To-day Norm Goldman, Editor of Bookpleasures.com, is please to have as a guest, Steve Capra, playwright and theater critic, as well as author of Theater Voices: Conversations on the Stage.

Good day Steve and thank you for agreeing to participate in this interview. 

Norm:

Steve, could you tell us something about yourself, and what motivated you to write a book pertaining to your interviews and conversations that you have conducted over the years with individuals connected to the theater. 

Steve:

I’ve worked in theater for a long time, mostly in Boston, but also off-off-Broadway.  And I chair an annual playwrighting award committee for the New England Theater Conference. 

When I started collecting these interviews, actually producing the book wasn’t important to me.  I wasn’t result-oriented.  That’s why the interviews span eight years.  I interviewed people because I admired them.

In some cases, I had worked with the people I interviewed.  I knew their ideas, and I wanted to share them.  Michael Shurtleff was my teacher, and Fred Silver was my coach.  Zerka Moreno was my teacher, too – I’d taken one of workshops in psychodrama.  They all impressed me so much… 

I knew the work of every one I interviewed, and I wanted to know what was behind it.  When I saw productions from Peter Hall, or Andrei Serban – they were perfect, but they were so different from each other.  It’s the same, for example, with Edward Albee and Alan Ayckbourn. When you compare them, their writing is so different.  That’s what fascinates me.

And people who work in the theater want to learn about their ideas from them – not interpreted by someone else.  That’s why I admire the interview as a form. 

Norm:

How did you go about deciding which interviews to include in your book Theater Voices: Conversations on the Stage? 

Steve:

Writers tend to publish books of interviews with playwrights, or with actors, or with directors. A lot of publishers think the book has to focus on a discipline.  But the theater has no focus.  It’s one thing to a street performer, and another thing to someone at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.  It’s one thing to a West End director, and something else to a performance artist who performs in nightclubs.  They have different ideas, they face different problems, and they’re doing different things… 

As I talked with these people, I realized that there’s no single right way to create theater.  I wanted to show that by putting the interviews all together.

Norm: 

Which one of the interviews or conversations did you find to be the most enlightening and why?

Steve:

I can’t say, really...  When I talked with each of these people, I thought that that particular person knew it all.

But I will tell you who influenced me the most, all on all – I mean aside from my teachers.  It was Quentin Crisp.  After I met him at the interview, he’d accompany me to the theater from time to time.  Of course, we’d have a great time discussing the show afterward.  If something was wrong in it, I’d point it out, but he’d suggest how it could be set right.  He could see the choice the director made and compare it to other possibilities.  He wasn’t imposing his ideas on the production.  He was pointing out when it didn’t succeed in doing what it was trying to do. 

Norm:

What do you think draws people to the theater, and is there the same interest in the theater as there was in the past?

Steve: 

Could anything be more wonderful than having someone perform for us?   It comes down to that.  Someone’s sharing space with us, entertaining us.  I always feel privileged that people have gone to all the trouble of creating a theater event.  Whether it’s on Broadway or on the street, someone’s performing for us, not for anyone else. I think that’s why people go to the theater. 

The theater is here and now.  Movies can never be like that. I hate movies.

As for theater being as popular as it was for our grandparents…  That was one of the big issues we discuss in the book.  One thing that impressed me was that the theater’s much more woven into British society than American.  It’s one of the things that bind the Brits together.  I want America to have a theater that does that. 

Norm:

As a critic, what do you look for when critiquing?  

Steve:

You have to look for different things, depending on what the production wants to do.  Sometimes I look to see if the show is giving me something new.  That’s very important to me.  If it’s a classic, I look to see if it has a life of its own.  A good production of Shakespeare makes me feel like this is the first time the play’s ever been staged.  If it works, the play is born again. 

The great thing is to look it on its own terms, to overcome your own expectations.  A critic has to surrender himself to the show, not judge it while he’s watching it. He mustn’t want it to be something it doesn’t want to be.

Norm: 

Which playwright is your favorite?

Steve:  

Mayakovsky.  Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.  He wrote during the Russian revolution.  He keeps giving us something expected.  It’s so hard to decipher some of his verse plays.  That’s why I’m absolutely absorbed when I read them.  They make me feel like I’m walking around a building looking for a hidden door.  I’ll look into every little detail of the walls, feel the wood with my fingers…  I’m fascinated by their mystery.  And yet at some deeper level than understanding, they affect me…

Norm: 

Are you satisfied with the state of theater today in America?

Steve: 

I live in New York.  There’s more good theater going on than anyone has time to see.  It’s terrific!  It’s so eclectic – that’s its greatest strength.  Any week, you can see Shakespeare, vaudeville, Shaw, new scripts, improvisation…  everything.

But what about the rest of the country?  In a lot of the country, it’s more or less a loss.   It’s not the theater’s fault.  Americans have been seduced by movies and television.  You don’t have to make an effort when you watch television. 

The weakness of American theater is caused by a lot of things.  It’s caused by the economic system, by the spaciousness of the country, by the educational system…  Critics need to take on a larger role.  They need to make more demands on the theater, and to promote it at the same time.  They need to encourage the audience.

Norm: 

Is there anything else you would like to comment on?

Steve 

I want to encourage people to write about the theater.  Art needs to be discussed.  And you mustn’t be discouraged if it’s tough to get published.  Get the book on the desk of every publisher in the field.  If it’s good work, someone will want it.

Norm:

Thanks Steve and I wish you all the best of luck in all of your future endeavors.