Interview with a Playwright: Garret Groenveld

Where do you most often find inspiration? 
A: I take inspiration from my whole full life: the odd shape of someone's head on the bus, an emotional article in a trashy magazine, notes in public bathrooms or something one of my large extended family says in an off-handed way.  Most of the time, it's just the sound.

What one tip can you offer aspiring playwrights?
A: Don't be afraid to risk sentiment (let your characters be emotional), but avoid sentimentality (unearned emotion) through chosing specific details.

How did you get your start in playwriting? 
A: I won a contest in 8th grade as part of International Day with a short play about Napoleon and Josephine.

Where and when was this seed planted? 
A: I really fell in love with it when I had my first play preformed as part of PlayGround (in the very second Monday night, when it was still on Saturdays) when the Dean of the English Department, who was sitting next to me, gasped at one of my lines.
 
What was your most embarrassing high school moment?
A: When I fell asleep in French class and the teacher called on me.  I didn't know what to say, and I didn't know what the French swearwords were, and my classmate whispered to me the answer that I repeated: "Merde."  "Merde," indeed.
 
Beckett or Stoppard? One word only please.
A: Guare.  

To learn more about Garret Groenveld, visit our Resident Playwright Page at:
www.playwrightsfoundation.org/index.php?p72" 

INTERVIEW WITH A PLAYWRIGHT: this week, featuring Erin Bregman

Hi PF Fans,
We’re going to showcase our Resident Playwrights every Thursday. Today’s subject: Erin Bregman.


Question:
Where do you most often find inspiration?

Erin:
Everywhere! That is part of the problem. Living in San Francisco it's impossible to not encounter pieces of stories everywhere you turn. Sometimes it's a conversation you overhear. Sometimes it's a song. Sometimes it's reading something and wondering what it would be like to live in that place, experiencing those things. Most moments of inspiration for me never find their way into plays, but in some ways that's almost better--then the process becomes a huge sieve of inspired ideas, with only the best of the best finding their way through.

Question:
What one tip can you offer aspiring playwrights?

Erin:
Find people you like and respect, who like and respect you. Then make theater together. Now. Don't wait for permission (or money).

Question:
How did you get your start in playwriting? Where and when was this seed planted?

Erin:
Well, my family tells me I wrote a Thanksgiving play when I was seven, and made my younger cousin curl up on a table to play the Turkey, but since I don't really remember that, I might say 5th grade. A friend and I "adapted" (a/k/a copied almost verbatim) a book into a play that our class then put on for the other upper grades. Though that was my first play, I would probably say the real playwriting seed was planted while doing backyard summer theater in Santa Cruz in middle school. Thirteen of us spent a month writing, rehearsing, and putting on a play directed by an amazing woman named Stephanie Golino. That's where it really got going. And then I attended CSSSA (California State Summer School for the Arts) and took a dramatic writing class there. That was the summer before I was applying for colleges, and I liked the class so much I decided to go to school in a place that offered playwriting courses (though I never officially studied theater). This, totally coincidentally, landed me at UC Santa Barbara while Naomi Iizuka was there and I got lucky enough to take class with her for three years. That was definitely the point of no return.

Question:
What was your most embarrassing high school moment?

Erin:
Besides all of it?

Question:
Beckett or Stoppard? One word only please.

Erin:
Beckett

To read more about Erin, click here: www.playwrightsfoundation.org/index.php?p72"

"What the @$%&?"- Provactive Play Rocks Stanford

“Is theatre still relevant?”  This question seems to come up constantly whenever theatre artists gather, be it at a bar after rehearsal, or Starbucks before- we always question whether this art form which we dedicate our lives to still matters in the 21^st century.  I’ve pondered this question over many a beer or coffee, with many fellow artists- and the answer always seems to be elusive.  Just a few nights ago, I was reminded of why I continue to work in theatre, and the amazing power this art form still possesses.

I was fortunate enough to be the Stage Manager for our In the Rough reading of Trista Baldwin’s strikingly modern new play American Sexy.  The piece finds four college students on a road trip to Sin City, who take an unexpected, and ultimately devastating detour to the Grand Canyon.  The vividly drawn characters brought to mind many people I went to college with: Lexi- the intellectually vacant and over-sexed party girl, Jessica- the aimless young woman whose only aspiration is a wealthy marriage, Darren- the unimpressed ladies’ man, and Andy- the sexually (and socially) frustrated outcast.

At the first rehearsal, Trista spoke of the inspiration for the piece, which came from her own experiences as an educator and the students she met in that atmosphere.  Her play examines the sexual debasement of modern America; the female characters often refer to each other as “slut,” “ho,” and casually engage in graphic sexual conduct onstage with the men and each other.  “Sexting,” the act of sending pornographic photos/videos of oneself or others, is a major element of the piece. Lexi and Jessica’s lack of respect for themselves, and the resulting lack of respect given them by the male characters is highly disturbing, and very realistic in today’s world.

On Monday evening we presented this reading at Stanford University to an audience of Professors, PhD candidates, and other highly intelligent friends of the university.  This audience was of an older generation, far removed from these characters and the world of this play.  I had the opportunity to watch the audience from the stage, as I was reading the stage directions.  These people were absolutely appalled by this material.  With each casual sexual reference, and pornographic stage direction their jaws dropped further and some of them simply shook their heads in disbelief.  What disturbed them seemed not to be the graphic nature of the material itself, but the fact that it was based on truth.

The post-play discussion that followed was the most in-depth and longest discussion I’ve ever witnessed at similar events.  Our audience was provoked by this play, they were riled up, and they spoke passionately about the topics of the piece.  They even went as far as to argue whether this had a place on the stage, saying the material was “in the toilet.”  Fearless, Trista dove into the issues at hand, asking whether the material pushed the audience away.  David Goldman, of the Stanford Center for New Plays observed that the play was Brechtian in some ways- and seemed to push the audience away intentionally so that they might judge the characters from a distance.

The reactions to the play were across the board, ranging from acceptance of this as an accurate depiction of modern American youth to downright denial that this is where our society is, and where it is going.  Late in the discussion, when asked what reaction she desired from this piece, Trista looked at the group smiling and said, “I’m loving all of this.” 

This reading reminded me of why the Playwrights Foundation does the work that we do, and how relevant and immediate theatre can still be. The conclusions that the audience took away from this piece were varied, but they left the reading engaged and in some cases, enraged by the play.  This is what theatre should be, and is often not- engaging, enraging, primal, vital, immediate and important. 

-Kirk Johnson

Institute Coordinator

Asst. to the Producer

9th Annual Bay One Acts: A Don't Miss Set of Plays

The Playwrights Foundation is proud to be a producing partner, along with Three Wise Monkeys for the 9th Annual Bay One Acts (BOA) Festival. The Festival runs February 18 to March 13, 2010 at Boxcar Theater.

This year’s festival focuses on the theme of "building community," between and across small theatre companies and theatre artists devoted to cultivating new theatrical work. In the spirit of community building, 3WM presents a symposium on new play development and the short play form with festival playwrights, directors and producers featured on the panel on March 6 at 4 pm at Boxcar Theatre. Additionally, BOA features two full-festival days: March 7 at 3pm (Program 1) and 7pm (Program 2) and March 13 at 4 pm (Program 2) and 8pm (Program 1).

Program 1: Opens February 18

• Generic Play by Edward Luhn
• Query by Ben Fisher
• Reading with Friends by Crish Barth
• Altered Landscape by William Bivins
• The Philadelphian by Sam Leichter

Program 2: Opens February 25

• Three Little Words by Tim Bauer
• The Great Double Check by Megan Cohen
• Housebroken by Stuart Bousel
• Nothing Works by Daniel Heath
• The Life and Death of Joshua Zweig by Lauren Yee

For more info, visit www.threewisemonkeys.org.

The Bay Area Playwrights Festival 2010

The Playwrights Foundation is so excited to announce that the dates for the 33rd Annual Bay Area Playwrights Festival have been set—July 23 through August 1, 2010.

The Festival will be held at the Thick House in San Francisco.

Details of the full season will be announced in April! Be sure to check back on the BAPF page on our website for details. You can also follow us on Playwrights Foundation Facebook Page or Twitter to be kept up-to-date.