Signature is very good about encouraging playwrights to open that
old drawer where an abandoned or exiled play may be languishing.
ghosts or dead children” (which always seem to end up in my
plays). So that was different – I put some restrictions on myself,
which is always exciting because new things can happen if you
don’t allow yourself to do the same old thing you know how to
do. This is also the first time I’ve written a main role for an upperclass woman.
And so when Signature offered me the residency, I thought,
“This is a miracle, I’m going to get to do this show with Bill!”
S: What is it that makes him such an astute director of new work?
NW: One of my most personal – and for me, important – stories about writing
plays happened with Bill when I turned in the first draft of The Liquid Plain.
The play was originally written in three acts. When we all came together at
Oregon (and this was one of the first times I had a conversation with Bill)
he told me he loved the play. He was very passionate about it. And then he
was quiet a moment and he said, “I have to be straight with you: I hate the
third act.” I just burst out laughing! The moment he said that, I just knew he
was right – the third act wasn’t necessary at all. Bill’s boldness and honesty
so impressed me, and he was right.
S: What made you want to go in a different direction?
NW: We’re often encouraged as writers to find stories within
ourselves, and that’s not something I’ve ever been interested
in – I seek stories outside of myself, and often in histories that
have not been brought to light, but this was a story that was
actually told to me. I found it quite shocking and I thought,
“I must write a play about this story someday.” A few years
passed and then I was commissioned by [French producer]
Anne Terrail. I think she was a little surprised about the dark
content but I assured her it would be very funny, so she
agreed for me to write it. Anne was still a little uncertain when
she read an early draft but when she first heard it read by actors, in English, in Paris, she saw the humor and compassion in
S: What has being a Residency One playwright meant to you?
NW: My residency at Signature has given me the greatest joy I’ve experienced
in the theatre world because it is a place that has repeatedly demonstrated
its commitment to me as a playwright. I was surprised by, and welcomed,
the thorough (and incredibly helpful) involvement of both Jim and Beth
throughout the rehearsal process. Whenever I have wanted to speak with
them, they’ve made themselves available. I’ve never worked so intensely
over a period of time with the same theatre, and that too is kind of
miraculous. That for each production you enter the building and see –
in terms of the theatre’s administration, the production staff, everyone
that works at Signature – those same radiant faces who have been so
encouraging and so hospitable.
the play and she was, I believe, convinced.
S: What are you working on next?
S: Why did you want Bill Rauch
to direct?
(top): Rachel Nicks and Samantha Soule in And I and Silence at Signature Theatre, 2014.
(above): Naomi Wallace and Trae Harris at the first rehearsal of And I and Silence.
Kennedy. And I felt very welcomed. I think it’s important that
playwrights who are not part of “mainstream” American theatre
realize that Signature does not just produce Pulitzer Prize-winning
playwrights, but also playwrights like myself, who have been
writing for twenty years or more but have never had what one
would call a big “hit” in the theatre. What I have had is a handful
of American theatres who have produced my work, and nurtured
and supported my work, and I think I can say that the most consequential home for my plays has been Signature Theatre.
S: How is Night is a Room different from your previous plays?
NW: Most of my work is not what you would call straight realism
or naturalism. When I began writing this play I told myself: “No
7
NW: I first met Bill when I went
out to Oregon. His theatre, the
Oregon Shakespeare
Festival, commissioned
and produced the World
Premiere of The Liquid
Plain as part of its
American Revolutions
cycle. While I was there
I saw two productions
he directed and they
were so very brilliant
that I thought, “ H]\