Review Fix Exclusive Midtown International Theatre Festival Coverage: Ethan Warren Talks ‘Why Are You Nowhere?’

Review Fix chats with playwright Ethan Warren, who discusses his production “Why Are You Nowhere?” at this year’s Midtown International Theatre Festival. 

For more on this production, click here.


Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Ethan Warren: Why Are You Nowhere? was inspired by a love of theatre of the absurd, and an interest in realizing a dreamscape onstage. While you can so easily use effects and editing to create surreal feelings in a film, in absurdism, you have to manipulate the fabric of reality simply in people’s conversation and interactions. It’s a thrilling world to play in, and an energizing lens through which to view some of my less fanciful concerns, such as issues of family and responsibilities to our parents and children.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Warren: As a writer, my process tends to involve finding new combinations in my disparate interests, or finding a style I’m interested in trying and mixing it with an existing idea to see what new chemical reaction might be formed, as was the case with this piece. In my filmmaking, I like to allow the actors freedom to play with the language and find the voice of the piece. With this play, however, I’ll be asking them to stick to the script fairly closely, as much of the effect of absurdity comes from the precision of the language.
 
Review Fix:What makes this different or special?

Warren: It’s rare to see theatre of the absurd that also deals with very real emotions–there’s one central character in the play who’s totally grounded emotionally, and is the only one who seems to recognize the universe is spinning out of control. When the surreal madness really sets in, I want the audience to experience it on a visceral level, rather than an intellectual one.

Review Fix:What did you learn about yourself through this process?

Warren: I discovered a love of playwriting, as this is my first full-length play. Dialogue has always been my favorite part of writing, so much so that my fiction (I have my MFA from the University of North Carolina in Wilmington and wrote a novel as my thesis) and screenplays often feature long dialogue passages that ebb and flow in a theatrical way. Finally allowing those muscles to flex–or, really, relax into long-form dialogue–was a breath of fresh air, and it’s inspired me to consider putting other story ideas I have up onstage. 

Review Fix:How does it feel to be a part of something like this?

Warren: It’s immensely exciting. I’ve participated in film festivals, through my film West of Her, but it’s very easy for filmmakers to ship a Blu Ray and then not show up. In a theater festival, there are armies of artists on the ground, and I can’t wait to plunge into that world. 

Review Fix:What are your ultimate goals for this production and for the future?

Warren: Why Are You Nowhere? recently won the Inkslinger contest and will have a full production in February 2017 at Southeastern Louisiana University, and I’d love to use MITF and that production to launch a professional production soon, and perhaps publish the script for licensing. I also have a vision for how it could be done on film in a very unusual way that could be quite exciting to pursue in the future. 

Review Fix:What do you think your audiences will enjoy the most?

Warren: While theatre of the absurd usually deals with a sort of existential terror, it’s also often quite funny, and I definitely wrote the piece with a sense of play in mind, so if audiences are on my own wavelength, they should find some pitch-dark comedy in the piece. It’s a very unusual play, so unusual that for a long time I didn’t dare dream it would ever be performed, and I hope audiences feel thrown for a loop!
 
Review Fix:What’s next?

Warren: My indie feature film, West of Her, is currently on the festival circuit and will hopefully be distributed soon. As I mentioned, Why Are You Nowhere? will have a full production in February, and I hope to see more stagings soon. My most recent play is Come And Take It, a modernization of Chekov’s The Seagull with every role gender-flipped, which throws one of my favorite plays into an entirely new light that I think audiences will be very interested by, and I’ve begun submitting that and hope it will have a chance at being performed soon! I also hope to see my MFA thesis novel published soon. Lots of irons in the fire, and many more in my head.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13802 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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