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Jul 31, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 480: Colby Day


Colby Day

Hometown: Alamo, CA

Current Town: Brooklyn, NY

Q:  Tell me about Giant Killer Slugs.

A:  Giant Killer Slugs is a creature feature written for the stage, which means there's slime, teenagers, and a lot of really campy 50's slang. It was originally a screenplay that I wrote while at NYU. I converted it into a stage play after seeing a call for "unproducible" theater scripts last year. They didn't want it, I'm assuming because the stage direction "hundreds, thousands, millions of slugs" was too frightening, so I sent it to the Literary Manager of Pipeline Theatre Company, who really loved it, and it found its little slug home.

Slugs essentially became a theater piece because it felt like such an impossibility. As a result, a lot of our conversations in designing the show have been about how to capture the feel of those schlocky 1950's science fiction films, from the special effects and wardrobe down to what it feels like to sit in the theater. There are tons of characters, and so many scenes, because these movies move fast, and hitting exactly what these films feel like, on stage, and in 3-D, is essential to making it fun for an audience.

It's a really crazy comedy, but something I really strive for is characters with grounded, realistic motivations. The saying goes tragedy plus time equals comedy, but I think comedy is always present. The comedy comes simply from the fact that the tragedy we're watching unfold for characters is something that we think should never be taken seriously. When those situations, like giant slugs who eat people, are met with deathly earnestness, that's the comedy this show taps into.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  I just finished a feature film script, so that will be what I'm rewriting for the near future. It's a dark, claymation movie set in the North Pole. I'm trying to make it The Dark Knight of Christmas claymation movies, so that's a really fun tone and world to play with.

I have a short piece The Great Molly which Pipeline produced last season that I want to expand into an epic, three act story about a young girl who becomes a world-renowned magician. I've always wanted to say something about the American Dream, and this feels like something that might be large enough to do that, while maintaining room to squeeze in some juggling and/or fire-breathing.

Daniel Johnsen (who has directed all two of my full-length plays) and I are also floating around an idea for an opera with puppets, but I don't want to give too much away. I can say that it also has magic in it. Clearly I like magical things.

I've also got a television pilot in the works, and some web stuff going on hopefully.

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

A:  There was only one family with children who lived on our street besides our own, but no matter how hard my parents tried, my brother and I refused to be friends with them. Instead, we stayed at home and filmed our own versions of The X-Files, Indiana Jones, and fake commercials. Thankfully, none of those video cassettes still exist. I hope.

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

A:  Submissions guidelines. Look, I get it, theater is expensive. Yes, it's hard to produce plays, especially if there are 50 speaking roles. But, do we really need theaters out there demanding that playwrights only write plays with 2-4 characters (ideally with one setting and minimal props/costumes)? I have run into well-respected writing fellowships, grants, and theaters that will not accept work with more than 4 characters. You wouldn't even accept Romeo & Juliet for your staged reading?

I know firsthand that theater costs a lot, and yes, it's a logistical nightmare to schedule rehearsals for a 14 person show, but, do we really need to self-impose even more limitations on what is already a difficult medium struggling to carve out a niche opposite film, television, and online content? Mightn't watching and marveling at how exactly a small theater manages to deal with many characters, location changes, and other logistically creative problems be something theater has to offer that no other medium provides?

It seems to me a lack of imagination, in what is supposed to be the medium most inviting of imagination, to impose practical considerations on the playwrights. If you want to run a theater company, you better be brave, because theater is incredibly risky. You've already set yourself a remarkably foolish challenge, so why not embrace it? It's a shame to, in order to be economically viable, refuse to even consider work of a larger scale than a kitchen sink drama (or comedy), unless your mission as a company strictly prohibits it from an artistic standpoint.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  I think my big three dead playwrights would be Thornton Wilder, Tennessee Williams, and William Shakespeare. Those seem like such a boring three, so I feel like I have to defend my choice. I am the first to admit that I have a hard time reading Shakespeare, but the man had a knack for low-brow comedy that my high school English teachers failed to explain to me until I'd seen productions of his plays. Thornton Wilder captures what it means to fall in love, with people and with life itself, and Our Town will always be a classic for that reason. And Tennessee Williams' Camino Real, while definitely a flawed play, has a sincerity in its fantasy that I owe a great debt to.

As far as contemporary voices go, I think Pipeline Theatre Company might legitimately be my heroes. They've championed my work with passion and diligence, and I have seen nothing but love and determination poured into everything they've ever done. Evan Twohy and Alex Mills are two contemporaries of mine who I am enormously fond of, and who've taught me more than I'd care to admit to their faces. Glenn Hergenhahn, Raven Burnett, Andrew Farmer, James Monaco, Jessica Fleitman, Ruben Carbajal, Carys Edwards and Lauren Gunderson have all written phenomenal things that I wish I'd done first.

I'd also consider every playwright out there who has found a television writing job in the past five years my hero, because hopefully one of them will find me and tell me how to do that for myself.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Anything with guts. Theater is about spectacle, and wonder, so shows with large scopes, or an unusual setting immediately perk my interest by demonstrating that they're going to take some risks. Theater should be an exciting event, not something you sit through feeling like you have to pay attention and take it seriously. Break my heart a little bit, but help me pick up the pieces again too. It's corny, but, theater should inspire audiences to imagine, and explore what it means to live our lives together. If something is funny and sad at the same time, you've nailed it as far as I'm concerned.

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

A:  I feel like I'm still starting out, so here's the advice I give myself: Find someone to be your champion. If nobody will, do it yourself. The old guard has never understood what was new, different, and going to be the next big thing, so why would you want them to produce your play anyway? You're a young upstart, find other young upstarts.

Being in Pipeline, I know for a fact that there are tons of young theater companies looking desperately for plays with characters in their age range. Every year a new company graduates from pretty much every drama school in the country. Find them and write plays for 20-somethings to produce.

The best writing advice I ever got, and it took me a long time to appreciate it, was "Write what scares you." If you're worried a scene is too trite, make it the most trite, cliche-riddled scene you've ever written. Work through what you're afraid of on the page. Don't stop yourself from doing it. Also, "re-write" means "write again," not "edit slightly." I'm afraid to do it every time, but words simply are not precious. Words literally spew forth from our mouths and fingers incessantly. Our job is to find precisely the correct combination, which sometimes means starting over from zero.

Go to all the rehearsals, and listen to how directors talk to actors. Your director should be your best friend and you should be able to talk until early morning about what the play is about, and how to make it that way. You'll learn in the room that some things you write aren't actable. Rather than making this a problem for your actors, make this a problem for yourself. How can you write them so they are actable? This is a great learning experience for realizing that the line you thought would be so funny and clever coming from this character, doesn't actually make sense when you think about it from this character's perspective. Let your actors improvise, then you can decide what fits for the character and what doesn't.

As for building comedy, it should be a serious business. The best way to write something funny is to take your characters seriously. Would they really do this, or are they doing it because it's funny to me the playwright? Be a sadist, and hurt your characters. Doing the worst thing you can imagine to them will often give you the best dramatic and comedic outcomes.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My feature film I Don't Want to Kill Myself screens at The Art of Brooklyn Film Festival August 8th. Tickets are available here.

And please do come see Giant Killer Slugs, running August 22nd - September 2nd at Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival. Pipeline's website has more info and tickets are available here.

Follow me on Twitter, like my movie & Pipeline on Facebook. My website: www.colbyday.com.

Jul 26, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 479: Jeffrey James Keyes


Jeffrey James Keyes

Hometown: I grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the 80's. We lived near a forest in a neighborhood called Bay View, which is just off of Lake Michigan: I spent my childhood climbing trees, diving off the back of sailboats, chasing fireflies, and dreaming big. I couldn't think of a better place to grow up.

Current Town: I live in Washington Heights, in Manhattan. Instead of walking my dog through the forest I take her on adventures through the uptown urban jungle. In addition to being a playwright I'm lucky to work as a travel writer and photographer, I often find myself writing late at night in the great European capitals.

Q: Tell me about The End Of Days.

A: I've always been fascinated by the quiet and human moments that happen during extraordinary events. The End of Days is the story of a travel photographer who becomes terrified the world is going to end. He finds himself in New York City on the last night of the End of the Mayan Calendar and hunts down the girl he's supposed to be with. My play is a dark love story; a response to the question, if the world is going to end tomorrow, who would you want to spend your End of Days with? The End of Days will be performed at the Soho Playhouse as part of the New York International Fringe Festival. Terry Berliner is directing this new production featuring Adam David Thompson and Libby Winters. Chris Eleftheraides, Maribeth Fox, and Jonah Chmielewski-Fox are the producers. Jonah, our executive producer, is two-years-old and he's quite demanding.

Q: What else are you working on now?

A: My next play, 17, is about four teenage boys who go on a backpacking trip on Isle Royale, a remote island in Lake Superior. I additionally have three other plays baking in the oven and two television pilots on the cooling rack. When I finished graduate school, a good friend approached me about collaborating on a book that's been keeping me busy. I'll be in Sweden next week taking pictures and building editorial content about a number of events in Stockholm, then August will be all about the Fringe Festival.

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 family didn't have a lot of money growing up but we always used to travel extensively throughout my home state. I think the landscape of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes influenced me tremendously. I remember going up to my family's farm in Ashfield, near Lake Superior and reading Steinbeck by moonlight on my farmhouse my great grandparents built. My family used to rent a cottage up in the North Woods near Verna Lake in Minoqua and my sister would bring suitcases of books to read while we listened to the loons on the lake. Whether we were hiking and rock climbing in Devil's Lake or running between ancient Native American burial grounds in Aztalan, I was always listening, collecting stories, and experiencing nature and local tradition wherever I happened to be. I recently went back and read Goodbye, Wisconsin, a novel by my relative Glenway Wescott, and I got nostalgic for the Wisconsin of my childhood. I feel it was the ultimate launching pad for me to experience and take note of the world around me.

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

A: I have a pretty experimental background but I'm completely obsessed with realism. I would like for writers to take care of their audience more. I'm all for spectacle, glamour, and mystique but I think theater fundamentally should tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. There's plenty of room to play within those parameters, but I'm drawn to going to see plays by writers like William Inge, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill, Thornton Wilder, and Lanford Wilson because I feel as if I'm constantly learning and gaining insight about life through their masterful storytelling.

Q: Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A: I have been blessed to learn from some extraordinary individuals. I moved to New York to study theater performance with the late, great Lawrence Sacharow. Larry was without a doubt the most influential person in my career as an artist. He got me hooked on Anton Chekhov and encouraged me to study and learn from the great Russian dramatists and writers and introduced me to the work of Jerzy Grotowski. In 2000 he brought me to Italy to dig deeper into experimental and physical theater by studying at the Work Center of Jerzy Grotowski and Thomas Richards, with Natalia Federova of the Moscow Art Theatre, and at Ellen Stewart's LaMaMa-Umbria. Larry's passion and devotion to theater and the arts reminds me I can always work harder and do better. My real life heroes are, of course, my boyfriend Chris, my family, and my circle of friends. I would do anything for these people, and want to write great stories to share with them and everyone.

Q: What kind of theater excites you?

A: I'm excited about all kinds of theater. I'm always impressed by the work of Moises Kaufman and the Tectonic Theater Project. I additionally loved David Cromer's production of Our Town a few years back and could have seen Tracy Letts' play August: Osage Country a hundred times. In New York, I typically love the programming at The Atlantic Theater Company, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, and Second Stage Theatre. As much as I'm a "traditional narrative junkie" I'm always blown away by the work of more experimental directors like Anne Bogart and Ivo van Hove. I also enjoy going to spectacles like Fuerzabruta and De La Guarda because there's something so ritualistic and expressive about these works that grabs you by the core and forces you to wake up.

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

A: Writers obviously need to set aside a significant amount of time to daydream, write, and read each day but downtime is just as important. I've always been inspired by Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the "Lost Generation" of expatriate writers from the 20's because they lived life to the fullest and were still able to generate a ridiculous amount of material. Get in the car and drive somewhere you've never been, talk to strangers, grab drinks with friends, immerse yourself in nature, wander around in museums, and expose yourself to all kinds of other artwork. Most importantly, take time to take care of yourself so you can be creative and present with your writing and in the room.

Q: Plugs, please:

A: The End of Days will be performed at the Soho Playhouse from August 15-25. We only have five performances: Wednesday August 15 at 5:30pm, Sunday August 19 at 7pm, Thursday, August 21 at 8:45pm, Wednesday, August 22 at 7pm, and Saturday, August 25 at 5:15pm. Tickets are available for $15 in advance by visiting the FringeNYC website here: http://www.fringenyc.org/basic_page.php?ltr=E - just scroll down to my show and select the day you can make.

 I will also be participating in two extraordinary playwright happenings in August: the Write Out Front Project, inspired by Micheline Auger, and The 31 Plays in 31 Days Project. If you're in the New York area, be sure to come to see the work in New York Madness. I'm proud to be a Unit Writer with this group of daring writers who present strong and consistent work with guest artists at their monthly events.

Jul 12, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 478: Carlos Murillo



Carlos Murillo

Hometown: b. Freeport, NY. Grew up in Levittown, NY, Caracas, Venezuela, Bogota Colombia, and Garden City, NY. Spent my formative years in Brooklyn, NY.

Current Town: Chicago, IL

Q:  What are you working on now?

A:  A bunch of stuff - just put the finishing touches on a revision on A THICK DESCRIPTION OF HARRY SMITH, based on a workshop production we just did with P73 - and also actively looking for a place to do a longer run in NYC and elsewhere. In the process of writing/trying to finish a commission for Steppenwolf - which is about a literary hoax. Also beginning work on my first TYA play for Adventure Stage here in Chicago - we're working closely with the community served by the Northwestern Settlement House where the theatre is located. That piece is scheduled for production in April 2013. I am also a teacher - I head the BFA Playwriting Program at The Theatre School of DePaul University, which is an on-going work-in-progress.

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

A:  I was a notorious underachiever in grade school. In sixth grade I decided I would only do homework assignments that interested me, everything else I would only put in a half-hearted effort, turn in late, or simply not do at all. The stuff that jazzed me were projects that involved some sort of creative effort - I would put my entire self into them at the expense of everything else. I loved doing things that involved glue, magic markers, clay, cutting out images from magazines, blowing things up.... My 6th grade teacher, Ms. Jural, was kind of evil. I remember she wore her long grey hair in a tight braid, and she peered over her bifocals at the class with unmasked condescension bordering on hatred. It was clear then as it is to me now that teaching 6th grade was a form of condemnation for her.

One day she gave us an assignment to write a short story on any subject. Out of character for her, as most of the work she assigned us triggered in me a feeling of paralysis. This one, though... my mind exploded and I let my imagination run wild every available hour that week (at the expense of all other homework) concocting a crazed tale of a rogue worker at a NYC burger joint who chemically altered a cheeseburger so that it would grow to enormous proportions and wreck havoc on New York City. (I borrowed liberally, if semi-consciously, from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, which I had just seen for the first time.)

The day the story was due, Ms. Jural had each of the students read their stories. I could not wait to be called on - I reveled in the chance to share this early product of my imagination with my classmates. They ate it up - laughed in all the right places.... their responses grew more vocal, more rowdy in proportion to the outrageousness of the story as it unfolded - by the end, things got a little out of hand... I hadn't intended to, but by the end of the story (which was way longer than the assignment asked - a pattern I have repeated in many of my plays) Ms. Jural had lost control of the classroom.

At the end of each story, Ms. Jural would offer a quick summary evaluation. When the chaos died down after my turn, I waited eagerly for her response, because I thought I had done so well. Her response? One word: "Overkill." When she handed the story back a few days later, a giant letter C graced the title page.

I think that's when I became a writer.

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

A:  I could go on for pages and pages about this. I think the majority of folks would agree that the patient is gravely ill, and unless there is a wholesale rethinking of our current producing models, we're all gonna be in a heap of trouble. For the exception of a few places like NY, Chicago, Minneapolis, LA, DC and a handful of other cities, there aren't a whole lot of places that have self-sustaining, healthy ecospheres for theatre makers and audiences. The original purpose of the regional theater system, at least as I understand it, was to plant seeds in those parts of the country where those ecospeheres were non-existent. Which would suggest that those seed theatres would function as a kind of agora specific to the community it served, where artist and audience would would be in dialogue in a very direct, community- and geography-specific way.... in other words, the regional theatres would embrace regionalism in the very best sense of the term, employing home grown artists and administrators to create work that would speak to their specific audience. Didn't turn out that way - I think the system, and the good intentions that gave rise to it, has devolved to a point where regional theatres have become similar to movie multiplexes - where old chestnuts and the hits from last year's season in NY make their rounds, where there is little to distinguish the programming theatre to theatre throughout the country, and anything that speaks directly to the concerns of the community gets lost in the shuffle. Lost in that is any real commitment to PLACE and all that that entails. And when they do generate work on their own, it's so often with an eye to future life in NY, and not the needs of their particular community. This isn't a very friendly environment for anyone to work in.

My proposal: at the end of every season in NY we can make a pretty good guess which plays will make the "most produced" list the following year in AMERICAN THEATRE. Why not follow the Broadway touring model for those plays? Put together four or five road companies that will bring those plays to all the theatres that want them. Maybe that sounds icky and too commercial - but the reality is that a good incentive to produce those plays - aside from the quality of the works themselves - is the box office cachet that comes from something that comes with the NY Times stamp of approval. I imagine (and this is probably naive on my part, as I really have no business sense) that taking this ready-made approach would free up a lot of local resources that could be channeled into fostering local talent and new work generated by and for the communities that theatres are supposed to serve. Everyone wins - people are employed, theatres sell tickets and space can be created for the unknown.

I also think the successful big theatres around the country ought to commit to developing young artists in their communities in meaningful ways - Steppenwolf is doing this with great success through their Garage Rep series. Each year they throw the door open for small, young companies (most of which are the spiritual descendants of the "adrenaline, gaffer tape and a dream" model of the original Steppenwolf that started in a church basement) to produce a rotating repertory of shows. It's hugely successful - and mutually beneficial: the small companies get a bump up for being annointed by Steppenwolf and learn a thing or two about producing in the process, and Steppenwolf reaps the benefits of attracting younger audiences into their theatre, and perhaps more philosophically, they do honor to their own historical legacy by paying it forward to the next generation.

Lastly, I think the spate of new, excessive, starchitect designed buildings, complete with bridges to nowhere, that came during the illusory flush years should have sparked community-wide outrage when the world came crashing down in 2008. People rightfully raged at the banks for their gross mismanagement and absurd compensation for CEOs - why isn't there the same anger in the smaller scale world of the theatre? Millions squandered on buildings, six figure salaries for administrators, while compensation for actors, playwrights, directors and designers has remained pretty much flat - sounds to me like the theatre is not much different than latter day capitalist America. Think of the monstrous resources that went into putting those things up - I like to think that it's not the form of the building that makes the institution, but rather the contents within.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  People I learned from directly that changed my life and/or shaped a lot of my thinking about what we do, and who have influenced my role as a mentor to students: Maria Irene Fornes, Morgan Jenness, Robert Woodruff, David Greenspan, Shelby Jiggetts, Eduardo Machado, Luis Alfaro, Anne Bogart, Todd London.

Then there are the historical models - Georg Buchner, Bertolt Brecht, Richard Foreman, Tadeuz Kantor, Sam Shepard, Joe Papp, Frank Wedekind, Eugene O'Neill to name a few.

Then there are non-theatrical folks whose work, to me, is a kind of theatre: David Bowie, Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, Harry Smith, Italo Calvino, Roberto Bolano, Bob Dylan, Rem Koolhaas, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Wilhelm Reich, Terry Gilliam, Lenny Bruce, Bill Hicks, Eric Hebborn, Richard Nixon, and so on.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theatre that makes me feel like I've LIVED through an EXPERIENCE (as opposed to OBSERVING someone else LIVE THROUGH/EXPERIENCE something)... where I feel like some essential part of me/my soul/my mind has been rewired. Where I lose the consciousness that I am watching a made thing - but going through something that forces my mind to travel great distances inward and outward - inward in the sense that my own demons are exposed, and outward in the sense that my consciousness of the impossible complexities and paradoxes of human existence is heightened. So often I watch things and I become all-too-conscious of the parts that make up the whole - the quality of writing, directing, acting, design, etc. I sometimes think that's the curse of making the stuff - it's very difficult to completely give over. Those are only partial experiences, many of which I value a great deal. However, those lived-through experiences versus those partial experiences, which feel more like observation, to me is the difference between a deep tissue massage and a casual back rub. A few examples: the recent production of ICEMAN COMETH at The Goodman Theatre - all 5 glorious, soul-destroying hours of it... Reza Abdoh's QUOTATIONS FROM A RUINED CITY... Andrei Serban's FRAGMENTS OF A GREEK TRILOGY... all of those pieces were traumatic - made me feel like my soul was in danger, that what was taking place before my eyes was like a hand forcing my mouth open, reaching in and rearranging my insides... but having gone through them I became a bigger human being, and possibly a better artist.

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

A: 
1) Characters have bodies distinct from your own.
2) Those bodies come in all shapes, sizes, colors. They move through the world in very specific, idiosyncratic ways.
3) Those bodies are decisive in so many ways - they shape thought patterns, speech, the experience of emotion, self-perception, perception of the "other" - the whole concept of need & expression is intimately tied with the body in space.
4) A play, in many ways, is a collection of distinct bodies trapped in a space - your task is to follow the dance that ensues.
5) Your task, in writing the play, is to forget your own body, and to imagine being inside a body not your own, and honoring all the messy complexity that entails.
6) In doing so, you honor the integrity of your characters not as products of your imagination, but as actualities that exist in the world independent of you.
7) If you can honor their autonomy, they might tell you truths you'd never arrive at on your own.
8) Overwrite until your characters have said and done everything they needed to say and do. Then be merciless with yourself.
9) Forgive the brutal honesty, BUT: hundreds and hundreds of plays are written and circulated through literary offices, agencies, contest judges, publishers, grad school selection committees each year. They need another play like they need a hole in their head. Make yours COUNT. Make yours NECESSARY. Make yours something NO ONE ELSE IN THE WORLD COULD POSSIBLY HAVE WRITTEN. Make yours prove that it NEEDS TO EXIST.
10) Lastly - the first image is perfect and hopelessly imperfect. Embrace both.

Jul 11, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 477: Yasmine Beverly Rana



Yasmine Beverly Rana

Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana

Q:  Tell me about The Fallen.

A:  The Fallen is rooted in Sarajevo where I volunteered as a teacher and drama therapist to returning and refugee youth after the war. The city has become more than a geographical reference, but an indelible mark on my mission as a playwright, teacher, therapist, and human being. It was a profound experience that hasn't left my writer's soul. The play began in whispers: whispers to keep the story of Sarajevo alive, whispers throughout my travels to other cities connected to the conflict. I had written about the Bosnian war in previous plays, but this time I wanted to tell the story of ethnic cleansing, of the children born from the systematic rapes, but tell it through a relationship between a mother and her daughter over a span of twenty years from the beginning of the war to the current international criminal tribunals at the Hague. Nora’s Playhouse, a company I co-founded with director Caroline Reddick Lawson and Emily Richard is producing the play. It’s been a gift working with a tremendously talented group of people including producer Jenn Haltman, Jacquelyn Honeybourne, along with a powerful cast and production team.

Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  My latest play Another Spring is about an intimate relationship within the turmoil of the Arab Spring. The play is an assault, an interrogation, a love affair, an exploration of democracy all within the confines of a bedroom between two lovers and a holding cell between a demonstrator and interrogator. I’m also actively working with our company, Nora’s Playhouse, helping tell the stories of women through readings and productions.

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 mother has often told the story of when I was three and taken to “audition” for admission to a nursery school. I was asked to observe the class as they sat in a circle and participated in some activity. Standing outside their circle, I watched for a moment, and then declared, not asked (as the story is told), “Room for one more,” and pushed my way into the circle to join the group. The school accepted me on the spot. There’s always room for one more play, one more interpretation, one more story to be told. Our voices as playwrights are unique, as our experiences.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  The directors I’ve had the privilege of watching their magic: George Ferencz of La MaMa, Justine Lambert of The Looking Glass Theatre, John Pietrowski and James Glossman of Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Jatinder Verma of Tara Arts in London, and of course, Caroline Reddick Lawson of Nora’s Playhouse. I’ve learned from each one and am deeply grateful for their artistic collaboration. I’ve found inspiration from Ellen Stewart, Richard Schechner, Carol Martin, Naveen Kishore. What an honor for me to say I’ve worked with these artists and scholars. To all I say a word I often used in Sarajevo, “hvala”. Thank you!

Q:  What kind of theatre excites you?

A:  I’m excited by theatrical risks in content and style. I’m excited by work outside the four walls of a theatre. I’m excited by work that’s produced outside the theatre cities of London and New York. Some of the greatest theatre I’ve seen has been in a township in South Africa, an auto garage in the Czech Republic, and a stage in Cluj, Romania.

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

A:  Don’t hang out with writers all the time. Find inspiration in other genres and experiences. Yes, it's wonderful having a community of writers. But the plays I wrote within that community when I was just starting out and the plays I write now following my experiences as an English as a Second Language teacher and Registered Drama Therapist tell very different stories. I didn't go into an MFA program thinking I would become a licensed therapist or a teacher. It wasn't a path I had planned, but it's been a wondrous one, allowing me to work with immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, survivors of torture, families with chemical dependency. If there hadn’t been rejection in those early years, I wouldn’t have looked outside a theatre to find my playwright’s voice. I wouldn’t have become a teacher and therapist. I wouldn’t have gone to work in Europe, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, and I wouldn’t have written The War Zone is My Bed, Returning, or The Fallen.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  My first book, The War Zone is My Bed and Other Plays recently published by Seagull Books’ In Performance Series and University of Chicago Press is an anthology of four plays: Blood Sky, Returning, The War Zone is My Bed, and Paradise. The book’s origins are quite serendipitous in relation to the production of The Fallen with director Caroline Reddick Lawson and producer Emily Richard. The first Nora’s Playhouse project was a production of the first two scenes from The War Zone is My Bed. We did it in a compact space above a friend’s Belgian beer bar. In the audience was Caroline’s professor Richard Schechner, who subsequently published the second scene of the play, “Blackened Windows” in TDR: The Drama Review, and that publication led to the anthology. This year, I've done readings from the book in London and Warsaw. Lisbon is next month.

The Fallen runs July 18-21 at the
Jerry H. Labowitz Theatre for the Performing Arts
1 Washington Place (at Broadway)
New York, NY 10003
Ticketing information at Brown Paper Tickets
Further information on the production and Nora's Playhouse at www.norasplayhouse.org

UPDATE:  BLOOD SKY is running through April 6 2014 at at T. Schreiber Studio and Theater. 

Jul 6, 2012

I Interview Playwrights Part 476: Greg Pierotti


Greg Pierotti

Hometown:  Alexandria, VA. A seemingly harmless place that has created a lot of very weird people.

Current Town:  New York.

Q:  Tell me about Apology.

A:  Apology is a play based on hundreds of hours of Apologies that the artist Allan Bridge collected on his home answering machine. The Apology Line, as his project was called, had 5 distinct iterations.

1. In 1980 Bridge put up posters around the worst neighborhoods in New York, which were all pretty bad at that time, challenging criminals to apologize for their misdeeds. "Attention Criminals! you have wronged individuals. It is to individuals you must apologize not to the state, not to god. Apology is a private experiment. It’s sole purpose is to provide a new avenue of communication. It is not associated in any way with any police, governmental, religious, or other organization. Get your misdeeds off your chest. Call Apology." A surprisingly large number wrongdoers called  to leave their often weirdly moving apologies on his machine. At this point callers were just lone voices talking into the void.

2. Bridge had a "show" at the new museum in 1983 and felt very dissatisfied with the disconnect between the subjects who were apologizing and the "viewers" who were listening. He decided to cut out the art world as middle man and began editing programs of the best calls. He played the programs on his outgoing message and changed them monthly at first, then biweekly. Now callers to the line could listen to each other, make comments, and even have conversations if they had the patience to wait a month for a response. About ten years before the internet became the thing, Allan created a virtual community of criminals in his apartment.

3. This second period lasted 11 years but was interrupted by a particular caller, Richie the serial killer. Richie called between 1985 and 1990. He completely consumed Allan's attention, and eclipsed all of the other callers. Allan's obsession and identification with Richie almost destroyed the line as well as Allan's marriage. When Allan let on that he and a friend,  following a lead from one of Richie's messages, had been out on the streets in Times Square looking for him, Richie stopped calling and was never heard from again.

4. In 1992, in a failed attempt to make some money off the project, Allan created a Zine that featured the most interesting calls of the quarter and some fantastic outsider art solicited from the community. There were ten issues in all.

5. Finally, in 1993, The Line switched to a computerized answering system. Callers could skip over the content and go straight to leaving their apology. Or alternatively, they could spend hours navigating the touch tone menu, selecting from amongst the subject matter they wanted to hear. Ie. For murder press 1, for incest press 2, for complaints and commentary 3, for religious zealotry press 4, for grand and petty larceny press 5 etc.

Allan and his wife Marissa were deep sea divers, and their relationship with diving and with the sea is an important aspect of their story. In 1995, Allan Bridge was killed in a diving accident bringing the line to a close after 15 years wild and rich years.


Q:  What else are you working on now?

A:  Nothing

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 very young I had a toy, I think it was called creepy crawlers? - You would squeeze colored jelly into metal molds and which you would then bake to create different bouncy gelatinous creatures - eye balls and centipedes and so forth. I used to love to smell the chemicals as they baked and I also would poke my fingers inside the little cooker sometimes, which would give me a little shock. I am still drawn to toxic material and enjoy putting my fingers in the metaphorical socket.

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

A:  I would somehow make the state value the arts in general and theater in particular so that they created many well funded state theaters across America. I recently watched Pina again and I was just so discouraged by it. Pina Bausch was this incredible genius, and had she been born in the United States, she could never have created the body of work that she did nor could she have gathered that amazing company of artists around her. It wasn't just Pina Bausch and the company that created the work. It was the city of Wuppertal and the German Government. The for profit model and the for profit criteria we have here in the states to support the creation of new theatrical works, can sometimes produce a good play, but it doesn't allow time or space for great art that sheds light on the human heart.

Q:  Who are or were your theatrical heroes?

A:  Leigh Fondawoski and Moises Kaufman are more colleagues than heroes, but I have learned so much from them about making good theater that I need to mention them here.

The Wooster Group, because they are so theatrical and funny and have such a sense of play, they make me very happy. 

Reza Abdoh, Pina Bausch, Shakepeare, Shaw, Pinter, Beckett, O'Neill, Wilde, Williams.

Q:  What kind of theater excites you?

A:  Theater that understands itself as a unique art form distinct from televisions and film, and that seeks to create the kind of magic that only can be created in live performance. I have certainly appreciated well crafted pieces of theater in the naturalistic living room style, but I wouldn't say I've been excited by them. And I always think, "but i could have stayed home and watched that on TV if they had chosen the right form."

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

A:  Start now to connect to other writers directors actors designers who share your aesthetics and values and try to create community with them, try to create work together, and then stick together when you get a little attention.

Q:  Plugs, please:

A:  Heading To Berkeley Rep in two weeks to develop Apology.

Laramie: 10 years later recently out through DPS.

Jul 4, 2012

475 Playwright Interviews (alphabetical)

Sean Abley
Rob Ackerman
Liz Duffy Adams
Johnna Adams
Tony Adams 
David Adjmi
Keith Josef Adkins
Nastaran Ahmadi   
Derek Ahonen
Kathleen Akerley
Daniel Akiyama   
Zakiyyah Alexander
Luis Alfaro
Rosanna Yamagiwa Alfaro 
Lucy Alibar
Joshua Allen
Norman Allen
Mando Alvarado 
Sofia Alvarez 
Christina Anderson
Eddie Antar
Terence Anthony
David Anzuelo
Rob Askins 
Micheline Auger  
Alice Austen 
Elaine Avila   
Rachel Axler
Jenny Lyn Bader
Bianca Bagatourian   
Annie Baker
Trista Baldwin
David Bar Katz
Jennifer Barclay 
Courtney Baron
Abi Basch 
Mike Batistick 
Brian Bauman
Neena Beber

Nikole Beckwith 
Maria Alexandria Beech
France-Luce Benson
Kari Bentley-Quinn 
Alan Berks
Brooke Berman
Susan Bernfield
Jay Bernzweig 
Hilary Bettis 
Mickey Birnbaum  
Barton Bishop
Martin Blank
Radha Blank
Lee Blessing
Jonathan Blitstein
Adam Bock
Jerrod Bogard
Emily Bohannon
Rachel Bonds
Margot Bordelon
Deron Bos
Hannah Bos
Leslie Bramm
Jami Brandli
George Brant
Tim Braun
Deborah Brevoort  
Delaney Britt Brewer
Jessica Brickman  
Erin Browne
Julia Brownell  
Bekah Brunstetter
Monica Byrne
Renee Calarco
Zack Calhoon 
Sheila Callaghan
Robert Quillen Camp  
Darren Canady
Ruben Carbajal
Ed Cardona, Jr.
Jonathan Caren
Aaron Carter
James Carter
Lonnie Carter
Nat Cassidy 
David Caudle
Emily Chadick Weiss
Eugenie Chan 
Clay McLeod Chapman
Christopher Chen
Kirsten Childs 
Jason Chimonides
Andrea Ciannavei
John Clancy
Eliza Clark
Alexis Clements
Paul Cohen 
Alexandra Collier
James Comtois
Joshua Conkel
Jennie Contuzzi  
Kara Lee Corthron
Kia Corthron  
Jorge Ignacio Cortiñas
Erin Courtney
Cusi Cram
Lisa D'Amour
Wendy Dann  
Heidi Darchuk
Stacy Davidowitz
Adrienne Dawes 
Philip Dawkins
Dylan Dawson
Gabriel Jason Dean
Vincent Delaney
Emily DeVoti
Kristoffer Diaz
Jessica Dickey
Dan Dietz
Lisa Dillman
Zayd Dohrn
Bathsheba Doran
Anton Dudley
Laura Eason
Fielding Edlow
Reginald Edmund 
Erik Ehn
Yussef El Guindi
Michael Elyanow  
Libby Emmons
Jennie Berman Eng  
Christine Evans 
Jennifer Fawcett 
Joshua Fardon
Lauren Feldman 
Catherine Filloux   
Kenny Finkle
Stephanie Fleischmann
Kate Fodor
Sam Forman 
Dana Lynn Formby  
Dorothy Fortenberry 
 
Kevin R. Free
Matthew Freeman
Edith Freni
Patrick Gabridge 
Fengar Gael 
Anne Garcia-Romero
Gary Garrison
Melissa Gawlowski 
Philip Gawthorne
Madeleine George
Meg Gibson
Sean Gill
Sigrid Gilmer 
Peter Gil-Sheridan
Gina Gionfriddo
Kelley Girod 
Michael Golamco
Jessica Goldberg
Daniel Goldfarb
Jacqueline Goldfinger
Jeff Goode
Idris Goodwin
Tasha Gordon-Solmon
Christina Gorman
Craig "muMs" Grant
Katharine Clark Gray
Elana Greenfield   
Kirsten Greenidge
David Grimm
Rinne Groff 
Jason Grote
Sarah Gubbins
Stephen Adly Guirgis
Lauren Gunderson
Laurel Haines 
Jennifer Haley
Ashlin Halfnight   
Christina Ham
Sarah Hammond
Rob Handel
Trish Harnetiaux 
Jordan Harrison
Megan Hart 
Leslye Headland
Ann Marie Healy
Julie Hebert 
Marielle Heller
Charity Henson-Ballard 
Amy Herzog
Ian W. Hill  
Andrew Hinderaker
Cory Hinkle
Richard Martin Hirsch
Lucas Hnath
David Holstein
J. Holtham
Miranda Huba  
Quiara Alegria Hudes 
Les Hunter
Sam Hunter
Monet Hurst-Mendoza 
Chisa Hutchinson
Arlene Hutton
Lameece Issaq 
Tom Jacobson  
Laura Jacqmin
Joshua James
Julia Jarcho
Kyle Jarrow
Rachel Jendrzejewski   
Karla Jennings
David Johnston
Daniel Alexander Jones  
Nick Jones
Julia Jordan
Rajiv Joseph
Ken Kaissar 
Aditi Brennan Kapil
Lila Rose Kaplan
Stephen Karam  
Jeremy Kareken 
Lally Katz
Lynne Kaufman
Daniel Keene 
 
Greg Keller
Daniel John Kelley 
Sibyl Kempson
Jon Kern 
Anna Kerrigan
Kait Kerrigan
Boo Killebrew
Callie Kimball
Alessandro King 
Johnny Klein 
Krista Knight
Josh Koenigsberg 

Kristen Kosmas 
Sherry Kramer
Adam Kraar 
Andrea Kuchlewska
Larry Kunofsky
Aaron Landsman 
Eric Lane  
Jennifer Lane
Deborah Zoe Laufer
Jacqueline E. Lawton 
Ginger Lazarus
J. C. Lee
Young Jean Lee
Dan LeFranc
Forrest Leo  
Andrea Lepcio
Victor Lesniewski 
Steven Levenson
Barry Levey
Mark Harvey Levine  
Michael Lew
Alex Lewin  
EM Lewis
Sean Christopher Lewis
Jeff Lewonczyk
Kenneth Lin
Ethan Lipton 
Michael Lluberes
 
Matthew Lopez
Tim J. Lord 
Alex Lubischer 
Stacey Luftig
Kirk Lynn
Taylor Mac  
Mariah MacCarthy
Heather Lynn MacDonald 
Laura Lynn MacDonald
Maya Macdonald
Wendy MacLeod 
Cheri Magid
Jennifer Maisel
Martyna Majok  
Karen Malpede   
Kara Manning
Mona Mansour 
Warren Manzi 
Israela Margalit 
Ellen Margolis
Ruth Margraff
Sam Marks
Katie May
Oliver Mayer
Tarell Alvin McCraney
Mia McCullough  
Daniel McCoy 
Ruth McKee
Gabe McKinley  
Ellen McLaughlin 
James McManus
Charlotte Meehan
Carly Mensch
Molly Smith Metzler
Dennis Miles
Charlotte Miller 
Jane Miller  
Winter Miller
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Yusef Miller 
Rehana Mirza
Michael Mitnick
Chiori Miyagawa 
Anna Moench
Honor Molloy
Claire Moodey 
Alejandro Morales
Desi Moreno-Penson
Dominique Morisseau 
Susan Mosakowski  
Hannah Moscovitch 
Itamar Moses
Gregory Moss
Megan Mostyn-Brown
Kate Mulley 
Paul Mullin
Julie Marie Myatt
Janine Nabers
Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Brett Neveu
Don Nguyen   
Qui Nguyen
Don Nigro
Dan O'Brien
Matthew Paul Olmos 
Dominic Orlando
Rich Orloff
Marisela Treviño Orta
Sylvan Oswald
Jamie Pachino
Kristen Palmer
Marc Palmieri 
Tira Palmquist

Kyoung H. Park
Jerome A. Parker  
Peter Parnell
Caitlin Montanye Parrish
Julia Pascal
Steve Patterson
Greg Paul 
Daniel Pearle 
christopher oscar peña
Greg Pierce  
Begonya Plaza 
Brian Polak 
Daria Polatin
John Pollono
Larry Pontius
Chana Porter
Max Posner  
Craig Pospisil
Jessica Provenz
Michael Puzzo
Brian Quirk
Marco Ramirez
Adam Rapp
David West Read 
Theresa Rebeck
Amber Reed
Daniel Reitz
M.Z. Ribalow
Molly Rice
David Robson  
Mac Rogers
Joe Roland 
Elaine Romero
Lynn Rosen
Andrew Rosendorf
Kim Rosenstock
Sharyn Rothstein
David Rush  
Kate E. Ryan
Kate Moira Ryan
Riti Sachdeva 
Trav S.D.
Sarah Sander
Tanya Saracho
Heidi Schreck
August Schulenburg
Sarah Schulman  
Mark Schultz
Jenny Schwartz
Emily Schwend
Jordan Seavey
Adriano Shaplin 
Erika Sheffer
Katharine Sherman
Kendall Sherwood 
Christopher Shinn
Rachel Shukert
Jen Silverman
David Simpatico 
Blair Singer
Crystal Skillman
Mat Smart
Alena Smith
Matthew Stephen Smith  
Tommy Smith
Ben Snyder
Sonya Sobieski  
Lisa Soland
Octavio Solis
E. Hunter Spreen 
Peggy Stafford 
Saviana Stanescu
Susan Soon He Stanton  
Nick Starr
Deborah Stein
Jon Steinhagen
Caitlin Saylor Stephens  
Victoria Stewart
Andrea Stolowitz
Lydia Stryk
Gwydion Suilebhan  
Gary Sunshine
Caridad Svich
Jeffrey Sweet
Adam Szymkowicz
Daniel Talbott
Jeff Talbott 
Kate Tarker 
Roland Tec 
Lucy Thurber
Paul Thureen
Melisa Tien   
Josh Tobiessen
Joe Tracz
Catherine Trieschmann 
Dan Trujillo
Alice Tuan
Jon Tuttle
Ken Urban
Enrique Urueta
Karen Smith Vastola 
Francine Volpe
Kathryn Walat
Ian Walker
Michael I. Walker 
Malachy Walsh
Kathleen Warnock
Anne Washburn
Marisa Wegrzyn
Anthony Weigh   
Ken Weitzman
Sharr White
David Wiener  
Claire Willett
Samuel Brett Williams
Beau Willimon
Pia Wilson
Leah Nanako Winkler 
Gary Winter
Bess Wohl   
Stanton Wood
Craig Wright
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
Anu Yadav
Deborah Yarchun
Lauren Yee
Steve Yockey
Kelly Younger
Stefanie Zadravec
David Zellnik  
Anna Ziegler