The Tenant
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Bill Donnelly
October 11, 2012
What is your job on this show?
playwright.
When did you know you wanted to work in the theater, and why?
I wanted to be a writer since my early 20's. I wanted to write to help me understand myself and to understand others. With that knowledge I wanted to dramatize that understanding so others could share in the understanding and be moved by it.
Why do you do theater (as opposed to film, or TV, or something not in the entertainment field)?
I write plays because I think it is the most visceral form of art. Human beings before us speaking, interacting, living, loving and dying. Draw me into your lives actors and let me live your emotions. Let me laugh, cry, wonder, ...
Do you think the audience will talk about your show for 5 minutes, an hour, or way into the wee hours of the night?
I have been told by audiences who have seen readings of The Tenant, as well as a workshop, that they have talked about the show for hours after seeing it.It raises questions about how we interact in love; how we perform sexually; how we react to health issues and and how religion can affect us. Most importantly, it raises questions about the motivation of the characters. Why do they do what they do? It's just like life.
If you had ten million dollars that you had to spend on theatrical endeavors, how would you use the money?
I created a new art form which is a fusion of ballet, opera and drama which I call a baloperama. While it has some historical antecedents, I would use the money to produce "LA VALSE: NIGHT, CANDLES, DAWN" written by me which created the synthesis of the above art forms. It is a movement from isolation in a black and white silent space to being one with the greatest reality as it expressed by vibrant color and voluptuous music.
