About the Play:
When a strange man interrupts Jim’s meditative morning ritual, what begins with small talk about the weather, soon devolves into a bizarre interrogation.
Produced By:
About the Author:
Eric Fallen’s plays have been produced in New York, Baltimore and Toronto. He holds an MFA in playwriting from Brooklyn College and currently teaches in the Humanities Department at SUNY Maritime College. Eric is a member of Julie McKee’s playwriting workshop at HB Studio and a contributing playwright at the Naked Angels reading series: Tuesdays @ 9. His play, The Monster, was in the final forty at last summer‘s Samuel French OOB Short Play Festival.
Eric’s Forty Days to Forty Plays Interview:
OOB Festival (OOB): Tell us a little about your playwriting career. When did you start writing plays? What are some of your proudest accomplishments as a playwright?
Eric Fallen (EF): I was interested in acting when I was a kid, but I didn’t write my first play until I was in my mid-twenties. After taking a Modern Drama course at the University of Toronto, I entered a playwriting workshop and wrote my first play: The Chieftain. This first play was kind of a springboard for me. It was produced at the Toronto International Fringe Theater Festival in the summer of 1998 and it helped me get into the MFA program at Brooklyn College the following year.
My play, The Monster, was a finalist in last year’s OOB festival, and that is easily my proudest accomplishment to date. In addition to the production itself, one of the great things to come out of my participation in last year’s festival was discovering Naked Angels’ weekly reading series: Tuesday@9. The creative director for the series, Joe Danisi, was directing Andy Podell’s Mom Was a Carny, and during a conversation with Joe at the meet and greet, he encouraged me to submit work to Tuesdays. Considered the cornerstone of their 3-step writer’s program, Tuesdays@9 brings together a wonderfully talented and committed group of writers and actors every week to listen and participate in readings of new work. Evidence of their success as a program can be seen in Next Fall, the brilliant, Tony nominated play by Geoffrey Nauffts that began at Tuesdays@9. Led by creative directors Joe Danisi and Stephanie Cannon, this weekly reading series has introduced me to an inspiring community of artists.
OOB: What great news to hear about the connection you made with Naked Angels! What kinds of other project/plays have you been developing in the past year? Are there any new works in progress we should know about?
EF: Getting involved with Naked Angels has been great, but I should clarify that I’m still a newbie at Tuesdays@9. They will read my work, but I am relentlessly mocked and picked on by the older kids. As for new things, my big project right now is completing a full length play that I’ve been slowly developing. For the past few years, I have been focused on writing very short one acts, and while I really enjoy the kind of energy that can be generated in these condensed pieces, I feel like it’s time to move beyond the miniature.
OOB: Talk about your entry to this year’s festival. How did you come to write this play? Was there a particular inspiration behind its creation?
EF: Perfect Weather is a play that I wrote while attending Julie McKee’s playwriting workshop at HB Studio. Her workshop is designed to challenge writers by putting them through a kind of dramaturgical boot camp. Each writer must complete a series of short plays – each with its own unique demands – before moving on to a full length piece. Perfect Weather was my response to the BEATS exercise, requiring a short play with several specific and distinct shifts in the dialogue. As for the actual characters and situation, I don’t think I can pinpoint a particular inspiration behind its creation. For the past few years, I have been teaching English courses to a group of very bright and charming Turkish students at SUNY Maritime College. My experience with them has ignited an interest in Turkish culture and history. In addition to this, I think most writers and artists have been affected by the new era of security that has evolved in this country over the last decade. Perfect Weather tries to address some of the absurdities that emerge from this climate of fear and suspicion.
OOB: Do you plan to hone and further develop the play in upcoming rehearsals? Has it already been produced?
EF: Nothing has been finalized, but I am hoping to work with the same director and cast who recently did a great job with a staged reading of the piece. There are definitely elements of Perfect Weather that could be worked on in the upcoming rehearsals.
OOB: Like your play in last year’s festival, The Monster, the ending in this year’s piece, Perfect Weather, takes a surprising twist. Is there a particular message or emotion you’d like Festival audiences to experience coming out of the play? Without giving us any spoilers, what do you hope audiences take away from your show?
EF: Both of these plays get their energy from a kind of slow build. Two characters start out making small talk, but something happens to turn the light banter into something more menacing. Then the lights go out. Even though there are obvious ‘issues’ at work in both plays, I’m rarely thinking about messages or emotions. I just think a good short play needs to entrance the audience with a good balance of ambiguity and playfulness. This is what I hope audiences experience when they see my show.
OOB: Tell us a little about your producer. How did you come to form your relationship together?
EF: Perfect Weather will be produced and directed by Eric Michael Gillett. Eric Michael and I first met a couple of years ago at the Herbert Berghof Studio, where he was teaching and I was participating in a playwriting workshop. In an effort to collaborate with the faculty, writers from the workshop put together a collection of short pieces, and asked directing faculty to review the work and pick one to direct for a staged reading. Eric Michael picked my play and did a wonderful job bringing it to life. Since that time, we have collaborated on several projects.
OOB: Looking back over your personal history in the theatre, what emerges as your favorite memory? Is there a particular story you’d like to share?
EF: I saw one of Harold Pinter’s later and lesser-known plays – Ashes to Ashes – when it came to New York in 1999, and I was truly bowled over by it. I just thought it was brilliant. A short while later, I decided that I wanted to direct it myself, so I submitted an application to the Toronto Fringe Festival. When I received my acceptance to the festival, I realized I had skipped over one important step: getting permission. I had limited experience directing and no experience directing work that required permission, so I was kind of worried that my plan would unravel. I finally decided to do a Google search, find some other amateur production of the play, and ask the director for advice. My search struck gold. Not only did I find what appeared to be a small production of Ashes to Ashes, but I found one that had been done in Saskatoon. It was too perfect. If some dude…some hick…some fool from the middle of Saskatchewan could get the rights to Ashes to Ashes, so could I. I got the name of the dude – the director – and quickly found his home phone number online. I dialed the number, put my feet up on the desk and listened to the rings. I envisioned this bearded guy in overalls with a passion for tractors and modern drama. A woman picked up the phone. She had a British accent. The conversation went something like this:
A: Hello?
B: Yes, hello. Is Henry Woolf in?
A: Uhm. No. He isn’t. May I ask who is calling?
B: My name is Eric Fallen. I’m calling to ask him about his production of Ashes to Ashes.
A: Yes?
B: He did direct Ashes to Ashes at Shakespeare on the Saskatchewan, did he not?
A: Yes. Yes he did.
B: Well, I am hoping to bring the play to the Toronto Fringe, and I wanted to talk to him about the rights for the piece.
A: The rights?
B: Yes. You see, I was hoping he could help steer me in the right direction.
A: Ok. Well Henry’s not in right now. He’s with Harold.
B: He’s with who?
A: He’s in London…with Harold.
B: He’s with Harold?
A: Yes. In London. You know they are good friends.
B: Harold Pinter?
A: Yes. They are old friends.
B: I didn’t know that.
A: Oh yes. He directed Harold’s first play, The Room, in 1957. He helped launch Harold’s career.
B: I did not know that.
