Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Interview: UT playwright Francis Cowhig on Keene & Yale Awards, Daily Texan, July 29


Francis Ya-Chu Cowhig talks to the Daily Texan Anderson Rodriguez about the $50,000 Keene prize from the Michener Center for her play Lidless and about another work in progress:

Cowhig: I am always working and thinking about multiple projects. I write best when I am able to go hard and deep into one project for a few months, then put it away for a couple months while I work on something else, and then go back to the first project with fresh eyes. This is how it has been with “LIDLESS.” For the past three weeks, I have been developing a different play, “410[GONE]” at PlayPenn in Philadelphia.

[“410[GONE]” was produced at UT last fall], and just today, I flew from Philadelphia to Houston, where I am at the Alley Theatre working on “LIDLESS” as a part of their New Plays Initiative.

Daily Texan: What was it like for “LIDLESS” to be such a success so soon after you finished your Michener Center fellowship? Is it daunting to set the bar so high early on?

Cowhig: The script of “LIDLESS” has had success in competitions. This does not mean it is a successful play. Plays are written for audiences, not for literary committees. The success of the play will be determined by the audiences that view it once it has the opportunity for professional productions.

Read full interview at Daily Texan Online. . . .

No comments:

Post a Comment