I Interview Playwrights Part 837: Andrew Rincón

Andrew Rincón

Hometown:  Fort Myers, FL.

Current Town:  New York City.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I’m juggling between three main projects right now. I’m in a new writer’s group called Wright Club with the Amoralists theatre company and a staged reading/workshop of a new one act of mine will go up with them at the end of May. It’s called I Wanna Fuck like Romeo and Juliet. Cupid and Saint Valentine make a wager on a newly minted relationship between two men. The play is dealing with monogamy, love, fetish and a bit of everything in between. I’m adapting another one act, Inheritance (Blood Memory) into a full length. And I’m finally making the long awaited dive into comic books, working with an incredible illustrator, Micah Milner, on creating a new web-comic series.

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 a conversation with my brother recently we were discussing some silly family drama, and he said to me “in this family, you have to speak to three different generations to get the full story”. I think that is a perfect statement that shows where I pull from as a writer. I grew up with some incredible stories from my entire family, stories that bleed down from my grandmother, to my mother, to me. When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do was to dive into my Mother’s photo albums. Starting with the most recent albums filled with my brother and I, I would follow the memories down into the black and white of my mother’s childhood in Cali, Colombia when my grandmother was a young woman herself. I’d get lost in my head with all of that. When I look at what I write now, I feel like I see my whole family stomping their way through the words.

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

A:  Without a doubt, the deficit of opportunities for queer artists, people of color, women, and anyone that doesn’t fit that straight-white male majority.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Tony Kushner, Lucy Thurber, Stephen Adly Guirgis. Taylor Mac. Luis Alfaro’s play Electricdad and Quiara Hudes’s play 26 Miles changed my outlook on theatre completely. They showed me that anyone can take their culture, their singular experience, and put it in their work. Those were also some of the first plays I read that talked about Latinidad is such a way that resonating with me for years after.

I also adore Stefanie Zadravec. Not only is her work brilliant, poetic, and theatrical (it’s like the woman is directly channeling Tennessee Williams’s), but she is and was, one of the most encouraging teachers I have ever had the pleasure to work with. I recommend her workshops and classes to everyone I know.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Messy. The magical. The truly theatrical.

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

A:  I feel like I am still very much at the cusp of my career, so this one is a bit difficult. See all the shows you can (if someone ever offers you a free ticket, take it). Read books like Steal like an Artist. Read plays, plays, plays and see how your favorites do what they do.

Also, trust yourself. I know I constantly fall into a trap of writing 10 pages, then asking 10 people to read it and give me the most explicit feedback (and then invariably becoming overwhelmed by all the different opinions). Just write. Finish the draft. Take some time away. Get laid. Give it to a mentor, or one person you trust. Then tackle that draft again. Breathe. You can do this. You’re better than you think you are.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I Wanna Fuck like Romeo and Juliet goes up with another piece, LoveHack by the incredible Sander Gusinow on May 25th at The Medicine Show Theatre. It's the 5th Wright Night Event with the Amoralists Theatre Company.

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