Mini-interviews with the 2015-16 playwriting fellows

The 2015 PlayLabs Playwriting Fellows Showcase is Sunday, October 18 at noon. See scenes from diverse work by Jerome Fellows Ryan Campbell, Kristin Idaszak, Andrew Rosendorf, and Keliher Walsh; Many Voices Fellows Cristina Castro and James Anthony Tyler; McKnight Fellows in Playwriting Carson Kreitzer and Harrison David Rivers; and McKnight National Residency and Commission Recipient Erik Ehn. Here are some mini-interviews to help you get to know the fellows.

Ryan Campbell, Jerome Fellow

Ryan’s works include Preston Montfort – An American Tragedy, Dead Ends, The Zero Scenario

What does the Jerome Fellowship mean to you as you transition to post-grad school life?
It means I can continue to be an artist. I’ve written 10 drafts of plays during grad school (and many more fragments of unfinished plays) and the fellowship will give me the time to work several of these drafts toward their final iterations. I will also be able to work on new ideas as they come up over the next year, and foster connections with artists, for which I am so thankful.

Kristin Idaszak, Jerome Fellow

Kristin’s works include Second Skin, The Liar Paradox, Fugue for Particle Accelerator

What does your family think you do for a living?
When my brother tells people what I do, he says I write plays with “strong female leads. And colorful language.” Which is a pretty spot on articulation of my work.

Andrew Rosendorf, Jerome Fellow

Andrew’s works include Tranquil, Cane, Brilliant Corners

What are you looking forward to as a first-time fellow at the Playwrights’ Center?
The unbelievable opportunity to have the Playwrights’ Center become my home. To be surrounded by the artists here (who—shhh—many I’m in awe of). Just being in the building and immersed in the PWC community will inspire and challenge me.

Keliher Walsh, Jerome Fellow

Keliher’s works include Year of the Rabbit, Idols of the Cave, That Oceans Are

Who or what inspires you?
The messiness of life inspires me, the universal character of myth, the constant knitting and unraveling of order, nature, science, history, and always, always our search for love.

Cristina Castro, Many Voices Fellow

Cristina’s works include BANG-BANG, Miss American Pie; Mark Me – A Cain & Abel Story

You’ve been involved in several workshops as an actor and a Playwrights’ Center intern. How will those experiences inform your own workshops?
If there is anything I have learned that I will carry with me: It is OKAY to have NO CLUE about what’s going on in those pages I wrote. There’s a table full of talented, insightful, and experienced artists who will happen to those pages. They’ll dazzle and challenge me in the best ways and I’ll realize what story is there and how best to tell it.

James Anthony Tyler, Many Voices Fellow

James’ works include The Drop Off, Some Old Black Man, Hand Held Out

What will you be working on this year?
I want to rewrite a play I started a year ago titled You’re Sitting in the Dark. The play is set in 1909 and it explores the complexity of American history and love. I’m also going to finally write a play about coming of age in Las Vegas. Vegas is my hometown and for years my friends have said, “You should write something about growing up in Las Vegas.” I’m finally going to take that advice.

Carson Kreitzer, McKnight Fellow in Playwriting

Carson’s works include Lasso of Truth, Behind the Eye, The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer

What does receiving your third McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting mean to you?
I am so grateful for this kind of deep, profound support throughout my career. I want to make art that is expensive to put on, not because it is some kind of lavish spectacle, but because actors are expensive, and theater rent is expensive. Being there, all together, live in a room every night… it’s expensive. The McKnight Fellowships have allowed me to pursue work that is not the most commercial, but that is absolutely closest to my heart and spirit.

Harrison David Rivers, McKnight Fellow in Playwriting

Harrison’s works include Sweet, The Last Queen of Canaan, And She Would Stand Like This

What will you be working on this year?
Plays with talking parrots and karaoke-inspired production numbers
A burgeoning relationship between a woman and her housecleaner
And a jazzman clinging to the memory of his former glory.

Erik Ehn, McKnight National Residency and Commission Recipient

Erik’s works include The Saint Plays, No Time Like the Present, Wolf at the Door

How are art and activism entwined for you?
A play’s an opportunity to invite strangers (and oneself, as a stranger) into ethical complication, where complication equals culpability, entanglement. So—less community organizing than a kind of community formation that leads to radical disorganization, with mutual respect. Anarchy.

Reserve your free tickets for the Playwriting Fellows Showcase »