The Pumpkin Pie Show: Halloween All-Stars
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Clay McLeod Chapman
September 24, 2012
What is your job on this show?
Writer/performer.
When did you know you wanted to work in the theater, and why?
Let's go back to the fifth grade. Scholastic would send out these newspaper print magazines to all the teachers at my elementary school. Inside these flimsy pamphlets was a half-page one-act for students to perform. Me, being a bit of an indoor kid, would steal these pamphlets and opt out of the playground, choosing to spend recess in the classroom rehearsing plays like Christmas Carol, Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Sword and the Sorcerer. A particular highlight was Kon Tiki. I flipped over a desk and BOOM: Instant raft for sailing the Pacific. I used a breadstick from the cafeteria as a cigar, because, you know, I'm sure Thor Heyerdahl smoked cigars when he sailed.
Why do you do theater (as opposed to film, or TV, or something not in the entertainment field)?
Well, because it's not a perfect machine. Theater is broken down, rickety, and all kinds of messed up. It is never finished. It is never exact. It will never be perfect and it will never be the same, performance after performance. Somebody sneezes or an actor flubs a line or whatever and everybody in the room gets to experience something that will never happen again...
In your own words, what do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
I think the show is about some very dark, very creepy catharsis. I think it's about releasing some strange pent up emotions in a safe environment in front of people who want to tap into those darker corners within themselves. It's a Punch and Judy show without the puppets.
Which “S” word best describes your show: SMOOTH, SEXY, SMART, SURPRISING?
Sorry. As in, I'm So Sorry for Subjecting you to Such a Show as ours.
Can theater bring about societal change? Why or why not?
I'm more of a fan of micro-thinking, rather than upper-case macro... I met my wife after performing in a Pumpkin Pie Show, so yes, in my very small micro-society, theater has brought on great change. I hear it can even makes babies.
