Adam Szymkowicz's Blog, page 77

I Interview Playwrights Part 582: Kemp Powers

Kemp Powers

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

Current Town: Los Angeles, CA.


Q:  Tell me about One Night In Miami.

A:  When I was a freshman in college, if you would have asked me who my biggest inspirations were, I would have said four names. Muhammad Ali. Jim Brown. Malcolm X. And Sam Cooke. So, when I found out as a young man that these four were actually friends, my mind was blown. It's the equivalent of accidentally stumbling upon a black Justice League of America. Only the thing bonding these four at the time wasn't their collective status as heroes, but as outlaws. One night was especially fascinating to me. February 25, 1964. That was the night Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion of the world at only 22 years of age. Everyone knows this. Many people also know the very next morning, he announced that he was a member of the Nation of Islam, a group personified by its fiery minister, Malcolm X. But what hardly anyone knows is that between the end of that fight and the announcement the next morning, the new champ spent the night in a tiny motel room with his friends Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown. One night and four not-yet-legendary men seemed like too juicy a setting for me not to explore in a play, and that seed became the basis of One Night in Miami..., where I imagine all of the many things these men could have discussed, disputed and possibly resolved when left alone in a room for one revelatory evening.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I'm putting the finishing touches on a new play, The Two Reds. Another fun exploration into history that finishes my little "cycle" that began with One Night in Miami... Though this story takes place much earlier. When Malcolm X was still a young hustler named "Detroit Red," he worked in the kitchen at a jazz club alongside another, more outspoken young redheaded black guy called "Chicago Red." Of course, this person would go on to be known as the great comedian Redd Foxx. My play takes place in the kitchen of that jazz club, and includes a greater cross-section of characters, races and personalities from the time. It explores issues of class and race that, though historical, I feel are quite relevant in a contemporary setting as well. But the central protagonists are definitely the two reds, though at no point do we ever call them by their actual names (Malcolm and John). I'm also very excited about this one, and hope to start having some staged readings by the end of this year.

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

A:  I started writing more out of necessity than desire as a young man. My buddies and I would create little comic books in our spiral notebooks, and I was always tasked with writing the stories. I guess I was just the best at articulating an idea within our little group of neighborhood kids. I guess you could say that skill has served me well throughout life, as I ended up becoming a journalist and having to give a voice to many people who can't quite put into words what's going on in their world.

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

A:  I'd change the perception that great theater can only originate from a couple of key "theater cities" around the world. It can come from anywhere.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  August Wilson. Sam Shepherd. My fellow Rogue Machine Theatre resident playwrights, such as John Pollono and Henry Murray. It's great to be in a community of playwrights. They are an invaluable sounding board.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  I love seeing new plays. And I feel lucky to be in a city where so many writers are taking risks and creating new works on a regular basis. It also gives me a window into the issues that are important to writers of different age, sex and background.

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

A:  Above all else, hone your craft. I participated in so many short-play and 24-hour playwriting programs at Rogue Machine before I had the confidence to begin writing full-length plays. And even then, the painful process of rewriting ends up being how I spend most of my time. It's always wonderful to have a great idea for a play, but it is so much more important to have the skill and craft to execute it. I'd rather see a well-executed play based on a subject I'm less interested in than a poorly-executed play based on something about which I'm passionate.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  One Night in Miami... has its world premiere on June 8 at Rogue Machine Theatre in Los Angeles. The play will be running June 8-July 28, and tickets can be purchased here: http://roguemachinetheatre.com/wordpress/show-info/one-night-in-miami/ I'm very proud of it, and so many people have poured their hearts and souls into this production, so I really hope as many people as possible have an opportunity to see it. It will be a fun night of theater! 








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Books by Adam

Compulsive Love Outtakes and All of Season One

Outtakes:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drdYDiJxl8c







Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/compulsivelove

Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CompulsiveLove



Directed by Kevan Tucker

Written by Adam Szymkowicz

Produced by Aaron Edell, Tim O'Neill and Kevan Tucker



Director of Photography: Will Boisture

Edited by Tim O'Neill

Music by Eli Bolin



Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFOoTipWNZY



Starring:

Alex Anfanger

Laura Ramadei

Amy Staats

Mary Rasmussen

Penny Lynn White

Bethany Heinrich

Matthew Hampton



Episode 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJLUl27dxr4



Starring:

Alex Anfanger

Laura Ramadei

Amy Staats

Maureen Sebastian

Wai Ching Ho

Travis York



Deleted Scene Episode 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcUmrC3d65g



Episode 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LujPn8-zIO4



Starring:

Alex Anfanger

Laura Ramadei

Amy Staats

Molly Ward

Allison Altman

Chris Morris



Episode 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6O1sDXGVgI



Starring:

Alex Anfanger

Laura Ramadei

Saramoira Sheilds

Travis York

Bianca Caruso

Aaron Edell



Episode 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LrLBTlEvYo



Starring

Alex Anfanger

Laura Ramadei

Amy Staats

Liz Holtan

Marnie Schulenburg

Anna Greenfield



Episode 6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdiDyrTRZv4



Cameo by comic book Legend Fred Van Lente (http://fredvanlente.com/)



Starring

Alex Anfanger

Laura Ramadei

Amy Staats

Sierra Marcks

Travis York

Tyson Frawley

Fred Van Lente



Episode 7: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq0IheFoX5g



Starring:

Alex Anfanger

Laura Ramadei

Amy Staats

Anna O'Donoghue



Episode 8: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCXps_ViFfg



Starring:

Alex Anfanger

Laura Ramadei

Amy Staats

Travis York






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Two Readings of my play Mercy

I have two readings in June of Mercy, the play which was the first runner up for Yale's Horn Prize this year.



First MCC Theater in New York presents it as part of Playlabs. Ethan McSweeney directs




June 3

7pm

Lucille Lortel Theatre (121 Christopher Street).


The series is offered free of charge, but reservations are recommended. Reservations can be made by visiting www.mcctheater.org.













Then The Asylum Theatre in Las Vegas is flying me in for their reading




June 22

7:30 pm

The Art Square Theatre




synopsis of Mercy:




Orville is grieving the vehicular manslaughter of his beloved wife. When by chance he faces the driver who killed her, he begins an agonizing conflict between revenge and forgiveness.






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I Interview Playwrights Part 581: Claudia Haas

Claudia I. Haas



Hometown:   New York City (Queens)




Current Town:  White Bear Lake, MN




Q:  What are you working on now? 




A:  Right this very, absolute-minute, I am adapting My Father's Dragon
- a children's book I came across this winter that enchanted me. All of
a sudden I started seeing puppets. Crocodile puppets... monkey puppets.
That's new for me!




And I am slogging away editing my "Russian-explorer-Otto-Schmidt-North-Pole-Universe-Physics" play And the Universe Didn't Blink. It's about a young girl coming to terms with her father's death. And all that other stuff in quotes.





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




A:  Grandma
Gresio and I played "make-a-believe" from the time I could speak. I
probably was about 9 years old when I found out it was "make-believe"
and only "make-a-believe" if you had an Italian accent! But you know, I
still play "make-a-believe." Every time I sit down at my desk and
write. 





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


A:  Getting down to basics - the ticket prices. For someone who has been in
theatre for many decades, I have missed many shows because I could not
afford to go. In New York City, there were more opportunities to see
shows at reduced prices (or free if you were in the biz) than there are
in Minnesota. Although it has gotten better.




Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?


A:  You are speaking to someone who has had AARP on her tail for a number of years! I have gone through stages. 




In
my teens and twenties, I did the "soup to nuts" routine of seeing every
play I could ... the plays of Shakespeare, O'Neill, Miller, Simon,
Albee, Wasserstein, Durang, Wilson, etc.  Growing up in New York City
was a playground for a teen who was head-over-heels, wildly in love with
theatre. And for $5 - you could  sit in the back row of any Broadway or
Off-Broadway show or musical! Can you imagine? I'd babysit on Saturday and take my money and go to a show on Sunday.
Almost every week. Who can do that today? I was a sponge and those
years were invaluable in helping me create works for young audiences.
Anything is possible in this field.  My exposure to so many types of
theatre gave me permission to play with my work.




The work of playwrights in the youth theatre field
is astounding. The care, the risks, the breadth of the genre just gives
me sweet tingles.





Q:  What kind of theater excites you?




A:  I'm
a theatre slut. I am as spellbound by a grand tap-dancing number as I
am by six actors in t-shirts and jeans spinning a tale in a black box.
If you're making theatrical magic, I'm there.




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




A:  Be kind. It takes a lot of people to bring you work to life. Be kind.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  An excerpt of And the Universe Didn't Blink will be part of The Twin Cities Playwright Tease on June 29th.
It's an evening designed to bring local playwrights in touch with local
theatres. Conceived by Victoria Pyan and Erin Denman, the idea of one
night of showcasing local playwrights to local theatres is an idea that
should go viral.




La Bella Cinderella will be part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival August 1-11, 2013. Pure clowning and silliness for the younger set - Cinderella and pasta - in Italy. Grandma Gresio - she's a-smiling.



And my first booked 2014 production: Cap o' Rushes will be produced by East Valley Children's Theatre
in Mesa, Az. I am doubly excited about this because I will be going
there ... in February 2014. As someone who lives in Minnesota, you can
understand why February in Arizona holds great appeal.







---

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I Interview Playwrights Part 581: Claudia Hass

Claudia I. Hass



Hometown:   New York City (Queens)



Current Town:  White Bear Lake, MN

Q:  What are you working on now? 


 

A:  Right this very, absolute-minute, I am adapting My Father's Dragon
- a children's book I came across this winter that enchanted me. All of
a sudden I started seeing puppets. Crocodile puppets... monkey puppets.
That's new for me!




And I am slogging away editing my "Russian-explorer-Otto-Schmidt-North-Pole-Universe-Physics" play And the Universe Didn't Blink. It's about a young girl coming to terms with her father's death. And all that other stuff in quotes.









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

 


A:  Grandma
Gresio and I played "make-a-believe" from the time I could speak. I
probably was about 9 years old when I found out it was "make-believe"
and only "make-a-believe" if you had an Italian accent! But you know, I
still play "make-a-believe." Every time I sit down at my desk and
write. 





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

A:  Getting down to basics - the ticket prices. For someone who has been in
theatre for many decades, I have missed many shows because I could not
afford to go. In New York City, there were more opportunities to see
shows at reduced prices (or free if you were in the biz) than there are
in Minnesota. Although it has gotten better.



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
 

A:  You are speaking to someone who has had AARP on her tail for a number of years! I have gone through stages. 




In
my teens and twenties, I did the "soup to nuts" routine of seeing every
play I could ... the plays of Shakespeare, O'Neill, Miller, Simon,
Albee, Wasserstein, Durang, Wilson, etc.  Growing up in New York City
was a playground for a teen who was head-over-heels, wildly in love with
theatre. And for $5 - you could  sit in the back row of any Broadway or
Off-Broadway show or musical! Can you imagine? I'd babysit on Saturday and take my money and go to a show on Sunday.
Almost every week. Who can do that today? I was a sponge and those
years were invaluable in helping me create works for young audiences.
Anything is possible in this field.  My exposure to so many types of
theatre gave me permission to play with my work.




The work of playwrights in the youth theatre field
is astounding. The care, the risks, the breadth of the genre just gives
me sweet tingles.





Q:  What kind of theater excites you?


 

A:  I'm
a theatre slut. I am as spellbound by a grand tap-dancing number as I
am by six actors in t-shirts and jeans spinning a tale in a black box.
If you're making theatrical magic, I'm there. 






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


 

A:  Be kind. It takes a lot of people to bring you work to life. Be kind.

Q:  Plugs, please:

 

A:  An excerpt of And the Universe Didn't Blink will be part of The Twin Cities Playwright Tease on June 29th.
It's an evening designed to bring local playwrights in touch with local
theatres. Conceived by Victoria Pyan and Erin Denman, the idea of one
night of showcasing local playwrights to local theatres is an idea that
should go viral.




La Bella Cinderella will be part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival August 1-11, 2013. Pure clowning and silliness for the younger set - Cinderella and pasta - in Italy. Grandma Gresio - she's a-smiling.



And my first booked 2014 production: Cap o' Rushes will be produced by East Valley Children's Theatre
in Mesa, Az. I am doubly excited about this because I will be going
there ... in February 2014. As someone who lives in Minnesota, you can
understand why February in Arizona holds great appeal.







---

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Books by Adam

I Interview Playwrights Part 580: Kimber Lee

Kimber Lee


Hometowns: Pyungtaek, South Korea; Nampa, Idaho; Seattle, Washington

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  Playwriting: Getting ready for the Lark Playwrights Workshop reading of my play brownsville song (b-side for tray), working on new pages for another new play that I'll take into our last Playwrights Workshop meeting this coming Monday, and doing some prep for upcoming workshops of the Brownsville play this summer at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference and Bay Area Playwrights Festival.

Boxing: Trying to re-tool my jab and right cross. Learning to fight in the pocket and go to the body. Footwork.

Other: Catering gigs, when I can get them. Ongoing assessment of my internet habits - addiction or useful engine of engagement?

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

A:  Jeez, I dunno. I was a weird kid, but I guess I am learning that a lot of people feel/have felt that way; maybe they just figure out how to hide it better than I did. Was I weirder than the average kid? Who can say. I do know that I was the only Asian American kid in my neighborhood, at my school, in my parents' church - in the whole town, basically. I guess that'll do something to ya, to be the only one of something, and I wonder how much of my ability to absorb an environment is a direct result of being the only Asian person in a small Idaho town. Actually, this is a lie. There were occasionally other Asians. There was a Japanese exchange student in my high school for our junior and senior years. But for the most part, walking into any situation, I was the only one. And I kept thinking I could blend in by feathering my hair and wearing blue eyeshadow and watching Hee-Haw. Live and learn - Hee-Haw is not the key to racial integration. I know this now.

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

A:  I wish we had multilateral (multi-operational?) channels of access, rather than the fairly vertical paths we all currently traverse - for both theatre-makers and audience members. For theatre-makers, I wish the "system" could recognize and embrace a much broader recognition of what theatre can be. For audience members, I wish ticket cost was not prohibitive, and also that there were artistic community-organizers who could lead meaningful cross-community engagement in the work - not just by inviting the "Asian audience" to the one "Asian play" in the season, but by creating an ongoing relationship across an entire season of plays. I wish theatre could stop insisting on silos of "identity" in the way they select, produce, and package work for marketing, and instead engage in the complications and contradictions that exist in everyone's experience.

Have I said too much? This is more than one thing. So. If one thing? That fear would cease to be a significant motivator for any artist, administrator, or audience member.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Anyone who has been knocked flatsplat and then gets back up and keeps going.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  You know, I don't have a genre or form or type. Anything with guts. Moments that hold me in the palm of their sweaty hand, tickle me, then punch me in the face. Bravery. Fuck-expectations-this-is-who-I-am writing. Willingness to risk being thought of as uncool. Ambition riding hell-for-leather toward the edge of current ability.

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

A:  Aigooahhh...I am just starting out myself. And I find that my writing time consists largely of me telling myself "It's okay. You can do this. Go ahead. Okay, maybe eat some boneless pork and jujubes first, then go ahead." And then I flail around. One bit of sanity I could offer is a quote from Melissa James Gibson, "Be kind to your impulses." That has helped me immeasurably, cuz I don't know about you, but for some reason, my tendency is to jump all over my impulses and bludgeon them to death with rancid dead fish thoughts like "YOU CAN'T WRITE THAT IT'S STUPID AND EVERYONE WILL KNOW THAT YOU ARE A MORON IN PLAYWRIGHT'S CLOTHING." Not helpful.


Being kind to impulses doesn't have to mean you end up using all of them, but the practice of kindness can make a sort of slip-n'-slide from your soul to your typing fingers, and once the flow is going, that's the sweet spot. You can sort it out later.

Q: Plugs, please:

A:  My pal, the great Chisa Hutchinson has a play at the Wild Project May 4-18th, 2013 called ALONDRA WAS HERE - get there if you can! I am going tomorrow and I am so excited! Go here for tickets: http://www.thewildproject.com/performances/index.shtml

The other Lark Playwrights Workshop Fellows have readings coming up too:
PING PONG by Rogelio Martinez
DEAD AND BREATHING by Chisa Hutchinson
SKELETON CREW by Dominique Morisseau
All free but ya gotta reserve a spot there's a link on this page: http://www.larktheatre.org/playwrights-workshop-2013/

brownsville song (b-side for tray)
@ Lark Play Development Center Playwrights Workshop reading on Tuesday May 14th 7:30pm
@ Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, June 2013 - if you're in Idaho (heh), check out the free reading
@ Bay Area Playwrights Festival, July 2013 - if you're in the Bay area, the BAPF website has info about reading time/dates.


 
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I Interview Playwrights Part 579: Lindsey Ferrentino

 


Lindsey Ferrentino

Hometown: Merritt Island, Florida

Current Town: Brooklyn, New York

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  I've been polishing up some plays, ironing out wrinkles for upcoming readings.

But I'm excited to be diving head first into researching and writing a new play, BURN GAME about female soldiers coming home from Iraq, reintegrating burn victims through virtual reality, video game therapy. The research phase is incredibly important to me when I write and I'm getting to work with a dear friend of mine who is a psychologist at a VA center, do some volunteer work, and interviews. Reading and hearing these first hand trauma testimonies has been so informative about how we write our own narrative, or avoid doing so.

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

A:  My dad is a professional magician and comedian, who, throughout my childhood, practiced his illusions at the dinner table until I understood the mechanics behind his tricks.
 

I grew up in the back row of comedy clubs and theaters, watching rooms full of adults miss the sleight of hand that I knew so well. Having already memorized my dad's act, I'd instead watch the faces in the audience-- eyes wide, laughing hysterically, eating out of the palm of his hand, wanting so deeply to be transported and believe in the impossible.

When I was about six, and my dad was out on the lawn talking to a neighbor, I kept opening the front door, waving my behind, clapping my hands, obnoxiously vying attention. After several requests to stop interrupting, my dad asked me why I'd continue... I said, "I'm like you. I have to go for the laugh."

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

A:  Okay. Here we go--
Cheaper to produce, cheaper to see.
That new work was a nationally cherished pastime, like baseball! With football stadium crowds knocking down the doors of theaters across the country, not just New York.
...And that a fairy flew to readings of all playwrights everywhere, turning them into realized productions.
One can dream...

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?
 

A:  Finding Edward Albee, back in high school, was like taking a sledgehammer and breaking open what I thought a play was and could be, how our failure to communicate was a greater tragedy than any plot I was trying to wring out. Katori Hall's plays feel to me like beautiful explosions that make me want to wake up from a sort of dream.

Also, my extended family is made up of many brilliant storytellers who trade punchlines, sarcasm, and gossip... where conversation is treated as entertainment.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?
 

A:  Theater that feels present.
That addresses what it means to be alive right now, in this year.
That makes me laugh and then punches me in the gut.
That finds poetry in the mundane and magic in the most unlikely of places...

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

A:  Find actors who understand the worlds you create, your words and rhythms. Find directors you trust to enhance your vision. And readers who are willing to tackle your early drafts, and identify your intentions.
 

Surround yourself with positive people whose talent and opinions you respect, cherish, and need... Whose work inspires yours... who dream of the same kind of uptopia... then fight like hell for your people.

Oh yeah... and also, just write... All the time...

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My MFA comrades Kristen Palmer, Daniel John Kelly, and Rob Cardazone will face the world with beautiful new works in hand, outside the doors of our grad. program. Watch our for them!

In June, my play--
MOONLIGHT ON THE BAYOU will have a second reading, directed by Patricia McGregor whose specificity in a rehearsal room is astounding.


Another play of mine MAGIC MAN will have a workshop at NYTW, directed by the wonderful Tamilla Woodward - who I can't wait to collaborate with for the first time.


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I Interview Playwrights Part 578: Jeff Augustin

Jeff Augustin

Hometown: Miami, FL

Current Town: La Jolla, CA (For only another year. Currently in grad school at UCSD)

Q:  What are you working on now?


A:  I’m working on two plays. Both at very different stages.

The first is THE LAST TIGER IN HAITI, which is mostly an idea right now. I’ll get a chance to write it this summer at Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor. It draws from a form of Haitian Storytelling known as Krik? Krak! In villages in Haiti, when a storyteller is ready or wants to share a story they say “Krik?” and if the other villagers want to hear a story they say: “Krak!” These stories come from a catalogue of folktales shared and passed down from generation to generation. What makes the stories special is the storyteller and how they embody it. The play is about three friends who, as children, would meet up and tell these stories. Ten years later they’re reunited by the alpha of the group for unknown reasons. It’s pretty much as far as I’ve gotten so far.

The other play, LITTLE CHILDREN DREAM OF GOD, I’ve been working on for a year now. It’s an eight-person ensemble piece revolving around a woman who travels from Haiti to Miami on a car tire eleven months pregnant. It deals a bit with Haitian mythology and voodoo. And explores what happens when we hold on to the fantasies we create as children. It’s a lot further along than the other play, but I’m still trying to figure out how it works. I’ll be developing it this summer at the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference.

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

A:  My mom was obsessed with family time activities that didn’t require us going out. So even though I grew up in Miami we had picnics in our living room or elaborate singing contests with costumes and dance routines.

But my favorite thing we did was story time. We'd shut off all the lights and other electronics, light some candles and tell stories. My mom would tell these urban legends about the town she grew up in in Haiti. And she was really good at telling stories. The worlds she created would fill the room. They were simple stories, but she told with great care and passion. It felt like being part of some great tradition. It’s really what got me into theatre.

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


A:  Offer cheaper tickets and more diverse voices in programing. I know that’s two things, sorry.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Jose Rivera, Dael Orlandersmith, Adrienne Kennedy, Tennessee Williams

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that excited those who made it. Theatre about a deep, human need. Theatre that feels personal and heartfelt, even if it’s sentimental. And I can’t get enough of beautiful language.

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


A;  Read and see a lot of theatre, especially new plays. Get to know other writers, both your heroes and peers. There is a wealth of knowledge and inspiration to be mined. And write more than you think you’re capable of.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Two fellow UCSD playwrights have things going on this summer: Look out for David Jacobi’s EX MACHINA in this year’s NY Fringe Festival (August) and Kristin Idaszak’s THE LIAR PARADOX as part of LeapFest at Stage Left Theatre in Chicago (June).

Also check out QUEERSPAWN by Mallery Avidon running at HERE Arts Center in May. She's awesome.



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I Interview Playwrights Part 577: Ken Ferrigni

Ken Ferrigni


Hometown:  St. Louis, Missouri

Current Town:  Astoria, Queens

Q:  Tell me about Occupation.

A:  OCCUPATION takes place a few years from now. A series of economic catastrophes have struck the US and it can no longer borrow money. China, depending on American as a trading partner, offers America 5 trillion dollars in exchange for the state of Florida. A group of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans form an insurgency behind an evangelical Christian leader, protesting what they see as the illegal transfer of Florida to China. The play concerns the final days of that insurgency.

The play started as kind of a thought experiment. I had just seen Sebastian Junger's documentary “Restrepo” and I thought that the Afghan insurgency might be the most interesting story in the world. But I didn't know any Afghani actors, had never been to Afghanistan, etc. So I thought could I create an American analog? So I swapped Afghanistan's Korengal valley for the Everglades, the Afghani Mujahideen for this next generation of American veterans, Islamic fundamentalism for Evangelical Christianity. And of course instead of an American occupying force, it would be America's creditor: the People's Republic of China.

My goal was to see how big a story I could tell. I'd seen a lot of family dramas, plays about 26-year-olds who were having trouble in their dating lives, and what I thought were essentially indie films masquerading as plays. So, the goal here was to personalize some of these extraordinary geo-political and religious conflicts into an American idiom. The result has been really exciting.

Q:  What else are you working on?

A:  I just finished a short film that's going to be shot this May about an assistant in HR department who is tasked by the president of the company to to fire the head of HR, sort of an Apocalypse Now meets Office Space thing. I'm also working on a couple of full length plays as well as continually revising my 19th Century bomb-throwing epic about Felice Orsini. I write nearly every month for “Our Bar,” an hour-long series of vignettes at an upstairs bar in Murray Hill produced by Jessi Blue Gormezano and Project: Theater.

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

A:  Having worked a lot regionally as an actor in St. Louis, Los Angeles, and Florida, I guess the thing I'd love most would be if the regional theatre model wasn't just a New York play distribution model. I remember working in St. Louis and watching plays about Manhattan roll in and they really had nothing to do with the people in the audience. I kind of wish that theatrical regional tastes were like culinary regional tastes and we might know the differences between a Arizona-developed play and Nebraska-developed play enough to celebrate them. Of course, it's entirely possible that there are tons of people in the US theatre establishment who already have this awareness and I'm just slow on the uptake.

Also, I wish Broadway theatre tickets didn't cost more than a day's wage for most NYC theatre practioners. If you bought tickets at the box office to all the shows that were nominated for the Tonys this year, you dropped more than 3 grand.

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 started doing theatre in Boy Scouts when I was ten and it wasn't called theatre. They were just called 'skits.' It sounds wholesome but this was in the city of St. Louis in the late 80s. I was a Boy Scout in a troop where kids stole bikes from each other. Fights were pretty regular. Standing up in front of that group felt really dangerous and rarely went well. I think that aesthetic – that the audience is hostile, they want to be entertained and quickly, that the stage is not a nice place but a place of danger- has been a big part of how I developed in the theatre.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  The ones who persevere. I've been at this for a while as an actor and a playwright and I've watched a lot of friends hang it up. So when I see a guy like Alex Roe at Metropolitan Playhouse whose been at this a lot longer than I have and he's producing great shows and he seems not only happy and talented but also sane, it's an inspiration.

I also love actors who dive in on to new plays. Actors who aren't content to give their special spin on established roles but who want to create new people and new characters and give voice to things that nobody's ever seen. It takes guts and smarts and talent.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  OCCUPATION runs June 6 to June 23 at TBG Theatre (312 W. 36th Street). You can find out more at chinabuysflorida.com. And if you want to come have a beer with me and catch some short plays, stop by “Our Bar” on the first Wednesday of the month at Failte Irish Whiskey Bar (531 2nd Avenue) or ourbarnyc.com.



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I Interview Playwrights Part 576: Eliza Bent

Eliza Bent



Hometown: Brookline, MA



Current Town: Brooklyn, NY



Q:  Tell me about The Hotel Colors.



A:  Allora. I wrote The Hotel Colors my first semester at Brooklyn College. I was impressed by those beautiful poetic Beckett plays and how he was translating from French into English. My teacher, Mac Wellman, suggested I try using a similar technique with Italian. So I ended up writing a play set at a hostel in Rome where the characters speak in a very direct literal translation from Italian into English.



So there’s a strong language device happening in the play (and the result is not at all like Beckett) but underneath the language game a gentle story emerges about these weirdos coming together and spending a night with each other at a hostel. Nothing super monumental happens… the group eats pizza, they play drinking games, someone turns a year older, an ex-lover appears, but the evening is memorable to these characters for the same reasons you might remember certain vibrant nights while traveling more than others.



Incidentally, I have stayed at a place called Colors Hotel. I lived there for a few weeks when I landed in Rome after graduating from college. (Clearly, I’m not very original with titles…!) This play is loosely inspired from time spent there and at other hostels, mostly in Italy.



Q:  What else are you working on?



A:  I’m working on a show about wizards who live in a modern and mundane age. It’s called Blue Wizard/Black Wizard and it’ll be at the Incubator Arts Project in December 2013 directed by Dan Safer. I’ll play the Blue Wizard and Dave Malloy, who is writing the music, will play the Black Wizard. It’s staged like a sporting event and Nikki Calonge and Mikéah Ernest Jennings, preside over the ongoings.



But one of the referees used to be a wizard. And the wizards misbehave and one of the referees quits and leaves the theatre. Plus, there’s a trombone player jester. And video sequences. So there’s a lot. And the referees and wizards must do an elaborate series of warm ups that takes them in and out of epic historic moments and quotidian life. They battle each other via song. There is a series of contests. The audience will have to pick a side when they enter the theatre. It’s ultimately kind of a “philosophy-off” where the wizards and referees duel over ancient ideals in order to save the world from the Great Mediocrity. Or something like that.



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 will tell you about three movies which contribute to my personality. The 1986 PBS version of Anne of Green Gables starring Megan Follows, Wayne’s World and Cinema Paradiso. Anne sparked to my love of words and florid vocabulary, Wayne affirmed my deep commitment to scatology, while Toto and Alfredo introduced me to the most musical and beautiful language, Italian.



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



A:  One thing? Hmm. I love to complain—and I excel at all manners of lamentation— but I would probably like all us theatre artists to moan a little less. Making theatre can be sucky but it’s also pretty amaze. We are lucky to make theatre!



Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?



A:  I only have anti-heros. They include Anne Brenner who is directing The Hotel Colors, all my Half Straddle compatriots, Brooklyn College peeps, Oma-whores (ie people that attend the Great Plains Theatre Conference), the Fusebox Festival folks, Dave Malloy and Rachel Chavkin, and anyone who runs a theatre space, and also those old playwrights like Chekhov and Tennesse Williams and Lorraine Hansberry.



Q:  What kind of theater excites you?



A:  I am very excited by theatre that plays with theatrical convention and form. I am thrilled when I see a show that could have only been performed as theatre (as opposed to something on TV). I like it when theatre has good visual design and also interesting words and that manages to make me feel and think and laugh.



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



A:  Don’t do it!

J/k.

I would advise young playwrights to find people who they enjoy working with and who inspire them. I’d also recommend maintaining a non-theatre life. Keep up with other interests and friends. I am terrified by theatre theatre people, whose only interests are theatre, how myopic! Oh and it doesn’t hurt to figure out a way of making money that can maintain your theatre habit.



Q:  Plugs, please:



A:  As the great Becca Blackwell says, “Butt plug hugs!”



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