After a rousing start to our Rough Reading Series in 2012
with Claire Chafee’s powerful Full/Self
in January, we look ahead to the next play and playwright in our
series. Michael Mitnick’s Spacebar: a Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman.
Michael’s play, reading February 27th at Stanford
and 28th in SF, is a wildly unpredictable, no-holds-barred
play-within-a-play about a precocious teenager out to make his Broadway debut
as a playwright against all odds. We recently sat down with Michael to ask him
about his play, his road to playwriting, and the scores he has to settle with
the American Theatre scene.
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To start off, Michael, what brought you to playwriting?
Like so many… I started by acting in school plays. I began
to compose too (based on forced piano lessons) which resulted in some truly
awful musicals I put on with my friends. It was fun, though, and from those
experiences I started writing dialogue, notating music, and experimenting with
plot and character.
I did my undergrad at Harvard and throughout college I wrote
comic sketches and musicals, which were put on by the Hasty Pudding and The Lampoon – a
place designed to turn nice students into angry alcoholics.
My lowest grade at Harvard was
in Advanced Playwriting, and that really encouraged me to keep going.
After graduation I toyed with the idea of writing TV and did
the BMI musical workshop. I saw the Yale Drama deadline was approaching, so I
applied, submitting a play with very large margins that will never see the
light of day – it took place in a barbershop and audience members were to be
brought up onstage and given haircuts while the story played out.
What was the initial inspiration for your new play Spacebar:
a Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman?
The play began as a prompt from the head of Yale playwriting
program, Paula Vogel. I was assigned to respond to Love’s Labour’s Lost. I couldn’t think of anything, so I looked in a
folder I keep on my computer labeled “Ideas” and found a one-liner I wrote lord
knows when – “Spacebar – a play not about the space key on the computer
keyboard but about a bar in outer space.” Obviously I was incredibly desperate
so I used that joke for the play-within-the-play.
The first draft’s structure was one big cover letter to the
entity of Broadway and we got to see almost the entire play-within-the-play,
with Kyle’s commentary throughout of why it was the best play ever written.
Quickly I found I was much more interested in Kyle’s life – in that very
teenage desire to be taken seriously, to be heard, and to settle scores. So,
the scenes from his real life were written and then expanded while Kyle’s play
scenes were drastically reduced. Then, the second act took shape as a kind of
melding of his inner and outer worlds.
The character of Kyle in Spacebar has a lot of pointed things to say about the
state of American theatre. What do you think of the current landscape?
I read amazing plays by friends and go to lots of readings
and yet these plays will never be produced. It’s maddening. I wish theatres
would take more chances with brave new plays. Too many plays feel like
mouthpieces for regurgitating New York Times above-the-fold articles. This
isn’t to say that timely plays are a bad thing, but I find that a good story is
always timely. Through the specificity of the writing, the universal is
achieved. Six Degrees of Separation is a
masterpiece that feels immediate and relevant every time I read it yet John
Guare didn’t sit down to write about race or class or art. He sat down and
wrote a story. Or maybe he wrote it standing up.
Next, theatre tickets must cost the same as a movie ticket.
Some theatres have good initiatives going and I wish more would join. A few
years back I heard Gregory Mosher speak about this issue and it was eye
opening. If you’re going to a play and bringing a date, it isn’t a turn on to
say, “Hey, let’s go stand in the TKTS line for 40 minutes, buy 65 dollar ‘discounted’
tickets and then sit quietly facing the same direction for 2 hours.” The price
of the ticket has to be two digits to the left of the decimal and the first
digit needs to be a 1 or a 2. Theatres need to start at the ticket price and
figure everything else out from there.
Would you suggest aspiring playwrights attend a graduate
program?
I think Playwriting MFAs are only valuable if the particular
program offers full or nearly full financial support. There is no reason to go
into debt in playwriting grad programs. Tuition money is better spent
supporting the practical beginning of a writing career. Move to a theatre town,
work in a lit office, join a writer’s group, and write a ton.
Yale itself was good because they had generous scholarships.
I had wonderful teachers who gave me feedback that made me a better writer. I
could also put on my plays within the school. The place was a combination of an
extended fellowship and a mini-theatre company. Most importantly, I graduated
with a short stack of scripts which I could show people when I reentered
humanity.
You can’t be taught to write a play, but you can be guided
and made aware of things you’re doing unconsciously. We can’t control luck or
talent, but we can control ambition. The most important thing for a playwright
is simply to write a lot and read a lot. Long term, your writing will get
better while other aspiring people will give up, creating more opportunities
for you.
And lastly, Michael, is there a scene or moment from Spacebar you are really excited to get before a live
audience?
I can’t say there’s a single moment, but I’m thrilled that
The Playwrights Foundation is supporting my play and the fact that audiences
will show up and see something I wrote absolutely floors me. I never get over
that feeling. Hopefully I’ve written something that’s worth their time.
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For more information on Michael or his play Spacebar: a
Broadway Play by Kyle Sugarman or to get
ticket information please Click Here
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