Adam Szymkowicz's Blog, page 12

I Interview Playwrights Part 1047: Larissa Marten

Larissa Marten



Hometown: Born in San Francisco. Grew up in Jersey. College in Michigan.



Current Town: New York, NY



Q:  Tell me about I Killed the Cow.




A:  The development process for I KILLED THE COW began 4 years ago with a set of my own journal entries. In these entries, and what can be said for the original thesis for I KILLED THE COW, I wanted to do two things: work through my own sexual assault and prove my hypothesis of how people are shaped by their past partners. Those journal entries took various forms; drawings, bits of dialogue, articles I found. I taped the various pages to the walls of my apartment in Berlin, Germany, where I was living at the time, and formed the scene structure for the first version of I KILLED THE COW.



25 performances and a dozen drafts later, myself and the director of the show have crafted I KILLED THE COW to serve a far different purpose than the one we originally set out with. Because we quickly learned that we didn't want to continue performing the show in traditional theater settings. If we were going to talk about sexual assault we needed to stop preaching to the choirs of New York audiences who were mostly agreeing with us.



Now, the show has been crafted to fit in a suitcase in order to tour across the country using humor and metaphor to talk about sexual assault. The show tours to businesses, non-profits, and educational institutions, furthering understanding in the realm of sexual assault by combating misinformation and stigma. Through the performance and post-show talkbacks, I KILLED THE COW opens up digestible conversations about sexual expression and violence.



Since I perform the show as well, it's definitely tested my adaptability as an actor. I've performed the show in conference rooms, outside, in living rooms, and just about anywhere where a group of people can sit comfortably for an hour. But with the majority of the show breaking the fourth wall, it brings me the utmost joy to interact with people from all walks of life and unite as we move toward a more constructive understanding of the causes of sexual violence.



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 horrible at sports growing up but I was forced to do all of them. I could end this right here and I feel like that would explain enough. I could never wrap my mind around why we were being competitive about a ball made out of rubber. I'm a competitive person, but I'm more analytical than I am competitive which was my first flaw in the sports world.



One day I was on the field for a little league soccer match. I always played defense because you had to stay behind the midway line when your team's offense had the ball on the other side. Not as much downtime as goalie, but not as much pressure. You know I analyzed all of this to get that perfect position.



My teammates were playing superbly that day and were on offense for minutes at a time. I laid down to take a break. I remember looking up and noticed the curvature of the Earth for the first time. It was in that moment that I realized how small we are and how much of the universe there is to explore. Yet here we are chasing rubber. Since then, I've always wanted to explore it all. And I'm pretty sure that's why I'm in the arts.



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




A:  Accessibility. I want to create work that generates community and promotes accessibility. In the age of black mirrors, these ideals sit almost opposite on the spectrum. However, finding the common ground between seemingly paradoxical notions is the crossroads for innovation.



In projects for the screen, progress in accessibility has been continual. Today the latest films, TV, and new media content are available through streaming services. However, this progress in accessibility has conversely led to a decline in community. Societally, we hide behind devices companionless while watching the latest projects, instead of joining communally for screenings.



In projects for the stage, community is strong. Across America, regional pockets surrounding theaters frequently gather to watch the latest shows. However, accessibility is at an all-time low in the theatre. Audiences are maturing faster than they’re being replenished by younger generations, largely because ticket prices have sky rocketed. With the national debt high and the average income below age 35 low, it’s no wonder why Millennials and Generation Z would rather spend their money on Netflix and Hulu. Or just use someone else’s password.



Community and accessibility are common cravings. They are vital for our survival. However, in order to have both, compromise will be necessary. And the theater needs to be more accessible.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?




A:  People who find theatricality in the everyday. Taylor Mac. Erykah Badu. Caryl Churchill.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?




A:  The kind of theatre that figures out how to be accessible without sacrificing craftsmanship.



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




A:  Don't listen to advice. Trust your gut.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  If you're interested in bringing I KILLED THE COW to an organization near you, please get in touch at www.ikilledthecow.com or @ikilledthecow across social media. Follow me on social media @larissamarten.



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Upcoming Productions of My Plays

PRODUCTIONS







The Wooden Heart


Production #1 of The Wooden Heart

Acadiana Repertory Theater

Lafayette, LA

Opens September 6, 2019.

KODACHROME





Production #9 of Kodachrome

Actors Bridge Ensemble

Nashville, TN

Opens July 12, 2019.



Marian or The True Tale of Robin Hood









Production #21 of Marian

Spirit Gum Theatre Company

Winston Salem, NC

Opens October 11, 2019.




Production #22 of Marian

The Breck School

Golden Valley, MN

Opens March 5, 2020





Clown Bar




Production #36 of Clown Bar

Padgett Productions

Prohibition Hall

Kansas City, MO

Opens July 5, 2019.




Production #37 of Clown Bar

Elon University

Elon, NC

Opens October 3, 2019.




Production #38 of Clown Bar


University of Wisconsin,

Stevens Point, WI.



Opens November 8, 2019.







Hearts Like Fists





Production #42 of HLF

Edinburgh Fringe

Edinburgh, Scotland

Opens August 3, 2019.




Production #43 of HLF

Cyrano's Theatre Company

Anchorage, AK

Opens Sept 19, 2019.





Production #44 of HLF

Christopher Newport University


Newport News, VA.



Opens April 3, 2020.





Nerve



Production #22 of Nerve

Ikag Productions

The Elephant British Pub

Adelaide, Australia

Opens June 5, 2019



Production #23 of Nerve

Bootstraps Comedy Theater

Dallas, TX

Opens July 12, 2019




Rare Birds




Production #7 of Rare Birds

Unit 14 Theatre Company

Highland Park, IL.

Opens July 18, 2019.






7 Ways To Say I Love You

a night of short plays



Production #33 of 7 Ways

Auburn Community Players

Fiskdale, MA

Opens July 12, 2019.



Production #34 of 7 Ways

Fountain Central Jr-Sr High

Veedersburg, IN

Opens November 22, 2019





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I Interview Playwrights Part 1046: Kate Attwell

Kate Attwell

Hometown: London, UK

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  Tell me about your play in the EST Marathon. 



A:  Jesus in Manhattan - I guess what feels most important to me to say, is that I want to investigate the notion of radical love, and what that could really mean for the world.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I have a premiere of my play, Testmatch, coming up at A.C.T. in the fall directed by Pam McKinnon, so there's that. Then I'm working on a musical that's a mashup of a recent news story and Medea, and a new play about the female characters from an old play trying to get vengeance for what happened to them, and another one about bears.

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

A:  I think I'd want to change the way we think about audience. I worry sometimes about the tendency of theatre and theatre companies to turn inward. To be a little clique-y. I also worry about ticket prices. Always and a lot.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I think Tim Etchells and Forced Entertainment toppled what I had thought theatre could be, at a young moment when I really needed that to happen. There's a liveness and a playful politics to their work that makes me understand presence in an emotional way, and that I still return to. Then there's Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. I think I'm drawn to anything that teases the distinction between the stage and the world; that plays with the falseness of it all.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Any theatre that makes you want to rush and tell someone what JUST HAPPENED.





 


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I Interview Playwrights Part 1045: Harron Atkins

Harron Atkins

Hometown: Detroit, MI

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  Tell me about your play in the EST Marathon.

A:  Dominick is secretly in love with his best friend. But is the feeling mutual? Fed up with the pain of harboring this secret and plagued by his need to know the truth, Dominick decides it's time for some answers. Lucky for him, there's an app for that. ;) Tempo is a play about love and longing and friendship and lots of candy corn.

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 a kid, I would recruit my friends to have full out Pokémon battles during recess, ask to be excused from class for a bathroom break that would turn into a Harry Potter-esque exploration of our "ancient" school building to uncover it's magical secrets, and sit for hours on the phone with my best friend reviewing our plans to break into abandoned buildings in Detroit and banish the supernatural spirits inside...

I think I longed for escape and adventure. Longed to access the rainbow-colored truth beyond my black and white reality. As a theatre artist, I'm still searching for that deeper truth. I still believe that there is magic in the world and in humans. And I'm still out here recruiting folks to band together, get into creative spaces, and find ways to tap into it.

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

A:  I'd make theatre more financially accessible.

Theatre should not be an elitist art. Houses should not be filled almost exclusively by upper-class white patrons.

Quality theatre should be available to everyone because theatre serves everyone.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Ntozake Shange, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Lynn Nottage, Dominique Morisseau, George C. Wolfe

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I am passionate about new voices (especially those of marginalized people) being represented on stage.

I am excited by art that takes risks and challenges audiences to re-think what theatre can do and be.

I love seeing elements of fantasy, horror, and sci-fi explored on stage. I geek out.

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

A:  Write. Write write write write write. Carve out time for yourself to sit down and just write. Make that time YOUR time and do not abandon it. You have to take yourself seriously and make writing a priority. Show up for yourself. If you can wake up for work at 5am to clock in as a cog in the machine of someone else's dream, then you can wake up at 5am to make your own dreams come true.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  On June 19th at 7pm, I have a public reading of a new play of mine in Youngblood's Bloodworks series at Ensemble Studio Theatre. Come on out! It's free!

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I Interview Playwrights Part 1044: Justice Hehir

Justice Hehir



Current Town: Newark, NJ

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Two things: a play about dildo manufacturing (fun times) and a postpartum play for new parents and their babies.

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 used to spend hours when we would travel to upstate New York in a creek behind a cabin we stayed in. I've always been drawn to water. I would use a stick and "un-clog" the stream- pull leaves and debris from different crooked points along the creek. I loved watching the water run, I loved how powerful it was, and I think I just wanted to help it along.

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

A:  The audiences. Which is to say, the prices. Which is to say, a lack of widespread state/community support for theater.

I wish I saw more people from different backgrounds in the audience. Writing about a middle-class or working-class background can be uncomfortable when the audience feels like it's there to consume the narrative you're sharing for their own relative "goodness" rather than engaging with the story in earnest. In other words- I would love to write more about my family and the people I care about- but not if they can't afford to come see it.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I think probably all the other working playwrights who labor in obscurity. Success is a natural food for hope. So those of us working without that, who have to feed our own hope from somewhere, something inside ourselves, I think that's kind of a big deal.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  The kind that breaks my heart, and the kind that makes me giddy, and the kind that makes me feel nourished. Sometimes they overlap, but sometimes not.

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

A:  Always be wary of advice for playwrights just starting out. LOL ok but actually, that, I do kind of mean that. But also: just write. Don't be precious about it. I believe that if you work hard enough, if you write something good enough, eventually, the world will take notice. Screw networking, screw resume padding, screw connections- because all the schmoozing in the world will not make a bad play better. Only work will. Make something genuinely powerful and then find people who understand what you're doing and hold on tight.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  If you ever feel like reading some kinda sad and weird hypernaturalist plays, here's my NPX page:
https://newplayexchange.org/users/18932/justice-hehir





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I Interview Playwrights Part 1043: Normandy Sherwood

Photo by Jody Christopherson



Normandy Sherwood



Hometown: Olney, MD



Current Town: Brooklyn, NY.



Q:  Tell me about Madame Lynch.



A:  Madame Lynch herself was Eliza Lynch, a 19th century woman whose fortunes took her from Irish potato famine refugee, to French courtesan, to becoming the self-proclaimed "Empress of Paraguay” in the 1850s and 60s. In the time that has passed since, she has been both revered in Paraguay for her role as a kind of “cultural founding mother” who introduced customs, music and dances that are still important, and reviled as the femme fatale who urged her lover, the dictator Francisco Solano Lopez, towards waging a war that ended with 90% of the male population of Paraguay killed. I was fascinated by the (probably specious) stories about her that were spread in the Argentine press and figure in to most biographies, that she longed to be powerful and a cultural leader in Paraguay but that she was roundly rejected by the upper class ladies of Asuncion and she exacted her revenge by devising elaborate social humiliations for them. In one case she threw a ball where attendance was compulsory and all attendees had to wear costumes that she chose, with the most humiliating costumes reserved for her chief enemies. Another concerns a pleasure cruise with these same ladies where, where, in response to a slight, she had all of the food thrown off of the boat and anchored the boat in the middle of the river for 10 hours. I was so interested in the extreme cruelty and fragility of this character, and also in the fact that, for someone who seems to have had a rough life in some ways (as a refugee, as a courtesan) she seemed to have no empathy for others.



I wrote the first draft of this play in 2011 I think, and it has been through many iterations. At one point I workshopped it with my old theater company, The National Theater of the United States of America. This final version is a collaboration between myself and my partner Craig Flanagin for our company, The Drunkard’s Wife. It is running at the New Ohio Theatre until June 15, and was developed in the Archive Residency program-- a collaboration between the New Ohio Theatre and IRT. Our show, Madame Lynch, is a spectacle with music. It takes on Lynch’s picaresque story, as well as the larger Paraguayan context. We’ve been developing the show in collaboration with the Paraguayan folkloric dance group Ballet Panambí Vera, to create a multifaceted portrait of Lynch as a way to understand the complex dynamics of cultural imperialism. The show reaches peaks of beauty and horror as it proceeds by way of live music, dance, and real and imagined scenes from her life as an adventuress, cultural doyenne, femme fatale and microfinance pioneer.



Q:  What else are you working on now?



A:  I am working on show that is 45 minutes of curtains opening onto other curtains.



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



A:  The first play I remember writing was in the second grade on those sheets of paper that had a space for pictures at the top. It was an illustrated play about marionette puppets of cats that were being operated by mice.



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



A:  I wish that theater was not so obsessed with the idea of newness. The present always flatters itself that it is improving on the past, creating things completely new. I’ve been making experimental theater in NYC for almost two decades. My work has been in fashion and out of fashion. In 2007 I had a reading of my play Certain Words in French (which I shall not name) at The Flea theater. This was a play about 12-year-old girls experimenting with sex and witchcraft at a summer camp, and bringing down a terrible punishment on their parents at the final talent show. At the time I was told by the artistic director of that theater that the play was interesting but unproducible because no one wanted to see adult actors playing 12-year-old girls. We are now in a cultural moment where people do want this. And that will also pass, probably. My point is that we are obsessed with the idea of an aesthetic of innovation as an absolute value, of pushing boundaries as an end in itself. The culture is always changing in ways that are complex, and ideas emerge-- they come to the fore as a result of larger cultural forces, individual obsessions, accidents… I think it’s more like ideas have hold of you than you have ideas. Newness in the theater is a kind of fantasy.



I have been thinking a lot about Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s “Maintenance Art Manifesto.” In it she opposes her concept of “Development Art” ( aligned with “The Death Instinct” and “Avant Garde par excellence” this kind of art is obsessed with the new and with the ways the new lays waste to the old) and “Maintenance Art” ( which is art that, among other things, tries to figure out what to do with the waste, the cultural detritus).



Development art is focused on revolution. “The sourball of every revolution,” Ukeles writes, “after the revolution, who’s going to take out the garbage on Monday morning?” A student of mine who is Chinese observed that Americans are always excited about the possibility of a revolution because they think it will work out in their favor, that they will benefit from the newness and changes. “In China,” he said, “we know that it is more complicated, that revolution can and will turn out very badly for some and in ways that are unpredictable.”



How do we value maintaining something-- a community bond, a space or using what is left over and disused to make something new? This is my interpretation of what Ukeles is asking for in her manifesto. I’m interested in theater that turns towards maintenance rather than rupture. I think this means creating and maintaining communities, the relationship between the performer and the audience. I think it means both valuing and mocking the old. I’m interested in pastiche, camp, homage and parody, as forms of maintenance. You can see it all in Madame Lynch!



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  Two of my great teachers have been Mac Wellman and Erik Ehn.



One great thing Mac once said is that “You have to create the ego that can create.” Which means that sometimes you have to imagine the persona or the entity that can generate, make decisions. Sometimes I imagine specific friends-- my longtime collaborator Jesse Hawley, or my old friend Young Jean Lee.



One great thing Erik once said was “You carry your civilization inside you” -- it’s all in there, in your brain somewhere.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  What I mostly want from the theater is to be surprised. What l love is the feeling of being unable to predict where something is going, the gleeful absurdity of getting lost in a moment.



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



A:  Do it all yourself. Learn as much as you can about how everything works and even try to do it. When you write a lobster hat into your play, someone will have to make it. Try to learn what it will take for them to make it. When I say this, I don’t mean you should temper your expectations, I mean that you should do this so that you have clearer and more nuanced ideas of what could happen on the stage. Think about the materials things are made of.



Show up. Go to people’s shows, especially small scale shows or works in progress. If you see something you like, find the artist and ask how you can help. This is how you find the people you want to make things with. If you are just starting out, and you have the luxury of time to volunteer and help out, give that time to the work you most want to see, or that is dearest to your artistic heart. If you are just starting out and you don’t have a lot of time to give, think about other ways to be generous. Write an email expressing your appreciation. Tell other people about the work.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  Uncanny Valley is our performance parlor in Williamsburg-- it’s been kind of quiet over the last year or so because we’ve been making Madame Lynch, but we’ll be having a salon or two this summer. www.uncannyvalleynyc.com for info! I am in a band with my partner Craig Flanagin-- God Is My Co-Pilot-- and we will probably be playing some shows soon.





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I Interview Playwrights Part 1042: Dan Giles

Hometown: Concord, MA



Current Town: Brooklyn, NY



Q:  Tell me about your play in the EST Marathon.



A:  Tricycle Backflip is a short comedy about two sisters in an emergency room and the men who brought them there. It’s a relationship study with a few left turns, and it’s written for the team that’s doing it at EST: Molly Carden, Drew Lewis, Erin Roché, and director Matt Dickson. They are amazing.



Q:  What else are you working on now?



A:  A new draft of Polar Bear in a Fish Tank in a Mall in China, which is a murder mystery/sex farce about the contestants on a gay reality dating show. Rewrites on Mike Pence Sex Dream, which is a queer marriage play. It just had a great first production with First Floor Theater in Chicago and I’m incorporating some things I learned. Also a pilot and a very new play, but I can’t talk about them yet or they’ll die.



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 grew up on the campus of boarding schools (I’m a prep school faculty kid) and when I was maybe five, the school where we lived did A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The drama teacher recruited three faculty kids to play fairies. I was the smallest fairy* and I had one line. When Bottom asked for my name, I was supposed to say: Mustardseed.



The night of the show, I walked onstage in my pastel tunic and butterfly wings and I don’t remember if I was scared or just stunned, but I froze. I don’t think I’d really understood that basically everyone I knew would be there. One of the kids who used to babysit me was sitting in the front row, and I waved at her. The entire audience did a big “Aww.” I completely forgot what I was supposed to be doing. When Bottom asked for my name, I told him: Daniel.



*(foreshadowing how I would grow up to be, at 6’6”, the biggest fairy)




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



A:  I wish we’d stop pushing the idea that buying a ticket to a play is an act of civic virtue. That’s flattery. Audiences who buy that flattery expect it to continue once the play starts, which creates a whole bullshit marketplace that values theatre in terms of its ability to flatter its audience, and places the burden to flatter on artists who have better things to do. Theatre can only help you change if it’s free to defy your expectations. I like being pandered to as much as anyone, but what I want more than anything when I see a play is for someone to tell me the truth. Don’t give me plays that flatter me. Give me plays that trust me.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  Right now, my friends and peers. It’s rough out here for playwrights starting out. It’s encouraging how much great stuff is getting traction, but a lot of beautiful work still goes underappreciated. That’s the work right now that matters most to me.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  Anything with a heart, a brain, and guts.



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



A:  Mostly passing on what others have told me, scattershot:



Take care of other artists. Think critically about your biases. Whenever you can, give the best part of your day to writing. When you can’t, write anyway. Know that the people who will champion you are usually people who’ve rejected your work at least once. Write for your friends and ancestors. Protect your right to fail. When you get notes, know that that people describing symptoms usually have something important to tell you, and people offering diagnoses usually don’t. Before the reviews come out, splurge on a beautiful pen and carry it in your pocket. Listen to criticism that comes from care. Write someone’s favorite play. Be gay; do crime. Do what you love.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  The Marathon of One-Act Plays at Ensemble Studio Theatre runs through June 29th!



Also, check out the kickstarter for 3Views.




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I Interview Playwrights Part 1041: Bryan Stubbles

Bryan Stubbles


Hometown: Layton, Utah

Current Town: Montgomery, West Virginia

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A one act comedy about West Virginians in LA going through “slaw dog withdrawal.” West Virginians put a form of cole slaw and chili on their hot dogs and call it a slaw dog. It’s delicious but not very common in LA, obviously.

I want to thank Beach Vickers and Tory Casey of the Montgomery Shakespeare Company for inviting me out here for a residency.

And I have to post twice per week on my blog, Unknown Playwrights.

Q:  Tell me about Unknown Playwrights.

A:  The blog features playwrights not named “Shakespeare.” We try to profile both living and dead playwrights whose work may not be so well-known. Usually I’ll do an analysis of a couple plays and a biographical sketch. For living playwrights, we have an interview much like your blog. I’m big on translation and need to include more of them in the blog. I’ve translated Spanish, Portuguese and Korean-language playwrights and hopefully soon will profile an Indonesian playwright, among others.

Also, every Monday we have “Monologue Monday” where I find videos online of people performing a different monologue. People can see different takes on the piece of writing. In fact we have two of yours up. Sometimes the videos can number into the dozens.

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 not sure if high school counts as childhood, but this explains a lot: When I was in my first high school play back in Utah, they’d always have their Mormon-style prayer before performances. Not being Mormon and also believing in separation of church and state, I never took part.

After the production, one of the other cast members asked me why I wasn’t at the cast party.

“What party?” I asked.

They’d had a cast party and didn’t even invite me.

A couple of years ago I tried to objectively determine what themes are hardwired into my plays and I noticed that the protagonist is often an outsider and I’m certain that goes back to my formative years in Utah where kids would tell me my family worshipped Satan (we didn’t - maybe we should have?), among other things. People can be very, very, very cruel (also reflected in my plays).

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

A:  American theater needs to take more risks, be more inclusive, make itself accessible and not be so self-important. Wait, that’s four things. Sorry. American theater should not be the self-satisfied sedate behemoth it currently is, but should instead be a wonderful, hungry, innovative and dynamic monster.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Angelina Weld Grimké. Kwee Tek Hoay. Matthew Weaver. Alexa Derman. Catherine Weingarten. Ryan Bultrowicz. Yolanda Mendiveles. Georgia Bowen Buchert. Lope de Vega. Dhianita Kusuma Pertiwi.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Horror plays. The world needs way more horror plays. It’s a genre that should inherently fit theatre (as it did with Grand Guignol) but there barely seems to be any horror plays around.

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

A:  Not just write every day, but also submit every day or at least on a regular basis. Empathize with and be kind to your fellow playwrights. We’re all in the same boat.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Blog: Unknown Playwrights

Production: I Was a Teenage Fireworks Smuggler will run in Jackson, WY from June 5-8.

Translation publication: Night Market for Brojo by Dhianita Kusuma Pertiwi

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I Interview Playwrights Part 1040: Susan Kim

Susan Kim

Hometown: Midtown Manhattan... as a matter of fact, I was born one block east of EST.

Current Town: 40 blocks south.

Q:  Tell me about your play in the EST Marathon. 



A:  It's a 10-minute play called "Privilege" that that I hope is sharp, funny, and a little bit scary.

Q:  What else are you working on now? 




A:  I write a lot of children's TV and just finished story editing a series for Netflix. I also write books with my husband, Laurence Klavan; and he and I are developing a graphic novel pitch.

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 at a slumber party when I was 11 when it dawned on me that even though I wasn't especially smart or strong or pretty, I could always draw the entire room when I told ghost stories or jokes.

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




A:  I wish there were a hundred more venues and productions of all sizes and budgets -- so getting a new play up wouldn't be such a huge deal.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes? 




A:  Wow. Caryl Churchill, obviously... she's a goddess. And when I was a teenager, Edward Albee.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you? 




A:  I love the Play Company -- they do really interesting work in translation from around the world.

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




A:  Get used to rejection. Be nice to everyone. And make sure you find a group of playwright friends whom you like and whose work you respect.

Q:  Plugs, please: 




A:  Ummm... come see my play, please? It's a killer cast!


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I Interview Playwrights Part 1039: Shairi Engle

Shairi Engle

Hometown: Born in Cortland, NY.

However, now that any temperature below 68℉ requires my winter gear, I can safely call San Diego my hometown.

Current Town: San Diego, CA

Q:  Congrats on the Bridge Award. Tell me about that play please.

A:  Thank you, Adam! I’m so honored to be receiving this award and, to be frank, still processing the fact that Mr. Driver read the title of my play - out loud.

The seeds of this play started while I participated in an intensive PTSD therapy program through the VA. I needed, truly needed, to explore my own strength and power and the idea of being ‘broken’. I have difficulty with the words ‘healing’ or ‘survivor’ because they seem to cut the conversation short. With each iteration of myself, every stretch of growth, there’s a renegotiating of power that takes place between me and my abuser. It’s a relationship that evolves and shifts. I wanted to ask: What does it mean to be a survivor? I wanted to have a conversation about it … outside of my therapist’s office. I also wanted to be able to laugh while doing it.

This play is a story about pain, trauma, rape, breathing, therapy, shame, PTSD, the occasional dead dog, and what it means to survive. All presented in a small little package. The package in this case being a tampon. Oh, and it’s called Tampons, Dead Dogs, & Other Disposable Things. (I know, I know …)

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  AITAF is generously organizing a reading of my play. It’s a difficult story for me to work on, but this recent acknowledgment has emboldened me to dig deeper. It’s always easier to go into dark spaces if you know someone else is there with an extra flashlight. I’m looking forward to workshopping this. I’m really grateful to have this support.

I’m also working on a short story inspired by a summer I spent on my dangerously old and unkept sailboat by the name of La Diabla. No tampons in this one. So far.

Earlier this year, I received my first commission to write a 10-minute site specific play for the Without Walls Festival here in San Diego. I screamed in my car when I got this offer (in the good way). The play is being held this fall in a location very close to the San Diego Airport departure corridor; sound is an interesting challenge. But there’s the story you set out to write and then the story you uncover while writing that original idea. So now I’m getting the bones together for a story inspired by my time in the USAF as an Air Traffic Controller. This will feed into a full length play one day - I’m pretty excited about this one.

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

A:  Oh man, you asked me to tell a story - about my childhood. Alarms are going off in my head - which means I’m going to answer your question.

Growing up, I was surrounded by people that made connections with God. God was connected to a sunny day, a blooming flower, the tragic car crash … you get it. God found his way into everything and made sense of it all.

I was taught, in order to maintain this connection to God, you had to swear off homosexuality, premarital sex, and Madonna. Madonna was the Devil’s attempt to lure me away from divine connectivity. I was young, but I knew I was God’s child. I knew this because I loved sunny days and flowers. I didn’t seek out secular music. And I understood that there was a reason for everything. Everything.

But when I was 8, my connection was cut short by a man that showed me almost daily what hypocrisy, pain, and hatred looked like. I was cut loose to float aimlessly around a broken home struggling to convince the world otherwise.

So, I made my own connections. Through anything and everything. I built my own stories to explain the sunny days, the flowers, and eventually, car crashes. These stories connected me to the world. It wasn’t God I subscribed to - it was something else.

Eventually I found Madonna. Then I found my way out of that house. Then I found art. Then writing. Then theatre. Then a group of writing veterans willing to keep me at their table. I found my voice. Then, I found an iteration of myself I could finally stomach. A moment of security in uncertainty. Right now.

I’ll reread this answer in a moment and say, “this doesn’t totally explain me!” But I’ll send it to you anyway. And maybe, somewhere between ‘Oh man’ and ‘uncertainty’, we’ll find the tiniest hint of connection.

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

A:  Besides making it free for the public and a decent living for theatre professionals everywhere?

Theatre is pretty much like an intimidatingly beautiful person I admired from afar. It took me a long time to conjure up enough courage to go introduce myself. I’m happy to report, we’ve started getting serious. Really serious. But, we still have a lot to learn about one another. Ask me again when we’ve reached the 7 year itch.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  My favorite moments are when I’m made to question some part of myself. I love moments that really turn me upside down and give me an idea or a question I can’t shake.

But really the truth is, I’m just excited to have a seat. There’s no sign of that changing for me.

Every discounted, full-price, preview, free-only-on-wed-and-thur-afternoon, or standby ticket I get is a permission slip.

Even if a show falls short of expectation or doesn’t fully land with me, I still walk out having seen a group of people examine a question that’s been asked by a writer. I know I’m going to walk out of that theatre with renewed permission to use my own voice, however weird, silly, or painful. Every permission slip I get is another chance to see what’s possible. It excites me to no end.

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

A:  I don’t feel qualified to give advice. (Do we ALL say this?)

I’m just starting out, really.

But, I’ll share the things I tell myself in the bathroom mirror:

Write. As honestly as you can until dishonesty turns out to be the more honest angle.

Read other people’s work as often as you can.

See other people’s work as often as you can.

Read your sh*t out loud.

Ask people to read for you. Pay with beer if you must.

That one part that feels icky and cliche? Dig at it like a scab until it bleeds something authentic. Apply Neosporin, a bandaid, and keep working.

That moment when you question yourself as a storyteller, artist, or human? It’s a part of the process. Keep writing. You have work to do.

Oh, P.S. Don’t take advice from strangers. (We all say that too, huh?)

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  If you find yourself in San Diego, come see VAMP, a monthly showcase of storytellers put on by a local literary non-profit, So Say We All. This show is one of SD’s best kept secrets held in a dark, cash only bar. VAMP is an at-capacity-listen-in-through-the-windows type of show.

It’s a beautiful, often hilarious, and continuously surprising event that focuses on voices that really need to be heard. Anyone can submit to this and the selected writers are not chosen for their understanding of grammar but for their STORY. This experience has changed many lives, including mine. To learn more go to: sosayweallonline.com

Oh, and if you’re in NYC October 7th, The Public (thank you thank you thank you) is holding a staged reading of TAMPONS, DEAD DOGS, & OTHER DISPOSABLE THINGS.



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