A Coupla Crackpot Crones
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Carolyn Myers
July 26, 2012
What is your job on this show?
playwright, actor.
What type of theater do you like most to work on?
I like to live my life in the theater creating original comedy about issues of social concern. I like be the playwright or work with the playwright in a hands-on right there environment. I like to be a member of a passionate theater company. I like to do improv.
Complete this sentence: My show is the only one in FringeNYC that...?
---features a were-lesbian transforming under the full moon, a naked librarian, and Eve seeking therapy after 5000 years of feeling guilty for eating the apple.
How did you meet your fellow artists/collaborators on this show?
I met Terry Baum, my theater partner in 1972. She had just moved to Santa Barbara and put up a sign advertising a meeting to start a community theater. I went to that meeting and everything that has unfolded in my life in the past 40 years can in some way be traced back to that night.
Which cartoon character would you identify your show with: Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Mickey Mouse, Marge Simpson?
Oh, we are soooo Marge Simpson. We are The Crackpot Crones and Marge is on her way -- the hair, the wisdom, the life experience, the love, the voice --- mmm-mmm, she's gonna be crackpot crones for sure.
Theatre is a necessary ingredient in democratic societies. Do you agree or disagree, and why?
YES! Theatre is the most democratic of arts -- its the medium and the message all in one. The close community created by the rehearsal process, the agreeing and disagreeing as creation goes on, the joyous gathering together of audience, the post-production discussions, the blues of closing and the excitement of coming together again. It's democracy live! Gathering together with each other to laugh -- it's what everyone in the world loves to do and wishes they could do. Participatory, grass roots democracy. Yeah, baby!
