Pavement Blog

Congrats to Pavement Group Associate Mallery Avidon on her Terrific Humana Run!

Mallery Avidon, playwright of breaks & bikes and fracture/mechanics, just wrapped up the world premiere run of her new play O Guru Guru Guru or why I don’t want to go to yoga class with you at the 37th Annual Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Mallery workshopped part of O Guru Guru Guru in Pavement Group’s Mise en Place series a couple of years back, and we’re delighted the play has had a continued life. 

Cornish College for the Arts, where Mallery and numerous other Pavement Group collaborators studied, has a nice rundown of the reviews. 

amuse bouche 2013 playwright David Perez

What is really inspiring you right now?

Television. How they are reinventing the format (see Netflix’s House of Cards). How they operate with the same presentation obstacles (pressure to appeal to a general audience and create revenue at the expense of the work) but have managed to create a new era of thoughtful and intuitive stories birthed from the dreck of reality television. 

What pisses you off about theatre?

That people barely care about it. That no one sees it. That we tell the same stories by the same people in the same format. I hate theatre makers that assume the intelligence of their audience. I hate that we have to dance for our dollars. I hate that wealth and privilege more often than not decide the career of a theatre maker.

What keeps you doing it? 

Well, I quit, so nothing. 

I should say because it opens up a conversation between us and our humanity. I should say because telling stories is old as the moon. I should also say that a shared physical experience actually DOES foster community and dialogue (when we are making theatre for the community and not ourselves). I do believe those things. But the stamina required to sustain this is not to be taken lightly. I admire those stronger than myself.

Why do you write?

Because when I was a fat 17 year old gay kid hiding at lunch time in the library, I read every play by August Wilson, Jose Rivera, and Tony Kushner and they gave me passage into a world where I could control the cause and effect. I liked how the rules were invisible, and the story telling didn’t only have to be words. I’m also a know it all, and like to tell people what is what. Real talk.

amuse bouche 2013

April 8, 2013 - April 10, 2013

The Den Theatre 
1333 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL

RSVP on Facebook

Tickets

David Perez is a San Francisco based writer, director, comedian, and jerk. He used to live in Chicago. He directed a lot of things in deep dish pizza city; it was fun and he ate a lot of gummy bears. David was the subject of the wildly popular social experiment David On Demand, where he gave his free will to the internet for seven days and live streamed the whole thing. David also hosted the short-lived video series #askdavid. You can see these projects and other stuff @ http://cargocollective.com/mrperezident. He is a proud graduate of Cornish College of the Arts.

amuse bouche 2013 playwright Sigrid Gilmer

PG’s newest crush: Sigrid Gilmer

What is really inspiring you right now?

Law and Order: SVU. I cannot stop watching it. Streaming on Nextflix all 12 seasons! The comfort of the procedural drama, the horror of the next depravity, the evolution of Det. Benson’s hairstyles, the polemic debates in the squad room about the ‘issues’ of the day, Stabler’s forearms, the artfully grisly sexy dead women—Really?! Yes! Stilted dialogue, smart assy quips that move us into the next Duh-dumm.  All of it is so juicy and appealing. I am constantly amazed and a bit horrified how so much plot can smushed into 42 minutes.  All of the symbols and tropes of culture are paraded out— race, gender, sex and sexuality—they stomp down the runway dressed in the lastest theories ripped from the headlines. Given a powder of inquiry and complexity, yet never straying from conventional ideas, emotions, morality. It’s conservatism—in form and content—is monolithic.  I am constantly intrigued—I mean how are they gonna handle the serial baby killer who is having an incestuous relationship with her father and stay within FCC guidelines? How? But SVU does it. They do.  My artistic sensibilities are a flame and I keep coming back for more.

I am also obsessed with Oscar Wilde. Re-reading Picture of Dorian Gray and a book of his letters. Wilde’s  writing is so f-ing smart and tough and dainty and funny. His writing pierces through bullshit and reveals truth with such charm and wit. His writing is sumptuous and musical.  A celebration of the beauty of the written and spoken word.  I am in total awe and so in love with him. 

If I controlled time and space Oscar Wilde would write a whole season of SVU! Omigawd my head is exploding!

What pisses you off about theatre?

Theatre that is safe and conventional pisses me off. Theatre that does not shoot for profound and mind blowing beauty pisses me off. Give me glitter and gestures and chewy language! Theatre that does not challenge assumptions about the world pisses me off. I am tired of seeing the same people-in terms of class, race, gender, sexuality hash out the same ole boring problems. Theatre without subversion, theatre that panders to power, theatre without some righteous anger, pisses me off.  Theatre that does not demand the audience to think, to keep up with it, pisses me off. Theatre that does not growl, that does not grab the audience by the throat, that does not command the audience to participate, to not just consume the art, but to be devoured by it, pisses me off. Theatre without a sense of humor about itself and the world, pisses me off. Theatre without alchemy, without joy pisses me off and breaks my heart.

What keeps you doing it? 

Cuz sometimes it works. Those moments where it clicks, be it in production or the rehearsal room or writing alone, when you have created a world, a moment and everyone is together believing it, living it, making it real by sheer will, it’s…freaky, amazing, humbling, powerful. But you blink and it’s gone, a light cue is missed, a cell goes off in the house, you remember you have to pay rent and it’s back to the ‘real’ world with it’s chaos and uncertainty. Those moments when players and audience conspire to make another world, to engage in collective madness, that’s what keeps me doing it. 

Why do you write?

I ask myself this question a lot, especially when the writing is not going very well. Honestly, I don’t know. I enjoy it—most of the time. But some how that doesn’t seem to be a deep enough or good enough answer. So a sort list of reasons I can think of right now. 

It is a way for me to order the chaos and uncertainty of the world. 

I am by nature a control freak.

I am not a good talker.

It’s a way to combat the stupidity and banality in the world.

I can be a million different people from one day to the next. 

I am shy.

It is a place to vent anger, hatred, bitchiness, cruelty, bitterness.

It is a place to vent love, joy, silliness, honor, holiness.

I can sound really really smart—with enough re-writes. 

I am a control freak.

An excuse for research—Yes I do need to know the sats on killer whale attacks. 

An excuse to visit libraries. Does one need and excuse?

An excuse to spend the day in bed reading or power watching SVU.

When you’ve done it well people give you props. Validation is awesome. 

I get be apart of a lineage of cool bad ass motherfuckers—Williams, Wilde, Kennedy, Butler, Vonnegut, Genet—I will no way be as amazing as they were/are but we are in the same house. I have a room in the basement.

It’s a good way to live a life.

amuse bouche 2013

April 8, 2013 - April 10, 2013

The Den Theatre

1333 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL

http://www.thedentheatre.com/index.htm

RSVP on Facebook

Tickets

Writing from a place that believes in the alchemy of live bodies on stage, Sigrid Gilmer’s plays are dark, funny, personal musings and perversions of cultural norms that joyfully give the finger to the status quo. Her plays include: Harry &the Thief, Seed: A Weird Act of Faith, Black Simulacra, Patty: The Revival(Book), It’s All Bueno, The Hub of the Universe, Black Girl Rising, Axiom and The Great White Way. Sigrid has worked with Katselas Theatre Company, Cornerstone Theater Company, Watts Village Theatre, Company of Angles, and Clubbed Thumb Theatre Company. Ms. Gilmer has studied theatre at Cal State LA and Cal Arts.

amuse bouche 2013 playwright Laura Jacqmin

Ladies & Gentlemen, Chicago’s own: Laura Jacqmin

What is really inspiring you right now?

Stories in other mediums: particularly, video games, and how they involve their audience in narrative in a more complex and nuanced way than we sometimes do in theater.

What pisses you off about theatre?

That we keep having the same conversations, year after year: there aren’t enough women and artists of color who are given opportunities, and it’s become a giant tail-chase. There’s actually one easy solution, and yet nobody seems able to take action beyond a single season, if that.

What keeps you doing it? 

Love, man. I love it. And the eternal hope that I’ll see something that blows me away. When it happens, it puts me on the attack again in my own work, in a good way.

Why do you write?

It’s what I’m best at. And it’s a constant challenge. I like having a chosen a career where you have to keep making work, regardless of what level you’ve reached. Everyone, no matter how successful they are, has to keep writing to be a writer.

amuse bouche 2013

April 8, 2013 - April 10, 2013

The Den Theatre

1333 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL

http://www.thedentheatre.com/index.htm

RSVP on Facebook

Tickets

 Laura Jacqmin was the winner of the 2008 Wasserstein Prize. Plays include January Joiner (Long Wharf Theatre),Ski Dubai (Steppenwolf Theatre), Two Lakes, Two Rivers (O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Royal Court Theatre’s International Residency), Look, We Are Breathing (Sundance Theater Lab) and Dental Society Midwinter Meeting (Chicago Dramatists/At Play, remounted 16th Street Theater and Theater on the Lake). Her short play Hero Dad (a finalist for the 2012 Heideman Award) premiered in the 2012 Humana Festival of New Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville. She was the 2012 Faith Broome playwright in residence at University of Oklahoma. Commissions: South Coast Rep, Goodman Theatre, Arden Theater Company, InterAct Theatre, Victory Gardens Theater/NNPN, and Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Science & Technology Project. BA Yale University; MFA Ohio University.

amuse bouche 2013 playwright Hilary Bettis

Meet Hilary Bettis. She a bad mothafucka.

What is really inspiring you right now?

Westerns, Nogales, bounty hunters, Henry Roth, Macallan 18 on the rocks, Pink Floyd, red lipstick, and puppies (because they’re freakin’ adorable!)

What pisses you off about theatre?

Audience-blaming. I’m tired of hearing those who make theater blame the audience for not getting/not coming to the theater. If theater isn’t speaking to people, then we in the American theater need to reevaluate the theater we are creating. 

What keeps you doing it?

Because I am madly, passionately, insanely in love with the theater. Because I am in love with the talented and brilliant community of artists that put their hearts on the line to make theater. And because theater is a living, breathing, shared experience with a room full of people. 

Why do you write?

Because I have to. It is the only thing I know with certainty in this life.

amuse bouche 2013

April 8, 2013 - April 10, 2013

The Den Theatre

1333 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL

http://www.thedentheatre.com/index.htm

RSVP on Facebook

Tickets

Hilary Bettis is a playwright and screenwriter. Awards, residencies, and commissions include: O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (Alligator), James McLure Fellowship New River Dramatists, Sloan/EST Commission (Dakota Atoll), John N. Wall Fellowship Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Carol Ostrow Commission (The Desert), Blackburn Nomination (Mexico), Cherry Jones/Abingdon Theatre Company Grant. Finalist and semifinalist include: the Source Festival and Bay Area Playwrights Festival (Alligator), New Dramatists, and Juilliard Lila Acheson Wallace Fellowship. Readings and workshops include: New Georges, The Lark, EST, Abingdon, Barrow Street, Barefoot Theatre Company, Pavement Group, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Carolina Costal University, New River Dramatists, The Actors Studio, and The Aurora Fox in Denver. Publications include Smith & Kraus, McFarland & Company, Original Works (American Girls). Film screenings include Williamsburg Film Festival, IFS Festival (best actress), Nashville Film Festival finalist (B’Hurst).

She is a member of SAG, AEA, Dramatists Guild, The Drama League, TCG, Playwrights’ Center, and Fractured Atlas. She is a member of EST and an affiliated artist with New Georges. She is a staff writer for offoffonline.com, and has contributed articles and essays to TDF Stages and HowlRound. Hilary lives in Bushwick with a fat orange cat, plays a little violin, and rides horses as much as it is possible to being broke and living in a big city. The Gersh Agency qcorbin@gershny.com

amuse bouche 2013 playwright Lauren Yee

We met Lauren at Ignition Festival at Victory Gardens last year and were immediately smitten with her and her writing.

What is really inspiring you right now?

The classic American road trip has loomed large in my mind recently. Cheap motels. Bizarre sights. Greasy, geographically specific food. And the necessity of being able to read a paper map. The last one I took was a Southwestern loop starting in Dallas and stretching out towards New Mexico and up through Oklahoma, and I was particularly struck by just how much strangeness and joy exists within the communities I (as a lifelong city person) otherwise identify as bland, suburban wasteland. I am increasingly interested in stories that explore the intersection of cultures, liminal spaces, the common man, and extraordinary everyday adventures. Road trips encompass all of this. And for anyone looking for a little adventure this summer, this website is indispensable:http://www.roadsideamerica.com/

What pisses you off about theatre?

Theater that makes it easy for an audience. Or assumes that what an audience wants it. I fully believe that people will buy into the artifice if the world is fully imagined and the theatrical metaphors are emotionally true.

What keeps you doing it?

When I first tackle an idea, I have no idea where I’m going. I will usually spend days trying to connect seemingly disparate worlds/ideas/characters/tones. For this reason, I love working with theater people who are smarter, more rigorous, and more attentive to detail than me, who are fantastic at helping me work through my crazy ideas and make them make sense. I love that moment of “A-ha! I did not know it at the time, but obviously these two seemingly unconnected elements clearly intersect in this interesting way.” For me, playwriting is something of a treasure hunt/kids’ spy game, and I am always jazzed when my playwriting self stumbles upon the secret decoder ring, so to speak.

Why do you write?

In real life, I am a piss poor storyteller. If I am telling you a story in real time, I ramble, I repeat myself, I kind of forget what the thrust of why I’m telling you this is, etc. Playwriting gives me the opportunity to organize these thoughts into an effective, surprising narrative that has the power to move someone. AND oftentimes, I get to do it with actors who know how to tear language apart and can do so much with their bodies and voices and presence. That really is the dream.

amuse bouche 2013

April 8, 2013 - April 10, 2013

The Den Theatre

1333 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL

http://www.thedentheatre.com/index.htm

RSVP on Facebook

Tickets

Lauren Yee’s plays include Ching Chong Chinaman; Crevice; Hookman; in a word; A Man, his Wife, and his Hat; and Samsara. Her work has been produced at AlterTheater, Artists at Play, Company One, Impact Theatre, Moxie Theatre, Mu Performing Arts, Pan Asian Rep, SIS Productions, and others. Lauren’s plays have been also developed at Lincoln Center Theatre/LCT3, The Public Theater, Victory Gardens Theatre, Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Aurora Theatre, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, the Hangar Theatre, Kitchen Dog Theatre, Orlando Shakespeare Festival, and PlayPenn.

She is a MAP Fund grantee and has been a Dramatists Guild fellow, a MacDowell fellow, and Public Theater EWG member. She was a finalist for the Jerome, the PONY, the Princess Grace, and the Wasserstein Prize.

She is a Time Warner Fellow at the Women’s Project Playwrights Lab and a member of the Ma-Yi Theatre Writers Lab. She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center Theatre/LCT3. BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD. www.laurenyee.com

‘breaks & bikes’ blog 03: working on mallery’s plays

Plays by the Numbers

Chicago Bike Flag stickers and patches, FREE!

We have some fabulous Illinois Bike Lawyer stickers and patches left over from last night’s panel discussion. Get one for FREE when you come to see Pavement Group’s breaks & bikes by Mallery Avidon, while supplies last. Show closes December 9th!