Q & A: An Interview with Melanie Marnich

How long have you been writing the play, and what has changed over time?

I started this play in the fall of 2006. I wrote the first draft quickly. It was funny, but that was about it. It didn’t break through to something new, it didn’t expand itself narratively or theatrically. And it didn’t say anything about our world or our collective state of mind. It played one note. A funny note, but just one note. So I switched a bunch of things around, threw out a few characters, gained a few new ones and made it much more personal. Once I made it personal, I was able to find a story that had resonance, complexity and truth. At that point, I shifted it again and made it much less personal. It was a lot of back and forth. Ultimately, I hope I landed on a story that people can relate to and enjoy.

There is obviously a lot of humor in the play, but there are equally as many tender and moving moments. How do you achieve a balance within that?

I always place myself in the audience when I write. I write for an audience, to give them a good time, to let them enter a magical world during their time at the theatre. That doesn’t necessarily mean I want to keep them laughing constantly. It does mean that I want them to get on board and want to stay on board. I want them to be continually surprised by what is taking place on stage.

So when I get down to the nuts and bolts of a play and really look at the structure, I try to make sure that there’s nothing repetitive, nothing that seems predictable. I love the surprising moments in dialogue, when something zigs when the audience expects it to zag. I try to listen to it like a piece of music and balance it all out as a verbal, structural and emotional composition.

What are you hoping the production team and the cast will bring to your script?

 I have to say that the team that the Playhouse has assembled for this production is absolutely exceptional. The director, Mark Rucker, is one of my all-time favorites. He’s got a great intellect, a terrific eye, a wonderful ear … all the keen senses a director needs along with the rigor and generosity to get the job done well.

The artists he’s assembled, with the help and support of Ed Stern, are top-notch. I’ll learn from just having them all in the room. They have the skills to really elevate a production.

My job is to listen to them, to their questions and insights, and to make sure that the script reaches its potential on stage. The actors are a wonderful fit with the particularly off-kilter world of this play. I think they each naturally convey the complexity, humor and openness of their characters — and they can do it with a light touch because they’re so darn talented. I can’t wait to see this play in their hands. I feel very lucky to be working with all of these people.

Who has had the biggest influence on you as a writer, and how does that show itself in this piece?

It’s not a “who” but a “what” and a “where.” When I went to graduate school for playwriting at University of California, San Diego, I really felt that I landed on the moon. A great moon. It was the best thing I could have done for my creativity and therefore my career.

Prior to grad school, I was stuck in realism. That’s all I knew about; it was all I had read or seen. It really didn’t connect with who I was as a writer, but I didn’t have a sense of my own voice. At UCSD, I was shown work and writing I would never have experienced on my own. Stuff that cracked open time, space, story and character in ways that immediately shifted the way I wrote.

I worked with instructors and fellow students who remain my friends, collaborators and inspirations to this day. Some of them gave me early and invaluable feedback on this play that changed it profoundly.

What do you hope audiences will take away from this production?

Honestly, if people come into the theatre tired from their day and work and leave the theatre energized and talking about what they’ve just seen and felt … well, then, I’ll be thrilled.

I really try to create work that gives people a way to step out of their reality and into another place that lets them open themselves up emotionally and intellectually.

I hope that this play conveys a sense of wonder and that the audience leaves the theatre having experienced that. To me, that’s an ideal exchange between the theatre and its audience.