(click pics for a larger look)
UPDATE – 10-29-2014: I just saw this announcement from Mary! “I am thrilled to announce that I will be directing my play FAULT LINES at the Off-Off-Broadway Manhattan Repertory Theatre on November 19 & 20.”
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Many people are content to have their lives be simple, with the distinctions between “what is my work” and “what is my passion” being fairly easy to define. Mary Ryan is a Milwaukeean who readily blurs that line. With her advocacy work for local non-profits, and her involvement in the performing-arts – writing, directing, and acting in plays – Mary is pretty much always on the go and her passion in evident in all the work she does. As she says, “I’m not a procrastinator, but if I have only one thing to work on, it’s hard for me to get motivated. I have to have MANY projects!” She is a self-defined “writer, director, visual artist, and social justice advocate.”
Mary has an original play opening at the Alchemist Theatre on April 3. It’s entitled “Use No Place Soon.” It was written by, and is being directed by Mary. “Use No Place Soon” will run for 10 performances and features a 4-person cast. It is a suspenseful play, with a character who’s got a hidden crime in his past…and the plot follows that crime’s revelation. The opening night performance will benefit Project Return, a non-profit that works with former prisoners, helping them to reintegrate to every-day living.
Mary and I sat down recently at Colectivo Coffee and talked about her work in the theatre.
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Here are excerpts from that chat…
+ My earliest work in the arts was acting – my family says, during a family theatre outing, I strayed away and wandered on to the stage of the Nutcracker during intermission! I was in acting classes when I was 3 years old. I really loved acting till I was about 14, but then, still loving the theatre, I wanted to step out of the limelight a bit.
I’ve been writing since high school, but didn’t think of it in terms of script-writing. I was also involved in forensics and debate. Once I got to college, I wanted to be involved in the theatre again, but not with acting. At the time I was a political science major.
+ Writing has been a core passion for most of my life – poetry, essays, prose, political essays. I direct because, while I love writing, it’s easier to find opportunities to direct.
+ Besides my work in the theatre, I make jewelry, do paper-cuts (as framed pieces, and as notecards – a very exacting art form), and a little bit of painting
+(on script-writing) …I’m drawn to serious ethical issues. Drawn to the intersections of art and life, and how one influences the other. One of things that’s incredibly interesting to me about theatre is the disconnect between what is seen on stage and how people behave when they leave the theatre.
I do try to do research, to understand the characters I want to write about. I don’t want to write characters that come across as token or stereotypes.
I often don’t know where the plays I write will end. I let the characters drive the story.
I write a general set of things that occur in a scene and then they start to congeal into a story.
The scripts need to have a larger social value.
I may have a concept that I’m wanting to tackle, but it’s still always character-driven to me.
You can’t think about the audience at all when you’re writing. You don’t know where it’s gonna show, or when it’s gonna get produced…so just write it.
+(on “where do script ideas come from) …I start with themes that interest me and develop them from there.
I’m drawn to cultural criticism, moral debates – I cannot write comedy – I’m definitely a dramatic writer.
I see a lot of theatre, I think it’s important, for any artist, to expose themselves to others in their field.
I try to notice what “clicks” in me, and then springboard from that to the beginnings of a script.
I pay attention to issues, current events, and feed them into my writings.
I don’t have a script yet, but I’d be interested in doing a play about gun violence.
I always carry a journal, so when random ideas come I can jot them.
+ (on directing) …-theatre is intensely collaborative. You’re charged with having a vision, but the directors that are really successful, in my opinion, are pretty ‘hands-off.” There is always a lot of give-and-take — the more collaborative, the better.
-The way you imagine the lines being read will always be different from what the actors will actually do.
+ (on some scripts she’d like to be involved with) …Oh yeah, there’s tons. I’ve adapted “12 Angry Men” into an all women cast…Eugene O’Neill’s “Abortion” – it’s amazingly ahead of its time…just a stunning play…probably one of my favorite one-acts.
“Harold Pinter’s “Ashes to Ashes – it’s a two-person show, a retelling of stories, but not necessarily the main character’s memories…it’s tough to describe.
There’s a lot of plays that deal with racism that I’d like to consider. Ibsen, Pirandello, those that dealt with social issues.
+ (Why should people attend theatre?) …There’s a lot of reasons, especially with community theatre. These are people with regular jobs and a passion for theatre, and by supporting that theatre, you support the community.
Every night you see theatre, you see something unique – just for you – that is different, every night. Each performance is never the same, it’s a unique experience
The theatre is a safe space to think about things you might not normally spend time with – you just have to be there (in the audience) and take it in. It’s a great way to learn.
Theatre is an exhilarating way to embrace the world, in a different way, for an hour or two, and then go back to what you’re used to.
If people want to live in a community that actually cares about each other, they need to go to the theatre. Go to the theatre because it’s a human thing; we like to tell stories.
“Use No Place Soon” opens on April 3 at the Alchemist Theatre. The opening night performance will benefit Project Return, a non-profit that works with former prisoners, helping them to reintegrate to every-day living.
