A few questions with Brett Neveu, the playwright of Traitor, our first Mainstage Show of our 2020 Season.
1. What made you want to adapt An Enemy of the People into this script?
It was a commission from my home theatre company, A Red Orchid Theatre, where I have been an ensemble member for over fifteen years. Guy Van Swearingen, one of our ensemble members, former Artistic Director and founder of the company, had wanted to a standard Ibsen translation of the play and had been pitching it for a few years. Because of the political climate, Guy really pushed hard and another of our ensemble, Michael Shannon, suggested instead that I adapt it and that he would direct it. To that, I said yes.
2. In what ways did current events inspire this script, and how is it relevant to what’s happening in our country right now?
As we worked on the play, everything became more and more relevant, with the president even using an “enemy of the people” to describe the press. We found ourselves caught up in the current day everything, with nearly every news story pulling us further in. We also had some wonderful dramaturgy via my friend and frequent collaborator Tanya Palmer which shed light on the charter school industry, chemical poisonings and town hall fights. Good thing the show is also funny, or we would have all slid straight into a severe depression.
3. What do you hope Asheville audiences will take away from this play?
The same thing I’d hope for all audiences who watch this show, and that is how we sometimes lose ourselves in the fight, forgetting about those lowest who are affected by poor and quick decision making. I have a teenage daughter and I think about her a lot as the winds of change blow both right and left, wondering what she’ll be left with after those battles are over. I guess I want audiences to look around them and better notice humanity on their doorsteps, using compassion and empathy for our future-thinking.
4. In addition to theatre, you also write for tv and film. What challenges and joys are distinct to each medium?
Challenges are the same across the board, getting things made. It’s always harder with film and TV because the stakes, meaning money, are a harder get. Movies and television cost a lot to make and need certain elements to get people involved. I’m attempting to be less compromising and much more patient than I used to be with TV and film and it seems to be working. The joys are about creating a more visual landscape to play in with the opportunity to collaborate with a broader range of people doing the weirdest and coolest stuff. In the end, I try to make it all feel like the same, but the scale of the projects increase the longer you work in this business. Or at least, they’re supposed to. Which can be overwhelming, but that’s what I signed up for in the end.
5. How did you get into theatre and specifically into playwriting?
I was an actor when I was young and found I didn’t care for it as much as writing, so I started to hone that part of my creativity. But I have been writing plays since I was seventeen, so I guess I’ve always been a playwright, pretty much and I’ve been doing theatre since the third grade.
6. What projects are you currently working on?
Three film projects that are in various stages of development, a folk-opera in development, a new play that I’m talking to a few people about and a musical titled Verböten, written with composer Jason Narducy, that’s running right now. Plus a bunch of other stuff that’s on some fragmented list in my head. I’m a bit of a non-stop engine.
7. Any advice for aspiring playwrights?
If someone won’t make your stuff, go make it yourself. Learn to create, dare to fail and keep getting better. Oh! And also find people who you want to do your stuff with and who can help shape your work and voice. Oh! And also get a hobby to get yourself out of that dark theatre sometimes.
8. You’ll be visiting Asheville for opening weekend. What about that visit excites you most?
I’ve never been there before! So, seeing the show & then exploring. I honestly can’t wait. I’ve heard such amazing things about Asheville, so it’s time to see what all that could be.
Biography
Upcoming and recent theatre productions for Brett Neveu include Verböten with House Theatre, Traitor with A Red Orchid Theatre (Joseph Jefferson Award, New Adaptation) and To Catch a Fish with Timeline Theatre. Film/TV productions include the short Convo with Breakwall Pictures and the feature The Earl with Intermission Productions.
Past work includes productions with 59e59 Theatre in New York; The Royal Court Theatre and The Royal Shakespeare Company in London; The Goodman Theatre, Writers Theatre, Greenhouse Theatre, The Inconvenience, A Red Orchid Theatre and American Theatre Company in Chicago.
A Sundance Institute Ucross Fellow, Brett is also a recipient of the Marquee Award from Chicago Dramatists, the Ofner Prize for New Work, the Emerging Artist Award from The League of Chicago Theatres, an After Dark Award for Outstanding Musical (Old Town) and has developed plays with companies including The Atlantic Theatre Company and The New Group in New York and The Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre and Victory Gardens Theatre in Chicago.
He is a resident-alum of Chicago Dramatists, a proud ensemble member of A Red Orchid Theatre, a founding member of the playwright collective MC-10, an alumni member of TimeLine Theatre Company’s Writers Collective and Center Theatre Group’s Playwrights’ Workshop in Los Angeles.
Brett has been commissioned by The Royal Court Theatre, Manhattan Theatre Club, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, A Red Orchid Theatre, The Goodman Theatre, House Theatre, TimeLine Theatre Company, Writers Theatre, Strawdog Theatre, Northlight Theatre and has several of his plays published through Broadway Play Publishing, Dramatic Publishing and Nick Hern Publishing.
Brett has taught writing at DePaul University, Second City Training Center and currently teaches writing for the screen and stage at Northwestern University.
Join us as we toast Brett Neveu March 13th at The Magnetic Theatre for our Playwright’s Toast immediately following the opening performance of our first Mainstage Show of the season, Traitor.
Traitor runs March 13th - 28th at The Magnetic Theatre in Asheville, NC. For tickets and more information, click here: www.themagnetictheatre.com
