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1100 Playwright Interviews

1100 Playwright Interviews A Sean Abley Rob Ackerman E.E. Adams Johnna Adams Liz Duffy Adams Tony Adams David Adjmi Keith Josef Adkins Nicc...

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Jun 21, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 954: Dylan Guerra



Dylan Guerra

Hometown: Miami, FL

Current Town: NYC, NY

Q:  Tell me about your upcoming shows.

A:  My play "Get Hit" runs June 29th- July 8th at The Medicine Show Theater. It's produced by my small theater company, The Company Company. The play's a comedy about a group of college students desperate for money who start a con operation involving insurance fraud. It's a wild show that's sort of been living with me for several years- it started as a workshop in 2014 and eventually grew into this production. 

Then in August, "The Play About Five Men in a Bathroom" is being presented as part of NY Summerfest. It's about five men in the bathroom of a gay nightclub in Dallas, Texas.

You can get tickets to "Get Hit" here: http://gethitnyc.brownpapertickets.com/

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I write comedy for the radio on the regular. I'm also working on a series of interconnected one acts about people who drill holes in their head to perceive time differently, there aren't any character names and it kind of looks like a poem and I've lost track of who's talking when. 

I'm also working on a play about a group of gay Latino men struggling to move forward in the wake of the shooting at a gay nightclub. It's got a character who becomes a "pop star" and so I'm working with a composer for the first time, which is new and strange and like learning a new language of storytelling.

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 like ten, I asked for a hat rack for my birthday. I don't know why, I think it's because I watched a lot of old movies and I thought that in order to be someone important you needed a hat rack. And then I got it. And I covered it in hats. And I still have it. And I don't use it. But I can't throw it out. Or I won't. I also thought/think it's a funny word "hat rack". 

Oh, also, I used to set up a stage made out of hard cover children's books and perform for my parents. I think a lot of kids did this-- I just think the image of a smaller me standing on stories and telling stories is kind of cool.

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

A:  More diversity on stage, and more diversity behind the table in the rehearsal room. More stories about different cultures put through their own lens.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes? 

A:  Oh man.
I grew up watching my mom run an improv company and my dad do stand-up in comedy clubs all over the place.
Annie Baker, Tarrell McCraney, Stephen Adley Guirgis, Leslie Ayvazian, Elia Kazan, Susan Lori-Parks, Lisa Kron and Jose Rivera. All for various reasons.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm excited by stories of cultures I know nothing about.
I also love plays about a people dealing with itself. I recently saw Sojourners and Her Portmanteau at NYTW and it was electric. 

Fast plays that you have to physically hook in to. 

Okay okay- I got it- I'm drawn to plays that provide the door or window or whatever- they provide the access point but they don't push you through it. Plays that are shamelessly about the characters and for the characters. I'm thinking of The Antipodes, which put those people in one room and had them converse or whatever, and it was your job as the audience member to go there with them. They didn't make you go there, you went there yourself. 

That idea is maybe a little "woo woo" but it's working for me right now so--

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

A:  Keep going. Don't let anyone step on your creativity or drive. Every path is different.
It's not as scary as you think, but it's also not not scary. It's good scary that makes you feel like you're meant to do this. Embrace the scary.
ha, I like that, embrace the scary.

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Jun 15, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 953: Matt Lyle






Matt Lyle

Hometown: Atlanta, Texas

Current Town: Dallas, Texas

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:   I'm terrible at describing my plays but I'm going to just lean into my instincts. Three things:

I have a play, Cedar Springs or Big Scary Animals, opening at Theater Three in Dallas late August so I'm finishing up some rewrites on that. It's about two couples; one older, white, friendly but easily confused types who don't understand anything and the other couple are city dwelling intellectual, inter-racially same sex married types who don't understand rural types. You know the types. They get together, we see they're not that different, then (oh, shit) we see they're very different in a really terrible way that they all thought was behind them, but then maybe we realize they're not that far apart after all, and then a gun is introduced to the mix, yada yada yada a tourniquet is applied and we're left to wonder if their generations are hopeless and we should pin our hopes for some kind of common ground on the next generation. It's a comedy about the things that divide us - race, politics, religion, knowledge, geography, etc.

The Sincerest Form: A 3D Adventure (Dallas Theater Center commissioned it) where a desperate, modern vaudeville troupe is sucked through a vortex into a "movie world" where it turns into basically a Hope/Crosby-esque road movie where they adventure their way through popular films and movie tropes while bemoaning the demise of the theater, mortally wounded so long ago by the magic of the moving picture. Of course, the whole time we're recreating magical moments from beloved movies using low tech, uniquely theatrical techniques. That makes sense, right?

Troll - A one act where we follow a troll down his rabbit hole of online personalities until he's found by someone he's been torturing online who has plans to torture him in real life.

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

A:  From about 1986 - 1994, every time I went to the video store, I would rent a movie I'd never seen before and Clue.

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

A:  I REALLY wish as many people were as excited to see that new piece by that local artist for $20 as the 5th tour of (insert Broadway musical) for $128.50.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes? 

A:  Martha Lavey was the type of human being, artist, and leader that we should all aspire to be. I love everything about Bill Irwin. Bruce Norris's fearlessness excites me.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you? 

A:  I really like being surprised.

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

A:  Try to produce your own stuff. If it's good, people will notice that before they give your 10 pages and synopsis any serious consideration. Producing my own plays at first definitely got my foot into the couple of doors my foot is in. And also, take risks. Every time I've played it safe, the product hasn't amounted to much.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Current: A Brief, Endless Love - A sketch comedy revue I wrote for Dallas Comedy House through June 24

Next: The Boxer: A Silent Film Onstage - It's basically a Chaplin/Keaton movie on stage with a live score for the Festival of Independent Theaters

Next next: Cedar Springs or Big Scary Animals at Theater Three in August-September

Read: Barbecue Apocalypse published by Broadway Play Publishing



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Jun 14, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 952: Nora Sørena Casey






Nora Sørena Casey

Hometown:  Santa Monica, CA

Current Town:  New York

Q:  Tell me about your upcoming show.

A:  False Stars is a unique show for me as a playwright: I was commissioned by The Pack’s Artistic team—director Jenny Reed and movement director Samantha Sheppard—to collaboratively create a show loosely inspired by the idea of “genius” (what does it even mean, who gets to fit that description). We assembled a design team and a cast of performers who were interested in working collaboratively and who felt that in some way their identities were underrepresented in theatre.

After a weekend workshop where we all traded ideas about genius, identity and theatre, I went away to begin to create characters and a story framework for the show. Over the course of the last year, we’ve worked in all sorts of collaborative models—from physical devising work to TV-style pitches to workshops with full design elements­­—to build the world of the play and refine these characters together. The result is a darkly funny drama about a group of individuals who have come together at the deathbed of a dying man, each seeking validation before it’s too late.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I’ve got a one-act play called Resistance Training in the Women in Theater Festival that’s going up on June 21. It’s part of an evening of plays with Lia Romeo and Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich that take place on the day after Trump’s Inauguration. Mine involves a lot of passive-aggressive workout moves.

I’m also writing an adaptation of The Orestia that takes place in a modern American living room. I was inspired by the fact that Aeschylus’ Agamemnon takes place outside the house, so this play looks at everything that happens inside, which just happens to be a modern American living room. I’m interested in mixing the epic Greek archetypes with the iconic portrayal of family from American sitcoms to explore how ideas of violence and family change over time—or don’t.

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 remember being in pre-school and swinging by myself one morning singing my favorite songs from Sgt. Pepper’s. When playtime was over, one of the teachers turned to me to say, “Nora, you're such a good singer!” I was like, “you can hear me?!”

I’d completely forgotten about the rest of the world.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Lynn Nottage, with her incredibly, unrelenting curiosity, and David Henry Hwang, who makes me believe that’s it’s possible to be both wildly original and inspired and also intellectually rigorous as a writer. I’ve learned so much from both of them while studying at Columbia. I also have a real soft spot for Harold Pinter and for Naomi Wallace. I remember first reading The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek and thinking: I didn’t know we could do stuff like this, but I want to.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love theater that makes the audience use their imagination. I’m always trying to figure out what things work uniquely well on stage: strange double-casting, putting a character in two places at the same time, or using language to transform what we see. I’m endlessly intrigued by what a flexible space a stage is, and I love work that makes the most of that.

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

A:  Get behind the scenes. While I may not have always been thankful at the time, I think the hours I’ve spent hanging lights and striking sets have done a lot to help me understand all the resources we have available when we make a play. Understanding other people’s artistry also helped me build respect for my collaborators, and what I’m asking them to do when we bring a script to life.

For instance, I once wrote a play with a fireplace in it. When we went to perform it, we found the perfect freestanding stove—all we had to do was lug the giant metal thing up four flights of stairs. I carried it up with my director, cursing the playwright the entire time.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  False Stars, part of the Corkscrew Festival at the Paradise Factory Theatre, Aug. 18 – 27.
https://corkscrewfestival.org/#/false-stars/

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/false-stars-a-world-premiere-science#/

Resistance Training at WiT Festival on June 21.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/witfestnyc-presents-3-new-plays-from-athena-theatre-tickets-34561002890



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Jun 13, 2017

I Interview Playwrights Part 951: Amy Fox






Amy Fox

Hometown:  Boulder CO

Current Town:  Brooklyn

Q:  Tell me about your EST marathon play.

A:  My play is about women finding their strength and their voices to resist what society imposes on them. One character make plans to attend the Women's March, while her cousin prefers to knit a "pussy hat," but their attitude shift after a visit from a mysterious woman relaying actual instructions from the 1949 Singer Sewing Machine.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  At the moment, I'm working on a screenplay about a new mom who is drawn to an artist colony with a cultish dark side.

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 around 11 my family visited Mark Twain's home and saw that he had a writing studio adjacent to the house. When we came back to Colorado I insisted I needed a writing studio, so we set one up between two bushes in the backyard – basically a table with a tablecloth and my notebooks. My brother kept teasing me that I thought I was Mark Twain. But I persisted, and wrote longhand the beginnings of a novel about two friends who become jealous of one another in their ice skating class.

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

A:  Wow. That's a big question. I think there has to be a better way to connect audiences with new voices.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  My three earliest playwriting teachers: Wendy Hammond, Len Berkman and Connie Congdon.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Really good human storytelling. My tastes are not particularly experimental. I just want to see human beings in a room engaging with me with language.

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

A:  Every play you write will teach you something about your process and your voice. Give yourself the space and time to do that work and the rest will follow.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Check out my film, Equity, about women on Wall Street. I don't believe it is streaming yet but can be found on Amazon and iTunes.


BY AMY


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Jun 12, 2017

950 Playwright Interviews




A
Sean Abley
Rob Ackerman
Liz Duffy Adams
Johnna Adams
Tony Adams
David Adjmi
Keith Josef Adkins
Niccolo Aeed
Nastaran Ahmadi
Derek Ahonen
Kathleen Akerley
W.M. Akers
Ayad Akhtar
Rob Askins
Chiara Atik
Forrest Attaway
David Auburn
Hannah Bos
Andy Bragen
Leslie Bramm
Benjamin Brand
Jami Brandli
Jennifer Fawcett
Joshua Fardon
Caitlin Saylor Stephens
Ariel Stess
Vanessa Claire Stewart
Nelle Tankus
Kate Tarker
Jona Tarlin
Judy Tate
Roland Tec
Lucy Teitler
Marina Tempelsman
Cori Thomas
Matthew B. Zrebski 

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