Talkin' To: Peter M. Floyd

The latest from fabulous intern Alexis Scheer -- our conversation with Absence playwright Peter M. Floyd. Here, he talks about the origins of the play and its early development.

Foxhole camaraderie and mid-night dealings

Steven Barkhimer

I’ve confessed elsewhere that I only began writing Windowmen because I needed some speakable dialogue for a playwriting class and had grown tired of some of my oh-so-original ideas for plays. So I decided to write down a few anecdotes about these guys I worked with at the Fulton Fish Market shortly after I graduated college. I was impressed not only by their dedication to the tough-guy persona, but by their awareness that it WAS a persona, one they relished and wore with gusto. They were self-consciously macho, blisteringly and relentlessly vulgar, fiercely funny, and displayed a kind of foxhole camaraderie amid the mad mid-night dealings that took place when the market was in full swing at 4 a.m. Most of all, however, I was impressed by their spontaneous and utterly immediate wit, making hilarious remarks and sometimes dangerous decisions that could never have been pre-planned. Thus, despite its being a fictional work, the best stuff in the play is stuff I could never have invented. I found myself laughing out loud as I wrote. 

Checking in on Fulton Fish

This is the Windowmen set about a week ago. (Here's an earlier update.)

Talkin' To: Steven Barkhimer

Steven Barkhimer talks about his play Windowmen -- which opens next week -- in the latest video from superstar intern Alexis Scheer.

The Responsibility of Cy

Mal Malme and Ian Michaels in Burning by Ginger Lazarus

Playing the role of Cy Burns in Burning, has since the very beginning, terrified me. In 2010, when playwright Ginger Lazarus asked me to read the part of Cy for the one act she crafted for Queer Soup Theater’s night of “Queering the Classics,” I knew through to my core, that this was a role that would push my every button.

Talkin' To: Ginger Lazarus

Our amazing intern Alexis (a senior at The Boston Conservatory, and a talented theatre artist in her own right) is putting together a series of interviews with this season's playwrights to post here. Listen to what Ginger Lazarus has to say about the origins of her play Burning -- and what she learned during the play's development -- which opens next week.

Thinking about 2013-14

The amazing cast of Jaclyn Villano's The Company We Keep (L-R: Jessica Webb, Bill Mootos, John Kooi, and Marianna Bassham)


It is not a joke when I say that I cannot imagine a season more exciting than this one. I've had a front row seat -- literally -- for the evolution of Ginger Lazarus' Burning at Rhombus; I remember when Steve Barkhimer wrote the first scenes of Windowmen in one of Richard's classes (me being lucky enough to be his classmate and all) years ago; and I was positively blown away by the emotion and power of Peter M. Floyd's Absence at a reading last spring.

It's inspiring to be even a small part of this, and I can't wait to see these scripts come to life. Trust me: You should be excited too!

Tickets

Announcing our 2013-14 season!

Steven Barkhimer

Boston Playwrights’ Theatre (BPT) announced its 32^nd season today, which will feature new work by three of its award-winning alumni playwrights. The line-up includes Burning by Ginger Lazarus, Windowmen by Steven Barkhimer, and Absence by Peter M. Floyd. All three writers are based in Boston.

“I’m honored and excited to support these particular playwrights. They are vastly different writers, but each of them is exploring that ‘threshold moment,’ the turning point that changes lives,” BPT Artistic Director Kate Snodgrass said. “These are the important moments we look for in the theatre.”