Meet our amazingly talented whisper & SHOUT writers! We chose their plays from over one-hundred play submissions. This is an interview featuring Forrest Leo (writer of Friend of the Devil, April 24th) asking Adam Szymkowicz (writer of Clown Bar, May 1st) about playwriting, creepy clowns, and lots of upcoming projects. The other side of the interview is up Adam’s blog soon!
Come see their free readings at The Connelly Theater (220 e 4th St). For reservations email [email protected]. Include your name, the number of seats you’d like to reserve, and the date of the performance you’d like to attend!!!
Forrest: Tell me about Clown Bar.
Adam: It’s a play about the seedy underbelly of the clown crime world. You know. One of those plays.
Forrest: Do you have a personal connection to (or fear of) clowns that we should be aware of?
Adam: A good friend of mine from high school was/is terrified of clowns. One halloween, our calculus teacher showed up dressed as a clown and she ran out of the room and wouldn’t come back. I don’t feel that way entirely but there is a power to them not easily discounted. They’re also funny.
Forrest: What else are you working on?
Adam: I just wrote season 2 of my web series Compulsive Love (look for it soon). I’m also working on what I hope will be a graphic novel. Also a normal novel. And some screenplays. Working with two other writers on a animated pilot. My pirate play is being turned into a musical. Oh and I have a new play I’ll hear at Primary Stages on May 9. And you know, some other plays. Also I interview playwrights. And I should probably get a job because I’m running out of money.
Forrest: How’d you come to write plays?
Adam: I was an actor for a while and read a lot of plays. When I started writing, plays came most naturally. I started in college around 1997 or so and I haven’t really stopped writing plays since.
Forrest: What was a theatrical experience that changed/moved/impacted you?
Adam: There have been many. I think being in plays was how I got hooked. But I have seen many plays that have changed me/moved me over the years.
Forrest: What would Adam Szymkowicz age seven think about you today?
Adam: I have no idea. I think Age 7 Adam would hate New York. I think he would think the playwriting thing was cool. I would tell Age 7 Adam that maybe he should try to do something easier, something more regularly fulfilling, which also provides a steady income. I wish I knew what that was.
Finally, here are a few things coming up in New York:
Readings:
Clown Bar with Pipeline in NYC May 1 @ 8pm
Mercy (my newest play) at Primary Stages May 9 @ 3pm.
Productions:
UBU as part of Solonova at the New Ohio in NYC June 7-16
Why Overhead, Zootopia in Sept
Hearts Like Fists by Flux in Nov (Go see their upcoming show Deinde)
And watch out for my webseries, Compulsive Love. Like us on facebook.
