Adam Szymkowicz

Mar 8, 2023

Two Upcoming Events (New York City)

1.

I have a reading coming up March 18 in NYC. It's another big hearted ensemble play that's meant to be inclusive (although it is admittedly kind of Christmas centric.)

Please come if you can.

THE CHRISTMAS TREE FARM

by Adam Szymkowicz
directed by Kelly O'Donnell
starring Nandita Shenoy, Alisha Spielmann, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Matthew Trumbull, Natalie Kim, Emily Ma.

Saturday, March 18 at 5 pm
The Music Hall at Dramatists Guild Foundation
520 8th Ave. Suite 2401

RSVP: pcplaywrightsgroup@gmail.com

This reading is presented by the Parent-Caregiver Playwrights Group, a selective workshop for playwrights who are also parents or caregivers. The group is sponsored by Project Y Theatre and has received support from New Georges, the Juilliard School, and others. Group members include Liz Appel, Eleanor Burgess, Mathilde Dratwa, Enid Graham, Mary Elizabeth Hamilton, Ying Ying Li, Erin Mallon, Deepa Purohit, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, Lia Romeo, and Adam Szymkowicz.

An event at the Drama Book Shop celebrating my monologue book out from Applause. Tues March 21 at 7:30pm A bunch of lovely folks have agreed to read a few monologues at the event including Erin Mallon, Kevin R. Free, Justin Woo and more! RSVP here (You buy a book for your admission ticket)

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Dec 28, 2022

My 2022 in Review

Hi everyone! Happy New Year or soon to be New Year! Here is the photo we take in front of my parents' tree every year.

This year marked the first time I was back in a room with actors again. I didn't realize I think how much I missed it until it was happening. We shot a short film at Juilliard at the beginning of the year. I got to work with a great group of 4th year actors and my friend director Michelle Bossy. Excited for you to see it eventually. Here is the trailer.

This year we went camping twice, visited VA and Cape Cod both twice. I was in Los Angeles for a week for meetings. I was in Vegas for a week for the premiere of Clown Bar 2, a commission from Majestic Rep that was supposed to go up 2 years ago. It was a lot of fun and I'm super proud of the production and of the play.

I was also in the Bay Area for a silent writing retreat with Erik Ehn for a week. During that week, I wrote about half of my output for the year. Those retreats really work for me. Every day was like half a month of normal writing time.

Writingwise in 2022, I wrote 30 short monologues for a book coming out next year. I wrote an hour long pilot, a 15 minute podcast pilot, three full length plays, most of a feature screenplay and one one-act play. I also did quite a bit of revising.

I was in a writing group for parents, a writing group with friends and took part in Flux's core work.

I did only 10 interviews this year. I'm kind of semi-retired now at the interview thing. I used to do 100 a year.

I counted how many books I read this year. 50. I didn't count how many plays I read for my job but it was probably more than 100.

Four plays of mine hit their 50th production this year: Clown Bar (2011), Hearts Like Fists (2012), Kodachrome (2018) and Marian (2017).

Marian had 20 productions this year and Kodachrome had 25, which were both records for me. The most I ever had of a full length in a single year was 14 of Kodachrome last year.

This year I had a record shattering 6 plays published with 4 more coming next year.

From Sam French/Concord,
One Act version of Kodachrome
Clown Bar 2
UPCOMING: 100 Things I Never Said To You/100 Love Letters I Never Sent

From Stage Partners,
Old Fashioned Cold Fusion
UPCOMING: When Jack Met Jill
Heart of Snow

From Broadway Play Publishing Inc,
Stockholm Syndrome

From Theatrical Rights Worldwide,
UPCOMING: The Wooden Heart

From playscripts,
The Bookstore
The Night Children

Next year, my monologue book comes out from Applause, Small Explosions, containing 90ish never before seen 1-2 minute monologues.

This year I had 67ish productions of full lengths. (20 more than my best year) Caveats— Some of them were probably one act versions of Kodachrome but I'm not sure how many. An overwhelming amount of these 67 productions were high schools and college productions with some notable exceptions. Only 12 were not done at schools. (This is, I think still a lot about the pandemic. Lots of small theaters are just now starting to do work again.) In terms of foreign productions, Kodachrome was done in England. Clown Bar was done in Turkey and at a university in Ireland. Marian was done in Wales, England, and Switzerland and also in Germany, in German at a 1000 seat outdoor venue.

Including productions of one-act plays, I had just over 100 productions this year. Now I don't know exactly what the money is I'll make for all that because it sometimes takes six months to get paid but probably it's somewhere around what I made this year which is still far from making a living at this. I would venture to say a modest living would be 2 to 3 times what I make now. (So I really want to have 200-300 productions. Or even more than that if so many of them continue to be school shows where, if they only do one or two performances, I often make under 100 dollars per production.)

I started writing plays in 1997, the summer after my sophomore year of college. And that was 25 years ago. I have written at least one play but often two or three every year for 25 years.

And I’m doing really well in a lot of ways, but I’m not making a living. Would I be making a living if we weren’t still in a pandemic? Probably not. Definitely not a consistent living. I really thought after doing this for this long I'd have more movement in that way but I can never quite make the math work. On the upside, this was still a good year for me in a lot of ways.

Love to you and yours. Here are my previous years in review.

2021

2020

2019

2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007

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Dec 5, 2022

I Interview Playwrights Part 1116: Julia B. Rosenblatt

Photo Credit:Seina Shirakura Photography

Julia B. Rosenblatt

Hometown: Hartford, CT

Current Town: Back in Hartford!

Q: Tell me about Can't Make This Sh*t Up

A: About two months ago Tjasa Ferme introduced me to Transforma Theatre and The Science in Theater Festival. While I believe in science thoroughly, (which is actually something one has to make explicit these days), I am terrifyingly intimidated by the subject. My freeze response kicks in and I assume I am incapable of understanding any of it. So when Tjasa said she needed a play about an eco-toilet connected to a laboratory that uses excrement to produce biogas, my head started spinning.

Jaewon Cho's BeeVi toilet is nothing short of mind blowing. And yet it makes so much sense, I can only assume the reason we haven't heard more about it, is that it involves acknowledging what the great children's author, Taro Gomi, has been telling us for decades: everyone poops. As we get closer to the point irreversible climate change, it's clearly time we get over ourselves and insist on sustainable forms of energy, no matter what (or whom) it comes from. Can't Make This Sh*t Up, is loosely based on my home, a small urban commune once known as the Scarborough 11. The play imagines the year is 2030. After yet another devastating natural disaster has wiped out the city's plumbing and sewage system, we decide to build a Biological Anaerobic Digestion System in our backyard. Our NIMBY neighbors go nuts, and drag us before the zoning commission, bringing national attention to our family once again. It's a comedy.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A: Group! (lyrics by Eloise Govedare, music by Aleksandra Weil) is a musical that follows six women through intensive outpatient therapy for drug and alcohol addiction. The show has had two workshops and a brief run at Passage Theatre in New Jersey. We are now in the process of rewrites, and looking for the next development opportunity.

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

A: Like many other playwrights, I have been "devising theater" in my parents' basement since I was in elementary school. I spent hours creating and rehearsing epic plays and musicals with anyone who was willing (most often my younger sister). I am eternally grateful to my parents, older sisters, aunts and uncles for sitting through our "performances."

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

A: Purpose and access. Theater is essential to the human condition. It should not be something that is elite or reserved for specific times and places. Theater should be made and enjoyed by whomever chooses to do so.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: August Boal's Theater of the Oppressed changed my life. It set me on a path that I have rarely veered from in the last 30 years. As far as current playwrights, I fall in love with everything Lynn Nottage creates.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Real, complex stories that use humor to challenge the status quo and demand systemic change.

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

A: Oof, this is a hard one because every day I feel like I'm "just starting out." I guess I would say write with passion and seek feedback with humility. We should always be learning.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: Well of course coming up, Science in Theater Festival.
I am a co-founder and ensemble member of HartBeat Ensemble.
Check out the professionally immersive theater training program at Capital Community College!

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Nov 15, 2022

I Interview Playwrights Part 1115: TyLie Shider

TyLie Shider

Hometown: Plainfield, New Jersey

Current Town: Minneapolis, Minnesota

Q: Tell me about The Gospel Woman.

A: The Gospel Woman is a traditional American family drama set in a 1970’s Baptist church. It’s a kind of tribute play that I built around a gospel record my mother recorded when she was a teenager. Lastly, it’s the 2nd installment in my “Mom & Pop plays,” which are a set of companion plays that I wrote based on the original music my parents recorded growing up. I wanted to concretize and honor their ambition, because their ambition led to my professional ambition. My father is a guitarist and singer, and my mother is a gospel singer. They are both songwriters. And I started writing creatively by watching them work and imitating them. The plays are set 5 years apart, and set against the backdrop of transformative moments in American history. The first installment, Certain Aspects of Conflict in the Negro Family, is set in the “long hot summer of 1967” when uprisings broke out across the country. And the second play, The Gospel Woman (NBT), is set in 1972, and it explores what happened to my hometown, Plainfield, NJ, after the riots. Both of the plays are family dramas that center two very different families in the same city. However, I call the plays “Rehearsal Dramas” because I grew up in recording studios and backstage at my parents’ concerts, and the rehearsal atmosphere is the soundtrack to my childhood.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A: The next play I am working on is called Whittier. It’s a contemporary docudrama I am developing at the Playwrights’ Center based on interviews I conducted during the 2020 uprisings in my neighborhood in Whittier, Minneapolis.

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 was always interested in writing down the stories around me. My mother owned a hair salon when I was growing up, and she gave me an opportunity to create a “newsstand” in her salon where I would sell newsletters I had written on saturdays. The newsletters were basically comic strips which featured adaptations of her clients' conversations.

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

A: I’d like to see more revivals of American classics. I was very excited to see Alice Childress’ Trouble in Mind on Broadway!

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: August Wilson is one of my literary heroes. Also I had an opportunity to study with in graduate school at Tisch, Anna Deavere Smith and her course really validated my investigative esthetic.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: Quarantine deepened my appreciation for live theater. It’s become a privilege to congregate with people in the same room. Therefore, any opportunity to see live theater outside of the “metaverse” excites me.

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

A: I think writers should study the biography and careers of other writers.

Q: Plugs, please: My play Whittier is part of the Playwrights’ Centers’ public season next month.
Check it out in person or online.

A: In person: Monday, December 5, and Tuesday, December 6 at 7:00 p.m. Available online:
Thursday, December 15 – Wednesday, Dec 21, 2022

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Oct 3, 2022

I Interview Playwrights Part 1114: Emma Goldman-Sherman

photo by Melinda Hall @snappynyc

Emma Goldman-Sherman

Hometown: Philadelphia, PA

Current Town: New York City

Q: Tell me about FUKT.

A: FUKT was written in a few days from a prompt from Aaron Sawyer when he was the AD at Red Theater Chicago and ran the Write a Play a Day for the month of November back in 2017. For anyone who has forgotten what happened in October of 2017, a lot of women came forward in the news with histories of sexual abuse, and the world questioned their veracity.

I like to write fast, especially hard material, and then revise slowly. I think it's important to get to the end of the arc and then figure out what's missing. It feels more honest, unconscious and unplanned. The prompt was "Self as Villain, No 4th Wall." Most of the play just fell into my head the minute I opened the prompt on October 31st. The first reading was November 9th at the Dramatists Guild Foundation with the 29th Street Playwrights Collective. I was afraid if I didn't get it into the world in front of some colleagues, I would hide it away forever.

FUKT is a dark comedy about my own personal journey healing from traumatic memories. It's meta and immersive. It sits between Slave Play and What the Constitution... I developed it with New Circle Theatre Co and Dixon Place. I appreciate all the love it gets on NPX. FUKT was a finalist with BAPF and Unicorn. I'm producing it at The Tank in NYC this fall. It will live-stream and be live in person. So anyone can have access. October 27 - November 13th.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A: I'm working on a commission from Experimental Bitch about the history of medical misogyny. Tanya's Lit Clit is a phantasmagorical musical - a comedy with ballet and burlesque - about autoimmune disease and how women, especially Black women, are mistrusted by the medical establishment. I'm also working with EmptyRoomRadio.com on Tamar (The Two-Gated City) about raper culture in the Bible, in particular about a woman who isn't heard in court.

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 fell in love with theatre early. As an abused autistic child with chronic illness, I took everything literally. So when I saw TinkerBell healed from collective applause, I realized, and fully believed, and still believe today, that theatre holds a kind of magic that gives audiences agency to create our own transformations. I had to find a way to do that.

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

A: Access! Who gets to tell the stories that create the culture we live in? Who gets to decide who gets to tell these stories? I am part of a lost generation of women who are never taken seriously by the gatekeepers. Lit managers look right past me. It's extremely disheartening. I'm a member of the advocacy organization Honor Roll! to try to change how older female artists are seen. If a theatre takes public funds, it should have a mandate to represent the lived experiences of its public. Why must we watch the same revivals over and over again? How does that provoke change?

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: too many

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I love theatre that is conscious of its audience. We have enough walls and screens between us.

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

A: Find a supportive community! Join me in www.BraveSpace.online

Q: Plugs, please:

A:
MORE ABOUT FUKT: https://www.fukttheplay.com/
GET FUKT TICKETS: https://ci.ovationtix.com/35658/production/1138125

More about Brave Space https://www.bravespace.online

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Jul 26, 2022

90 New Monologues

I tried writing some new things the last couple of years. The jury is still out on what will happen to the YA novels I wrote. But another thing I tried was writing new monologues. For about three months last summer I wrote a monologue most days in the morning.

Most of my plays have monologues in them and there has been a steep uptick in the past five years in the number of actors doing my monologues in auditions and acting classes.

I thought I would lean into it and put even more monologues in the world. So I wrote these 60 monologues and I sent it to applause and they liked it and asked me to write some more. And I did. So now there are 90 or so monologues collected in a book coming out in early 2023.

And it is now available for preorder. So maybe you know an actor or an acting teacher who would like it. Maybe you could ask your local library for it. Maybe you could buy a bunch of copies and donate them to a theater program.

Anyway, pitch over. I'm super happy about this and proud of it and glad it worked out. If applause said no, there aren't a lot of other publishers of monologues, so I'm feeling very lucky. And I'm sure this isn't a moneymaking endeavor. It's the theater person's version of writing a bunch of poems. So more than anything it feels like I wrote this gift for you. (Although the book does cost money.) But I think you'll like it. And I love the cover.

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Adam Szymkowicz

Featured Post

1100 Playwright Interviews

Mar 8, 2023

Two Upcoming Events (New York City)

Dec 28, 2022

My 2022 in Review

Dec 5, 2022

I Interview Playwrights Part 1116: Julia B. Rosenblatt

Nov 15, 2022

I Interview Playwrights Part 1115: TyLie Shider

Oct 3, 2022

I Interview Playwrights Part 1114: Emma Goldman-Sherman

Jul 26, 2022

90 New Monologues

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