The Play's the Thing - Page 2
7. How
do you manage to balance your teaching and your own writing? What is
your writing routine?
There is no good way to balance teaching
and playwriting—they are forever out of balance. I am always thinking
about writing…or writing. I suspend that thinking often enough to be a
fairly effective teacher—but the issues that arise from teaching inform
my writing. Writing is sometimes a chore and occasionally a distinct
pleasure. As a theatre teacher and playwright I am always conscious of
audience—my students and the people who come to see my plays.
My routine is usually centered on summer vacation—and other vacations. But after I finish a first draft of a play I work on re-writing whether I actively teaching or not.
8. What does it feel like
when you saw your words performed on a stage with professional actors?
Professional
actors are special people. They have sacrificed much to try to make a
living in a field, which is madly competitive. Having professional
actors wrestle with one’s words and evoke their meaning on stage—that is
a thrilling process. Actors both begin and complete the work of a
playwright. Actors are as fundamental to the playwright as water is to
thirst. Does it ever get old? No. What gets very, very old is the
struggle to have the opportunity for actors to convey one’s words to an
audience. Theatre companies literally can choose from among many
thousands of plays—perhaps hundreds of thousands (established and not
established). I worked with a marvelous actor in his sixties from the
Royal Shakespeare Company (England) who played the role of a 12-year-old
boy in my play, “Beast on the Moon.” That actor gave me new insight
about that particular character—a character I had lived with for 15 plus
years. I thought I knew everything about that character. This wise
older actor knew things I did not (know).
9. What was
your inspiration for your latest play, "My Soldiers"?
The story of writing
“My Soldiers” is a long and fairly tedious one. After several more or
less false starts I found a woman, a vet and a medic, who had served in
Iraq. I interviewed this woman several times—her story was
compelling…but not precisely dramatic. I made up the character of Angi
Busko based on this particular medic. Angi’s story in the play is a
fiction…and most of it takes place away from Iraq, in Minnesota.
“My Soldiers” took almost four years from initial idea to first draft. My old friend and director, Mark Hallen, became interested in “My Soldiers” and agreed to direct it. Mr. Hallen has very high standards and he insisted that I re-imagine the play before it could be mounted at Eastern University near Philadelphia. We argued for weeks about the ending. I wrote 6 different and complete endings and then I cut them all and ended up ending the play at the end of the scene, which had preceded the ending, I kept re-working.
The new ending proved itself in performance at Eastern University.
10.
What's on the horizon for Richard Kalinoski?
I am always
trying to get substantial productions of my new plays at professional
theatres. If I never wrote another play I could spend the rest of my
life trying to get my many plays excellent productions. Mostly I write
plays because I like working with people in the theatre. I like the
language of the theatre—the family of it. I will write for the theatre
as long as I can—as long as I have memory and intelligence and
sensitivity. My agent told me many years ago (when I first signed with
her) that the theatre is not kind to playwrights. She was right. I think
the truth is that the theatre is not kind to its artists in
general….it’s a very hard way to make a living. A few people get very
rich by working in the theatre---the vast majority of us are just lucky
to work professionally. My friend Mark Hallen always talks about being
“in the room” (meaning with the actors, working). I want to be “in the
room.”
11. While retirement is a long ways off, can you
ever imagine when you are no longer writing or directing or teaching?
I
love writing, I like directing and I like teaching. I hope to do all
three for many years to come. Horton Foote (playwright and screenwriter)
wrote into his nineties. Why not?
For more information about Richard Kalinoski and his works, please visit his website.