Review Fix Exclusive: Inside Relentlessly Pleasant

Review Fix chats with Jake Lipman (producer, director, and playwright), who discusses her new production, Relentlessly Pleasant, detailing its creative process, goals and more.

About the Production:

Relentlessly Pleasant written & directed by Jake Lipman

A comedy about women at work, and knowing when to lean in.

Tickets: https://relentlesslypleasant.brownpapertickets.com/

14 performances: October 10-27, 2018

Theatre 54 @ Shetler Studios, 244 W. 54th Street, 12th Floor, NYC

More here: www.tictheater.com

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Jake Lipman: When Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election, I was so demoralized. If she, with all her experience and education and public service  couldn’t achieve her goal, who could?

I wrote RELENTLESSLY PLEASANT to explore what ambitious women, succeeding looks like — and it evolved into a workplace comedy about the many power dynamics and ways in which women have to “be” to get ahead.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Lipman: I had this idea to write a play with driven, dynamic women, and I wanted it to be comedic but also thought-provoking.  

But I also had only my own personal work experience to draw from, so I called up a group of talented women artists who I admire and asked them to tell me their experiences with ambition and getting ahead. We improvised, I wrote drafts, I had them read the drafts aloud, and with time, the play took shape.

It’s been about 10 months in the making, and I can’t believe it’s going to premiere on October 10!

Review Fix: What makes this different or special from other plays of this subject matter?

Lipman: RELENTLESSLY PLEASANT delves into the gray areas of women, sexuality, money, ambition, and how we interact with people to get what we want out of our lives. 

I want to show a spectrum of kinds of women at work, and I hope everyone who sees it identifies with one of their stories.

Review Fix: What did I learn about myself through this process?

Lipman: That I am a prolific writer! I worked closely with Jessica Ammirati, a dramaturg, on shaping the play.

Every time we spoke or met, I was surprised by and happy to see that I was capable of going back to the drawing board and write a lot, very quickly. And there was always something good and new in those subsequent drafts. 

Review Fix: What are my goals for this production?

Lipman: First and foremost: for people to come see our 14-show run of RELENTLESSLY PLEASANT, Oct. 10-27, 2018 at Theatre 54 @ Shetler Studios. And then, I hope that people see it and love it and tell their friends and co-workers about it. 

I am working on adapting the play into a TV script and would like to shoot a pilot in the months following the fall production, and then of course, have it turned into a TV series.

And, I want to take RELENTLESSLY PLEASANT into the workplace, as an engaging alternative to  people instead of the boring “anti-harassment” training videos and presentations. 

Because it’s a story about a workplace, a lot of real-life conflicts arise and I think a corporate audience would be able to talk about the issues in the play with a bit more comfort than their own particulars.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Lipman: We open October 10 and run for 14 performances — get your tickets at www.tictheater.com.

And then, TV script development, and shooting a pilot! 

mm
About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 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.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.


*