Mark Bedard: A Loco-Motive for Murder
Hometown:
I was born in Garden Grove, California and I was pretty much trapped in its gravitational pull until I embarked out into the world as a professional actor.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
All comedy is rooted in truth and pain.
Was there a play that inspired you to start writing plays?
Animal Crackers.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve had to Google in your writing process?
I typed into the Google search bar, “How do you write a play good?”
John Tufts: A Loco-Motive for Murder
What inspired you to write your play?
The origin story is quite long for this one, so I’ll give the bullet points.
1. During a talkback for another show we were asked, “What’s next?”
2. We had no answer prepared so we BS’d a response about a murder mystery and the Marx Brothers.
3. We couldn’t stop giggling.
4. We dropped all the other projects we had been developing and started writing this.
Hometown:
I was born in Dallas, but my voice dropped in Atlanta.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
Don’t write the joke so that particular brilliant comedian can get the laugh, write it so anyone can get the laugh.
Why is it important to see new work?
Because to write new plays right now you have love theater down to its bones. New playwrights take nothing for granted. I can’t think of a better way to spend an evening than with artists having a blast.
How does your play speak to our current moment?
Hahaha. I mean. Our train is going off the rails.
Where does your writing process begin: character, conflict, question, image? Or somewhere else?
Technically, it begins with characters. Then outline. Then the play. But our process really begins with Mark and I giggling at what-ifs.
Before I sit down to write, I always…
Talk to Mark for about 30 minutes about anything other than the play: my nosy neighbor, my unruly puppy, my parenting fumbles, my breakfast, oil-change schedule, taxes, the origins of the letter W. Then we say, “Okayyyy…let’s start.”
Was there a play that inspired you to start writing plays?
Kate Hamill’s Pride and Prejudice.
What playwrights do you most admire right now?
Kate Hamill. Steve Martin. George Kaufman (dead for 65 years, but I still admire him!)
What’s the strangest thing you’ve had to Google in your writing process?
I’m curious if Mark’s answer is the same. I’m gonna say the chemical makeup of gunpowder. We didn’t Google too much because the last thing we wanted was to ground our play in any sort of truth.
Lisa D’Amour: The Smoker
What inspired you to write your play?
I was living in Marble Hill with a boyfriend who started smoking to manage his anxiety issues. I hated it but… the smoking actually helped! Which made me start thinking about harm reduction, and how this country + capitalism can make us crazy, and we have to choose how to manage the crazy – sometimes to the detriment of our own health. My boyfriend had a little smoking group — they all hung out in the front courtyard of the apartment building. A bunch of beautiful New York weirdoes who would have never met … except for the cigs.
Hometown:
New Orleans
Chisa Hutchison: Dating Comprehension
Inspiration for the play:
Two things:
1. Don’t judge, but I was watching Love Is Blind: Season 3, and if you know that show and that season in particular, then you know that there’s always some sociological fuckery going on beneath the inane, shiny surface. In this case, it was the moment that golden white boy, Cole– who’d likely never been called out on anything ever in his life and whose parents probably love him unconditionally– putting his chosen mate, Zanab, in her place by reminding her that she’s not exactly his type and that he typically goes for “girls named like… Claire” and not (foreign-ass, ethnic-ass) Zanab. I had to pause after he said it. I needed a moment to process, but there was no one I could really process with.
2. Every. Single. Dating. Experience. I had in my twenties. Dating is hard for most people, but for black women in particular, it’s a real minefield. After everything I encountered when I was still dating, the dialogue was already living rent-free in my head, y’all. People have said some truly cringey shit to me while I was trying to figure out if we could match romantically, usually misogynistic or racist or classist in nature. I put it all in this play.
Hometown
Queens, NY (born); Newark, NJ (raised)
Why is it important to see new work?
Because, as we’ve learned from Russian trolls, there’s a danger in creating social and moral siloes. New work offers the best opportunity to venture outside your comfort zone and into a new perspective you might otherwise have never known existed.
This play speaks to the current moment because it addresses our increasingly digital reality while rooting in the most primal, intimate human need for love and connection. It offers connection not romantically (although frankly, a secret goal of mine is definitely getting invited to the wedding of a couple who met at Dating Comprehension), but morally. It gives people a way to express the conclusions that their lived experiences have led them to by passing judgment on the experiences of the characters, and to hear others’ conclusions in a way that doesn’t make them feel judged because it’s not about them– it’s about the characters.
What playwrights do I admire most right now?
Honestly? Any of’em who are sticking it out in this economy.
Marisela Treviño Orta: Womb 2.0
What inspired you to write your play?
In 2017 and 2018 I was traveling a lot, so I spent a lot of time in airports. I remember waiting in the security line and seeing this sign highlighting the dangers of the Zika virus. The Zika virus was very often in the news during that time. That’s when I got the idea to write this play.
Hometown:
Lockhart, Texas is my hometown. It’s the barbeque capitol of Texas. Even back when I was a kid there were a lot of BBQ joints for the size of our populace.
What is the best advice you’ve ever received?
It can take 10 years before you see any real traction in your career as a playwright.
Why is it important to see new work?
As a theatremaker, I see new work to be inspired by the work of my peers and discover new approaches to storytelling. I think audiences should see new work because new plays reflect back to us the undercurrents that shape present society. Want to know a people’s hopes and dreams, their anxieties and fears? See a new play.
How does your play speak to our current moment?
At its core, my play is about access to healthcare and how it intersects with class. Our country has long wrestled with whether healthcare access should be privatized or universal for all citizens. Healthcare access impacts every single one of us. Some of us have jobs that provide it, some of us (e.g. freelance artists) have to buy our own plans. But all of us will need it, especially as we advance in our years.
Where does your writing process begin: character, conflict, question, image? Or somewhere else?
My process for writing a new play varies from play to play. Often it begins with an image or an idea regarding theme or plot. But I can not write anything without really knowing who my characters are, what they want, and what obstacle they’re bumping against–for me those are the main ingredients of dramatic tension.
Before I sit down to write, I always…
Fill up my water bottle. It’s important to stay hydrated.
Was there a play that inspired you to start writing plays?
There was a playwright. Sarah Kane’s Blasted and Cleansed were so inspiring to me as a fledgling playwright. Kane didn’t reign in her imagination. It was a wonderful example to a new playwright–to learn that theatre can be impossible.
What playwrights do you most admire right now?
I recently read Adrienne Kennedy’s Funnyhouse of a Negro. My mind was blown. It was written in 1961, yet it feels as if it was written today. Experimental and challenging–I am inspired at how she pushed language and symbolism. Her plays feel so ahead of their time.
What’s the strangest thing you’ve had to Google in your writing process?
I had to Google how long it would take for someone to expire after their jugular was punctured so that I could write a scene accurately.
Come to the 9th Alley All New Festival this October, and say you saw it here first! Reserve your free tickets today!
