Adam Szymkowicz's Blog, page 117

275 Playwright Interviews

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 275: Maya Macdonald

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 Maya Macdonald



Hometown: New York City



Current Town: New York City



Q:  Tell me about The Really Important People:



A:  The Really Important People is a play I am developing for the 7th Street Small Stage with Rising Phoenix Rep. It is about a group of lady friends - Clarissa, Lynn, and Lucie - who have what they believe to be an incredibly important blog about sex. The blog is centered around Lynn, who has been in a wheelchair since she was a little girl. Lynn and Clarissa go out every night and collect experiences with men, report those experiences to Lucie, who in turn makes them "blog-worthy." When Clarissa leaves the group, the other girls place an ad for a "replacement friend." The only applicant, Abageal, chooses Jimmy's No. 43 for the location of her "friend interview." As many know, the 7th Street Small Stage is down a flight of stairs, so Lynn has convinced Brad, a new bartender, to carry her into the bar. And that is all I am going to tell you…



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I am re-writing my play Leave the Balcony Open (formerly titled "The Last Three Days") and have also been collecting material for a play tentatively titled "Burned in the Last." This material comes from the summer of 2009 when I traveled to Bamidji, Minnesota to play Rosalind in an all female production of As You Like It. Upon arrival I learned that the not only was this Women's Theatre Collective housed in a Masonic Temple, but that I too, would be housed there during my stay. I was struck by this clashing of worlds, and in my off time I began collecting images, artifacts (shh, don't tell the Masons), experiences, and a few scenes for what I will one day make into a play.



Q:  You come from an eclectic background. How does this affect the plays you make?



A:  My parents were both modern dancers, and so dance and choreography is at the base of a lot of what I do. I find that all aspects of story telling are related, so I think it's useful to explore all sorts of mediums. My favorite experiences in the theatre, and the experiences I wish to create when I write plays, are very much a collision of different genres.



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 15, I got in an accident at a summer camp and injured my knee. I had to return home to NYC in order to have several operations. I was bored and lonely, and asked Steven Tanenbaum, a writer and director with whom I had worked on two previous projects, if I could help him out with his new play MONO. MONO was a site-specific ensemble piece, set in a bar about people who think "dialogue is for suckers." As it was meant to reflect the multi-cultural nature of New York City, the cast was filled with people from all over the world. Every actor played three different roles, and they would rotate every week. My favorite character was The Mute, who was dragged to the bar by her Rehab Drop-Out sister. She converses with a French sock puppet called The Mysterious Stranger while her sister gets wasted. I loved the play and the ensemble so much that I continued to work with them after my surgeries.



One night the actress playing The Mute apparently spoke in the middle of the play. I'm not sure if anyone besides her scene partner heard, but needless to say, she was no longer in the show after that. Last minute, I was asked to fill in. Apparently they thought I was good, because I ended up performing with the show throughout its four year run. I became very close with this ensemble. One of the actors even served as my date to my senior prom.



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



A:  Music and comedy are often recreational activities that people go out to see but for the most part audiences at Off-, or Off-Off-Broadway theatre events are theatre artists themselves. Which is wonderful, but I would like to see theatre become something that reaches a wider audience.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  My theatrical heroes are, or have become my mentors and friends.



My teachers: Brooke Berman, Cusi Cram, Karen Hartman, Sherry Kramer. I am also inspired by playwrights who bend genres like Sheila Callaghan, Sarah Ruhl, Florencia Lozano. Also, Jonathan Marc Sherman, Neena Beber, Lila Neugebauer and Daphne Rubin-Vega are all people who have supported, and inspired me as people and as artists.



And of course: Chekhov, Tennessee Williams, and Lorca, who I unfortunately never knew personally.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  I love plays that bend genres and give me a visceral experience rather than just showing me the world I already live in. I don't need to know where I'm going, just that the production knows where it is going. From there, I like to be surprised, or even confused. I like leaving a play with questions.



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



A:  You always have the power to make something. Regardless of where it is performed, who wants to produce it, or even who likes it, as a playwright, you have the power to make something that wasn't there before. Seek out collaborators. Go see plays. See plays that excite you more than once. Support the work of your peers. The people and the work are the best part, and that's lucky, because those are the things no one can take from you. Enjoy.



Q:  Plugs, please: A:  The Really Important People will be produced by Rising Phoenix Rep sometime in the Spring. I will post all the info on my site, so please look me up for more info at my site: www.mayamacdonald.net

upcoming productions

First, a reading of Herbie in Independence, Kansas at the Inge Center  Nov 6 at 7:30



Then a reading of Incendiary at Southern Rep in the New Orleans fringe Nov 19, 20, 21



2, maybe 3 productions of Nerve.  (They all haven't been announced, so I'll hold off on the specifics.)



Deflowering Waldo in Rochester, NY  Opening Feb 5 http://www.staszpruitt.com/



Another show of mine in NYC in Jan.



And some other stuff TBA.

Square One Series

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I'm traveling a lot this year.  This is part of the reason why.  Am I coming to your town? Maybe. Mark your calendar. Info below:



Bloomington, IN – The Bloomington Playwrights Project (BPP) is proud to announce the inaugural play for the Square One Series, Elsewhere by Adam Szymkowicz. The innovative Square One Series will workshop a new work each year in collaboration with five theaters total.



The Schedule is as follows:



Dec. 6 – reading at Chicago Dramatists, Chicago, IL



Feb. 8 – reading at Greenbrier Valley Theatre, Lewisburg, WV



Mar. 15-16 – reading at Bloomington Playwrights Project, Bloomington, IN



May 27-June 11 – Production at Theatre Conspiracy, Fort Myers, FL



Next Fall – Production at Exposed Productions, New York City



Created by the Bloomington Playwrights Project, the Square One Series is designed to change the game of playwriting workshops and to give small professional theatres a larger role in the national new works scene. The predominant method of "workshopping" is reliant on an artistic department selecting one script out of many and producing a simple reading of the script for an audience. Often times this is accompanied by only 1 day of rehearsal and limited re-writes. In truth, it is less of a workshop and more of a reading series. Depending on the outcome of the reading, the Artistic Director will either choose to produce the script or not. More often than not it is the latter. This leaves the playwright with the same undeveloped script back at square one: sending the scripts out to every theatre possible in hopes of getting yet another "workshop" reading. BPP's Square One Series aims to remedy that situation through a collaboration of small professional theatres in a progressive development format.



About ELSEWHERE: When Teddy comes to Celia's house to deliver a package, he doesn't expect to be invited for dinner. When he comes to dinner, he doesn't expect to be invited to live with her. When he starts to live with her, he doesn't expect to fall in love with her sister Amanda. And he definitely doesn't expect to be drugged ... or buried alive.

I Interview Playwrights Part 274: Mando Alvarado

Mando Alvarado



Hometown: Pharr-San Juan-Alamo, Texas



Current Town: Brooklyn, NY



Q:  Tell me about Cino Nights and the play you did for it with RPR.



A:  Cino nights is homage to Joseph Cino and the downtown theater days. We rehearsed for one week, and then put it up for one night. Kind of like a happening. It was an amazing experience. Intense, enlightening, motivating, and really rewarding. That rehearsal week felt like a lifetime, but in a great way. When Daniel commissioned me to write the piece, I knew I wanted to play with structure and narrative. So in late August, I was up for a week at writer's retreat working with Taibi, Sarah, Jen Ferrin and Bernardo. We hammered out a way of working that helped me figure out what I needed to do to make the play come alive. It was a crazy five days. Real honest exchange of ideas, personal demons and self reflection. Back here in NYC, we had the same intense work week. Taibi, my director, and the actors, Bernardo, Jolly, and Sarah were real pro's. They gave a lot to the play and I'm eternally grateful. They dove into the work and really found ways to lift the nuance of the construct of the play. They found beautiful ways to navigate the fluctuating structure of the play which jumps between five realities -Present, Past, Memory, Thoughts in the Memory, In between, and What if.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I'm currently in workshop rehearsals for La Maga de Oz for Theaterworks USA. It's a latinofied interpretation of The Wizard of Oz. I'm also a participating company playwright for Theater 167's new project about fairy tales. And in rewriting mode for my play Basilica that is being developed for Rattlestick Playwright's Theater. We're planning a workshop production in my home town and then premiering it in NY for their upcoming season. Also working on not going crazy if there's not enough work. AND working on how the hell I'm gonna pay the bills so I can continue my theatrical habit.



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 loved Rocky. When I was a kid, I pretended to be Rocky. My uncles would mess with me, making me go running really early in the morning, making me drink eggs, box, do one arm push ups, run up stadium stairs like the stairs in Rocky. I was a maniac! And I knew they were fucking with me but I didn't care. It gave me permission to play pretend. When I got older and I learned about how the movie came about and why it was written, I found a deeper respect for the work and what Sylvester Stallone did. I guess I wanted to have that same kind of control with my work and find ways to say it my way. I AM ROCKY!



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



A:  The role of the critic. I've seen a lot of my friends go through the critical process and it devastates them. I don't really understand how one person has the power to validate the work. Who gave him or her that power? I would like for each critic to write a play, get it on it's feet and then have a room full of Artistic Directors, actors, directors, and playwrights come critique the work. You have to earn the right to be an arbitrator of taste. I know they are a part of the machine. I don't question that. I question their qualifications. You have to be able to do what you judge. That's all I'm sayin!



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  Luis Valdez, Clifford Odets, Harold Clurman, August Wilson, Lewis J Stadlen - gave me the balls to call myself a professional, Robert Beseda, Jackyln Maddux, Gerald Freedman, Michael Lluberes, Stephan Adly Guirgis, David Mamet, Migdalia Cruz, Craig Wright, Wolly Mammoth Theater Company, Gregg Henry, Michael Ray Escamilla, Those Guys, Michael John Garces, Jorge Cortinas, Raul Castillo, The incomparable Felix Solis, Ed Vassalo, Alex Correia, Jeremy Skidmore, Abs, Rene Garza, Wayne Adams, Peter Hedges, my classmates from NCSA, the Tex Mex Mafia, Lou and INTAR, and as far as people that really challenge me as a writer and shaped how I approach the work, I got to say these three people really cracked the prose in my head. Eduardo Machado, really made me challenge my self and what I want to say in my work. David Van Asselt, he gave me a chance, gave me blind faith in a world where product is valued over substance, and Lue Douthit from OSF. She's the Lit. Manager there and she gave me the bones. She opened up the confidence to finally allow myself to feel like a writer. And the one that allowed me to be a writer, Sarena Kennedy!



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  Honest, risky, take me on a journey, emotionally challenges me, makes me forget about the day, makes me feel like a kid sitting on the mat ready for story time, other worldly, dangerous, raw, unconventional, nontraditional, (and this if for Alfredo) NON-ALL AMERICAN THEATER in the traditional uninviting sense.



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



A:  Learn the rules. rewrite! and rewrite! Don't cheat yourself. Don't be afraid to fail. Screw them if they can't take a joke and never never stop learning. It doesn't get any easier but it does get better. Writing a play is fucking hard and writing a good play is fucking harder. And if you want to make money, learn how to write for TV. There's no money in theater but there's a type of currency that will carry you through the bad times. And say something in the work! And love the one's your with, drink, fight, be honest, give, and don't forget to smile, it's only a play.

I Interview Playwrights Part 273: Adam Rapp

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Adam Rapp



Hometown: Joliet. Illinois



Current Town: New York City



Q:  Tell me about Ghosts in the Cottonwoods.



A:  It's a play I wrote fifteen years ago. My first full-length. I had no idea what I was doing. It was written on impulse, kind of out of the dark. It was overwrought, overblown with too much self-consciously poetic dialogue, but something about the play has haunted me and I knew I would return to it. Some months ago I pulled it out, looked at it closely, and re-worked it. It seemed like a really good fit for the Amoralists, their style, their mission. I didn't care for early productions of the play, but mostly I didn't care for the play. I'm incredibly excited to have this new experience with it. The company is incredibly brave. They kill me every day in rehearsal. Some of the best actors I've ever worked with. I'm having a blast. The play is about a single mother and her 20-year-old son who are awaiting the arrival of the older son, who has broken out of prison. They live in a homemade house that is sliding down a hill in a nowhere forested region in the southern Midwest, somewhere between the interstate and the factory outlets. They've created their own government of language and their own brutal codes of morality. A stranger shows up, as does the younger son's girlfriend. And all hell breaks loose.



Q:  This isn't the first time you've directed your own work. What do you learn about your plays by directing them?



A:  Well, I love directing – all facets of it. But I particularly love working with actors. My plays get better when I direct them because I become a rigorous dramaturg and I care that the audience is involved in every moment. I think the rehearsal process has become an incredibly fertile rewriting and discovery process that I wouldn't experience if I was simply the defensive playwright in the room protecting his play. I'm not precious with my words or moments. I'm all about finding what works. I try to have fun. I demand a lot from my actors, and they demand a lot from me and I love that these are the stakes.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I'm rewriting a novel called THE CHILDREN AND THE WOLVES for Candlewick Press, and I'm preparing for my Hallway Trilogy, which starts rehearsals after the new year.



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 raised Catholic. In church I used to daydream. I would fall in love with one girl during mass. I would imagine our lives together, our kids, the car in the garage, tornadoes, cows flying through the air, getting shipped off to war, getting my leg cut off, being chased by the FBI. Church was where I started making things up, started living in my head. For me, I think that's where the impulse to write started.



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



A:  Government legislated 20-dollar tickets. Including Broadway.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  Caryl Churchill, Pinter, John Guare, Edward Bond, Chekhov, Genet, Beckett, Irene Fornes, David Rabe.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  The kind in which I am surprised by deft hard actions, the kind that trusts ambiguity and mystery, the kind that haunts and disturbs me. I hate leaving a play feeling resolved and entertained. I want to be shaken by something. I want to be made to forget that I was actually in a theater.



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



A:  Don't wait for someone's stamp of approval. Start making work in your living room. Waiting is death. Figure out how to make something work in a room with a window and a door. Maybe add a phone.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:   "Gatz" by Elevator Repair Service is incredible. The National's record "High Violet." Café Mogador on St. Mark's Place.

I Interview Playwrights Part 272: Eliza Clark

Eliza Clark



Hometown:  Darien, CT



Current Town:  Culver City, CA



Q:  Tell me about Edgewise.



A:  EDGEWISE is a dark, comedic thriller about three teenagers flipping burgers during a near future total war. It's about what people are capable of under extreme circumstances and what happens in a world operated by fear. I hope, too, that it will be a fun ride, that you'll be laughing and enjoying yourself in spite of (or maybe even because of) some of the more brutal elements of the play. It's an exploration of what life would be like for Americans living in an American war zone, specifically New Jersey.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I moved to LA a year ago to write for a new AMC show called Rubicon. The final episode of the season just aired and so right now we're sitting tight, crossing our fingers for a second season. In the meantime, I'm working on a pilot about teenagers working at a Walmart-type superstore. I have a thing for kids working shitty jobs. One of my favorite directors and collaborators, Lila Neugebauer, is directing a 30 minute play of mine called SNOW DAY that goes up for a couple nights the week that Edgewise closes. I'm pretty excited about that! I've also been working all year on a play called DEAD CHILDREN about a family living in a town that's being terrorized by a serial killer.



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 six years old, I was in a wonderful musical called Opal, written by Robert Lindsey-Nassif, that went up at the Lamb's Theatre. It was based on the diary of a six-year-old French orphan, the sole survivor of a shipwreck taken in by a woman in a lumber camp, at the turn of the 20th century. It's a really sweet, sad, wonderful musical with a beautiful, haunting score.



I loved being in the show – and I was in almost every scene (a situation that lead to me peeing my pants on the stage no less than twice). During the run, I started writing in my diary in Opal's writing style, which was a sort of French to English translation – she would write sentences like, "I did go to the store" or "I did wake up." I basically unlearned English in order to write in the style of a girl I wanted to be ('cause she was published!). At one point, I wrote letters to myself from God and hid them backstage for the rest of the cast to find. Throughout the run, the other actors would find notes on the set written in six-year-old scrawl that said things like, "Dear Eliza, Break a Leg, Love, God."



Not exactly sure how it relates to me becoming a writer, but I had an active, delusional imagination, I guess, probably from growing up in theaters. I don't know what I was like as an actor, really, but I know that I had already started thinking of myself as a writer by age six.



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



A:  I wish there were more women whose plays were being produced. I wish that audiences would be more excited about seeing "science fiction" on stage. I'm told sometimes that I write sci-fi plays and that can be a bit of a turn-off. I love science fiction (though I don't really think I would categorize what I do as sci-fi). But once people started saying that about my work, it got me thinking that I'd actually really love to write a straight up science fiction play. I would dig seeing something like that on stage. Ender's Game, for instance, could be a beautiful night of theater.



I have this dream of owning a theater. It should be stated that in my fantasy, money is no object. I want to start a theater in Los Angeles, where there are a couple of fantastic theaters, but in general, the scene is rather small (certainly not as vibrant and overflowing as New York theater). I don't want subscribers. I don't want to have to do anything other than exactly the kind of theater that I would want to see. Again, money is no object, so if two people come to the show, then so be it. So we would only pick shows we love, shows by playwrights who don't have agents or plays that nobody else wants to produce, or plays that everybody wants to produce but only with some crazy movie star in the starring role instead of the crazy talented weirdo theater actor who is really right for the part.



I guess it's a childish fantasy, in that the dream is basically just, "I want a theater where I get to do whatever I want to do." But it's my fantasy, so it can be as silly as I want.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  There are too many. Here are a few. Deb Margolin, a writer/solo performer/teacher/mentor/goddess who helped me tap into some really messed up part of me that has never really gone away. Deb's writing soars, it's really quite amazing. Martin McDonagh – The Pillowman is the play that I most often give to people – it's my favorite. Liz Meriwether, Amy Herzog, and Annie Baker – a real triumvirate of fantastic female playwrights who I think are killer writers as well as some of the nicest people around. The playwrights I've worked with in Youngblood (EST's writing group for emerging playwrights under thirty) and Interstate 73 (Page 73's writing group). I've been really blessed to be a part of supportive communities filled with writers I admire and learn from.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  Theater that is visceral, that elicits a physical reaction. I like laughing until I feel like I'm going to puke. I love musicals – that soaring, skipping feeling you get listening to someone belt out a song. When I saw Blasted at SoHo Rep, I felt a sheer terror that I had never felt in a theater before. A movie can get you up close to the action, can make everything insanely realistic, but nothing but live theater can make you feel like you're right there, like you might be in danger. I live for that feeling.



I like theater that entertains. I have a low-brow sensibility that would totally appreciate seeing Die Hard on the stage. I like being frightened. I like when theater calls me out for the way I live my life.



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



A:  I'm just starting out! I guess my advice would be to keep writing. Donald Margulies, who was a professor and mentor of mine in college, always encouraged me to just move on to the next play instead of spending months and months editing. I sometimes thought it meant that he didn't like my play, but I realize now that he knew the secret of becoming a better writer, which is just to write and write and write. I try not to get too attached to or precious about my work. Actors and directors are great at cutting right to the heart of something, and it's so important to listen to smart people you trust when they are saying, "Cut these pages, cut this scene, etc." Just make sure you like their sensibility. I've been lucky to work with people I really admire and click with. Find those people and then let them go to town.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A: 



EDGEWISE

DIRECTED BY TRIP CULLMAN

presented by Page 73 and The Play Company

NOV. 9 – DEC. 4, 2010

@ Walkerspace (46 Walker Street)

Tickets:

Online at https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/dept/255

Or call (212) 352-3101



More information here: http://www.p73.org/programs/productions/edgewise/





SNOW DAY

DIRECTED BY LILA NEUGEBAUER

(part of)

DIRECTORFEST 2010

Four 30-minute plays, directed by the 2010 Drama League Fall Fellows.

The Barrow Group Theater - 312 West 36th Street 3rd Floor

For tickets, call 212-244-9494 or email kcarter at dramaleague.org

Thursday, December 9 · 8pm

Friday, December 10 · 8pm

Saturday, December 11 · 2pm

Saturday, December 11 · 8pm

Sunday, December 12 · 3pm More information here: http://dramaleague.org/?page_id=2627

I Interview Playwrights Part 271: Margot Bordelon

Margot Bordelon



Hometown: Everett, Washington (about thirty miles north of Seattle)



Current Town: New Haven, Connecticut



Q:  Tell me about BOOzy.



A:  BOOzy is a two-night storytelling event produced by New York theater company Bohemian Archaeology. Five Chicago writers penned Halloween inspired stories that are performed by New York actors. Jordana Kritzer (Bohemian Archaeology AD and director of the evening) is a close friend and colleague of mine. We've collaborated on various projects since our Seattle days in 2002-03. She conceived the evening and asked me to submit a story for consideration. My piece "Kryptonite" is about an experience I had four years ago trying to navigate a relationship with an extremely attractive, yet extremely self involved DJ. It's light. It's both silly and sexy, with a healthy dose of self deprecating humor.



Here's some language from the press release that might communicate the tone of the evening more clearly:



BOO(zy) explores the themes of Halloween: from the freakish, gross, and sexy to the rituals of dressing up and acting out. It's not campfire-ghost-stories, and it ain't your grandmother's Halloween! Produced by Bohemian Archaeology, this show reaches into the writer's pandora's box and brings forth the scathing, awkward, and hilarious truth about life.



Five of Chicago's most twisted and original writers join five of New York's most talented actors for two nights of Halloween tales (Thurs Oct 28 and Fri Oct 29, 9:00pm at the DR2 in Union Square!). From getting freaked out to getting their freak on these storytellers tell twisted tales to get you in the Hallows' Eve mood. These stories are accompanied by a live musical soundscape by Ryan Blotnick and are paired with a boozy drink, one that best embodies the theme of each story.



On Halloween night, a young hipster gets freaky with a hot DJ and wonders what happens when the costumes come off (Blood-Orange Martini); a homeless man jams to '80s rock with a broomstick (Jack-O-Lantern 'n Coke); a backpacker finds herself surrounded by freaks in the Red Light District of Amsterdam (Green-Eyed Schnapps Monster); and a bike racer dons her superhero cape and rides for her life (Freaky-gin Fizz).



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I just started my first year at the Yale School of Drama studying Directing. So first and foremost, I'm working on readjusting to school life after having been away from it for nearly a decade. Also, I'm working on getting used to New Haven which is quite different than Chicago where I spent the last six years.



In addition to school projects, I'm preparing to co-direct WE LIVE HERE in August 2011, a piece I co-conceived with my best friend and fellow Theatre Seven of Chicago company member Cassy Sanders. It features eight short autobiographical plays written by eight Chicago writers, woven together to create a cohesive piece of theater performed by a versatile nine-actor ensemble.



Q:  Tell me about 2nd Story.



A:  First, some language from their website, because really, I can't explain it more succinctly than this:



2nd Story is a hybrid performance event combining storytelling, wine, and music that is produced by the Serendipity Theater Collective as both a Monthly Performance Series and an Annual Festival. A typical 2nd Story evening goes something like this: you hang out with your friends and eat and drink and make merry. Four or five times during the night, the lights go down, a spotlight comes up on somebody and they tell you a story.



I first got involved in 2nd Story in the winter of 2006. I saw an event at Webster's Wine Bar and I was awed by the level of craft, both of the stories and the performers. I'd just started to become interested in exploring autobiographical stories in a theatrical medium and this seemed like the perfect place to begin that investigation. Immediately following the event I introduced myself to the producer and said "I want to do this. How can I be involved?" He suggested I submit a story to the annual festival. I did and spent the next four years writing and performing for 2nd Story. Some of my closest friends and collaborators are artists I met through 2nd Story. In fact, four of them wrote pieces for WE LIVE HERE.



Q:  If I moved to Chicago, what theaters or shows would you recommend I see?



A:  Theater Seven of Chicago! This is my company so naturally I must recommend it first. We're about to open our fifth season with a production of David Mamet's radio play THE WATER ENGINE directed by our brilliant Artistic Director Brian Golden. In June we open The Chicago Landmark Project, a festival of ten short world premiere plays about specific Chicago landmarks. As you might be able to guess, a large part of our mission is to create work by and for the Chicago community.



Other fantastic companies to check out: Pavement Group, The New Colony, Sinnerman, Strawdog, New Leaf, Sideshow, Hypocrites, Tuta, TimeLine, Profiles, Dog & Pony. There are so many more I'm forgetting. Chicago is home to a wealth of thriving storefront companies, it's truly an amazing city to live and create theater in. As for individual artists, I would recommend anything directed by Matt Hawkins, Shade Murray, Joanie Shultz, Seth Bockley, Sean Graney, or Leslie Buxbaum.



Lastly, if you'd never visited the city, I'd say go check out whatever is playing at Steppenwolf. They are the most important and influential ensemble company in Chicago, (if not the United States) and their work is always of the highest quality. I moved to the Midwest to do an artistic apprenticeship there, so Steppenwolf will always have a special place in my heart.



Q:  Besides a writer, you are an actor and director. How do your acting and directing inform your writing and vice versa?



A:  My writing tends to be very conversational which I believe is a direct result of hailing from a performance background as opposed to a literary one. Before I even sit down to write a story I'll walk around my room and speak it into a tape recorder so that my body can be involved. Thoughts and ideas often spring from physical movement for me. When I direct I like to get the company on its feet as soon as possible after the first or second read through. We'll go back to the table throughout the first week, but some of the most important initial discoveries come from actual physical doing.



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



A:  I'd like the government and citizens of this country to view theater as a vital form of expression that we cannot survive without, and as a result of that belief, be eager to fund it appropriately…



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  Tina Landau, Charles Ludlam, Emma Rice, Mary Zimmerman, Lisa Kron, and Mike Daisey to name a few…



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  Highly physical work created by companies or ensembles. The work of the Rude Mechs, Pig Iron, KneeHigh, Lookingglass, 500 Clown.



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



A:  I'm not sure I'm in a position to advise beginning playwrights since I'm not directly pursuing that career path, but practices I've observed from successful colleagues are a rigorous commitment to routine, discipline, and fearlessly seeking out artistic collaborators.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  BOO(zy): An Evening of Spirits and Storytelling



Thurs Oct 28 and Fri Oct 29th



9:00pm



Daryl Roth Theatre's DR2



101 E 15th St (@ Union Square East)

To buy tickets, go to:

https://www.smarttix.com/show.aspx?EID=&showCode=BOO18&BundleCode=&GUID=14375435-1f6b-4f9f-bee5-3205d85ae74b



or call 212-868-4444



www.theatreseven.org

www.2ndstory.com

www.margotbordelon.com

I Interview Playwrights Part 270: Ben Snyder

Ben Snyder



Hometown: Bay Area, CA (Tam Valley in southern Marin)





Current Town: Austin, TX



Q: What are you working on now?



A: I'm working on a new play Rivers of January, about three old friends meeting in Rio de Janeiro for New Years Eve.



I'm also working on a musical based on the novel You Can't Win. (I've mainly been writing screenplays these days and beginning to produce films as well.)



Q: After Juilliard you went to Austin to get your MFA. How do you like Austin?



A: Austin is a great place to go to grad school. It's a really livable town. Not a city city, but being in an overgrown town has a lot advantages. Cheap rent. Good weather. Fresh water pools. I'm definitely writing more then I was ever able to 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: As a kid in the 80s I was part of a Capoeira group that performed at culture events around the Bay Area. This was my introduction to the stage. The community center we practiced at was also home to a local chapter of the Nation of Islam. Being a Jewish kid in this environment was also my introduction to race politics. The theater I have created as an adult has always been about the intersections of race, class, culture and power.



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



A: I'd like to find a way for theater to be relevant. Not just in its content but in its presentation. I wish HBO or someone smart produced theater for live audiences but also taped really well so it could be shown on TV or in movie theaters as well. Like what Spike Lee did for Passing Strange. That shit was beautiful. Maybe that would be the death of theater. I dunno.



Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A: My main theatrical hero would have to be Harry Belafonte. He's the best role model I know of as far as fusing arts and activism.



Q: What kind of theater excites you?



A: That's a hard one. It's not really a kind of theater, but specific shows. Passing Strange was amazing to me. I thought August Osage County was pretty exciting. Nilaja Sun is exciting. Danny Hoch is exciting. I loved Billy Elliot the musical. I'd have to say I'm most excited by old shows that are new to me. Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death is exciting theater to me, but it came out in 1971. All My Sons is probably my all time favorite play.



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



A: Advice, hmmm... If you're going to grad schools look into the ones that are funded. Also, realize this will most likely be a hobby your entire life, in that really nobody makes a living as a playwright, so be sure you love it, and figure out how you're going to subsidize your theater habit. Is that advice?



Q: Plugs, please.



A: I'm afraid of plugging shows. I have a few things coming up but if I talk about them too much maybe they'll get cancelled. (I have had some problems with that in the past)

I Interview Playwrights Part 269: Emily Bohannon

Emily Bohannon



Hometown: Sandersville, Georgia



Current Town: New York, NY



Q:  What are you working on now?



A:  I'm rewriting a solo piece about the inmates of a Georgia State Prison that I wrote last summer, and I also started a new play last week about marrying someone your parents hate. I find rewriting incredibly difficult, so I like to work on something old alongside something new. Stepping into a first draft feels like falling in love before things get complicated.



Q:  You recently won a NYFA grant. Can you tell me about that?



A:  It's a funny story, because I applied for the grant as part of an application for a residency that I wasn't accepted to, and had completely forgotten that I applied when I was notified that I won. I'm actually much happier that I won the grant, and have met some wonderful people as a result of it. NYFA is a fantastic organization with really nice folks that every artist should check out: http://www.nyfa.org. They give grants both to established and emerging writers (like me!), and it encourages me immensely to know that there are people in the world who believe in my writing.



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 almost held back in first grade because I told my teacher that I could talk to mice. They called my parents to the school for a conference, and when my parents asked me about it, I explained that I was retelling Cinderella from a first person point of view. From then on, I was pretty much always in trouble for talking. I was an only child and spent most of my childhood at flea markets talking to adults, so whenever I had access to children, I bossed them into putting on plays. I remember reading a play in an old Victorian textbook when I was 6 or 7, and then sitting down with a notebook to write a play of my own. Not a whole lot has changed since then. In sixth grade, there was a girl who wrote nasty things in everyone's yearbooks, so I wrote a play about a girl who writes nasty things in people's yearbooks and performed it for our class. She watched it and came up to me after class. I thought she was going to hit me, but instead she apologized. It was the first time I saw that writing could affect someone's point of view, and that's still what I aspire to with every play I write.



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



A:  Cheaper to produce and cheaper to see. If I had a second thing to change, I'd create more funding for individual artists and small companies, who can do so much more with less money than large organizations. And a third thing would be for more producers and artistic directors to believe that there is an immense hunger for new work in the world, and embrace the unknown instead of producing and reproducing the known.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  I have great admiration and respect for the women who have taken me under their wing, particularly Tanya Barfield and Cusi Cram, who have given me a tremendous amount of support and encouragement. Chekhov is and always will be my hero. I've always said if I can have a career like Stephen Adly Guirgis, acting and writing and doing both things incredibly well, I'll die a happy woman. And few playwrights excite and inspire me more than the wildly gifted Katori Hall, who is the only other writer I know writing about the South of my childhood.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  The most exciting thing I saw this year was Space Panorama in the Under the Radar Festival at the Public. It proved that you can tell any story you want on a bare stage with a little imagination. I get excited by theatre that invokes noises from the audience — crying, screaming, gasping — especially plays that make me laugh and cry at the same time. I get really excited by structure, and when plays come out of left field with a surprise or reversal I wasn't expecting. I get excited whenever I'm in a reading at the Lark where there's a huge variety of work being developed in a supportive environment. In short — anything DIFFERENT. Anything I haven't seen before, heard before, thought about before. Tell me stories I don't know, in ways I've never seen.



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



A:  Find people who believe in your work, whose work you believe in, and stick to those people like glue.



No matter how broke you are, keep reading and seeing plays. Don't forget movies either; with the instant watch on Netflix, you can watch unlimited movies for less than $10 a month. Find the artists whose work inspires you.



Apply for everything.



Get excited when you see a really bad play, because you're about to learn something.



Give yourself permission to write really bad first drafts and write things that feel crazy, offensive, and dangerous. Write about the things that terrify you.



Go look at the first page of the first draft of "The Homecoming" in the British Library. Pinter wrote things and crossed them out. A lot.



Question everything you know to be true about the world, and attempt to believe the opposite of everything you believe.



Have a reading for yourself before you invite anyone else into the room, and learn to trust your own judgment about what works and what doesn't.



No matter what happens or how many bad days you have, just keep writing. If you can't make one play work, write another one. No matter what, don't stop writing. If you believe in yourself, eventually other people will, too.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  This would also fall under the "advice" category, but I want to give a huge plug for ESPA, the Einhorn School of Performing Arts over at Primary Stages (http://www.primarystages.org/espa). You will not find a place with more supportive talented people anywhere