A Girl Wrote It is back again after its critical success in 2011. This year, Wide Eyed Productions has upped the ante by bringing together some of the most gifted emerging and established female playwrights being produced today.
From first flings and early love to failing bonds, exploration, and erotic courtship, the five stories in this year’s A Girl Wrote It will present comedies and dramas that explore relationships and contemporary issues which press and spark our imaginations.
Read up on the great press we gathered for last year's run of A Girl Wrote It! Our hit run of A Girl Wrote Itwas so well-received, we had no choice but to bring it back to the New York stage with a whole new slate of plays by female playwrights.
We're Wide Eyed
Wide Eyed will be focusing on the behind-the-scenes aspect of "A Girl Wrote It," all the way up until curtain! Check out the blog here to get info on our authors, directors, news, and more.
Liz Magee recently received a BA in Theatre Arts with concentrations in Performance and Writing for the Stage from MarymountManhattanCollege. Her short play, If You See Something, Say Something won Manhattan Rep’s Fall One-Act Competition and was a semi-finalist in the Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One-Act Festival. While at Marymount, she was head writer of the sketch group “Comedy Schmomedy,” received the award for ‘Best TV Script’ for her spec script of Modern Family, and was the recipient of the Gold Key for Academic Excellence for Writing for the Stage.
Your monologue, Jeans, will be performed as a part of our upcoming production of A Girl Wrote It. Can you tell us about what inspired it?
I wrote this monologue during my last year over at MarymountManhattanCollege. To be honest, it was written in a “free write” setting, with no direct intention of it being performed. For this particular project, my professor at the time was strongly encouraging us all to write outside of our natural style - just to see what happens. Writing in this manner is rather discomforting at times, but this particular case has resulted in the discovery of a more intimate, stripped, style that I will continue to explore.
When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? What made you want to start writing plays?
Well, I started off as an actor. While in college, I found myself being tortured by the physical and emotional demands of my acting classes. I just wanted to be doing script analysis all day. I eventually had to force myself to ask that ever imposing question - why am I doing this? Why theatre? And over time I realized, it was the storytelling. Using people - actual living, breathing bodies - to tell stories or convey ideas is what excites me. So I figured I should be on the other side of all that and start writing…
Who or what has been your biggest influence as a writer? What inspires you to get to the page?
Oh jeeze. There are countless writers/authors who provide influence, from Beckett to Tina Fey, the list is endless. But I will say that most of my friends are very talented performers, and more often than not, I find myself writing pieces for them, or creating characters with them in mind and then finding a story from there. On the other hand, it is a personal goal of mine to bring in outsiders with my writing. Theatre people will come; they always come. Sometimes I attack a blank page with the intent to entertain or enlighten someone who is specifically not of our theatrical community.
In terms of your creative process, do you have a particular ritual when it comes to writing? If so, can you share it with us?
Hm. I guess my ideal writing circumstance would be: at home, in my bed with my cat sleeping on my feet. It’s important that my cat be sleeping on me in some way because I don't have it in me to disturb his slumber, so I always end up pushing out a few more pages. In all seriousness, I don’t really have a ‘ritual’. I prefer to be home alone with snacks, but I also find that I am able to write beside my boyfriend while he plays his grotesque video games.
Your play If You See Something, Say Something won Manhattan Repertory Theatre’s one-act competition last fall, and was seen this March at The Riant Theatre’s Strawberry One-Act Festival. How has working on Jeans compared to that process?
If You See Something, Say Something was developed in a playwright/director/actor workshop; meaning, I wrote the piece specifically for a designated director and group of actors. It was very much a collaborative effort throughout the development of the play and I was able to work with the same director and essentially the same cast with both competitions. Whereas with Jeans, this is taking a piece (not even intended for performance) and working with an actor and director who were in no way a part of the piece’s development. It’s very exciting. Having a piece explored with fresh eyes has already been an invaluable experience as far as how my work is perceived on a first impression basis. I am very fortunate to be working with Kristin Skye Hoffmann and Carly Knight, for they have already provided me with insight about the piece that I had otherwise overlooked.
Can you tell us about any other projects you’re working on right now?
Right now I am working on a series of lady plays. These plays will consist of only (or mostly) women, because there is simply is not enough plays of this nature. “The Attendant” is the play I am developing through Wide Eyed’s apprenticeship program. It is an examination of a bathroom attendant’s work shift at a trendy bar in an unspecified city. Yes, the whole play takes place in a women’s restroom. (Readings of "The Attendant" will be held at the Richmond Shepard Theatre Sunday, April 22nd at 6pm and Friday, May 18 at 6pm!)
Bekah Brunstetter’s plays include A Long and Happy Life (upcoming, Naked Angels), Be a Good Little Widow (Ars Nova, Spring 2011), House of Home (Williamstown Theater Festival), Oohrah! (Atlantic Theater, 2009), and Miss Lilly Gets Boned (Finborough Theater 2010, Lark Playwrights Week 2009, Finborough Theater, June 2010). She is a a New York New Voices Fellow through the Lark Play Development Center, member of The Primary Stages Writer’s Group, the Naked Radio writing team. She is an alumni of the Women's Project Playwrights Lab, the Ars Nova Play Group, and the Playwright's Realm. She is the 2011 Playwright in Residence at the Finborough Theater, London. She is currently working on an EST Sloan commission. BA UNC Chapel Hill; MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama. http://www.bekahbrunstetter.com/
Your one-act, Yes, will be performed as a part of our upcoming production of A Girl Wrote It. Can you tell us about what inspired it?
I was asked to write a short play for a Valentine’s-y evening of shorts to be performed at a bar, put on by the awesome Counterpoint Theatre. I love writing about relationships, and what lunatics they make us humans. With Yes, I was obsessing over the fact that when humans, or more specifically, me – when I enter a new relationship, I immediately get way ahead of myself and into the future of the relationship, instead of staying present inside of it.
When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? What made you want to start writing plays?
I’ve known I was a writer since I was very wee, like 5 or 6. It’s always been how I’ve expressed and identified myself. I started out writing stories and poems, did that through high school – started doing theater in high school, was a REAL bad actor, then wrote my first play first year of college while studying theater at UNC Chapel Hill. I was instantly hooked. It was a much less lonely way to write, and I instantly fell in love with how much plays move and change as you work on them.
Who or what has been your biggest influence as a writer? What inspires you to get to the page?
I was definitely inspired by my teachers at The New School – namely Laura Maria Censebella, Pippin Parker, Christopher Shinn and Michael Weller. They were hugely encouraging and challenging during my formative years. Usually a play starts with something that I’m deeply afraid of, or something I read about that I find terrifying. So I guess it oftentimes starts with fear.
In terms of your creative process, do you have a particular schedule or ritual when it comes to writing? If so, can you share it with us?
When I’m writing a first draft, I need to be surrounded by noise. Music, TV, random conversations at a bar. It’s usually at night. I usually have one song that made me want to write the play, and I listen to it over and over and over and over while writing. Later, when I’m rewriting it, this song helps me emotionally re-access the play. When it comes to rewriting, I approach it much more academically and in the daylight.
I see on your website that you will write custom monologues for actors. Have any of these custom monologues inspired you to then go on to write a play incorporating that character?
I haven’t done so yet, but the thought has definitely occurred to me! I LOVE writing these monologues because they’re a very productive form of procrastination for me. I don’t always nail it on the first go, but I really love nothing more than a happy customer.
Can you tell us about other projects you are working on right now?
Sure! I’m working on a Sloan commission with EST about Global Warming. I’m also rehearsing a play with some incredible high school actors at the Professional Performing School. I’ve recently started working in television, as well – I just finished working on the first season of Underemployed, a show that Craig Wright created for MTV.
Judith Goudsmit holds an MFA in playwriting from the New School for Drama, which she received with a Steinberg scholarship. She has collaborated with Orkater, a prominent Dutch theatre company, on shows that were seen at the New Island festival on Governers Island and at The Parade festival in the Netherlands. Her plays and readings have been produced by The Shop Theatre, The New School for Drama, AENY (Spanish Artists in NY) and the Shelby Company and were performed on site specific locations across the city.
Our upcoming production of A Girl Wrote It features two of your monologues: Being Late and Robot. What inspired you to write each of these pieces? Do you see either as being part of a larger piece?
Being Late was a monologue that I had been wanting to write for a long time. As most of my friends and colleagues know, I’m late to pretty much everything. I’ve missed flights, trains, parties. The strange thing is that I don’t like being late, it’s not a pleasant feeling, and yet I can’t seem to shake it. That was a concept that I wanted to explore. As far as Robot goes, that just came about when I was doing a workshop about theatre and technology and we were forced to think a lot about technology and how it changed our ways of thinking and communicating. All these ‘smart’ objects we have in our lives are slowly but surely taking over certain tasks we used to do with our brains. It’s not so difficult anymore to imagine a world with robots, or programmed clones of ourselves. Both monologues were written as individual pieces, although I can imagine expanding Being Late into a longer play.
When did you know that you wanted to be a writer? What made you want to start writing plays?
I always loved reading, and I think that’s where it all sort of started. When I just had email for the first time (strange to think of a world without it now) and I was figuring out its purpose, I started emailing a lot with one of my friends. One day he was upset about something and I wrote him a long elaborate story about a fantasy world where little creatures lived on a monkey’s nose. He wrote me a story back, and our stories became longer and longer and we did this for about a year. I think that was a defining moment, where I experienced both the pleasures of writing, as well as my writing providing some sort of enjoyment and entertainment for someone else. As I went on writing short stories outside of the email realm, they were always sort of theatrical with lots of dialogue and odd characters. The stage felt like the perfect place for those characters and their stories to live.
Who or what has been your biggest influence as a writer? What inspires you to get to the page?
When I just started writing plays I read Albee’s Delicate Balance, which opened my eyes to the sort of plays I wanted to write. The humor and style of his writing spoke to me in a way not many other plays had. I grew up loving movies, so filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard and Roman Polanski have been influential in terms of style and atmosphere. When I get stuck or down about whatever I’m working on, I’ll read one of Pinter or Carol Churchill’s plays to remind me of how it’s done. Ideas for plays usually come from a feeling I have. A fear or a desire, a confusion, or anger about something. Then I try to encapsulate and extract that feeling and find the story or character that suit it best. That sounds rather mysterious and vague, because it is.
In terms of your creative process, do you have a particular schedule or ritual when it comes to writing? If so, can you share it with us?
I wish I had more of a steady ritual, or process when writing, but unfortunately I’m not as disciplined as I would like to be. It’s always difficult to get started. As soon as I sit down to write I think of twenty other things I should or could be doing. Like clean my bathroom or go to the grocery store to buy a mango. I suppose that could be called a ritual too. But once I actually start writing, it’s like walking a tightrope. You don’t want anyone to distract you, or you might lose it.
You grew up in Amsterdam and were active theatrically in the Netherlands. What was that like as opposed to the theatre scene in New York? Do you miss it?
The theatre scene is very different in Holland due to the public funding. Theatre artists can experiment a lot more, and try out different things, since they’re not predominantly dependent on ticket sales like in New York. That has also been the source of a lot of debate in the Netherlands recently, because they are cutting a lot of funding. The right wing party’s argument is that the government spends all this money on shows no one is interested in seeing. It’s a fine line, because this funding also creates opportunity for some of the most interesting and talented writers and directors to create their vision without having to worry about the audience. I do miss that at times in New York, where theatre tends to be very realistic, both in form and directing style, mimicking television or film. It’s been very interesting working both in Amsterdam and New York, because I’ve learned different things from both communities.
Can you tell us a bit about other projects you are working on right now?
This summer I will be working with Orkater (A Dutch theater company) and five American actors, whom I met at the New School for Drama, on an interactive show about emigration. It will be part of a prominent Dutch theatre festival, Over t’IJ, and will include a boat ride, a walking tour, and a spectacle in a big warehouse. Besides that I am working on my own play, which is based on something that happened to my cousin last year. I like the combination of doing my own writing project and collaborating with other theatre artists on something. Keeps loneliness and insanity at bay.
A Girl Wrote It is back again after its critical success in 2011. This year, Wide Eyed Productions has upped the ante by bringing together some of the most gifted emerging and established female playwrights being produced today.
From first flings and early love to failing bonds, exploration, and erotic courtship, the five stories in this year’s A Girl Wrote It will present comedies and dramas that explore relationships and contemporary issues which press and spark our imaginations.
Kicking off their fifth season with new Artistic Director Tim Butterfield at the helm, Wide Eyed Productions looks to establish itself as a new staple of the Off-Broadway scene with risk-taking, relevant theatre that highlights a richly talented and established ensemble of actors, directors, writers, and artists.
BEING LATE by Judith Goudsmit
Directed by Kristin Hoffman
Featuring Liz White
YES by Bekah Brunstetter
Directed by Brian Hanscom
Featuring Andrew Harris and Sarah Cook
BOLOGNA SANDWICHES by Erin Singleton
Directed by Kristin Hoffman
Featuring Amy Lee Pearsall
PENICILLIN by Deirdre O’Connor
Directed by Rebecca Hengstenberg
Featuring Michael Komala and Ali Scaramella
JEANS by Liz Magee
Directed by Kristin Hoffman
Featuring Carly Knight
EARLY MICHIGAN by Heather Lynn MacDonald
Directed by Paul Takacs
Featuring Judy Merrick, Sky Seals, Lisa Mamazza and Patrick Bonck
ROBOT by Judith Goudsmit
Directed by Judy Merrick
Featuring Savvy Clement
POSING by Laura Maria Censabella
Directed by Tim Butterfield
Featuring Nate Faust and Dana Mazzenga
STONES FALL, BIRDS FLY by Laura Maria Censabella
Directed by Sherri Barber
Featuring Curzon Dobell
THOUGHTS ON A GIRL WROTE IT 2011:
"If you are looking for something refreshingly different, look no further." - The Huffington Post
"The team at Wide Eyed deserves to be commended for putting together an evening of such out and out quality" - offoffbroadwayworld.com
"An enlightening evening of theater filled with both hilarity as well as heartbreak" - The NewsGallery
"The entire acting ensemble deserves high praise for giving all their stories such vibrant life...the most fun we've had in a theater in a long time." - The Happiest Medium
"All the plays in this program succeed in being wonderfully theatrical" - nytheatre.com
Phenomenal pipes. Original art. Stocked bar. Cheap Drinks. $5000+ in
raffle prizes. $10 gets you in the
door + 1 signature cocktail. This Sunday, March 11, 7-10pm. Be there.
