Review Fix Exclusive: Dorian Palumbo Talks ‘Divination’

Review Fix chats with playwright Dorian Palumbo, who discusses the creative process behind her latest production, “Divination.”

About the Production:

Six women of vastly different upbringings and backgrounds sign-up for a class in “Mediumship and Divination.” Each at a crossroads in their lives, each in search of something that’s missing. Will they find it among the spirits? Divination examines that inevitable point in a woman’s life – whatever age it may come – that past isn’t always prologue and fortune shouldn’t always be foretold.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Dorian Palumbo: I was traveling around the West Coast of Scotland, which I love, and when I go out there I don’t have any particular agenda, I just travel around and see friends and talk to locals, go wherever I have an impulse to go.  On this particular day in a little beach town called Troon, I walked into a crystal shop and struck up a conversation with the owner – she suggested that I take a class that night with a woman who was teaching methods of Divination – fortune telling – and doing what they called “platform work”, which is trying psychic readings on the other people in the group.  They were all women, some doing reiki, some into astrology, and the readings they did for me in that group were really spot on.  Apparently, there are groups like that all over Scotland.  It’s part of their spiritual tradition there.

When I came home I just re-imagined the class as taking place somewhere along the Jersey Shore, which is where I grew up.  I put an ex-pat Scottish woman in as the sort of guru in the class, and the play evolved from there.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like? 

Palumbo: It usually begins for me with an environment or a situation, but then I have to ruminate on that for a while before a character suggests themselves to me, and then the plot will emanate from that character and what they might want from that situation or environment.  Fairly early on, I like to have an ending that I’m shooting for – of course, when you finally do write your way to the ending, you may end up with a different ending.

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

Palumbo: I find myself writing lead characters a lot who have trouble connecting with others, but really yearn to have those connections.  I think writing about why people connect with, and separate from, other people is something I always come back to because I’m a really introverted person. I find connecting with other people in a healthy and organic way to be really difficult.

Writing this play, it’s particularly stark that my lead character is really alone in the world, and yet here she is reaching out and making connections with other women in her group and setting off a kind of psychic bomb in her life that is anything but comforting. 

Review Fix: What did you learn about New York theatre?  

Palumbo: There are a lot of categories and sub-categories under the header “New York Theatre,” I think.  People are working together in this town to make all kinds of theatre happen, even though it gets harder and harder as costs continue to rise and audiences dwindle.  

I think I’ve learned a lot trying to get Divination up at the ATA on a shoestring budgets, but the main thing I’ll probably take away is that it really helps when everyone on the production has the same level of commitment and professionalism, no matter that there’s not a lot of pay involved.  Things don’t really work, otherwise.

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

Palumbo: This production will run for a short while at the ATA, but as our actors aren’t union we’ll be making a DVD and a youtube-able “trailer” for the show.  The actors can use the footage to add to their reels, and I’ll be able to post the trailer on the New Play Exchange (NPX) for demonstration purposes to try and generate interest in subsequent productions.
Review Fix: What’s next? 

Palumbo:  There’s a YA novel I’m finishing called “Midway Kids,” and a comic screenplay I’m doing a third pass on at the moment about a couple of girls getting in stupid trouble in Northern Ireland in the 80’s called “How to See Ireland and Not Die.”  There’s also a sci-fi pilot I’d love to finish, but I’ve had to back-burner it for a bit because it would be really expensive to shoot and unless I suddenly turn into JJ Abrams it probably won’t do me any good to try and pitch it anywhere.  I’m probably like a lot of writers in that I always have a kind of queue of things that I’d like to work on, and then when one of them catches fire then that’s the one I become obsessed with until it’s completed.

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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.

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