As you may or may not already know, Lesser America's upcoming show (SEPT29-OCT9GETYOURTICKETSHERE) is a sequel to the smash smash bang crash hit, Too Little Too Late, that ran at HERE Arts Center way back a year ago in 2010. Last time around, we featured the work of six INCREDIBLE writers - Lucy Alibar, Bekah Brunstetter, Sam Forman, Amy Herzog, Liz Meriwether, and Daniel Talbott. We were lucky enough to figure out how cool and talented those writers were about a split second before most of the rest of the world did. And since then they've gone on to dominate, not just the theater world but, you know, other places, like FOX, and SUNDANCE, and the THEATER HALL OF FAME.
This time around, on Too Much Too Soon, we're feeling pretty lucky again, in that we've assembled and commissioned original works from a group of people who simply are and will be the Next Best Thing in play writing: NIKOLE BECKWITH, NICK JONES, DEAN IMPERIAL, MELISSA ROSS, EMILY SCHWEND, and KEN URBAN. We've asked them a few questions, to tease and tittilate you, just to pre-introduce them to you before you're lucky enough to see their work at Theater for the New City, starting on September 29th. You'd better read this, just so you can be all "I knew them when" before they explode your eyeballs on broadway, tv, in film and beyond. There's even some show teasers in there. So here ya go.
What inspired you to write your play?
NIKOLE BECKWITH: I had a stuffed cat when I was little that I used to hand to strangers. Also Laura asked me to write one.
DEAN IMPERIAL: I think it comes from a fear of dinner parties. There's a suffocating politeness sometimes at dinner parties that sort of drives me insane. That anxiety produces these weird fantasy-scenarios where I say something that completely ruins the evening or just knock everything off the table for no reason and then just sit there, smiling, like nothing happened. It all roots from the fear of saying something that might be embarrassing, I guess. So that, combined with a desire to center a play around a magic trick. That one in particular. I hope I haven't turned-anyone off to inviting me to a dinner party...
NICK JONES: I was thinking about the depiction of sex on the internet, and how many kids growing up right now will have seen incredibly hardcore porn before they lose their virginity, and how that will shape their expectations. I am fascinated by that twilight time of adolescence when adult forces are starting to be born inside you but you are still essentially innocent. I call it the Time When the Stuffed Animals are Molested.
EMILY SCHWEND: I spent about half my childhood in and around Dallas, and I've wanted to set a play in Texas for a while. This play is also about two sisters, and in that way it's thematically related to another short play of mine, about a younger pair of sister in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where my parents grew up.
KEN URBAN: Watching the news coverage BP Oil spill and feeling really useless: that was the initial inspiration for the play.
How do you expect Too Much Too Soon will be different than other short play nights?
NIKOLE: It will have a different cast and different plays. And I suppose in the end it will make you feel very overwhelmed. And after you feel overwhelmed, there is always a great sense of relief, which is nice. And that part is free.
DEAN: If it's anything like TOO LITTLE TOO LATE it will be beautifully acted & directed and completely consistent & professional.
NICK: I like short plays a lot, but most of the presentations are a mixed bag. Often it's because there are too many, too long.
EMILY: The plays are all pretty diverse, which is fun. There's also probably about 30% more nudity than other short play nights.
KEN: I expect it will be different because these 6 writers have never been in a short play night together before.
What's coming up next for you?
NIKOLE: Well, I always have my comics that I'm working on, which I think of as my shortest plays. You can see them on ihopewecanstillbefriends.tumblr.com and also on the Huffington Post. Theater-wise I am thinking about starting my next full length and am finishing up my EWG residency at The Public. And a couple mysterious things that I won't tell anyone about.
DEAN: I am finishing a full-length play called HARPER that I hope to have a reading of in early November.
NICK: I plan to take my own life next summer. Before that happens, I have a few commissions to finish. I'm hoping to present a staged reading of my GRIZZLY ADAMS musical at Joe's Pub in January. I'm finishing up a pilot for HBO and a screenplay version of my play THE COWARD.
EMILY: I have a reading in February of my play ROUTE ONE OFF at Roundabout. And in the spring, my play SOUTH OF SETTLING is going up in the Steppenwolf Garage for their Next Up Repertory in collaboration with the MFA directing program Anna Shapiro runs at Northwestern. Also, my family is staying in the hotel The Shining was based on for Christmas this year. Merry Christmas.
KEN: I am going to the WIlliam Inge Theatre Festival in Independence, Kansas to workshop a new play with Stephen Brackett, then Rising Phoenix Rep is producing my site specific play SIMPLE in December with Daniel Talbott directing. It will feature Lesser America's Nate Miller, Andy Phelan and Brian McManamon.
What is one Too Much Too Soon moment you've had in life?
NIKOLE: Once I got bed bugs, a broken heart and a case of undiagnosed neurological Lyme Disease all at the same time, which also happened to be right when I was accepted into both The Story Pirates and EST's Youngblood. All of these developments came to fruition in the same month. Then someone asked me on a date and I cried to their face.
DEAN: I saw "The Exorcist" when I was 5 years old and it put me in a floor-staring trance for like two months.
NICK: My high school English teacher took me to a brothel in Amsterdam.
EMILY: September 1998, first day of middle school.
KEN: It involved myself, a male friend and my girlfriend (???!?!) on a summer evening in high school. That's all I will say.
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Tickets are on sale for Too Much Too Soon. Visit lesseramerica.com/box-office and use the discount code TMTS10 at check out to get tickets for just $10. That's our special thank you for reading the article, an even cheaper ticket. See you at the theater, lovers.
And lastly, a huge CONGRATS goes out to our resident playwright, Jonathan Blitstein for his NYIT Award win for OUTSTANDING PLAY.
From our hearts to yours,
the Lesser Americans
Sunday, April 8, 2012 at 05:53PM 
