David Nice author of "Investigation"
Can you tell us about your beginnings as a playwright?
As a kid and a young adult, I acted in many school, community and college shows. I also wrote sketches and short plays. So, from age 12 to about age 21, I was a theater person.
Throughout my adult life I continued to write poetry, but somehow I lost the knack for acting and performing on a stage. I would still see as much theater as I could, but I was an audience member only.
In 2004, my brother, Jim, was diagnosed with, and died from, leukemia. That was a shock and a turning point for me in many ways. It was the classic realization that you are not guaranteed anything in your life. So right around that time, 2004-05, I decided to get back to the theater and to try to be as serious – and as good – as I could be as a playwright.
A lot of my recent “training” and practice as a playwright I owe mostly to two organizations – the Lancaster Dramatists’ Platform and PlayPenn in Philadelphia. The Platform is a group of writers in the Central PA area who gather every few weeks to listen to each other’s work and put together some public staged readings of new plays.
PlayPenn is a nationally recognized new play development organization based in Philly. I’ve taken many workshops with accomplished playwrights and theater professionals there. Also, I’ve seen staged readings of some great new plays in their July festivals.
What’s something unique or fun about your process that you would be willing to share with us?
Well…I’m not sure how unique this is, but it’s something I try consciously to do. One of my literary heroes is William Carlos Williams, the poet, playwright, and physician. He was a prolific writer but he also always worked full-time as a family doctor and obstetrician. He often wrote poems in fragments on prescription pads in between seeing patients.
I try to take notes and write fragments of ideas in the middle of my “paying” jobs. I have tried to perfect that ability to switch from normal day-to-day business stuff to character development ideas and new scenes. I am getting pretty good at using the recording function on my phone – I ask myself questions about what I’m writing and then try to answer them at some future, more focused time.
What is your experience with play writing workshops like METLab either with this piece or another?
I believe METLab is going to be wonderful and different in a couple of ways. It’s an opportunity for me to expand my circle of collaborators. I’m excited to have that “fresh” reaction to my work. Plus, I am looking forward to working with a director and a dramaturg on the same piece at METLab. That’s a first for me.
Last year, I had a full-length play of mine selected for a staged reading by the Reading Theater Project (Reading, PA). It happened in February, and the Saturday night of the planned reading was cancelled due to a big projected snow storm. The play reading was pushed up to the Friday night which was supposed to be a rehearsal. The audience numbers were very limited. Nevertheless, working with those six actors and a new director gave me plenty of feedback for the play. Actors ask excellent questions and it puts good pressure on me to be able to explain what I’m trying to convey.
How did this specific play come about?
Investigation comes out of a desire to write about sex as honestly as I could, at least from a certain angle. Peter and Amy, my characters in this 2-character piece, also present a chance to explore how sex, work and relationships are viewed by men and women of different generations. Plus, the context of this play helped to ground me; I feel comfortable creating characters who are moving through the work world and corporate environments.
In that work world, organizations place a lot of rules and expectations on workers about how they should behave, but in the rest of the world (the “HBO” world) that surrounds them, the rules and expectations are a lot different. So, in the workplace, you often get really artificial dialogue going on between coworkers which keeps the peace, but doesn’t necessarily lead to any real understanding.
What are you hoping to gain from this process and working with METLab’s Plays in Progress Festival?
I like this play, Investigation, and I’m proud of it. But, in my mind, it’s not finished. I know it can be better. I’m hoping I’ll find out more about these two characters, Peter and Amy, and how to make their story even more interesting and engaging. I think the comic elements of this play could be improved, maybe expanded, and I hope to gain some insight into that. Finally, I want Amy to be as developed and complicated as Peter and I’m not sure I’m there yet.
As a kid and a young adult, I acted in many school, community and college shows. I also wrote sketches and short plays. So, from age 12 to about age 21, I was a theater person.
Throughout my adult life I continued to write poetry, but somehow I lost the knack for acting and performing on a stage. I would still see as much theater as I could, but I was an audience member only.
In 2004, my brother, Jim, was diagnosed with, and died from, leukemia. That was a shock and a turning point for me in many ways. It was the classic realization that you are not guaranteed anything in your life. So right around that time, 2004-05, I decided to get back to the theater and to try to be as serious – and as good – as I could be as a playwright.
A lot of my recent “training” and practice as a playwright I owe mostly to two organizations – the Lancaster Dramatists’ Platform and PlayPenn in Philadelphia. The Platform is a group of writers in the Central PA area who gather every few weeks to listen to each other’s work and put together some public staged readings of new plays.
PlayPenn is a nationally recognized new play development organization based in Philly. I’ve taken many workshops with accomplished playwrights and theater professionals there. Also, I’ve seen staged readings of some great new plays in their July festivals.
What’s something unique or fun about your process that you would be willing to share with us?
Well…I’m not sure how unique this is, but it’s something I try consciously to do. One of my literary heroes is William Carlos Williams, the poet, playwright, and physician. He was a prolific writer but he also always worked full-time as a family doctor and obstetrician. He often wrote poems in fragments on prescription pads in between seeing patients.
I try to take notes and write fragments of ideas in the middle of my “paying” jobs. I have tried to perfect that ability to switch from normal day-to-day business stuff to character development ideas and new scenes. I am getting pretty good at using the recording function on my phone – I ask myself questions about what I’m writing and then try to answer them at some future, more focused time.
What is your experience with play writing workshops like METLab either with this piece or another?
I believe METLab is going to be wonderful and different in a couple of ways. It’s an opportunity for me to expand my circle of collaborators. I’m excited to have that “fresh” reaction to my work. Plus, I am looking forward to working with a director and a dramaturg on the same piece at METLab. That’s a first for me.
Last year, I had a full-length play of mine selected for a staged reading by the Reading Theater Project (Reading, PA). It happened in February, and the Saturday night of the planned reading was cancelled due to a big projected snow storm. The play reading was pushed up to the Friday night which was supposed to be a rehearsal. The audience numbers were very limited. Nevertheless, working with those six actors and a new director gave me plenty of feedback for the play. Actors ask excellent questions and it puts good pressure on me to be able to explain what I’m trying to convey.
How did this specific play come about?
Investigation comes out of a desire to write about sex as honestly as I could, at least from a certain angle. Peter and Amy, my characters in this 2-character piece, also present a chance to explore how sex, work and relationships are viewed by men and women of different generations. Plus, the context of this play helped to ground me; I feel comfortable creating characters who are moving through the work world and corporate environments.
In that work world, organizations place a lot of rules and expectations on workers about how they should behave, but in the rest of the world (the “HBO” world) that surrounds them, the rules and expectations are a lot different. So, in the workplace, you often get really artificial dialogue going on between coworkers which keeps the peace, but doesn’t necessarily lead to any real understanding.
What are you hoping to gain from this process and working with METLab’s Plays in Progress Festival?
I like this play, Investigation, and I’m proud of it. But, in my mind, it’s not finished. I know it can be better. I’m hoping I’ll find out more about these two characters, Peter and Amy, and how to make their story even more interesting and engaging. I think the comic elements of this play could be improved, maybe expanded, and I hope to gain some insight into that. Finally, I want Amy to be as developed and complicated as Peter and I’m not sure I’m there yet.