Review Fix Exclusive: Lauren Ferebee Talks ‘The Reckless Season’

Review Fix chats with playwright Lauren Ferebee about her upcoming production, “The Reckless Season.” Chatting about the creation of the production and her creative process, gives us an inside look at what is poised to be an incredibly emotional adventure on stage.

For more information about The Reckless Season click Here.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration behind The Reckless Season?

Lauren Ferebee: When I was writing my first full-length play Somewhere Safer, two of the characters in the play were combat journalists, and as I researched those characters, I had the opportunity to do a Skype interview with Stacy Pearsall, who was both a photographer and an Air Force veteran. Talking with her about what it was like to be in combat and looking at her images really planted the early seeds for wanting to write about soldiers coming home from the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. That experience percolated when I wrote the first draft of The Reckless Season, which I did in about two weeks. When I left New York to do a six month residency at HUB-BUB and the Spartanburg Little Theatre in South Carolina, I submitted the play as my main project, and became inspired to shape the play in its current form from what I discovered through extensive research – watching documentaries and movies, reading blogs, books, poetry, and talking with recent veterans in that area.

Review Fix: What are your creative goals here?

Ferebee: I don’t really have goals in mind when I write a play. People have had all kinds of reactions and takeaways from the script over the time I’ve developed it, and I like leaving it open for that.

Review Fix: Who do you think will be affected by seeing The Reckless Season the most?

Ferebee: I think there’s something in the play that speaks to a lot of people about loneliness and pain. I know one of the main reactions the play elicits is that people tell me their weird stories about the ashes of dead bodies that they have had to deal with in the past. People that have family members who served in heavy combat sometimes come up to me after readings and tell me they recognized their family member in the experience of the characters onstage, which is a very visceral and personal reaction that I always have great respect for.

Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?

Ferebee: A guy last year told me in a talkback that he felt like it was a play he had to experience from his guts. I think that sounds like a good takeaway.

Review Fix: What’s next for you?

Ferebee: Goat Song Theatre Collective in Dallas, TX is in the midst of producing an amazing season of events called Talking Too Much: A Year of Conversation that is based around themes in my play Sexual Geography, which they are producing in the fall. They just did this incredible event called Anonymous Monologues, which featured work from about fifteen women working in the DFW theatre community who had the opportunity to write anonymously about their experiences as women in theatre, and it was a totally beautiful, packed event. I have been so excited to see how my work has been a generative force to talk about gender issues. I’m also working on an interesting project for a small company in Nashville that I have high hopes for, and I have some development opportunities in the works for my new play Every Waiting Heart, which is a play about charismatic Christianity, domestic violence, and birds. And we’re about to kick off programming for the second full year of The Aviary, the new play incubator that I co-direct in Dallas. I’m also mentoring a high school student in Frisco that is doing a reading of her first full-length play in May, which I think is the greatest thing ever.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 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.

2 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. Interview with THE RECKLESS SEASON Playwright Lauren Ferebee – Boomerang Theatre Company
  2. Saltonstall | Alumna Lauren Ferebee (’14) shows new play: The Reckless Season

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