I hate endings... Sam Shepard

"I hate endings. Just detest them. Beginnings are definitely the most exciting, middles are perplexing and endings are a disaster.  The temptation towards resolution, towards wrapping up the package, seems to me a terrible trap. Why not be more honest with the moment? The most authentic endings are the ones which are already revolving towards another beginning. That's genius."

                                                              ~ Sam Shepard 

Picture courtesy of Caffe Cino Pictures

"When you write a play, you work out like a musician on a piece of music. You find all the rhythms and the melody and the harmonies and take them as they come."                                                 ~ Sam Shepard

Honesty: Not the Best Policy, But the Clearest

By Natalie Zutter

One of the best compliments I’ve gotten is that my work is very honest. It was also, the first time it was given, a backhanded compliment—a suggestion that maybe I would be wise to scale things back, to not quite “say it like it is.” This is ironic, considering that much of my work is couched in layers of sci-fi and speculative fiction metaphor, that it explores the far reaches of outer space, the space between comic-book panels, the cracks in time.

I don’t like to bullshit; I’m good at it, but when given the opportunity, I discard that shield. Speaking directly and articulating the weird, uncomfortable stuff—especially the weird, uncomfortable stuff—helps. It’s something I do when I’m hit with anxiety; I say my irrational fears out loud because then we’ll all agree how ridiculous they actually sound. It’s the same with my writing, especially when it comes to the power dynamics I can’t help but see in almost every interaction: Let’s shine a spotlight on the difficult dichotomy of wanting to tear down other women and build them up; let’s examine the push-and-pull of a “friends with benefits” relationship when one person treats the other like more of an object than a human.

Sex With Robots. Photo by Kacey Stamats.

I’ve long struggled with my own power imbalance—the desire to tell out-of-this-dimension stories with the obligation to aim more for naturalism. My first playwriting class, I wrote a dystopian thriller set in a world where marriage was outlawed. It probably should have been a screenplay, but instead of telling me that, my professor firmly said, “I don’t get this,” as if that were the final word. For years it was, and I struggled to find interesting stories.



In the New York indie theater community, I rediscovered that sci-fi/speculative lens, through the work of Mac Rogers and Gideon Productions; through involvement with Caps Lock Theatre’s Sex With Robots Festival and The Brick’s Comic Book Theater Festival. Those uncomfortable power dynamics I highlighted found their stories in (respectively) A Real Boy, about a woman sharing her list of sexual partners with her sex robot FWB; and RETCONtroversy, one superhero’s journey through four bodies and various comic-book identities.

RETCONtroversy. Photo by Anton Nickel.

Also, the guys at Law & Order were on to something; I’ve ripped several stories from the headlines and written short plays about Twitter stalkers, Leonard Nimoy’s nude photography, the celebrity nude photos leak, and even the CIA’s secretive Starbucks. These are stories about body image, confusing and unconsciously predatory sexuality, obsession, and the simple desire to know the name of someone you see every day. They’re dark, and sad, and funny; I hope they make people laugh but then give a soft “ohh” of recognition.

The writer friend who chastised me for being too honest never saw any of my plays, and therefore never saw me as an artist. The indie theater community has.
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Natalie Zutter’s plays include A Real Boy, RETCONtroversy, Drinks/The Sincerest Form, and Stealthy Starbucks. Her work has been developed/performed at The Brick’s Comic Book Theater Festival, The Tank, The Secret Theatre, True False Theatre, and TinyRhino. Her play Drinks/The Sincerest Form was further developed during True False Theatre’s inaugural The Polygraph Tests residency, and her play A Real Boy was commissioned for Caps Lock Theatre’s The Sex With Robots Festival. She is a graduate of NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study (with a concentration in Serialized Storytelling and Internet Culture) and current member of the EMG Playwriting Workshop. By day, she is a staff writer for the sci-fi/fantasy website Tor.com. You can find her online @nataliezutter and zutsuitriot.tumblr.com, and on the New Play Exchange.

On the Importance of a Feminist Community

By Ashley Jacobson

My whole life, I’ve been surrounded by strong, powerful and generous women. My mother, my sisters, my friends, my teachers, and even my bosses have all been strong, self-sufficient and badass women. I have always had a strong sense of sisterhood/community and been encouraged to view my own womanhood as a source of strength. As a child, it never occurred to me that anyone would ever expect anything less than me because of my girl-ness.

Now, as an adult, I don’t take for granted this community because it has fortified me against an unrelenting and sexist reality. Because of the strength these women instilled in me as a girl - the moments of degradation, objectification and reduction can be just that–moments. I can be fearless when I need to be–because the world that I have built for myself is safe and unabashedly feminist.


The American Play at the Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre.
Photo by Melissa Balan. 2015.

When I had my first success as a playwright with THE AMERICAN PLAY, it infuriated me how differently I was treated because I was a woman, because the show was produced by women, but it dared to talk about men, and masculinity and sexual violence. The show was cut-throat and disturbing and even though bloggers and audiences alike seemed to love it, they would still come up to me and say “YOU did that? But it’s so sophisticated….” People seemed offended that I was the writer–that they couldn’t look at me and predict what kind of artist I would be. “How did THAT come out of that pretty little head of yours?” (a direct quote). Their incredulity was insulting, but I knew I was still very lucky to have my voice out there. I still had the privilege of producing my own work in such a visible way that people HAD to respond to it.

So I turned to that strong sense of community to help deal with this insipid sexism, and that's when my best friend and co-producer/co-badass Elizabeth Sarkady and I founded THE DIRTY BLONDES (TDB)–an unapologetic theater company intent on producing more works of theater that stir passionate responses, and more importantly, works that will hopefully bring new and underestimated voices to the table.

What started as a revenge project has blossomed, for me, into a compelling life’s mission to build this theater company that will not only continue to engage and progress my most favorite art form (theater), but could also be a transformative opportunity and community for other daring and unapologetic artists. This personal mission is fueled by a stubborn naiveté, a childish “you’ll see!” that I possess because of the strength and courage of all the women in my life and the community that I was blessed with from birth. That is why representation is so important, visibility is so important, supporting others when you have the opportunity to is so important.

The Miracle Play at The Secret Theater.
Photo by Ashley Lauren Hamilton. 2013.

Now, The Dirty Blondes is in its fifth season, and we had our first Off-Broadway premiere last year. We have created an identity as a company as bad-ass and dark and surprising. There are so many artists out there making work that no one thinks they are capable of. As a writer, I want to create jarring and aggressive works of theater, and as a Producer with TDB, I want to empower artists to make the work that people will say ‘how did YOU do that?’



                       
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Ashley Jacobson is a Brooklyn-based playwright. A graduate of The New School, her plays have been produced at off-off Broadway theaters across New York City, including a sold-out run as part of the 2015 FringeNYC, and off-Broadway at the Soho Playhouse as part of the Fringe Encore Series. In 2015 she received the Overall Excellence in Playwriting Award from FringeNYC for The American Play. She is a co-founder and Artistic Director for THE DIRTY BLONDES, a feminist theater company "with a taste for provocation." Now going into its fifth year, The Dirty Blondes have produced more than 15 live events and have featured the work of more than 180 artists. To learn more about The Dirty Blondes and to work with us, please visit http://www.thedirtyblondes.org/.

Permission

Contributed by Nandita Shenoy

During previews of my Off-Broadway play Washer/Dryer this winter, I noticed a strange trend: when I emerged from the stage door, my friends would say “I didn’t know you were in the show!” Didn’t know I was starring in my own show? Really? My name was on the poster. I posted about it on social media. I even sent out a casting announcement out in my MailChimp newsletter. Why didn’t anyone know that I was acting in my own play? What was going on?

The truth is that I had been playing down my role in my own play! Even now, weeks after closing, I find it hard to write “starring in my own show.” It feels grandiose. Having grown up in a household where the motto was “Self-praise is no praise,” announcing to the world that I had written a leading role for myself seemed too much. Although I started writing plays specifically out of the frustration with roles out there for me, I had a hard time stepping into my own play with pride. Somehow I felt I needed permission.

So much of being in theater is asking permission. We audition. We submit. We apply. We ask to audition, submit, and apply. And we get rejected. A lot. For women, I believe this experience is amplified by the fact that there are much fewer roles for us both onstage and off, and that in our culture, judging women seems more socially acceptable. To combat this debilitating cycle, some of us create our own work. Indie theater exists today largely because of this impulse. I started writing in 2006 to create the kinds of roles that could have been played by my friends rather than the cast of Friends. I liked being a writer. For once, I didn’t have to ask permission to be creative–I could just pull out my computer and write. Unfortunately having that creativity produced for other people to see still required permission.

Nandita Shenoy and Johnny Wu in Washer/Dryer presented by Ma-Yi Theatre Company. Photo by Isaiah Tanenbaum

So when one of my plays was produced in New York, I still felt I had to ask permission to be in it. Although I had written a role for an Indian American woman whose speech patterns resembled mine and whose circumstances and life experiences mirrored my own, I wasn’t sure that I should do the role. Would it hurt the play? Would the other actors take issue with acting opposite the playwright? Would the director take issue with me in two roles? Would the producers? For months, I wasn’t sure what the right thing to do was. And when we decided that I would be in my own play, I still felt awkward about telling people. I needed permission.

After noticing the alarming trend of no one knowing that I was acting in my play, I decided to embrace it. I wrote a Facebook post, of course! I was a female artist of color who had taken matters into my own hands. Hear me roar! Inhabiting a role that I had written as a response to what I never auditioned for was nothing short of revelatory. For once I was able to present my own vision of me to the world instead of one that the world imposed up on me. The lesson that I learned from the experience was the most important person to give me permission to act was me. 

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Nandita Shenoy is a New York-based actor-playwright who enjoys hearing an audience laugh. Her most recent play, Washer/Dryer premiered at East West Players in Los Angeles and was subsequently produced in Chicago by Rasaka Theater and Off-Broadway in New York by Ma-Yi Theater Company where she played the leading role of Sonya. Her first play, Lyme Park: An Austonian Romance of an Indian Nature, was produced by the Hegira outside Washington, DC. Nandita is the winner of the 2014 Father Hamblin Award in Playwriting for her commissioned one-act, Safe Haven. Other one-acts, Marrying Nandini, By Popular Demand, Rules of Engagement, and A More Perfect Date, have been produced in New York City and regionally. Notable acting credits include World Premiers of Eric Pfeffinger’s Some Other Kind of Person and Richard Dresser’s Trouble Cometh as well as a season at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. She is a proud member of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab and the Dramatists Guild. Nandita holds a BA in English literature from Yale University. www.nanditashenoy.com

NYIT April: Women in Theater

We at NYIT are thrilled to present this month's theme, Women in Theater. We want to celebrate artists who are consistently making theater in NY. We have an eclectic array of amazing women who will be writing about their art on this blog, just a small sample of those on stage and behind the scenes who put their skills to work in making innovative, creative theater year-round.

In asking the people you'll be reading this month, our approach was to encourage contributors to speak about their art and chosen disciplines in a way that was meaningful to them. I often feel grateful for the great number of wonderfully talented people I know in this city who are passionate and dedicated to their work, and this is an opportunity for you to hear from some of those artists. I'm excited for them and for you.


Ken Simon
NYIT Communications Manager