Signature: What is your process like?
NW: Well, each play has different needs, of course. Some, I have
researched for years, like The Liquid Plain. I was terrified to write
Things of Dry Hours and spent a long time researching and reading
before I put the first word to the page. I don’t take lightly the writing of other lives. And sifting through histories to try to understand
what happened, to whom and why, can be a dangerous endeavour
because instead of breaking open the lies, or uncovering the buried,
you might create more lies, more debris on top of the truth. I tend
to do extensive research on the era I’m writing about until those past
worlds begin to float in my head in a way that doesn’t feel heavy,
doesn’t feel like books and facts but more like fertile circulation. So
when I’m done with my research and outlining of a story, the actual
writing then goes pretty quickly – anywhere from four to six weeks. I
do often have quite formal mechanics around writing a play – I bridle
myself in order to run. And that’s not just a cheap horse metaphor. I
was on the back of a feisty farm pony when I was three years old. I
know how to ride (even if I did once end up upside down, underneath
the pony, though still in the saddle).
left: Michael Pitt in The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek
at New York Theatre Worshop, 1999.
below: June Carryl and Kimberly Scott in The Liquid Plain
at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 2013.
Some of the best and most democratic ideas have come
from the Americans who had the least, who still
have the least...those are the voices that interest me..
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