This Can't Be Broccoli

My interview for this week happened over the phone shortly after I posted about the last production I worked on— Lizzie Borden, Lizzie Borden --and the impact it’s had on my struggle with continuing to do theater. The person I’m interviewing only recently decided to give theater a break, so we talk a little about that, but they also wanted to talk about my post, so there’s way more of me than usual in this one.   Consider that your heads up. Here’s the interview: Me:   Thank you for finding the time to do this. Them:   You’re welcome.   I just read your post about Lizzie . Me:   Hopefully it came across the way I wanted it to. Them:   I was really interested in the part about you writing other plays for reasons that you felt weren’t, like, good reasons. Me:   Like attention and— Them:   Yeah.   I was surprised by that. Me:   I still like those plays, but when I look at them, they don’t really feel li...

We haven’t even officially started the Democratic primary yet and I already know what my least favorite narrative is going to be-- Wow, Look at All These Democrats Running! F--- off with that. Do you think we don’t have Google? Do you think we don’t (sadly) remember 2016? Do you think we’re just going to let you hand us that story and-- Oh, yup.  Apparently, we are. Because I’m already seeing liberals, progressives, and god-knows-what-else-we’re-f---ing-calling-ourselves these days talking about how many people there are in the race. Everybody, listen to me-- Who. F---ing. Cares. You know why we have so many people running for the Democratic nomination? Because there’s a crazy person in the White House and people want to get him the f--- out of there before he kills us all. Why is that so hard to understand? And why are we making fun of people for wanting to serve? Especially when most of them are VIABLE F---ING CANDIDATES? I’m not goin...

The person I’m interviewing this week pointed out that my theater just had our General Season auditions this week and wanted to talk about that before we got around to discussing why they took a break from there, but as you’ll see, the two ended up having a lot in common. Here’s the interview: Them:   How did auditions go? Me:   I’m not sure I can talk about that on record. Them:   That bad, huh? Me:   No, they were great, I’m just not sure if that would make people not want to audition for me in the future. Them:   They probably don’t want to audition for you now. Me:   That’s true. Them:   I’m just interested to hear your experience of the audition process, because auditioning is one of the reasons I’m glad I don’t do theater anymore. Me:   Really? Them:   Does that surprise you? Me:   Uh, I guess not.   I always liked auditioning though. Them:   You did? Me:   I reall...

A few years ago, I was up for a role in a play. The character was a gay man like me, and in addition to that, we seemed to have a lot of the same characteristics. I auditioned for the role. I thought I did well. Two days later the director of the play called me to let me know he’d decided to go with another actor. A self-identified straight actor, who didn’t even really fit the role (a little too old, not quite the type, etc.) was chosen instead of me. This wasn’t the first time this had happened to me, but it was the first time I decided to push back. I told the director that I thought it was inappropriate to have the straight actor playing the role, and that if there was a suitable gay actor to play it instead, then that’s the actor who should be given the part. The director went through the repertoire of responses— Don’t be bitter. “Appropriate” and “Good” are subjective. Why can’t straight people play gay roles? Does that mean gay actors ca...

This Conversation #5 in my series of theater talks with people who have stopped doing theater, and a few of these conversations are long. I mean—really long. As you can imagine, people feel pretty passionately about the arts and what might make someone walk away from the industry entirely. So for some of these interviews, I’ve chosen to zero in on a particular issue, and this past week, I got to talk to a friend about something that’s come up pretty frequently— Why it seems easier to be successful outside of your hometown, especially when that hometown is in Rhode Island. Here’s the interview: ME:   So I wanted to talk to you because you’re someone I actually use as an example when I talk about one of my frustrations with Rhode Island. THEM:   Uh oh. ME:   (Laughs.)   Well, you know where I’m going with this.   Do you want to just--? THEM:   Yeah, sure, so I was born in Rhode Island, and I did theater here for awhile, a...