The Playwrights in Residents are co-sponsored by the PDC.
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*This playwright residency is co-sponsored by the PDC.
How do you think the residency is going so far?
Andrew Carroll
Its truly hard to say. Challenging? Certainly. Rewarding? Certainly. I don’t know if I can answer this question beyond that. The residency has brought up issues and ideas that I’m positive I will be grappling with and striving towards for the rest of my life. Its all useful feedback about your heart and soul coupled with your work ethic that is invaluable to take a stab at figuring out as an artist pretty much always. I have a much better sense about what kind of work and what ways of working that turn me on, so…its going well.
Charly Simpson
I think the residency is going well! Of course, as with anything, hindsight is 20/20. There are some opportunities I wish I had really thrown myself into earlier on, but I think I am finally finding my groove. It is appropriate that the topics covered in the residency are getting more personal, more nitty-gritty now. I am much more present now than I was before.
Sarah Schol
I am so pleased to be a part of the residency because it is forcing me to face some serious questions about the current state of my life and career, and assess how I am achieving and not achieving the goals I want. The past two sessions of “playing another part” and “changing your medium” allowed me to explore things in which I was already interested, which was fulfilling but also what I expected from the residency. This session is the biggest period of struggle for me right now, as I face my fears of failure and self-loathing, and confront how those fears are adversely affecting my art. What is funny is that I have definitely failed at facing my fear adequately, something that I am continuing to struggle with as I prepare for Ear Fuzz.
Greg Nanni
It’s been life changing. In all honesty, I’m not too sure where I would be right now without the residency. It has challenged me in ways that I don’t think I would have challenged myself in if I hadn’t been accepted. But so far, it has changed my life, and I feel as if I know what my artistic statement is now, and before I think I could barely grasp it.
Looking back, what is the one thing you wished you did more of during your previous segments in the residency?
Andrew Carroll
I wish I’d had the time and resources to actually go up and do the stained glass. Financially and logistically there was no way to make it happen, so I feel like there was a little bit of a loss as far as that “segment” went. Though it seems more and more like the process of coming up with the ideas is proving more valuable than any kind of cathartic sense of “completion”. So there ya go. A little regret, a little victory.
Charly Simpson
I think it would have to be meeting with Robert Berry, an awesome comic-book artist. He really changed the way I viewed comics and helped me see how playing with the constraints inherent in comic book drawing and writing could help me discover new things about my playwriting.
Sarah Schol
Each session had its most memorable experience. Within the “play another part” portion, it was the meeting and workshop with actors and playwrights where we used different prompts to write. Within the “change your medium” portion, it was the day in which we spoke with a doctor and a dentist about their professions and how they used art in their work. Both of these moments were special because experts in their fields took the time to speak with us and share their insights and ideas. This is something I have learned about the residency overall, which is that mentorship and constant learning is one of the most important tools an artist has. I’m realizing how much I long for a creative community in which to work and grow, a place that challenges me and constantly asks me to assess my work and process.
Greg Nanni
I wish I was able to devote a lot more time to the Change Your Medium part of the residency. It became a very rushed process for me: rather than consistently working on material throughout the Winter, I found myself doing the majority of my medium changing in two or three weeks. I wish I had taken more time to practice sketching and the different things it brings out. Even now I have tucked it away to the side for later, but I want to devote time one day to the craft of drawing. Other than that, I wish I could meet more artists and hear what they say. I’m hoping to continue that practice beyond the end of the residency.
What are you looking forward to with the rest of the residency?
Andrew Carroll
More of the same. We’ve been unpacking what art at large means to us, and each resident has a myriad of ideas and passions and fears with very little overlap, which is pretty par for the course I think. We all have intensely personal reasons to pursue with love this beast we’ve fallen deeply for, and of course that kind of picking apart is augmented in a residency. I’m more looking forward to after the residency to try to keep the kind of forward-moving self-exploration active and fresh.
Charly Simpson
To get really clear, or as clear as I can, on what kind of artist I am and want to be.
Sarah Schol
Continuing to play, continuing to challenge myself, and continuing to explore.
Greg Nanni
I’m really interested in meeting other artists and seeing what they think theatre is. I am also looking forward to the discovery, and to be very honest, to see what the other residents come up with. We’ve been working in this program a very long time, so naturally I’m interested in how they end the residency and what journey they choose to continue with in life.
So right now you just had the “Fight Your Fear” presentation at EAR Fuzz. How was the process for that portion of the residency? Do you feel that you have emerged less afraid of your fears than before?
Andrew Carroll
This portion of the residency was jarring as fears looked dead in the face are daunting at first. But once you look fear dead in the face (like head on, right in the eyeballs. You know, ribcage cracked open, “HERE I AM MOTHERFUCKER” kind of way), fear both loses its power in the same instant as becoming very real. They become very real things that you’re attaching dread to and avoiding them at all costs. Avoiding them cause unneeded anxiety and tension. Looking at your fears totally sucks, but its much better than letting them get ahead of me.
Charly Simpson
A big fear of mine is sharing work that I haven’t deemed “near-perfect”. Now that has a number of issues attached to it…the first being that I don’t ever really believe my work is “near-perfect” so I pretty much want to hold on to it forever. Which is difficult if you want to be a playwright who actually has plays performed.
For “Fight Your Fear” I worked on a play that I couldn’t edit and I decided to have actors read a portion of it (the portion was decided on by the audience) aloud. I then gave three strangers in the audience my play to read and critique. In some ways it was terrifying and in others it felt completely fine. I’m not sure I worked through my fear, per se, but I toyed with it, played with it, learned more about it.
Sarah Schol
The “fight your fears” section if the residency was one of true self-discovery for me. I’ve realized how much I literally hate myself and believe that nothing I do is valuable. The realization of this underlying thinking is the first step towards changing it, but I know that will be a long road. The feelings of self-doubt must be constantly fought against; I’m learning how to think positively again and create without doubt, and this residency has allowed me to begin that process.
Greg Nanni
The process was not an easy one. My fear was becoming open to a very serious depression that I had for 5 years, and then the realization that turned my life around. The process was basically opening up to people that I have known for differing spans of time, starting with the more short term friendships and moving up to people who have known me forever. It culminated into a conversation with my parents, who never knew the extend of my depression. The fear of being open about it was one of being judged, and one of paranoia, but I’ve found that people, rather than thinking that there’s something wrong with you or treating you differently, open up about their own sadness. It has taught me a lot about how much we internalize as a culture. So now I’m very open about it, and I continuously seek to be open about it through conversation. So… Basically this residency gave me the chance to change how I perceived my life and the people around me, and it did. I’m no longer afraid of hiding my weaknesses.
Why should people be excited for the last EAR Fuzz “What is Theatre?”
Andrew Carroll
Come and see. I don’t think there’s anything more or less exciting than any of the other units. If you enjoy seeing very different artists throw some ideas up against the wall in a very scratch night setting, you should be excited.
Charly Simpson
Because I have no idea what it will be like or look like! Greg, Sarah, Andrew, and I all have different connections to theatre. Some overlap. Others don’t. It will be lovely to see how this residency comes together.
Sarah Schol
I think we all have very different ideas about what type of theater we want to do, and I think the culmination of this year-long process will be the diving off into the next stage of our careers. We are ready to fight and work towards what we want, now having the (even slightest) idea of what we want to create.
Greg Nanni
I feel like it’s a life long journey to define who you are as an artist, but we’ve been given the opportunity—or at least, I have, as this is still relatively new to me—to really develop and reach a defining point to move forward from. I think that’s really exciting, and you get to see why we got to do this in the first place. Seeing people’s passions is just contagious, and even if you’re not a theatre person you should come and be inspired to find out what moves other people into their passions.
The next EAR Fuzz for “What is Theatre?” is on Monday, May 19th, at 8pm at Plays & Players Theatre. It is open to all people with a suggested donation of $5.00 for current members, and $10.00 for nonmembers. Please come out and support them, and this program that celebrates the journey of artistic progress.