About PlayFest 2020

Immerse yourself in the world of new plays as The Basel-Kiene Family joins City Beverages in presenting PlayFest 2020! This year’s new play festival features six groundbreaking new works that will each be presented as a livestreamed virtual reading.

This week, Rachel Lynett shares her creative process and the world she’s created in thought her provoking script, Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson).

Orlando Shakes: What questions are preoccupying your mind as a writer at the moment?

Rachel Lynett: Because of COVID, I’ve been thinking a lot about how I continue to write for the stage in a way that translates virtually. Though I would love to write for TV, when I write plays, I love leaning into the theatricality. It feels like a lot of theatre companies are asking us to write movies when they ask us to write something for a “virtual setting” and I’m trying to come to terms with that. What I aim to do is write a play that’s meant for the stage but still has a heartbeat that’s loud enough to translate well into a virtual setting. There’s an added level of intimacy in virtual theatre that I’m really hoping to explore more. I guess what’s on my mind is what’s on a lot of theatre artists’ mind: How do I continue to do what I love in a COVID-19 world?

Orlando Shakes: How did you get into playwriting?

Rachel: For as long as I can remember, I was always writing. In class, I would write poems and stories all over my homework but I never actually wanted to be a writer. It was something I did for fun. Then in college, after failing every other major, I took Script Analysis and the plays my teacher chose were revolutionary. She was all about decolonizing theatre instruction before it became “mainstream.” We didn’t read a single Arthur Miller, Shakespeare, or Beckett play. She had us read plays that kind of showed me how expansive the definition of performance could be and that class changed my life. I switched my major and started to focus on dramaturgy and stage management. After I switched my major, I had to take acting classes. Turns out, I was actually good at it but I kept getting cast as the sassy black friend or the mean girl. All of the roles were 2-dimensional. I figured it was because I wasn’t a good actor. Then, I started stage managing and saw GREAT actors of color being cast in those same roles. I was infuriated I decided that I would start writing my own plays that women of color, specifically Black and Latine women, would have fully fleshed out roles with some teeth to them. I wanted the same for queer actors as well. We don’t need anymore coming out stories. Our stories are more nuanced than that. I realized if I wanted to see a change in how people like me were written, I would have to start writing those plays.

Orlando Shakes: When you’re writing, what does an ideal day look like to you?

Rachel: Messy. I usually take 1-2 days to write a play. I sort of pick a place in my apartment and I don’t move from that spot until the play is finished. I surround myself with snacks, water, and wine and just write until I’m done. Most often, plays kind of just fall out of me. Just this weekend, I wrote a 60-min play in a single day. That’s not really unusual for me; I kind of just zone out and get immersed into the world of the play.

Orlando Shakes: How do you define your creative process as a playwright?

Rachel: I’m a big fan of working collaboratively. I think I write plays so quickly because I can’t wait to work on them with other people. The second I finish a draft, I ask who wants to read it? Can we workshop it? Working with actors, directors, and dramaturgs is definitely my favorite part. I like to think I create the ground plan but as a team we build the world.

Orlando Shakes: What was your initial inspiration for writing this play, and what fueled you throughout the writing process for Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson)?

Rachel: I’ve been teaching on the collegiate level since 2012 and it’s frustrated me how many times students only seem to know August Wilson and Lorraine Hansberry. Not that they’re not great but there are so many other Black playwrights out there. I’ve also been deeply annoyed that when a theatre wants to prove their diverse, they do a August Wilson play. Wilson and Hansberry are legends but if you only do those two playwrights, you let your audiences walk away believing in a very monolithic Black experience that doesn’t exist. That’s always sat with me.

I suppose the thing that pushed me over the edge was I sitting in a lecture by white woman who taught African American Diasporic Art and she kept saying things like “the Black experience” and I started to question “What is the Black experience? Can it be so neatly defined?” So I wanted to write a play that constantly questions “What is blackness?”

Orlando Shakes: List the first four words that spring to mind to describe your play.

Rachel: Identity, revolution, deconstruction, Black.

Orlando Shakes: What playwrights have inspired your body of work?

Rachel: I am deeply, deeply inspired by Caryl Churchill, Young Jean Lee, Suzan Lori Parks, Lydia Diamond, and Jose Rivera.

Orlando Shakes: Who are some current playwrights you would recommend to those interested in new plays/playwrights?

Rachel: There are so many. My biggest recommendation is get New Play Exchange and read the plays that are on there. I don’t like lists because too often so many wonderful people are left out and I know what being left out feels like. About a year ago, I wrote a list of 31 plays to check out on my blog but I definitely want to echo that there are so many more missing from this. I’m actually thinking about writing another one.

Orlando Shakes: If you are willing to talk about it – what new projects are on your horizon?

Rachel: So many great things. I am super excited to have received a Greater Good Commission with LatinX Playwright’s Circle and Pregones Theatre. I also received a commission with American Stage to write Letters to Kamala and am part of the playwrights’ collective at Florida Studio Theatre.

Learn More About the Reading

Be a part of Rachel’s creative process and book tickets to Apologies to Lorraine Hansberry (You Too August Wilson) where you’ll be able to provide live feedback after the reading.

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