Interview with the Playwright
Neena Beber
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Return to The
Dew Point
CSC Professional Equity Play
Nov. 3 - 19, 2006
Meet the Playwright!
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Catherine Rust: In what can only be called a dark humour, I laughed out loud when I read in an interview that a "series of bad decisions" had brought you to playwriting. In a profession where writers usually migrate out to television, you have returned to the stage. Can you talk about what draws you to the theatre?
Neena Beber: I actually was quoting someone who makes arcane Rennaisance-era lute-like string instruments for a living, when asked how he came to such a job. I sometimes think of theater as a similarly semi-obsolete, rarified pursuit, but as you note, I am drawn to it; I can’t get away from it. The theater is how I process the world. There is nothing like the feeling of live actors, real people, performing in a kind of enchanted space, where the eternal nature of art comes smack up against the ephemeral qualities of time. I love the feeling that we are all in this together, and I only get that from theater.
CR: In your writing, I feel you have the ability to identify often illusive but complex issues which haunt our contemporary society. How do you view the playwright's role in our culture?
NB: I don’t think about roles so much, but certainly the playwright is in a position to help us process reality and question and observe and maybe even create new ways of seeing.
CR: You now have two children of your own, and you have been involved in writing for children and young people throughout part of your career- teaching, adapting the work of Maurice Sendak for television ("Little Bear") and in the series "Clarissa Explains It All.." What aspects of writing for young people do you enjoy most? And how does your approach differ when you write for them?
NB: Writing for young people is generally a freeing, liberating thing. My approach does not really differ, except maybe in thinking about issues that matter to kids. But there is such poetry and metaphor in the minds of young people, and they haven’t been told how to process things yet, so I think they are more artistically open. And they love to laugh!
CR: Your work as a writer seems to cross many disciplines- television, theatre, journalism, film - What projects are you working on now? And what would you like to be working on?
NB: I always seem to be doing a little of this and a little of that. I would like to find some time to do a lot of one thing, a play, but everyone is performing a juggling act in the theater.
CR: What do you see as the greatest challenges for women writing for the theatre today? And for playwrights in general?
NB: The greatest challenge for women – to get the work produced. For playwright in general – I will paraphrase Richard Foreman: to resist the corruption that comes from the temptation to want to be loved.
CR: I know you live in New York now; Are you a ‘native’ New Yorker ?
NB: I grew up in Miami, Florida. My mom is from New York and so I always felt part-New York. My dad is from Omaha, so I have a midwestern thing, too.
CR: What/ who have been your greatest influences as a writer?
NB: So many influences, but mostly teachers and peers who were just out there doing it. Right now I am thinking a lot about Adrienne Shelly, a brilliant, soulful, kind of Chekhovian voice who just passed away. She gave me my first “real” production. I have incredible love for fellow artists who have produced my work or helped me get it out there – how generous is that? Israel Horovitz, Mac Wellman, Craig Lucas, Ari Roth, Howard Shalwitz, Larry Eilenberg, Matthew Silverstein – I am leaving a lot of people out. It’s a generous community and its time for me to try to give back.
CR: Any advice for aspiring writers?
NB: Don’t aspire, do. You are a writer if you’re an aspiring writer. Own your work, be relentless in your artistic vision, get it out there and don’t worry if the venue is a tiny basement in the suburbs or a big institutional theater – just keep doing the work.
CR: Thanks, Neena!
Return to The
Dew Point
CSC Professional Equity Play
Nov. 3 - 19, 2006
Opportunities | Tickets | Directions | Contact Us