Juliet Waller Pruzan

Author of May Bear [Quickies Volume 12, June 2011]

Juliet Waller Pruzan is a playwright, dancer, choreographer, and teaching artist. Her plays, many co-written with long-time collaborator Bret Fetzer, have been presented by On the Boards, Annex Theatre, 4Culture’s King County Tour, and InterArts in New York City. They have been published in the Kenyon Review and The Manifesto Series 1.

As a dancer she has performed her work and the work of others throughout Seattle and the Pacific Northwest as well as Memphis, Los Angeles, Europe, Ecuador, and Indonesia. She and Stephen Hando create and perform quirky dance theater pieces that have been seen in Seattle, Portland, and Memphis.
She is a teaching artist for various organizations including, ACT Theater, Macha Monkey, and Gage Academy.

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Where did the idea for  May Bear come from?
It came from an article I read in the New York Times a few years ago about a guy in New York who calls himself “Death Bear”. You can hire him to come to your apartment and collect mementos from a failed relationship. I’m always looking for a place or a person (or a bear) to collect people’s stories.

What is your favorite moment in the play?
I’m not sure yet. My voice in my head can’t compete with the actors. It all changes when I hear the words out loud.

Who is your current playwright talent crush?
Philippe Quesne and Vivarium Studio. They were just at On the Boards. I felt like they made that piece just for me, which was so nice of them.

What advice would you give to aspiring playwrights?
Find a way to hear your work out loud, even it’s just your friends reading it.

What kind of theater do you love?
I love when the out of the ordinary is presented in a completely ordinary way.

What are you currently working on?
I’m finishing a short King Arthur play for Balagan Theatre’s  summer park show. My long-time writing partner, Bret Fetzer and I just finished a play for Theater Schmeater’s summer park show. We’re also doing an expansion of our first play.  I’m getting ready to do choreography for Macha Monkey and Annex Theatre. And I’m working on two plays that my current 4th and 5th grade students wrote.

Outside of theater, what are you really into right now?
My family.

Do you have a favorite and least favorite word?
No but I have favorite and least favorite accents.

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