Interview With A Playwright: Jonathan Spector

Preparations for the 2016 Bay Area Playwrights Festival continue with a fresh set of new plays still in development. Our next interview is with playwright Jonathan Spector. We were fortunate enough to be able to ask him some questions about his hilarious (and at times disturbing) play Good, Better, Best, Bested about war, intimacy, and cultural consumption:

BAPF:  You mentioned in a previous interview that the setting of Las Vegas appealed to you because it was an entire city built to encourage people to only care about their own pleasure in the present moment. What drew you to exploring individualized experience in contrast tocollective experience?  

JS: I'm interested in how we as individuals respond to large scale events that don't affect our lives directly. How much time do we or should we take out of our day to think about, or take some action towards, a tragedy involving people we don't know? The machinery of Vegas, built to part people from their money, works particularly hard to get you to privilege what is happening right now for you over anything else. 

BAPF: Additionally, the characters featured in this play are extremely
characteristic of what one assumes they will find in Las Vegas.
Theatrically, why might it be important for us to hear their opinions
about issues like foreign policy or global tragedy? 

JS: It's not. What's important, at least for the play, is less about
people expressing an opinion and more about them navigating an
experience.  

BAPF: Do you believe the responses in this play demonstrate a genuine
representation of our modern-day society when it comes to tragic
events?  

JS: I hope so. 

BAPF:  Thanks so much for talking to us! We look forward to seeing your play brought to life!

Alumni News

Playwrights Foundation alumni are popping up everywhere! Check out some of what's happening this month:

                        

Julie Hébert

Julie Hébert's play Tree is running now through 
March 7 at the San Francisco Playhouse - it first debuted at the 2007 Bay Area Playwrights Festival!

"An unexpected knock at the door turns a family upside-down. In this story of beginnings and endings, betrayal and love, three generations twist and grow in astonishing ways. And where their roots meet may surprise you."
Learn more and purchase your tickets here!

Lauren Yee's Samsara opens Friday at Victory Gardens Theater - it first debuted at the 2012 Bay Area Playwrights Festival!

Lauren Yee

"Americans Katie and Craig are having a baby with Suraiya, a surrogate from India. As all three 'parents' anxiously await the baby’s due date, Katie and Suraiya are attacked by flights of their imagination."
See the world premier of Yee's new comedy from February 6 - March 8. Learn more and purchase your tickets here!
Want to see more Yee? Come to PF's April Rough Readings to see Yee's new play King of the Yees

Jackie Sibblies Drury

Jackie Sibblies Drury's play We Are Proud to Present... runs this Friday, February 7 - March 7 at Just Theater - it first debuted at the 2011 Bay Area Playwrights Festival!

"We Are Proud to Present...is a hilarious, imaginative and incendiary exploration of race, power and narrative in America. A play within a play, six idealistic young actors - three white and three black - attempt to create a theater piece about a little known genocide in the early 20th century."
Learn more and purchase your tickets here!

Anne Washburn

Anne Washburn's play Mr. Burns runs February 18 - March 15 at the American Conservatory Theater 

"In a post-apocalyptic Northern California, a group of strangers bond by recreating the infamous 'Cape Feare' episode of The Simpsons...An outrageous and enthusiastically acclaimed new comedy by Anne Washburn, Mr. Burns, a post-electric play is both a marvelous meta-tribute to the iconic first-family of contemporary pop-culture and a celebration of the power of generational storytelling." -New York Times

Learn more and purchase your tickets here!

Mike Lew

Mike Lew's new play Teenage Dick will be read on Monday February 9th at Roble Hall in Stanford University, and on Tuesday February 10th at The Tides Theatre in San Francisco

"A commission from The Apothetae, a new NYC theater company dedicated to illuminating "the disabled experience," Teenage Dick is a re-imagination of Richard III set in high school."
Learn more and reserve your tickets here!

Don Nguyen

Jonathan Spector

Don Nguyen's play Red Flamboyant will be read at Aurora Theatre's Global Age Project Readings on Monday, February 9th at 7:30pm

Jonathan Spector's play FTW will be read at Aurora Theatre's Global Age Project Readings on Monday, February 16th at 7:30pm

Learn more about Both Plays and the GAP festival here!

Alumni, do you have something you would like us to share? Send us a note at admin@playwrightsfoundation.org - we'd love to hear from you!