Meet the 2018-2019 BT Playwrights
Nilo Cruz
Alfred Uhry
Theresa Rebeck
Laura Eason
The 2018-2019 Blackfriars Season presents the Rochester community with the work of four contemporary American playwrights.
Nilo Cruz
Anna In The Tropics is written by Cuban-American playwright Nilo Cruz. Cruz won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for his work on this beautiful show.
From his interview with BOMB...
EM You’ve been going nonstop, dealing with the fruits of your writing labors. But on top of that, what did the Pulitzer do that changed your life? Did all the interviews, all the people wanting to know about you, eat up your time?
NC People want to put a face with the name; there’s a lot of interest from theater journals, but also within the Hispanic community, the Latino community, or whatever you want to call it—
EM I was going to ask you, what should we call it?
NC Let’s call it Latino. That’s the way to do it. They’re so proud that someone from the community has won the Pulitzer. I’m the first one to win it in drama. So again, I think they want to know, Who is this person behind the plays? Who is this writer? I’ve been responding to that and doing a lot of interviews.
Full interview: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/nilo-cruz/
https://www.arts.gov/art-works/2016/art-talk-playwright-nilo-cruz
Alfred Uhry
Alfred Uhry is the Academy Award-winning and two time Tony-winning playwright of this season's The Last Night of Ballyhoo. Other work includes Driving Miss Daisy and Parade.
Paul Rudd interviews Alfred Uhry in this piece for BOMB...
PR In a lot of your scenes, what’s actually being said is completely different from what’s being felt.
AU I like actors, I like to see acting. In life you feel things that you either don’t know how to say or you’d be too embarrassed to say. You play a lot of love scenes in this play where you clearly are thinking, “God I really like this girl. This girl is really the one.” You never say it. But that makes it interesting to me, to feel something and to be talking about all the other things but the way you feel.
Full interview: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/alfred-uhry/
More...
https://www.backstage.com/news/face-to-face-alfred-uhry-after-the-ballyhoocomes-the-parade/
https://www.thejc.com/culture/theatre/interview-alfred-uhry-1.28716
Theresa Rebeck
In television, Rebeck has written for Dream On, Brooklyn Bridge, L.A. Law, American Dreamer, Maximum Bob, First Wave, and Third Watch. She has been a writer/producer for Canterbury’s Law, Smith, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and NYPD Blue. Her production of Mauritius landed on Broadway in 2007, and will be presented on the BT stage this year.
More...
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/theresa-rebeck/
Laura Eason
Laura Eason is a well-produced writer of stage and screen. Her play The Undeniable Sound of Right Now makes its way to the Blackfriars stage in May of 2019. She has written for the popular Netflix original House of Cards, also penned Sex with Strangers, and a frequent adapter of work.
Was there a real life Frank's Bar?
No. But I was in a rock band [Tart] in Chicago in the '90s, and we played a bunch of different venues. There were guys who were sort of notorious and had a particular following. [As a musician] you get to know them and they help book your band. There are guys like Joe Shanahan who’s been at the Metro for a really long time, so there were some people who served as loose inspiration. It’s more about the idea of the place than absolutely modeled on one particular venue.
There’s a venue I played a lot called the Lounge Ax [an important ground for live rock music, especially indie rock], but it was actually run by two women [Julia Adams and Sue Miller]. The neighborhood got gentrified in Lincoln Park, where the Lounge Ax was located, and they were forced out. The new neighbors thought the bar was too loud, too noisy. The inspiration [for Frank’s Bar] is somewhat personal but also a universal idea. I think most big, or mid-size cities have these places that have their moment and then time moves on. It’s more of an amalgamation of people and places, not just in Chicago, but in other places as well.
Full interview: https://stagebuddy.com/theater/theater-feature/interview-laura-eason-the-undeniable-sound-of-right-now
More...
http://www.theintervalny.com/interviews/2014/12/an-interview-with-laura-eason/
Single tickets for these productions go on sale August 1st.