Adam Szymkowicz's Blog, page 55

Upcoming: 1 reading, 7 productions

UPCOMING READING





Colchester



Welcome to Colchester, a town of dashed dreams and fervent hope, history and longing. And there's a hardware store too.







JAW, A Playwright's Festival 

at Portland Center Stage

Portland, OR

July 24 or 25, 2015.

 
 

UPCOMING PRODUCTIONS



Where You Can't Follow



Workshop production

Chance Theater

Anaheim, CA

August 19, 22, 23



Hearts Like Fists



Production #17 of Hearts Like Fists

Actors Bridge Ensemble

Nashville, TN

Opens September 11, 2015



Production #18 of Hearts Like Fists

Damonte Ranch High School

Reno, NV

Opens November 11, 2015



Clown Bar








Production #8 of Clown Bar

The NOLA Project
New Orleans, LA

Opens October 22, 2015



Production #9 of Clown Bar

Idiom Theater

Bellingham, WA

Opens October 2015




Pretty Theft


Production #10 of Pretty Theft

Dark Matter Theatre

NYC, NY

Opens October, 2015



Production #11 of Pretty Theft

James Madison University

Harrisonburg, VA

Opens April 26, 2016





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I Interview Playwrights Part 755: Kate Benson

Kate Benson


Hometown: Evanston, IL

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  Tell me about the play you just won an Obie for. (and Congrats!!)



A:  Thanks! The play is called A Beautiful Day in November on the Banks of the Greatest of the Great Lakes; it is a Thanksgiving play with sports announcers, and an American Family Play turned upside down: it is the children who destroy their parents, in the end.

Q:  What else are you working on now?



A:  A play about nuclear bomb proliferation, called Desert (for now), another play with the Assembly Theater Company called I Will Look Forward to This Later, co-written with Emily Perkins, and a play for the Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission called Super Magic Wild Forest.

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


A:  Well. The theater obsession started in second grade, when Dr. Fisher cast me as the narrator in the Anansi Fables for the parent open house; the rest of my class got to make and wear animal masks, and I was really jealous of them until the performance, when I realized that they didn't have any lines, and all of the adults had to listen to me. She also gave me a shirt she got in Africa to wear for the performance that fit me like a dress. I thought that was pretty cool.

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


A:  I wish it were open to everyone.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?


A:  Mac Wellman, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Erin Courtney, Lisa Kron, Lear deBessonet, Anton Chekhov, and Bertolt Brecht. But I'm trying to stand down from heroism right now. But those are the people in my head, when I think about who's doing or has done amazing things.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?


A:  The kind of theater that makes me ask questions about the way that I live; the kind of theater that surprises me.

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



A:  Keep going. Read everything. See as much as you can. Fight bitterness. Find the people who are working in ways you find exciting.


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I Interview Playwrights Part 754: Nikkole Salter

Nikkole Salter



Hometown: Los Angeles, CA



Current Town: Bloomfield, NJ



Q:  What are you working on now?



A:  Woolly Commission, screenplay adaptation of a novel, University of NC Chapel Hill Commission, Pace University Commission, NJPAC commission, The New Black Fest's UNTAMED commission. (Yikes)



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



A:  Hmmm. Don't know if there's one story that wraps it up... at least not one that I'm evolved enough to recognize. Off the top of my head, I will say that I grew up in Los Angeles going to performing arts schools - that was my extra curricular activity of choice (anything to keep me out of the sports my mother loved and thought would be my ticket to college...I showed her!). Marla Gibbs Crossroads Arts Academy, Faith Acting Studios (both defunct) and Amazing Grace Conservatory shaped me immensely, and were/are very involved in creating community based theatre with excellence. I grew up watching theatre professionals pursue commercial careers while devoting at least an equal amount of time to developing institutions and platforms for their community's stories. My first opportunity to write for the stage was issued to me by a woman named Deirdre Weston, co-founder of Faith. She was a theatre actress and writer from Philly's New Freedom Theatre. There were a bunch of us who had been training and performing under her tutelage since we were like eight and nine years old. Around 13, she said that it was time that we graduated from our sketch showcases and assigned plays to cohesive storytelling of our own creation about more adult subjects...that everything theatre could do was not all fun and games, and that our voices were as important as anyone's. She took us through a series of exercises exposing us to the realities of enslaved and oppressed women of African descent in America to open our imaginations. She assigned reading. We listened to Nina Simone's "Four Women," repeatedly and discussed our thoughts and research. Then she asked each of us to create a character and write a monologue that was inspired by the song and our research to perform. She said it was very important that we do a good job because, though our renderings would be fictional, the women and their stories are based on something very real. I was honored to be a part of that process. I was determined to do a good job. I was filled with purpose. And, looking back, that process taught me that stories weren't about me at all. My writing, my performance was the means by which stories delivered information, changed minds and opened (or closed) hearts. Yeah... I guess that was my beginning.



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




A:  I'd change the baseline income of a theatre professional! I'd make companies again so people can be salaried, and insured and part of a team so that the national focus moves from one of individual competition to collaboration. I'd make it so people could be professionally married. So that they could build families. I'm not into dating or one night stands.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  This is a big question. All the people who've commissioned me and anyone who has (or will) commit to encouraging, supporting and giving me a platform. LOL. I know I'm supposed to say the names...Lorraine Hansberry, August Wilson. Shakespeare. Luis Alfaro. Charlayne Woodard. Vito Zingarelli. Lynn Nottage. Tony Kushner. Al Freeman. Alice Childress. Phylicia Rashad...but I think my some of my heroes are also my contemporaries. I've watched the launch of the Hip Hop Theatre Festival and the development of the cultural institution HiArts through an amazing woman and friend, Kamilah Forbes. I've watched the journey of Dominique Morrisseau, Katori Hall, Danai Gurira, LaNelle Moise, Tarell McCraney. The Kilroys. The New Black Fest and Keith Joseph Adkins' commitment to new voices. The honesty and creativity of Stu or Glenn Gordon. The rise of Chadwick Boseman. Lydia Diamond. Kirsten Greenidge. Sanjit DeSilva and his wife Deepa Purohit showing how to juggle raising a family and a thriving professional life. My girl Josie Whittlesey and her Drama Club, making theatre function in our society to improve the lives of young people. The tireless work of Karen Evans with the Black Women Playwrights Group. I watch the triumphs of the Sade Lythcott, Jonathan McCroy and the team at the National Black Theatre. The integrity and generosity of Marshall Jones, III and the way he and Amie Bajalieh hold the line of legacy at Crossroads Theatre Company. Ricardo Khan, his partnerships with the international community and his commitment to the stories of the African diaspora. Cheryl Katz who is willing see the difference between a quality play and a play that affirms her world view (and always produces the quality play), the dedication she has to the community in which her theatre exists... and the sparkling work she and her team do at Luna Stage. Bob Egan who leaves his cushy job to make room to do work that inspires him, freelance. Antoinette LaVecchia. Christine Toy Johnson. The inspiration of Mina Morita or Lauren English taking on leadership roles. The times that Susie Medak or Michael Maso set aside time to talk with me about things not related to performance, but our business and the responsibilities of our industry. Kathy Perkins who holds it down as a Black woman lighting designer, and who made it a part of her duty to make sure that other woman of color can be seen as viable options for employment on stage and behind the scenes. Sandra Adell who bothers to make sure the plays of Black women get published. Somebody say Lin-Manuel Miranda! I could go on and on and on. I know and see A LOT of people doin' the damn thing. Their stories inspire me daily.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  Theatre that is the perfect seamless blend of artistry (not the kind of theatricality and spectacle that shows itself for its own sake, but the kind that is employed because the story is enhanced by it), substance (In my view theatre functions to help us evolve as a society, as humanity... stories that challenges us with its honesty and perspective... stories that do a thorough job of dramatizing why real conflict exists around an issue without letting you see the strings of the artists...I like learning something) and entertainment (you've got to keep me engaged and interested and, if you can, on the edge of my seat... not ahead or behind... heart open). I like the kind of theatre that has me leaving talking about themes and how they are related to my life... not the kind of theatre that has me leaving wondering where I'm going to eat. I love theatre that can show me how I'm connected to something that I may not've thought I was connected to. I like work that is bold and fearless (not for shock value, though...that's cheap). I appreciate work that demonstrates how a dynamic has an impact on multiple tiers of society - macro, micro.



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



A:  Write. Don't wish for what you don't have, the grass often only appears greener. Find someone (or someONES) to give you a chance and champion your work. Learn from my mistakes. Own your voice. Did I say write?



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  Next Season: CARNAVAL going to Theatre de Poche in Brussels. LINES IN THE DUST and REPAIRING A NATION going to ETA in Chicago. Recently joined the board of TCG (yay).



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I Interview Playwrights Part 753: Jacques Lamarre

Jacques Lamarre


Hometown:   I was born outside of Philly in Paoli, PA. Paoli had just built a new hospital and if you were the first baby born there, you would get all sorts of great prizes like free diapers and onesies. I came in 6th place, starting life as a crushing disappointment to my mother. I spent most of my (de)formative years in Amherst, NH, so that is what I rightly call my hometown.

Current Town:  I live outside of Hartford, CT in a small city/large town called Manchester. I think we have more breakfast places per capita than any other in Connecticut. That's my kinda town.

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  As I am totally ADHD, I'm always working on multiple things. I have a reading coming up of my new Scientology comedy, HONEY LABREA - THE LONELY THETAN. I am finishing up my 12th show for drag queen Varla Jean Merman for the Provincetown summer season. It's called VARLA JEAN MERMAN'S BIG BLACK HOLE and we send her into outerspace I just finished writing a new comedy called THE PLAY THAT HATES YOUR PLAY, and am working on a new one called THE BARONESS, about "The Sound of Music" from the Baroness' standpoint.

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 child, I would root for The Baroness in "The Sound of Music." She had better hair, better gowns, and wouldn't have anything to do with children. When I got to high school, I rooted for Chillingworth in "The Scarlet Letter." I thought Reverend Dimmesdale and that whore Hester Prynne got just what was coming to them and, of course, they had a precocious child, making them even more worthy of my disdain.

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

A:  I helped put together a playwrights forum two years ago that included the amazing David Lindsay-Abaire. He said (and I'm paraphrasing) that it is essentially impossible to earn a living just as a playwright, which I found profound and sad. As my play I LOVED, I LOST, I MADE SPAGHETTI has been a success, I've been grateful. Not a lot of people are as fortunate as I have been. During the process of acting as my own agent, I see how some theatres will negotiate you down on royalties and pull out all sorts of hidden fees before they pay you. I understand the economics of the theatre is hard nowadays, but when a union stagehand can make more money than the playwright who conceived the work, something is askew. I'd like to see a General Manager try to withhold a percentage of group sales from a lumber supplier.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Tennessee Williams is my absolute favorite. He was funny, poetic, tragic, and adored the outsider, what he called "The Fugitive Kind." Of the playwrights currently working, David Lindsay-Abaire is a hero of mine. He manages to be honest, real, funny, and, at times, absurd. Although I've only seen one of Charles Ludlam's plays, I think if he were alive I would be hanging on his every word. His work informed some of my trash camp heroes like John Waters and Varla Jean Merman.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  The kind that is not afraid to have fun and be funny. It seems like everyone has gotten so serious, even when writing comedy. This is what my new play THE PLAY THAT HATES YOUR PLAY is all about. I wrote it after seeing IT'S ONLY A PLAY, which I greatly disliked. A lot of theatres equate "new play development" with "I'm making a serious statement about blah-blah-blah." I'm like, "Fuck that. It's Saturday night and the tickets are $60 a pop." Write a good play, give 'em a good time, and if they choose to learn something or be touched, great. I'm not against dramas. I've written a few, but there is something about comedy that is harder and more delightful for me.

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

A:  I have two bits of advice...

Work with good people. You will have the opportunity to work with a lot of assholes, but to quote Sweet Brown, "Ain't nobody got time for 'dat." I'm amazed at how the theatre seems to give certain folks license to not treat other humans well. I've seen directors pitch screaming fits. Actors behave petulantly. Writers refusing to support their work. I know we are all artists here making art and being arty, but that doesn't give you permission to step on one another. We're all in the same boat and want the same things, so chill out and enjoy the fact that you get to do what you love.

And make your own opportunities. I went the whole submission route for playwriting contests. Got my first one and then never got another. Don't write for a contest; write what YOU want and then find a theatre that is brave enough to do it. Unless it's crap, in which case, become a better writer or try your hand at pottery.

Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  Local theatre. I know the theatre world orients toward New York and it is fun to see a big starry, splashy show. Within 15 minutes of my home in Connecticut, I have seen some spectacular work at TheaterWorks, Hartford Stage,Playhouse on Park, and Little Theatre of Manchester. It's a lot less expensive than New York City and can be every bit as satisfying.



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I Interview Playwrights Part 752: Nate Eppler

Nate Eppler

Hometown:  Flint, MI

Current Town:  Nashville, TN

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I’m working through rewrites on my play GOOD MONSTERS premiering next season at Nashville Repertory Theatre (Frank is a Iraq War Vet and police officer who moonlights as a security guard to make ends meet. Safira was a shoplifter. She was running. It was dark. He thought she had a gun. She didn't. And now Frank's the guy who shot an unarmed teenager. But the dead don’t always stay quiet and now, while he waits for the trial, she haunts him every night. ) And just starting the submission process on my new play THE ICE TREATMENT ( Left behind on the garbage heap of history and misremembered by everyone –herself included- the world’s most infamous Olympian reinvents herself by writing the blockbuster screenplay of her epic struggle to become The Greatest Ice Skater Who Ever Lived. The problem is how much of the past she’s going to have to rewrite to do it.)

Q:  Tell me about Nashville Repertory Theater’s Ingram New Works Lab:

A:  We’ve been called a ‘magic island’ a couple of times this year, and actually that’s not too far off. Our goal is to make an honest-to-goodness capital-H-Home for our playwrights, so, you know, all wishes are granted. Each year, thanks to the generosity of Martha Ingram and now the support of the NEA, Nashville Repertory Theatre supports the development of five new plays for the stage; Four by emerging playwrights (Ingram Lab playwrights) and one by a playwright of national or international reputation (our Ingram Fellow.) The fellow typically works on his or her new play already in progress and the emerging playwrights develop a brand new play from scratch. We’re a generative residency where the playwright is given what they need as they need it during the earliest stages of development. Once a month we fly the playwrights down to Nashville to work on their plays with actors, directors, dramaturgs, designers and whatever professional support they require (including, like, a million phone calls and meetings with me.) Over the course of nine months the playwrights go from a pile of sentences to a muscular first or second draft of their brand spanking new play. As we are a development program first and foremost, our program’s only interest is to give the playwright a home to write the play they’ve been dying to write. We celebrate at the end of the year with a great big festival for Nashville audiences and livestreamed and archived on HowlRound TV for everybody else. We put the plays in front of our audience not as finished products but as art-in-progress to help launch them into their next stages of life. Tori Keenan-Zelt, one of our Lab Playwrights and all-around badass, described it like this: “It's challenging, but not competitive. It's a little bit like when you jump on a huge trampoline with your best friends, and you all go flying in different directions and into each other and, when the bounce hits just right, higher.”

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 in Flint in the 80’s and the economic collapse of the city probably informs a lot of the stuff in my plays. And I grew up Irish Catholic so, you know, the past is buried both inefficiently and very close by. I know that’s pretty much the the core of me; All my plays are in some way exhumations. But instead of stories about economic death or what’s buried in the backyard, I’m going to tell the story about the fire hydrant. The week we learned to ride bicycles my brother and I went to the Emergency Room three times in four days. This is true. We are not athletes. The third trip was Carl getting a concussion because he fell off his bike and into a fire hydrant. He made it pretty far down the block, a good three or four houses away, and then he sort of wobbled and tipped over, and smashed his head into a fire hydrant. And it’s not like our block was full of fire hydrants or something, there was just the one. Even at the time I remember thinking Of all the places to fall, of course you go headfirst into the fire hydrant. Anytime anybody asks about a lesson from childhood or whatever, this is the story I think of. You’re going to fall, there’s no question about that. Mom and dad are gone and you’re going to fall at the moment you are just learning to ride the bike. You are going to fall at the worst time, in the worst spot, and everyone that can help you is going to be all the way down the block. You are going to fall. And that’s the exact moment when the world starts throwing fire hydrants at you. This idea is essentially where I start with my plays: They’re kind of about people who are stumbling or falling down and then, you know, the world starts throwing fire hydrants. That’s when I get really interested.

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

A:  I spent like three days on this question. I know the four hundred things I’d change; narrowing it down to one is daunting. Top three: 1) I’d invite everyone to the conversation. Total commitment across the whole community to diversity of voices. 2) I’d make it cheaper to attend and pay the artists more, even if it meant less large institutions and more small-to-mediums. And 3) I’d I think maybe I’d invite more people who are good at the business of business into our business.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Always Chekhov and Caryl Churchill. And Josie Helming. And Doug Wright and Donald Margulies and Teresa Rebeck. And Caleen Sinnette Jennings and Melanie Marnich. And Paula Vogel and Steven Dietz. And Gary Garrison. And you, frankly.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I’m a sucker for comedies in big houses. But I will say this: On balance, I think I’m always a little more juiced by a smaller company aiming to punch above their class than a big company doing the big they already know they’re good at.

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

A:  Structure is the magic trick. Learn it. Do it. Amaze your friends. Also: Sometimes we get into trouble by the way we frame things, and how we forget that simply re-framing them is an option. What I mean is: Think of the first draft as typing. Type and keep typing until you have a draft. Writing is when you get to the rewriting much farther down the road. If you take the pressure and preciousness out of the first draft you won’t freeze up as much and before you know it you’ll have something worth worrying about.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My new play GOOD MONSTERS has its premiere Feb 11-27 2016 at Nashville Repertory Theatre (www.nashvillerep.org) , but I’m much more comfortable plugging other people’s stuff so: If you’re in NYC this month definitely go see TOGETHER WE ARE MAKING A POEM IN HONOR OF LIFE by Dean Poynor (www.inhonoroflifetheplay.com) June 4-28 2015; Look for Tori Keenan-Zelt this summer on Dusty Wilson’s MDQ podcast (www.mdqpodcast.com) with her play TRUTH DARE… ; If you’re at the Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival be sure to check out SKIN AND BONES by Andrew Kramer and Ben Clark (no joke: it’s a musical about The Bone Wars) July 9-11 (www.fingerlakesmtf.com); and applications are still open for the 2015/16 Nashville Rep Ingram New Works Lab. We’re accepting applications until midnight June 21st at www.nashvillerep.org/ingram-new-works-application




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I Interview Playwrights Part 751: Dave Malloy

photo by Michael De Angelis



Dave Malloy



​Hometown:  Lakewood, OH



Current Town:  Brooklyn, NY​



Tell me about Preludes.



​Q:  Preludes​ is a "musical fantasia set in the hypnotized mind of Sergei Rachmaninoff"; it's a dreamlike piece based on a 3-year period in Rach's life, when he suffered severe depression and writer's block following the disastrous premiere of his First Symphony. He eventually began to work again after seeing a hypnotherapist, Nikolai Dahl, to whom he ended up dedicating his famous Second Piano Concerto, written during this period.



It's a pretty different piece for me; it's closer to Three Pianos than Great Comet or Ghost Quartet, but more than any of those this is really a proper "play with music," and most of the music is Rachmaninoff's; I've only written like 6-7 traditional songs, and even those are mostly based on themes of Rachmaninoff's. And I've written these bizarre things where two or three people just talk to each other, with no singing at all; these are called "scenes." But music of course plays a huge role in the piece, with many scenes meticulously choreographed to Rach's piano works, all being played onstage by our amazing pianist, Or Matias. He and actor Gabriel Ebert play two halves of Rachmaninoff; so the piece is also about their relationship, and all the dichotomies they may or may not be representing: composer/pianist, writer/muse, action/inaction, success/failure, passion/sloth. It also deals with Rachmaninoff negotiating his own dubious position in classical music history, and how he deals with criticism, expectation, work ethic and inspiration.



Q:  What else are you working on now?



A:  A little bit too much! A teenage dance-a-thon​ musical  with Krista Knight and YMTC ​in Berkeley, CA is next, called Don't Stop Me; a​nd​ I have 3 collaborations ​in development ​with director Rachel Chavkin: a Moby Dick adaptation, a Prince Hal adaptation (compressing Henry IV 1 ​and​ 2 and Henry V), and a piece about Taoism, evolution and debate called The Happiness of Fish​ at ACT​. Plus Ghost Quartet is going on tour, and the four of us have talked a bit about making a new piece...



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 spent a lot of my childhood watching old science fiction TV shows and reading Stephen King and Ray Bradbury; so I think much of my aesthetic actually comes from that world, even when the material is not overtly fantasy or sci-fi; I just love the weird and dreamy.



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



​A:  We change things all the time!​ So maybe: I would like to change the the persistent belief that there are meta-institutional things that need to be changed.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

​

A:  The first thing I saw in NYC that blew me away and made me certain I wanted to do theater forever and ever was Richard Foreman's​ The Gods Are Pounding On My Head!; I just had no idea you could make such surreal spectacle til then. Among theatrical composers, Sondheim of course, Meredith Wilson, early ALW, Schönberg & Boublil, Robert Ashley, Robert Crumb, Tom Waits, Björk, Prince and Beyoncé. Contemporary theater favorites include Young Jean Lee, Anne Washburn, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, ERS, Half Straddle, Nature Theatre of Oklahoma, and Lin-Manuel Miranda; and of course I'm constantly inspired by my many lovely and amazing collaborators, including Rachel Chavkin, Alec Duffy, Rick Burkhardt, the Ghost Quartet folks, Banana Bag & Bodice and Eliza Bent.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:​ Anything that plays with and breaks the form: durational pieces, music/theater hybrids, immersive pieces. Pieces with booze and hooting but impeccable craft. Vastness and darkness and echoes. But I'm a sucker for an old fashioned musical or well-made play too.​



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



​A: I would focus on self-producing work, rather than chasing readings, grants, retreats, fellowships, writers groups etc.​ You can learn so much just making a ton of terrible messes for no money. Plus it's way more fun.



Q:  Plugs, please:

​

A:   JACK is celebrating 3 years this summer and keep getting better and better. James Harrison Monaco has a show at Ars Nova's ANTFest, Tales For Telling, that I can't wait to see. I'm going to see Anne Washburn's 10 out of 12 at Soho Rep next week and am super psyched. And Ghost Quartet is headed up to Mt. Tremper Arts this summer, where there are a ton of other amazing things happening too.



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I Interview Playwrights Part 750: Dean Poynor

Dean Poynor

[Dean's Note: I've read Adam's blog for years and I always imagined that we would do this interview over coffee or steak dinner.]

[Adam's Note: We did this over email.]

Hometown: Columbia, SC. My folks were missionaries so I grew up in Indonesia, Mississippi, and Chicago, but the South is in my bones. South Carolina is a great state to be from. I'd highly recommend it.

Hometown Theatre: Trustus Theatre in Columbia gave me my first exposure to real theatre and my first opportunities as an artist. The vision of one couple - Jim and Kay Thigpen - to create a challenging and compassionate theatre, has been the breeding grounds for dozens of artists for more than 30 years.

Current Town: NYC

Q:  Tell me about your upcoming show.



A: My new play TOGETHER WE ARE MAKING A POEM IN HONOR OF LIFE opens at The Cafeteria at P.S. 142 / Amalia Castro Public School on the Lower East Side. The play follows a mother and father through a series of support group meetings for grieving parents over the course of many nights. We have set it in a middle school with a circle of chairs, and the audience becomes part of the group. What's exciting about this staging is that it's immersive but not interactive. Even when the lights are on, we can believe that we are there, sharing the experience of these characters as the grapple with their emotions and memories. The actors are so brave and the whole thing is really compelling to watch.

I recognize that this play came out of my experience as a father and how that completely changed my view on life. Events like Sandy Hook, and other tragedies closer to home, hit me in unexpected ways. I knew what those parents felt and I shared in their burden. And healing became a requirement - as a parent and as a partner. But how do you piece yourself back together, when you still have lunches to pack?

The play started out with 27 characters and it was trying to grapple with the breadth of grief that affected a community. I developed it with the Nashville Repertory Theatre's Ingram New Works Lab (plug below) as a playwright in residence, and through that time I narrowed the scope to focus on two characters. The shifts night to night with each "breath" make it a real journey - we have good days and bad days, and it doesn't always look like progress - but that's how healing occurs.

(I'll say also that there is a special joy in being a parent and a theatre artist. Somehow it elevates the urgency and sense of responsibility with which I pursue my art. But it also grounds me in reality. It's humbling to think that no matter where the play goes, it's possible that my son will read it in 20 or 30 years. Writing a letter to him becomes a vital act.)

Q:  What else are you working on now?



A:  This last month I had a play produced at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis about Rwandan immigrants who want to get married in America. It's a love story, and working on it was a unique and rewarding process.

I'm also working on a play about a woman who tries to find the Nigerian school girls kidnapped in 2012. She has a vision from God telling her where the girls are and telling her to go get them.

And I have a play about a guy who wants to be a Samurai, but he's a dad in Brooklyn. It's a comedy, about raising kids and following your dreams, even if they're a few hundred years too late.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  I have to give thanks for the teachers that gave me the keys to the car: Jim Young and Mark Lewis at Wheaton College, and Norbert Leo Butz and Steven David Martin at Auburn University in Montgomery, AL. And in grad school at Carnegie Mellon, I had the privilege of studying with Milan Stitt and Rob Handel - old school and new - who each influenced thousands of others by their example. All of these folks helped me understand the connection between the art and the life of the spirit. That's what keeps me going. And now in the city I have found families and homes with Julian Sheppard, Bookshop Workshops, The Drawing Board, and The Somebodies.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  I've always been drawn to immersive work, in all its forms. There's some special magic when the actions that the actors are playing align with the desires of the characters (and the desires of the audience.) It doesn't have to be environmental even, but the whole room gets charged and we are in on the secret. As a playwright I put special emphasis on the story, so when that works to drive the overall event, then I have a good good night.

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



A:  You can't aim too high. I'm sort of tired of writing that aims too low, you know? I think that when we don't have that sense of *must* when we write, when we don't know what we're trying to say, then for me it can fall flat. If your play asks questions that don't have much consequence, then the risk is we don't know how to care. I crave consequence.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  TOGETHER WE ARE MAKING A POEM IN HONOR OF LIFE follows a couple through grief counseling sessions after their son was killed in a school tragedy. Audiences are invited to pull up a chair in the Cafeteria at P.S. 142 and sit with Rebecca (Allison Layman, Living On Love) and Brian (Michael Dempsey, Of Mice and Men, Reasons To Be Pretty, Three Days of Rain) as they remember and rebuild their lives. Directed by Mikhael T. Garver.

"Complete the circle in this beautiful portrait of grief and witness the power of humanity that keeps us together."

Performances run June 4 - June 28
The Cafeteria at P.S. 142, 100 Attorney Street, New York, NY
More: http://www.inhonoroflifetheplay.com

Also, the Nashville Repertory Theatre's very generous and supportive Ingram New Works Lab is accepting applications for next round. Go to: http://nashvillerep.org/ingram-new-works  



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I Interview Playwrights Part 749: Jason Odell Williams

Jason Odell Williams



Hometown: Columbia, Maryland



Current Town: New York City



Q:  What are you working on now?



A:  I’ve always got a few things happening at once since I like to be able to bounce from project to project when one inevitably hits a wall. So here’s what I’m doing right now:



Plays: I’ve got a two-hander that I co-wrote with my wife, Charlotte Cohn, and we are very close to getting a world premiere production this fall in the regions, but just waiting for final confirmation. Then the plan is to  bring that play to NY for a commercial run Off-Broadway in the spring of 2016. We have a great director and producer and some investors already attached (we just need to find a venue! Easier said than done). We did a similar thing a few years ago with my play HANDLE WITH CARE which did very well here in NY and is now published by DPS and hitting the regions again – that play was also optioned for a film and is being shopped around by a producer. And I’ve also got a political drama that will premiere regionally next year but I think I need to wait to officially announce where and when!



Film: I wrote a Young Adult novel called PERSONAL STATEMENT that was published by In This Together Media in 2013 and optioned for a film. My wife and I co-wrote the screenplay adaptation and we’re nearly finished with our final round of producer notes on that script.



Books: I’m working on a new YA novel for the same publisher of my first book about the current Colorado marijuana boom.



TV: And my day job is working as a writer and producer at a production company in New York helping to produce and develop shows for The Weather Channel, Science Channel, Animal Planet, etc. One of the shows I worked on premiered on The Weather Channel last night. (Who knew they had original content, right?) But it’s a super smart and funny show called “3 SCIENTISTS WALK INTO A BAR” and I highly recommend it, especially for families with kids ages 6 – 15 looking for something family friendly, entertaining and even a bit educational!



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 in 4th grade we did a production of The Wizard of Oz at my elementary school. It was the first play I was ever in and I remember doing something on stage that got a laugh from the audience and feeling this rush of excitement and giddiness and pride. I sort of knew then that I wanted to entertain people for a living. And there’s nothing better than making an entire audience laugh!



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



A:  MORE. NEW. PLAYS. I’m paraphrasing Harold Clurman, but he said something like “There need to be a 100 new plays for 5 amazing ones that will stand the test of time.” But there are nowhere near that many commercial productions On and Off Broadway each year. So to have more good plays, you need more new work in general. It’s a numbers game. And I wish there were more commercial venues for Off-Broadway, and that it wasn’t so expensive to mount a play (which makes it so expensive to SEE a play) both On and Off-Broadway. Also: one major problem with American Theatre is that it takes so long to develop work, and theatres plan seasons 2 years out so that anything current a playwright has to say is passé by the time opening night roles around. I find myself writing plays and literally saying it’s 2016 or 2017 in the stage directions because I know by the time someone reads it that will be the current year! I wish more regional theatres would take chances and do more new work.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  I’d say my heroes aren’t necessarily certain writers but certain plays. The Pillowman, Doubt, August: Osage County, Proof, The History Boys (and even some slightly older plays that influenced me like The Lover, Barefoot in the Park, and The Piano Lesson come to mind.) I’m also a product of growing up with film and TV being so easily accessible. So other big heroes for me are James L. Brooks (The Simpsons, Taxi, Broadcast News), John Hughes (She’s Having a Baby, Sixteen Candles) and even actors! I started as an actor so I really respond to great performances – Dustin Hoffman is a hero and to me he can do no wrong! (see Tootsie, The Graduate, Kramer vs. Kramer) Ditto Mark Rylance! So yeah, my influences are kind of all over the place!





Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  New stuff with real people in mostly realistic situations speaking the way real people do, that has humor, heart and pathos… and yet still finds a way to be theatrical and not just like a movie on a stage. The Curious Incident… did this most recently this season. As did Hand to God. A few years back August: Osage County and Doubt did this amazingly well. I was also a huge fan of Passing Strange the musical. Anything that speaks to what is happening right now in a way that I haven’t seen before. (Again: The Pillowman) And please please please make me LAUGH! Even if your play is dark, we need to laugh! So in general, I like new plays that take place here and now but aren’t snarky! A lot of new work just in the last 5 or 6 years is very smart, written and directed and acted by talented smart people, and they’re often funny but there’s no GUTS, no HEART in the production. It’s too clinical. People are so afraid to be sentimental (since critics are often hard on anything that smacks of sentiment) that they end up coming off as cynical and forget to make characters we truly care about, that move us to laughter and tears.



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



A:  Write page one, then move on to page two, then page three until you have a complete first draft. If you stop and re-work the opening scene over and over, you’ll never have a completed play. So finish the first draft as short or as long and as messy as it needs to be. Then get some friends to read it out loud and talk about it. Then dive into re-writes and do it all over again: page one, page two, etc. The big secret to writing is that it’s not some magic trick. I fully believe most people are capable of writing something great. It just takes discipline and follow-through. And tenacity. Lots of people will tell you “no.” Keep writing anyway.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  You can buy the play HANDLE WITH CARE here: http://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?key=4946



And the novel PERSONAL STATEMENT here: http://www.amazon.com/Personal-Statement-Personals-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00JOKK2M8/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8



And you can watch “3 SCIENTISTS…” on The Weather Channel now!



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I Interview Playwrights Part 748: Sarah Harburg-Petrich

Sarah Harburg-Petrich

Hometown:  Tacoma, WA

Current Town: Los Angeles, CA

Q:  Tell me about Hard Sexy Serious Love Conversations.

A:  HSSLC grew out of a couple of different impulses: one was when I was working five part time jobs and still on food stamps, and I would write out these aspirational grocery lists. What would I buy if I could go to the grocery store and buy anything I wanted? So I developed these characters, these two rich kids who ran away to California and frittered away all their money and I wrote out their grocery lists as they got poorer and poorer. The other impulse was around the idea of what we do after loss. We often see plays about the loss, about that big moment of heartbreak or death, but we don't have a script for how to grieve. So naturally, I ended up with a play about four refugees from the Russian mafia all stuck in a one-bedroom apartment in Santa Monica and there's a dead dog in the freezer. We've got a Vicodin-addicted FBI agent, the crown prince of the Russian mafia, a depressed hitman, and the hitman's exwife, who recruited sex workers for the organization. They have nowhere to go and nothing to do but deal with themselves, which is the kind of examination I've found happens in the process of “after” whatever that big thing is. It's also pretty funny—dark comedy is a comfortable place for these people.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm working on a musical about circus labor rights! My partner is in a band that plays speakeasy folk, and a director pal of mine asked me to write a musical around their songs. They have a nutty little ditty about a chainsaw juggler, so of course it had to be about the circus. Also, it seems like whenever you get a group of people in a performing industry together, they talk about labor rights—what they're getting paid, what they deserve, how they're struggling. So it's a group of workers at a second-rate bar in Alabama with a psychic band, trying to decide whether to unionize or not. (You can actually listen to the music if you'd like—smithfieldbargain.bandcamp.com.) Pack Up the Moon the Musical, in development for 2016!

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 eight, I cut my chin open. We were at my grandmother's house for a Come-All-Ye, a family reunion, and I had been playing in the basement with my cousins when we were called up to dinner. We ran up the stairs, me with my hands in the pockets of my dress, and I tripped and fell, and my chin landed on the edge of the stair in front of me. I have a very clear memory of thinking 'that kinda hurt', looking up, and seeing my entire extended family staring at me in horror, and someone swept down and hauled me up and ran me to the kitchen. Apparently I had totally split my chin open. It was at sometime after hours, and my aunt was on the phone calling every hospital in the area to see which one was open, and adult relatives kept coming in and out of the kitchen to reassure me. The funny was, I wasn't in pain and I wasn't afraid, I just wanted to see what was happening and I wanted to know what it looked like. To this day, I'm a little angry that I never got to see and I don't know. The whole thing was this funny mix of comedy and tragedy and cross-purposes, and I felt so frustrated by my lack of agency.

That's who I am as a person—I want to know what's wrong, and I want to fully experience what's happening to me, and I'll be damned if I let anybody limit my knowledge like that. It's also shaped me as a writer—the most interesting emotional stories happen when everybody is trying to do their best, but they're not listening to each other.

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

A:  I would pay playwrights better. Right now, it is essentially impossible to write plays for a living, and it's part of what's limiting our dominant theatrical voices to people who can afford to not have a day job. This is a problem. When American theaters don't showcase the full range of American voices, they stop being relevant and they lose audiences. We need to hear from the people who, often, don't have time to write, or if they do, don't have time to submit for festivals or readers, or don't have the money to go to the places they're accepted to, to build their network and audience. So we're not hearing from women, people of color, gender and sexual minorities, and heaven help you if you're a transgendered polyamorous Muslim lesbian of color.

It won't solve everything, but money is power, and we need to allocate more power to playwrights.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I really love Adrienne Kennedy and Gertrude Stein. Kennedy's work is a beautiful crystallization of technique used in service of story and character. She connects the personal and the political, she goes deep into tough feelings and complications, and her craft is impeccable. What I love about Stein is that she ditched structure and dialogue, and that she embraced the idea of a theatrical event being created out of ourselves as an audience.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I'm excited by theater that isn't afraid of itself or its humanity. I am excited by theater that embraces and loves its audience, that uses theatrical effects, and that is willing to connect. There are so many ways to get there, but it's got to make you feel. I just saw Lucy Alibar's Throw Me On The Burnpile and Light Me Up, and it was such a beautiful experience of being invited into the life of this little girl and feeling the depth and breadth of being nine and trying to piece together they way life works. A different but also connecting experience was seeing the national tour of Cinderella the same night as a ton high school students. They laughed, they cried, they gasped, they booed, and being in that community of audience with them was magical.

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

A:  Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. Don't ask for permission—write your work, share it with everybody, and put it up yourself. It's hard and scary, but the worst thing that can happen is that you've made some great work and probably some friends. Write as much as you can, and if you can only write a three-line-play one day, that's okay. It's still a play.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Come see Hard Sexy Serious Love Conversations in the Hollywood Fringe Festival! June 6, 20, and 27, tickets available at tinyurl.com/sexyseriousplay. Use the code REASONFOUR for $10 tickets.

You can also find me on Twitter @iceundrpressure and on Instagram @delishtagram. That's where upcoming work is announced!



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I Interview Playwrights Part 747: Ian McWethy

Ian McWethy

Hometown: Arlington, VA

Current Town: New York, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I just finished two one act plays for Playscripts Inc. and a short play they asked me to write about bullying.

I'm also finishing up two screenplays, starting to do research on a third, and developing a "pitch" for a TV show.

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 don't know if there is one story. But there were a lot of instances growing up where my parents, or teachers, or friends would be like "Ian, where are you? What are you thinking?!" and I'd be spacing off, clearly enacting some sort of story or conversation in my head. My grandparents thought something was really wrong with me, and that I should "get tested." (and honestly, I probably should have).

Luckily, my parents never medicated me and now I use this distracting imagination to write plays.

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

A:  Ticket prices for Broadway shows, and Broadway tours, and a lot of regional theatre are WAY too expensive. It's become a luxury item for the super rich and it shouldn't be.

Q:  Who are or were the biggest influences on your writing?

A:  Tony Kushner, Martin McDonaugh, Christopher Durang, and early Mamet were the playwrights that had the biggest impact on me.

But if I'm being really honest I think TV had a much bigger influence on my voice as a writer. I watch way more TV then I do theatre, which probably means I don't belong on this blog but... here we are. Adam asked me. Anyway, particularly influential shows were The Simpsons, Arrested Development, South Park, The West Wing, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.

And then if I'm being really REALLY honest, my friends and collaborators when I was 14 - 25, had undoubtedly the biggest influence on my writing. Either from their support, feedback, or by allowing me to steal from them. Josh Halloway, Jason Pizzarello, Brendan Conheady, Isaac Oliver, David Ruttura, Michael Kimmel and my wife Carrie McCrossen, among many other teachers and friends, have shaped my writing in ways I'm probably not even conscious of.

Q:  What lessons have learned recently about writing or art in general?

A:  I feel like every day I learn a new lesson about writing. It's amazing how little I know. Here are 3.

1. Here's a practical one. Having characters with similar sounding names or that start with the same first letter can be a bummer to read. Mix it up. I mean you can do it. You can name the five characters in your play Joe, Jo, Jose, Joss, and Joey even it's really important to you. But your reader will get very confused (or at least I would).

2. If you're giving a friend or colleague feedback on their script, especially if you don't know the person very well, before you give notes say the sentence "You don't have to take this if you don't want to." Writing is a free form, creative enterprise, and just because you have a brilliant idea about how to "fix a script" doesn't it mean it's right for them or what they want to do. I'm much more responsive to notes that are respectful of the work I've done, and truly want to make the piece better (and not just to mold it to you what you want it to be).

3. Some times, when you get down to actually writing... it flows and is fun and life affirming. A lot of times, it's a slog, and it feels terrible. When it feels terrible, just try to sit down and keep writing. It almost always turns out better than it feels in the moment.

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

A:  Finding a good writer's group really helped me. For me, it was about finding 2 to 3 other people committed to meeting every week to share their work and experiences. Writing groups were also fundamental in helping me do the aspects of writing I hate, like applying to grants and writing contests, bugging my managers, or updating my website (which I still don't do enough). It's been an invaluable asset for me.

Bigger writing groups I've found less helpful. Groups with like 9 people where the sole purpose is to hear drafts of work and critique it. If a group like that works for you great! Keep doing it. But I've found it more helpful to have a smaller group, that's 1/3 therapy session, 1/3 sharing/feedback of your writing projects, 1/3 hang out with good friends. Smaller means you have more time to be indulgent, and not just talk about the writing.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  I have two new one act plays published in this year by Playscripts Inc. If you're looking for a new one act play for young actors, give 'em a read. I particularly like THE INTERNET IS DISTRACT -- OH LOOK A KITTEN! I've seen it performed twice now and it seems to really work (and I think say something about ever distracting world we live in). You can read a free sample here.



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