Playwright Wendy MacLeod
Photo: Read Baldwin
Every now and then, people are lucky enough to come across a poet or a painter or a novelist or an actor - someone whose work hits them on a different level. Developing a firm understanding of that artist’s work can help in developing one’s own artistic expression. One playwright to really be on the lookout for is Wendy MacLeod. She’s probably best known for her dark comedy, The House of Yes (more info on that later) which was made into an award winning 1997 film starring Parker Posey. However she has had several very successful plays, including The Water Children, which L.A.Weekly called "the most challenging political play of 1998," and it even was nominated for six awards from the L.A. Drama Critics Circle. MacLeod’s play Schoolgirl Figure, a dark comedy about anorexia, has been optioned for film as well. MacLeod is known for her dark and biting sense of humor. She takes subjects that many people are scared to tackle and is able to turn uncomfortable subject matter into something that we are able to laugh at – or with. Her writing is keen and specific, with a rhythmic style that is uniquely MacLeod’s . Today, please enjoy Acts and Answers with Wendy MacLeod.
Q: Tell me about your writing process. Do you start with an idea, then outline then into dialogue, etc.? Or do you just jump right in and let the story develop itself?
A: The writing process is different for every play. Sometimes I begin with a one-sentence concept like "a high-school where the girls are competing to disappear" (which was the start of my "anorexic comedy" Schoolgirl Figure). Sometimes I begin with a title, sometimes with a certain place, and sometimes I just sit down to write and the voices start talking...
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| Josh Hamilton and Parker Posey in Wendy MacLeod's The House of Yes |
Q: How much involvement did you have in the movie for House of Yes? What was that experience like?
A: I had limited involvement with an unexpectedly happy ending. Mark Waters invited me to write the screenplay, but being pregnant with my second child, I declined, and he basically moved the play to the screen. He included me in the casting process but I didn't go out for the filming--I worried that my notes would hinder rather than help the play's transfer to the screen. And when he sent me the rough cut that he submitted to Sundance, I was completely delighted. He had found the tone, and the perfect Jackie O. in Parker Posey.
Q: Who are some up and coming playwrights you've got your eye on?
A: I have two former students in 13P (13 Playwrights), Ann-Marie Healy and Kate Ryan, who I think are very talented. I recently read Anne Washburn's play The Internationalist and enjoyed it. But living outside of New York, it's harder to track the up-and-comers.
Q: What's the biggest obstacle you find yourself facing as a writer(block, motivation, etc)? How do you deal with it?
A: With two children, and a full-time teaching job, not to mention a seemingly endless flu season, the biggest challenge is finding the time and energy to write.
Q: In reading your author's notes in several of your plays, you seem to get your inspiration from many different areas. What would you say is your prime source of inspiration? Where do you get your favorite ideas?
A: My favorite ideas comes from the stories that people tell at dinner parties. I also read voraciously.
Q: What originally drew you to theatre?
A: I began by doing adaptations of fairy tales in the basement (I remember playing an inspired Beast from a pre-Disney Beauty and the Beast. The illusion was created by affixing the leavings from my last hair-cut to my face, using double-sided Scotch tape.) I also remember purchasing the role of Wendy in Peter Pan, using a silver ring as barter. My mother was wise enough to subscribe to the Arena Stage in Washington where I saw a production of Death of a Salesman, starring Robert Prosky, that was seared into my brain.
Q: One thing that really stands out in your work is the dialogue, in that there seems to be a specific rhythm. Is this intentional? What is the purpose behind the rhythm that you use?
A: I can't listen to music when I write because I feel I'm creating my own music. My lines have to scan in a certain way for the humor to land. Any actor who paraphrases my lines pays the price by sacrificing a laugh. British actors are particularly good at finding the rhythm in my plays, perhaps because they've had a lot of practice scanning iambic pentameter.
Q: What advice would you give to a playwright looking to start out?
A: The 13P playwrights were very savvy to form themselves into a collective and produce their own work. I would encourage young playwrights to be pro-active and work with their own actor and director friends. Don't wait for a benediction from NY or a major regional theater. Paradoxically, I would caution them not to be in a hurry to throw up a given script. Fully realizing a play often takes a LONG time and a lot of rewriting.
Q: Who inspires you the most?
A: I think many playwrights have the same idols: Pinter, Chekhov, Caryl Churchill. I also admire the kindness that Conor Mcpherson shows his characters. But I'm also greatly fed by contemporary fiction. I think the Canadian short story writer Alice Munro uniquely captures the emotional complexity of being a woman, of being alive.
Q: If you weren't writing, what would you do for a living?
A: Mary Portes, of the BBC show MARY, QUEEN OF SHOPS, is my hero. She sweeps into clothing boutiques and criticizes everybody's fashion and teaches them interior design and marketing. I would LOVE to do that. I could also imagine being an agent or a casting agent, because finding and abetting talent is so gratifying. I can't imagine having much patience with contracts though.
Q: What is your favorite breakfast cereal?
A: My husband's homemade granola. It's a giant crumbled-up cookie disguised as health food.
Looking for more on Wendy MacLeod?
Equinox Theatre Company will be presenting The House of Yes at the Bug Theatre in March, 2010. Check out: www.equinoxtheatredenver.com for details. (Full disclosure, I'm co-directing this one)
Read more! See Wendy's full list of plays, one acts, and prose here.
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