Before we deliver our full-length feature on playwright Ashlin Halfnight, here’s a sneak peek at the questions and answers that didn’t quite make it into the piece.
Making a transition from a professional hockey player [He was drafted in the ninth round by the Hartford Whalers in 1994, lost a few teeth and has had over a dozen stitches on his face], to playwright, Ashlin Halfnight has our full attention, with over 30 completed productions to his name, with the promise of more to come.
Review Fix: Baseball or Basketball?
Ashlin Halfnight: I don’t really like either of them. But I like to watch baseball in the sun with a hotdog and a beer.
Review Fix: Favorite hockey team?
Halfnight: Toronto Maple Leafs. No Question.
Review Fix: What’s you’re favorite song to listen while you’re writing a play?
Halfnight: “Sexual healing†by Marvin Gaye.
Review Fix: When you had your first success as a playwright, what did you do?
Halfnight: I opened the New York Times review of “God’s Waiting Room†and I had a latte in Starbucks. It [review] was good, but I began to think about what’s next.
Review Fix: If you could change one thing about theatre, what would it be?
Halfnight: The reviewers. I would have playwrights review plays.
Review Fix: What kind of theatre excites you?
Halfnight: Physical theatre.
Review Fix: Pretend that your life is a play, what title would you give it?
Halfnight: I just think I’m very fortunate. I love a lot of things that I do. I have really good amazing family, I have lovely friends and I feel like I’m very very lucky. So I call it “Lucky.†Hopefully there will be a happy ending, but it’s unwritten yet.
Review Fix: What’s on your agenda for 2012?
Halfnight: I have two plays that I’m hoping to finish this year. One is about old people and one is about really young people. I’m really excited. I lived with my grandmother for a while and I just love old people and I teach young kids now. So one of them [plays] is about the future, young kids in the future, and one of them is about specific few old people.
That’s really interesting that he would want playwrights to be critics.