Hometown: Cape Cod, MA
Education: Fordham University, Lincoln Center
Favorite Credits: When I was 10 I played Maleficent in a production of Sleeping Beauty that my teacher just transcribed from the Disney movie and my favorite line was "all these years they've been looking for a baby?!"
Why theater?: You sound like my parents. Except they cry when they say it.
Tell us about Dog Eat Dog?: DOG EAT DOG is a play about being fat that I made with my company, Morgan Gould & Friends. I personally felt that I had never seen a play that represented the way I feel about that without resorting to being some annoying play about body image or an eating disorder or some melodrama with DJ Tanner fainting on the treadmill (fat people don't use treadmills-DUH). So I made this piece (despite warring with my general lack of interest in "body plays"). My team and I worked to try and find a way to explode and rage against that genre, rather that try to imitate or fulfill it. So we'll see if it worked. And if it didn't, I'll eat some cake to make the feelings stop.
What inspired you to create Dog Eat Dog?: Being fat and also being bored at the theater. Also my incredible Morgan Gould & Friends company members featured here in our video mission statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGY4UDaR8Z8
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Funny, scary, mean, honest, not boring, fast moving, not pretentious, not about a girl who is too damaged to love the really sweet boy that has finally crossed her path in the office they both work in where she is trying to get ahead but gender oppression is keeping her down and then the boy who loves her gets the promotion because she won't sleep with the boss and the boy has to decide do I take the job or is she more important? I'm inspired by TV shows because I think they know what people want to see, often more than lots of theater does. I'm inspired by funny people. God, I know some really funny people. I want to top them. I like competition. I'm inspired by Extreme Home Makeover. I'm inspired by New York. Lots of writers I know personally inspire me. MATTHEW PAUL OLMOS INSPIRES ME. He is the wind beneath my wings. (But for reals, he's a great writer and an even greater guy, don't tell him I told ya.)
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: I want to make a show for Megan Hill and Michael Cyril Creighton where they play star-crossed lovers through space and time. Each scene would begin with the line, "You. It's you." That would be amazing. I would love to see that play.Also I would love to work with Abby Lee Miller from "Dance Moms". Or just hang out with her. I love her. And I think she's a brilliant artist. I'm not joking.
What show have you recommended to your friends?: Book of Mormon. Debate Society things. Clubbed Thumb things. It was awhile back, but I saw Lisa Kron's In the Wake twice and cried both times like a baby. I mostly recommend TV shows. They are cheaper and you can wear pajamas to them.
Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: I think Amir Wachterman, a founding Morgan Gould & Friends company member would be the only person I could imagine. Plus, he wears my clothes better than me...um, I'm GUESSING. Ha, of course I would have no way to know that. No way at all. It would be called "Fat on a Hot Tin Roof". Or maybe "The Little Mermaid".
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: My favorite part of being an artist is nothing makes me feel guilty. (Or maybe that's my favorite part of being a sociopath?) I just mean in terms of indulgence. Not like, killing cats. I can indulge in anything--like, I love reality TV. But it's "research" and I "need to be clicked in to pop culture". Or like, I love staying inside sometimes when it's REALLY CRIMINALLY nice out. But it's because "I'm writing". Or, oh, I have to cancel on that friend because "I'm under a deadline". By the way if I ever cancel on you by saying I'm under a deadline, I promise, that's real.
If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: Probably richer. Or at least more well adjusted and functioning.
What’s up next?: Come see DOG EAT DOG August 1-4 at HERE Arts Center! http://here.org/shows/detail/1241/ It's 60 minutes! You can't beat that!
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Morgan-Gould-Friends/368146593281951?ref=hl
You can also follow my blog, which is just little snippets of conversation I overhear in New York. http://didhejustcallmefat.blogspot.com/