Indie Theater Now asked Simon Fill a few questions about this upcoming event. The theme of this interview is “The Five W’s”.
Who are your favorite playwrights?
I could go on and on. Shakespeare, Chekhov, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O’Neill, Edward Albee, David Hare, Tom Stoppard. Among my contemporaries, Annie Baker and Lucas Hnath. And many others. There isn’t a short answer this question.
What’s your favorite pastime when you’re not working on a play?
I don’t know it I’d call this a pastime, but spending time with my kids. I often think my children teach me more than I teach them.
Where does this play take place, and how did you choose that location?
This play takes place in New York, but really it could take place in any city or town. I chose the location, the East Village of NYC, because it’s a place I came of age in; and the four characters building an unconventional family there felt honest to me.
When did you know you wanted to work in the theater, and why?
I knew I wanted to work in the theater when I was in the first semester of an MFA program in fiction writing, where I took playwriting and theatre directing as electives. I was completely hooked on theatre, switching to an MFA in Theatre. I thought the switch would be such a surprise, but the theatre professor I first asked about the move said, “We’ve been waiting for you to do this.”
Why did you want to write this show?
I wanted to write this play because it shows a type of eternal family love, and how art can transcend death and change lives. The play defines what a family really is: a commitment of deep, loyal love among people, and not necessarily biological.
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