Interview with Stephen Gregg

Episode 159: Interview with Stephen Gregg Lindsay talks to playwright Stephen Gregg (This is A Test, Crush, Small Actors, The New Margo, Twitch) about his start down the writing path, his writing process as well as his connection to drama education and theatre teachers. Sometimes, the place we think we’re going when we start our careers is not the place we end up. Show Notes Stephen's new play, Crush Stephen’s Twitter Scene Spurs Drama Teacher Academy: Top Ten Playwriting Exercises Episode Transcript Welcome to TFP – The Theatrefolk Podcast – the place to be for Drama teachers, Drama students, and Theatre educators everywhere. I’m Lindsay Price, resident playwright for Theatrefolk. Hello! I hope you're well. Thanks for listening! This is Episode 159. You can find any links to this episode in the show notes which are at theatrefolk.com/episode159. All right. I am delighted to say that this podcast is a conversation with playwright Stephen Gregg. If you’re an educator, you know his play, “This is a Test.” But you may not know about his long, long, long connection to Drama education and Theatre educators. I’m going to link to this blog, Playwright Now, in the show notes. I encourage you to go over there and read an article on his site that he wrote called “Why I Love Theatre Teachers.” I am also going to link to Stephen’s Twitter which is filled with awesome tips for playwrights – student or otherwise. He talks about learning to write plays one tweet at a time and it’s something your students can do as well. Have your student writers to go Stephen’s Twitter, pick a tweet, and use that as a reflection prompt. Here’s an awesome one: “Story is what happens. Plot is how the story is revealed. Lion King and Hamlet have the same story but different plots.” How would you students respond to that? How does it fit with their notion of story and plot? What are their examples? What examples could they come up with of story and plot? See? See? Love it! What else does Stephen have to say? Let’s get to it! LINDSAY: All right. I am here, talking to Stephen Gregg. Hello, Stephen. STEPHEN: Hello! How are you? LINDSAY: I am wonderful, and how are you? STEPHEN: I’m doing fine. Thank you! LINDSAY: That’s good. Tell everybody where in the world you are. STEPHEN: I’m in Venice Beach, California – an area that’s been appealingly funky for about thirty or forty years and, suddenly, has become a little bit of a tech hub. It’s an area that’s changing but, still, an interesting place to live and work. LINDSAY: I like the phrase “appealingly funky” because, you know, funky has a range. You can go from, you know, it’s hipster or a forced hipster funky and smelly funky and all those kinds of things. So, I like “appealingly funky” as a descriptor. I like that. STEPHEN: Well, twenty years ago – or even ten years ago – there were parts of Venice that were just dangerous. LINDSAY: Oh, isn’t that funny how places, locations change? Because I live in the same – in a much smaller scale. For our folks, Venice, it’s outside Los Angeles, yes? STEPHEN: Technically, it is Los Angeles.