Jen Silverman is an MFA candidate at the University of Iowa Playwrights Workshop, scheduled to graduate in 2011. She received her BA from Brown University in 2006. Her plays include: Lizardskin, developed with New Georges in NYC, New York Stage & Film/ Powerhouse Theatre Company at Vassar College, and produced in the NYC International Fringe Festival in 2006; The Education of Macoloco, produced by FUSION Theatre Company in New Mexico, LiveGirls! in Seattle, Circus Theatri-cals in LA, and a 2009 winner of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Play Festival; Crane Story, developed with New Georges, the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in San Francisco, 2009 HotINK International Festival in NYC, and The Playwrights Realm in NYC; and Nila, which received its first workshop at The Lark’s Playwrights Week 2009. Her plays Akarui and Yellow City have received workshop productions at the University of Iowa. Jen was a 2009 playwright in residence at the Hedgebrook International Women’s Writers Residency.

The FUSION Theatre's Original Poster for "The Seven", a festival which premiered THE EDUCATION OF MACOLOCO

The OOB Festival (OOB): Jen, what have you been up to since winning last year’s OOB Festival?  Any new productions/plays we should know about?

Jen Silverman (JS): Since the OOB I was part of The Lark’s 2009 Playwrights Week with a play called Nila, and have been developing a new play called Gilgamesh’s Game with a mini-workshop at New Georges and an upcoming workshop production in the 2010 Iowa New Play Festival. I’ve just returned from New Mexico, where I’ve been continuing to develop a trilogy of plays with Fusion Theatre Company, who performed The Education of Macoloco for the OOB last summer. The trilogy of plays takes place in Albuquerque over a period of 15 years, and I’ve been collaborating with Fusion to workshop different pieces of the trilogy.

I’ve Also gotten involved in short film over the past year, and I’m currently working with two independent filmmakers here in Iowa City, filming two different screenplays I’ve written. We’re hoping to shop those around to film festivals when we’re done, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

OOB: You are currently enrolled in the University of Iowa MFA Playwriting program.  Can you talk a little about your decision to apply to grad school?  How has the MFA experience informed your writing, if at all? 

JS: My decision to come to the Iowa Playwrights Workshop was probably one of the best I’ve made. I’ve really grown as a playwright in the time that I’ve been here, because I’ve had so many opportunities to present work and collaborate with actors and directors. The Playwrights Workshop is a little different from other MFA programs in that there’s an emphasis on production, the philosophy being that you can’t really understand what you’re doing unless you see it in action. That’s what I’ve always believed, and I’ve learned so much from the rigorous process of five-week rehearsals, as well as the productions themselves. In addition, I’ve been developing work in New York and New Mexico over the past two years I’ve been in grad school, and the faculty has been really flexible and understanding about letting me miss classes and giving me funding to help with travel expenses.

 And, lastly, Iowa City is probably the sanest and safest place I’ve ever lived. It’s kind of spoiled me, actually. I hope I can still summon up my East Coast mean when I move back.

JS: I think being raised multi-nationally had a huge influence on my interest in language—I grew up hearing so many languages that were so different from each other. I’m fascinated by the rhythms of words, the places where you stress them, the musical structure of a conversation. Over the years I’ve realized that I feel much calmer and more balanced when I’m learning a new language or getting a chance to use old ones. Most of my friends have turned to yoga as their alternative to the stresses of rehearsal—these days, I’ve turned to Chinese.

I find myself returning to themes of identity, culture, nationality, and the fluidity of all these things in my work. I’ve always been fascinated by fluid and shifting identities—it isn’t hard for me to cross a border, switch into another language, and pick up the threads of a different life. What can be hard are the moments of transition in which I’m juggling a few different languages or identities, and I have to remember which one goes where. I’m fascinated by stories in which characters have to adapt or transform or negotiate with the different sides of themselves. Recently though, I’ve been captivated by characters who are deeply grounded in a particular place. So many of my friends here in Iowa have a relationship with the land that I don’t think I’ve ever had, and my conversations with them are making me re-think my relationship with New England, where I spent large parts of my own childhood.

OOB: Also in last year’s interview, you talked about coming to playwriting from other forms of writing, specifically fiction and poetry. How has experience in these two other forms made you the playwright you are?  Do you still write fiction and poetry? 

JS:. When I was a child my parents read to me all the time—Greek and Roman myths, Norwegian sagas, or the Finnish national epic, called the Kalevala. Even as a kid, I was completely seduced by the epic narrative quality, the larger-than-life characters and events, the unapologetic grandeur of it. That’s definitely molded my view of theatre and what I want from it. I want to be swept off my feet by bold, visceral, fearless stories. Fantastic spectacle, yes, but also stories that support the weight of that spectacle.

Ultimately, for me, the language of the theatre is poetry rooted in direct action, in the hunger and desire of specific characters. That’s why I love poets like Charles Simic, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Richard Siken. There is such a clear, hungry narrative voice that emerges from their poetry. I do still write fiction and poetry. I’m currently working on a novel that is a compilation of interwoven stories. I love how fiction lets me do all the things I can’t do in theatre—and vice versa. 

OOB: Any plugs or new projects we should be aware of?  What’s up ahead for you?

JS: Over the past year I’ve been continuing to develop Crane Story with The Playwrights Realm in New York. Crane Story is currently under option with Playwrights Realm, and if all goes well, we’re hoping for a fall 2011 New York production.

This summer I’ll have a new short play called Seven Seconds Before the Conflagration at the Source Festival in DC, and another short play, Notes on Drowning, is currently being produced at LiveGirls! Theatre in Seattle, so if you’re in DC or Seattle, check those out. 

I was a 2010 recipient of The Stanley International Travel grant through the University of Iowa, so I’m headed back to Japan this summer to start work on a new play that deals with the South African expat community there. I’ll come back to the US at the end of August for my last year of grad school. Not sure what’s ahead after that, but I’m excited for whatever happens next.

Click Here to hear an  interview with Jen Silverman with KSJE-FM’s Connie Gotsch