Meet The Playwrights of NCPLab Fest 2023!
Well, it’s that time of year again: NCPLab Fest! Ok, it may be that time of year for only the second time, but this event is also what we hope will be the beginning of a long tradition of yearly showcases of some of the best plays our writers put forth in our monthly NCPLab gathering. This year, the celebration will be moving to the Pompano Beach Cultural Center, and we have six amazing plays to share with you—and to help you get in the Lab Fest spirit, here are a few words from the playwrights themselves! Besides shamelessly reusing my interview questions from last year, I came up with a few different ones to pose to myself and Michael Goia as the two playwrights returning from last year. Hopefully you’ll be amused and enlightened by these answers, and I hope to see you all at the theatre!
New Playwrights
Helen Mao
Tell me a little bit about yourself as a theatremaker and how you got involved with NCPLab!
I am a playwright and actor. I enjoy writing short (10-15 minutes) pieces both for Zoom virtual theater and live theater. I'd like to try writing for audio/radio plays too. I became involved in NCPLab in Oct. 2022, when my short play, "Picnic at Creature Rock" was selected for reading and then again in December 2022, when my "Stuck in Limbo" was read.What are some of your favorite playwrights and artistic influences?
I love comedy, so comedic playwrights (Neil Simon, Moliere, etc.) and late-night comedians (Amber Ruffin, Seth Meyers, etc.). I do enjoy Shakespeare too. As a Chinese-American female, I am influenced by Chinese-American writers like David Henry Hwang, Gish Jen, and more.What inspired your play/any other thoughts or feelings you want to share about it?
I was inspired by a prompt on confessions. The confessions that the characters are based on real-life events from my and others' lives. Plus, my parents both passed away within the past couple of years, so I think about what happens to a person's spirit after death – is there a positive afterlife? I sure hope so.What does NCPLab mean to you, and how do you find that lab has affected your artistic process?
NCPLab means a lot to me because it has provided me with a community and platform that have accepted and read my work, allowing me to see it come alive as well as find areas I'd like to revise. Hearing my words spoken aloud is enormously valuable. I really thank Krystal Valdes for providing wonderful opportunities.What’s something besides theatre that you’re passionate about?
Dance (tap and ballet) as a hobby.Dog person or cat person?
Dog person, definitely. I love dogs!Anything else you’d like to shout into the void?
Reduce, reuse, recycle, and compost!
Nancy Temple
Tell me a little bit about yourself as a theatremaker and how you got involved with NCPLab!
I started writing plays with an Adult Ed teacher in 2015, and since the first short play I wrote was accepted to a festival for women playwrights in 2016, I was hooked! Eventually, I enrolled in the low-residency program at Lesley University, focusing on playwriting, and I got my MFA in Creative Writing from them in 2021. There have been many chapters in my life–as a tapestry weaver, a commercial space planner, and as a saddle designer–all before "retirement" and turning to playwriting. Now I've given away my age! I've had many short plays in festivals throughout the US, Canada and France... I've had readings of my full-lengths but no productions of a full-length as yet. During my time at Lesley, I took a short story writing course, and my story, "Riverbend Blue," was just published in riverSedge, the literary journal of the University of Texas Rio Grande. I'm thrilled and now working on another short story. I do believe that writing a story influenced my playwriting, rendering it a little more lyrical.What are some of your favorite playwrights and artistic influences?
I would say I am probably most influenced by realistic or semi-realistic drama, plays like Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf or The Crucible, but I'm also a great fan of Annie Baker and Carol Churchill; it's just that I don't know that I would be drawn (or able) to write in the style of Baker or Churchill. I'm always mining the drama of my own life–as a divorced woman, as an adoptive parent, as the mother of a trans woman, as a caregiver for my own mother–and thus my plays focus on the dynamics, tensions and conflicts of human relationships.What inspired your play/any other thoughts or feelings you want to share about it?
"That Desert Wind" was inspired in part by my relationship with my current partner. I'm an explorer and somewhat rebellious by nature, whereas he's a believer in rules and more rules. So the tensions between Rachel and Rob were familiar to me, but of course a play takes on its own life and shapes itself, so it's not an exact mirror of one's own experiences. I was grateful for the prompt from NCP!What’s something besides theatre that you’re passionate about?
I am passionate about all the arts. As mentioned earlier, I was a weaver, back in the day, part of the craft scene. My older daughter is a composer and teaches music composition at Arizona State University. She is (plug) Alex Temple. It's appropriate that I'll be tuning in to the rehearsal from Arizona, where I'm visiting Alex. It would be even more appropriate if she lived in India. Speaking of India, where I have never been, I am passionate about travel. For almost thirty years, I've traveled as a home exchanger all over Europe and the States–not yet to Asia, maybe never (long plane flight). This next April I'll be on a one month home exchange to southern Spain.Dog person or cat person?
I love ALL animals. I used to own a horse and was a trail rider. I have owned dogs and many, many cats, but I now live with the most wonderful cat on the planet, a Norwegian Forest cat (a rescue) named Sammy. I will share a picture of Sammy with you as well.
Jazz Patterson
Tell me a little bit about yourself as a theatre maker and how you got involved with NCPLab!
I’m a stage and screen actor, writer, director, photographer, and tennis athlete based in South Florida. I’m the artist who’s always looking for new ways to tell a story, and new things to tell them about. I’ve been pretty active in the theatre world for about the past 5 years, having gone to FAU and participated in the theatre program, as well as worked with different theatre companies such as Art Prevails Project. I had the pleasure of directing Fire is Light and The Waiting Room for last year’s Lab Fest, which was a very enlightening experience. I write a lot on my own time, working my creative muscles and producing my own projects. I’m eager to share them all with you. As for how I got involved with NCPLab—One day at one of my acting classes, Elizabeth Price, who was teaching, introduced me to Krystal Valdes who shared her experience and expertise as an actor. Afterwards, they invited me to a dinner/meet and greet with the ensemble where we talked and got to know each other better. When I mentioned to Elizabeth that I’d love to write, direct, and/or act for New City Players, she suggested that I join the NCPLab writing workshops to explore and share my ideas there. I’ve consistently been writing for and attending each lab for just about every month since then.What are some of your favorite playwrights and artistic influences?
Well, influence is a strong word. There are many writers and artists that I have a great deal of respect and admiration for but I don’t think any of them necessarily influence my work. However, I will say that one creator’s work that I found particularly inspirational is that of the late great Dwayne McDuffie, who co-created Milestone Comics and my favorite fictional character, Virgil Hawkins aka Static. Dwayne had such an artistic talent for creating three dimensional characters that feel as real as you and me, depicting experiences of individuals from all walks of life and weaving them into entertaining, yet relatable stories that tug you at every level of the emotional spectrum. His work is relevant even today and I’m so glad that it’s recently gotten more much deserved reverence and appreciation after being dormant for many years. I hope Milestone flourishes, because I’m definitely determined to work with them in the near future. Hwang Dong-hyuk and Bong Joon-ho are a couple of filmmakers that come to mind as well. As for playwrights – I’m not as well versed in them as I probably should be but personally, my current favorites are Langston Hughes, Lynn Nottage, Lin-Manuel Miranda (apparently, I’m a fan of “L” names), and Darius V. Daughtry.What inspired your play/any other thoughts or feelings you want to share about it?
Just wanted to write a funny little story that hopefully encourages people to use some personal time to not take life too seriously, do what they enjoy, and take risks. Too much of the time, we don’t go after what we want because we’re afraid of how we think it’ll turn out, concerned about judgment from others, or other reasons, so we kind of get stuck in this mundane repetitive cycle from day to day. If you want to change something about your life, you’ve got to do something different from what you’ve been doing. You don’t always have to live your life with the parachute folded nicely in the backpack. Take the leap. See if the dang thing works (metaphorically of course)! It doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else. As long as you aren’t harming yourself or someone else, do something different, fun, and exciting for YOU. Because you deserve it.What does NCPLab mean to you, and how do you find that lab has affected your artistic process?
NCPLab means a TON to me. I love the whole model and process of it, as well as the people involved in it. Before, I often had a cool idea, started writing, got stumped a couple pages in, lost confidence, and ultimately didn’t finish. Since I’ve started attending the labs, I have gained so much structure to my creative process. I finish scripts much faster now and can build on ideas more effectively. Another thing I love is that NCPLab is the opposite of gatekeeping. They are completely open and welcome to those who want to learn more and become more skilled and knowledgeable artists. New City Players definitely stands out among the theatre companies as one that prioritizes building and expanding a supportive community of artists that help each other grow and become successful, and I believe I have gained a lot from being a part of it.What’s something besides theatre that you’re passionate about?
In recent years, I have made a real effort to improve my physical and mental health, which is very challenging, and the process is ugly at times but very necessary for me. On a mental level, being able to increase the capacity of how I move the body I was gifted with, getting stronger as I go, is a very rewarding feeling. I also find it rewarding to pay it forward and help others who need it in whatever way I can, even if it’s just as helping them feel better after a pretty rough day. Making others happy just makes me happy. I’m passionate about many things actually. I really love tennis. I’ve played the sport since I’ve been able to walk and it was a huge part of my upbringing. I really love capturing moments through photography as well. There’s a lot more but for the sake of this interview, I’ll just leave it there for now.Dog person or cat person?
I’ve never owned either and I love both of them, but I always wanted a border collie, so I’ll say dog this time around.Anything else you’d like to shout into the void?
As I mentioned earlier, I am a photographer (and a really good one if I do say so myself), and I am available to take headshots for all my fellow artists and anyone who’s interested. Please DM me @viewtiful.jazz on Instagram. Looking forward to seeing you all at NCPLab Fest!
Returning Playwrights
Ilana Jael
What has your journey with New City Players been like?
Overall, it’s been an amazing one! Basically, after being invited to join the ensemble towards the end of the otherwise accursed year of 2020, I’ve gotten to see one of my plays brought to life in last year’s Lab Fest and another one-act of mine realized as a piece of original content, as well as taken the lead on grant-writing and been the driving force behind this blog! In doing so, I’ve also ended up formally taking on the role of dramaturg in NCP’s past two mainstage productions, which has been a lot of fun and a chance to dig into some really interesting issues and history!What else have you been up to lately in the South Florida theatre world?
Along with being in NCP, I’ve also been a critic at online publications South Florida Theater Magazine since the site’s inception of May of 2021, which sort of just means that I see a ridiculous amount of plays and then pretend to know what I’m talking about… jk, kind of, but it’s also been a really rewarding way to feel like a part of the community and to shine a light on the amazing work that so many theatre companies down here are doing! I’ve also recently joined the team at Area Stage as a content creator and am, crazily enough, going to attempt to be in a play for the first time since I was in undergrad that’ll be an adaptation of Trainspotting to be performed in Lake Worth the last weekend of March, which should be a fun change of pace!What was your experience of having your short play performed at Lab Fest last year like?
The whole thing was a blast! I actually ended up volunteering to run box office and so had an “excuse” to be there every night, which was basically an awesome chance to spend more time than I usually get hanging out with my NCP fam IRL and watching some amazing plays! The cast and director also did a great job with my piece and I’m also glad that the story, which was inspired by the George Floyd riots, allowed me to emphasize a powerful message that’s obviously still all too relevant given recent events…What inspired your play this year, and do you have any other thoughts or feelings you want to share about it?
This piece was a somewhat lighter one than last year’s endeavor, and is actually one I’d started writing for a playwriting workshop and then abandoned for a darker piece until the alignment between the draft’s existing focus and the prompt of our Zodiac lab inspired me to pick it back up. The concept of two owners flirting through their pets is honestly pretty directly inspired by a comment a friend of mine made about my cat that quickly devolved into a conversation about other sorts of “pussies”... and then deciding to make one of my main characters non-binary and to feature a queer couple I figured would be a cool chance to feature one in a play that wasn’t really “about” their sexuality so much as a silly rom-com about star signs and golden-doodles!What's your favorite piece of theatre you've seen recently?
Hmmm. As far as things that are still running, I had an amazing time at Island City Stage’s Rotterdam, speaking of awesome queer stories! But thinking of the season as a whole, I still think What The Constitution Means To Me might take the cake for best show overall between a script that balanced humor, poignancy, and greater political concerns, plus Elizabeth Price’s incredible performance!!Any closing remarks?
Theatre may, debatably, be a dying art, but it’s up to us to resurrect it—which is why I really hope to see you at this year’s Lab Fest!
Michael Goia
What has your journey with New City Players been like, and what else have you been up to lately in the South Florida theatre world?
Since becoming a company member, I’ve had the opportunity to be involved again with an organization. It has provided a home base in a way that I’ve not had since I closed my school almost seven years ago. To say the least, it has definitely re-energized my spirit. I am currently in rehearsal for a production of Grand Horizons at Boca Stage. Sadly, I won’t be able to see Lab Fest this year as Grand Horizons opens the same weekend. Once that closes at the end of the month, I will go into rehearsal for Refuge at Theatre Lab in Boca. Refuge opens April 8th. So it’s a busy few months.What was your experience of having your short play performed at Lab Fest last year like?
It was great. I haven’t been writing very long. Not seriously anyway, so, it was nice to see a director and actors give life to the words.What inspired your play this year, and do you have any other thoughts or feelings you want to share about it?
It was inspired by a play I wrote previously that was an absolute disaster. I wanted to write something science fiction-y about a mysterious orb. The first attempt went haywire and I just eventually deleted it. LOL. I started with that idea and it just turned into this little ditty. Not much else to say the play sort of speaks for itself. At least I hope so.What's your favorite piece of theatre you've seen recently?
I really don’t have favorites. Honestly. I find something to like about everything I see. I guess I’ve kind of aged out of my critical phase? IDK.Any closing remarks?
Same as last year, I guess. LOL. I’d like to thank New City Players for NCPLab and for this production opportunity. Also, I have a website: michaelgioia.com.
NCPLab Short Play Festival 2023
WHAT
The NCPLab Short Play Festival is a diverse smattering of short plays representing our community. This group of plays was sourced from March-December 2022 at our monthly event for writers and actors (NCPLab) that operates in person and on Zoom. Dozens and dozens of theatre artists have come together to write and act in brand-new plays every month… and now you can enjoy them for the first time! This festival will bring our community together to celebrate the diversity and resilience of our region.
WHEN
February 10-12 at 8pm
WHERE
Pompano Beach Cultural Center
TICKET PRICE
$16-25