10 Questions
Take Ten: Gwydion Suilebhan
As the first of The Welders playwright collective prepares to hand the reins to eights new theatre-innovators, Artistic Director and playwright Gwydion Suilebhan takes center stage in his own, intimate Transmission, opening April 30 through May 28. Get a glimpse of the writer's life in this week's Take Ten.
1) What was the first show you ever saw, and what impact did it have?
When I was really young – maybe nine years old – I watched my father play Bill Sikes in a production of Oliver and I was forever changed. I sang the entire score for months. I named my golden retriever Oliver. And I never saw my father the same way again: he was epic.
2) What was your first involvement in a theatrical production?
In high school I ran the light board for a production of Midsummer. It was at least twenty years old, and it was a two-scene pre-set board, so I had to adjust up to twenty channels manually for each cue. During the middle of one performance, it caught on fire. I put it out with a fire extinguisher… and then had to finish the show using only one bank of faders. THAT was fun.
3) What’s your favorite play or musical, and why do you like it so much?
I’m not sure I can answer that. Has any playwright ever been able to pick just one? I think maybe the most I can say is that the first play I ever fell completely in love with, when I was a young writer, was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? There have been many other love affairs since then, however.
4) What’s the worst day job you ever took?
I took a temp job doing a census in a hospital in Illinois. My teammate and I had to go into every single room on the units to which we were assigned and count everything in the room: trashcans, chairs, beds, IV poles, you name it. Because of the fact that my mother was a nurse, they assigned our team to the sensitive areas of the hospital: the operating rooms, the psychiatric ward, and labor and delivery. Counting side tables and lamps while schizophrenic inpatients screamed at me: definitely the worst job I ever had.
5) What is your most embarrassing moment in the theatre?
I’ll never tell that story again.
6) What are you enjoying most about working on Transmission?
This isn’t the first time I’ve performed my own work… but it’s the first time I’ve been not only the playwright AND the performer but the artistic director as well. I have great conversations with half my production team… in my head.
7) Other than your significant other, who’s your dream date (living or dead) and why?
I’m going to invoke the middle school “let’s all hang out at the mall” kind of date and say that I’d like to hang out with Oliver Sacks, Steven Johnson, Jared Diamond, Laurie Garrett, and James Gleick. (Five of the greatest science writers in the last fifty years.) Except instead of the mall, I’d like us to hang out on the Galapagos Islands, or maybe Easter Island. We could have a picnic.
8) What is your dream role/job?
To the extent that I can keep writing, advocating for playwrights, and supporting the production and creation of new work, I’ll be happy no matter what I do.
9) If you could travel back in time, what famous production or performance would you choose to see?
May 29, 1913. The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. The Rite of Spring.
10) What advice would you give to an 8 year-old smitten by theatre / for a graduating MFA student?
Learn something else in addition to theater. Not just to make a living, but to make a life. You’ll enrich yourself in so many ways, and both your life and your art will benefit from the experience.
GWYDION SULIEBHAN (Artistic Director, The Welders) is the author of The Butcher, Reals, Abstract Nude, The Constellation, Let X, The Faithkiller, Cracked, and Anthem. His work has been commissioned, produced, and developed by Centerstage, Ensemble Studio Theatre, the National New Play Network, Gulfshore Playhouse, Forum Theatre, Theater J, Theater Alliance, and the Source Theater Festival. He is currently serving as Director of Brand and Marketing for Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and as Project Director of the New Play Exchange for the National New Play Network. In addition, Gwydion has consulted widely on the intersection between theater, the arts, and technology. His clients have included Ford’s Theatre, the Playwrights Center, and the Dramatists Guild, among others. His recent speaking engagements include South by Southwest, TCG, LMDA, the Dramatists Guild, CityWrights, APASO, TEDxMichiganAve, and TEDxWDC, and his commentary appears on HowlRound, and 2am Theatre.
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