Your Feedback Makes a Difference for Oil Change: The Musical January 25, 2012

One of the best parts of exploring the new works in progress that participate in the Fertile Ground project is the chance to watch the projects evolve and grow, thanks to audience feedback. Here’s a quick note from the desk of Oil Change: The Musical creators Brent and Klay Rogers about the ways audience feedback have shaped the next phase of their project:

After three successful workshop performances at The Broadway Rose New Stage, the creators of “Oil Change the Musical Comedy,” brothers Brent and Klay Rogers, have responded to audience surveys and written a new song to further develop the show.  The song will premiere this Friday at the PAC Firehouse Theatre workshop.  The performance will also include additional script enhancements drawn from surveys.

One audience member sent the following in an e-mail.  “It was a privilege to watch Oil Change. What a delightful musical. In fact, both my wife and I left feeling that we had seen something rare; a new musical without offensive language. ‘Oil Change’ is a show for the whole family and is a window into another culture. It sweeps the audience into refreshing, light-hearted fun and laughter. A huge Thank You to both you and your brother.”

The PAC theater is located at 1436 SW Montgomery St.  Parking on Friday evening is available at the PSU parking garage on 13th Street.  Parking on Saturday is available at the same garage or along the street.  Performances at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10.

To learn more about the project, check out Holly Johnson’s excellent preview piece on Oregon Music News.

Inspired by… Cancer and Beauty and a 9 Year Old Boy January 19, 2012

What inspires a Festival project? Here’s one extraordinary answer from playwright David Berkson.

Fifteen years ago, I began tutoring 9 year old boy named Eric. My new student had recently been diagnosed with leukemia, and was being homeschooled. Told by his family of a voracious appetite Shakespeare, I was asked if I could take an hour a week to help foster his burgeoning interest.

Eking out a living as a professional actor in San Francisco, I was happy for the work. And I was especially pleased to meet my new charge; even at our first interview, Eric wasted no time. He wanted to talk about The Merchant of Venice. Bothered and fascinated with the Bard’s treatment of the Jewish moneylender Shylock, Eric wrestled with the most troublesome issues in the play before finally asking: “Was Shakespeare anti-Symmetrical?”

Most malapropisms reveal ignorance. Eric’s revealed knowledge. And curiosity. Read the rest of the story.

You can check out his piece, The Penguins of Ithaca,  January 27, 28, 29 @ 7:30pm at the Northwest Academy Blue Box Theatre, 1130 SW Main St, Portland OR 97205. Tickets available through www.fertilegroundpdx.org.

What Inspires a Fertile Ground Project? The Answers May Surprise You… January 13, 2012

  Artists from all walks of life convene to make work each year at the Fertile Ground Festival, and they often bring to their art incredibly diverse perspectives (its one of the things that makes every festival so richly rewarding for festival-goers and artists alike… all those new ways of experiencing the world rubbing up against one another for one week in Portland.

So this year we asked our festival artists to describe their moment of inspiration for the projects they are presenting. Where were they?

What were they doing?

How did inspiration strike?

Here’s what they had to say…

“We were in Campeche, watching the orchestra and realizing how much culture is woven into the fabric of our lives.” – Dañel Malán, B’aktun 13

“I was slightly intoxicated at a karaoke night somewhere in NoPo and a woman with fried-bleached hair and salt-n-pepper roots dressed in her stained pink and lime green athletic jogging suit (with the word PINK stretched across her posterior) told me her entire story simply thru her impassioned performance and her drunkenly free interactions with the audience. “

-Rusty Tennant, Karaoke the Musical

“I was in a meeting with a woman in a nice restaurant who was showing me what she would be wearing (largely nothing except body makeup and a skirt of steak knives) in a dance piece we were working on.  – Mark LaPierre, 4X4=8

“I was inspired to tell my story when I saw another storyteller sharing the story of his failed marriage, and he was so alive on stage that it completely destroyed what I knew to be possible for a storyteller.” – Cory Huff, Redneck Mormon Thespian

“I was at my computer wondering what in the world I was going to do for this show, scared to death. Then I realized, that was it, Fear…I’ve been exploring my relationship to it for quite some time now.  It made perfect sense to dance about it.” – Laura Onizuka,  No Soy Bailarina

“In late winter of 2009, my girlfriend (now wife) and I had finished watching a movie that my brother had written and I declared something like: I’d like to see more storytelling like this in live theatre!” – Matt Haynes, Pulp Diction III

“On my couch, second cup of coffee, cats all cozy – finished yet another Grimm Fairy Tale to shock me with a harsh, stark ending – and i thought how hard it would be to find food for the first time after you’ve been banished from place you’ve lived your whole life.” – James W. Moore, Rapunzel- Uncut!

“I was in my kitchen, arguing with my deceased Greek ancestors about how to make the perfect spanakopita.” – Eugenia Woods, Famished

“I was walking in Mt. Tabor park late last July right after JAW, thinking about Tee Rose, a character from my play Blue Roses, wondering what she would be like in mid-life, when I suddenly realized that by then it would be the era of Civil Rights and she would stop working at the asylum and start her life as an activist.” -  Sandra de Helen, Asylum No More

“When I realized the statute of limitations expired, it was time to tell Teenage Commando.” – Augi Garred, Big Plastic Heroes

Got tickets yet? Check out the full line up of Fertile Ground Projects and get your festival pass here.

Playing with Subversion January 11, 2012

post by Fertile Ground artist KAREN ALEXANDER-BROWN

 

My plays are conceived with strong visual and auditory elements in mind.  The non-verbal elements (music, sound, movement, photos, costumes, and lighting) represent essential experience beyond what is spoken.  However, this makes staged readings of the plays a challenge!

With the exception of my first short play, In Vino Veritas, a comic fantasy about a woman’s imagined perfect mate, each of the plays I have presented at Fertile Ground has continued to grow in one form or another.  Consumed, a monologue that takes place in the last hours of my grandmother’s life, became a short story that won notable mention at the 2010 Oregon Writer’s Colony Awards.  Last year’s piece, Bridgetown, A Musical, which is about a love triangle and making it (or not) in the “city of bridges,” is well on its way to becoming a novel.

I am hoping that Triptych Americana, my fourth contribution to the Fertile Ground Festival in as many years, eventually will grow beyond its staged reading into a production— or some other creative form— with all its visual elements fully realized.

For now, however, I am relying heavily on the audience’s imagination, along with a few visual, musical and choreographed elements, designed in collaboration with my sound and lighting designer, Gordon Romei.  The cast (Pat Janowski, Jon Farley, Angela Freeman, Jack Wells and Tom Stutzman) is terrific!

Thematically, my pieces involve familiar situations experienced from an unexpected perspective, usually involving female empowerment or the point of view of someone marginalized by society.  This subversive perspective in each play allows for new insights and unexpected outcomes.

Triptych Americana, a trio of short plays that will be presented as a staged reading on January 29^th at 1:00 pm at Hipbone Studio, focuses on contemporary issues in America and how they affect the characters on a personal, social or political level.

And, of course, there will be music, sound, movement and photography, enhanced by your imagination.

Come give us your feedback and help Triptych Americana evolve.  Tickets are $8.00 (cash only) at the door, and the price includes a second feature, Skin Garden, by Jeremy Benjamin, that will follow.  Hipbone is located at ­­­­­­­­1847 E. BURNSIDE, #104,  PORTLAND, OR 97214.

A Very Special Episode of “Claire’s Playwright Interviews” January 12, 2011

 

In Which Fertile Ground Blogger Claire Willett Subjects Herself and Her Writing Partner To Her Series of Playwright Interview Questions, and Reinforces Traditional Gender Roles By Color-Coding Their Answers Pink and Blue, Although Really, If You’ve Ever Met Either Of Them, You’d Be Able To Tell Whose Was Whose Purely By Length.

NAMES: Gilberto Martin del Campo & Claire Willett

PROJECT: That Was the River, This Is the Sea

That Was the River, This Is the Sea plays at 6 pm Monday, January 24th – Thursday, January 27th, and 7 p.m. Friday, January 28th at The Art Department (417 SE 11th Avenue).  Tickets are $12 (cash-only Monday).  Friday is a joint event with Candace Bouchard and Christian Squires of Oregon Ballet Theatre ($20 cash at door for both shows).  More info here. [Please note that the Art Department's address has changed and is INCORRECT in the festival program and website listings.  The SE 11th address is correct, not the SE 9th address.]

ABOUT CLAIRE & GILBERTO

Claire Willett is a three-time Fertile Ground Festival playwright; her play Upon Waking was produced in the 2009 Fertile Ground Festival, and her play How the Light Gets In was produced last year, where Portland theatre guru Mead Hunter called it “a sassy psychological breakthrough story that deftly avoided the usual traps of sentiment and sententiae, and showed us that Claire is very much a writer to watch.” Claire has a B.A. in Theatre from Whitman College, where she was voted “Best Student Director” in 2003, and where her first play Requiem: God Breathing took 3rd Prize and was the top faculty pick in the 2002 student-written One Act Play Contest.  She has also directed for a short play festival at Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York, and directed the Irish premiere of Moises Kaufman’s The Laramie Project in Galway.  An arts grantwriter and development consultant, Claire has worked for nonprofits all over Portland, from Artists Rep to Hand2Mouth. She is the Grants Manager for Oregon Ballet Theatre.

Gilberto Martin del Campo is a film, television and stage actor. A graduate of the Portland Actors’ Conservatory, he has been working in Portland for the last five years at companies such as Artists Repertory Theatre, Miracle Theatre/El Teatro Milagro, Northwest Children’s Theatre, Northwest Classic Greek Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, Portland Actors’ Conservatory and Stark Raving Theatre, among others.  Favorite roles include Don Quixote in El Quijote (Miracle Theatre), Orpheus in Eurydice (Artists Repertory Theatre), and D’Artagnan in The Three Musketeers (Lakewood Theatre Company).  He recently played King Florestan in Oregon Ballet Theatre’s The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Christopher Stowell.  He has worked on nearly a dozen films in Portland over the last few years, and appeared on TNT in December playing a featured role on the season finale of Leverage.

TEN ONE-WORD ANSWERS

1. A Writer I Admire Is . . .

Margery Allingham

Truman Capote

2. My Writing Style Can Be Described As . . .

Nora Ephron Meets the last page of The Great Gatsby

The sandbox Meets the gutter

3. The Portland Theatre Company I’d Most Love To See This Show Produced By Is . . .

CoHo

CoHo

4. The Celebrity I Would Most Like To See Star In This Play On Broadway Is . . .

Zooey Deschanel

Jimmy Smits

5. A Portland Artist I Admire Is . . .

Christopher Stowell

Trish Egan

6. I Am Terrified Of . . .

Snakes.  Also falling.  And anything touching my wrists.  And sleeping in a first-floor room without curtains on the windows.  And that part in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty where Maleficent’s eyes appear in the fire.

Not seeing my family again

7. I Am Obsessed With . . .

Watergate

Food

8. The Book Currently On My Nightstand Is . . .

Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman, which I bought for Gilberto for Christmas but decided to keep instead.  Nobody tell him.

Ulysses by James Joyce

9. Three Adjectives That Describe This Play Are . . .

Intimate, Dreamlike, Honest

Deep, Funny, Moving

10. In the Indie Art-House Biographical Film Of My Life, I Should Be Played By . . .

Queen Latifah

George C. Scott

FIVE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND SUBSTANCE

1) Tell us about your Fertile Ground Festival play.

When Leo takes his American girlfriend Rose to Mexico for his sister’s wedding, she is ecstatic to meet his family for the first time. But she finds herself in the middle of a family conflict when Leo’s cousin Javier skips the wedding. Leo and Javier have not spoken in years, though nobody can tell her why. Determined to mend the rift and get answers, Rose digs relentlessly into Leo’s family history. But what she finds may change their relationship – and their lives – forever. As Leo’s past and his future are drawn inexorably towards each other, a Greek chorus of Mexican aunts and uncles guide the audience on a journey through two countries and into the furthest reaches of the human heart. This world premiere staged reading is a bilingual, multimedia collaboration by Claire Willett and Gilberto Martin del Campo.

2) How did this story come about?  What inspired it?

It was originally a short story that I had to lay out after experiencing a very emotional trip home.  It’s a play that deals with loss – of  a loved one dying, from a breakup, of your own self – and finding, either by chance or instinct of survival, your way back into being part of a brighter life.

I’ll pick up where he left off.  (And then go on much, much longer . . . )

Gilberto and I met a jillion years ago when he was in Take Me Out at Artists Rep, and we reconnected last January when he auditioned for, and subsequently played the lead in, my last Fertile Ground project, a play called How the Light Gets In.  We liked working together a lot, and he liked the way I write, so after the show ended he came to me with this short story/memoir piece, and asked if I would read it and give him some feedback.  Cut to one year (one long, semi-exhausting year of extremely hard work) later, and that five-page story is now a 100-page play.

What I really love about it is how universal the story is; our families are so different from each other, but we can both relate to this family, to these characters and what they go through and what happens to them.  And sometimes, as we worked, the things that really leaped out at me as being full of emotional resonance were different from the things that really hit home with Gilberto; for example, the character of Gabriela, who becomes in so many ways the emotional anchor of the story, was only mentioned in the initial short story in passing.  She was there in the background, but she wasn’t a character.  But when I first read the story, she leaped off the page to me, and I felt a tremendous sense of obligation to do justice to the real-life girl she was based on, to tell her story right.

Turning a 5-page nonfiction piece into a full-length fictional drama was tricky but exciting.  We had to take the characters and their relationships to new places that stretched them beyond the real-life people who inspired them. And there were a few times when we had different opinions about how a certain part of the story should come together – including some moments where the real-life basis for the story was actually LESS believable than fiction.  Like, the real story was based on a trip Gilberto took home to see his family for both his sister’s wedding and his grandmother’s funeral.  But when I read it I told him, “No one is going to buy that both of those things happened back-to-back.  We have to pick.  Wedding or funeral.  Not both.”  I was convinced it would feel way too clichéd, too Lifetime-Movie-of-the-Week, too the-circle-of-life-continues . . . even though it was really true. But in the end, I feel like the characters we created are wonderful, flawed, interesting, engaging people that audiences will enjoy getting to know and spending time with.  I think it’s a beautiful story, and it was such an honor for me to get to help turn that beautiful story into a play.

3) Talk about your writing process.  (How do you write?  When do you write?  What gets you writing?)

I write when I’m with my partner [Claire]; she brings structure and sense to the entanglement of emotions and ideas.  We sort them out together and find a logical, emotional way to tell the story.

I write best late at night, with some background noise, and horizontally.  In college I wrote my thesis papers sprawled on the living room floor on my stomach, with Friends on the TV behind me.  I don’t know why this is true, but it is.  I hate chairs.  Also mornings.  This was occasionally problematic working with Gilberto, because he’s the exact opposite – in bed early and up early.  So we had to compromise.  Normally what seemed to work best would be to get together and talk through whatever scene we were working on until we both knew what we wanted to say, and then sometimes we would split up and write stuff and send it to each other, while other times we would sit there with our laptops and hash it out until we had something we both liked.

This project was a totally new experience for me as a writer.  I’ve never written with a partner before, and I had to stretch a lot.  Like, I hate when people read drafts before they’re finished.  HATE IT.  But Gilberto wanted to see everything the second we had words on paper.  So I had to get over a lot of my hangups about that.  I have to admit there was a tiny part of me that kept thinking, “Is this really going to work?”  Like, I’ve never been to Mexico, I don’t speak Spanish (well, I speak Sesame Street Spanish).  I had a lot of concerns about whether I could really do justice to somebody else’s story. But we have a really amazing partnership.  We both had moments where we were discouraged, but neither of us were ever discouraged at the same time, so one of us could always give the “Buck up, soldier” pep talk to the other one.  I was actually kind of surprised how well we complemented each other, both personally and as writers.

One of the interesting elements about my role in this process is that I was essentially being brought in to help write someone else’s story.  In the past, all the plays I’ve written have sprung from something that I felt really passionately about, and I really wanted to tell that particular story for a reason that had personal emotional significance to me.  I’ve never really adapted anything or worked with a partner, so the challenge for me was, how do I find my own emotional truth inside a story that I didn’t write and that has, on the surface, very little to do with me?  Plus I’d always sworn I would never write a relationship play.  I think they’re boring.  But Gilberto is such a beautiful writer, and there was so much going on below the surface of this story that I felt like it could become something really extraordinary.  And I really feel like it did.

Some people who have read the script, or who came to our first batch of table reads, have asked questions or proposed theories about what parts are Claire and what parts are Gilberto; but it’s not something you can split down the middle like that.  I mean, there are occasional lines here and there that sound more like his voice or my voice, but you can’t pull out a chunk and say, “Oh, he wrote that scene and she wrote that scene.”  It was a real partnership; it evolved through both of us working things out together, so it’s not 100% my voice or 100% his voice in any one place.  It’s hard to explain.  Usually if someone asks me to quantify it, what I tell them is that Gilberto’s the heart and I’m the head.  The emotional core of the story came from him; a lot of the process of shaping that core into a story that flowed and had a concrete structure came from me.  That’s not to say that Gilberto did no editing or that I had no emotional investment; it just means that it was a really organic meshing of my strengths and weaknesses as a writer with his, to create something that was bigger than both of us.

Oh my God, that’s so sappy.

4) What is the most exciting/inspiring piece of theatre you’ve seen in Portland?

There’s so much to choose from – every performance has so much to offer.  But I would say that I recently saw Everyone Who Looks Like You at Hand2Mouth, and that has stuck with me.

I was working at Artists Rep when they did Assassins and I think I saw it nine times.  Sweet frosted cupcakes, what a cast!  Wade McCollum, Sharonlee McLean, Isaac Lamb, Randall Stuart . . .   And I had SUCH a crush on Kirk Mouser after that show – not actual real-life Kirk Mouser (although he is a dear), but Kirk Mouser as John Wilkes Booth.  Which means I sort of indirectly had a crush on John Wilkes Booth.  Which is really not the kind of thing I should be admitting in public.

5) What are you up to these days when you’re not writing?

Swimming, swimming a lot.

Well, I just bought a house over the summer, so I spend a lot of time daydreaming about things like wrought-iron gates and hand-painted Italian wallpaper that I’ll never be able to afford on my nonprofit salary.  I watch a lot of cooking shows (I’m a tiny bit obsessed with Nigella Lawson.  Also the Chairman on Iron Chef).  I care more about celebrity gossip than is strictly healthy.  I spend a lot of time re-reading my stash of Agatha Christie mysteries, buying jewelry at Portland boutiques (Moxie and Redux are faves), and kicking around Alberta/Killingsworth.  I love going out for breakfast.  I love naps.  I love going out for breakfast and then coming home and taking a nap.  And I love coffee.  Like, I really, REALLY love coffee.

Choreographer Interview: Gavin Larsen January 7, 2011

NAME: Gavin Larsen

PROJECT: A Ghost In the Room With Us

A Ghost In the Room With Us plays at 7 pm on Wednesday, January 26th and 6pm on Sunday, January 30th at Conduit (918 SW Yamhill, 4th Floor).  Tickets are $15. More info here.

ABOUT GAVIN

Gavin Larsen has danced with Pacific Northwest Ballet, Alberta Ballet, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet, Ballet Victoria and most recently as a principal dancer with Oregon Ballet Theatre.  She is thrilled to continue exploring the limitless language of dance by incorporating, considering, and learning from the distinct dialects of her fellow artists and collaborators, David Biespiel and Joshua Pearl.  Gavin is currently on the faculty of the School of Oregon Ballet Theatre.

EIGHT ONE-WORD ANSWERS

1. A Choreographer I Admire Is . . . I admire anyone with the bravery to create dance!

2. My Choreographic Style Can Be Described As . . . “Gavin Larsen the Dancer” Meets “Gavin Larsen speaking without words”

3. A Portland Artist I Admire Is . . . Josie Moseley

4. I Am Terrified Of . . . Feeling trapped

5. I Am Obsessed With . . . Moving and expanding outside the boundaries of my own skin

6. The Book Currently On My Nightstand Is . . . Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon

7. Three Adjectives That Describe This Play Are . . . Thought-Provoking, Classic, Beautiful

8. In the Indie Art-House Biographical Film Of My Life, I Should Be Played By . . . [EDITOR’S NOTE: Gavin didn’t answer this question, but Claire feels strongly that she should be played by Embeth Davidtz.  If you've seen Matilda and have met Gavin, you will agree with her.]

FIVE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND SUBSTANCE

1. Tell us about your Fertile Ground Festival project.

Three of us, poet David Biespiel, dancer Gavin Larsen, and musician Joshua Pearl — the trio that call themselves Incorporamento — are returning to the Fertile Ground Festival with a collaboration of original poetry, dance, and music, “A Ghost in the Room with Us.” Building on last year’s heralded Fertile Ground performance, we’re trying to allow audiences to interpret performance in a new way. We’re defining and fusing the lines between three classic forms of art. “A Ghost in the Room with Us” burns with recollection, introspection, and meditative reverie in a fabulous performance of renewal, insight, and pleasure.

2. How did this piece come about?  What inspired it?

As soon as last year’s FG Festival shows ended, we were already talking about what we would do next.  We knew we wanted to move to a more polished and fully produced show, much more in-depth, and include both original and existing work.  We kept meeting to have “jam sessions” all spring and summer, and the pieces in this show are the results.  We’re inspired by the concept of noticing that inner self that we all have, who travels with us through life, but is often as mysterious and effervescent as a ghost.

3. Talk about your creative process.  (How do you work?  When do you work?  What gets you moving?)

We each work independently, and then bring something to the table, so to speak, at each rehearsal.  Some of our pieces were born from the seed of a piece of music, some from one of David’s poems, and some from my movement.  We blend them together without stepping all over each other’s work.

4. What is the most exciting/inspiring piece of live performance you’ve seen in Portland?

Honestly, it’s some of the OBT performances that I have either performed in or seen my colleagues do.  I am routinely floored by the amount of talent and creativity in these studios.

5. What are you up to these days when you’re not creating?

I teach full-time at the School of OBT and coach the children that appear in any OBT production, so that has kept me very busy all fall and winter.  When I’m not doing that, I’m refreshing my soul by moving my body and trying to live up to the high creative standards of Joshua and David.  Doing this FG performance is like getting a drink of water after a long thirsty spell.  I can’t stop gulping it down!

New Works Workshop Hosted by Hand2Mouth January 7, 2011

One of the things that I love most about Fertile Ground is how everyone gets so excited about new works. New plays are the lifeblood of the theatre. It’s what keeps the art form alive. Having a good idea isn’t enough, however. You need to work with people who are experienced in bringing new ideas to the stage, so that you can have a fully realized idea.

Hand2Mouth, one of my personal favorite new companies, is hosting an exciting workshop for new performance works.

New Work Workshop Series

Venue: the mOuth (inside Zoomtopia, 810 SE Belmont St.)

Dates: Jan 22 & 29 @ 1:30pm and Jan 23 & 30 @ 9am

Tickets: $20 each ($15 w/ Festival Pass or if registered for multiple workshops) | www.Hand2MouthTheatre.org

 

Join some of Portland’s brightest minds in new performance as you participate in up to four workshops during the Festival, each providing a taste of creating new performance work in a unique and exciting way.  These intense three-hour workshops will get you on your feet and involved in creating performance, generating text, improvising, clowning, and much more.  Workshops will cater to all skill-levels, from the curious beginner to the advanced performer/creator. This year’s series includes:

Jan 22: Jonathan Walters (Artistic Director of Hand2Mouth Theatre)

Jan 23: Rachel Fachner (founding member of Collective Dance NY)

Jan 29: Heather Pearl (founding member of Nomadic Theatre)

Jan 30: Kate Sanderson (founding member of Fever Theatre)

Find details about each workshop and register at www.Hand2MouthTheatre.org.

Register early as enrollment is limited!

Playwright Interview #8 – Mark Saunders January 6, 2011

NAME: Mark Saunders

PROJECT: Spoused

Spoused is presented by Nameless Playwrights in partnership with Bump In the Road Theatre and plays at 7 pm on Monday, January 24th at the Someday Lounge (125 NW 5th).  Tickets are $8 in advance, $10 at the door. More info here.

ABOUT MARK

Mark, a playwright, screenwriter, and cartoonist, writes short plays befitting his attention span. His plays have appeared in more than 20 theatres across America, from Portland to New York City, as well as several stops in-between. He once owned a Yugo.

TEN ONE-WORD ANSWERS

1. A Writer I Admire Is . . . Mark Twain

2. My Writing Style Can Be Described As . . . Mad Magazine Meets Moliere

3. The Portland Theatre Company I’d Most Love To See This Show Produced By Is . . . Portland Playhouse

4. The Celebrity I Would Most Like To See Star In This Play On Broadway Is . . . Anne Hathaway as Nancy

5. A Portland Theatre Artist I Admire Is . . . Scott Palmer (Artistic Director at Bag & Baggage in Hillsboro)

6. I Am Terrified Of . . . Right-wing gun nuts waving flags, Bibles, and birth certificates

7. I Am Obsessed With . . . My wife’s Spaghetti Carbonara

8. The Book Currently On My Nightstand Is . . . Moneyball by Michael Lewis

9. Three Adjectives That Describe This Play Are . . . Funny, Romantic, Short

10. In the Indie Art-House Biographical Film Of My Life, I Should Be Played By . . . Anyone who is tall, dark, and handsome since I am none of those things.

 

FIVE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND SUBSTANCE

1. Tell us about your Fertile Ground Festival play.

First, I’d like to mention that I am a proud member of Nameless Playwrights Group, a new gathering of eight writers dedicated to creating original plays for all ages. You could say we’re Portland’s “newest-oldest” playwrights group since all members are 60 or older and we held our first meeting in 2010. Collectively our lives span more than half a millennium. Nameless Playwrights will be running a showcase of new plays over three consecutive nights (Jan. 22-24, 2011) during Fertile Ground.

My play, “Spoused,”  is a three-character play about a young telemarketer for a small theatre company who gets a quick lesson in the pitfalls of love, divorce and pitching the new theatre season. It’s a whimsical play for theatre lovers and lovers in general. If you’ve ever been pitched over the phone to buy a season ticket, you already know the experience from your side of the conversation. This is what happens on the other side.

2. How did this story come about?  What inspired it?

I worked for a few months as a telemarketer for Portland Center Stage. Although I had been in software marketing for several years, I was always more of a word and picture guy and knew very little about telemarketing. First, let me just say it’s not easy. Second, let me add that I was never good at it. But I did gain a new appreciation for what it takes for a theatre company to stay in business, and how creative such companies must be these days to attract an audience. I also came to appreciate why “Coffee is for closers.”  One evening, while working the phones, I overheard one of the employees tell another employee he had been “spoused.” I loved the name and concept and filed it away on the hard drive of my mind for future use. I have a mind like a steel sieve, so it’s lucky I remembered my telemarketing experience some two years later.

3. Talk about your writing process.  (How do you write?  When do you write?  What gets you writing?)

I follow a production process, of sorts: I usually first create a high-level outline of where I want to go and what I want to say. I’ll email myself bits of dialogue or story notes or thoughts about a character during the background processing stage, when I’m chewing on an idea. I generally know when I’m ready, and when I am I sit at my computer and try to complete a first draft as quickly as possible. Then, I rewrite and rewrite again. I feel most productive in the morning and late evening hours. I’m so torpid in the afternoon I might as well be in a coma. Once I came up with a title first (“Oedipus and Hamlet Walk into a Bar”) and then crafted a play around the title. In every other case, however, the idea for a play, including plot and characters, always comes first, as it should. Initially, I focused on writing short plays to fit my worker bee schedule, short attention span and juvenile need for instant gratification. Then, I started writing full-length screenplays and continued creating the short stage plays on the side. I’m now working on a couple of full-length plays, instead of screenplays, and I find the transition very rewarding. Pretty soon I hope to be able to sit at the grown-up’s table. What gets me writing? For whatever reason, I always seem to need a deadline, either self-imposed or otherwise.

4. What is the most exciting/inspiring piece of theatre you’ve seen in Portland?

Artists Rep’s 2009 production of The Seafarer; it made me regret that I didn’t have more Irish and alcohol in me.

5. What are you up to these days when you’re not writing?

When I’m not writing plays or screenplays, I try to work on my non-fiction humor book about living in the middle of Mexico for two years (We’ll Always Have Parasites: The good, the bad, and the not so pretty about dropping out and moving to Mexico). Somewhere between finding your spiritual self and getting your head shot off by narcos there exists a huge pool of expat experiences, and that’s where you’ll find my book. To help buy food and pay bills and generally stay alive, I also develop marketing copy for a small number of supportive and generous clients. Most recently, however, my primary purpose in life seems to be walking the dog, a male Standard Poodle who, when he stands upright, is almost as tall as I am and easily twice as smart.

Playwright Interview #7 – Jenni Miller January 5, 2011

NAME: Jenni Miller

PROJECT: Hello, My Name Is

Hello, My Name Is is presented by PDX Playwrights and plays at 7 pm on Sunday, January 30 at Hipbone Studio (1847 E. Burnside).  Tickets are Pay-What-You-Will at the door. More info here.

 

ABOUT JENNI

Jenni Miller is a local actress, playwright, storyteller, community advocate.  She’s performed locally with Sowelu Theater Company, Curious Comedy, Artists Rep, Lakewood, Brainwaves, Hart, and the Magdeline Theater Company.  She’s a current member of Playback Theater Company and PDX Playwrights.

TEN ONE-WORD ANSWERS

1. A Writer I Admire Is . . . Gertrude Stein

2. My Writing Style Can Be Described As . . . Ionesco Meets Salinger

3. The Portland Theatre Company I’d Most Love To See This Show Produced By Is . . . Defunkt

4. The Celebrity I Would Most Like To See Star In This Play On Broadway Is . . . ???

5. A Portland Theatre Artist I Admire Is . . . Chris Harder

6. I Am Terrified Of . . . Having my picture taken

7. I Am Obsessed With . . . Finding a job

8. The Book Currently On My Nightstand Is . . . The Working Poor by David Shipler

9. Three Adjectives That Describe This Play Are . . . Sad, Wild, Scary Real

10. In the Indie Art-House Biographical Film Of My Life, I Should Be Played By . . . Some unknown actress that makes an awe-inspiring, award-winning performance, catching everyone’s eye, then slowly fades back into obscurity.  You know, that girl that was in that show about you know and there was the and that thing and she wore a blue dress and was in a Sprint commercial once . . .

FIVE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND SUBSTANCE

1. Tell us about your Fertile Ground Festival play.

It’s a story about a Man and a Woman.  It’s about the heartbreaking circumstances that change her life.  It’s about how she cannot amend her circumstances and her struggle to regain her innocence in an institutionalized world. It’s about time, the reality of time, time without hope, without revolt.  It’s about forgetfulness and passing into nothingness.  It’s about loss, it’s about rape and it’s a wild ride . . .

“All rape is an exercise in power, but some rapists have an edge that is more than physical.  They operate within an institutionalized setting that works to their advantage and in which a victim has little chance to redress her grievance.” –Against Our Will: Men, Women & Rape by Susan Brownmiller

2. How did this story come about?  What inspired it?

I started writing this story several years ago in a playwriting class taught at PSU by Karen Magaldi (one of my favorite local dramaturgs and directors).  I had 10-15 pages and put it to rest for several years, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the main character and what her journey was supposed to be.  Then I read Susan Brownmiller’s book Against Our Will and realized what the play was about.  Brownmiller’s book both intrigued and angered me but most of all what I heard between the lines was this woman’s story.  This play has had many lives and I’m hoping to find a place for it to either rest or be sent off . . . I’m extremely curious to hear what people think.

3. Talk about your writing process.  (How do you write?  When do you write?  What gets you writing?)

Deadlines get me writing.  I write whenever the inspiration hits and suffer through the moments when it doesn’t.  I find that the most interesting stuff comes when I’m running or driving in my car far away from my computer, then a blank mind as soon as I put finger tips to the keyboard.  I wonder sometimes what it’s all worth but can’t stop thinking about storylines in my head.  I have a difficult time leaving these characters be, and an even more difficult time reacquainting myself with them.   I feel they deserve some type of redemption or the satisfaction of moving on but I know they have to live in the pages of the play and because of this I struggle with endings.  I write Wednesday nights with Portland Women Writers and find the prompts and feedback so beneficial.  I write early mornings and late evenings and like to bake when I write.

4. What is the most exciting/inspiring piece of theatre you’ve seen in Portland?

Years ago I saw Defunkt’s production of the Charles Mee play The Investigation of the Murder in El Salvador. Still probably one of the best pieces of theater I’ve ever seen – the timing and delivery was amazing.  Also, Artists Rep’s How I Learned to Drive – Bruce Burkhartsmeier’s performance . . . WOW!

5. What are you up to these days when you’re not writing?

I’m trying to find a job.  I’m a mom.  I perform with the Portland Playwright Group.

Playwright Interview #6 – Brad Bolchunos January 4, 2011

NAME: Brad Bolchunos

PROJECTS: Up, Up and Away and Backtalk

Up, Up, and Away and Backtalk are presented by PDX Playwrights and will play Friday, January 21st, at 10 pm on the mezzanine of the Portland Armory (128 NW 11th Ave) as part of the It Takes All Shorts program.  Tickets are $10. More info here.

ABOUT BRAD

Years as a newspaper reporter in Colorado and Oregon enabled Brad Bolchunos to make a living as a writer for a time, but a stint as a humor columnist as well as experiences acting on stage spoke closer to the tangled scribblings in his heart. He was honored to see his short play Death Wears Fishnets as part of the Pulp Diction lineup for Fertile Ground last year, and delighted to see a Readers Theater Repertory production of his 10-minute piece In the Bag in April. This latest offering via Portland Playwrights adds to the thrill.

TEN ONE-WORD ANSWERS

1. A Writer I Admire Is . . . Tom Stoppard

2. My Writing Style Can Be Described As . . . Roald Dahl Meets Ghostland Observatory

3. The Portland Theatre Company I’d Most Love To See This Show Produced By Is . . . Imago

4. The Celebrity I Would Most Like To See Star In This Play On Broadway Is . . . Judi Dench as Beverly in Backtalk

5. A Portland Theatre Artist I Admire Is . . . Don Alder

6. I Am Terrified Of . . . Brussels sprouts.  Especially if they talk.

7. I Am Obsessed With . . . Old-fashioned gadgets.

8. The Book Currently On My Nightstand Is . . . Tin House Magazine.

9. Three Adjectives That Describe This Play Are . . . Dark, Silly, Serling-esque.

10. In the Indie Art-House Biographical Film Of My Life, I Should Be Played By . . . Alec Guinness?  Wait, he’s dead.  Maybe a young James Spader . . . but he’s not wiggly enough.  Buster Keaton?  Dead again.  Hmm.  This could be tricky . . .

FIVE QUESTIONS OF DEPTH AND SUBSTANCE

1. Tell us about your Fertile Ground Festival play.

Backtalk: When a passenger on the back of a bus dares to object to another passenger’s behavior, the ride takes a turn into the surreal.

Up, Up and Away: Desperation drives a balloon pilot and her husband to question their relationship, the nature of power, and existence itself in this darkly comical flight of fancy.

2. How did this story come about?  What inspired it?

The idea for “Up, Up and Away” arose years ago after I covered a hot air balloon competition — a gig which, thankfully, included a sample ride. The composure of the pilots impressed me, as did the possibilities of conflict in what might otherwise be considered a tranquil activity. The elements of “Backtalk” percolated into my head quite recently while riding (and writing) on a TriMet bus.

3. Talk about your writing process.  (How do you write?  When do you write?  What gets you writing?)

I try to write at least a little bit every day, keeping a journal, and when I don’t I seem to go a bit nuts. Usually I write when taking the bus or MAX on my way to work downtown. Often the material is humdrum nonsense, but sometimes — with enough nurturing — the meanderings can sprout into saplings and trees.

4. What is the most exciting/inspiring piece of theatre you’ve seen in Portland?

Third Rail’s Dead Funny and Kiss Me Like You Mean It spring to mind among many stirring shows I’ve seen in Portland, but I’ve also seen amazing, edgy, hilarious work from the theaters that end in “oh!” — CoHo, Imago and Vertigo.

5. What are you up to these days when you’re not writing?

Recently I finished a zany, fun run playing the lead in the North End Player’s production of The Seven Year Itch by George Axelrod.  I continue to enjoy participating in PDX Playwrights, hearing and reading new work.