Interview with Marisa Wegrzyn - playwright of Ten Cent Night.

We’ve been following Marisa’s writing for a couple of years now and we’re excited to be presenting her play “Ten Cent Night” to you, opening June 19th. For a playwright not yet 30 years of age she has an impressive list of accomplishments. She has been commissioned to write by such prestigious theatre companies as Yale Rep and Steppenwolf Theatre on top of being produced by many great theatres across America. A few include: Chicago Dramatists, Moxie Theatre in San Diego, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Rivendell Theatre, Geva Theatre Center, The Hourglass Group in NYC, Baltimore Centerstage, and The Magic Theatre in San Francisco.
Below is a quick little interview we did with Marisa to give you a bit of background on her.

Oh yeah, she’s also a blogger and you can follow her at http://chainsawcalligraphy.blogspot.com/

We get around 40 blind play submissions at the Victory each month and if I had to guess the average age of the playwrights who are submitting it would be around 60 years old. How did someone your age get into writing for theatre?
When I was freshman at Washington University in St. Louis there was a playwriting contest and I figured I could do that. So I read a few plays from the library and wrote a one act.

What did you read?
Oh you know…some Mamet, Marsha Norman, Horton Foote… just whatever I could find to get an idea what playwriting was.

Did you win?
No, I got First Runner up and the prize was I got a workshop and public reading, and then I was hooked. I fell hard for the audience and the laughter. It's immediately gratifying. So I started writing more plays and then I double majored in English Lit and Theatre.

One of the many things we’ve loved about your writing (besides the humor) is your great characters. How do you create them?
Well, I try not to make characters that are only a function of plot but I don’t know where they come from. I write the dialogue and they start to reveal themselves. Then I learn as I write the dialogue what the play is.

You’re from Chicago so where did “Ten Cent Night” come from? It’s such a Texas play.
I’m a big fan of Classic Country songs and Larry McMurtry and I also wanted to write a big family kind of play. But this play was actually started while I was in college and there was even a production done by students in a dorm basement at Washington University. It was really fun but you know…you can only get so much from a 20 year old playing a 50 year old prostitute. The play then sat in a drawer for a few years…

What made you bring it out?
When I became a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatist they wanted to hear a few scenes of my writing. I always loved some of the scenes in “Ten Cent Night” and since basically no one had ever heard them I pulled it out of the drawer and pieced a couple of scenes together. Chicago Dramatists liked it and then wanted to produce it.

It says in your blog that you survive on Texas Hold 'Em and Scratch-N-Win Lotto Tickets. How’s your poker game now?
Not good. My regular game broke up and I’ve been too busy to get a new one together. I think I’ve kind of lost my edge from not playing regularly…when you’re rusty it’s hard to bluff.