Lydia R. Diamond talks Writing and Stage Black

Posted January 19 in News, Performances, Comments 0

MPAACT Artistic Associate Carla Stillwell had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Lydia R. Diamond, writer of MPAACT’s current production Stage Black.  Here are her thoughts or writing for the stage, getting produced and growing in her craft.

What was the first thing you ever wrote?
A romance novel at twelve.  It was about myself and Joaquin Andujar who was a Puerto Rican pitcherfor the St. Louis Cardinals and we would live in a big house.  It was a little sexy for a twelve year old.  I guess it was a precursor to plays because I used to act it out with my Barbie dolls.

What was your first production?
You guys did my first not self produced production.  It was The Inside.  That’s why this production is special for me because I still credit MPAACT for giving me my first professional production.

You write both original works and adaptations, how is the writing of an adaptation different from an original pieces?
Adaptation is much more difficult.  I think my only true adaptation was Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.  I think the process of adapting is hard because you’re trying to fit in to a hundred pages or fewer a work that existed in another dimension with considerably more words.  And then there is the additional emotional burden of honoring the work that you are adapting. 

Who helped or hindered you in your early career?
I don’t think it’s fair to say anyone hindered me as fabulously as things have gone.  A lot of different people helped me in a lot of different ways.  MPAACT helped me because I was not used to being produced so I’m sure I stepped on toes all the time because I was used to producing myself, but that’s a learning curve…learning how to be produced.  Because I had the MPAACT credit and had produced myself…because these things were on my resume…I was able to use that to begin my relationship with Chicago Dramatist and Dramatist was instrumental in the next steps in my development as a playwright.  The culture of Chicago theatre helped me as well.  And Mignon [McPherson Nance], who is directing Stage Black has always been one of my favorite directors and dramaturg and to that end she has always influenced my work and made me a better playwright.

  Most people now know you as a playwright.  I know you as an actress.  How did the experience of acting shape you as a writer?
I teach a lot of actors to write plays now and I think it [having been an actor] makes you a better playwright.  I think we have it in our bones what dramatic structures is.  We respect actors.  But for me, my experiences as an actor helped me understand that I am truly a playwright; that writing the plays made me feel empowered in a way that acting never did.    

What themes/ideas/concepts keep recurring in your writing?
It’s always the same thing…It’s always the same things…It’s always relationships, race, class.  Even in my adaptations.  These are the things that perplex me…the issues we can’t seem to resolve nationally.

Are these the things that inspire you as a writer?
 I find that it’s shifting for me since I’ve become a mother.  I think that my concern for and protectiveness of my child changes my focus from examining the world to examining relationships.  I find that my in [road] to the work is now more character driven.

Tell us about Stage Black?
What to say…Well I wrote this play a long time ago…about fifteen years ago.  I wrote it before I was even married.  The challenge of this process was to honor the young woman that wrote Stage Black then and to be ok with that.  I know I wouldn’t like it if someone fifteen or twenty years older came in and rewrote my play.  I mean you get better with every play you write.  I did want to do some re-writes, but I still wanted to honor the young women that wrote Stage Black years ago.  This was an important learning opportunity for me too. 
 

There is always a wit to your work, and Stage Black is hilarious, can you speak to how you use wit and humor in your work?
Thank you, it is a huge complement that you find it witty.  I know I think it’s funny in my head.

Do you fancy yourself a closet comedian?
No, no, no…not even a little bit.  Only in my own head.  I think my humor and wit come out of situations and character development.  I’m not funny at all.  I do very badly at cocktail parties.

Why MPAACT?
What do you mean why MPAACT?

Why did you say hey, let me give this theatre company my play?
Oh, well I think that MPAACT is a company that has very strong sense that it is Afrikan Centered…MPAACT develops new work…these are all the things that are important to me.  And MPAACT is the first company that saw something in me and I will always appreciate that.

What is the most useful advice you ever received about being a writer?
Well there are two things…My friend Lisa Dillman told me a long time ago that my success can be marked by the number of rejection letters.  That stayed with me because I know that when I get a rejection letter I know that I’m a player.  That I’m putting my work out there and that is the first step.  And Derrick Walcott my teacher at BU said something very beautiful to me…he says that you should  be careful how you walk through the applause.
 

Stage Black runs January 16 through March 1st.  Click here for more information.

Lydia Diamond Biography

Posted December 22 in News, Comments 0

 Lydia Diamond’s plays include: The Gift Horse, The Goodman (Theodore Ward 1^st Place, Kesselring Prize 2^nd Place); The Bluest Eye, Steppenwolf (World Premiere, Black Arts Alliance Image Award – Best New Play), New Vic, Theatre Alliance, Plowshares, Playmakers Rep, Horizon Theatre Co., Freedom Theatre, Providence Black Rep, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, Long Wharf/Hartford Stage, Company One (Elliot Norton – Best Fringe Production ’08 Nomination), and Jubilee Theatre; Voyeurs de Venus, Chicago Dramatists (’06 Joseph Jefferson Award – Best New Work, ‘06 Black Theatre Alliance Award – Best Writing), Company One (Fall, ’08); Stick Fly (’08 Susan Smith Blackburn Finalist), Congo Square (World Premiere, ’06 BTAA – Best Play, ’06 Joseph Jeff Nomination – Best New Work), True Colors, The McCarter, L.A. Theatre Works, and Contemporary American Theatre Festival; Harriet Jacobs, Steppenwolf (World Premiere), Staged Readings at Old Vic, U.K., and The Kennedy Center; Stage Black, Cincinnati Arts Consortium, MPAACT (‘09); and The Inside, MPAACT Theatre Co. and Nat’l Tour.  Lydia is currently working on commissions for The McCarter, Victory Gardens/Humana, and Huntington Theatre Companies.  The Bluest Eye, The Gift Horse, and Stage Black are published by Dramatic Publishing.  The Gift Horse is anthologized in Northwestern University Press’ 7 Black Plays, ed. Chuck Smith.  Stick Fly, published 2009, Northwestern University Press. Lydia holds a B.S. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, is a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, a 2006-2007 Huntington Playwright Fellow, and an ’07/’08 TCG/NEA playwright in residence at The Steppenwolf, and is a TCG Board Member.  Lydia Diamond has taught at Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Loyola, and is currently on faculty at Boston University.