Friday, January 4, 2013

5 Questions with Bob Clyman

The 13th reading in our FORUM "Soundings" series is A LITTLE QUID PRO QUO by Bob Clyman. This reading will begin at 7pm on January 6, 2013, and will be held at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Dreyfuss Theatre, 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ. Click here for directions. Click here for a printable map of the campus (the Dreyfuss Theatre is located in Building 9). 

Mark is a philosophy professor whose specialty is altruism, or the notion that people don’t always act exclusively in their own self-interest. His friend Ben, a much more pragmatic fellow, sets out to prove that he can convince the most well-meaning person to give up their convictions and act from their most selfish motives. 

Bob Clyman’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway and at regional theatres, such as the Alley Theatre, Laguna Playhouse, Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, San Jose Repertory Theatre, George Street Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Colony Studio Theatre in Los Angeles, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, and L.A. Theatre Works, in addition to touring Scotland.  His play SECRET ORDER was initially commissioned and produced by The Ensemble Studio Theatre under the auspices of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.  It was subsequently produced at 59E59 Theatre in New York, where it was nominated for an Outer Circle Critics Award for the best script in 2008, and has since been produced at many regional theatres.  His play TRANCED, has been produced by San Jose Repertory Theatre and Laguna Playhouse, where it received an Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award in 2008. 

His most recent play, THE EXCEPTIONALS, also received an Edgerton Award and was produced in 2010 at Merrimack Repertory Theatre.  It will be produced at the Contemporary American Theatre Conference in the summer of 2012 and was nominated by The Independent Reviewers of  New England for both Best Play and Best New Play of 2012.  Four of his earlier plays were produced at the Circle Rep Lab in New York. He has been awarded a number of national prizes, including a Eugene O’Neill Summer Conference Fellowship, Geraldine Dodge Fellowship, New Jersey State Arts Council Award, Edward Albee Foundation Fellowship, Berilla-Kerr Foundation Award, Djerassi Foundation Fellowship, Shenandoah Valley Playwrights Fellowship, Playwrights First Award and Theater in the Works Fellowship.

 
1. What inspired you to write A LITTLE QUID PRO QUO?  and  2.  What interested you in altruism, or the notion that people don’t always act exclusively in their own self-interest?
Let me respond to the first two questions with a single response.  I’m a huge fan of unanswerable questions, particularly of the chicken and egg variety.  One of my favorites, which is getting tossed around a lot these days, is whether altruism is fundamental to human nature.  Some regard altruism as pure and non-contingent, an instinctual reaction to the suffering of others that often trumps other, more self-serving automatic reactions.  Others view it as invariably strategic, consciously or otherwise, gradually crafted over the course of human evolution to serve and advance one’s own personal agenda. 
In the absence of anything close to conclusive evidence supporting either position, I became interested in why some people seem so certain that the more feel so convinced that hopeful, affirming view is accurate, while others seem to take it for granted that the darker, more fatalistic view is the accurate one.  What interested me was why both groups of people seem to get roughly the same amount of enjoyment from maintaining and espousing their particular position.  I thought about how some people built their lives and made life-altering decisions based one or the other belief.    
What came to mind then was the idea of two old friends, whose testy friendship has survived since childhood, despite their holding strong, opposing beliefs in this regard.  I wondered what each one’s basic beliefs about human nature had not only guided him in making crucial life decisions, both personal and professional, but his happiness and reputation would be jeopardized if he were to lose faith in those beliefs.  Then I wondered what would happen if each friend’s desire to prove he was right became so intense that they decided to put their opposing beliefs to a test?  And then what would happen if the test got out of control? 
3.  Where do you find inspiration for your plays?
At times, I can find inspiration almost anywhere, even if the source is pretty well hidden, but the fact is on most days, it’s tough to find it anywhere -- even if it’s right in front of me, screaming and waving its arms in a futile attempt to get my attention.  For me, it’s all about creating an ‘inspirable’ state of mind, which eager, open and susceptible.  Easier said than done. 
 

4. Where do you like to write, in the comfort of your own home or at a coffee shop?
I prefer to write at home, probably because that’s where I’ve always written, so even on days that it’s hard to get started, I feel pretty confident I’ll be able to write again.  Home is also where I have the most control over noise.  I think the words that an actor says in a theatre are received by an audience in a very different, much more poweful way, when these words are surrounded by silence.  There has never been an air conditioner that’s so quiet, it doesn’t lessen the effect.  So it’s important for me to hear the words in that same silence when I’m first writing them.  Admittedly, there can be times when I’m feeling so in the groove, it seems effortless to write in the middle of a train station.  Ironically, it’s those moments of unstoppable flow that evoke the strongest sense of being ‘a real writer,’ even though I realize I’m much more of a real writer when I’m at my desk, grinding it out.  I wish I could be one of those writers who can say, ‘I get most of my ideas in the shower, or when I’m in my car getting groceries’ -- but I can never seem to get my brain into its writing gear, unless I’m looking at a screen or even a bunch of post-its, so I can move words around and actually watch them move.

5.  If you had the opportunity to sit down and have dinner with anyone (living or dead), who would it be and what would be your most burning question?
I admire a lot of writers, some of them playwrights, but also a wide range of other kinds, whose books have let me in on their quirky insights and specialized knowledge, while giving me a great deal to chew on.  And I’d probably enjoy having dinner with any of them, but it’s not a dream of mine – maybe because I’ve already read their plays and books, which if nothing else, communicated their thoughts more clearly than they ever could over dinner, because they weren’t just thinking up those thoughts on the spot.  Plus, it takes more than one dinner with anyone to get past the niceties and learn how to get to the richest part of that person’s mind or, for that matter, offer the best of mine.  And as for my ‘burning questions,’ it’s only after the conversation gets going that I start to find out those are anyway.  So if I’m only going to have this one dinner, I’d rather have it with one of the good friends who will unfailingly say things that I consider illuminating, simply because we’ve had so many years of practice.  


♦ Playwrights Theatre will present these readings free of charge, with an optional donation of $10

♦ A $25 dollar donation will get you a FORUM pass that covers all of the readings.

♦ A $250 donation will get you a rehearsal pass that allows access to all reading rehearsals.

♦ Reservations can be made online at or call (973) 514-1787 X10

Click here
to reserve your seat to see A LITTLE QUID PRO QUO.

You can also find additional information on our
website about the entire FORUM reading series.


5 Questions with Hal Corley

The 12th reading in our FORUM "Soundings" series is EIGHT FOURTEEN by Hal Corley. This reading will begin at 7pm on January 5, 2013, and will be held at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Dreyfuss Theatre, 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ. Click here for directions. Click here for a printable map of the campus (the Dreyfuss Theatre is located in Building 9).

Having had a serious breakdown after 9-11, New York City-dweller Henry moves with his wife to Mount Morris, NJ, Henry’s childhood home, seeking solace in the suburbs. Then the great blackout of August 14, 2003 occurs trapping Susannah in NYC and the jobless Henry at home. Eight Fourteen, with deft wit and great insight, examines both the fear engendered by 9-11 and the quiet desperation of men forced out of work by a bad economy.

Two of Hal Corley's plays, Finding Donis Anne and An Ounce of Prevention, have been widely performed (Seattle Rep, Syracuse Stage, Walnut Street, Westbeth, and in Atlanta, LA, Boston and Charlotte, NC).  Recent:  Brush the Summer By, Adirondack Theatre Festival; ODD*, winner, Premiere Stages Festival, excerpted in S&K's Best Stage Scenes of 2008; Easter Monday*, Pendragon, Saranac Lake, NY, excerpted in Exceptional Monologues 2* and S&K’s Best Stage Scenes and Monologues of 2011; Suocera and Mama and Jack Carew* in rep, and Peoria, The Death Bite and seven shorts, Theatre Artists Studio, Phoenix, AZ, where Hal has three times taught 10-minute play workshops.  His newest play, Weak Trembles, was in Pandora’s Box annual festival in October 2012. Hal’s The Imaginary Orange won First Prize in FirstStage LA’s One-Act Contest and premiered at Theatre Three, Port Jefferson, NY. Others have been produced by Washington DC's Source, Stageworks/Hudson, LA’s New American and Eclectic Company Theatres, Santa Ana’s Theater Out, Brooklyn’s Gallery Players, Orlando’s Playwrights’ Roundtable, and Ontario’s Flush Ink. Two of Hal's 10-minute plays, 1959 and Il Nido e Bello were finalists for the Heideman Award. His adaptation of Wilder’s Fanny Otcott is available from YouthPlays and his Christmas short Treed will be published by Playscripts.  Hal has twice been a semifinalist in the O'Neill Competition. For his work in daytime serials, Hal won five Emmys and two WGA Awards.  He lives in Summit, NJ. He is published by Samuel French, Inc.

1. What inspired you to write Eight Fourteen?

I had a strong emotional response to the blackout in August 2003. Like my central characters, I was an ex-Manhattanite, only in NYC for the afternoon, ultimately stranded and trapped for the night. The startling ways the escalating/then ebbing crisis moved in real time from a serious terrorism threat to feel-good party atmo struck me as a defining moment in our culture. With the shadow of 9/11 over all our lives in this region, the event was a powerful trigger and inadvertently created a kind of snapshot of where we all were. Though I considered focusing on one family's internecine issues (like my small cast plays), I realized early on that I wanted to move beyond my comfort zone, to capture a broader swath of society, a kind of collage of responses to the country's mood. The resulting topics woven into the 24 hours are varied: disillusionment with a failing economy, a spreading cloud of unease about the future, and especially the widening (sociopolitical) chasm dividing the country. Hopefully, while Eight Fourteen is a "period" piece, it (also) allows us to examine our current climate through a specific prism, a theatrical portrait of an era via a single evocative night.

2. Is your play entirely fictional or is it based on people you know who moved from NYC to the Jersey suburbs after 9-11?

The play is a work of fiction. None of the designated careers and back stories line up precisely with real people (though some occupations are professions I know well, especially daytime TV; see below). But the central family's emotional construct is at least loosely modeled on my own experiences, as I left NY shortly after 9/11 and found the resulting relocation challenging. For the first time I was a stay-at-home dad, and after two decades of city life, found the relative isolation a tough adjustment. I have been interested in deconstructing some of the cliches about city vs. suburb ever since, and 8/14/03 -- when people were stranded on either side of the Hudson -- seemed an ideal time to look at lifestyles and demographics. I appreciate the romantic filter through which we often view even the recent past; accordingly, perhaps 2003 now has an almost "quaint" feel. An irony not lost on any of us as this tumultuous year closed: after all we went through in 2012, 2003 may seem a kinder, gentler time.

3. You’ve taught several 10-minutes play workshops. Can you tell us a little about your process for this class?

I have carved out a niche, teaching the popular sub-genre to the absolute neophyte. I love working with those not only new to playwriting, but people who've never written more than letters or journals. My approach is to demand immediate commitment to premise and characters, using guided prompts to narrow/specific choices. For the uninitiated who haven't learned to second guess creative decisions, it's freeing, because plays take shape immediately. I focus on craft, characters goals, a source of antagonism, resolution. Since I use user-friendly worksheets to create backstory, structure, experienced playwrights might find the techniques highly restrictive; but brand new writers enjoy the instant gratification built into the process. A couple of my students in AZ wrote plays that went on to win contests/productions, and two in Summit HS placed in a NJ competition.

4. You are a five time Emmys and two WGA Awards winner. What did you win these awards for?

I wrote soap opera for 13 years, serving as co-headwriter on both All My Children and As the World Turns (i.e. providing background for the soap world depicted in 8/14 by the way). I came in via ABC's Writer Development program, and ended my run in soaps over a decade later running the program myself.

5. If you weren’t living in NJ, and could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I should say Italy, since I study Italian and the language became a mid-life hobby. But honestly, my two favorite places are the Adirondacks and Big Sur (both affectionately referenced in Eight Fourteen, ironically). Both are untouched, still as close to pristine as imaginable. The Lake Placid area has become a beloved vacation spot in the last twenty years, and though I'm not sure I could survive winters in the North Country, it remains a favorite place in which to ruminate, rest and sometimes even heal. 

 ♦ Playwrights Theatre will present these readings free of charge, with an optional donation of $10

♦ A $25 dollar donation will get you a FORUM pass that covers all of the readings.

♦ A $250 donation will get you a rehearsal pass that allows access to all reading rehearsals.

♦ Reservations can be made online at or call (973) 514-1787 X10

Click here to reserve your seat to see EIGHT FOURTEEN.

You can also find additional information on our website about the entire FORUM reading series.








Wednesday, January 2, 2013

5 Questions with Seth Rozin

The 10th reading in our FORUM "Soundings" series is JC3 by Seth Rozin. This reading will begin at 7pm on January 3, 2013, and will be held at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Dreyfuss Theatre, 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ. Click here for directions. Click here for a printable map of the campus (the Dreyfuss Theatre is located in Building 9).

A new comedy by the author of Two Jews Walk into a War. Dr. Posner is a New York psychologist with a modest office, who finds herself treating three men who believe they are Jesus Christ. Having little success in treating them separately, she has the bright idea of calling them all together for a group session, where the myth and meaning of the life of Jesus is hotly debated and almost costs Posner her own life, until a startling revelation is made.

Seth Rozin is the author of several plays, including Men of Stone (produced by Theater Catalyst, nominated for a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play, published by Playscripts, Inc.), Missing Link (produced by InterAct Theatre Company, nominated for a Barrymore Award for Outstanding New Play), Reinventing Eden (produced by InterAct), The Space Between Us (readings at Abingdon Theatre and InterAct), Black Gold (National New Play Network rolling world premieres at InterAct, Phoenix Theatre in Indianapolis, Prop Thtr in Chicago, Arts West in Seattle), Two Jews Walk Into A War… (NNPN rolling world premieres at Florida Stage, New Jersey Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Theatre of New Jersey, Shadowland Theatre, Unicorn Theatre, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, InterAct, Florida Studio Theatre, GEVA Theatre and Barter Theatre) and JC3 (developed at PlayPenn). He has also written the book, lyrics and music for a new musical entitled A Passing Wind: The (Mostly) True Story of Joseph Pujol, about the rise and fall of the world’s greatest “fartiste,” which received its premiere at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts’ inaugural Philadelphia Inernational Festival of the Arts in 2011. Seth is the recipient of two playwriting fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the 2007 Smith Prize, as well as a 2002 new play commission from the Foundation for Jewish Culture. He is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia, where he has directed over 50 productions, including the world premieres of Thomas Gibbons’ Permanent Collection, Bee-Luther-Hatchee, Black Russian, A House With No Walls and 6221. He served as President of the National New Play Network from 2002-2006, and currently Chairs the Philadelphia New Play Initiative.

1. What inspired you to write JC3?
There were two points of inspiration for JC3:  First, I have become very interested (and at times exasperated) by how often Jesus Christ is appropriated by pundits, politicians and media personalities (let alone Christian leaders) to affirm their personal values and world views.  So I was inclined to explore three valid and popular, yet somewhat contradictory interpretations of Christ’s teachings.  Second, my good friend, colleague and fellow playwright, Tom Gibbons, told me about a psychiatric case history – THE THREE CHRISTS OF YPSILANTI – that he thought I would find drama worthy.  The book, which I didn’t actually read until well after starting JC3, chronicled one psychiatrist’s journey with three patients who each believed he was Jesus Christ at a mental institution in Ypsilanti, Michigan.   

2. Can you tell us a little about the Philadephia New Play Initiative? 
PNPI is an entirely volunteer campaign to improve the climate for new plays and playwrights in the Philadelphia region.  Our aim is to cultivate a more informed and cohesive new play community with the hope that over time more new plays by local writers will be developed and produced by the area’s growing legion of professional theatres. Among our continuing activities are Speed Dating events for playwrights and theatre leaders.   

3. You wrote the book, lyrics and music for a new musical entitled A Passing Wind: The (Mostly) True Story of Joseph Pujol, about the rise and fall of the world’s greatest “fartiste”. What is your favorite joke from the show?
This is a brief section from a song called VIVE L’ARTE! sung by three of the great artists of the Belle Epoque, who are gleeful in the wake of Joseph Pujol’s demise.
SATIE
HE’S HAD HIS HURRAH WITH HIS RESONANT RECTUM

BERNHARDT
NOW EVEN THE CRITICS CANNOT RESURRECT ‘IM

SATIE
HE PROVED TO THE WORLD HE HAD PLENTY OF GUTS

MONET
BUT NOW HE IS FINISHED – NO WHIFFS, ENDS OR BUTTS!

4. Was your process of writing a musical different from how you write a play?
Not at first, since I only intended to write the book and lyrics.  But when I found myself writing the music as well, the task became altogether different.  There is nothing equivalent to a song in a play.  Characters in a play don’t stop to riff on an idea with repeated, rhyming phrases and tightly metered delivery.  So some of the “rules” about character development and dramatic arc are, how shall I say, more flexible in a musical.   
5. If you were going to "run away with the band", who would it be and why?
I am reasonably confident that no one has ever answered as I will on this.  I would run away with a gypsy band called Taraf de Haidouks, whose music (I believe) was featured in PTNJ’s production of my play TWO JEWS WALK INTO A WAR… a few years ago.  They are a group of mostly older musicians from Southeastern Europe who play a wild and frenzied style of folk music.  I imagine their individual stories are fascinating and their live concerts are infectiously exuberant.
   

♦ Playwrights Theatre will present these readings free of charge, with an optional donation of $10

♦ A $25 dollar donation will get you a FORUM pass that covers all of the readings.

♦ A $250 donation will get you a rehearsal pass that allows access to all reading rehearsals.

♦ Reservations can be made online at or call (973) 514-1787 X10

Click here to reserve your seat to see JC3.

You can also find additional information on our website about the entire FORUM reading series