Carole Real
Hometown: San Anselmo, California
Current Town: I’ve lived in LA for twenty years but am moving back to New York City in the fall.
Q: Tell me about your play in the EST Marathon.
A: The play follows a temp worker in a large corporation who is charged with the task of reading foreign factory audits. Spoiler: the factories are not great places to work. The play is both funny and disturbing.
Q: What else are you working on now?
Q: What else are you working on now?
A: My latest project attempts to channel my feminist rage. Tall order!
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 fifteen, I got a job as a lab assistant for my high school Chemistry class—meaning I washed beakers for a few hours a week. The high school sent me paperwork I had to sign to get paid and one document was a declaration that I was not a member of the Communist Party. I showed it to my folks and they told me it was a holdover from the McCarthy era. I didn’t want to sign it, so I looked up the phone number for the ACLU and phoned them to ask them if I had to. The ACLU lady explained that the political climate wasn’t right to challenge this practice in the courts and advised I sign the document. I want to go back and give sixteen-year-old me a high five and a hug for knowing that requiring employees to sign such a document was wrong and calling the ACLU on my own!
Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?
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 fifteen, I got a job as a lab assistant for my high school Chemistry class—meaning I washed beakers for a few hours a week. The high school sent me paperwork I had to sign to get paid and one document was a declaration that I was not a member of the Communist Party. I showed it to my folks and they told me it was a holdover from the McCarthy era. I didn’t want to sign it, so I looked up the phone number for the ACLU and phoned them to ask them if I had to. The ACLU lady explained that the political climate wasn’t right to challenge this practice in the courts and advised I sign the document. I want to go back and give sixteen-year-old me a high five and a hug for knowing that requiring employees to sign such a document was wrong and calling the ACLU on my own!
Q: If you could change one thing about theater, what would it be?
A: I would have all companies produce an equal number of plays by women and men and produce playwrights who reflect the demographics of the city where the theaters are located.
Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
A: Tennessee Williams, Sarah Ruhl, The Lilly Awards and everyone who helps run a theater anywhere.
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
Q: What kind of theater excites you?
A: Anything that makes me feel.
Q: What advice do you have for playwrights just starting out?
A: Get smart actors to read your plays aloud.
Q: Plugs, please:
A: Nothing for me, but check out this new initiative to broaden the scope of theatrical criticism: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janejung/3views-on-theater
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Q: Plugs, please:
A: Nothing for me, but check out this new initiative to broaden the scope of theatrical criticism: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/janejung/3views-on-theater
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