One of the most important parts of The Pack are the collaborative relationships that are formed in each Pack meeting and at The Lounge Series events.  Because of that, Packawallop decided to focus the Pack and Lounges this year around 10 projects that will create collaborative conversations between actors, writers and directors.  We will share the fruits of these conversations at our two Lounges this season, but along the way we wanted to have each project’s team give us a glimpse into their relationship and the project they are working on.  Today, we present the first installment in a 10 part series highlighting each of the 10 projects in this year’s Pack.

DN: What made you want to become a writer?

KBQ: I don't actually ever remember making the decision to be a writer. It is something I have been doing for as long as I can remember. It came very naturally to me as a kid. I remember being in kindergarten and writing a story about my cat. I think playwriting started to interest me when I went to see my first Broadway show--Les Miserables. I was like "OH. I want to do THAT". Unfortunately, I was not blessed with one little ounce of musical talent. I am so jealous of musicians and composers. I view what I do as always trying to get across what a really good album does for me. Or an epic musical like Les Miz. 

KQQ:  You're going to be my director while I work out the first draft of my new play, The Unlikely Ascent Of Sybil Stevens. You're also a playwright. I think that's bad ass. What about you as a writer makes you a better director, and what about being a director makes you a better writer? 

DN: What's interesting to me is that a writer spends his/her time creating a story using sound and images all swirling around in three dimensional headspace.  The writer then wrestles all that into a two dimensional document.  A script.  It is then up to the director to find the clues, ask questions and effectively interpret the script from its two dimensions back into a three dimensional experience.  That's what I love about the playwright/director relationship. It's symbiotic in a sense and without the two, the play does not fully come alive.  So I guess because I have experience as both a writer and a director, I can look at a script from both sides like that.  And being a director informs my writing just as much as being a writer informs my directing.  

KBQ:  You are also an actor. What is your favorite role that you have played, and why?

DN: My favorite role?  Hmm...I played the lead in M. Butterfly twice when I was much younger.  I got to dress, walk, and talk like a woman for ninety percent of the play.  And then I had to take all my clothes off at the end.  My parents were shocked to say the least.  It was definitely my favorite role because I spent so much time with that character and it physically transformed me as an actor.  I remember my acting teachers devoting the rest of the year to ridding me of all my feminine mannerisms I picked up from doing that play.  I'm glad to say I'm totally butch now.  Right?  Right? 

DN: What's your writing process like?  (Do you write everyday, at a certain time, in a certain place? Etc.)

KBQ:  My process is actually pretty scattered. My last play, Paper Cranes, was written completely out of order, and 99% of it was written longhand and then transcribed. This play has demanded different things. It required this insanely long gestation period where I was writing scenes in my notebook on the train and then not looking at them for months. Now, I am getting up at the crack of dawn to work on pages. I think it's partially because there are parts in the play where Sybil does some reflecting really early in the morning, before anyone else is up. I think I'm trying to be in that mentally unencumbered place. It's tough to wake up though, especially because I have cats and a husband who try and keep me warm and comfy in my bed!

DN: I know you're still working on The Unlikely Ascent of Sybil Stevens but if you could only keep just one line in your play, what would it be?

KBQ: That's a good question! I like when Sybil tells her nephew, "I don’t think I’m capable of being scared of anything anymore. I lived through most people’s worst fear" - it's a completely true statement. Sybil is the sole survivor of a plane crash. What happens next when the worst possible thing that can happen to you happens and you survive it? I think that's a lot of what the play is about.

KBQ:  What do you love most about being in The Pack?

DN:  What I love about the Pack are the people involved.  Its a richly diverse high quality group of artists.  They're the kind of people I honestly would like to spend more time with outside Pack meetings, preferably if there's alcohol involved.  Its also a really safe place to bring in new work.  Everyone gives great, thoughtful feedback and everyone genuinely cares about each other and the work.