Profile for Lisa_Kron

Rob wrote: "Tonight is Opening Night and it’s the entire company’s Broadway Debut! What is the feeling like backstage?" We are having a really, really good time. Everyone working on WELL: the crew, the artistic staff, the cast, including the covers who are an integral and delightful part of the life of this show -- is lovely and warm and very fun. I have often said that the problem with a solo show is that the cast parties suck. So it is truly delightful to be sharing this experience with thi...

Rob wrote: "Since your childhood plays such a large role in "Well," how did you take poetic license with your youth?" When I’m writing I always start with what really happened. Which means I have to dig past the comforting distortions of memory and try to remember what really happened. And usually there’s something much more interesting, complicated, vulnerable and real there then the narrative I created in retrospect. As I heard someone say once, "The first time you tell a story, it’s fact. ...

Rob wrote: "You play "yourself" in the show. What is it like being directed to play "you"?" I have always counted on strong, smart directors in my work. Mark Brokaw who so beautifully directed my previous play, 2.5 Minute Ride, said to me, "Lisa you don’t have to feel it, the audience has to feel it." When I’m working on my plays I don’t feel like I’m reliving personal experiences, I’m thinking about how to shape what has been written to achieve the deepest audience engagement. It wouldn’t be...

thevolleyballer wrote: "Lisa, I hope to one day be a playwright, whether it's straight drama or a full-fledged musical. My question is, what do I do with a play once it's written? Where do I go, and what's the next step?" My path as a playwright was very non-traditional. I started performing in the East Village in the 80’s and kind of made my way up from tiny clubs to small clubs to Off-Off Broadway theaters to Off Broadway and now this. So I climbed this very peculiar ladder and didn’t have ...

Rob wrote: "WELL of course deals with your mother "finding her way into the play" - what did your mother think of the show?" She’s both happy with the play and continually terrorized by it. She loves Jayne Houdyshell so much and feels very respected by Jayne’s portrayal of her. The first time she saw the play she said, "Jayne, you’re so delightful you even make me wish I was Ann Kron." And I think she feels very good about the ideas in the play and how they are conveyed. But the continual pro...

BwayTheatre11 wrote: "Lisa, did you have any involvement in the Cleveland Playhouse's current production of Well?" I answered a few questions for director, Michael Bloom, but aside from that, no. I was not available to do much more since their run and ours overlapped.

YankeeFan007 wrote: "Is there any way I can get the text of the play?" TCG is publishing the play and it should be out this week.

PalJoey wrote: "How is the process of writing a play on your own different from the process of writing one with the Five Lesbian Brothers?" They each have their different advantages. In my own process, of course, I get to make all the choices. In the Brothers’ process, I don’t have to be responsible for solving every problem – there are other people writing so someone is bound to come up with a good solution. In both cases it’s a writing process in which the core of the play is allowed to eme...

MargoChanning wrote: "WELL is a very structurally complicated play. To what extent did dramaturgs come in handy in arriving at the final draft of the script?" This question was secretly submitted by the dramaturg, wasn’t it? The structure of Well was developed in a collaborative process between myself; the director, Leigh Silverman and the dramaturg, John Dias.

Katygrace84 wrote: "Can you tell us a bit about your writing process? How do you stay motivated? What inspires you? Any words of wisdom for someone attempting to write plays?" I began to write so that I would have material to perform. I’ve never been someone who’s driven to write for the sake of writing although as time has gone on I have learned to enjoy the process more. But I do need a lot of motivation to actually sit down and do it. I have to know that someone’s waiting for the pages. I’...

ClareBear wrote: "I remember seeing Well at A.C.T. in San Francisco a while ago with my school. It's so cool your on Broadway now! What was the journey like? Has the show changed at all?" It’s changed in so many ways – some are obvious. We have a new set designer. We have three new cast members. And this is a much bigger production. Because the play is about me trying to put on a play it needs to acknowledge the reality of whatever theater it’s taking place in. So in this version, the play I’...

melissa errico fan wrote: Is it more or less challenging acting in your own play as opposed to acting in a show written by someone else? I have always counted on strong, smart directors in my work. Mark Brokaw who so beautifully directed my previous play, 2.5 Minute Ride, said to me, “Lisa you don’t have to feel it, the audience has to feel it.” When I’m working on my plays I don’t feel like I’m reliving personal experiences, I’m thinking about how to shape what has been written to achieve th...

I started working on the show about 6 years ago – or, more precisely I started working on a new show 6 years ago that eventually became WELL. I had a vague notion that there was some thematic relationship between this experience I had had in my twenties in this environmental-ecology “allergy” clinic in Chicago, and my experiences growing up in this racially integrated neighborhood. So I started writing about both of those things. It took a long time, though. I didn’t know in the beginning if ...