Review Fix chats with playwright William Considine, who discusses the creative process behind his autobiographical production, “Moral Support.â€
Review Fix: What was the inspiration/reasons for doing this play?
William Considine: I felt compelled to write this play, in order to understand my life and the lives of my family better. This grounding in reality enabled me, I hope, to express more universal themes about family.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Considine: My creative process varies from piece to piece. Often an idea will germinate for a long time, before I start writing. Then the writing itself inspires more writing to flesh out the original feelings and thoughts. Moral Support came to me in scenes, over decades. I would reach a certain point and have to stop, because of what I had to face, the person I had to draw, and a reluctance to be so personal and revealing.
Review Fix: What makes this different or special from other works of this topic?
Considine: Moral Support is a naturalistic family drama, about a very troubled family. It has elements of the poetic and surreal, which make it different. It is a working class story, about a particular family in a declining Rust Belt area, and the addictions and health concerns that trouble them. In that, it is very contemporary, although set in an earlier period.
Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself through this process?
Considine: I experienced the pained reluctance to look back at troubling memories, and the quiet, lasting satisfaction of working to express all their complexity through art. What I was ashamed to confront became what I feel proud to have faced and portrayed.
Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this production?
Considine: I hope this play will continue to have life, and to give people the satisfaction of experiencing art that reflects intimately on personal themes.
Review Fix: What’s next?
Considine: I plan to work to bring to the stage another full-length play, a verse play, Women’s Mysteries.
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