Adam Szymkowicz's Blog, page 120

I Interview Playwrights Part 252: Maria Alexandria Beech

Maria Alexandria Beech

Hometown:  Anaco, Venezuela

Current Town:  Manhattan

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm writing a commissioned play for Primary Stages and Theatre Masters based on the Aspen Ideas Festival which I attended last summer. I'm also working Little Monsters which will be co-produced (with Primary) at Brandeis Theatre Company next February. Little Monsters is also part of Octoberfest at Ensemble Studio Theatre in September so I'm trying to get the play in shape for that. I'm...

I Interview Playwrights Part 251: Catherine Filloux

photo by Vandy Rattana

Catherine Filloux

Hometown: San Diego, California. (Not far from the border with Mexico.)

Current Town: New York City. (Not far from the Hudson River.)

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  An epic play about gender-based violence. It may be two parts. It involves an uber human rights attorney, Guatemala, a Native American Tribe, Haiti, an oil executive in the Hague and a boy with cerebral palsy.

Q:  You write about human rights issues. What challenges do you face whe...

250 Playwright Interviews alphabetically

Rob Ackerman
Liz Duffy Adams
Johnna Adams
David Adjmi
Derek Ahonen
Zakiyyah Alexander
Luis Alfaro
Lucy Alibar
Joshua Allen
Sofia Alvarez
Terence Anthony
Alice Austen
Rachel Axler
Annie Baker
Trista Baldwin
Courtney Baron
Mike Batistick 
Chad Beckim
Nikole Beckwith
Alan Berks
Brooke Berman
Susan Bernfield
Jay Bernzweig
Barton Bishop
Lee Blessing
Jonathan Blitstein
Adam Bock
Jerrod Bogard
Deron Bos
Hannah ...

250 Playwright Interviews

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...

I Interview Playwrights Part 250: Jordan Harrison

Jordan Harrison

Hometown: Bainbridge Island, WA

Current Town: Brooklyn

Q:  Tell me about Futura and your triple premiere.

A:  Futura is having a shared premiere this fall at Theatre @ Boston Court, Portland Center Stage, and National Asian American Theatre Company (NAATCO) in New York. Three different directors, three different productions – it's weird and wonderful, and I hope it doesn't make me crazy. The play was having a hard time finding a home – there were a few heartbreaking close calls...

I Interview Playwrights Part 249: Alexandra Collier

Alexandra Collier

Hometown: Melbourne, Australia

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Too many things at once, including writing a TV series with my friend Georgia Clark called On This Side (a drama set in Brooklyn about a group of late 20/early 30-somethings trying to be adults), also writing an eternal screenplay and a play that I just started working on at the Erik Ehn silent retreat that's set in a small dusty Australian town populated by - yes, I am going to say ...

I Interview Playwrights Part 248: Jessica Goldberg

Jessica Goldberg

Hometown: Woodstock, NY.

Current Town: LA.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I'm working on a new play with Darrell Griffin Sr. who lost his son in Iraq. Darrell, a CPA from Van Nuys, became obsessed with what happened to his son there, and decided he needed to go to Iraq to find out--together we've turned his extraordinary story into a piece of theater. I'm writing an adaptation of the book PASSING STRANGE by Martha Sandweiss for HBO, a pilot for ABC, and rewriting the fi...

I Interview Playwrights Part 247: Nick Starr

Nick Starr

Hometown: Los Angeles, CA

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York

Q: Tell me about The Awesome Dance

A:  It follows for souls through four lifetimes as they try to work out mutually inflicted traumas and find harmony. I guess what I was hoping to do with this play was examine the idea of good guys and bad guys and try to turn the whole notion of victimhood on its ear. David Mamet says that we watch television in order to see good people do bad things and bad people do good things. I think th...

I Interview Playwrights Part 246: Young Jean Lee

Young Jean Lee

Hometown: Pullman, WA

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I have a 13P show coming up in the spring, which is called ONE-WOMAN SHOW and which will be performed by me. Singing and dancing will probably be involved. I can't act and hate performing, so it should be interesting to see what happens. The YJLTC show I'm working on is called UNTITLED FEMINIST MULTIMEDIA TECHNOLOGY SHOW, which is basically what it sounds like, and which we'll be workshopping at t...

I Interview Playwrights Part 245: Christina Gorman

Christina Gorman

Hometown: Colts Neck, NJ

Current town: Westchester, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  The play is titled Orion Rising. It's about a woman who becomes obsessed with a dilapidated store window display, convinced it depicts her recent near-drowning in the sea. All kinds of strange events start happening inside and outside the window display, causing the woman to start questioning what's reality and what may be her insanity.

In its first draft, Orion Rising was this q...