Do you garden?
 
I don't garden at all. I have a horrible green thumb actually.
 
What would you do if you found out your neighbor had been using two feet of your property?
 
Ha ha. I probably wouldn't do anything. But then again I've never been a homeowner so I don't know what that means. 

What do you like most about acting in comedies?

The stakes are incredibly high in comedies. And I especially love working on farcical or physical comedies. It's what i think is most funny. 
 
Are there specific challenges to acting in a comedy versus a drama?

I think comedy is harder than drama actually. You have to be very specific and technical with comedy sometimes and like I said the stakes are really really high. 

What do you like most about this play? Why should the audience come see it?

I like that the play doesn't take it self too seriously. There are a lot of important and very relevant issues discussed in the play but the playwright just presents them to  you and doesn't sit in them too long. The play moves right along and we can all laugh about it at the end. Audiences should come see it because it deals with a lot of issues our country is facing right now. I think this is a play that everyone can relate to on some level. 

What would you do if you found out your neighbor had been using two feet of your property?

First I would ask myself if I wanted the land. When I was a child, the house I grew up in had a wonderful back yard. There was an alley way about 5-6 feet wide that separated the adjoining property. The city offered it to both property owners, asking for a bid. My father said they can have it. He didn’t want to pay more property tax. I would probably do the same now. BTW, the other property owner didn’t want it either so there is, to this day, a small square piece of land in between the two fences.

So do you garden?
No, I unfortunately don’t have a green thumb. My mother says I kill plants and I agree with her. My grandfather had an incredible garden though. It was huge! It resembled the garden in The Godfather movie when Marlon Brando’s character is chasing/teasing his grandson and has a heart attack. I, unfortunately never acquired that skill of gardening.

What do you like most about acting in comedies?

The immediacy of it. The audience tells you immediately if it’s funny or not. There is no guessing. They either laugh or they don’t. In a drama, or serious play, one can come away wondering if it landed on the audience or not. Also, sometimes you don’t always know what the audience will laugh at. You think, “Oh, this will get a laugh, for sure” and then…crickets. Then, some mundane moment passes by, nothing really happening, and then the audience roars with laughter! Nightly! And I’m never quite sure what it is they are laughing at, but I sure take it.

Are there specific challenges to acting in a comedy versus a drama?

Yes, to make them laugh! In a drama, I can lie to myself and say,” Well, the audience got it, it was just very intense and so they were quiet”. I basically, bs myself. With comedy, if there were no laughs, then that means I was HORRIBLE! And I thank god no one had any rotten fruit to throw at me.

What do you like most about this play?

Well, what I like most about this play right now, because it changes at times, is that all four characters have a strong point of view, have an intense passion for something, and are at complete odds with each other. They are, essentially, RIGHT, in their argument, yet completely in the wrong in reference to the others. But, I feel maybe why an audience should come see the play is because it touches on so many HOT TOPICS that are in the news today. And most definitely with the political climate as well. Also, there is no figurative hammer smashing down on some opinion for or against which, to me, seems like such a breath of fresh air. It’s a comedy! Whew!

Do you garden?

I aspire to gardening, but never seem to follow through. It really is a wonderful thing to do. As Frank says in the play, “it grounds me.” But you really need to be committed to it. The last two years we put in a vegetable garden. I even built a raised bed. We ended up with some decent tomatoes, a few cucumbers and maybe 2 yellow squash. Not a bumper crop, by any means. The mint thrived, however. Literally took over the whole garden. I think it’s still out there, growing, pushing up through the frost and the snow. The mint shall inherit the earth.

What would you do if you found out your neighbor had been using two feet of your property?

I would certainly take the land back. In the house we are in now the yard is the best part. And land is valuable. If I were in Tania and Pablo’s position, I would certainly try to take it back. I would try to be assertive, but do it in the right way so that animosity isn’t created. No one likes to be “at war” with their neighbors. Most of us have stories about interaction with our neighbors.It’s such a strange, forced relationship.

However, in our play, conflict is created due to the element of time. Tania and Pablo need the fence to go in right away, and want it to be in the proper place. Frank and Virginia want the new fence to stay in its original place, so that Frank can be judged in the garden competition. Everyone in the play mishandles things, tempers flare and chaos ensues.The thing is, everyone is right about what they want. So the playwright creates an unwinnable situation, forcing the characters to expose their flaws. This is her recipe for comedy.

What do you like most about directing comedies?

I love directing comedies because laughter is maybe the greatest thing a human can do. Being able to create theatre that makes a collective group laugh is a powerful feeling. I love being in the rehearsal room, trying things, failing. Then trying again and having the whole room laugh. It’s like a playground for adults.

But it is also extremely challenging. As a wise one once said, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” As a director of comedies you have to have instinct, inspiration, constant trial and error, but in the end live theatre is an unpredictable thing. What might get uproarious laughter one night might fall flat on another night. The idea is to try to make sure each comedic moment will work every time. Comedy is such a subjective thing. The hope is you are making it funny for everyone.

Are there specific challenges to directing a comedy versus a drama?

You need to prepare actors when you are directing comedies the same way you direct a drama. We need to have complete characters, strong intentions and actions. The story needs to be fully communicated and the play needs to be staged in an interesting way. But comedy is so much about pace. We are constantly working on the timing of things. This may be in a specific comedic bit, or it may be in the way a scene moves along to a comedic payoff. For instance, you could be setting up something for a laugh later in the scene or even the show. I suppose the biggest challenge is that in dramas you work on truth, but it can be meaningful to the audience in different ways. In comedies, it’s either funny or it’s not.

What do you like most about this play?

This play constantly surprises me with the issues it brings up.Racism, ageism, classism, ethnic identity, what it means to be an American.Weighty subjects for a comedy. But the playwright, Karen Zacarias, doesn’t really offend anyone, or bang us over the head with opinions. She lightly touches on the issues, surrounds them with laughter, and hopefully leaves the audience asking questions about themselves when they leave.

But ultimately I love this play because it is hysterical.There are so many drop dead funny lines.And there is such a farcical element to this show.I have pushed the actors to be as big and bold as they can in these moments. But also truthful.The only way farce works is through deep truth.It’s a fine line, and we are tiptoeing right along it.

Do you garden?
 
Once I had a garden.  It was back in 1970. I had just moved to Vermont and thought I wanted a close relationship with the soil.  My pride and joy were the tomato plants I started from seed indoors in late March.  I nursed them tenderly.  They went into the ground in late May and I was dreaming of pasta sauce like my grandmother made by August sometime. 

Things went well until the 14th of June.  My wife and I were coming home from a party that night.  On the car radio, we heard of the possibility of a frost.  We got home; we were tired; we went straight to bed.  Then my wife remembered about the frost.  She said, “You’d better go out and cover the tomato plants”.  I said, “I think you should do it.”  She demurred.  I then said, “Aw, it’s June 14th; we’re not going to get a killer frost now.”  We went to sleep.

In the morning, the tomato plants were all quite dead.  I was heartbroken.  I resolved to never plant another thing in the earth.  It’s one of the few resolutions I’ve kept.
 
What would you do if you found out your neighbor had been using two feet of your property?
 
I once discovered that a neighbor had built a tractor shed on, perhaps, 200 square feet of my property off the back corner of his field.  He’d built it before I’d purchased the property - probably, from the look of it, many years before.   I’m not sure if he realized it was on my property.  But, hey! He was a nice guy;  I had twenty-five acres of land;  I couldn’t see the shed from my house.  I said nothing.  Besides, he probably could have invoked “squatter’s rights”.
 
What do you like most about acting in comedies?
 
Well, basically, they’re fun.  It’s great to hear people laugh. Of course, if they don’t laugh, the fun diminishes significantly.
 
Are there specific challenges to acting in a comedy versus a drama?
 
One difference is that, in comedy, timing can be of the essence.  For instance, the difference between “Take my wife, please!” and “Take my wife, (beat) please!” is huge.  

Another challenge is to avoid anticipating laughs. When they don’t come, you’ve got to move right on.  Experienced actors have learned to deal with this, but it is tough not to wonder what went wrong when a line that’s had them rolling in the aisles every night since opening goes totally flat on the fifth night.  I find it helps to blame the other actors. (KIDDING!)
 
What do you like most about this play? Why should the audience come see it?
 
I think Zacarias has given us the chance to see ourselves behaving badly in spite of our best intentions and then allowed us to forgive ourselves and – maybe more importantly – forgive others as well.  Furthermore, she has showed us that a little adjustment of attitude can make things right again.

Today, in this country, we don’t seem to be doing a good job of seeing the humanity in those who disagree with us (At least, I’m not doing a good job of it). Reading – and performing – this play has helped take the edge off my anger.  I don’t know that we can achieve the happy ending the playwright envisions, but  - as the character Frank says at one point - “a man can dream, can’t he?”

Karen Zacarías’ award-winning plays include Destiny of Desire, The Book Club Play, Legacy of Light, Mariela in the Desert, The Sins of Sor Juana, the adaptations of Just Like Us and How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accent plus many more. She collaborated on the libretto for Sleepy Hollow and Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises for the Washington Ballet. She is one of the inaugural resident playwrights at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., and is a core founder of the Latino Theatre Commons. Learn more at www.karenzacarias.com.

Why are you a playwright?

A play is live literature; a written medium that depends on people being alive and together in a room.  And since I am a writer and an extrovert…playwriting affords me the opportunity to begin a world with words, and then actively build that world with artists and an audience.

What type of theatre most excites you?

I really am open to lots of types of theater: Very theatrical, abstract, kitchen sink, dramas, comedies, musicals…as long as there is something truthful and moving and surprising in the storytelling.  I always appreciate a well-constructed play; I also love messy inspired, hard to define plays even more.

What starts a play moving in your imagination?

Sometimes it’s an image from a scene that I see in my mind.  Sometimes it’s the feeling I want to create in the audience.  I am always aware of the audience when I write; the point of all my stories is to create a response from the people that see it.

Do you have a favorite writing place?

I write a lot at my kitchen table, my computer surrounded by breakfast bowls and coffee mugs.  I also write a lot a Tryst Coffee Shop…also with my computer surrounded by coffee mugs and plates.

What female playwrights have influenced your writing and how?

Locally, I am inspired by the works of Jennifer Nelson, Caleen Sinette Jennings, Ally Currin, Audrey Cefaly, Heather McDonald, D.Wiskeyman, Renee Calarco, Laura Zam and many others.   Other powerful influences have been Maria Ines Fornes, Caryl Churchill, Sarah Ruhl, Lisa Loomer, Lisa Kron, Julia Cho,and others.

What’s missing from theatre today?

More faith in our audiences.  And a real active diverse season that will attract diverse audiences.

Answer this: “If I weren’t a playwright, I would be … “

a diplomat, or salsa dancer or a beach bum.