1. How would you describe the show in your own words?
For me it's the mix of the intensely personal mixed with the super broad topics of 'dystopia' and 'cult' and 'genre' - this project has been for me about going as hard as I can into story and genre and thinking like I'm writing a tv show - not because that is my goal but that helps me dislodge the trap of trying to write the next great play, and we can just get on with working and the tasks in front of us.
2. How does this show intersect with the other MAGIC AGENCY pieces you've done?
The work is chaptered and episodic, as opposed to serialized. You come in anywhere and get a complete experience. That said this will be the sixth hour of content (maybe more) we have created and shown throughout the city since June 2017. This one is proving to be blast and it is to me the introduction of the star Unique Jenkins. When we met to read and see if she was right it was so confounding and wonderful for me. She just flipped the script and I haven't looked back. You gotta see it and see her!
3. What role does the cult play in this series?
Well I grew up in California in the 70s so somehow these issues are near me. I watched the Jim Jones movie on tv with Powers Booth and it scared the hell out of me, and went when I was real young to a very cult-y church that I stopped going to at 12 (
Joseph Smith Mormons) when they asked me for money to build the spiral temple. I remember sitting on the couch looking at the men asking me and I was pained not to laugh. So you know its fun! It is the collision of the good and the bad. these people come together for reasons that are human reason- warmth and comfort and loneliness etc., so it's a great human place. Everyone gets it I think. Certainly Americans
4. Where does the name Lilac come from?
The first piece I did in NYC was a work called "Just Another Cowboy in Steinland" the work performed in its entirety and as written / in order ROOMs by Gertrude Stein from Tender Buttons. There is a line in the piece "Nothing aiming is a flower, if flowers are abundant then they are lilac, if they are not they are white in the centre." It bounces in my mind constantly today. I knew that was the name. For a while we coupled it with St. Johns (the church we made plays in in Brooklyn).
5. What has it been like working with Unique Jenkins?
Amazing. She teaches me something daily. So on point and the way she shows up for the work is inspiring
6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
Going home. Being able to breath. Being myself
January 31 - February 03, 2019
Downstairs | 66 East 4th Street
$25 Tickets; $20 Student/Senior Tickets [+$1 Facility Fee]Run Time: 55 Minutes (No Intermission)
