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Edd
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| Joined: | Sat Jun 10th, 2006 |
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Posted: Mon Nov 6th, 2006 09:29 pm |
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Kato McNickle has worked for a comedy troupe that worked with people who had experienced mental illnesses. “It was theater with a purpose -- both getting the message out about the stigma of living with a mental illness, and by providing a supportive, process oriented theater project for folks with disabilities.” She worked at the O'Neill for seven years, involved with new play development and the general rigors of keeping an institution like the O’Neill running. Kato has organized and run a playwriting group, and has run theater festivals and workshops. My personal relationship with Kato is that of a grateful reader and fan of her plays. Her voice is unique, contemporary and exciting. One of the best short plays I know, if not the best, was written my Kato McNickle. At the moment she is at Brown University through their Return to Undergraduate Education program where she is working with Paula Vogel. Kato McNickle is the personification of “The Renaissance Woman.”
edd: Kato, Welcome! Would you like to introduce yourself to our members?
katoagogo: Hello. I'm Kato. Currently I'm at Brown University in Rhode Island working on a concentration in Playwriting and Cognitive Science. I have also recently had a fairly big premiere with the Virtual theater Project this past summer. I run an ensemble-based group of playwrights and performers in a project called The Planning Stage. Over the next two years we plan to formalize the group, incorporate, and create a non-profit theater in my part of Connecticut -- New London County, on Long Island Sound. Does anyone here subscribe to American Theater Magazine? The new issue arrived yesterday, and my playwriting instructor Bonnie Metgar is on the cover with Suzanne Lori Parks.
edd: Of course, I want to know what it is like working with Paula Vogel. Can we start there, Kato?
Katoagogo: I freakin’ love Paula. She is amazing, as a playwright and as an educator. She has this ability to make you feel like you're the center of the world at that moment. She loves plays, and shares her enthusiasm for the work. It's infective. She is focused on the notion of the self-mentoring group.
The self-mentoring group is a group of playwrights that meets regularly, reads each other's work, and talks about it together. The things is, the group will "rise' together. I've seen it happen first-hand with my own playwriting group
You also support each other by letting members know about submission opps, or by mentioning other playwrights' work. She also knows her stuff about theater. And she shares the books and resources
Paddy: Sounds wonderful! What was it like to work for the O'Neill? There's been a bit of controversy of late....any comments?
katoagogo: This month in American Theater there is also an article about "The New O'Neill" -- but I haven't read that article yet. I was at the O'Neill for a total of seven years. It's a unique and beautiful place. It was founded on the principle of process over product, and that is the notion that keeps things on track (in theory). The O'Neill Theater Center is famous for the O'Neill Playwrights Conference. It used to be known as The National Playwrights Conference while it was run by Lloyd Richards, but the name was changed when Howard Sherman took over as Executive Director from for under George White I worked for a program that put local artists in schools to teach subjects (not just entertainment or enrichment) thru the arts. It was called Creative Arts in Education. It was also on shaky financial standing, so it was disbanded. Other local projects had started doing the same sort of projects, and it was decided that the O'Neill should work to keep its focus on new theater and training theater artists. After a brief stint in the development office (OMG! -- insane), I started working for the National Theater Institute. A 14-week intensive, conservatory level training for college-age students. What a great program. NTI had actually grown out of the Playwrights Conference in the late 1960's/1970.
I know, I know, it's a lot... do you have a specific question about the O'Neill? It's a very large question.
Paddy: Sorry, no, Kato....that's okay....what you said was great. Thank you, Kato.
Ashford: My writers group always worries about sharing due to plagiarism. Does that really happen in the playwriting world?
katoagogo: I haven't seen it happen. In my playwriting group I have a friendly competition going on with one of the other playwrights. We sometimes borrow ideas and do our own riff on them. It's a creative borrowing. But I could never "write" one of his plays, and he could never "write" one of mine. We have fun trading. I have not found plagiarism to be an issue among playwrights.
Ashford: I agree. Writing is as much about style as anything. Same story. Each writer gives it a different twist.
katoagogo: There are models, like the group that O'Neill was involved with in Provincetown -- a lot of creative borrowing -- and it was helpful. That's part of what works about something like the O'Neill Playwrights Conference -- lots of creative people sharing work. Stealing story ideas is way more "Hollywood" than theater, I think.
Ashford: Do you find a common message in most of your writing? I always find something about "not belonging" either hidden or obvious in many of my scripts.
katoagogo: I have characters change names, or being renamed a whole lot.
That's more an action than a theme, but there is something essential about it.
I think it'll be up to someone way smarter than me to pick up on common themes in my work.
wordcaster: What's the Planning Stage all about? How much influence do the actors have on the playwrights' works? Is it collaborative?
katoagogo: A lot of times the other playwrights in the group are the actors. We put up the work, usually pretty fast -- in alternative (free) spaces, like art galleries or yoga studios. How collaborative? It all depends on the needs of the play and the production. For a concert reading it's about the words on the page and the actor's voice. For a workshop production it can be much more collaborative. This past summer I had a workshop production that was driven by an actor who wanted to play the role, so we co-produced (and sewed costumes together). It was an exciting process. The tag-line for TPS is brining new works to new audiences in unexpected places.
wordcaster: Do you act?
katoagogo: I do act. I have acted in some of the readings (all though I usually direct). I'm known in my community as an actor's director. I have a lot of people who want to work with me because of that.
Ashford: Talking about unexpected places. Our group wants to hop on a bus and do a 10 minute skit. Do artists need permission to act in public spaces?
katoagogo: Probably, but you could maybe get away with something fast, fast, fast.
Ashford: We could call our troupe the Escape Artists.
katoagogo: I've shot illegal footage in public spaces as a filmmaker... shot it really early in the morning -- AND RUN! That's a good name for that kind of thing. Do you know about the RAT theaters?
Ashford: No. What is that?
katoagogo: I can't remember they're web site... actually, I first heard about them through Paula Vogel. Radical Alternative Theaters. They're on the internet, and they have occasional gatherings around the country. Try a Google search. It should turn up something. I'll be seeing Paula in another week, if I remember, I'll ask her and post some info here
Paddy: After just having produced a series of site specific plays, it has created a different view of theatre for me. I'd like to know your views on how site-specific theatre changes from staged theatre.
katoagogo: I enjoy site- specific work. Funny enough, there's a class being taught at Brown this semester by Molly Rice on this very form. I like how it changes expectations so it opens possibilities that wouldn't exist in a normal venue. Although it has crazy challenges like no dressing rooms, or back stages, or a bathroom -- things like that. And you often have no idea how many people are going to show up! But its really kinetic -- I think that's the right word. I love walking into a space and making it into theater -- solving the problems -- and going with the connection to the audience. I think alternative spaces serve to enhance the conversation that the play has with the audience. It is a conversation, and the alternative space heightens that.
Paddy: Nice. Thank you, Kato.
Ashford: I want our local drama group to do a Midsummer Night's Dream in the State Forest on the Summer Solstice. They are arguing that the lighting and microphones, etc. What can I say to overcome their objections?
Katoagogo: Maybe you do it during the day time? Maybe you do it for smaller audiences? That way you don't need the tech. It could be raw. Maybe sell the "raw" part of it, the Elizabethan rawness. You'll be able to smell Shakespeare in the room with you. Do you need the tech to do the show? That's the question. From there you can figure out what to do. And if they're still not on board, write a grant -- and do it yourself! I bet there's some money someplace that you could find for a project like this.
Lowell: I am writing a play about an historical figure (Jonathan Daniels, a civil rights activist, not well known). Any "traps" I should watch out for when writing about a "real" person?
katoagogo: The first thing that comes to mind with any play that you've had to research extensively for is this -- you've done the homework -- now how do you make the play interesting? What I mean is, you do all this research and then you put hunks o' knowledge into the play. Through successive drafts you will be doing the work of cutting out the hunk's o' knowledge because they are not what drives the story a sense of aliveness drives the story and the hunks o' knowledge will seem stiff and stifling. I don't know that there's a way to avoid the hunks o' knowledge in early drafts, but they are important to recognize as you have the play read and staged either thru readings or productions. That's the biggest historical trap I usually come across (and have fallen into myself), but you do have to do the research, and it sounds like that's what you're doing ... so you're on the right track
Lowell: Thanks. I think I am on the right track then. I think I understand the idea of throwing it all out. That makes sense to me. I have decided to focus on the relationship between the white activist and the black activists and the African culture and MUSIC is a big part of that. I need to find sources for music of that era, even if it's just to let it talk to me. any suggestions?
katoagogo: The music is a great place to start -- or have with you as you continue to work. Actually (again, this is from PV) -- Paula told me that she makes soundtracks for the plays and listens to them as she writes. I started doing this and it's GREAT. Later, some of the music (or similar music) often makes its way into the actual play. It's a cool device. Try it out. Make a soundtrack and play it to get into your play world. Things like itunes make it so easy to create a file for your play full of music and sounds that inspire you. That wasn't quite your question -- but I'm so glad you brought up music -- it's so essential. I work a lot with creating sound scapes in my work. The texture, nuance and emotional resonance in sound structures is what I am studying in Cognitive Science and applying to my playwriting. Anyone else or are we winding down?
edd: We're out of time. Kato. Thank you for being a wonderful and informative guest.
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