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Interview with THE PARTICIPANTS! playwright: Jesse Calixto
Jesse Calixto, who is no stranger to the Annex stage, is the playwright of THE PARTICIPANTS!, opening on March 15. Since 2017, Jesse has performed in DEERS, Peggy: The Plumber Who Saved the Galaxy, and You’d Better Sit Down For This, as well as Spin the Bottle and HOLIDAZE.
We asked him a few questions about the play and to get his opinion his favorite character. Read on!
What inspired you to write THE PARTICIPANTS!?
I work in tourism and theatre so when the pandemic shut everything down in 2020 I lost my job and community, I was single and living alone in a studio apartment in Pioneer Square. The Participants was the project that let me imagine a time when the theatres would open up again and I wrote it with Annex Theatre specifically in mind. Stuck in my studio apartment I wrote a play about four strangers locked in a room together. Like now, it was an election year so the division between the Right and Left was at a fever pitch. Social media created an environment where people were stuck in an echo chamber where they could pick and choose their own “facts.” What was real? What was “fake news? Is this all a hoax?
What do you want audiences to take away from the show?
I hope it reminds people that despite our differences, we are all enduring the “human experience” together and in the end deserve love and grace.
If you could play any one of the 5 tracks in the play—James, Nick, Rebecca, Anita, or Phil—who would you choose and why?
I based the character of Anita on my mother and I love her so much. When I read the play out loud, I always imitate her sweet little voice. I think I would kill that role!
Interview with Deers Playwright: Marcus Gorman
This week we had a brew and a sit down with Marcus Gorman to find out about our Fall Off-night, “Deers.”
You’re the creator of the enDEERing nostalgic romp “Deers”. What is the play about?
MG: Deers is four episodes of a live sitcom about an animal bar in the Cascades, starting with the show’s “pilot episode” from 1982 and concluding in 1993 with a very special series finale. Over those 11 years/seasons, these animals trade barbs, fall in love, and do their damnedest to keep their favorite drinking hole from going under. It’s funny, it’s wild, it’s got a lot of heart, and it’s more than a little weird.
Who are you? Have you worked with Annex before?
MG: I’m a writer and performer originally from the Bay Area, and I currently work at the Seattle International Film Festival as a film programmer and publications associate editor. I’m a company member at Annex and this is my fifth show here; I wrote Natural (2015) and performed in Gone Wild! (2014), Mad Scientist Cabaret (2015), and ACME (2017). Next year I’m collaborating with Jake Farley and L. Nicol Cabe on my sixth show here, a science fiction adventure called Peggy: The Plumber Who Saved the Galaxy. Away from my Annex family, I was the head writer for The Fantastic Misadventures of Twisty Shakes (2016), done in collaboration with The Libertinis and the performing ensemble, and I have a couple of published novels under my belt.
Which artist(s)–theatrical/visual/a uditory & alive/dead–has/have been the biggest influence on your process?
MG: I owe a great deal to the sitcom greats, including Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, Norman Lear, and James L. Brooks. Brooks in particular is this play’s biggest influence; he co-created The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, and my favorite sitcom, Taxi. The team he helped put together for Taxi went on to create Cheers. And, of course, Brooks is responsible for The Simpsons and The Critic. These shows are not only lose-your-breath funny and scripted tighter than a drum; each of them has a big, beating heart at their center and a strong sense of humanity. I like my laughs to dig deeper than a punchline.
What is your biggest challenge as a playwright?
I have a tendency to overwrite, so balancing 12 very distinct characters while keeping myself to a 22-minutes-per-episode runtime was designed to break me out of my habits.
Also, that I had to limit myself to only four episodes. I would happily write a full 22-episode season about these characters.
What has been the most rewarding?
MG: The performing ensemble for Deers nailed it within the first few minutes of our first read-through. With this group and the steady, supportive directorial hands of Tootsie Spangles and Quiqui Dominguez, they’ve gone above and beyond anything on the page ten times over. I also love how they’ve really sunk into these characters who had no predetermined genders, which was very important to me.
Thanks Marcus for your insights to this wild show! To learn more about Marcus’ work, visit his website: marcusgorman.com. To learn more about Deers, click here.
DEERS
Written by Marcus Gorman
Directed by Tootsie Spangles and Quiqui Dominguez
Oct 24 – Nov 8, 2017
#AnnexDEERS #bearorbeer #livesitcom
Interview with Last Stop on Lilac Playwright: Kelleen Conway Blanchard
This week we had a tete-a-tete with the fabulous playwright Kelleen Conway Blanchard to find out about our Fall Mainstage, Last Stop on Lilac.
You’re the creator of the funny, bloody, fabulous “Last Stop on Lilac”. What is the play about?
KCB: Last Stop on Lilac is about greed and glamor and power and secrets. Set in splashy 1960s Hollywood it’s a noirey dime novel come to life with dance numbers and gore galore.
Who are you? Have you worked with Annex before?
KCB: I’ve been lucky to have worked with Annex on some of my very favorite projects including Kitten’s in a Cage and Blood Countess and The Underneath. I love the sense of absolute possibility and risk Annex embraces. It’s very pure.
Which artist(s)–theatrical/visual/a
KCB: My big influences tend to be artists that embrace the weirdos and celebrate what some folks call brow and low class. Those are my people. Also I enjoy art about how we all work- you know-trying to figure out murderers and despots and middle managers. Why? I want to know.
What is your biggest challenge as a playwright?
KCB: For a playwright and let’s be real- for anybody- I am pretty bad at grammar and formatting and proper parenthesis. I have a hard time with all of that. It’s like math. Like word math. No. Nope. So. That’s hard for me. Also, plot and stuff. Whatever
What has been the most rewarding?
KCB: The most rewarding thing about this process has been getting to collaborate with some incredibly talented hilarious people. People who are freakin’ committed and kind and really good at what they do. It’s a hopeful thing. Isn’t it? That a bunch of very different people can get together and make something. Just make a cool new thing together. A cool new thing with blood and dancing. That’s a light in the dark. Well. I think it is.
Thank you Kelleen for your beautiful words and glamorous black comedy. To find more out about Kelleen Conway Blanchard’s work visit her blog http://thisisprettycreepy.
