Blogging Bloodworks: Dufault

I think I’m trying to be more honest about where things come from.

Anyway.

I really, legitimately loved newspaper comic strips when I was younger. Garfield. Fox Trot. For Better or for Worse.

But there was one comic (not in the newspaper) that when I was young I found really unsettling.

Richie Rich, you are such a fucking asshole.

And I really do find the comic uncomfortable to read, partially because of weird class issue crap, but also because holy shit, Richie Rich is actually an enormous d-bag to Cadbury the Perfect Butler.

So that partially inspired this play.

Anyway.

Maybe seventeen or so years after the last time I read a Richie Rich comic, I was chaperoning ninth graders through the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

And I saw this:

Which is an excerpt from the Book of the Dead.

It’s a scene I find pretty beautiful and haunting.

I was sort of dumbstruck by it.

And then I had to go because we found out that Kevin Olivo (not his real name) was trying to touch a nude statue’s breasts.

So Richie Rich and the Book of the Dead merged together into this play called The Tomb of King Tot.

But that’s all bullshit.

Because the play’s actually about the intersection between grief and humor. And was written during a weird period of time when I was between living situations, and was often eating at this strange little Egyptian diner. The food made me feel sick. But I’d eat it all the time.

That’s the real secret origin of King Tot. Terrible, terrible Egyptian diner food.

Come see the play.

It stars some serious theatrical titans, including:

Lucy DeVito. Curran Connor. Brad Bellamy. Megan Hill.

I’m mesmerized by the fact that I tricked all these people into getting together in the same room and saying words out loud.

Directed by the furiously talented Larissa Lury.

The play’s followed by another at 9pm by the wonderful, kind, very impressive Darcy Fowler.

Sorry to gush.

The Tomb of King Tot

Wednesday, June 26th
7 PM
The Ma Yi Rehearsal Space (260 West 35th St, 2nd Fl.)

Oh! Also! This is the final Bloodworks night! Oh man!

What does that mean?

Drinking (definitely). Great people celebrating a series of great feats put on by this great group before we all scatter off into the summer. I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to miss it.

BLOGGING BLOODWORKS: Hill

Since everything is a remix, here is an incomplete list of things I am biting from:

THE QUIET EARTH
directed by Geoff Murphy

I watched this in high school (stoned) and then just rewatched it a few weeks ago (not stoned) and it holds up. It is about the last man on the planet and how one would pass the time if there were no post-apocalyptic zombies to fight. It has smart (though sometimes clunky) things to say about gender and race and power and how those things get all shifted around when traditional societal roles are broken down because EVERYONE IS DEAD.

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER
by Octavia Butler

There are two other books after this one, so I am probably missing the larger picture, but this is the truest vision of the future I've ever read, and it's done with a subtlety that I cannot comprehend.  It is about self-reliance and how when all existing institutions (public and private)  fail you, you need to be able to look out for yourself and the people you love and how even if you can do that, it is meaningless without community, love and empathy. My play is about people who are bad at almost all of these things.

THIS IS HOW WE WALK ON THE MOON
by Arthur Russell

They used this song in a car commercial! What a bunch of assholes.

THE CHAIRS
by Eugene Ionesco

There are only two people in this play. And they are on an island. And they are old and dying and sick of each other and in love with each other and drowning in the disappointments of their life together. There are also a lot of chairs, but that's not what excited me about it. Which is not to say there are no chairs in my play, just not very many.

I DON'T WANT TO LIVE ON THE MOON
by Jeff Moss

"This makes me cry most of times."
- Xavier Siline, top youtube commenter

WHATEVER THIS IS

What the fuck is this? I don't know. I wasn't alive during the 70s.


If you are interested in seeing how I mangle all of these beautiful works of art into something resembling a play, please check out

THIS DEAD ADVENTURE
by Brendan A. Hill
directed by Paul Cameron Hardy
With a cast of some sort.

Monday, June 24th
9 PM
The Ma Yi rehearsal space (260 West 35th St, 2nd Fl)

SILVER The Olympic Dream

In 2008 I knew I needed to be at the Beijing Olympics to watch the competition between the American and Chinese gymnasts. I got there, learned some Chinese, and saw it go down. I knew I wanted to write about it but I wasn't sure what to write. And then, everyone thought the Chinese gymnasts were too young.

A few months later I got a Sloan grant to write a ten-minute play for the Youngblood science brunch about an American gymnast who demanded the help of a scientist to prove the Chinese gymnasts were under age and should be stripped of their gold medals.

In 2012 in the car on the way up to a Youngblood retreat, Dylan Dawson, a graduating Youngblood member, told me I should submit another Sloan proposal for a full-length play on the same subject.  I did, I got my Sloan grant and here comes the first public reading:

SILVER

MONDAY JUNE 17, at 7pm.

260 West 35th St, 2nd FL 

by Emily Chadick Weiss

directed by Moritz von Stuelpnagel

featuring

Claire Seibers

Stephanie Wright Thompson

Risa Sarachan

Ali Ahn

Jackie Chung

Annie Q

Andrew Garman

Helen Coxe

Chris Seraso

Watch the play. Have an icy cold beverage. It's been a long time coming.

Blogging Bloodworks: March / Link

As I get older, I find myself needing many reminders.

Today I had my phone remind me to pay my credit car. Later it will remind me what I'm doing this weekend of if I need to bring something with me. None of this is new information. I simply need to start reminding myself of things I already know.

Christmas in Queens is such a reminder.

For example, before I started working with Eric, I had basically forgotten that I lived in Queens for awhile. The first apartment Olivia and I shared was right on the border of Astoria and Long Island City.  In fact, it was in Queens that Olivia helped me edit an application for a group called Youngblood about five years ago.

In my Youngblood application essay, or at least some draft of it, I wrote about how I had grown up doing plays, starting with a sprite in A Christmas Carol. I hadn't really thought about this for some time either. Not until I started working with Eric did I realize I was in a production of A Christmas Carol every year from 1992 until 1998, starting as a sprite and working my way up to a Cratchit child and eventually Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come--the best part of all. Years went by. Never thought about it or the fact that growing up there was almost no distinction between doing plays and celebrating Christmas.

So those are two things I knew, but needed to be reminded of. But here's the biggest one of all.

If somebody asked me what the best part of writing plays is, muscle memory might have me say something like collaboration. But now after writing my second musical with Eric, I'm totally reminded that this is absolutely true. Collaboration is the best part of writing plays. Don't think I can remind myself of that enough.

Christmas in Queens

a new musical

Music & Lyrics by Eric March

Book by Patrick Link

Directed by RJ Tolan*

with Matthew Baldiga, Helen Coxe*, Dylan Dawson, Alex Herrald, Todd Alan Johnson, Aaron Phillips, Eugene Oh, Rachel Resheff, Megan Stern

9pm at Ma-Yi Studio

260 West 35th Street, Suite #203

*member of Ensemble Studio Theatre

Blogging Bloodworks: Blaisdell

Sometimes folks ask me where the impulse for a script originates. Most of the time, I shrug and mumble because I don’t really have an answer. But for once, with this play, I do. Ready gang? Specific catalysts include: a weekend trip to Sonoma that I took this past fall with my best bud; a Contemporary Civilization's essay I wrote on MacKinnon, Williams, and Woolf; a half-memory of watching a friend play Agaue in the Columbia Classics Department production of The Bacchae, performed in Ancient Greek; and my mentor's continuous admonishment to write what terrifies you.

Oh, and of course strange internet articles like this minor religious sect that worships Vladimir Putin and coverage of contemporary feminist fringe groups.

In conclusion, if you're around tomorrow night at 7 PM, please do come & hear this play. The cast is terrific and if you don't like it, you can punch me in the arm.

Directed by Larissa Lury

With Bradley Anderson, Helen Coxe, Darcy Fowler, Abigail Gampel, Megan Hill, Zachary Marten, Eugene Oh, Jessica Lauren-Howell, Britt Lower, Socorro Santiago, and Will Turner

Seven ladies. Three dudes. 
A hunter, a bunny, and a pomegranate.
A rite to remember.

June 12th @ 7 PM
Ma-Yi Theater Space
260 West 35th Street, Suite 203 (between 7th and 8th Avenue)

(then stick around for a Patrick Link & Eric March musical at 9 PM)

Blogging Bloodworks: Borinsky

As my friend Eamon points out, it's easy to up your compensation if you're both CEO and chairman of the board.

Similarly, it's easy to up the glamour of your life if you're both living it and authoring your autobiography.

I guess the tricky question is, what happens when someone sets out to write your autobiography for you?

What's the analogy for that?

This play is for Ryan. Really.

It's made out of spit, music, and papier mache. And a lotta heart. And it's definitely not too big to fail.

Come by at 7 for Chris Sullivan's wonderful wookie play, and stick around for this one at 9!

Lloyd Blankfein will be there.* As will Eamon.**

The Autobiography of Ryan Dowler
(part spectacle, part confession)
by Alex Borinsky
directed by Colleen Sullivan
music by Adam Horowitz
additional text by Molly Hagan and Ryan Dowler

with Ryan Dowler, Darcy Fowler, Adam Horowitz, Ethan Hova, Mikéah Ernest Jennings, Britt Lower, Eamon Murphy, and Eugene Oh

June 5 @ 9
Ma-Yi Theater Space
260 West 35th Street, Suite 203

ps. Here's the secret history of the play:

I've been trying to write something for someone. Not, like, for one actor to perform. But for one person. To receive. I know it seems kind of pointless or ridiculous to do, but I'm doing it because of love, and also sort of because of capitalism. Maybe. The hope, I guess, is that someone, some one person, will uncover, will - crack - the code - just so - and it will open, and spill all of my secrets.

*He won't be there.
**He will be, playing Ryan's war-buddy, John -- the guy who taught Ryan what it meant to love.

Blogging Bloodworks: Snider

My Bloodworks is tonight! The actors and director are solid. Please come if you're able. At 7pm we have the fantastic "SCHOOL PLAY" by Tony Meneses. I've heard portions and highly recommend. We follow them at 9. Join us both for a crazy night of Bloodworks followed by the usual Youngblood fun.

HOW TO USE A KNIFE
by Will Snider
Directed by Jessie Mills
Featuring Tim Cain, Hanna Cheek, Ethan Hova, Jack Moore, Luis Moreno, Paul Pontrelli, Scott Sowers

A newly sober chef with a brain full of bad memories befriends a disciplined African porter who helps him stay clean. But the porter has demons of his own.

9pm
260 West 35th Street, Suite 203
btw 7th and 8th
Admission FREE 

The above information is all you need, but if you have one of those jobs where you can just, like, read the internet all day and maybe keep a few work tabs open if the boss comes around, please read my disorganized thoughts on the play after the jump.

Marathon

Okay guys, I’ve been doing some calculations.

So the official distance for a “Marathon” is 26.2 miles.

Currently, there are seven Youngblood members/alums included in EST’s 34th Annual Marathon of One-Act Plays.

Here they are, listed in alphabetical order, according to surname:

Rob Askins
Clare Barron
Joshua Conkel
Ryan Dowler
Eric Dufault
Jon Kern
Chris Sullivan

(What an attractive list of people! I would consensually date each and every one of them.)

Here’s what we’re going to do.

I’m going to go ahead and say that these plays are, on average, 20 pages long.

A typical sheet of paper is 11 inches tall and 8.5 inches wide.

So, if you laid out one of the playwright’s pages on the ground, they would stretch out 220 inches (18.3 feet).

If you laid out all of the playwrights’ pages, they would stretch to 1,540 inches (128.3 ft.)

Including scripts for actors, directors, playwrights, stage managers, etc, I’m going to say that about 50 final drafts of these plays will be/have been printed.

So, if you laid out all of these scripts on the ground, put on your sneakers, pinned a number to your shirt, and ran beside them, you would run... 6,415 feet, or 1.2 miles.



(I’ll be honest, I was really hoping that this number would be closer to 26.2 miles, thus allowing me to make the “Marathon” connection or something.)



Okay, I have a new tactic.

Hopstop tells me that, to get from my apartment in Astoria to Ensemble Studio Theatre, I walk approximately 1.17 miles.

I really like attending rehearsals for my play. I have attended 16 rehearsals, and will be able to attend five performances. That means that, all in all, I’ll have walked... 24.7 miles.

Which is still less than the distance of an actual Marathon.

What the fuck.

Guys, Marathons are really fucking long.


Whatever. Come see Youngblood members’ plays in the Marathon. Unlike my math, they won't disappoint. Information below. Series A begins Saturday.

Ensemble Studio Theatre presents
The 34th Marathon of One-Act Plays
May 18 - June 29, 2013

Series A: May 18 – June 2
Previews: May 18 & 19 @ 2pm & 7pm
Opening: May 21 @ 7pm

Poison by John Patrick Shanley*, directed by John Giampietro* with Jacqueline Antaramian, Alicia Goranson* & Aaron Serotsky

Kandahar to Canada By Dan O’Brien, directed by Mark Armstrong* with Lily Balsen, Jay Patterson* & Abraham Makany

You Belong to Me by Daniel Reitz*, directed by Marcia Jean Kurtz* with Scott Parkinson & Patricia Randell*

Curmudgeons in Love by Joshua Conkel*, directed by Ralph Peña* with Veronica Cruz, Nina Hellman, Alex Manette, David Margulies* & Martin Shakar*

Something Fine by Eric Dufault, directed by Larissa Lury
with Lucy DeVito*, Diana Ruppe* & Catherine Curtin*
June 1 & 2 @ 2pm
May 22, 23, 31, June 2 @ 7pm


Series B: May 28 - June 16
Previews: May 28, 29 @ 7pm
Opening: May 30 @ 7pm

Love Song of an Albanian Sous Chef by Robert Askins*, directed by Moritz Von Stuelpnagel*
A Sunrise in Times Square by Sharr White, directed by Claudia Weill*
The Favor by Leslie Ayvazian*, directed by Leslie Ayvazian*
Something Like Loneliness by Ryan Dowler, directed by Colette Robert*
Waking Up by Cori Thomas*, directed by Tea Alagić
Daddy Took My Debt Away by Bekah Brunstetter, directed by Jamie Richards*
June 8, 15, 16 @ 2pm
June 1, 9, 12, 14, 15, 16 @ 7pm


Series C: June 8 - June 29
Previews: June 7 & 8 @ 7pm
Opening: June 9 @ 2pm

Existence by Murray Schisgal*, directed by Peter Maloney*
Zero by Tommy Smith*, directed by William Carden*
Hate the Loser Inside by Jon Kern, directed by R.J. Tolan*
Carry the Zero by Christopher Sullivan, directed by Robert Saenz de Viteri
Solar Plexus by Clare Barron, directed by Nelson Eusebio
June 10, 13, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29 @ 7pm
June 29 @ 2pm
Tickets: $18
Student/Senior: $15
Previews: $10

2 Series Pass: $30
3 Series Pass: $40

Bonds Bloodworks : this is the biggest play I've ever written

Hi guys. 

Tuesday marks my last big Youngblood hurrah.  For I am old now.  And they must cast me from the group and feed me to the wolves.  There will be a big farewell Brunch, yes, in June, but I have to be in rehearsal in Philadelphia and very sadly won't be able to attend.  So my Bloodworks reading feels like my official graduation.

SWIMMERS is a big play.  It's the biggest play I've ever written.  Not just in cast size, but in structure...it's a bit of a departure for me.  I had a lot of fun writing it and I've had a lot of fun working on it over the past several months with director Portia Krieger.  She is busy next week with Clare Barron's lovely play at Clubbed Thumb, so I'm making my directorial debut with this reading...

I hope to see you on Tuesday.  I'm really really really really excited about the cast.  Since the beginning of my awareness of Graeme Gillis' existence, I have wanted to have Graeme Gillis in one of my plays.  So this is a momentous moment.

SWIMMERS

written & directed by Rachel Bonds

In which we travel up every floor of an office building in an industrial park in the Research Triangle Area.  No one does any work.  There are coyotes.  And Russian accents.  And Altoids.  

And it might be the end of the world. 

Featuring!: Tim Cain, Graeme Gillis, Megan Hill, Dylan Dawson, Lucas Kavner, Charise Smith, Annie Henk, Mahira Kakkar, Stephen Stout, Michael Chernus, and Denny Bess.
 

TUESDAY, MAY 21st, 7PM

Ma-Yi Studio Space

260 West 35th Street, Suite 203  

ps. it's kinda hot in there, so don't wear a lot of clothes but do bring a lot of water.

Cheers to Bloodworks!

In honor of Youngblood's upcoming full-length reading series BLOODWORKS, here's a look back at some fun times we had during the year.

Lucy Teitler and Lucy Gillespie read the EST Sloan commissioned play Lucy. Predictable. In the background, Co-artistic director of Youngblood, Graeme Gillis, wishes he were named Lucy.

From left to right: In the Ensemble Studio Theatre lobby, Youngblood playwrights Cory Finley, Patrick Link, Leah Nanako Winkler, Lydia Blaisdell, Willie Orbison, Chiara Atik and Mary Hamilton wait with Budweiser for inspiration.

 Chiara Atik and Clare Barron live it up at Youngblood's favorite bar, McCoys.

Graeme Gillis and Patrick Link enjoy RJ Tolan's favorite game.

Darcy Fowler and Dylan Dawson are graduating from Youngblood this year cause they're so damn old. If you want to make an award for all-around awesomeness, we recommend sculpting the faces of these two and using that as the trophy.

It's been a great season. And now the best part - the Bloodworks batting order:

TONIGHT WEDNESDAY MAY 15

7pm - Leah Nanako Winkler 9pm - Lucy Gillespie At the MA-YI STUDIO 260 West 35th Street, Suite #203 between 8th and 7th Coming up: Tue 5/21 7pm Rachel Bonds Wed 5/22 7pm Tony Meneses 9pm Will Snider Wed 5/29 7pm Krista Knight 9pm Cory Finley Mon 6/3 7pm Willie Orbison 9pm Dylan Dawson Wed 6/5 7pm Christopher Sullivan 9pm Alex Borinsky Mon 6/10 7pm Mary Hamilton 9pm Lucy Teitler Wed 6/12 7pm Lydia Blaisdell 9pm Patrick Link and Eric March Mon 6/17 7pm Emily Chadick Weiss 9pm Zhu Yi Wed 6/19 7pm Chiara Atik 9pm Brendan Hill Mon 6/24 7pm Jen Silverman 9pm Darcy Fowler Wed 6/25 7pm Clare Barron 9pm Eric Dufault

Readings are FREE No reservations necessary SPECIAL THANKS to our friends at for hosting BLOODWORKS 2013!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.

Hark!  

Blooming cherry blossoms!  

Snow-white legs in sundresses!  

AC in the Subway!  

It must be May!  

(How the f%&k did that happen!?)

From every corner of New York City* the sounds of tap-tap-tapping rise to a fierce crescendo as Youngblood writers scramble to finish their Bloodworks Drafts.

Will they succeed and triumph and go on to successful, fabulous careers filled with artistic gratification and recognition and commissions and money and accolades and CB2 furniture, purchased brand new and paid for in cash?

Or will they fail, and, you know, just keep it small, not invite too many people because I really just want to hear it out loud anyway, and see how people react and figure out my next steps because I'm at this new stage in my process and this is a real left-turn for me artistically anyway, so you know.  It's like, it's not a big deal.  I'm not worried.  It is what it is, you know?.....................

COME FIND OUT on WEDNESDAY 15th!  

THE GLORIOUS OPENING NIGHT OF YOUNGBLOOD BLOODWORKS!

@  Ma Yi Studio Space
260 West 35th Street, Suite 203

Free Admission!!

Cheap Beer!!

Leah Nanako Winkler's COPE @ 7pm!

Directed by Morgan Gould
Featuring Eugene Oh, Katie Broad, Allison Buck, Stephen Stout, Jason Liebman, and TBA
 

Risa, a young journalist, spends three weeks observing and studying the COPE clinic- a research center for young adults with prodromal symptoms to schizophrenia. As she gets to know the patients living on the edge of reality, she begins to wonder at what cost the decent of madness can be predicted.

Lucy Gillespie's THE FORUM @ 9pm!

Directed by Luke Harlan

Featuring Graeme Gillis, Ethan Hova, Bob Jaffe, Britt Lower, Allyson Morgan, Christopher Burris, Hanna Cheek and TBA

A group of idealistic strangers gather in a city park to protest the disparity of wealth created by their country's malevolent corporate culture. Will they prevail, or will too many cooks spoil the revolution?

  * Except Staten Island.  Why would anyone live in Staten Island?

Drink with us this Saturday!

EST/Youngblood is having a benefit & party this Saturday, May 11 @ 7pm!

with Music from

THE SPRING STANDARDS

LAPLAND

NORTHWOOD

POOR REMY  

and CHRISTINA COURTIN!

and Plays by

CHIARA ATIK

DYLAN DAWSON

ERIC DUFAULT

DARCY FOWLER

And then, maybe, probably, a dance party will break out.

Saturday, May 11 - doors at 7pm
@ Loft227 | 227 W. 29th Street
New York, NY 10001 

For more info and tickets click here!

All proceeds benefit EST/Youngblood

Not convinced yet?

Mike Lew Knows What To Do

Yougnblood alum Mike Lew, who carried this blog through some of its toughest times, has some wonderful ideas that deserve to be posted. This one in particular.

6. The Blacklist - In Hollywood, as in the theater, there is a huge volume of screenplays that are highly praiseworthy but for whatever reason can't be produced. So someone created The Blacklist, an annual list of the best screenplays that were neglected that year. I believe the same thing exists for TV pilots. At any rate, we could very easily do the same thing for theater, and pair up with American Theatermagazine or The Dramatist to publish the results (or blog-publish them). This would be a great way to highlight plays that haven't yet gotten their due, as well as unsung writers.

Let's say we survey a diverse group of around 300 people - mostly playwrights and lit managers - and ask them to create a list of their top 5 favorite (other people's) plays that have been kicking around for a while but haven't yet found production. We then tabulate the results and highlight a list of frequently-mentioned plays. We could also ask high-profile playwrights to write up a short testimonial about their #1 pick, in the hopes of bringing more attention to lesser-known writers.

Read his full post here. This is very much a concrete, actionable initiative that could big a big boost for some great plays. Don't let this idea pass us by. Hop over to his site, write a comment, and help get this fire started.

Uncertainty in Boston

My friend Danny loaned me a book the other night, Life Within Limits, by an anthropologist named Michael Jackson. A few pages in, I found this:

...beginnings are different from origins. One can date or determine a beginning, but origins are like the succession of low hills that blur into the bluish haze of the Loma Mountains beyond Firawa. Origins are like echoes -- antecedent events that continue to make their presence felt in the here and now, or recollections sparked by a piece of music only to fade when the music stop.

I like that, I though. I like that we get to have "origins," as individuals, or as a culture. It makes intuitive sense, but I don't know if I had a word for it before.

...this difference between beginning and origin resembles Gabriel Marcel's distinction between a "problem" that admits of a solution, and a "mystery" that can never be entirely solved. "A problem is something met with which bars my passage. It is before me in its entirety. A mystery, on the other hand, is something in which I find myself caught up, and whose essence is therefore not to be before me in its entirety. It is as though in this province the distinction between in me and before me loses its meaning."

And it struck me that the distinction between problems and mysteries is in some ways a great rule of thumb for what (I think) makes a great play. Great plays deal with mysteries, not problems. Willy Loman's problem may be that he's unemployed, and that he can't support his family, but his unemployment is really just a piece of the larger mystery that has swallowed him. He's so tangled in some bigger mystery called "America" that he can't tell where he ends and where it begins.

So: forget characters with problems. I'm interested in characters who struggle with questions that have no solution. I'm interested in characters who are driven towards the thing that's eating them up with the same violence they're running away from it.

I spent most of today in a car, driving through the rain, listening to radio reports from Boston. It was deadening, magnetic, terrifying, heartbreaking, weirdly repetitive. The announcers kept narrating the few details they knew, emphasizing how little they knew for certain. They took calls from people shut up in their homes in Boston, recounting what glimpses they'd seen out their windows and heard through the walls -- police, police, swat teams, police, empty streets, police, gunshots, police, nothing... nothing...

They also took calls from young people who had known Dzhokhar -- "Suspect Two." "I just don't understand," they all essentially said. "He was such a nice guy, he had friends, he was quiet, but funny, and well-liked..." The announcers did the radio equivalent of shaking their heads in disbelief. "And did he ever talk about Chechnya? Or religion? Or... Do you know, can you imagine, what could have happened that could have radicalized him, and made him do what he and his brother have done?"

I understand the impulse, but the line of questioning felt pretty cheap, pretty lacking in empathy or imagination. Especially as our car crawled along through gray and drizzle and traffic, I felt like these questions had nothing to do with the strange mud of emotion I was feeling, listening to the details of the bombing, of the chase...

As playwrights, we're in the business of exploring why and how people act. What do people do? And how do their actions affect them and those around them? And -- maybe most importantly -- how are we to make sense of actions we can't quite understand?

It's not a perfect fit, but I think Jackson/Marcel's distinctions between beginning and origin and between problem and mystery is relevant here. "Why did he do that?" is the wrong question, I think. It treats actions as the end-results of problems, rather than the (often unexpected) fruit that grows out of the soil of a mystery.

Why did he build a bomb? Because he wasn't held enough as a child.

Why did she join the army? Because her husband had just left her.

I think it's our job as playwrights to reject these kinds of answers to questions about human action. They may be accurate in a literal way, but they're besides the point. There's a more interesting -- and, I think, a more honorable -- which is to say, more dignifying, more humble, more just, more honest -- answer to be had in beginning with a recognition of the mystery before which each of us stands, and which each of us has within herself.

We begin with the mystery, and go from there.

Why does King Lear insist on his bizarre love test?
Why does Yelena marry the Professor?
What's in the heart of a nineteen year old kid, covered in blood, lying in the belly of a boat, in a shut-down city crawling with cops, with most of the country wondering where he is?

Who knows. In the words of another (Biblical) fugitive, in the belly of something else entirely:

I called out of mine affliction unto the LORD, and He answered me; out of the belly of the nether-world cried I, and Thou heardest my voice.

For Thou didst cast me into the depth, in the heart of the seas, and the flood was round about me; all Thy waves and Thy billows passed over me.

And I said: 'I am cast out from before Thine eyes'; yet I will look again toward Thy holy temple.

The waters compassed me about, even to the soul; the deep was round about me; the weeds were wrapped about my head.

I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars closed upon me for ever; yet hast Thou brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God.

When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the LORD; and my prayer came in unto Thee, into Thy holy temple.

They that regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.

But I will sacrifice unto Thee with the voice of thanksgiving; that which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is of the LORD.

And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Meet Will Snider

Whether by accident or design, New York playwrights sometimes find themselves living in places other than New York. Five months after joining Youngblood, Lucy Teitler and Will Snider now temporarily reside far from the bright lights and free beer of EST, but their hearts still burn for new work. From the snowy streets of Cambridge, MA, to the muddy hills of Kisii, Kenya, these are their stories. Will’s turn.

Lucy Teitler: What do you write?

Will Snider: Plays, sometimes short stories.

LT: When do you write?

WS: Mornings and afternoons. Never nights.