| Deena MP Ronayne | Hometown: Chelmsford, Massachusetts. The son of my grammar school music teacher was a | background illustrator for The Simpsons and the Springfield town hall on the series is | modeled after the Chelmsford Public Library. | Current Town: I currently live in Aberdeen, South Dakota. After I grew up in MA, I spend over | 17 years in Orlando, FL and then moved to the midwest when I married my husband. Aberdeen, | SD is his home town and now it is my home. | Q: What are you working on now? | A: Usually, I am a producer through my company, Hardly Working Promotions LLC, but when | COVID hit, I had the time to try writing my own play for the first time. That play is called | “Triple Bypass: Three Ten Minute Plays About Living for Death & Dying for Life.” The | Aberdeen Community Theatre joined forces with me and we made a video of a full production | and I have been putting it in virtual fringe festivals ever since. My next goal is to bring this play | to life in person in several cities around the world with local casts and crews in 2022. | Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a | person. | A: As a small child, I wanted to learn how to partner dance, I watched Dirty Dancing a lot…and I | mean A LOT. There were no resources for teaching that kind of dance to a 6 year old where I lived, | so I would play the movie and act out the scenes with my extra large Gumby doll. The lift scene did | not go very well. However, when I think back to my thought process at the time, I see an | unwillingness to wait around for what I wanted, I did my best to create it for myself. This sums up | my growth in the entertainment industry in general because projects are kind of like children | (you can love someone else’s project but never as much as you love your own) and if you don’t find | what you are looking for, the only last limitation to get where you want to be is your imagination. | Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be? | A: Accessibility across the board needs a major and long overdue overhaul. If I could wave a magic | wand, there would be theatre opportunities for participating and viewing in the most oppressed and | distant areas, there would be one central spot for all audition notices, and there would be an | abundance of diverse artistic grants that don’t take a magnifying glass and a professional fundraiser | to find, apply for, and receive. | Q: What are your first memories of theatre? | A: In my home growing up, there were many soundtracks for musicals on record and on tape cassette. | I would listen to all the Andrew Lloyd Webber shows at home, and look at the album art. The very | first show I ever saw was an evening with Michael Crawford at the Wang Center in Boston and he sang | all the hits from ALW musicals. It was years before I realized anyone does anything onstage without | singing. | Q: What kind of theater excites you? | A: I adore the concept of immersive theatre and I hope to participate in more of it as things move | further away from the COVID crisis. | Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out? | A: Get as many people as you can to workshop your work. You will get invaluable knowledge about | what is actually conveying to potential audience members verses how you see your play in your head. | Q: Plugs, please: | A: For more info, please visit: www.hardlyworkingpromotions.com |
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