Adam Szymkowicz's Blog, page 10

I Interview Playwrights Part 1062: Richard Curtis

Richard Curtis

Hometown:  Born in Bronx, NY, grew up in Queens, NY and subsequently Hewlett, Long Island, NY. In short, I'm a New Yorker from head to toes.

Current Town:  Manhattan

Q:  Tell me about Quiet Enjoyment?

A:  A bizarre incident in the closing of our purchase of a co-op inspired the idea for a comedy about a closing that goes as wrong as a deal can go. I sat on the idea for years till I knew my characters, then let 'er rip!

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  Short and full-length comedies, satires, and farces.

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 five I made up a song about "The Lady Next Door". My mother declared me a story-telling genius, and I never argued with my mother. I have had more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction published, and many one-act and ten-minute plays produced.

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

A:  I would quadruple actor pay scales.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Neil Simon, Feydeau, Paddy Chayevsky, and Dick Van Dyke reruns.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I hold my breath from the opening line to the last one.

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

A:  Work in the theater, make connections with peers who are on their way up. One day they will be in a position to help you get your work performed.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Do you mean plug my own work? Say "I've written a comedy about a co-op closing" and people start laughing. They all have a story. But they don't have one as funny as Quiet Enjoyment. A plug for my director Marcus Gualberto? I see funny in the two-dimensions of a manuscript. He sees funny in the three dimensions of a theater, and he makes it even funnier than I ever imagined.




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Audrey Cefaly's playwriting vocabulary

Audrey wrote a cool list about playwriting terms: 

"Fellow playwrights, these are my words for playwright-erly things. Many of them are maybe a little unorthodox, words not typically used in this fashion, but ones that work for me. The idea is to sort of look beyond what's taught in textbooks and give names to techniques that are often undocumented, overlooked and undervalued.  In any event, they work for me, maybe they'll work for you too.  In no particular order..."

LAVA LAMPING

that thing where you devise a little something interesting to bubble up into a scene every now and then, and maybe it's never fully explained but delightful nonetheless because not everything needs an explanation; it can just be lava or whatever you want it to be

CLOCKING

it's that moment (a skipped heartbeat kind of moment) when a character notices, with undeniable clarity, something of great significance; a solid radar strike...​

LINE TOSS

that line you write for a character to be delivered breezily as they pass through the scene and to them it means nothing but to the other character it is total devastation

YELP

a cry of pain; a very quick sharp burst of a line uttered by a character in response to agonizing emotional pain or torment

GOLD

that thing or moment in a script that is so perfect, so right, so genuinely spot-on that, in its absence, the world would stop spinning

VIEW THE FULL LIST: https://www.audreycefaly.com/audrey-cefaly-playwright-vocabulary






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Plays Of Mine

PRODUCTIONS





Clown Bar 2

Production #1 of CB2

Majestic Rep

Las Vegas, NV

Opens May 20, 2020











Marian or The True Tale of Robin Hood










Production #21 of Marian

Spirit Gum Theatre Company

Winston Salem, NC

Opens October 11, 2019.













Production #22 of Marian

Blue Ridge Community College

Flat Rock, NC

Opens November 13, 2019.



Production #23 of Marian

The Breck School

Golden Valley, MN

Opens March 5, 2020



Production #24 of Marian

Cambridge Street Upper School

Cambridge, MA

Opens March 19, 2020



Production #25 of Marian

Michigan State Univeristy

East Lansing, MI

Opens April 10, 2020





Clown Bar

Production #37 of Clown Bar

Theatre Downtown

Birmingham, AL

Opens September 19, 2019.











Production #38 of Clown Bar

Elon University

Elon, NC

Opens October 3, 2019.




Production #39 of Clown Bar


University of Wisconsin,

Stevens Point, WI.



Opens November 8, 2019.



Production #40 of Clown Bar

Fresno State University

Fresno, CA.

Opens November 15, 2019.







Hearts Like Fists





Production #43 of HLF

Cyrano's Theatre Company

Anchorage, AK

Opens Sept 19, 2019.





Production #44 of HLF

Lee High School

Springfield, VA

Opens November 11, 2019.



Production #45 of HLF

Christopher Newport University


Newport News, VA.



Opens November 15, 2019.







Production #46 of HLF

Texas A and M University

Corpus, Christi, TX

Opens December 5, 2019.



Production #47 of HLF

Restless Artists Theater

Sparks, NV

Opens December 6, 2019










Kodachrome



Production #11 of Kodachrome

Orange High School

Hillsborough, NC.

Opens November 1, 2019.



Production #12 of Kodachrome

Monett High School

Monett, MO

Opens November 11, 2019



Production #13 of Kodachrome

Berkley High School

Berkley, MI

Opens November 15, 2019.



Production #14 of Kodachrome

Labette County High School

Altamont, KS

Opens April 16, 2020.




Pretty Theft





Production #15 of Pretty Theft

Mohawk Valley Community College

Utica, NY

Opens October 24, 2019.



The Adventures of Super Margaret



Production #9 of Super Margaret

Driscoll Middle School

San Antonio, TX

Opens November 20, 2019.



Production #10 of Super Margaret

Clarksville Middle School

Clarksville, IN

Opens December 20, 2019.



Rare Birds

Production #8 of Rare Birds

Mesquite High School

Mesquite, TX.

Opens November 14, 2019.





7 Ways To Say I Love You

a night of short plays



Production #34 of 7 Ways

Gladwin Area Friends of the Theater

Gladwin, MI

Opens October 10, 2019.



Production #35 of 7 Ways

Fountain Central Jr-Sr High

Veedersburg, IN

Opens November 22, 2019



Production #36 of 7 Ways

Mercer University

Macon, GA

Opens February 13, 2020.





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I Interview Playwrights Part 1061: Ron West

Ron West



Hometown: Middlefield, Ohio



Current Town: Santa Monica, CA.




Q: Tell me about Neil Simon's Musical Fools.



A:  A number of years ago, my songwriting partner's wife directed Fools at the high school where she teaches. Phil wrote on his program, "Better as a musical," and let that incubate for a few years before he told me about it. As luck would have it, we ended up having the same attorney as Neil Simon and we got permission to adapt the play. Mr. Simon did most of the heavy lifting because we adhered to the script closely. I regret to say we never spoke to or heard from him. When Phil's wife Amanda was working at another high school, she produced Neil Simon's Musical Fools and Mrs. Simon (AKA Elaine Joyce) came to see it and gave it the stamp of approval, essentially.



Q: What else are you working on now?




A:  A musical adaptation of Richard III in yet another collaboration with composer Phil Swann.



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




A:  I would throw more paying work my way.



Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?




A:  My theatrical heroes are my band and choir conductors who taught me about managing big groups of people. Also, my parents, who didn't tell me, "This is insane; don't do this," even though it was insane and I shouldn't have done it.



Q: What kind of theater excites you?




A:  The one where I show up expecting nothing and go away thinking, "I've got to steal as much of that as possible."



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




A:  Don't type a lot of stuff in parentheses that tells the actors how to say the lines.



Q: Plugs, please:



A:  You mean like, "See Neil Simon's Musical Fools, the funniest thing on 30 legs."






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I Interview Playwrights Part 1060: Stephanie Alison Walker

Stephanie Alison Walker 

Hometown:  Barrington, IL (suburb of Chicago)

Current Town:  L.A. has been home for a total of 14 years (with 10 months spent on a remote island in the PNW and a year and a half in Chicago.) I constantly feel torn between L.A. and Chicago because both cities have my heart. P.S. I love winter. I love snow. I love bundling for the cold… but of course that’s so easy to say because I no longer have to live in it. I suppose I’ve romanticized it. That said, I did spend four weeks in the Chicago winter last year for family and the opening of The Abuelas. And I loved every second of it.

Q: Tell me about The Abuelas.

A:  Here’s the synopsis:

Gabriela is an Argentine cellist living in Chicago with her American husband and adjusting to life as a new mom. A surprise visit from two strangers exposes a devastating secret in this visceral look at the repercussions of Argentina’s so-called “Dirty War.” The Abuelas explores the heart’s capacity for forgiveness — even in the face of the harshest betrayal.

We are heading into tech for the West Coast premiere opening on October 11th at Antaeus Theatre Company in Glendale, CA. The world premiere was in February in Chicago with Teatro Vista at Victory Gardens. I wrote it in 2016 on the heels of my play The Madres - which is about three generations of women during the so-called “Dirty War” in Argentina. The Abuelas is the companion play and is set in Chicago 37 years after The Madres ends. It’s a companion play, but both plays stand on their own.

I came to the subject for many reasons. I have Argentine family and I was actually in Argentina in 1980 during the Dictatorship (I was five then.) The images of the soldiers with their big guns in the airport imprinted on me. It was much later, when I was living and working in Buenos Aires that I began to learn about what actually happened in Argentina during that period. I had a friend who was doing a documentary on Las Madres de la Plaza de Mayo-- the mothers whose children disappeared during the dictatorship. It was because of their bravery and activism that the world really learned about what was happening during the dictatorship. They went every Thursday and marched in a circle in front of the Casa Rosada, demanding to know what happened to their children and grandchildren. They continued to march after the dictatorship and still march today.

Las Abuelas became focused on finding and restoring the identities of their lost grandchildren. They estimate that 500 babies were stolen. Las Abuelas worked with scientists to establish a DNA database in order to identify their missing grandchildren. The science was groundbreaking. It’s really extraordinary what they have done. So far, they’ve located 130 of their missing grandchildren. But that means there are still 270 who are missing.

My play is about a woman who discovers everything she knew about her life and her identity to be a lie. It explores how one can move forward after betrayal. It asks what can be forgiven and how do we move forward? There is a lot of history, politics and heartbreak at the foundation of my play, but the story is specific and personal to these characters. My goal is to draw the audience in with these characters and take them on a nuanced and deep journey that challenges and also, though dark, still maintains at least a promise of hope.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A:  My play Friends With Guns about liberals and guns just opened its third production in Minneapolis. There will be another production of that in Chicago (soon to be announced) in 2020. I have a new play called The Ordeal of Water that I’m submitting to all the development opportunities that’s inspired by the first women to work as longshoremen at the Port of Los Angeles and I am researching my next play that has me very excited, but that I’m not ready to talk about just yet. I have a one-week workshop of my play The Sister House with Inkwell Theater Company in L.A. in December. I’m also adapting Friends With Guns and writing a television pilot - trying to actually make some money.

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

A:  I think I need a magic wand. There are two things. One: lower ticket prices to make it more accessible to everyone. I think in an ideal world, no more than $15 for any ticket. And two: pay everyone who makes theater a living wage.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Paula Vogel, Quiara Alegria Hudes, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Charlayne Woodard, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Caryl Churchill and oh how I could go on. And then there are the heroes who make theatre and are enormously dedicated to playwrights and new work. There are so many out there, here are five people who gave/give all of themselves to the creation of new work every day and who were or have been personally instrumental in my life: Russ Tutterow, Ann Filmer, Nan Barnett, Jordana Fraider, Samara Harris.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I get excited when I see something I’ve never seen before… especially if it grabs me emotionally. Especially when it’s a truth so vulnerable and dangerous, like an exposed nerve. I get really excited when I feel like the entire audience is breathing as one. I felt all of this both times I saw Indecent by Paula Vogel, for example.

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

A:  Don’t be precious about your work. Don’t try to write a perfect play, instead, write a truthful play. Be bold. Rejection is required. A lot of it. So get cozy with it. Connect with other playwrights and join the New Play Exchange. Keep learning. Find your community. If you can’t find one. Create one. Oh- and don’t wait for someone else to produce your work. There’s so much to be learned in producing it yourself, especially if you surround yourself with intuitive and talented people with a lot of energy. One of the best things I ever did for my writing was attend the Kennedy Center’s Summer Playwriting Intensive led by Gary Garrison. If you can do that, I can’t recommend it enough!

Q: Plugs, please:

A:  Los Angeles: please come see THE ABUELAS, Oct. 3- Nov. 25 http://antaeus.org/shows/the-abuelas/

Minneapolis/St. Paul: please see FRIENDS WITH GUNS now running through October 5th https://www.uprisingtheatreco.com/september-2019/

My plays on NPX: https://newplayexchange.org/users/281/stephanie-alison-walker

Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Littof

To learn more about the work of the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, please visit their website: https://abuelas.org.ar


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I Interview Playwrights Part 1059: Shyam Bhatt

Shyam Bhatt





Hometown:  London, England



Current Town:  Los Angeles, California



Q:  What are you working on now?



A:  Rehearsing Treya's Last Dance for a run at the Hudson Guild starting 18th September - woot! Filming a new YouTube Character Sketch Series. Refining my second play Wisdom Teeth for production in 2020. Learning some history and stuff about my new home-town.



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



A:  Hmmm. That's a nice question. A real nice question.



Writer: Spoiler-alert! It's not a mushy and romantic story.



From the earliest age, I read like reading was going out of fashion. It was a way to go into different worlds - I could totally lose myself. I loved all my writing assignments and would disappear into the stories my pen would scritch out. Collateral damage? I started lying like a mo******er! Because, simply put, at some point I temporarily lost the ability to tell the difference between reality and fantasy! It was fixed - through a lot of stern (furious) talking-to's from my parents. I know what's real now, thanks. Weirdly, my acting side helped to temper the slightly introverted writer inside me. Now the two sides balance each other out and I feel like I can get the both of both worlds - the extravagance and the intellectualism.



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



A:  Oh man - I'd move the money away from the huge, well-known shows and towards the lesser known stuff and promote new, quality writing from non-West End / Broadway writers. There is beautiful work at the mid to lower levels of theatre in London, New York and LA, but it doesn't get seen because the money goes towards pushing the huge shows. I'd tackle that.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?




A:  I don't think I have any heroes as such - it's such a huge ensemble effort to put a play on that everyone involved becomes a hero! A couple of plays that made a big impression on me were George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, and Jennifer Haley's The Nether.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?




A:  Work that is beautifully written, beautifully acted and beautifully produced, addressing themes that are applicable to our lives now. This could be Shakespeare re-directed to appeal to a school audience, or new work specifically written for the same purpose. I just love the feeling that live performance gives the audience - of all of us being party to a magical, unrepeatable moment. And I love that a night spent at the theatre is always an event, a special moment to be shared with special people.



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



A:  I don't think I have any particularly amazing advice! I guess what I find to be useful for me is to force myself to write, even on days when it feels like terrible gears are grinding together. The more words you get out, the more shit you clear so you can get to the good stuff. Read a lot. Watch plays so you know what sort of stuff you want to be writing, and look and listen to people - you'll be recreating them on stage. Best to know what they really sound like :)



Q:  Plugs, please--



A:  A small plug



Treya's Last Dance is on for 6 Wednesdays at the Hudson Guild Theatre in Los Angeles. Tickets are available here: https://www.onstage411.com/newsite/show/play_info.asp?show_id=5029 but are selling fast!



https://www.instagram.com/treyaslastdanceplay/



https://www.facebook.com/treyaslastdanceplay



http://www.shyambhatt.com/reviews?fbclid=IwAR0JCW-dOlnk0WQQzJc4GzspsYmMgvEfH8njg5iytpqbsVV8Koz3V6oEIiI







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I Interview Playwrights Part 1058: Cailin Harrison

Photo credit: Courtesy of Cailin Harrison

Cailin Harrison

Hometown:  Chicago, nothing like it and a great place to save a few pennies after getting my undergraduate degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Illinois (roasting summers, bitter cold winters and fantastic parties), but NYC is where my professional life really began in television. London holds a special place in my heart for all the inspiring plays I saw living there while working in film and tv. Ironically, this experience led me to be a playwright. But I have never been able to do anything in a straight line, ask my better half about that issue.

Current Town:  Los Angeles, I love LA! It's not just the weather but the fantastic creative community that is here and of course, being able to walk to the beach. Dolphins, pelicans, stoners...what's not to like.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  That's a loaded question. I have a dramatic comedy, Last Swallows, going up about a multi-cultural dysfunctional family in New England that so far as resonated with everyone who as read the play. I have a fantastic cast and Kiff Scholl is an amazing director. This play goes up in September in the heart of West Hollywood. On the heels of that play, I have a mystical drama that takes place in Iceland during a storm in WW2 called, Defenders. This play was my writing sample to get into the graduate film program at USC which I survived with a diploma in hand at the end of it. For this play, I will be working for the second time with the wonderful Reena Dutt, who directed and won me awards at the Hollywood Fringe for my two hander Waitless which went on to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and got some great reviews.

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 I have mentioned before nothing happens in a straight line in my life. I became fascinated as a toddler by Henry VII and his wives and started practicing Elizabethan English. Oddly enough, although I was terrified by him, I ended up marrying an Englishman, still not sure how that happened. Anyway, writing and school in general was particularly challenging because I am dyslexic. I often felt like I was crazy but was talked off the ledge with family support and a great therapist. It does take a village and I could not have gotten to where I am today without one.

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


A:  I would like Equity to get its act together in terms of what theater does off Broadway. If they could just understand the struggle small theater and producers have while trying to provide outlets for actors, I think we'd all be in a better space.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?


A:  I got the opportunity to work with Ted Lange, who has done so much beyond his character Issac, in the Love Boat, especially for theater in the African American Community and Los Angeles theater. He writes what he wants, gets it on stage and is confident about every minute he spends doing it.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?


A:  I view theater as an enclosed urban safari. You never know exactly what you are going to get at any given show. That includes the shows with my name on it which, at least up to this point, have not called for an ambulance to cart me away.

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

A:  It's not just about the show, it is about the process and that takes dedication. In any aspect of the arts where writing is involved it is really, really, really hard to get people to read your work let alone come together and read it live. If you can find a community and reward them in some even small way for helping you in development (pizza and beer) you will reap the rewards hopefully down the road. Only you can decide when a show is ready to try to find a backer. Or if you can back it yourself, do it and try to create a buzz for reviews to give your show a life beyond your creative nest that it is flying out of on to the stage.


Q:  Plugs Please




A:


www.Onstage411.com/swallows

http://www.pandeliascanaryyellowcompany.com

https://www.facebook.com/PandeliasCYC

https://www.facebook.com/theatreplanners

https://www.instagram.com/theatreplanners


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I Interview Playwrights Part 1057: Brenda Withers

Brenda Withers



Hometown: Merrick, NY



Current Town: Wellfleet, MA



Q:  What are you working on now?



A:  I'm in the middle of a play about eugenics, IVF, and shelter dogs.



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 remember in fourth grade making (what I thought was) a huge mistake by telling my Mom about a girl at school who had no friends. At lunch, while everyone else was doing something sporty or braiding hair, she would walk in slow circles around the perimeter of the field, totally alone, until the bell rang to call us back inside.



My mother made it made clear immediately, unequivocally, that I was to spend lunch with that girl from then on-- I could either convince the other kids to invite her into a larger group activity or walk that perimeter with her myself, but either way I was not to leave her on her own. This made me very nervous, as hanging with outcasts requires a certain insouciance my 10-year-old self had not yet mastered, but I knew my mom was right.



I wish I could say the outcome of this story involved the girl and I becoming champion field-walkers or even just actual friends, but really it was just a lot of me keeping her company next to a chain link fence. I do think having a companion made her feel better, which made me feel better. That was a big, tangible lesson for me-- that our collective well-being is impacted by the welfare of individuals, that we owe it to our community (and ourselves) to look out for each other, even when it seems hard or futile or unfair. I know my parents taught me this lesson in a thousand more significant ways, so I'm not sure why this instance sticks out. But it definitely encapsulates my current worldview-- most of my plays are about the ramifications of upping (or abdicating) personal responsibility.



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



A:  Fix the money! Ticket prices need a radical drop, big donors need to stop wielding influence over artistic directors, and artists might want to get on board with theater as vocation instead of cutthroat career. If you're not in this for love, it usually shows, and not in a good way.



Who are or were your theatrical heroes? Ken Branagh, Caryl Churchill, Martha Graham, Tom Stoppard, Ariane Mnouchkine, Joe Papp, Ivo van Hove, Eugene Ionesco. And all artists toiling in obscurity who maintain a sense of humor and service.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  Theater that has layers, good jokes, danger, and poetry. Plays that are actually new (in structure, content, style), not just recently written.



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



A:  Do a crossword puzzle at the start of a writing session. Or read a poem. Aim really, really high, then take the shot.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  I have a few projects happening this Fall: my play Jordan is premiering at Northern Stage in Vermont, my very loose riff on Jarry's Ubu Roi is going up at the Modern Theatre in Boston, and the adaptation Jason O'Connell and I did of Cyrano is traveling to Two River in NJ. I must also mention our little-theater-that-could, the Harbor Stage Company, which I've been running with a stellar team of misfits for eight years on Cape Cod. I take everyone who visits for a swim.







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A thing I wrote about Kodachrome

Here is a short essay I wrote for Sam French's magazine about my play Kodachrome.













My Town: Adam Szymkowicz on Kodachrome



Most of us have lost someone. Some of us a lot of someones. The longer you hang around the earth, the more people you lose. So when I see a young woman crying during intermission during a D.C. workshop production, I assume someone she loved died recently, because the play is in part about grief. And that monologue towards the end of the first act of Kodachrome drops shivers down my spine every time and I assume her tears have something to do with that part. Although, honestly it's not the only part where people cry.



…


PHOTOGRAPHER

It was never supposed to happen. Or it was never supposed to last long. When I asked him out, he said yes to make her mad. Probably. I wasn’t supposed to get pregnant. Definitely. We got married right away. Quickly, quietly. Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to love.


HARDWARE STORE OWNER

Love.

PHOTOGRAPHER

He turned down his scholarship. He took over the family business. The future Librarian went to college. And then my baby came and she was stillborn. We mourned. Instead of driving us apart, we grew closer together. After two more miscarriages, we stopped trying. The future Librarian came back from college and got a job at the library. And then life and life and life. Until four years ago when I came down with bone cancer and then two years ago when I stopped being alive.



…



I wonder sometimes why I write so much about grieving. I've had some death, but not as much as many people. I guess I think about tragedy more than most people and live in a somewhat constant fear of something happening to my loved ones. I also think and write about love a lot — new love and long-lasting love and love that never was. I guess these to me are what being human is — having love and losing love and wanting love and connecting to other people. Kodachrome deals with a lot of different people falling in and out of love at different times in their lives. It’s a play that takes place in my home town of Colchester, CT and the locations described are real places that you could visit. You probably wont be able to find the people from my play walking around town, but part of what the play believes is that there is magic in the mundane so you may be able to find folks like this wherever you are right now.



I started writing plays over twenty years ago. I am currently writing my 50th play. And some of these plays are hard to write and some of them come easy. Some of them, especially early on, were not so good. Kodachrome is, I think, the best play I’ve written. It also came to me pretty quickly and was mostly enjoyable to write. Maybe because I love these people and maybe because I tapped into a nostalgia inside me I didn't know was there. “The Perfume Maker” was a character I thought of long before the play but I never knew what to do with him and when this play came along it turned out, he lived in it. Everyone else was already there waiting for me to finally write, I suppose, about the world I grew up in, albeit with a slightly magical lens.



I’m very excited this play has already had so many productions, at high schools and colleges and in small theaters and professionally in a very beautiful production at Portland Center Stage. This play is most often compared to Our Town but if we are making comparisons, I liken it more to Almost, Maine because of both subject matter and flexible cast size. But I see what they are saying. Structurally, Our Town is a more apt comparison, although Kodachrome is less existentially bleak.



I'm very fond of this play and of the productions I've seen so far. The producers and actors and directors and designers and crew who have built this world have come with full gentle open hearts and I'm grateful to them and excited for you to see it too. I don’t know. I like it. I hope you will too.


















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I Interview Playwrights Part 1056: Richard Ploetz

Richard Ploetz

Hometown: Metuchen, NJ

Current Town: New York City – Manhattan – East Village

Q: What are you working on now?

A: TRYPTCH – set in the Whitney Museum of American Art during a Picasso and the American artists he influenced show.

We’re also currently in rehearsal for an evening of my one-acts, Dining with Ploetz, which opens next month at Theater for the New City.

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

A: While serving at a Naval Air Station in Morocco I wrote long homesick letters home describing my experiences – my mother responded in long descriptive letters telling of life back home. The letters became my Journal which I keep to this day – the primary source of all my writing.

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

A: Nothing. It’s always been hard getting your work out. Unfortunately, it’s very expensive putting a show up these days. But you can do it with friends and determination.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: Samuel Beckett; Harold Pinter

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I love quirky, well-written dialogue – strange but ordinary stories that slide off the stage and lodge in your head.

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

A: Write, write, write – listen to good actors saying your words – revise, revise – no matter how convincing a critic or friend – trust yourself. Of course, don’t write to fashion, write for yourself. Only a very very few, by luck and bulldog perseverance, manage to make a living at this game. So, what.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: My new plays DINING WITH PLOETZ runs September 5 – 22 at Theater for the New City. Tickets and info are available at http://nedworksproductions.org

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