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Oct 22, 2019

I Interview Playwrights Part 1065: Kenneth Jones




Kenneth Jones

Hometown: Birmingham, Michigan

Current Town: Sunnyside, Queens

Q:  What are you working on now? 

A:  A six-character play that I thought was going to be about a social justice issue — a twisty conversation about how historic plantation homes linked to slavery are used for private events — but is turning out to be about how money poisons relationships, and about compatibility. It’s gone from social justice play to personal play. The more I write, the more the characters take me to surprising places.

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

A:  In high school I wrote a single-spaced, serial story called “Newspaper!” in which all of my friends from school were characters in a soap operatic tale about a daily newspaper. (I was a journalism nerd in high school, and later got a journalism degree in college.) The story was part “Lou Grant,” part “General Hospital,” part “Dallas.” TV writing from the 1970s and 1980s had a big impact on me. Although written in prose form, it was dialogue-heavy and each page had three scenes. I didn’t know it, but I was essentially writing a kind of play. While working on it, I was always instinctively aware that I wanted to write toward “events” and cliffhangers that would keep people reading. Momentum was important. “Newspaper!” got passed around the school a lot, was confiscated by teachers because it was a distraction in classes, and, in the end, I had about 350 pages of well-fingered pages. I still have that typed manuscript in my office today, in a box aptly marked “juvenilia.” I find myself still writing toward “events” and big emotions in scenes, but with — I hope — a little more sophistication.

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

A:  I would call for a change in arts education, K-12, obligating all children to take theater-making classes just as we obligate them to take physical education. If jocks get to make fun of me in volleyball, I get to make fun of jocks singing show tunes or navigating Shakespeare. (Just kidding — sort of.) Arts education and practice: that’s how we build better people, a better society, and a community that supports the arts.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes? 

A:  “Heroes” might be too strong. Theater makers whose work I have loved, learned from, been moved by — or whose sense of mission inspires me? Too many for me to name, so here’s a partial eclectic list: Thornton Wilder, Oscar Hammerstein II, Wendy Wasserstein, Stephen Sondheim, Tony Kushner, Athol Fugard, Noel Coward, Harold Prince, August Wilson, Jeff Talbott, Carolyn Leigh, Yip Harburg, Jerome Kern, Paula Vogel, Michel Tremblay, Lynn Ahrens, George C. Wolfe, Emma Rice, Stephen Flaherty, J.B. Priestley, Robin Phillips, Karen Azenberg, Wes Grantom, Amy Herzog, Annie Baker, Jenn Thompson, Christopher Newton, David Cromer, Molly Smith, Terrence McNally, Frank Galati, Edward Albee, Lynn Nottage…. The list grows on.

Q:  Your breakout play “Alabama Story” is set in the Deep South. Is that territory that you return to in your work? 

A:  “Alabama Story” is so-far my only play in the South; I fell in love with a true story about a Montgomery librarian who was persecuted by politicians, and have been lucky to have had 27 productions of it since 2015. The content dictated the setting. Although I live in Queens, NY, my roots are in metropolitan Detroit and in many ways I still identify as a Midwesterner, and my subsequent four plays feature Midwestern people and locales (including Wisconsinite snowbirds who now live in Florida — the South! — in my play “Two Henrys,” available at New Play Exchange https://newplayexchange.org/plays/22186/two-henrys). The new play that I am banging away at is set in the Hudson Valley, but my eye is always on the so-called “flyover” states. The Midwest is too often unrepresented, dismissed, maligned in pop culture. There’s lots to unearth.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you? 

A:  Theater that takes me to a place I’ve never been, or shows me new aspects of people and places I know — or thought I knew —intimately. Theater that reminds you that you’re in a theater, but that might mean elevated language or complexity of character or literally breaking the fourth wall. I guess like everybody else, I don’t want to be bored.

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

A:  Try to write daily, read all the plays and musicals that you can, see as much theater (and opera and dance) as humanly possible. Read Jeffrey Sweet’s “The Dramatist’s Toolkit,” Anne Lamott’s “Bird by Bird” and Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones.”

Q:  Plugs, please: 

A:  The main character in “Alabama Story” is an Indiana native, and the play finally gets its Indiana premiere Oct. 25-Nov. 17 by an awesome Equity company called Actors Theatre of Indiana in Carmel, IN. Jane Unger directs a cast that includes theater co-founders Cindy Collins and Don Farrell. http://atistage.org/alabama-story/

Actors Theatre of Indiana is launching its inaugural Lab Series of new play readings this season. My rueful comedy “Hollywood, Nebraska” (set in the Midwest!) is getting a developmental staged reading there Nov. 5. Scott Alan Evans directs. The reading features the third ATI co-founder, Judy Fitzgerald. I’m very grateful when indie companies show their passion for new work. https://www.bykennethjones.com/actors-theatre-of-indiana-develops-hollywood-nebraska-rattler-and-provenance-in-new-lab-series/

“Alabama Story” will finally get its Montgomery premiere in March 2020 at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Artistic director Rick Dildine will direct. https://asf.net/alabama-story


I advocate for my plays and the work of other theater makers (particularly dramatists) on my website ByKennethJones.com. https://www.bykennethjones.com

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Oct 21, 2019

I Interview Playwrights Part 1064: Pat Kinevane



Pat Kinevane

Hometown:

A Beautiful seaside town of Cobh in County Cork... the last port of the Titanic and sits on the 2nd biggest natural harbour in the World!

Current Town:
Dublin… a city that feels like a town — I have lived here 30 years.

Q: Tell me about Before.

A:  Before is a piece about love... and what happens if we block it from each other. It is full of salutes to the Golden age of Hollywood Musicals and the soundtrack is recorded by our National Concert Orchestra. And it sounds Amazing because of their stunning work.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A:  I am working on a number of projects including pruning my garden and painting my kitchen!!

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

A:  I would ban theatre Elites!! I believe theatre is for everyone, not just the Culture Vultures who claim it exclusively for themselves. I am a working class boy and always will be and proud to have broken the mould in this notoriously snobbish Art form.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Irish Actors Niall Buggy, Joan O Hara and Des Cave.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Anything that is new and challenging. I am done with posh plays about posh white people written by posh white men!

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

A:  Be afraid of nothing and don't judge yourself.

Q: Plugs, please:

A:  The American premiere of Before at the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles, Nov. 14 – Dec. 8. www.OdysseyTheatre.com.


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Oct 9, 2019

I Interview Playwrights Part 1063: River Timms





River Timms

Hometown:  Huntsville, AL is where I was born, but I spent most of my childhood in Tanner, AL

Current Town:  Nashville, TN

Q:  Tell me about Tall Tales.

A:  I had just graduated from college and was on my way to my parents' house for my brother's wedding in September 2018, and I was struck with a question that seemed to come out of nowhere: what if I was actually moving back home right now? Growing up in relatively small towns, I always had the dream of moving away, and it seemed like I had accomplished that, but just a short string of bad luck could force me back home at any moment it seems. The thought of moving back home terrified me. Nashville is a progressive(-ish) city, one that I don't totally feel unsafe in as a queer person, but my hometown is... not that. I never thought I would write a "homophobia play," but the story just lept out of me. I began work on 'Tall Tales' on the day of my brother's wedding, and a first draft was finished in about two months.

'Tall Tales' is a horror play about being isolated and othered in the Christ-haunted Deep South, primarily for being gay. It's a play involving Christianity and ex-gays and folk witchcraft and lots of blood. It discusses the idea of queer bodies being seen as political before human, but it's also a play about healing from the deep scars that discrimination and religion can cause, the friends that keep us LGBTQ folk above water when it seems like the world is against us. Living as a queer person in the south is frightening a LOT of the time, but having the right people around makes life better.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm the Literary Manager of Woven Theatre in Nashville, so I'm still overseeing our season. 'Tall Tales' is our final announced show, and in November, we'll be presenting a reading of 'Torera' by Monet Hurst-Mendoza (which I HIGHLY recommend! It's a wonderful play). Now that TT has opened, I'm moving on to work for my next play "Until the Waves Come," a play about the value of art after an apocalyptic event.

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

A:  I wish theater would take more chances on weird stuff and new plays. 'Slave Play' by Jeremy O'Harris being on Broadway gives me hope though. There's just a lot of really wonderful theatre out there that's unconventional that deserves to be seen, but I frequently see theater companies choose "safe" classic plays for their seasons instead of bold new plays.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Sarah Ruhl made me want to be a playwright; after reading "A Clean House," I never looked back. Also, Tony Kushner's brand of fantasy (especially when utilized in plays that deal with gay trauma like in "Angels In America") constantly inspires me to push the fantasy in my work further.

Also, I am indebted to my dramaturg Todd Brian Backus! He really helped turn 'Tall Tales' into something special, and I'll be going to him again for his services.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Oh, gosh, I love magical realism and fantasy-inspired theater. I love seeing a play that provides me with a brand new experience. I also get really excited about any plays that involve LGBTQ characters and storylines.

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

A:  YOU ARE GOING TO WRITE BAD STUFF SOMETIMES. I scared myself to death trying to hold myself to this standard of everything I write having to be revolutionary. When I heard my first bad play read out loud (in front of people!), it devastated me. It'll probably devastate you too. Let it. Own it! Then, continue forward. That's the nature of this work. There's a lot of failure involved, but experimenting and trying stuff out is honorable, even if it doesn't work out. Also, KEEP your "bad" stuff. There's always something good in there that you can cannibalize for another, better play.

Q:  Plugs please:

A:  My twitter is @RiverTimms, and Woven's is @Woven_Theatre. We've also got an indiegogo campaign running to help fund the season: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/a-season-of-new-plays#/. Tickets for "Tall Tales" can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/tall-tales-by-ad-timms-tickets-70931697617

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Oct 3, 2019

I Interview Playwrights Part 1062: Richard Curtis



Richard Curtis

Hometown:  Born in Bronx, NY, grew up in Queens, NY and subsequently Hewlett, Long Island, NY. In short, I'm a New Yorker from head to toes.

Current Town:  Manhattan

Q:  Tell me about Quiet Enjoyment?

A:  A bizarre incident in the closing of our purchase of a co-op inspired the idea for a comedy about a closing that goes as wrong as a deal can go. I sat on the idea for years till I knew my characters, then let 'er rip!

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  Short and full-length comedies, satires, and farces.

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 five I made up a song about "The Lady Next Door". My mother declared me a story-telling genius, and I never argued with my mother. I have had more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction published, and many one-act and ten-minute plays produced.

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

A:  I would quadruple actor pay scales.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Neil Simon, Feydeau, Paddy Chayevsky, and Dick Van Dyke reruns.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I hold my breath from the opening line to the last one.

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

A:  Work in the theater, make connections with peers who are on their way up. One day they will be in a position to help you get your work performed.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Do you mean plug my own work? Say "I've written a comedy about a co-op closing" and people start laughing. They all have a story. But they don't have one as funny as Quiet Enjoyment. A plug for my director Marcus Gualberto? I see funny in the two-dimensions of a manuscript. He sees funny in the three dimensions of a theater, and he makes it even funnier than I ever imagined.


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Oct 2, 2019

Audrey Cefaly's playwriting vocabulary


Audrey wrote a cool list about playwriting terms: 
"Fellow playwrights, these are my words for playwright-erly things. Many of them are maybe a little unorthodox, words not typically used in this fashion, but ones that work for me. The idea is to sort of look beyond what's taught in textbooks and give names to techniques that are often undocumented, overlooked and undervalued.  In any event, they work for me, maybe they'll work for you too.  In no particular order..."
LAVA LAMPING
that thing where you devise a little something interesting to bubble up into a scene every now and then, and maybe it's never fully explained but delightful nonetheless because not everything needs an explanation; it can just be lava or whatever you want it to be
CLOCKING
it's that moment (a skipped heartbeat kind of moment) when a character notices, with undeniable clarity, something of great significance; a solid radar strike...​
LINE TOSS
that line you write for a character to be delivered breezily as they pass through the scene and to them it means nothing but to the other character it is total devastation
YELP
a cry of pain; a very quick sharp burst of a line uttered by a character in response to agonizing emotional pain or torment
GOLD
that thing or moment in a script that is so perfect, so right, so genuinely spot-on that, in its absence, the world would stop spinning


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