A Conversation with Playwright James Still
James Still’s plays have been widely produced throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa, China and Japan. He is a four-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, an elected member of both the National Theatre Conference in New York and the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center, and a five-time Emmy nominee for his work in television. He received the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award from the William Inge Festival, the Todd McNerney New Play Prize from Piccolo Spoleto, and the Indiana Authors Award for Drama. He recently completed an unprecedented 26-season tenure as Playwright in Residence at Indiana Repertory Theatre. He is an Artistic Affiliate at American Blues Theater in Chicago, and has directed plays at many theaters.
You've participated in the New Harmony Project many times over the years - I count 6 times! Is that right?
I think I've been with the summer conference 7 times: once as a director, once in "full development", and 5 times as a writer in residence. I also did the first winter residence in 2016 spending 3 weeks in the Poet’s House writing a new play. And also did the first Indianapolis NHP First Look -- workshop/reading of a new play in 2019. So yeah... I've been around... each and every time has been a gift for different reasons.
So you've seen NHP change quite a lot - can you talk about a favorite memory or two? If you were asked to describe NHP to someone, how would you do it?
One way that things have changed — from my vantage point (and this is a nuanced thing) I think NHP (and the American theater in general) has slowly evolved in terms of how it views “work”… In my early days at NHP (and many other places) there was a competition vibe, a sense of whoever has the most colored pages “wins”. But I think writers have pushed back against the idea that “one size fits all” in new play development. While I never take the gift of a workshop and/or time spent with collaborators for granted, I also try to be honest about the ways that a new play might benefit from different ways of attention. And that’s what I’m getting at: attention. There’s something about New Harmony (both the place and the Conference) that has always allowed me to quickly and deeply drop inside whatever project I’m dreaming about. The town is unusual — it’s like the “Brigadoon” of new play development.
Favorite memories… every project I’ve worked on has been enriched in very particular ways by my time with the NHP. And I’m lucky because I’ve celebrated a bunch of my birthdays there and I usually mark it with a labyrinth walk under moonlight (often with lots of other NHP artists). And that’s the other memory: the walks and conversations I’ve had with beautiful artists, and being a witness to the birth of new plays, listening to readings and cheering on fellow writers and their plays. And delighting in actors stepping up and helping plays levitate. O! And the lightning bugs in 2012. That was something otherworldly.
Where do you find inspiration for your writing? What other writers (in any genre) do you find inspiring?
Inspiration: for me it can happen anytime anywhere. Something scribbled in chalk on a sidewalk, a snippet of overheard conversation, dreams in the night, during shavasana in yoga, on a long run, a memory of a memory, a footnote in a history book, something that makes me weep or do a spit take, something that makes me sweat or my heart race… But/and for me there is big (and necessary) space between “inspiration” and “writing”. I think of it as a crush vs a love story. Crushes are easy (and fun) but don’t last. Love stories are hard (and fun) and often have sustainability. I tend to spend TIME in process with anything I’m writing (2, 3, 5 years…) so I’m looking for stories that can take that kind of rigorous love over time.
Other writers? So many and not one in particular. I tend to turn to poetry and short stories because I admire their economy and making the impossible, beautiful. Billy Shakespeare has made my life miserable. The novelist Louise Erdrich always reminds me of point of view and community. Caryl Churchill is the reason I became a writer in the theater — she inspired me to think about time and structure in otherwise unimagined ways. Alice Munro’s short stories can be fully satisfying in 30 pages. Tennessee Williams was a radical experimenter (language, structure, content) and that’s something that gives me courage. Translations of Rumi’s poetry. I’ve also been inspired by other kinds of storytellers: political speech writers, teachers, quilters…
What's your writing process/ritual?
Show up. Write. Remind myself that I’m always writing even when it seems like I’m not writing. Take walks. Watch dancers. Research forever. And at some point put the research away. Listen to the story. Imagine structure. I consistently keep two things in view when I’m writing. One is a quote from Walt Whitman that reads “Don’t be stung by the respectability bee.” And the other is a photo of myself when I was 4 years old because that boy was so funny and sly and playful and brave and inventive and engaged and always making up stories. His art wasn’t ambitious — it was joyful.
You've had work produced at all different kinds of theatres, all across the country. What advice would you give to a playwright approaching their first major production?
I never give advice! But if I can share a few things I know — here’s something I believe in: production is hard. Seeing a new play through a design process and casting and rehearsals and previews and opening: it’s hard. Even in the best of circumstances it’s always hard. So the thing I always ask myself is “Who do I want to that hard thing with???” It’s the people. It’s always the people. Surround you and your play with gorgeous human beings who will advocate for your process while challenging you at the same time. Don’t hate your audience — and don’t expect everyone to love your play. And finally: you are not your play. Your play is your play. Make it personal but don’t take it personally.
Do you have a dream project that you're dying to work on?
The next one! Honestly I only do dream projects. Life is short. I have a filing cabinet that is literally filled with folders filled with scrap paper and airplane napkins and ticket stubs and notebooks filled with scribbles that I believed would one day become a story. My struggle is not coming up with dream projects — my struggle is having a long enough life to work on all of those projects. I’ve written solo plays and plays with 56 actors and everything in between. My dream project is something that I haven’t imagined yet but will change my life. Again.