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1100 Playwright Interviews

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Apr 23, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 925: Kristine Haruna Lee





Kristine Haruna Lee

Hometown:  Mercer Island, WA. But I was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Tokyo till I was 10.

Current Town:  Brooklyn, NY.

Q:  Tell me about Suicide Forest.

A:  I was inspired to write Suicide Forest after reading Adrienne Kennedy's play Funnyhouse of a Negro. I was curious if I could also write a play that could journey into deeper, darker territory of racial identity as Kennedy's play does. it's such a mirror play. Circular. It's not afraid to reflect back the ugly truth. So it made sense to me to set my play in Aoikigahara, or Suicide Forest at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan. It's a real forest where folks go to commit suicide. Suicide is historically an honorable way to exit in Japanese culture, or that's my understanding of it. I connect this to the principle of uniformity, and the sacrifice (of your life) being the ultimate gift you can make to your community when you can no longer be the same as everybody else, when you can no longer be homogenous in spirit.

I never fit in as a Japanese person in Japan... so maybe this is me taking space.

Growing up in Tokyo as a kid (and being raised by my Japanese mother), I think so many of my plays are aesthetically influenced by this in the imagery I try to conjure, in it's logic, and yet I've never actually tried to write a play about Japan or being Japanese, I guess because my language skills are so-so and all the other identity-baggage that comes with it. So this was my attempt: the juxtaposition of creating a narrative that is specifically Japanese in all its references and images, and yet written in the english language. Aya Ogawa, who's an amazing director, creator of her own work, and translator of Toshiki Okada's plays, is working with me on this and we'll be sharing a reading at Ars Nova on May 4th at 3pm, with a cast of Japanese/Japanese heritage performers who'll help us excavate this play.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  My theater company harunalee has been in residence at Brooklyn Arts Exchange for the past two years, and we've been developing a new play titled Memory Retrograde. This was a cool project for me because the script developed with the company over the span of two year, which we've never done that before. We are showing all 3 parts of the play April 28+29 8pm at BAX.

A couple​ finds a strange 'remembering' object in the attic, and ponders over the possibility of having lived past lives together. The act of remembering conjures their younger selves, and they all mingle in simultaneity. Their ‘time travels’ take them to their past life in Venice 1515, an Egyptian Burial, the 1970's, Ancient Greece, and a virtual reality forest some time in the far future. As memories epically span generations and landscapes, this couple's recurring trauma is brought to light and replayed over and over again through all these layers of time and space as they figure out how to deal with a single tragedy that haunts their lives.

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

A:  Less white-led theater institutions.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My theater hero right now is Sibyl Kempson. She possess the ability to create auteur performances/visions, and yet her practice is firmly rooted in playwriting. Her words are her instrument to invent fantastic visuals and I follow in that lineage. Sibyl has an incredible performance series going up at the Whitney called Ten Shouts to the Forgotten Heavens which performs every solstice and equinox till 2018. Every performance is different, a ritual, and a durational hymn or ode to the seasons... She is seriously a badass.

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

A:  Hmm.. I think the biggest advice I needed when I started writing was don't listen to other people- especially the people you're told to look up to or aspire to. Everybody wants to change your play, everybody has something to say. But the play is not a commodity. You are not a commodity. It's living. Invent your own structures. The play is smarter than you, so trust it. Surround yourself in community with folks who understand your work, and can give you feedback that isn't detrimental to the kind of organism the play is, and the kind of ecosystem it needs to thrive in.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:

Inline image 1

harunalee and bax present

Memory Retrograde

April 28 + 29 @ 8pm
Brooklyn Arts Exchange
421 5th Ave. Studio D

A couple​ finds a strange 'remembering' object in the attic, and ponders over the possibility of having lived past lives together. The act of remembering conjures their younger selves, and they all mingle in simultaneity. Their ‘time travels’ take them to their past life in Venice 1515, an Egyptian Burial, the 1970's, Ancient Greece, and a virtual reality forest some time in the far future. As memories epically span generations and landscapes, this couple's recurring trauma is brought to light and replayed over and over again through all these layers of time and space as they figure out how to deal with a single tragedy that haunts their lives.

written and directed by Kristine Haruna Lee
associate directed by Lauren Swan-Potras 
conceived with Andrew R. Butler
costume design by Karen Boyer
set design by Greg Laffey
sound design by Jen Goma
lighting design by Sarah Lurie
video design by Stivo Arnoczy
production managed by Teri-An Caryl
photos by Sasha Arutyunova

with:
Shiree Adkins
Jess Almasy
Andrew R. Butler
Josh Gelb
Madeline McCray
Keith McDermott
Imran Sheikh

xxx



Ars Nova invites you to
a Makers Lab reading of a new play


Suicide Forest

Written by
KRISTINE HARUNA LEE
of 2017 Makers Lab Resident Company
harunalee


Directed by AYA OGAWA

Thursday, May 4 @ 3PM

 

A despairing salaryman and a fed-up young school girl both decide to enter Japan's most notorious suicide spot, 'Aokigahara' or Suicide Forest, at the base of the national mountain. A nightmare play examining the sickness of a culturally uniform masculinity and the traditionally heroic performance of suicide.
 
This event is FREE, but RSVPs are a must!
Click HERE to reserve your tickets!

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Apr 17, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 924: Thomas Gibbons



Thomas Gibbons

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Current Town: Devon, PA (not far from Philadelphia)

Q:  Tell me about 'Uncanny Valley'

A:  UNCANNY VALLEY draws on current research in artificial intelligence, robotics, and the possibility of “downloading” human consciousness as a means of extending the human lifespan, charting the relationship between Claire, a neuroscientist, and Julian, a nonbiological human. As Julian is “born” over the course of the play---first his head, then an arm, then both arms and his torso, and finally his legs---Claire educates him in techniques of being as human as possible: mirroring people’s speech, engaging in small talk, playing a musical instrument. Her goal is to overcome the “uncanny valley” effect by which people’s initial fascination with a lifelike artificial human inevitably transforms into revulsion. The play began in my dentist’s waiting room. Leafing through a magazine, I saw a photograph: a man in a chair facing a table, on top of which is placed a startlingly lifelike robotic head (Bina48, whom I “met” when the play had its premiere at Contemporary American Theater Festival in 2014). Arresting enough, but as I looked at the photo I found myself equally intrigued by the room surrounding them. Instead of a sterile laboratory, the two were in an incongruously old-fashioned parlor with carpet, a floor lamp, heavy drapes, and stenciled walls. Something about this photograph haunted me---maybe the disjunction between the turn-of-the-(last) century room, and the cultural stability it embodied, and the robotic head’s confident, self-possessed gaze.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A:  I’ve just finished a new draft of a play called DARK DAMOCLOID, a kind of fantasia about the prospect of mass extinction (ours)---a subject that haunts all our minds whether we acknowledge it or not. I’ve also started work on another play in a more realistic vein, dealing with the conflict between science and religion.


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

A:  If I were the All-Powerful King of Theater I would declare an immediate moratorium on dysfunctional-family plays that have no reference to the wider world. I find them, for the most part, formulaic, unsurprising, unimaginative, toothless, and boring. This would have the incidental effect of making literary managers’ jobs much easier, since about 90% of the plays in their to-read pile would disappear.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Early on I was very influenced by the British socialist playwrights of the 70s: Edward Bond, David Hare, David Edgar, Howard Brenton, and so on. Also Samuel Beckett and Caryl Churchill.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I like plays I haven’t seen before, plays that grab me by the collar, throw me against the wall, turn me upside down, and shake the preconceptions and unexamined assumptions out of my head.

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

A:  Resist the temptation to write autobiographical plays about your dysfunctional family. Imagine more interesting worlds and give them to us.

Q: Plugs, please:

A:  UNCANNY VALLEY will have its Los Angeles premiere starting April 21 at International City Theatre, under the direction of artistic director caryn desai. Productions are also under way at Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA, and Open Stage of Harrisburg.

Plays by Thomas


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Apr 5, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 923: Eleanor Burgess



Eleanor Burgess

Hometown: Brookline, Massachusetts

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York

Q:  Tell me about Chill.

A:  CHILL is a play about coming of age in an America no one saw coming. And it’s a play about friendships, and how they change as we get older. The first act takes place in March of 2001, and we meet four high school seniors who are hanging out in a basement drinking stolen beers and making bold assertions about what they’re going to do with their lives. Everyone has a crush on the wrong person and everyone’s trying to perform coolness and it’s a big hormonal mess. Act 2 takes places in November of 2011. The friends are 28, nothing about their lives or their country is the way they expected it to be, and the choices they’ve made and the ways they’ve changed put a strain on the evening, and on their friendships. It’s a coming of age story that’s very particular to the millennial generation – an experience we as a country need to start taking seriously and putting on stage. I’ve been lucky to get to develop and premiere the play with a phenomenal director (Megan Sandberg-Zakian) and a cast of powerhouse young actors. It’s running at Merrimack Repertory Theatre through April 16th.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I just got back from a workshop up at Portland Stage Company of a play that I call a “Chekhovian play about Cavemen.” And then I’m doing revisions on a play called THE NICETIES which will be part of the Contemporary American Theatre Festival this summer – that’s a very tough, intense two-hander about race, academia and how we teach American history. And then I’m in the research/daydreaming/poking around stage with a couple brand new projects – a Marxist Cinderella farce, where the fairy godmother is trying to hasten the workers' revolution by getting the prince married to a poor girl who will support social democratic reforms, and a play that begins the day Jesus died, and follows the apostles and the Marys as they try to figure out how to apply their newfound ideals in daily life. So, y’know, the small topics…

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, when I was in elementary school, like around the 4th grade, I was a huge dork, and got teased a lot. I also thought that the Emma Thompson Much Ado About Nothing movie was the greatest thing ever and watched it over and over. So one day when a kid told me to shut up, I decided that the best possible rejoinder would be “a bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.” Strangely, that did not persuade people to stop teasing me. But for a second I really thought it would.

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

A:  Free tickets for high school students and for low-income families. But I feel like everyone says something like that, so if I had to say something slightly more original, I’d say, greater political and intellectual diversity. We are finally starting to talk about the need for much greater diversity in terms of ethnicity, race, gender, and (to a lesser and inadequate degree) class – and that’s so fantastic. But we rarely foster a diversity of thought or opinions. We’re too comfortable agreeing with each other and ignoring or dismissing the way a lot of the rest of the country thinks.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  A lot of Brits – Stoppard. Caryl Churchill. Martin McDonagh. Mike Bartlett. And then a lot of Americans - Annie Baker. Anne Washburn. Quiara Alegria Hudes. Sondheim. Lanford Wilson. Kirsten Greenidge. Stephen Adly Guirgis. I get a lot of fuel from an intense love-hate relationship with David Mamet. But honestly, I think the people who inspire me the most are my peers – generous actors, fearless directors, other young or youngish playwrights who I can’t believe I get to hang out with and work with. There are so many emerging artists who are creating stunning work right now – and they’re only getting started.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that tackles big ideas. Theater that has an eye on world-historical forces beyond the stage. Theater that doesn’t take an MFA to interpret. Theater about “ordinary” people, whatever that means to you. Funny theater. Theater that reflects the actual country we live in now. Theater that treats women as real people. Theater that talks about the stuff Film and TV won’t talk about. Theater as church.

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

A:  Read a lot – of plays, novels, history books, newspapers, science, philosophy, religion, poetry, self-help books, random crap on the internet. Have something important to say.

As they say at the Facebook headquarters, done is better than perfect.

And - there is a quiet but honest voice somewhere within you that knows what you want plays to be. It will take you a while to be able to make those kinds of plays. But while you’re getting there, don’t let trends or other people’s paths or the reception of your work distract you or confuse you about what you believe in. You can only ever be yourself.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  If you find yourself in Massachusetts before April 16th, go see CHILL! And after that, come check out THE NICETIES at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival this summer!

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Mar 30, 2017

UPCOMING SHOWS!!

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



Marian or The True Tale of Robin Hood

Production #2 of Marian
Know Theatre of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH
Opens July 28, 2017.


Clown Bar


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.

Production #25 of Clown Bar
Spirit Gum Theatre Company
Gatsby's Pub
Winston Salem, NC
Opens June 22, 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 #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 #13 of Pretty Theft
American Academy of Dramatic Arts
New York City
Opens April 1, 2017.

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Mar 29, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 922: Charly Clive



Charly Clive

Hometown: Oxford, England

Current Town: Brooklyn, beautiful Brooklyn

Q:  Tell me about CAMEL:

A:  I grew up in England but I'm an American citizen and a lot of my family are Virginian. I spent a decent amount of my life in suburban Virginia and "Camel" is sort of my love letter to a few of its less desirable characters. It's a dark comedy about loss, love, weed and small towns. You haven't heard this story before. We have a madly talented cast and crew working on it and it's been really exciting to bring it to life.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  A show for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (August 2017) called "John". Written by myself and my long suffering writing partner, Ellen Robertson. "John" is based on our experience filming a documentary when we were teenagers and traveling around the USA in a Greyhound bus. An onstage roadtrip.

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 a kid I loved to play 'I Spy' but nobody loved to play with me because every time I'd spy with my little eye, regardless of the letter I'd said it began with my answer was always the same. Whale. Every time for years my answer would always be 'whale' even though I could never actually see one. Maybe I would do it because I thought it was funny or for attention (both are very on brand) but actually I think it's because I did see a damn whale. It wasn't actually there but I saw it and I wanted to talk about it. I used to not really be able to separate reality from my imagination and I didn't understand why people would say 'there isn't a whale!' of course there was a whale, they just weren't looking properly.

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

A:  Ticket prices.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I have so many but my favorite and most personal theatrical hero is Jonathan Bolt, a brilliant man with an astonishing career who I've been lucky enough to have as a boss, mentor, director and co-collaborator.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Live.

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

A:  Don't take yourself too seriously- it's okay to fall in and out of love with what your writing, it can be hard to stay inspired. Writing dialogue is a really incredible thing and we've all done it since we were kids playing with barbies and action figures so enjoy it, see the absurdity of it and keep playing!

Q:  Plugs, please:


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Mar 28, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 921: James Bartelle


James Bartelle

Hometown:  Both of my parents were in the military and they were divorced so my brother and I moved around a lot. We mostly took up residence in San Antonio, TX. We also lived for a while in the following places:

Augusta, GA; Albuquerque, NM; Denver, CO; El Paso, TX; Honolulu, HI; New York, NY; Olympia, WA; Sierra Vista, AZ; Darmstadt, Germany

Current Town: New Orleans, LA!

Q:  Tell me about your upcoming show.

A:  The Spider Queen is a play I co-wrote with NOLA Project Company Member Alex Martinez Wallace (who played Happy in our production of Clown Bar last season!) The play will be staged in the Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Stylistically, the play has been described as somewhere between Lord of the Rings and The Neverending Story. It has also been described "as though Shakespeare wrote a Dungeons & Dragons campaign". The play follows a teenage girl named Esme who recently lost her park ranger father in a forest fire. Esme suspects the fire was no accident and sneaks into the Park to investigate. While there, she is suddenly transported to a war-torn kingdom which is ruled by a massive spider! The ensemble of 7 men and 7 women play a slew of 25 fantastical characters from Ogres to Elves to Trolls to Minotaurs to Goblins. The production will include a lot of original mask work as well as beautiful large-scale puppetry. Last night, the ensemble began a training regimen so they can be physically, vocally and creatively ready for the demanding rehearsal process which starts next week. It is definitely the most ambitious production The NOLA Project has done in our 50-show history.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  -I'm in a new play development program with Southern Rep Theatre. I am writing a piece called The Witches' Tower which is set in Idstein, Germany during the 1676 witch hunts when over 30 women were executed. The play centers around four imprisoned women who are awaiting their fate in a tower and the bonds they form. Also there's a talking Crow! Hopefully it will be equal parts fun and devastating and magical.

-I'm also in the early stages of creating a futuristic solo-show called The Alien and the Two-Way Mirror in which the audience is a jury who must decide the fate of an Extraterrestrial on trial. Depending on the jury's verdict, the show has three possible endings. A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure of sorts.

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 we were 9 and 10 years old, my brother and I spent a summer filming stop-motion videos of our X-Men action figures on our kitchen floor. We were making Wolverine dance long before Hugh Jackman came along. It would normally take 8 hours for about 20 seconds of animation. I feel like that instilled a lot of patience and persistence in me as a writer and person.

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

A:  More [GOOD] roles for women. This is definitely a changing trend, but I think it's preposterous when 75% of the performers are auditioning for 25% of the available roles.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Playwrights: Shakespeare, August Wilson, Gabi Reisman, Samuel Beckett, Amy Herzog, Anne Washburn. Tarrell McCraney's work completely changed my understanding of how dialogue can be laid out on a page.
Teachers: Yoshi Oida, everyone at the Stella Adler Studio

Designers: Jeff Becker, Joan Long, Cecile Covert

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love theatre that is vocally and physically demanding that pushes performers to their limits and makes them grow beyond what they thought was possible. I love moments that are magic and moments that are absolutely real and if they can exist in the same scene, I love them even more. I love ensemble-driven work and stories that transport audiences completely. I also love stage directions that make designers and directors go "What!?"

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

A:  I'm still near the beginning of my writing career, but my two pieces of advice would probably be the same for any theatre professional:

1) See everything you can. I have the great fortune of seeing 2-3 shows every weekend. Watch it all. The good, the bad, the ridiculous, and the infuriating. Figure out what works and what doesn't. Figure out why.

2) If you are able, dedicate some time to working outside of your discipline. I have learned very little about writing from books or classrooms. I have learned so much about writing from acting, directing, dialect-coaching, and set-construction.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Everyone, come to New Orleans in May and see The Spider Queen.
http://www.nolaproject.com


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