Ensemble Studio Theatre has been holding their marathon of one-act plays since 1977. Now in the first series of their 36th year (with two more to come), they're offering a myriad of exciting and innovative work by playwrights France-Luce Benson, Maggie Diaz Bofill, Cary Gitter, Emily Chadick Weiss, and David Zellnik. We got the chance to chat with the writers about their plays, the festival, and their work at large. Check out the interviews below!
David Zellnik, Blue Handed
Tell us about your play!
My play is a short poetic play that wrestles with a real life event, the torture of a man at an Israeli checkpoint.
As a playwright, what are the challenges and rewards of working in the one-act medium?
I love one acts – they can be intense, they can be dazzling, they can be funny and strange. For me, full length plays bear a different weight and have a different responsibility to the audience. One acts can be like strobe lights: I find them amazing and thrilling…but if they go one too long they become exhausting.
What inspired you to write this play? Do you find yourself returning to similar ideas/themes in your work?
Last year, I read a soldier’s testimony from the amazing Israeli NGO “Breaking the Silence,” an organization where soldiers can pierce through the official lies and obfuscations about what is happening routinely in the West Bank. Though the play is definitively inspired by an act of violence there, I do not think its implications are specific in that way. I believe all occupations – America’s included - have the potential to produce atrocities like the one my play addresses; that in some way, all check points can become atrocity producing machines.
I do find myself drawn to large canvases, even if the plays themselves involve “unimportant” people. By which I mean, I am fascinated and moved by the way small lives wrestle with large historical events. I write in many registers: a romantic gay love story set during WW2 (“Yank!”), a story of friendship as protease inhibitors change what living with HIV means in the late 90s, scientists in Sri Lanka wrestling with the implications of monkey behavior (“Serendib”) or a story about the birth of Zionism in 19th Century Europe and its implementation in Palestine (“Sharon/Herzl”).
Do you have any playwrights or writers of one-acts who particularly inspire you or who you try to emulate in certain capacities in your own work?
Works in a short form inspire me, be they the short stories of Alice Munro and Jennifer Egan, the poems of Darwish or Rilke. As far as one acts, I love the jewel-like language of Caryl Churchill, the open-hearted simplicity of a play like “Credo” by Craig Lucas, and the profound humanism of Thornton Wilder.
In writing this play and/or in approaching writing a play in general, are there any things you always keep in mind?
I believe a play should feel surprising… but in retrospect, inevitable. And I always try to remember that all kinds of audience members will see it, so the play should try to have something vital (or pleasurable) to say to each of them,
How important is it to you that your work relate to our current political/social climate?
For me, a play should be a true distillation of the writer – the best, funniest, saddest, most hopeful part of him or her. For me, as a person deeply engaged with the world as it is now, all my work relates to where we are now.
France-Luce Benson, Showtime Blues
Tell us about your play!
A young subway dancer, Demetrius, sets his sights on a street savvy woman, Ameira on a NY subway. But after a potentially dangerous encounter with a police officer, they are both forced to confront some internalized prejudiced attitudes, and the harsh realities of living under the threat of police brutality. The play affirms the importance acceptance, respect, and love between black men and women in our community, particularly in these challenging times.
As a playwright, what are the challenges and rewards of working in the one-act medium?
My experiences, so far, with one act plays is that the process is much more immediate. Full length plays can take years to develop, and even the most modest of productions can be a huge investment. So the time between conception and production can be long and hard. So writing one act plays can be exciting in that, usually, within months of writing it, I get it up on its feet and in a festival like this, I get to see it fully realized within a year. My favorite thing about theatre is that it is collaborative. I love being in the room with a director, actors, and other artists. I love making discoveries in rehearsal, coming back with new pages and hearing them the next day. One act plays allow me the opportunity to hone those skills, the skills you can only learn when you come from behind your laptop, and into the theatre. The challenge of creating a fully satisfying story in 30 minutes or less, is a beautiful and painful one.
What inspired you to write this play? Do you find yourself returning to similar ideas/themes in your work?
My inspiration for this play was Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Mike Brown, Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Tamir Rice, Terrence Crutcher...the list goes on and on. I write a lot about identity, and I tend to challenge society's generalizations about marginalized cultures, or give voice to under represented voices in media. For this reason, I often write from my cultural perspective as a first generation Haitian-American. I am inspired by August Wilson and want to leave behind a canon of plays about Haiti's history, culture, and contributions to the world. While Showtime Blues does not specifically touch on Haitian culture - it does have many of the elements seen in my work such as the interweaving of music and dance - how music and dance finds itself into our lives on a daily basis on that vibrational energy informs and moves us.
Do you have any playwrights or writers of one-acts who particularly inspire you or who you try to emulate in certain capacities in your own work?
I'm inspired by so many playwrights, too many to list, but a few of them are: Lynn Nottage, Robert O'Hara, Anton Chekov, Paula Vogel, Brandon Jacob Jenkins, Derek Walcott, and Lorca.
In writing this play and/or in approaching writing a play in general, are there any things you always keep in mind?
Am I writing truth? Am I writing with love? Do I care? If I don't, the audience won't.
How important is it to you that your work relate to our current political/social climate?
I think it's important to contribute to social change and to encourage awareness about the social and political injustices people face at home, in America, and around the world. And yet I also think it is important to write with authenticity, to explore issues that move me, and tell interesting and compelling stories - no matter what they are about. Years ago, I expressed to a mentor that the pressure for me as a black woman to write "political theatre" was too intense, and I feared the responsibility of it. She replied, "You're a black woman of Haitian descent who has chosen to devote your life to writing plays. That is a political act of resistance; it doesn't matter what you write."
Emily Chadick Weiss, The Fork
Tell us about your play!
My play is called THE FORK. It's about Joyce, a proud grandma and leader in her field, who is about to retire and feels she should use this time to assassinate the President. However, her children know this urge is about more than just politics. It's directed by the great Andrew Grosso and stars the phenomenal Marcia Jean Kurtz, Dawn McGee and Keola Simpson.
As a playwright, what are the challenges and rewards of working in the one-act medium?
I love writing one-acts because you can explore one moment in full. Full-lengths are so much more challenging because you have to make so many more decisions about setting, what to show, what to tell and I think it's nearly impossible to get it all to sing in the same way a one-act can.
What inspired you to write this play? Do you find yourself returning to similar ideas/themes in your work?
THE FORK was inspired by our current President and wanting his time in office to end. But it was also inspired by the anxiety and pain people feel no matter what's going on in the political climate, and how if at all we can make the world better for future generations. I often write about romance, but this play is really about the challenge of family members. I always love to use comedy and hope I strike a balance between truth and funny.
Do you have any playwrights or writers of one-acts who particularly inspire you or who you try to emulate in certain capacities in your own work?
I'm a big fan of Wendy Wasserstein, perhaps because she writes in a warm tone about Jewish people. I love Christopher Durang's whimsy and the different paces that Amy Herzog and Annie Baker use in their writing.
In writing this play and/or in approaching writing a play in general, are there any things you always keep in mind?
I think twists and turns and reveals are the key to a fun ride in the theatre.
How important is it to you that your work relate to our current political/social climate?
THE FORK definitely relates to our current state of affairs since it's about assassination fantasies, but I don't think all plays need to respond to our political climate - as long as the relationships feel real, we should be able to write about anything.
Cary Gitter, How My Grandparents Fell in Love
Tell us about your play!
My Marathon play, How My Grandparents Fell in Love, is an unlikely romantic comedy about my Jewish grandparents meeting in Poland in 1933. My grandfather had already immigrated to America in the '20s, but he returned to the Old Country in search of a wife—and then he met my grandmother, who was working in a hat shop. The play's also about the immigrant experience in general, about falling in love and living your life against a backdrop of fear and oppression.
As a playwright, what are the challenges and rewards of working in the one-act medium?
The one-act medium is exciting because it gives you a chance to experiment and try something new that you might be afraid to attempt in a full-length piece. And a short play can make a sharp, lightning-quick impact on an audience. But the challenge is concision and economy. You have a smaller canvas to work with, and you have to make it count. Every word and moment matters.
What inspired you to write this play? Do you find yourself returning to similar ideas/themes in your work?
My own paternal grandparents' beautiful true story inspired me to write this play. My grandfather brought my grandmother from Poland to America in the '30s, inadvertently saving her from the Nazi menace that was to come. I think my grandparents were especially on my mind because my father passed away in the fall, and I've been reflecting a lot on my family and its history. But I was also interested in drawing parallels between the Jewish immigrant experience 80 years ago and the obstacles immigrants face in today's world. I definitely find myself returning to similar ideas/themes in my work. I can't seem to escape my fascination with the Jewish side of my family and the humor, the contradictions, the drama, and the history that this heritage carries with it.
Do you have any playwrights or writers of one-acts who particularly inspire you or who you try to emulate in certain capacities in your own work?
I'm part of the wonderful EST/Youngblood group for playwrights under 30 at the Ensemble Studio Theatre, and we have a brunch-theater event on the first Sunday of every month that features five short plays plus buffet brunch food and cocktails. (My Marathon play actually began as a brunch play, for an immigration-themed brunch, in April.) These are some of the best one-acts you can see in the city, and I'm always inspired by them and learn a lot from them. You can check out my amazing fellow Youngblood writers here: http://www.ensemblestudiotheatre.org/est-youngblood/members/.
In writing this play and/or in approaching writing a play in general, are there any things you always keep in mind?
In writing this play (and in approaching writing a play in general), I always try to keep humor in mind. I mean, the subject of this play is two Jews meeting in anti-Semitic Poland in 1933, soon after the election of Adolf Hitler in Germany. And yet it's a comedy. A romantic comedy. When I get too serious and forget that there is humor in everything, my work suffers. But when I let my natural comic impulse run free—even in the unlikeliest of scenarios, like the one in this play—the characters and the situations come alive. Laughter is also a great way to get people to listen.
How important is it to you that your work relate to our current political/social climate?
It is important to me that my work relate to our current political/social climate, and I think I found a good way to achieve that with this play, because it uses the past and my own family's story to shed light on the present and the struggles that outsiders and immigrants are facing right now. When what's going on in the world at the moment seems too overwhelming, I think approaching things indirectly can sometimes be a powerful and effective strategy for getting at the truth.
Maggie Diaz Bofill, El Grande
Tell us about your play!
Three sisters fighting over a bathroom! Not really. A family of Latina sisters loving, fighting, discovering stuff about each other. One locks herself in the bathroom and refuses to come out. It's based on me and my sisters. We flip back-and-forth between Spanish and English, lots of comedy that comes out of the real, some empowering sexiness, and some good Cuban food.
As a playwright, what are the challenges and rewards of working in the one-act medium?
You can't pull any punches. There's no time. The story has to land solid and hard, and clean.
What inspired you to write this play? Do you find yourself returning to similar ideas/themes in your work?
Relationships. The stuff that keeps us alive. But please always come from that. And this play… I have a sister who is bipolar with some schizophrenia thrown in. While she was on her meds she was all right. She got off them and fell off the deep end. I wanted to show how us sisters dealt with it. Treated her like anybody else. Typical Latino style with lots of love and volume. She's thrilled there's a play about her. She calls it "my play".
Do you have any playwrights or writers of one-acts who particularly inspire you or who you try to emulate in certain capacities in your own work?
Beckett, Albee and Jules Pfeiffer were the first one acts I ever read… Maybe them?
In writing this play and/or in approaching writing a play in general, are there any things you always keep in mind?
The stupider I "scareder" I feel when writing, the more real and compelling it will probably be…
How important is it to you that your work relate to our current political/social climate?
I'm not a fan of agitprop, so if it's on my mind it will be on the paper. If it ends up being political, so be it. It's kind of the politics of me, functioning in the politics of this newly incredibly complex world.
