #13 of Pretty Theft
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
New York City
Opens April 1, 2017.

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Mar 2, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 918: Noah Mease






Noah Mease

Hometown: Williston, VT

Current Town: South Bronx, NY

Q:  Tell me about Omega Kids.

A:  Omega Kids is a play and also a comic book. The comic book called Omega Kids (which I wrote and drew and which you’ll receive when you come to the show) is about a ragtag team of gifted teenagers trying to save the world. The play called Omega Kids (which I also wrote) is about two guys in their early twenties who spend a rainy Saturday night on the carpeted floor of an empty apartment talking about Omega Kids (the comic, which is a well-known X-men-like franchise in the world of the play). They use the summaries of the comic stories to chart a course though the choppy waters of the attraction and excitement and danger of a brand new friendship – the kind of friendship that feels full of the promise that it could become something important in both their lives.

When I try to describe the kind of theater that Omega Kids is, I’m left with ill-fitting words like “mumblecore” or “naturalism.” Though it’s grounded in naturalism, I actually think of Omega Kids as experimental theater, but the experiment here is about investing in tiny, specific, hyper-real, human moments and deciding that those are worth making a whole play about because they feel monumental when you’re living them. I love characters onstage who talk like real people; there’s a poetry in unfinished sentences and nervous filler words and half-remembered stories, and the wide gaps in our mundane, inexact language can give us glimpses into these characters’ bigger hopes and deeper insecurities and truer selves.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  Well, I also design props, and this month you can see my design work on Broadway with Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 (all those paintings…) and off-Broadway with The Debate Society’s The Light Years at Playwrights Horizons. But the other play I’m currently writing is about this true, crazy story from early American history where Thomas Jefferson spent the decade right after the American Revolution trying to send a giant taxidermy moose to France in order to prove that American animals were just as big as European animals. Its very different from Omega Kids in that the text began as a cut-and-paste collage of primary sources – letters and scientific writing from the 1780s – and I’ve been sculpting it into something dramatic and stageable. It’s a play about politicians and scientists having a huge, ridiculous argument based on vague assumptions and inaccurate facts as America tries to assert its identity to the rest of the world. So it feels timely, obviously, but it’s also about this whole other side of the Founding Fathers™ that I’d never heard of – that they were all amateur scientists and polymaths and sincerely believed that the only way to lead this brand new, fragile experiment of a democracy was by learning as much as they could about the mysteries of the natural world.

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

A:  Well, Omega Kids is all about trying to reconcile who you are now with who you used to be, and the simultaneous fear that you’ve become too different or stayed too much the same. So, yeah, I don’t know. I grew up in the woods of Vermont, with sand pits and farms and railroad tracks. It was big enough and safe enough that I could wander so far away from home that I wasn’t quite sure how I’d get back, and I got lost – really lost – at least twice. I think getting lost and panicking a little and trusting you’ll find your way back in a totally different way is a pretty good explanation of my writing process.

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

A:  Yes, well, more money and support and stability for artists, more access and education and engagement for audiences. But a small and totally-accomplishable thing I am currently trying to change is to create more understanding and recognition of props as a design discipline and to show theater artists and audiences that choosing the right objects onstage is a crucial part of telling the story and defining the world, and not an afterthought.

Q:  Who are your theatrical heroes?

A:  It’s hard to not just list everyone I’ve been lucky enough to work with as a prop designer, but having up-close insight on the way that set designers like Mimi Lien and Laura Jellinek, writers like Annie Baker and Bess Wohl and Stephen Karam and Branden Jacob-Jenkins, directors and creators like Rachel Chavkin and Sarah Benson and Anne Kauffman and The Debate Society, and theaters like Ars Nova and New York Theater Workshops and Soho Rep. and Signature make and think about theater only makes me love their (objectively brilliant) work all the more. My current theatrical heroes are Jay Stull and Will Sarratt and Fernando Gonzalez who are directing and performing Omega Kids – they’re all just amazing. And, through my work doing props, I’ve come to know the whole unseen world behind the scenes, where stage managers and production managers and carpenters and technicians and dramaturgs and assistants and associates and administrators are the true heroes down in the trenches solving all the impossible obstacles that arise when you try to redefine the rules of theater. They’re the ones who actually make daring, inventive, experimental, genre-defying new work possible in the most direct and literal sense.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I’m excited about collaborative theater – theater that is greater than it has any right to be because of the unique minds and talents that brought it to life. Theater where design is crucial to the storytelling and experience. Theater that is still and small and deep. Or theater that’s a big, communal, cathartic party. Or theater that‘s both of those things at once.

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

A:  I was pretty shocked to find out, when I first got to New York, how important (and rare?) it is to just show up, be kind, and be reliable. So do those things and you’re at least halfway there.

And, while you’re writing and treading water, go see theater and volunteer or work in theater and learn about everyone else’s jobs. I know you’re supposed to read a lot of plays, but don’t write plays to be read like books – write plays that get your future collaborators excited to dive into the pool with you and splash around for a while. It helps to know what’s a big ask or a big expense and what’s easy and what’s boring and what might be a welcome challenge – not just for actors and directors but for sound designers and marketing people and education outreach folks and write your plays so that when those people read it, they’re inspired to do their jobs better than ever before.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Omega Kids. It’s running March 2nd through 25th at the Access Theater, Thursdays-Sundays with some weird late shows and matinees so it’ll fit in your schedule somewhere, I promise. It’s directed by Jay Stull and starring Will Sarratt & Fernando Gonzalez, produced by New Light Theater Project in association with Access Theater. Get your tickets now, because they’re going fast and we’ve totally reconfigured the Access Theater’s Gallery Space which means seating is limited.

http://www. newlighttheaterproject.com/ omega-kids

And that moose play, which is called American Moose, will have a developmental reading as part of Loading Dock Theater Company’s brand new Forklift Reading Series on April 2nd.

http://loadingdocktheatre.org/ forklift/

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Feb 28, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 917: Betty Shamieh



Betty Shamieh

Hometown: San Francisco.

Q:  Tell me about The Strangest.

A:  As a child of Arab immigrants who became an American playwright, I was always fascinated by the idea of Middle Eastern storytelling cafes, where a person could grab a cup of joe and listen to the live performances of the best storytellers in that community retelling fables and myths from The Arabian Nights. How was it similar and different to the kind of theatre I was making in New York and Europe? Might I have been a café storyteller if my parents hadn’t fled? It never occurred to me that cafes were segregated all-male spaces. Women were not welcome. This fact was particularly galling because these men were reshaping, retelling, and recreating stories attributed to their world’s most famous storyteller Scheherezade, a woman whose cheeky, bawdy stories-within-stories were so compelling that they had the power to save her life. I wanted to infiltrate these storytelling cafes. I went to the Middle East in search of stories of women who must have tried to do so, particularly in places like Algeria, where women were an integral part of the resistance that overthrew the French occupation only to find themselves in a society that was determined to clamp down on the rights of women.

At that time, I had been approached by an artistic director about writing a stage adaptation of The Stranger, a novel I had dutifully read in high school but had made little impression upon me at that time. I was clearly being asked to do the job because of my ethnic background, but I needed the job. Upon revisiting The Stranger, I realized adapting a cerebral novel wasn’t my thing, no matter how badly I wanted to work with that director. I also realized, though I was an Arab-American kid, I missed that the novel is about more than a weird narrator who shot a man he didn’t know without feeling remorse, or a representation of an abstract concept called Existentialism. It is about a colonist killing a native in a deeply racist environment, where desensitization of self and dehumanization of others are necessary ingredients for it to survive. I wanted to tell the other side of the story, evoking the wildness of the world that was French Algiers.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I am working on two new projects. Malvolio is a comedic sequel to Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Malvolio, a lowborn stewart with self-esteem issues, becomes a celebrated general in the King of Illyria’s army. Volina, the serious-minded teenage daughter of Duke Orsino and Duchess Viola, falls madly in love with Malvolio. He believes the beautiful girl is mocking him with her ardent displays of passion for him. Volina tries to teach Malvolio how success – and a young lover - is always the best revenge.

My other project is Veritas, a historical drama inspired by the story of how Harvard accepted four Native American students in the 17th century. Being targeted as traitors by their tribes and never fully accepted by the colonial establishment, only one of the Native American students would live long enough to graduate in 1665. It’s a story about affirmative action at an American university before America formally existed. It illuminates how easily the American national narrative could have developed into one of integration and co-existence rather than separation and eradication. Plus, its got folks in Puritan outfits behaving badly, which is always fun.

Basically, these are the most ambitious and expensive plays to produce that I’ve written to date. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I’ll find the right producer to take on these extravaganzas.

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 come from an immigrant family who was very enthusiastic about supporting my artistic aspirations, especially my fabulous mother. She would pay for, enroll me, and chauffeur me to anything I wanted to participate in – like ballet and the San Francisco Children’s Light Opera program - but had no idea how to guide me further. It was up to me to find mentors and figure out how to develop. I knew I wanted to pursue theatre from an early age. Ironically, I ended up at an all girls Catholic high school with no theatre program. I found out about auditions for a musical at an all boys high school. I didn’t know basic info about musical auditions. I arrived late. I wrote my own (very bad) monologue, sang a Christmas carol instead of an appropriate Broadway number, and proceeded to offer to improvise my own dance to demonstrate my extensive classical training when I was told I had missed the dance audition portion. I can still remember the confused faces of the trio of high school drama teachers, looking up at me as I danced a ballet number for them without music. Of course, they did not cast me. Ever. Even after I began training the next year at ACT’s Young Conservatory program and become one of the more experienced young actors in the Bay Area. I had to find a place elsewhere, which I did. In some ways, no matter how far I go in theatre, I’ll always be that thirteen year old girl who didn’t have guidance or tools or polish or anything really, except a burning belief she had something to contribute by being on stage, especially stages where people like her and the stories she had to tell had never been seen before.

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

A:  I wish our industry would stop trying to compete with film or television. We are our own beast. The easiest way to get a play produced is to find a movie star that will sell tickets and cast them, whether or not they are right for the role. I think that is profoundly bad for our industry, though I understand the importance of institutions trying to survive in this climate and – of course – there are so many famous movie stars that are fantastic stage actors and deserve to be onstage. But, I hate to see brilliant stage actors lose roles to mediocre film and TV stars in new plays. It means the play isn’t as good as it could be, which means the audience is the ultimately loser in the end. Not everyone enjoys opera, but opera companies aren’t trying to put Rihanna or the latest winner of The Voice in every production to sell tickets.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  There are so many great playwrights working today and I think one of the blessings of my life is that I know some of them personally. I was lucky enough to have Lynn Nottage as a mentor as part of the first playwriting fellowship I got (Van Lier at New Dramatists). The scope of the plays she writes and how she never repeats herself is thrilling. I am so happy that Lynn is getting the Broadway debut she deserves. The urgency in Kia Corthron’s political plays always inspires me and her new novel is one of the best I’ve read in years. The depth of Naomi Wallace’s characters is haunting. Few playwrights explore humanity with the clarity of her unflinching gaze. The playwright Tony Kushner is someone I also admire a great deal. Angels in America is a very important play to me. It is the kind of work that negates any fallacious attempt to split playwrights into the separate categories of those who entertain and those who write about ideas. That is the kind of theatre that I like to see and aspire to make.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love theatre that embraces theatricality, and utilizes the imagination of the audience. I’m continually pushing myself to experiment with the tools that are unique to live performance, including presenting characters to the audience not as they are, but as other characters see them. For example, in The Strangest, the Algerian men view French men as threats and cannot relate to them as otherwise. I represented this by making the one French character appear in costume as an actual gun. His dialogue consists only of a single word “Bang!”. I did this to give the audience the understanding of how deeply disorienting and frightening it is for colonized men to have to live side by side with their colonizers. The women in the story understand the “language” of gunfire and can respond accordingly, because I believe women are more accustomed than men to dealing with feeling disempowered and figuring out how to function in spite of that. This is an example of an idea that can be best conveyed theatrically. People who come to the theatre do so because they are in love with life that they are not content to simply live their own. They hunger to know more than they can if they stay only within the confines of their own skin, to feel more experiences than their own lives can afford them.

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

A:  The key to longevity as an artist is to believe your best work is yet to come. Try not to see your art as a key to money, fame, or attention – there are ways to get all of those things faster and easier than writing plays. Instead, try as much as possible to enjoy the process of creating for its own sake. Know that not every play of yours necessarily deserves a wide audience. Even the best playwrights create work that varies in quality. But, what is important is to learn from each project you undertake, which is easier to do if you spend more time dreaming about your next project than worrying about how to mount, publicize, or promote your last one. Those are all important and essential things to do, but they cannot be your main focus. Writing is easy. It’s designing a life in which you can spend most of it writing that is a challenge. I think to be the best writer you can be you’ve got to figure out how to survive the experience of being a writer long enough to develop the craft of writing.

Q:  Plugs:

A:  The Strangest will be at the Fourth Street Theatre from March 11 – April 1 and audience members will get a chance to experience firsthand an Arab story telling cafe. This is an immersive play where the audience will be transported to an intimate world. Tickets are $25-$5 and can be purchased at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2822899

Plays by Betty




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