Adam Szymkowicz's Blog, page 110

I Interview Playwrights Part 330: Catherine Trieschmann

Catherine Trieschmann



Hometown:  Athens, GA



Current Town:  Hays, Kansas (also known as "Hays America" in these parts--I have no idea why). It's a small town in Western Kansas, pretty much in no man's land.



Q:  Tell me about your play coming up at Pacific Playwrights Festival.



A:  How the World Began was commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club through the Sloan Foundation. It is about the firestorm that results when a new teacher makes an off-handed comment about the origins of the universe in a small Kansas town recently felled by a tornado. It's my first Kansas play and is, in many ways, an exploration of where I live now.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  My second Kansas play and a screenplay set in my hometown.



Q:  What's it like pursuing a professional playwriting career while living in the middle of nowhere?



A:  Challenging but also possible/rewarding. On the one hand, I love that my cultural experience is unique and that definitely stands out in my writing. I love having a big organic garden and not having to have a day job. I'm constantly amazed at what great feedback I can get from my local friends when I invite them over to sit around the fire and read my latest play. Since moving out here, my career, such as it is, has progressed slowly but surely, and I don't sense that I'd be that much further along if I lived in NY or LA (excluding TV/film opportunities, of course). On the other hand, boy, I really wish I had a writer's group. I really regret that I was never able to pursue the opportunities at Julliard, Ars Nova and the like.



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



A:  In no particular order:

Less talking about doing and more doing

I wish the Times coverage was more in depth

Rush tickets for all ages across the board

More women on Broadway--but really excited for Katori Hall and Lisa D'Amour this year!

Closer to home



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  The Irish, especially Brian Friel. Horton Foote. Naomi Wallace. Lately, I'm in love with Annie Baker, but it's unrequited. She doesn't even know I exist. *sigh*



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  When I don't know what's going to happen next. When the poetry is organic yet memorable. When characters are led astray from the PLOT, like when the son kisses the father in Albee's The Goat. I wasn't really caring for the play and then *that* happened, and I was suddenly led into deep waters. I really like being led into deep waters.



When plays are funny without being precious or quippy or whimsical. That's a very hard funny to achieve.



A really good musical can rock my world.



A really good production of Beckett can send me weeping into the void.



Just thinking about all the great new writing happening in NYC as I type this fills me with longing. Today, I wish I could find a sitter for the kids and go see Bathseba Doran's Kin and then maybe take her out for sushi afterwards, b/c there is no sushi in Hays America. We would gossip and talk shop and get drunk. (Yeah, she doesn't know me either. Do I seem like a stalker? I'm not a stalker. Really.)



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



A:  Much has been covered on this topic, but I don't think we can stress the benefits of self-production enough. I produced my play crooked at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with my friends, and it took me to SPF, the Bush Theatre in London, Off-Broadway, and now all over the country and even abroad. I never would have written that play if I hadn't wanted to do Edinburgh with my friends.



Obviously, not all self-producing ventures have a happy ending, but you will learn tons of things along the way, even if you lose all your money, friends, and self-esteem, which has also been known to happen. In which case, you may learn that what you really want to do with your life is to go into banking or speech therapy. There are worse things, as my Mother constantly reminds me.



Secondly, while it is ever so important to master the discipline of writing daily, there is also something to be said for recognizing your own creative rhythms and allowing for gestation to take place. There may come a time when actively NOT WRITING actually helps your writing. I find fallow periods can be very productive, and I always write better plays when I allow for them. Not everyone needs to write five plays a year, and let's be frank, nobody writes five good plays a year.



And finally, everyone writes some duds along the way. Even Tennessee Williams. Even Tony Kushner. It's okay.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  How the World Began at PPF and then look for it Off-Broadway in January 2012.



Also, a film I wrote, Angel's Crest (featuring Jeremy Piven and Elizabeth McGovern, among others) is premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival: http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival/features/TFF_11_World_Narrative_Features.html

I Interview Playwrights Part 329: Oliver Mayer

Oliver Mayer



Hometown:  I'm born and bred here in LA, grew up in North Hollywood/Studio City. For awhile I lived in Echo Park and loved it.



Current Town:  Now I live at USC, where I am a resident faculty master of the Parkside International Residential College. It's amazing to live on campus where I work. I live with my wife Marlene Forte, our daughter Giselle, our dog Don Aldo, and two cats. It's a great place.



Q:  Tell me about your new play with Son of Semele.  How do you create shows together?



A:  This is my first show with SOSE. Don Boughton invited me in to work on this nearly two years ago. Usually, when I write plays I do the work at home alone, then present it to directors and actors. This time Don had me join the rehearsals with the ensemble and watch them work on improvs, exercises and story theater techniques. Then I would go home and write a scene or character based on what I learned from them. We did this a little at a time, but the piece came together organically and in record time. I still work this way, receiving notes from Don, watching the work, then going home to rewrite or create new stuff. It's addictive.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I have a play in workshop at The Blank Theatre in Hollywood of a new play called DARK MATTERS. My wife Marlene Forte is in it, along with Arye Gross and Pedro Pascal. The play is about two particle physicists trying to unmask the mysteries of dark matter via the idea of supersymmetry breaking. My wife plays the non-physicist, and gets to sing bits of Leonard Cohen and Donna Summer throughout. It was super fun to write.



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 was a bus boy at Vitiello's Italian Ristorante in Studio City for a grand total of two weeks when I was a teenager. I was a lousy bus boy, and the head bus boy was really pissed off with me. One evening with all the tables full, he came up and said rather loudly that he was going to kill me (I'll never know why). I had plates on both arms and said, "why don't you wait to kill me till I put these plates down." The diners who heard this laughed. I set the plates down in the kitchen, turned around, and the guy hit me. I was a boxer then, so I hit him back. We were pretty well matched and started going at it. The owners pulled us apart, and since he was a valuable bus boy and I wasn't, they fired me. I went home fuming, saying I would never go back to that restaurant ever again. My dad responded quietly and firmly, "Yes you are. We'll go tomorrow night." And we did. They all had to serve us. Turned out I became friends with the owners for years afterward. That was my last restaurant job.



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



A:  The best plays in town, and in the nation, are coming from smaller theaters. I'd like to see more attention paid to those of us striving to find the voice of our moment. I don't necessarily want us to move small company shows to the Taper (it's a tough space to play); rather, I want to celebrate the good work and full houses and high quality writing and acting that takes place at theaters like SOSE. I'm proud to be part of it.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  Luis Valdez, William Saroyan, Tennessee Williams and Wallace Shawn are my fab four.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  I like total theatre -- live song and music, dance, violence, sex, humor and drama. Can't be beat.



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



A:  Open your heart and take advantage of every moment in your story to find the drama, and to ask what's really going on in your life, my life, our lives.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  Plug who? SOSE? I adore them. Plug you? How shall I do so? Tell me what to plug and I'll do so.

I Interview Playwrights Part 328: Jessica Brickman

Jessica Brickman



Hometown: New York, NY



Current Town: New York, NY



Q:  Tell me about your upcoming show.



A:  An LA-based theater company is producing The Insomnia Play. It's about how weird insomnia can be (it often has no cause and no cure) and also the ups and downs of sleeping in a bed with someone you love. My hope is that it will keep the audience awake. And then the title won't be in vain.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I'm working on a play that takes place in a Kinkos at 2 am. There's an old joke: A guy goes into a deli and asks for a chicken sandwich. And the guy behind the counter says: We're out of chicken. So the guy says: Okay, make it a turkey sandwich. And the guy behind the counter says: Listen, if we had turkey we'd have chicken. In a way that sums up what the play's about. Right now it's about ritual, the perversion of the ritual – and imitating and copying in all senses. And it's a love story. It started out as a play about the monks who were scribes and mis-copied the bible (i.e. Oh! That was celibRate not celibate. Damn.) so who knows what it will be about next month.



I just finished writing a screenplay for hire. And this past year I directed two short films. Never had so much fun in my life. The plan for this summer is to use this new-fangled digital technology to make a feature on the fly in NY.



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



A:  In second grade we did a play about the sun rising and setting and I guess to go along with it there were a few lessons about theater. On the way home from school Nina Pike (the gorgeous babysitter/struggling artist) asked what I had learned in "drama class" and I announced that "Every good story has a cornflake" Without dropping a beat my younger sister, Sophie, chimed in disgusted with "Conflict". (Sophie is four years younger but four inches taller – probably by force of will.) I guess that story says more about who my second grade teacher is as a person. But, I'm still looking for good cornflakes.



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



A:  As in Ancient Greece: in order to be a citizen and run for office you gotta go to the theater. Also: Tickets to every show, no matter where it is, are 10 bucks. Every revival produced has to be coupled with a new play. And if you own a theater and you don't produce a new show every three months it is taken away from you.



It seems like everyone's always saying: The theater is dying. But no matter how hard they try they can't seem to kill it off. So, maybe it should just keep going on as it has.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  Actors. And I think Bill Goldman said that the thing that interests writers most is how other writers do it. So, too many writer heroes to mention.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  I get unbelievably excited every time a theater gets dark before a show. Can't help it. Always have. What that means I guess is that I can be unnecessarily furious a few minutes later if it's not as good as I'd hoped. (I suppose if I'm gonna be a cliché of something I'd rather be a cliché theatery person then say, a cliché of a Republican Nazi Comptroller.) At this point a well-structured story excites me. Probably because I'm not sure how to create one and I'm constantly trying to figure that out. That said, I don't like it when everything is tied up with a nice bow. A good absurdist play has, at its heart, a clear story that can be explained in a few un-absurd sentences. I suppose for me a good piece of theater starts with a question and ends with another one that lingers.



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



A:  I feel that I'm just starting out so I'm not sure I would take my advice. I'd say: Follow your instincts (harder than you think). Find some good friends who you believe in and who believe in you. And if you get stuck take a walk, it's not a faucet. You can sit in front of a computer for hours struggling and then get up to brush your teeth and as the water's running you realize – oh! That's what I'm trying to do. I guess you can only have the tooth brushing moment if you have the struggle first. Glenn Gould said in an interview that when he couldn't get a phrase right he'd turn on seven radios and then just play through the section without listening to what he was playing. He said it allowed his sub-or-unconscious to absorb what he was doing. Kind of like a misdirection in a magic trick. Look over here, but the real thing is happening over there. And usually when he turned the radios off whatever he was practicing had gotten into his fingers. So, hold on tightly, let go lightly.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  Come see The Insomnia Play at the Lyric Hyperion Theater in LA. March 18-April 10. Link here:



http://vitality.publishpath.com/



And you, Adam S. I've always loved your writing and I'm very excited to be part of this.

I Interview Playwrights Part 327: Kari Bentley-Quinn

Kari Bentley-Quinn



Hometown: Stratford, CT



Current Town: Astoria, Queens, NYC



Q:  Tell me about Paper Cranes.



A:  PAPER CRANES follows five people in a modern American town who are connected through a chain of surprising relationships. Maddie, a rebellious and precocious young woman, is balancing the social implications of her burgeoning sexuality with the responsibility of supporting her bereft mother, a woman who finds solace in the folding of origami paper cranes. Maddie escapes the confines of her stifling home-life by entering into a tumultuous relationship with Julie, an older woman. Julie's best friend and one-time lover Amy, in a renewed search for acceptance and love, enters into a dangerous S&M relationship with a mysterious man protecting a dark secret. Each character is desperate to break away from their haunted pasts to embrace a better future.



PAPER CRANES was partially inspired by a book I read when I was little called Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr. The book tells the story of Sadako Sasaki, a twelve year old Japanese girl who lived in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped, and ten years later died of leukemia as a result of the radiation. Sadako wanted to fold a thousand paper cranes (called senbazuru; once completed, it is supposed to grant a wish to the person who folded it), but passed away before she could finish them. Her friends and family finished them for her after she died. The story has stayed with me ever since. I think loss and death have always fascinated and terrified me (with love and sex on the other side of that coin, two things that definitely come into play in the piece), and I'd always dealt with loss on some level in all of my work. PAPER CRANES is the play where I finally addressed it head on.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I'm currently working on writing the book for a musical, which is a brand-new and scary thing to do for me. It's a comedy about a Christian MMA Fight Club (yes, they exist!). I'm working with my friend Jason Loffredo, who is an amazing composer and songwriter. I've been friends with his wife, the uber-talented Melanie Kann, for many years. It's really fun to work with good friends, but writing a musical is incredibly challenging. It is stretching me as a writer in a huge way.



I also just started a new full length play about a flight attendant who is the sole survivor of a plane crash. It is (very) loosely based on this woman named Vesna Vulovic who was a flight attendant in the 70's from the former Yugoslavia. She was the sole survivor of a mid-air bombing of the plane she was on and fell something like 30,000 feet. They found her alive in the rear section of the plane, and she became a national hero. I wanted to explore what her story would be like if it happened in modern day America and our crazed celebrity/political culture.



I was commissioned to write some ten minute plays last year, and they were a lot of fun, so I'm doing more of those. I just started writing my first spec script for television. I'm also joining up with some cool folks to start a collective of Queens theater artists. Oy. I need an assistant.



Q:  Tell me about the PACK. How did it come about?



A:  The Pack was started by Scott Ebersold and Alejandro Morales. They came up with this idea to have an offshoot of Packawallop Productions, their theater company, that gave a space to actors, directors, and writers to meet once a month and develop new work. Alejandro is a dear friend of mine, and we were always talking about how writers groups kept us focused, and how cool it would be to make theater with people we liked. I'm so glad they did it. Since the inception of The Pack, I have had a public reading of my play UNBLESSED as part of The Lounge Series, and I wrote the entirety of PAPER CRANES through working with The Pack. I have met so many ridiculously talented artists and have made wonderful friends. We have almost doubled in size since our first meeting. It's truly a once in a lifetime type of group. It is so easy to feel free and create in such a mutually supportive environment. I am so proud to be a part of it. It makes me really happy.



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 seven or eight, my grandmother and my mom pitched in to buy me an electronic typewriter. We couldn't afford a computer, so this was the next best thing. You couldn't keep me away from it. I used to sit in a huge wooden chair at our huge dining room table and just click click click away at the keys. I loved the tactile feedback from it, the instant gratification of words on a page, the bell that indicated the end of a line. I wrote a book of poems about endangered species affected by the Exxon oil spill in the 80's. I am, to this day, obsessed with humpback whales.



When I told my mom years later that I didn't want to write anymore, she showed me a box of stuff I'd written as a kid and said "This is who you are. You've been doing this since you were old enough to pick up a pen". It's the most loving and selfless thing my mother has ever done for me, because I know she would have much rather I quit writing to do something sensible like be a lawyer or doctor. I bet she still has that box. One day I want to go back and read all of it.



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



A:  The stodgy elitism of it all, the inaccessibility both culturally and financially. We need more revivals of dead playwrights like we need a hole in the head. I know it's important stuff, but come on, it's 2011. There are amazing contemporary playwrights (without MFA's, even!) doing great work. New plays should be the focus. If you can't find one great new play to do, you just haven't been looking hard enough.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  Tony Kushner, first and foremost. ANGELS IN AMERICA made me want to be a playwright. His work is such a gorgeous hybrid of intellect and emotion. The man is a genius. Then - Lillian Hellman, Edward Albee, Caryl Churchill, August Strindberg, Eugene O'Neill. Right now there are so many playwrights making amazing work that I can't possibly name them all, but I will say that Sheila Callaghan is a big hero of mine at present. THAT PRETTY PRETTY spoke to me so much as a female playwright and theater artist. It inspired me and made me want to take bigger risks. I stood up and cheered my face off at the end of that play.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  I love big, emotional, poetic, messy plays and I don't think there are enough of them. I feel like sometimes plays get overdeveloped and the soul of the work gets whitewashed. While there is no question that pristine, polished shows have their place, I'd rather see something with rough edges and a whole lot of heart than see something pretty that leaves me feeling like I just spent two hours staring at the equivalent of a Faberge egg in a glass cabinet. When I'm at the theater, I want to be ALIVE. I want theater to smash the hell out of that precious glass cabinet, and have the bloody hands to prove it. I want to feel, to think, to hyperventilate, to cry, to laugh, and to feel connected to humanity.



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



A:  Find your people. Submit to everything. Make new friends in real life and on the internet (get on Twitter, people, seriously) who love theater as much as you do. Read everything you can get your hands on. Luxuriate in your aesthetic obsessions. See as many shows as you can. Take care of your mental and physical health. Do not be afraid to introduce yourself to people. Take as many classes and workshops as you can afford. Make sure you have an income doing something, preferably something with health insurance. Nothing will kill your creativity more than poverty, and it's not super likely you're going to get paid for writing for a long, long time.



Most of all, write. Write what you like. Write what scares the crap out of you.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  PAPER CRANES will be at the Access Theater in NYC, directed by Scott Ebersold, April 15-May 8. Tickets can be purchased at www.packawallop.org.



Also, I have a website: http://kbquinn.wordpress.com

I Interview Playwrights Part 326: John Kolvenbach

John Kolvenbach



Hometown: Mount Kisco, NY



Current Town: New York, NY



Q:  Tell me about Love Song.



A:  The show was produced at Steppenwolf, originally, in 2006. Then a West End production under John Crowley's direction. It's been many places since then (Rome, Aukland, Melbourne, Seoul, Tel Aviv among many others) but never in New York. The original idea was to write a love song, something tuneful and romantic, an adult fable that sneaks in under your radar to access something deep in you. It's about a very lonely guy who finds love.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I just wrote a new one, a backstage comedy about a veteran actor trying to hold his marriage together.



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'm interested in how people select stories from their lives to explain themselves. (explain themselves to themselves or to others.) We choose our biography. The idea that your character was formed by some event, by this event, and not that one, is usually false, I find. The stories we select excuse us, or explain us, or hide us. Playwrights especially love to burnish their myths. Then they hide behind them, especially in the press. I've also heard the following: playwrights hide their secrets in public. (By writing plays.) I say all this to avoid the question.



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



A:  More legroom.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  David Rabe. Arthur Miller. I like Beckektt. Checkov. Feydeau.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  I want to be owned. I want the writer to take possession of me, I want to be at his/her mercy. I'm not picky about form, or style, anything good is good, but I want to have the music of the play infect me.



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



A:  oh boy. Write. I would try to identify your mission and then break that down into practicable parts. Then do those all the time. I find that swimming and talking help. write.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  We're doing Love Song at 59e59 starting April 5th. Tickets are on sale at 59e59.org.

About the interviews

Many times I thought I was going to stop doing these interviews.  The thing is, I'm not running out of playwrights.  There are scores of exciting, interesting and intelligent people writing plays right now.  I'm constantly overwhelmed by it and I continue to learn a lot.  So the series goes on.   But while we're at a stopping point,  (number 325, whooo!),  I wanted to take a minute to talk to you about something.



I have been working hard trying to interview a balance of playwrights.  It continues to be heavy on New York playwrights and there are probably still too many white people but I'm doing my best to show a snapshot of the playwriting world right now.  One thing that continues to be a challenge is keeping a 50/50 balance of men and women.  I felt like this is an important thing to do because there are an even number of men and women writing plays right now, but it's getting harder and harder for me to do this.  Let me tell you why.



Women are not getting back to me with their interviews in the same numbers men are.  I understand that playwrights are a busy people.  If you didn't get back to me this is not me chastising you.  It's just something I noticed.  Also, when people approach me to suggest playwrights to interview, I get two male playwright suggestions for every one woman. 



This is all to say that apocryphally I'm noticing women are not advocating for themselves as well as I wish they were and people of both sexes are not advocating for women as much as I wish they were.



If you want to tell me about some awesome playwright I haven't interviewed yet, by all means, please do.  I have a long list of names already but I can always add to it.  This is all I ask--try to give me two women for every one man you give me.  Just try.  And just in general, make a conscious effort to advocate for women.  Thanks.

325 Playwright Interviews (alphabetically)

Rob Ackerman

Liz Duffy Adams

Johnna Adams

Tony Adams 

David Adjmi

Derek Ahonen

Zakiyyah Alexander

Luis Alfaro

Lucy Alibar

Joshua Allen

Mando Alvarado 

Sofia Alvarez

Terence Anthony

Alice Austen 

Elaine Avila   

Rachel Axler

Bianca Bagatourian   

Annie Baker

Trista Baldwin

Jennifer Barclay 

Courtney Baron

Abi Basch 

Mike Batistick 

Brian Bauman

Chad Beckim

Nikole Beckwith 

Maria Alexandria Beech 

Alan Berks

Brooke Berman

Susan Bernfield

Jay Bernzweig

Barton Bishop

Martin 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

Delaney Britt Brewer

Erin Browne

Bekah Brunstetter

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  

Alexandra Collier

James Comtois

Joshua Conkel

Kara Lee 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

Kevin R. Free

Matthew Freeman

Edith Freni

Patrick Gabridge 

Anne Garcia-Romero

Gary Garrison 

Madeleine George

Meg Gibson

Sigrid Gilmer 

Peter Gil-Sheridan

Gina Gionfriddo

Michael Golamco

Jessica Goldberg

Daniel Goldfarb

Jacqueline Goldfinger

Jeff Goode

Christina Gorman

Craig "muMs" Grant

Katharine Clark Gray

Elana Greenfield   

Kirsten Greenidge

Jason Grote

Sarah Gubbins

Stephen Adly Guirgis

Lauren Gunderson 

Jennifer Haley

Ashlin Halfnight   

Christina Ham

Sarah Hammond

Rob Handel

Jordan Harrison

Leslye Headland

Ann Marie Healy

Julie Hebert 

Marielle Heller

Amy Herzog

Andrew Hinderaker

Cory Hinkle

Richard Martin Hirsch

Lucas Hnath

David Holstein

J. Holtham

Quiara Alegria Hudes 

Les Hunter

Sam Hunter

Chisa Hutchinson

Arlene Hutton

Laura Jacqmin

Joshua James

Julia Jarcho

Kyle Jarrow

Karla Jennings

David Johnston

Nick Jones

Julia Jordan

Rajiv Joseph

Aditi Brennan Kapil

Lila Rose Kaplan  

Jeremy Kareken 

Lally Katz

Lynne Kaufman

Daniel Keene 

Karinne Keithley 

Greg Keller

Sibyl Kempson 

Anna Kerrigan

Kait Kerrigan

Boo Killebrew

Callie Kimball

Johnny Klein 

Krista Knight

Andrea Kuchlewska

Larry Kunofsky

Deborah Zoe Laufer 

J. C. Lee

Young Jean Lee

Dan LeFranc

Andrea Lepcio

Victor Lesniewski 

Steven Levenson

Barry Levey

Mark Harvey Levine  

Michael Lew

EM Lewis

Sean Christopher Lewis

Jeff Lewonczyk

Kenneth Lin

David J. Loehr 

Matthew Lopez

Stacey Luftig

Kirk Lynn

Mariah MacCarthy

Laura Lynn MacDonald

Maya Macdonald

Cheri Magid

Jennifer Maisel

Martyna Majok 

Kara Manning

Ellen Margolis

Ruth Margraff

Sam Marks

Tarell Alvin McCraney

Daniel McCoy 

Ruth McKee

James McManus

Charlotte Meehan

Carly Mensch

Molly Smith Metzler

Charlotte Miller

Winter Miller

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Yusef Miller 

Rehana Mirza

Michael Mitnick

Anna Moench

Honor Molloy  

Alejandro Morales

Desi Moreno-Penson

Dominique Morisseau

Itamar Moses

Gregory Moss

Megan Mostyn-Brown

Paul Mullin

Julie Marie Myatt

Janine Nabers

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb

Brett Neveu

Qui Nguyen

Don Nigro

Dan O'Brien

Matthew Paul Olmos 

Dominic Orlando

Rich Orloff

Marisela Treviño Orta



Jamie Pachino

Kristen Palmer

Tira Palmquist

A. Rey Pamatmat

Kyoung H. Park



Peter Parnell

Julia Pascal

Steve Patterson

christopher oscar peña

Brian Polak 

Daria Polatin

Chana Porter

Craig Pospisil

Jessica Provenz

Michael Puzzo

Adam Rapp  

Theresa Rebeck

Amber Reed

Daniel Reitz

Molly Rice

Mac Rogers

Elaine Romero

Lynn Rosen

Andrew Rosendorf

Kim Rosenstock

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

Lisa Soland

Peggy Stafford 

Saviana Stanescu

Nick Starr

Deborah Stein

Jon Steinhagen

Victoria Stewart

Andrea Stolowitz

Gary Sunshine

Caridad Svich

Jeffrey Sweet

Adam Szymkowicz

Daniel Talbott

Kate Tarker 

Roland Tec 

Lucy Thurber

Paul Thureen

Josh Tobiessen 

Dan Trujillo

Alice Tuan

Jon Tuttle

Ken Urban

Enrique Urueta

Francine Volpe

Kathryn Walat

Michael I. Walker 

Malachy Walsh

Kathleen Warnock

Anne Washburn

Marisa Wegrzyn

Anthony Weigh   

Ken Weitzman

Sharr White

Claire Willett

Samuel Brett Williams

Beau Willimon

Pia Wilson

Gary Winter

Stanton Wood

Craig Wright

Deborah Yarchun

Lauren Yee

Steve Yockey

Kelly Younger

Stefanie Zadravec

Anna Ziegler

325 Playwright Interviews

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 325: Daniel Keene

Daniel Keene



Hometown: Melbourne, Australia.



Current Town: Melbourne, Australia.



Q:  Tell me about The Killing Room.



A:  The play was commissioned by One Year Lease. My brief was simply to write something based on the story of Thyestes. I focused my work on the idea that tyranny devours its own. I imagined a world in which oppression had triumphed, where there was no one left to resist the cruelty and dominance of the ruling elite. And yet these rulers still have the urge, the desire to dominate. The only victims that remain are themselves. They devour each other.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I am currently writing a play (another commission) for the Melbourne Theatre Company, who premiered a play of mine at last year's Melbourne International Arts Festival. Once that's finished, I will be starting work on an adaptation of Goethe's Faust for Theatre de la Commune in Paris.



Q:  How would you characterize Australian theater?



A:  Energetic, intelligent, highly skilled, adventurous. There is a strong European influence in Australian theatre, and quite a few of our major directors often work in Europe. Indigenous theatre has established a strong place in the culture and continues to grow and exert its influence. We have an extremely strong design culture (lighting, set design and sound) that sets the bar very high. The best Australian theatre (and there is a lot of the best) is fearless, with very broad horizons. I know I'm painting a very rosy picture, but I genuinely believe that at this moment in time Australian theatre is some of the best you'll see anywhere in the world. A generational change is happening. There are young, well-trained and highly skilled artists working in all aspects of theatre; and they are connected to each other through a generous culture of exchange and debate.



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



A:  The theatre needs to attract a younger audience; it needs to speak to the desires and the concerns of young people. And it needs to be brave enough to confront the brutalities and hypocrisies of the contemporary world. These things are happening, but they need to keep happening.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  The list is long, and various. Here are a few: Beckett, Pinter, Mamet, Miller, Chekhov, Kroetz, Fosse, Churchill, Kane, Ibsen, Shakespeare, Brecht, Barker, Koltés, Müller . . . .



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  Theatre where something 'happens', that is part of my experience of reality not an escape from it. Theatre that effects the emotions and the intellect.



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



A:  Read plays, anything you can get your hands on, read plays continuously. And read poetry, of every kind. Go to the theatre as often as you can, see every kind of theatre that you can, including dance



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  

theatrenotes.blogspot.com will tell you everything you need to know about Australian theatre.

I Interview Playwrights Part 324: James Carter

James Carter



Hometown: Canton, IL



Current Town: Brooklyn, NY



Q:  Tell me about Feeder.



A:  "Feeder: A Love Story" reveals Jesse & Noel, who meet online, fall in love and get married. They share in a lifestyle called feederism. Typically, one partner feeds and assists the other partner in gaining weight. It's sexually stimulating for both, and it's a fringe subculture struggling to obtain acceptance. The play is about communication, acceptance, media, and of course, love.



The play is a transmedia storytelling experience told on multiple platforms – stage, blogs and Twitter. The audience can visit http://www.jessennoel.blogspot.com before the show (or after) to find out more about the characters.



It's a leap of faith to depart from a traditional play format, but so far it seems to be working. People from feederism blogs, groups of transmedia storytellers, and theatergoers are all attending the show, which means we're expanding terraNOVA Collective's (http://www.terranovacollective.org) audience base and web traffic.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I'm researching for a play about memes, or memetics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme). It's a time consuming process asking questions like: What is creativity? Do we drive it, or does it drive us? Is there free will? Light stuff.



Transmedia storytelling will certainly be an aspect of it, but I'm not sure in what fashion, yet. The stage play/experience is at the center, and then I'll build the other media elements once the story is firm.



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



A:  In high school, I wrote poetry, plays, and short stories. Once, I created this teenage wet dream fantasy playboy short story featuring all my friends as characters. More like bizzaro versions of my friends. It was episodic, and I even illustrated a few comic panels. It was dirty, uninhibited and extreme. I wrote a new chapter every day, and I read it to my friends at lunch. We all sat around howling at the sophomoric silliness, and my friends couldn't wait for the next chapter the following day. It was the first time I entertained with my writing.



My parents found the notebook containing the story, and they were mortified. I grew up in a very conservative household, and I didn't do anything "bad" – no drinking, no drugs, and no breaking curfew. I created the story to act out all the badness I wanted to be. The shame I had when my parents confronted me about the story was intense. I understood why they were so angry, but I didn't understand what was wrong with what I wrote.



Something cracked open in me that day – people aren't always going to like what I write. They might be offended, they might be angered, but there are others who will wait eagerly for the next chapter. Those are the people for whom I write.



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



A:  Every artist, administrator, and laborer would be paid what they're worth.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  I have tons of theatre makers I admire: Athol Fugard, Diane Paulus, Jordan Roth, Danny Hoch, Lily Tomlin, and Scott Morfee.



However, the true theatrical heroes of the world are people like my mother, Ilene Carter, who taught high school theatre for years. All teachers who work to instill love of the arts and cultivate the next generation of artists are my heroes. We need to make arts education a priority.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  If I laugh, cry, re-think my morals or want to dance, I'm over the moon. The audience should be involved with the process. If the audience is on stage with the performers, awesome. If the audience can interact with characters before and after the theatrical experience, stellar. Theatre has roots in religious rites, yet now it is spectacle for tourists and star-gazers. Theatre should be communal. The cult of personality dominates theatre, and we need to return to an experiential congregation where theatre makers move, challenge and delight the audience.



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



A:  It's a fickle business, and you'll rarely make a living as a playwright. Think seriously about this. If you want to make money, don't write plays. My parents told me this when I was young. I didn't believe them. They were right. Write plays because you love it.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  "Feeder: A Love Story" runs 3/7-3/26/11 at HERE

Begin the story: http://jessennoel.blogspot.com

Tickets: http://here.org/shows/detail/453/



terraNOVA Collective: http://www.terranovacollective.org



Website: http://www.onemuse.com



Blog: http://one-muse.blogspot.com/