Author of:
After Midnight [Cupcake Reading Series, Oct. 2011]
Expecting Bobby (or Nicole) [Quickies 12, June 2011]
Joy McCullough-Carranza studied theater at Northwestern University, where she wrote her first play and won the Agnes Nixon Playwriting Award. Since then, her plays (including Little Birds, Hiding Hannah, Blood/Water/Paint, Trapped, Mud Angel and Watching for Wolves) have been developed and produced in New York (Manhattan Theatre Source), San Diego (new village arts, Lamb’s Players), Chicago (Stage Left Theatre) and Seattle (FringeACT, WET, Mirror Stage Company, Live Girls! Theater, the Mae West Fest, 14/48, Seattle Dramatists). She has twice been a finalist for the Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville.
Joy has taught playwriting for ACT, La Jolla Playhouse and the Old Globe Theatre, and throughout Latin America for Icthus International. She met her husband while traveling in Guatemala, and is now happy mama to Joaquin and Cordelia, who inspire her more than she ever dreamed possible. Joy is a member of the Dramatists Guild.
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Where did the idea for After Midnight come from?
When my daughter hit three, the princess phase assaulted our house with a vengeance. (Oh so ignorant I was, thinking we could avoid it.) Our local library had at least twenty different versions of Cinderella, and we read them all, over and over and over. I spent more time with Cinderella than one single person should ever spend with a single story, and deprived of much adult contact as a stay at home mom, I probably pondered it a little too long and hard. First I was struck by how resilient Cinderella would have to be to even be capable of love after the abuse she suffers growing up. But even more, I was so struck by the ridiculousness of her family not recognizing her at the ball, and the prince not recognizing her later. But of course, Shakespeare pulls that trick all the time – Portia puts on pants and no one recognizes her! And thinking of Shakespeare probably led to the romp through the woods and the rest is After Midnight.
Where did the idea for Expecting Bobby (or Nicole) come from?
Expecting Bobby (or Nicole) was written for 14/48: The World’s Quickest Theatre Festival, which means that at 8 pm on a Thursday night, I was given a theme (The Life You Knew) and 12 hours to write a ten minute play for two men and one woman on that theme. I was pregnant with my second child at the time, and very aware of how dramatically a new baby changes a family’s dynamic, as well as all the questions/hopes/fears/dreams parents have for their children.
What is your favorite moment in Expecting Bobby (or Nicole)?
When special Bobby says, “You’re beautiful, Mama.”
What is your favorite moment in After Midnight?
The final moment.
Who is your current playwright talent crush?
I’m writing kids fiction these days (more on that below), so that’s what I’m totally immersed in and crushing on. Kate DiCamillo is a huge crush. Suzanne Collins (yes, Hunger Games is amazing, but her previous series The Underland Chronicles is also a kickass exploration of war, for the slightly younger set). Phillip Pullman makes me swoon. And I’m revisiting the loves of my childhood: Beverly Cleary, Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis.
What advice would you give to aspiring playwrights?
Just write. Do the work. It’s not quantum physics. But it does require showing up at the damn page. And continuing to show up when it feels like no one else believes in your work. Or when you have very long, very dry spells. Because you’ve got stories to tell, stories that can only be told through the immediacy of live theatre. So you show up and write.
What kind of theater do you love?
Theatre that couldn’t be anything but theatre.
What are you currently working on?
I’m on a theatre hiatus and have been devoted to kid lit for a while. I fell into ghostwriting some children’s fiction a few years ago, and now for the last year I’ve been working on a novel of my own. I hope to start submitting it to literary agents soon. The idea currently forming in my brain is also a children’s novel, so we’ll see when I get back to the theatre.
Outside of theater, what are you really into right now?
My kids, mostly. They’re five and one, and through their exploration of the world I get into so many cool new things. You know, bugs, dinosaurs, mythology, Narnia, whatever they’re into. Reading and writing kid lit. Gardening, baking, sewing. I somehow turned into Laura Ingalls since having kids.
Do you have a favorite and least favorite word?
Not really. I love most words when they’re used in the perfect way. This particular little play makes use of a word I have never, ever said and always reviled, but I love it in this play, because it’s perfect how it’s used (if I do say so).
Is there a question you would like to see posed to playwrights featured in future spotlights?
Why theatre? Why did you choose the stage as the way to tell this story, instead of some other form of storytelling?
Live Girls! is a theater company dedicated to producing and developing new plays by women.
