Here’s part two of OWN IT where amazing playwrights I love talk about being amazing playwrights.

Find part one here.

Gina Femia

1. When’s the first time you were like “I’m a playwright”? What was that moment like? Was it a reading? Was it when you wrote your first play? Or has that moment not happened yet?

When New Georges reached out to me to be a part of an all day jam event.  I couldn’t believe it! I was about a year out of grad school and had written around 10 plays at the time.  I had met with Susan Bernfield while I was still in grad school and had been keeping in touch with her but I was shocked to be asked to participate in this New Georges event.  It was a dope feeling. I still get that feeling when people reach out to me about my work, or when I send an e-mail to a Literary Manager and receive back a “I know who you are!”.  I especially feel it when I have to juggle contracts lol (I still don’t have an agent but I’ve been getting productions, which is dope).

2. If a person could only read one play of yours, which one would you pick?

My ultimate favorite play I’ve ever written is THIS HAPPENED ONCE AT THE ROMANCE DEPOT OFF THE I-87 IN WESTCHESTER.  It’s not the play that the most people are excited about, but it is the one that is my ultimate favorite so I want you to read it on New Play Exchange! 

3. 1-2 sentence tagline about your work/bio/website

Gina Femia has written 33 full-length plays, often about the working class and always exploring sexuality, abuse and trauma, usually through a queer lens.

DW Gregory

1. When’s the first time you were like “I’m a playwright”? What was that moment like? Was it a reading? Was it when you wrote your first play? Or has that moment not happened yet?

I’d been writing plays for a long time, but always found ways to dismiss the successes I had along the way. For instance, in the mid-90s, I had a 10-minute that was produced at Actors Theatre of Louisville and included in four anthologies. It had many productions around the world, but for me it didn’t count because it was ‘just a 10-minute play.’ I don’t know when I started to take myself seriously. My first professional production (Radium Girls) didn’t do it; I still felt like a poser, even though it did incredibly well at the box office and earned universally positive notices. It never got another professional production, but I did get it published and it’s done amazingly well in the amateur market. When the published scripts arrived and I opened up the box, I felt a real sense of pride at my accomplishment.  But that didn’t really erase the insecurity. I think it finally dawned on me in a rehearsal for Salvation Road – when I realized that I was completely in command of the script and able to tell the director very calmly exactly why certain choices were not supported by the text. It when was then that I realized I really do know what I’m doing and I really am a pro.

2. If a person could only read one play of yours, which one would you pick?

The one play I’d like people to read is Memoirs of a Forgotten Man, because it’s my most recent and because it’s my best. And stylistically, I think, it represents the perfection of certain elements I’ve use in other plays but not nearly as effectively – in particular, the use of doubling in enhancing the story-telling. The script is available on the New Play Exchange and is also published in an anthology from Methuen, Five Plays by Women from the Contemporary American Theater Festival.

3. 1-2 sentence tagline about your work/bio/website

I’m best known as the author of Radium Girls, which has been named among the ten most produced plays in U.S. high schools for two years running. I tend towards historical topics, but not exclusively – more details at www.dwgregory.com.

Jacqueline Goldfinger

1. When’s the first time you were like “I’m a playwright”? What was that moment like? Was it a reading? Was it when you wrote your first play? Or has that moment not happened yet?

Third grade. I didn’t know the word for playwright. I grew up in rural North Florida without a local theater scene. But there was a traveling group of actors that came to the elementary schools and did funny skits in the cafeteria once a year. It was my favorite day of the school year. And I remember thinking, I want to do THAT but I also don’t want to be on-stage. I began writing poetry and dialogue-driven fiction. In middle school, a teacher showed me a play format, and I realized that’s what I had really been writing plays all-along. I just did not know it.

2. If a person could only read one play of yours, which one would you pick?

BOTTLE FLY

3. How can they read it? NPX? Buy it?

It is available as a beautiful commercial book from Yale Press at all bookstores and online. It’s also on NPX.

4. 1-2 sentence tagline about your work/bio/website

This is a terrific question for me right now. I’ve been trying to make my artistic statement more concise. So, here is a try: I write deeply rooted female characters with a sense of history whose urgency is reflected in contemporary issues and who also have a sense of humor about themselves and the world that opens audiences’ hearts to challenging perceived realities of gender, identity, and personhood. Read more on my website: www.jacquelinegoldfinger.com

Donna Hoke

1. When’s the first time you were like “I’m a playwright”? What was that moment like? Was it a reading? Was it when you wrote your first play? Or has that moment not happened yet?

Well, I said, “I’m a playwright” to the biggest theater critic in our town very early on, before I’d had any plays produced, and he said, “Oh, have I seen any of your plays”? LOL. So I think I’ve always tried to wear the identity but I probably didn’t feel confident about it until I started getting plays produced outside my hometown.

2. If a person could only read one play of yours, which one would you pick?

That is sooo hard. Not because of the “you can’t pick a favorite child” reason but because which play somebody will like depends so much on who they are; my plays are all so different from each other. But if I have to choose right now, I’d say TEACH, because it’s gotten the most universal attention and because it’s one of the top five recommended full-length plays on NPX, and, despite all its credits, is still unproduced!

3. 1-2 sentence tagline about your work/bio/website

You can check out my work on NPX or my website, which also houses my blog, which has a lot of great info for playwrights: donnahoke.com

Liz Maestri

1. When’s the first time you were like “I’m a playwright”? What was that moment like? Was it a reading? Was it when you wrote your first play? Or has that moment not happened yet?

I feel like it was maybe when I saw my first review? This was for my first-ever play, too, so I was green, nervous, and ecstatic. And then I see this unfavorable review that compared me to Martin McDonagh — and not in a nice way! I was like, “Wow, I feel like shit… but he compared me to Martin McDonagh. I’ve ARRIVED.” The moment was crushing and empowering all at once. I felt real profesh.

2. If a person could only read one play of yours, which one would you pick?

SINNER-MAN. I’m still working on it, but this is the one that feels the most alive to me.

3. How can they read it? NPX? Buy it?

It’s available on NPX! https://newplayexchange.org/plays/24343/sinner-man

4. 1-2 sentence tagline about your work/bio/website
Liz Maestri is a playwright/screenwriter who writes introspective, satirical dark comedies that aim to amuse, abuse, & bemuse. www.lizmaestri.com.

PS

I asked a couple of other playwrights but didn’t hear back and didn’t check back in because there was already so, so much. So if I asked you and you’re not featured here, stay tuned. I am definitely doing this again. And possibly changing the format of it.