A CONVERSATION BETWEEN  CHRIS VAN STRANDER AND MATTHEW J. NICHOLS

Sun, 27 Nov 2011 10:30:11 -0500

This week we are continuing our series of conversations between Pack artists collaborating on projects this year. Playwright Chris Van Strander and Director/Actor Matthew J. Nichols are collaborating on a new play called Retrospective about a curator and her fascination with a genius folk artist. They discuss reading new plays, inspiration and how acting and directing go hand in hand.

CVS: Your initial thoughts and questions about *Retrospective* were really detailed, and I noticed you made a point of reading the script on its own before looking at the synopsis or anything else. It made me wonder: how do you "read" (approach) the script of a new play, especially in early readings?

MN: First impressions can be the most pure and vital reactions to storytelling. Especially with a new, developing work, I feel I can be of best service to a writer if I am asking questions and thinking about the piece from the perspective of a fresh audience member. Then, I can gear my feedback accordingly so the writer can determine if the storytelling is working to their satisfaction. That's why I didn't read your more detailed proposal/synopsis before I read your actual pages. The only information I had before that first pass was that your piece deals with the art world. Then, I built my initial impressions from the script pages. Afterwards, I read your proposal and re-read your pages to see how they compared and to get an enhanced sense of the possible future direction of your story. Going forward, every subsequent reading will be colored by my previous ones, but my task will be to approach them as if I'm receiving the information for the first time. This process is new to me since usually I'm reading completed drafts of new works and not the first pages of a developing draft. It's neat, like being in on the ground floor, and it's exactly why the Pack meetings can be so helpful for a writer!

MN If you had to distill the essence of your play "Retrospective" into five sentences or less, how would it read?

CVS: I'm in the middle of writing, so I'm still actively figuring out what the play is, but for now I know a few things: A hot, feral, infinite room gets dismantled, then re-mantled as a cold, sterile, finite room.

Everyone in the play is searching diligently for the truth/“truth”/Truth. Their searches send them flailing down wildly different paths, and find them arriving at vastly different conclusions (all of which are probably wrong, and probably also right).

Everything—people, names, memories, documents, objects, art—disintegrates, and all the characters grapple with this fact in vastly different ways (embracing it, fighting it, hanging onto the scraps that remain, etc.)

MNL Where/how did you get your inspiration for "Retrospective"?

CVS: In 2000, I read an article about what happened to Francis Bacon's London studio after his death. The room was infamously chaotic: thousands of art supplies, pieces of source material, slashed canvases, etc. It was donated to a Dublin museum, which realized it had a treasure trove on its hands, but had no idea what to do with it. Ultimately, the museum decided to reconstruct the studio, and put it on display. To accomplish this, the museum called in a team of archaeologists to excavate the studio as if it were a dig site (well, it became a dig site): laying down a grid, noting the orientation of every object, etc. Everything was methodically recorded, removed, flown to Dublin, then precisely reconstructed.

Reading this, I saw an interesting stage picture—a fully-furnished studio getting gradually emptied out throughout Act 1, then reassembled during Act 2. Though Retrospective concerns an American artist, and takes place in West Virginia/Detroit, the story of the Bacon Studio was my initial inspiration.

MN: Do you have a special writing process or ritual and, if so, what is it?

CVS: I try hard to write at least a little every day, just make it a practice. I have to, because I give myself the freedom to roam around the play for a while, having no clue what I'm doing/where I'm going. Eventually things come into focus, but it takes a long time for me to get to anything good. It's all just exploring 'til bits of life start asserting themselves.

I get up as early as I can, and after emails are checked/coffee ingested, I work. I try to accomplish daily small goals (exploring a specific relationship/scene, doing/integrating some bit of research, tackling a big speech/section of a speech, doing a pass focusing on one aspect or another of the script, cutting/tightening, etc).

I write at a computer, just since I've worked on a keyboard (starting with a word processor!) since college. Only time I write longhand's when I'm out and about—I jot notes in these little notebooks I carry.

CVS: You act and direct. Does your experience as an actor inform your
directing? If so, how?

Absolutely. As an actor, I'm constantly looking for rich and active choices that will enhance and tell the story of my character. As a director, I'm aiding and guiding all of the actors with their discovered choices to tell the story as a whole. Also, being a trained actor definitely is valuable when directing other actors as we share a common vocabulary. Often, there is a shorthand. Ultimately, it's all storytelling but with differing scopes and responsibilities.

CVS: What are you looking for from me, in our Pack development process?

MN: Keep writing, man! Get those thoughts and scenes onto paper and keep discovering new questions. Always strive for specificity. Feel free to use me as a resource too; it's why the Pack put us together. To quote Sir Mixalot, "Use me. Use me. 'Cause you ain't that average groupie." Seriously though, your story has a myriad of possibilities, I can't wait to see which ones you choose!

A Conversation Between Michael Marceline and Snehal Desai

Tue, 8 Nov 2011 23:16:16 -0500

Today we present the next installment in our series of conversations between collaborators in this year’s Pack. Playwright Michael Marceline and Director Snehal Desai are working on Sentences Left Unserved.

MM: What's your approach when developing a new script?

SD: It’s to Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen to the playwright, listen to actors, listen to the everyone in the room, and keep my finger on the temperature and vibe/energy in the room. Basically its to be a thermometer or barometer maybe, whichever measures atmospheric pressure. In any case, I tend to ask lots questions and then listen some more, and finally through the asking and listening take whatever action is necessary to help the playwright in whatever way is necessary bring his characters to life.

As someone who is also a playwright, I act as I would want a director to while helping me on a new play.

SD: Most helpful question a director could ask you or do while you are working on a new play of yours?

MM: I can't think of any specific question that's “most important”, but questions are extremely helpful. At the most basic level questions reveal points of inconsistency and confusion that are unintentional; they also help me to know what about my play is arousing curiosity and interest and, further, help reveal new ground for me to explore within the play. Ultimately–during the early drafts at least–encouragement, peppered with insightful praise, is the most important element a director can offer.

SD: What artists or art do you think has influenced you the most?'

MM: While there are many playwrights I admire and who have inspired me (Albee, Euripides, Williams), I draw most of my inspiration from music. Great plays are like great albums: the ideas and questions stick in your head the way a great melody or lyrical turn of phrase does, the interplay of language, character and plot elicit spontaneous emotion just as notes and themes do, and the dialogue and scenes build as well as a sick rhythm and an ingenious track-listing. The three musical artists who inspire me most: David Bowie influenced my sense of camp, outrageousness & experimentation, Tori Amos my penchant for raw emotionality, and The Smiths/Morrissey help me tap into my wit and melancholy; they all inspire me to think big, mythologically even and to never settle into a “formula”, to risk and try new forms and that even if my voice isn't popular or pitch perfect it's still mine and that authenticity should always trump fashion or perfection.

SD: Do you listen to music while you work? Anything specifically you listened to while writing Sentences Left Unserved?

MM: Every play I write has its own soundtrack. Sometimes it's a playlist of related songs shuffled up and other times it's albums. For Sentences Left Unserved it's the latter: My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, Talk Talk's Laughing Stock, Neko Case's Blacklisted, Tori Amos’s from the choirgirl hotel, The Cure’s Disintegration and Conatus by Zola Jesus.

MM: What were your favorite and least favorite experiences directing?

SD: A project I really enjoyed directing recently was a site specific piece called Peregrine: Balboa Park. The project really pushed and challenged me as a director to work and think in new ways. It was a migratory theatrical experience, that kind of very fluidly took shape over 3 months. Except for two individuals everyone involved was a new collaborator but we quickly developed a wonderful shorthand and it all came together beautifully. I was not sure if this type of experience involving recorded tracks on an iPod with audiences wandering a crowded park and with five dancers in bridal dresses would work, but we all wanted to try and see if it could and it did. The most fulfilling experiences are ones that begin with a question and whose answer is unknown to me and when everyone in the room is just game to see what happens … and everyone was with this production.

I don't have a least favorite experience because the least favorite ones are, clichéd as it may sound, the ones where I have learned and grown the most ... I am not saying they weren't painful but when you are birthing a new baby there is always going to be some growing pains along the way.

MM: What was the best production you ever saw? Why?

SD: I honestly can only answer this questions with regards to right now. For me right now, two very different shows stand out as extremely memorable and affecting evenings of theater. They are Punchdrunk's Sleep No More and Jonas Khemiri's play Invasion. They are two extremely different pieces aesthetically but the thing that they have in common is that they are highly theatrical. Also, they provide not only thought provoking scintillating evenings of theater but were also entertaining and caused me to have a different type of theatrical experience then I traditionally do. Sleep No More through the sheer fearlessness and commitment of its performers and the entire experience that was created. Invasion for its sharp but elegant word play and how meaning of words change

A Conversation Between Don Nguyen and Kari Bentley-Quinn

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 08:16:34 -0400

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.

Interview with Susan Louise O’Connor - Amy in Paper Cranes

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:36:31 -0400

Tell us a little bit about your character and how you are similar or different from them/relate to them

I play Amy, the best friend of Melissa (Hammans)'s character Julie. Amy enjoys being the submissive in her sexual encounters and seeks out her dominant partners via the internet, which is how she encounters David, Eric (MIller)'s character. One of the things that I admire most about Amy is her unapologetic approach to her sexual needs - she knows what she wants and she pursues it. At root, Amy has a universal search - to find a partner who can love and accept all aspects of her.

Amy also finds freedom in her submissive sexual interactions - she is able to 'be someone else' by relinquishing her control. Control, and the lack thereof, is something I encounter frequently as an actor. With this role specifically, I have been challenged by the physical vulnerability required and I'm reminded how good it is to be pushed beyond your perceived boundaries. Because, as T.S Elliot said, "You have to risk going too far to discover just how far you can really go."

Interview with Melissa Hammans - JULIE in Paper Cranes

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:34:52 -0400

Tell us about your character. How are you similar?

Julie's a renegade, a heart-breaker, and a total sex pot...well, at least somewhere deep in her mind she is, or wants to be. Honestly, I think the most "renegade" thing about Julie is her bumpy love life, as she's otherwise pretty conventional. She navigates rather safely in many areas, as a result of choice and circumstance, but I think she wishes that she took the road less traveled. Julie is a loyal friend, yet guarded in the heart department. She is at times compulsive, at times safe. I don't think she sees herself as others see her. What is similar about us, you ask? We both have great hair, dislike cheap booze, and have intimacy issues...

What have paper cranes come to mean in your own life now that you've worked on this play?

I was hesitant to learn how to fold a paper crane. Not as hesitant as a fellow cast member, ahem, but I missed that day in school where everyone learned how to do it (side note, I received a picture of a gorgeous paper crane by aforementioned cast member, and I smiled. big. it was beautiful). I did learn, however, and managed to fold a few during a recent rehearsal. What struck me as so was their ability to all be so unique, yet folded with the same guide. What a reminder of how unique we all are, and how important it is to recognize the beauty in all of it...the instruction, the fear, the path, the results. Each one is gorgeous, especially the ones that don't look like exactly the picture. You can follow the instructions all you want, but the result will always be unique...at times messy and frustrating, but decidedly, beautifully yours.

You can learn more about Melissa by visiting her website: www.melissahammans.com.

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN CHRIS VAN STRANDER AND MATTHEW J. NICHOLS

A Conversation Between Michael Marceline and Snehal Desai

A Conversation Between Don Nguyen and Kari Bentley-Quinn

Interview with Susan Louise O’Connor - Amy in Paper Cranes

Interview with Melissa Hammans - JULIE in Paper Cranes

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN  CHRIS VAN STRANDER AND MATTHEW J. NICHOLS