Jason Grote

JASON GROTE's plays include 1001 (Denver Center Theater world premiere, O'Neill Playwrights' Conference, Soho Rep Lab, Page 73/On DEC, Theater @ Boston Court, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Mixed Blood), This Storm is What We Call Progress (Rorschach Theater world premiere, Soho Rep Lab), Hamilton Township (Salvage Vanguard world premiere, Soho Rep Mainstage), Maria/Stuart (Woolly Mammoth world premiere, Soho Rep Lab), Box Americana (O'Neill Playwrights' Conference), and Darwin's Challenge.  He has received commissions from Denver Center Theater, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theater's Sloan Science and Technology Project, and The Working Theater, and his plays have been published by Samuel French, Playscripts Inc., and in The Back Stage Book of New American Short Plays 2005, edited by Craig Lucas.  His work has also been produced or developed with Baltimore Centerstage, The Lark, Playwrights' Horizons, The Playwrights' Foundation, and Portland Center Stage's JAW/West Festival. Honors include an Ovation Award from The Denver Post; the Page 73 Fellowship; nominations for The Pushcart Prize, The Kesselring Prize, and The Weissberger Award; and "Best New Play" (for 1001) from Denver's alternative weekly, Westword.  1001 was also included in critics' year-end top ten lists in Time Out New York, The Rocky Mountain News, and The Boulder Daily Camera.  Jason teaches playwriting and screenwriting at Rutgers University, is a member of PEN and New Dramatists, and a contributor to Comedy Central's "Indecision 2008" blog, and is developing a radio play program for WFMU (91.1FM Jersey City, wfmu.org).  Visit him at jasongrote.com.

Whose work would you recommend for emerging writers to study?

In particular, I'd recommend some books: the doorstop-sized anthology FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CENTURY II, edited by Mac Wellman and Douglas Messerli; NEW PLAYWRITING STRATEGIES, by Paul Castagno; UNBALANCING ACTS, by Richard Foreman; NEW DOWNTOWN NOW, edited by Mac Wellman and Young Jean Lee; FUNNY, STRANGE, PROVOCATIVE: SEVEN PLAYS FROM CLUBBED THUMB, edited by Maria Striar and Erin Detrick; and Maria Irene Fornes' 4 PLAYS. And The Greeks, Shakespeare, Chekhov, Brecht, Beckett, Caryl Churchill, Paula Vogel. And things that aren't plays, like philosophy, current events, poetry, fiction, film, TV, visual art, internet culture, the sciences, comedy, music, comics. Playwrights should possess a broad cultural knowledge. And anyone who wants to go into criticism or dramatugy should be required to read Douglas Wolk's READING COMICS and Carl Wilson's LET'S TALK ABOUT LOVE: A JOURNEY TO THE END OF TASTE.

If you could remove a single personality from theater history, who would you choose and why?

Jeez, this is a loaded question. I wouldn't mind removing some people from *contemporary* theater, but I'll try to be nice. Ibsen bores me to tears, but I don't think anything would be gained from removing him. Can I go back in time and assassinate Hitler? Technically he was part of theater history. I know that's a really controversial answer. All the Hitler-lovers in the American theater are going to come after me now!

If you could choose a single person to work with for the rest of your artistic life, who would you choose and why?

I'd have to say Hitler. JUST KIDDING! There's my agent, Antje Oegel, who is the best in the biz. And there are some spectacular actors I wish I could work with over and over again: Daoud Heidami, Kate Benson, Quincy Tyler Bernstine, Jeanine Serralles, Danny Manley, Jeff Biehl, Jenny Seastone Stern. I couldn't pick a favorite.

What writers do you know that should be produced more and why?

Victor Lodato is criminally underproduced. His work is just so smart and amazing and should be seen by everyone. Karinne Keithley, my erstwhile radio co-host on WFMU sometimes self-produces, but I know she doesn't enjoy it (even though she's very good at it), so any producers reading this should take a look at her work. I wish I had more opportunities to see Erik Ehn performed. And Fornes, always Fornes. She should be one of the biggest names in 20th-century theater, up there with O'Neill, Miller, and Williams.

What piece of conventional wisdom about playwriting have you found to be the least helpful?

Most of them. I hate being asked "who's story it is," or any other question that's more suited to a Hollywood screenplay. Nothing against Hollywood screenplays, which are often great, but if I'm writing a play I don't want to bother with all that. I think American playwriting is really hampered by its rigid allegiance to some variety or other of method acting, where every human action and desire needs to be boiled down to a single verb, as if that's "realistic." Think about it: can you come up with a single verb for whatever you're doing right now? Can you ever? Whenever an actor asks me what they're doing in a given line or stage direction, I can usually rattle off 5 or 6 things, often mutually contradictory, because that's how we operate as people. Anyone who isn't ambivalent most of the time, or whose motivations are that close to the surface, isn't interesting to me. That said, I'm not ready to dump the idea of a cause-effect universe or human motivation: I'm not Robert Wilson. But I think there's room for a great deal more complexity than we tend to see in the theater.

If for some reason you were suddenly forbidden to write plays (or films or tv shows), what would you end up doing?

Making films or writing novels, which I'll probably wind up doing anyway if I can find the time. I'd probably be a decent lawyer, though I don't think I'd like it very much.

What is most helpful to you as you sit down to write a first draft?

Drugs, though I rarely touch anything stronger than coffee these days. Usually I take inspiration from collaborators, and more and more I enjoy writing for or with an ensemble or director.

What do you think about when you're idle?

My enemies and how I can make them pay. Just wait until I finish this time machine, Hitler!

"I am a closet [_________]."

I don't think I'm a closet anything. I'm pretty public about my many obsessions (books, comics, film, record collecting, alt-comedy, radio, in fact everything *but* theater). But I am actually a pretty serious cook, which I don't talk about very much.