Adam Szymkowicz's Blog, page 101

I Interview Artistic Directors Part 1: Marc Masterson

Marc Masterson



Hometown: Houston, TX, with stops in New York, Pittsburgh, and Louisville



Current Town: Huntington Beach, CA



Q: Tell me about South Coast Rep.



A:   A Dramatic History The 47-year Odyssey from Beachfront to Broadway





In 1964, "South Coast Repertory" was a band of untested former theatre students launching an artistic odyssey on little more than raw talent and enthusiasm. Led by David Emmes and Martin Benson, they had emerged from college into the crossfire of a revolution in American theatre. Young theatre artists were out to break Broadway's hold over America's stages by founding independent professional theatres. They called theirs a "resident theatre movement," and by the early 1960s it was taking root in cities across America.





Emmes and Benson had attended San Francisco State College, where two of its faculty — Jules Irving and Herbert Blau — also ran the Actor's Workshop, a model for resident theatre advocates. Having gone separate ways after graduation, and holding jobs in academia, the social services and the peripheries of entertainment, Emmes and Benson gathered a few San Francisco friends in summer 1963 to stage Arthur Schnitzler's La Ronde at the "Off-Broadway Theatre" in Long Beach. The chemistry worked. The theatre's board invited the troupe back to mount a series of plays the next summer.





They returned with The Hostage, Major Barbara and The Alchemist. The process of staging these three productions was transforming for the talented friends. The pressure they put themselves under to excel, and the creativity that emerged, marked the 1964 summer in Long Beach as a crucible. The band of hopefuls was fused into a company.





(Editor's Note:  It does not end there but I'm stopping there so you can hear more about Marc.  You can read the rest of the fascinating history of SCR here.)



Q:  How do you create your season? Or how have you created seasons in the past before coming to SCR?



A:  I look for work that inspires me and that reflects the variety and energy of the world I live in. Of course, there are also practical matters such as expense and physical requirements of a work that are kept in mind as a season comes together. But passion is essential and it can come from anywhere.



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



A:  When I was a kid I was part of a children's theatre program in Houston called Studio 7 run by Chris Wilson. The family of people that existed around that place and her leadership as the head of it inspired me to want to build a life in the theatre. I am still in touch with a number of people from that time and will be working with my friend Charlie Robinson in Jitney later this season.



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



A:  Everyone would make a living wage.



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



A:  We should always be changing and evolving.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  Anything that is inherently theatrical.



Q:  What do you aspire to in your work?



A:  Integrity and inspiration.



Q:  Has your practice changed in the last ten years? Do you see changes in technology and culture changing how you work in the next ten years?*



A:  I have embraced the use of technology in my work. I believe that we are just at the beginning of affordable new tools opening up for use in our story telling- but believe also that they are only tools- theatre should remain a live expreience with actors at the center.



Q:  What advice do you have for theater artists wishing to work at your theater?



A:  The barricades are not nearly as high as you think. Take charge and communicate.





*Thanks to Polly Carl for this question.

I Interview Playwrights Part 401: Melisa Tien

Melisa Tien



Hometown:  Woodland Hills, CA



Current Town: New York, NY



Q:  What are you working on now?



A:  A bunch of very different and exciting things: I'm co-creating (along with 6 other writers, 5 directors, and 4 producers; all from the current Women's Project Lab) a full-length play that will close out Women's Project's 2012-2012 season; I'm co-writing a play with 7 other playwrights about Jackson Heights at 3:00 in the morning, based on late night/early morning explorations in that most diverse of NYC 'hoods; I'm writing a play about a young woman who can rewind her life, but only within the last five minutes (potentially effecting do-overs in life); I'm starting research for a play about a women's soccer initiative in Cameroon that is changing how young Cameroonian women are seen and how they see themselves--I'm thinking of structuring the play like a soccer match, so it's a sporting event and theater event in one; all kinds of good stuff!



Q:  Tell me about your involvement in collaborative theater projects.



A:  To my mind, there are a few different things people are referring to when they use the word 'collaboration' to talk about theater. There's the inherent collaborative aspect of various people working together to put up a show, from the stage manager to the costume designer to the director. There's also a kind of collaboration that happens when you workshop an existing but not finished text, which involves actor input, director input, sometimes designer input; and they help to introduce new and helpful elements, or subtract extraneous elements, but by and large the playwright is the creator of the written text. There's also 'Collaboration' or 'devised work', wherein everyone who will potentially be involved in the final production, including actors and directors, are deeply involved in the inception, creation, reworking, and polishing of the play; this kind of creation often feels more like choreography (not because it's movement-based but because of the manner in which pieces are built on their feet). The first kind of collaboration happens no matter what. The second kind is what I'm doing with Jackson Heights project. The third kind is what I'm doing with Women's Project. They require different levels of involvement but they're all fun and they teach one to remove one's ego from making work.



Q:  Tell me about the Women's Project Playwright's Lab.



A:  I love the 2010-2012 lab; it's a bunch of smart, diverse, ambitious, big-hearted, sometimes self-doubting, often openly awesome, immensely creative women: Tea Alagic, Alexandra Collier, Liz English, Charity Henson-Ballard, Jessi D. Hill, Andrea Kuchlewska, Manda Martin, Dominique Morisseau, Kristen Palmer, Roberta Pereira, Sarah Rasmussen, Mia Rovegno, Nicole Watson, Stephanie Ybarra, Stefanie Zadravec, and me. The writers meet to share/discuss work, and the lab as a whole (producers, directors, writers) meet to share/discuss projects and learn ways to be more efficient/productive as an artist, via monthly workshops and guest speakers.



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 around ten, my brother and I used to get up at 5:30 in the morning and sneak into my mom's study and write stories. We'd sit on the shag-carpeted floor and put pencil to ruled paper until it was time to get ready for school. It was dark and cold, but it also felt like we were doing something secret and noteworthy.



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



A:  In this country it's hard to make theater without private backing (the government has other priorities). The good news is it seems like there are a lot of rich people who appreciate theater and want to donate their money to it. The issue, perhaps, is connecting those donors to theatermakers so that there is a more direct flow of funding to incipient theater projects--projects donors might not have heard of yet, but would gladly support. How can we connect these two? Is there an easier way to distribute money without having to go through a foundation/granting organization? How can theatermakers get the funding they need right away to get their projects off the ground? How can donors get a more real sense of the people and projects they are supporting? Is the answer direct patronage à la de Medici? I'd like to see ways in which rich people can easily connect to and give to poor theatermakers.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  María Irene Fornés. Adrienne Kennedy. Jyoti Mhapsekar. Chinese opera makers, old and new. Also, everyone who struggles to be heard as a theatermaker in New York City and elsewhere.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  Lots of stuff. I like intellectual theater, emotionally wrenching theater, impressionistic theater, puppet theater, dance theater, straightforward straight-up realistic theater, brave, weird, quiet, deep, outrageous, hilarious, moving theater. People say this often and I agree--if the theater work is rigorously true to itself (whatever form it wants to take, whatever story it is trying to tell), then it'll be exciting.



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



A;  Try not to become bitter. Know that it takes a long time for most playwrights to get where they want to go. Make peace with the fact that you won't make money in theater (and find a different way to earn money if you need to). Exercise your writing and creative muscles. Do other things besides theater to inform your theater-making. Be open. Be generous. Try not to become bitter.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  I have a play called REFRAIN currently running at The Wild Project (November 3-19, Tuesdays-Saturdays @ 8:00 PM; Sundays @ 3:00 PM) / www.refraintheplay.com), directed by amazing collaborator Jessi D. Hill and two actors who are a joy to work with: Brooke Eddey and Marc Santa Maria.

400 Playwright Interviews (alphabetical)

Rob Ackerman

Liz Duffy Adams

Johnna Adams

Tony Adams 

David Adjmi

Keith Josef Adkins   

Derek Ahonen

Kathleen Akerley    

Zakiyyah Alexander

Luis Alfaro

Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro 

Lucy Alibar

Joshua Allen

Mando Alvarado 

Sofia Alvarez 

Christina Anderson  

Terence Anthony

David Anzuelo

Rob Askins

Alice Austen 

Elaine Avila   

Rachel Axler

Jenny Lyn Bader

Bianca Bagatourian   

Annie Baker

Trista Baldwin

David Bar Katz

Jennifer Barclay 

Courtney Baron

Abi Basch 

Mike Batistick 

Brian Bauman

Neena Beber

Chad Beckim

Nikole Beckwith 

Maria Alexandria Beech

Kari Bentley-Quinn 

Alan Berks

Brooke Berman

Susan Bernfield

Jay Bernzweig 

Mickey Birnbaum  

Barton Bishop

Martin Blank

Radha Blank

Lee Blessing

Jonathan Blitstein

Adam Bock

Jerrod Bogard

Emily Bohannon

Rachel Bonds

Margot Bordelon

Deron Bos

Hannah Bos

Leslie Bramm

Jami Brandli

George Brant

Tim Braun

Deborah Brevoort  

Delaney Britt Brewer

Jessica Brickman  

Erin Browne

Julia Brownell  

Bekah Brunstetter

Monica Byrne

Renee Calarco   

Sheila Callaghan

Darren Canady

Ruben Carbajal

Ed Cardona, Jr.

Jonathan Caren

Aaron Carter

James Carter 

David Caudle

Eugenie Chan 

Clay McLeod Chapman

Christopher Chen

Jason Chimonides  

Andrea Ciannavei

Eliza Clark

Alexis Clements

Paul Cohen 

Alexandra Collier

James Comtois

Joshua Conkel

Kara Lee Corthron

Kia Corthron  

Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas

Erin Courtney

Cusi Cram

Lisa D'Amour

Heidi Darchuk

Stacy Davidowitz

Philip Dawkins

Dylan Dawson

Gabriel Jason Dean

Vincent Delaney

Emily DeVoti

Kristoffer Diaz

Jessica Dickey

Dan Dietz

Lisa Dillman

Zayd Dohrn

Bathsheba Doran

Anton Dudley

Laura Eason

Fielding Edlow

Erik Ehn

Yussef El Guindi

Libby Emmons

Christine Evans 

Jennifer Fawcett 

Joshua Fardon

Catherine Filloux   

Kenny Finkle

Stephanie Fleischmann

Kate Fodor

Sam Forman 

Dana Lynn Formby 

Darcy Fowler  

Kevin R. Free

Matthew Freeman

Edith Freni

Patrick Gabridge 

Anne Garcia-Romero

Gary Garrison 

Madeleine George

Meg Gibson

Sean Gill

Sigrid Gilmer 

Peter Gil-Sheridan

Gina Gionfriddo

Kelley Girod 

Michael Golamco

Jessica Goldberg

Daniel Goldfarb

Jacqueline Goldfinger

Jeff Goode

Christina Gorman

Craig "muMs" Grant

Katharine Clark Gray

Elana Greenfield   

Kirsten Greenidge

David Grimm  

Jason Grote

Sarah Gubbins

Stephen Adly Guirgis

Lauren Gunderson

Laurel Haines 

Jennifer Haley

Ashlin Halfnight   

Christina Ham

Sarah Hammond

Rob Handel

Jordan Harrison

Leslye Headland

Ann Marie Healy

Julie Hebert 

Marielle Heller

Amy Herzog

Ian W. Hill  

Andrew Hinderaker

Cory Hinkle

Richard Martin Hirsch

Lucas Hnath

David Holstein

J. Holtham

Miranda Huba  

Quiara Alegria Hudes 

Les Hunter

Sam Hunter

Chisa Hutchinson

Arlene Hutton

Tom Jacobson  

Laura Jacqmin

Joshua James

Julia Jarcho

Kyle Jarrow

Rachel Jendrzejewski   

Karla Jennings

David Johnston

Daniel Alexander Jones  

Nick Jones

Julia Jordan

Rajiv Joseph

Aditi Brennan Kapil

Lila Rose Kaplan

Stephen Karam  

Jeremy Kareken 

Lally Katz

Lynne Kaufman

Daniel Keene 

Karinne Keithley 

Greg Keller

Sibyl Kempson

Jon Kern 

Anna Kerrigan

Kait Kerrigan

Boo Killebrew

Callie Kimball

Alessandro King 

Johnny Klein 

Krista Knight

John Kolvenbach 

Andrea Kuchlewska

Larry Kunofsky

Eric Lane 

Deborah Zoe Laufer 

J. C. Lee

Young Jean Lee

Dan LeFranc

Andrea Lepcio

Victor Lesniewski 

Steven Levenson

Barry Levey

Mark Harvey Levine  

Michael Lew

Alex Lewin  

EM Lewis

Sean Christopher Lewis

Jeff Lewonczyk

Kenneth Lin

Michael Lluberes

David J. Loehr 

Matthew Lopez

Stacey Luftig

Kirk Lynn

Taylor Mac  

Mariah MacCarthy

Heather Lynn MacDonald 

Laura Lynn MacDonald

Maya Macdonald

Wendy MacLeod 

Cheri Magid

Jennifer Maisel

Martyna Majok  

Karen Malpede   

Kara Manning

Mona Mansour 

Warren Manzi 

Israela Margalit 

Ellen Margolis

Ruth Margraff

Sam Marks

Katie May

Oliver Mayer

Tarell Alvin McCraney

Mia McCullough  

Daniel McCoy 

Ruth McKee

Gabe McKinley  

Ellen McLaughlin 

James McManus

Charlotte Meehan

Carly Mensch

Molly Smith Metzler

Dennis Miles

Charlotte Miller 

Jane Miller  

Winter Miller

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Yusef Miller 

Rehana Mirza

Michael Mitnick

Anna Moench

Honor Molloy

Claire Moodey 

Alejandro Morales

Desi Moreno-Penson

Dominique Morisseau 

Hannah Moscovitch 

Itamar Moses

Gregory Moss

Megan Mostyn-Brown

Kate Mulley 

Paul Mullin

Julie Marie Myatt

Janine Nabers

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb

Brett Neveu

Don Nguyen   

Qui Nguyen

Don Nigro

Dan O'Brien

Matthew Paul Olmos 

Dominic Orlando

Rich Orloff

Marisela Treviño Orta

Sylvan Oswald  

Jamie Pachino

Kristen Palmer

Tira Palmquist

A. Rey Pamatmat

Kyoung H. Park

Peter Parnell

Julia Pascal

Steve Patterson

Daniel Pearle 

christopher oscar peña

Brian Polak 

Daria Polatin

John Pollono 

Chana Porter

Craig Pospisil

Jessica Provenz

Michael Puzzo

Brian Quirk  

Marco Ramirez

Adam Rapp

David West Read 

Theresa Rebeck

Amber Reed

Daniel Reitz

M.Z. Ribalow

Molly Rice

Mac Rogers

Joe Roland 

Elaine Romero

Lynn Rosen

Andrew Rosendorf

Kim Rosenstock

Sharyn Rothstein 

Kate E. Ryan

Kate Moira Ryan

Trav S.D.

Sarah Sander

Tanya Saracho

Heidi Schreck

August Schulenburg

Mark Schultz

Jenny Schwartz

Emily Schwend

Jordan Seavey

Christopher Shinn

Rachel Shukert

Jen Silverman

David Simpatico 

Blair Singer

Crystal Skillman

Mat Smart

Alena Smith

Tommy Smith

Ben Snyder

Sonya Sobieski  

Lisa Soland

Octavio Solis

E. Hunter Spreen 

Peggy Stafford 

Saviana Stanescu

Nick Starr

Deborah Stein

Jon Steinhagen

Victoria Stewart

Andrea Stolowitz

Lydia Stryk

Gwydion Suilebhan  

Gary Sunshine

Caridad Svich

Jeffrey Sweet

Adam Szymkowicz

Daniel Talbott

Jeff Talbott 

Kate Tarker 

Roland Tec 

Lucy Thurber

Paul Thureen

Josh Tobiessen

Catherine Trieschmann 

Dan Trujillo

Alice Tuan

Jon Tuttle

Ken Urban

Enrique Urueta

Karen Smith Vastola 

Francine Volpe

Kathryn Walat

Michael I. Walker 

Malachy Walsh

Kathleen Warnock

Anne Washburn

Marisa Wegrzyn

Anthony Weigh   

Ken Weitzman

Sharr White

David Wiener  

Claire Willett

Samuel Brett Williams

Beau Willimon

Pia Wilson

Gary Winter

Bess Wohl   

Stanton Wood

Craig Wright

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig  

Deborah Yarchun

Lauren Yee

Steve Yockey

Kelly Younger

Stefanie Zadravec

Anna Ziegler

400 Playwright Interviews

Julia Brownell

David Anzuelo

David Wiener

M.Z. Ribalow

Neena Beber

Joe Roland

Radha Blank

Kelley Girod

Sean Gill

David Bar Katz

Daniel Alexander Jones

Taylor Mac

Sharyn Rothstein

Jon Kern

Sylvan Oswald

Mickey Birnbaum

Jeff Talbott

Deborah Brevoort

Rob Askins

Paul Cohen

Stephen Karam 

Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig

Karen Smith Vastola

David Grimm

Claire Moodey

Bess Wohl 

Wendy MacLeod 

Kate Mulley

Octavio Solis

Ian W. Hill

Monica Byrne

Don Nguyen 

Dana Lynn Formby

Dennis Miles

Marco Ramirez

Warren Manzi 

Mia McCullough 

Ellen McLaughlin

Tom Jacobson

Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro

Hannah Moscovitch

Alessandro King

Alex Lewin

Laurel Haines

Renee Calarco

E. Hunter Spreen 

Michael Lluberes

Kathleen Akerley  

Sonya Sobieski 

Gwydion Suilebhan 

Jane Miller

Eric Lane

David West Read

Katie May

John Pollono

Mona Mansour

Miranda Huba 

Lydia Stryk

Rachel Jendrzejewski 

Karen Malpede 

Darcy Fowler

Daniel Pearle

Heather Lynn MacDonald 

Gabe McKinley

Keith Josef Adkins 

Brian Quirk

Israela Margalit

Kia Corthron

Christina Anderson

Jenny Lyn Bader

Catherine Trieschmann

Oliver Mayer

Jessica Brickman

Kari Bentley-Quinn

John Kolvenbach

Daniel Keene

James Carter

Josh Tobiessen

Victor Lesniewski

Abi Basch

Matthew Paul Olmos

Stephanie Fleischmann

Chana Porter

Elana Greenfield 

Eugenie Chan

Roland Tec 

Jeff Goode

Elaine Avila 

Ashlin Halfnight 

Charlotte Meehan 

Marisela Treviño Orta

Quiara Alegria Hudes

Kait Kerrigan

Bianca Bagatourian 

Kyoung H. Park

Honor Molloy

Anna Moench 

Martin Blank

Paul Thureen

Yusef Miller

Lauren Gunderson

Jennifer Fawcett

Andrea Kuchlewska

A. Rey Pamatmat

Sean Christopher Lewis

Rachel Bonds

Lynn Rosen

Jennifer Barclay

Peggy Stafford

James McManus

Philip Dawkins

Jen Silverman

Lally Katz

Anne Garcia-Romero

Tony Adams

christopher oscar peña

Lynne Kaufman

David J. Loehr

Julie Hebert

Aditi Brennan Kapil

Elaine Romero

Alexis Clements

Lila Rose Kaplan

Barry Levey

Michael I. Walker

Maya Macdonald

Mando Alvarado

Adam Rapp

Eliza Clark

Margot Bordelon

Ben Snyder

Emily Bohannon

Cheri Magid

Jason Chimonides 

Karinne Keithley

Rich Orloff

David Simpatico

Deborah Zoe Laufer

Brian Polak

Kate Fodor

Sibyl Kempson

Gary Garrison

Saviana Stanescu

Brian Bauman

Mark Harvey Levine

Lisa Soland

Sigrid Gilmer

Anthony Weigh 

Maria Alexandria Beech

Catherine Filloux 

Jordan Harrison

Alexandra Collier

Jessica Goldberg

Nick Starr

Young Jean Lee

Christina Gorman

Ruth McKee

Johnny Klein

Leslie Bramm

Jennifer Maisel

Jon Steinhagen

Leslye Headland

Kate Tarker

David Holstein

Trav S.D.

Chad Beckim

Ruben Carbajal

Martyna Majok

Sam Marks

Stacy Davidowitz 

Molly Rice

Julia Pascal

Yussef El Guindi

Meg Gibson

Daniel McCoy

Amber Reed

Joshua Fardon

Dan O'Brien

Jonathan Blitstein

Dominique Morisseau

Fielding Edlow

Joshua Allen

Peter Gil-Sheridan

Tira Palmquist

Sarah Hammond

Charlotte Miller

Deborah Yarchun

Anna Kerrigan

Luis Alfaro

Jonathan Caren

Jennifer Haley

Sofia Alvarez

Kevin R. Free

Ken Weitzman

Michael Golamco

J. C. Lee

Ruth Margraff

Kirk Lynn

Tanya Saracho

Daria Polatin 

Delaney Britt Brewer

Alice Tuan

Alice Austen

Jeffrey Sweet

Dan LeFranc

Andrew Hinderaker

Brett Neveu

Christine Evans

Jon Tuttle

Nikole Beckwith

Andrea Lepcio

Gregory Moss

Hannah Bos

Steven Levenson

Molly Smith Metzler

Matthew Lopez

Lee Blessing

Joshua James

Chisa Hutchinson

Rob Ackerman

Janine Nabers

Cory Hinkle

Stefanie Zadravec

Michael Mitnick

Jordan Seavey

Andrew Rosendorf

Don Nigro

Barton Bishop

Peter Parnell

Gary Sunshine

Emily DeVoti

Kenny Finkle

Kate Moira Ryan

Sam Hunter

Johnna Adams

Katharine Clark Gray

Laura Eason

David Caudle

Jacqueline Goldfinger

Christopher Chen

Craig Pospisil

Jessica Provenz

Deron Bos

Sarah Sander

Zakiyyah Alexander

Kate E. Ryan

Susan Bernfield

Karla Jennings

Jami Brandli

Kenneth Lin

Heidi Darchuk

Kathleen Warnock

Beau Willimon

Greg Keller

Les Hunter

Anton Dudley

Aaron Carter

Jerrod Bogard

Emily Schwend

Courtney Baron

Craig "muMs" Grant

Amy Herzog

Stacey Luftig

Vincent Delaney

Kathryn Walat

Paul Mullin

Kirsten Greenidge

Derek Ahonen

Francine Volpe

Julie Marie Myatt

Lauren Yee

Richard Martin Hirsch

Ed Cardona, Jr.

Terence Anthony

Alena Smith

Gabriel Jason Dean

Sharr White

Michael Lew

Craig Wright

Laura Jacqmin

Stanton Wood

Jamie Pachino

Boo Killebrew

Daniel Reitz

Alan Berks

Erik Ehn

Krista Knight

Steve Yockey

Desi Moreno-Penson

Andrea Stolowitz

Clay McLeod Chapman

Kelly Younger

Lisa Dillman

Ellen Margolis

Claire Willett

Lucy Alibar

Nick Jones

Dylan Dawson

Pia Wilson

Theresa Rebeck

Me

Arlene Hutton

Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas

Lucas Hnath

Enrique Urueta

Tarell Alvin McCraney

Anne Washburn

Julia Jarcho

Lisa D'Amour

Rajiv Joseph

Carly Mensch

Marielle Heller

Larry Kunofsky

Edith Freni

Tommy Smith

Jeremy Kareken

Rob Handel

Stephen Adly Guirgis

Kara Manning

Libby Emmons

Adam Bock

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Liz Duffy Adams

Winter Miller

Jenny Schwartz

Kristen Palmer

Patrick Gabridge

Mike Batistick

Mariah MacCarthy

Jay Bernzweig

Gina Gionfriddo

Darren Canady

Alejandro Morales

Ann Marie Healy

Christopher Shinn

Sam Forman

Erin Courtney

Gary Winter

J. Holtham

Caridad Svich

Samuel Brett Williams

Trista Baldwin

Mat Smart

Bathsheba Doran

August Schulenburg

Jeff Lewonczyk

Rehana Mirza

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb

David Johnston

Dan Dietz

Mark Schultz

Lucy Thurber

George Brant

Brooke Berman

Julia Jordan

Joshua Conkel

Kyle Jarrow

Christina Ham

Rachel Axler

Laura Lynn MacDonald

Steve Patterson

Erin Browne

Annie Baker

Crystal Skillman

Blair Singer

Daniel Goldfarb

Heidi Schreck

Itamar Moses

EM Lewis

Bekah Brunstetter

Mac Rogers

Cusi Cram

Michael Puzzo

Megan Mostyn-Brown

Andrea Ciannavei

Sarah Gubbins

Kim Rosenstock

Tim Braun

Rachel Shukert

Kristoffer Diaz

Jason Grote

Dan Trujillo

Marisa Wegrzyn

Ken Urban

Callie Kimball

Deborah Stein

Qui Nguyen

Victoria Stewart

Malachy Walsh

Jessica Dickey

Kara Lee Corthron

Zayd Dohrn

Madeleine George

Sheila Callaghan

Daniel Talbott

David Adjmi

Dominic Orlando

Matthew Freeman

Anna Ziegler

James Comtois

I Interview Playwrights Part 400: Julia Brownell

Julia Brownell



Hometown:  Ridgewood, NJ. In terms of theater, basically this means I was a 35 minute bus trip away from Port Authority. I'd take the bus in with my friends or my brother, eat at the Olive Garden, and see a Broadway show.



Current Town:  Los Angeles, CA and Hoboken, NJ. For the last two years, I've lived in LA for 7 or 8 months of the year and then shuttled back to Hoboken for the rest of the time. I've lived in sublets in Los Angeles; all my stuff - my clothes, my bed, my cat, my husband - are on the East Coast. It's not ideal.



Q:  What are you working on now:



A:  My play All-American is in previews at the Duke Theater on 42nd Street. It's an LCT3 play, produced by Lincoln Center. It's a play about sports - a retired professional football player, his high school quarterback daughter, her twin brother, and their mom. I'm excited about it because I think these are characters we don't see onstage so often. It's directed by Evan Cabnet, who is a fantastic director and brilliant with new plays, and has an amazing cast. The LCT3 program is amazing, too, because all tickets are only $20, so I don't feel bad asking my friends to come!



Q:  What was it like writing for Hung?



A:  Writing for television is intense; the pace is fast and the hours are very long. I have always really enjoyed sleeping, so it was a bit of an adjustment. But ultimately it's very exciting, and I love going to work everyday and seeing eight other writers. I find playwriting and screenwriting pretty lonely. Before I worked in TV I had a day job and I loved it because of the social interaction part. It's pretty great to come in and have other people doing what I'm doing, feeling what I'm feeling, to collaborate with, to commiserate with, and most of all, to learn from. Our showrunners started out as playwrights in New York so we have a lot of playwrights on the show; it's a pretty cool environment.



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 played sports, particularly soccer and basketball, and almost every day after school when I didn't have practice I'd go outside and kick the soccer ball against the side of our house or shoot hoops and write stories, plays, movies, whatever in my head. I'd stay out there for hours, just kicking the ball and making up characters and dialogue. When I was maybe twelve or thirteen, I wrote an entire musical in my head. Never wrote it down, never performed it, but I still know a bunch of the songs. (Note: it's not good at all. It's pretty bad.) Now, as an adult, I run 8 miles or so every morning before I sit down to write. That's when I think through everything; when I finally sit down to write the words just come out - I've already planned it out. I really can't write without running beforehand.



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



A:  I'd give regional theaters more credit. Living in (or just outside) New York I've sometimes felt like there's a bias against anything not produced in New York (with the exception of maybe Chicago). I've spent a lot of time at several regional theatres - Hartford Stage, Trinity Rep, the Alliance - and the work they do is as exciting or more exciting than what happens in New York. Plus, the community support they get is tremendous. At the Alliance I really felt like the community had a real stake in the theater they did; in a sense, they were rooting for it. I love the fact that I can be in New York and have ten different options of exciting stuff to see, but I also wish that regional theaters got a bit more prestige, a bit more recognition.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  My first theatrical hero was Edward Albee - I read Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf the summer before my freshman year of college and I remember thinking, I didn't know a play could could jump off the page like this. It's one of those plays where I remember exactly where I was when I read it and how I felt. After that, Chris Durang, because I didn't know you could make characters talked the way his characters talked.



Connie Congdon taught me playwriting in college and made me believe I could do it. She also taught me to think theatrically in a way I hadn't before. We spent a lot of time just sitting around her office, shooting the shit and making each other laugh. I admired her career - all of a sudden being a playwright seemed feasible. It was a career and a life. After college, as I interned at Hartford Stage and then The Public Theater and then went to NYU for grad school, they flooded in - not just writers but directors and actors and designers and administrators, etc. There's a lot of pretty fantastic and talented people in this world. Jeremy B. Cohen of Hartford Stage (and now the Producing Artistic Director of the Minneapolis Playwright's Center) was an early mentor for me - he's just so passionate about new plays and developing playwrights. I was very lucky to meet him when I was 22.



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



A:  I learned this in grad school - I can't remember who said it - and I've found it tremendously important to remember as I try to navigate my career: only writing is writing. Researching your play is not writing. Taking meetings with production companies in LA is not writing. Sending out your work to a festival or contest and writing a cover letter is not writing. Pitching a movie is not writing. To be a writer you have to write. Yes, you have to advocate for yourself and put yourself out there, but I strongly believe that the work is in the writing and the rest will eventually fall into place.



Also in grad school, Janet Neipris told us about peaks and valleys. She would make a hand motion when she did it. Everybody's career takes a different course - peaks and valleys - so there's no use comparing yourself to other people. Your career will be your career, and nobody has the same journey. It's really important to me to not get caught up worrying about who's had what production where and who sold what screenplay or whatever. I just try to get passionate and excited about my own stuff, and other people's stuff that I like, and not get too caught up in the small world pettiness of it all.



Oh yeah, and know who you trust to look at your work. Have one or two or three people whose notes you believe in to look at your writing, and take everyone else's advice with a grain of salt. Listen to notes, but be particular about the notes you take.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  Come see All-American at the Duke on 42nd Street - it runs through November 19. We have Monday night shows! http://www.lct.org/showMain.htm?id=206



My husband's a founding member of a theater company, Fault Line Theater, which is running a fantastic production of Aristophanes' "The Frogs" at 4th Street Theater which also runs through November 19. This company makes classical theater so fun and so accessible. http://www.faultlinetheatre.com/



Also watch season 3 of "Hung" at 10 pm on HBO on Sundays.

I Interview Playwrights Part 399: David Anzuelo

David Anzuelo



Home town: El Paso, Texas



Current Town: NYC, NY



Q: What are you working on now



A: A new play called US/UK about a twink American hustler in London in 1989. I'm also working on re-writes for a workshop presentation of a personal-myth piece called Estrellita/Luminaria.



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 kid, I was a huge comic book fanatic, horror movie buff and greek mythology geek. I'd spend hours pouring over back issues of silver age super-hero comic books; memorizing trivia. Every weekend I'd go to the movies w/ my Pop or watch cable monster movies and then re-inact the plots with my Star Wars and Micro-naut action figures. By the time I was 11, I'd read everything in the public library on Greek and Roman mythology and had a decent knowledge of Minoan and Spartan culture. All of this was fed and encouraged by my Parents who were ecstatic that they had a son who loved to read.



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



A: If I could, the one thing I'd change about theater over all, is the price of tickets. Broadway is ridiculously over-priced and even off-broadway is too much for many folks. I love the theater companies who have a "pay what you can" night.



Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A: My theater heroes are: Euripides; Aeschylus; Sophocles; Jean Genet; Joe Orton; Tennessee Williams; Tony Kushner; Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino; Peter Sellars; Grotowski; Ping Chong; Lee Nagrin; Stephen Adly Guirgus, Lucy Thurber; Kazuo Ohno; Min Tanaka and Pina Bausch. Although many will say the last three listed are choreographers more than theater artists. But I feel that they were really doing theater.



Q: What kind of theater excites you?



A:  The kind of theater that excites me is one that is at once ancient and contemporary at the same time. I love theater that is visceral and physical and doesn't get too cerebral. I want theater that will provoke thought; enlighten people to new ideas and worlds and will leave an emotional imprint that lasts. I want sex and love and music and struggle. That's the kind of theater that excites me.



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





A:  What advice do I have to fledgling playwrights? At the onset of a new piece write freely. Write what turns YOU on. Write it exactly as you see it in your mind. Don't worry about what people will think. It may be the only chance you have to see it live in any physical form.



And work with collaborators who have a rock&roll warrior philosophy. By that I mean, that they will work with you as a team; that they are disciplined athlete-artists and have intrepid spirits during the creation of the new work, but will be emotional dare-devils during performances and kick the work to a level even you didn't expect.



Q:  Plugs, Please.



A: Right now Carlo Alban's INTRINGULIS is still running at Intar...I directed. And Thomas Bradshaw's BURNING is in pre-views at The New Group for which I'm the fight-director. Talk about intrepid artists! See these guy's work!

I Interview Playwrights Part 398: David Wiener

David Wiener



Hometown: Irvine, California



Current Town: Hoboken, New Jersey



Q:  What are you working on now?



A:  Right now, I'm working on a new play about the relationship between loneliness and political violence in America. And I sold a TV pilot recently, so I should probably get cracking on that.



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 nineteen, I saw Robert Stevens perform as King Lear at Stratford on Avon. It was a luminous production and a truly magnificent performance. Stevens was pitiable and potent all at once. Anyway, the play ended and the house went dark for about six seconds. And during that six seconds the audience was completely, absolutely, silent. I felt electrified and shaken just knowing that somewhere in that darkness, a thousand other humans were simultaneously processing the sheer beauty and power of what we had all just communally witnessed. Then, the lights came on and, as if a single organism, everyone stood. I've never recovered from that. I suppose I've spent the past 15 years of my life chasing those six seconds in the dark.



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



A:  Theater, is perfect. It's a dynamic art form that, I think more than any other, has the capacity to engender empathy. It's not a one-way transmission like film or TV or visual art. Theater is a communication-- an ephemeral conversation between play and audience, performer and play. I think the live communal dynamic is magnificent. And we're lucky to have it.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  I think anyone who endeavors to do this lonely, unyielding, difficult thing is heroic in some sense.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A;  I love good storytelling. And I gravitate towards theater in which the story proceeds from emotional causality rather than the explication of plot. In my own writing, I try to focus on the emotional needs of my characters and allow them to dictate what happens next. Perhaps that sounds a little odd, but I've found that, somehow, if I can relax enough to simply feel and listen without editing, then these emotional needs lead my characters to action. I should say that, even with a lot of practice, it's very difficult to achieve that level of relaxation. But it does occur. And when it does, I experience a mode of writing in which I'm transcribing rather than composing. In other words, I'm not ahead of the action. I am, or rather, my characters are, just reacting on the basis of their emotional needs. The result is a story in which mystery and revelation coexist. And what they say and do becomes surprising-- Even to me. Especially to me. In spite of my otherwise practical, rational, logical thinking, writing plays has made me a big believer in the power of the unconscious mind. I think relaxation allows the unconscious to confront those aspects of ourselves about which we are unresolved. And at the point of that confrontation, creativity occurs.



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



A:  1. Ask for help. No one ever does this alone. The theater is full of generous, experienced, artists who embrace the responsibility of helping the next generation of artists to grow and find their own voices-- these people are the true care-takers of our art form. Personally, I've been fortunate to have had many remarkable mentors throughout my career. I owe a lot to writers like David Henry Hwang, Lisa Kron, Frank Pugliese, Theresa Rebeck and Arthur Kopit, to name only a few.



2. Seek out forums where you can engage with your colleagues about your work. There are a multitude of groups, fellowships, theaters, colonies, etc. that bring writers together around the development process. Some involve directors and actors as well. Each has it's own energy and method. Find the ones that work for you and go. And work. And listen. Personally I've benefitted tremendously from working at the Soho Rep Writer Director Lab, The Lark Fellowship, The Ojai Playwrights' Conference, and New Dramatists.



3. Finally, relax, be patient, and remove the word "Deserve" from your vocabulary.



Q:  Plugs, please:





A:  My play, CASSIOPEIA is being presented at Boston Court in LA at their PLAY/Ground festival December 10th-12th.

My new play, GOLIATH, is having its first reading at New Dramatists November 14th.

Of Great Import

Have you seen this yet?





http://sadplaywright.com/



How about this?



http://charlesisherwoodsyogurtshop.tumblr.com/



Both are good times.

I Interview Playwrights Part 397: M.Z. Ribalow

Meir Ribalow



Hometown: New York City.



Current Town: New York City.



Q:  Tell me about Peanuts and Crackerjacks.



A:  It's a novel (my first to be published) about a young pitching coach for a major league team in Buffalo who discovers that baseball, his great true love, has changed in ways that reflect our constantly evolving society. Tradition clashes with modernity both on and off the baseball diamond in hilarious, ironic and unexpected ways. I'm obviously honored that Pulitzer Prize Laureate N. Scott Momaday wrote that "Ribalow has written a book that truly belongs among the monuments of baseball literature. It is full of learning and lore, wit and wisdom." Can't ask for more appreciation than that, can you?



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  A new play, a new novel, a new poetry collection (my first one, Chasing Ghosts, was just published), and a non-fiction book about how films reflect our values. And Plays from New River 2, the second in our annual series of published new plays that emerge from New River Dramatists. I'm Series Editor.



Q:  What was it like reading scripts at the Public for Joe Papp?



A:  Fascinating, but it's worth noting that Joe asked me to start a Literary Department; there hadn't been one at The Public. So I wasn't just reading scripts, I was creating a mechanism for evaluating around a thousand plays a year that were submitted to us, making sure that every single play was read fairly and at least twice before deciding on its disposition. Gave me not only a phenomenal education on how to read plays, but enormous empathy for people pouring so much energy and dedication into writing them. At that point in my life, I was mostly directing, and writing, as I always had, fiction and poetry. I didn't start writing plays until my last year working at The NY Shakespeare Festival.



Q:  Tell me about New River.



A:  Mark Woods and I started New River Dramatists because we both had the same dream: to create a haven for gifted playwrights where they would be encouraged to write the best work of which they were capable. The creative partnership has worked out well, because Mark wanted to build it and I wanted to establish the process and run the room. Mark found this paradise in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina: in the woods, on the river, beautiful cabins, fantastic food, and we pay writers to come down and work with actors, writing whatever they want. We don't care what each writer writes, because we don't produce, so we're not looking for plays to present; we're looking for talent to nurture. We see our mision as doing what we can to raise the level of storytelling. The results have been pretty impressive: since we began a dozen years ago, we've developed nearly 400 new plays and screenplays, almost half have been produced or optioned all over the world, and our writers have won all sorts of major awards. So it's nice to be validated. But this is a labor of love and, we both feel, of necessity. We badly need better stories to tell and by which to live. Anyway, it went so well artistically that it seemed natural to add New River Fiction and New River Poetry to our public presentations in NYC (at The Players) and elsewhere. So now we present evenings of all three genres, put all three on our New River Radio Show on Art International Radio (AIR) online (the URL is http://urls.artonair.org/newriver) and I'm now editing not only the Plays from New River series but also publications of Currents: New River Fiction (2012), and Capturing Chaos: New River Poetry.



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



A:  I yearn for a theatre based more on true artistic excellence and less on trendy mediocrity and perceived commerciality.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  Shakespeare, Pinter, Chekhov, Ibsen, Moliere, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O'Neill, Joe Papp, Jose Ferrer.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  An original voice on a timeless subject. I prefer ambitious (not to be confused with pretentious) theatre, and I'd rather read a flawed play that no one else but that writer would have written than a beautifully done play that's just a variation of something I've seen a hundred times.



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



A:  If you are writing out of love and passion and a deep need to write, don't let anyone discourage you. They can't keep you from writing, so keep doing it. Remember, you're not writing for the Madding Crowd; you're writing for yourself, God and The Unknown Friend.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  Please listen to our radio show (http://urls.artonair.org/newriver). We're proud of the work, and it's free 24/7.



Check out New River at www.newriverdramatists.org.



New River Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/New-River-Dramatists/165603406784387



New River Twitter:

Twitter, New River Dramatists (@Newriverdrama)!



Meir Ribalow Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1658394507



Information on Peanuts and Crackerjacks (a novel):

http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-6598-9



Information on Chasing Ghosts (poetry):

http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-6598-9

I Interview Playwrights Part 396: Neena Beber

Neena Beber



Hometown:

Miami, Florida. Still Home.



Current Town:

New York City. Current can't ever really replace Home, though it  has been a long slog of time.



Q:  What are you working on now?



A:  Trying to finish a bunch of plays I started a while back. I have a very  poor sense of time which is why I need theatre to contain it for me. 



Q:  How has your TV writing affected your playwriting, if it has? 



A:  When I first started writing for TV, my writing for theatre got a little  stranger. I didn't want to write anything that resembled the TV writing at all. That meant no naturalistic dialogue, no banter, no jokey jokes, no straightforward narrative. I wanted there to be at least one metaphorical thread in my theatre work, even better three  or four or five. I wanted sideways sprawl and characters who neither learn nor grow. I became really interested in the space of the theatre, the live event, the meta-reality of theatre itself -- what it means to be in a room with people, real people, crossing in time and space with you.



Now I think TV and film have helped me really think about craft and story and economy and precision, and theatre has helped me see that you don't need to be afraid to bring your voice and your singular oddness and peculiar humor to the screen big or small. I am not at this point concerned with one being too this and the other being too that.



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



A:  My mom decided it would be fun for us to learn a new word a day.  This was before those word-a-day calendars. She was a real wordsmith, an ace at Scrabble and an amazing, charming storyteller. She really understood people and what made them tick. She had this ability to turn the ordinary stuff of life into something magical. Nothing was lost on her. And she appreciated language, words. So I remember sitting on our back porch getting our words. The first word was procrastination. See, I took piano lessons but would only practice when we were heading out the door. When the recital came, I had no idea what I was doing. I made up a tune on the spot. I was winging it, and I thought I pulled it off because no one said anything; of course, no one knew what to say! It was both comical and  dreadful at the same time. Comical and dreadful is a heady combination. I think at some level even then, I knew I was just banging keys. I really was planning to figure it out later -- and not just later, but after, which some might say is really too late.



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



A:  No second guessing from anyone about anything.





Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?





A:  Growing up my theatrical hero was Mad Guy Mogi, my great uncle, a silent film actor, magician, lion tamer, shrunken head seller, lentil soup eater, professional worrier, eccentric dancer, kosher-keeper.  The few times I met him, he was wearing a top hat, a cape, and a giant, gnarled monster hand that he would transform to a normal hand before your very eyes, as he reached to shake yours. He was my hero, or really my meta-hero, because my mom was my hero who conveyed who he was to me, valued who he was, celebrated him in all his eccentricities.



Of course I also have my long list of names, people who come to me when I need them most. Some of them are ghosts sitting on my shoulder; too many of them are ghosts for me now. They taught me.  They teach me. They raise the bar.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  I think it is always exciting to have people performing live in a room using their time and energy to delight us. It's like we're all kings and queens. I love the attempt at communication that I may not completely understand, not yet anyway. I want to walk a mile in your shoes even if they don't fit.



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



A:  Start your own thing and go forth fearlessly. Remind older playwrights why.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  I prefer to go bald.