Review Fix chats with playwrights Jake Rose and Jamie Thomson about their newest production “A Brief Introduction to Astrophysics,†currently running at this year’s Midtown International Theatre Festival in New York City. Rose and Thomson also discusses how their creative process and how a trip across the country ultimately played a huge role in the production.
Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this production?
Rose: In September we were traveling across the country and ended up staying for two weeks in a very remote cabin in the southwest of Montana. We got a library card at the nearest town and every few days we would take a long drive to get groceries and books. For a week we read and hiked and didn’t speak very much to each other. During the second week we drafted the first copy of A Brief Introduction to Astrophysics, a play that reflected both our silence and the question’s we were asking ourselves at the time, being so lost in the wilderness and feeling relatively insignificant.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Thomson: We have a few different methods but usually our writing process starts with games or exercises, handwriting monologues and collaborating on poems, creating prompts for each other and then free writing and sharing. Once there is a strong idea we write together, simultaneously editing a single document, and if we reach an impasse we separate, write alternate ideas, and then come back together to see what material works best with the piece.
Review Fix: What makes you different from other playwrights?
Rose: Both of us come from a background of poetry and have primarily written poetry and short fiction, so writing for the stage is in some ways a departure for both of us. However, we have found it to be at times an even more accepting home for our writing. While we do love to read plays and attend the theater, most of the content of our work is inspired by novels and poems. This fundamentally changes the plays we write as they tend to bridge the gap between literature and theater.
Review Fix: Is this what you always wanted to do?
Thomson: We had other dreams, respectively hoping to be a professional baseball player and a comedian who owns a pizza restaurant.
Review Fix: What makes this production special?
Rose: The play’s focus is more on what is said or unsaid rather than what is done or left undone. There is not a lot of dramatic action, so much of the tension is in the words and the spaces in between.
Review Fix: How is your cast unique?
Thomson: Our entire cast graduated from the same college this past May, and five out of the six of us studied abroad together at the British American Drama Academy in London.
Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?
Rose: We’ve learned a lot more about all the considerations it takes to put up a play.
Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of this festival?
Thomson: We were shocked when we heard the news! We feel very lucky to have the opportunity to stage our work and never imagined we would get the chance.
Review Fix: What are your goals for the production?
Rose: Our goal is to see our vision of the play realized, and to see how close we can get to articulating the specific feeling that for us this play evokes.
Review Fix: Who do you think will enjoy it the most?
Thomson: Our play is for everyone. We hope that it will function as a kind of check-in or check-up to see how people are feeling and how happy we all are. Very happy? Medium happy? The whole piece is kind of an elongated moment of introspection.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Rose: We’ve both been continuing to write our own poetry and fiction, but there are certainly more plays on the horizon.
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