Justice Hehir
Q: What are you working on now?
A: Two things: a play about dildo manufacturing (fun times) and a postpartum play for new parents and their babies.
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 used to spend hours when we would travel to upstate New York in a creek behind a cabin we stayed in. I've always been drawn to water. I would use a stick and "un-clog" the stream- pull leaves and debris from different crooked points along the creek. I loved watching the water run, I loved how powerful it was, and I think I just wanted to help it along.
Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?
A: The audiences. Which is to say, the prices. Which is to say, a lack of widespread state/community support for theater.
I wish I saw more people from different backgrounds in the audience. Writing about a middle-class or working-class background can be uncomfortable when the audience feels like it's there to consume the narrative you're sharing for their own relative "goodness" rather than engaging with the story in earnest. In other words- I would love to write more about my family and the people I care about- but not if they can't afford to come see it.
Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
A: I think probably all the other working playwrights who labor in obscurity. Success is a natural food for hope. So those of us working without that, who have to feed our own hope from somewhere, something inside ourselves, I think that's kind of a big deal.
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: The kind that breaks my heart, and the kind that makes me giddy, and the kind that makes me feel nourished. Sometimes they overlap, but sometimes not.
Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?
A: Always be wary of advice for playwrights just starting out. LOL ok but actually, that, I do kind of mean that. But also: just write. Don't be precious about it. I believe that if you work hard enough, if you write something good enough, eventually, the world will take notice. Screw networking, screw resume padding, screw connections- because all the schmoozing in the world will not make a bad play better. Only work will. Make something genuinely powerful and then find people who understand what you're doing and hold on tight.
Q: Plugs, please:
A: If you ever feel like reading some kinda sad and weird hypernaturalist plays, here's my NPX page:
https://newplayexchange.org/users/18932/justice-hehir
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