Interviews
Interview with Jenny Stafford, playwright of Secret Hour
Interview Transcript
Jason: Hi, Jenny. Thank you so very much for joining us. I'm really super excited to have you here with us and to be able to work with you on The Secret Hour in this workshop for Prologue Theatre. So how are you doing today?
Jenny: I'm doing well. Thanks so much for having me both for this and for the workshop. I'm really looking forward to it.
Jason: Awesome. Yeah, this is very, very exciting time to really kind of be able to do these kinds of things. So how have you been handling COVID times as an artist? What's been going on for you?
Jenny: That's a great question. I feel like it changes hour by hour.
Jason: Understood.
Jenny: Yeah, I think kind of back at the start of it, I kind of had like a year of theater work lined up of like workshops and productions and things, and obviously all of those got canceled, just kind of one by one as soon as COVID hit. But there's been some other really cool opportunities that have come up this year, like this workshop, like things that I probably wouldn't be able to do if it weren't for COVID and everything being moved online. So I don't know. It's taken away some things, but it's offered some things too, so it's a mixed bag.
Jason: Yep. Ups and downs. So for all of our viewers who have never met you, because you're not really a DC Area person, can you maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and maybe what your typical day is right now?
Jenny: Sure. So I'm based in Denver, Colorado right now. I actually was a DC person for a while. I went to Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, spent some time there interned with Arena Stage in DC, so I love the DC area even though I'm not there now. So like I said, I'm based in Denver now, but before that I lived in New York for about eight years. I lived in Chicago before that. I was on tour as a performer before that. So I've kind of bounced around a lot, but now I teach theater at a university in Denver. That's kind of what I'm doing right now. And in my normal before-times life, I bounced back and forth between New York and Denver a lot, but this year I've been pretty much in Denver.
Jason: Yeah, that's great, no. And good to know that you do have a little bit of a tie here, so that's great. So as far as the playwriting process goes for you, do you have a particular writing routine or a particular writing philosophy that you follow?
Jenny: I do have a writing routine. I didn't really, until the last couple of years. I kind of just wrote when I had a deadline, and then panic-wrote until I'd met it. Then in the last couple of years, I started just getting into a routine where I get up and I write for the first hour of each day. I just roll out of bed and make a cup of coffee and make myself sit in front of my computer and write. And it's been really nice, actually. It's been nice to have that to hold onto when the world kind of went crazy this year. But I don't know. It's like a nice way to start the day, and it's a nice way to make sure that I'm still making progress on the things that I'm working on, even if it's just little, incremental steps each day.
Jason: Do you set specific goals for yourself every day? Like, "I'm going to write for 20 minutes," or, "I'm going to write five pages." Or is it just, "I need to spend time writing whatever comes out"?
Jenny: Yeah, my only rule is it's an hour. I have to sit there for an hour. And some days a ton of stuff comes out, and some days it's like staring at the wall and trying to come up with ideas, and like a sentence comes out. But I figure as long as I'm sitting there in the space, I'm doing my job as a writer.
Jason: No, absolutely. I feel that way most days when I'm sitting in my office going, "Okay. I'm here. Let's work."
Jenny: Exactly.
Jason: So for this play specifically, for Secret Hour, was there a very specific inspiration for this? Or did you have a kind of ethereal thing you were trying to hit? What was the inspiration for this play?
Jenny: They say that playwrights, a lot of times the things that you write end up being your therapy, and I feel like that felt a little bit like what this play was. I spent a very long time in a relationship where we were dealing with these exact two issues of whose career gets to determine where we live and are we going to have kids or not, and so those were sort of two things that I was just dealing with for years on end in my own life. And sort of a lot of what is in this play was sparked by those conversations and those internal thought processes and just trying to work that kind of stuff out in my own life.
Jason: That's okay. So over the course of this, what has changed about this play from when you first conceived it?
Jenny: Yeah, this play, this draft that we're starting the workshop with is completely different from the first draft that I wrote of the play. This is the second draft. And in the first draft, it had Ben and Kate. It had the main couple. But it had another couple, and there was like a whole other plot about infidelity. There was just a lot going on with that one. And I sent that draft. I did a few table readings and people were like, "I love it." And I was like, "Something about it isn't right, and I can't figure it out."
Jenny: And I sent it to a playwriting professor of mine from grad school, and he wrote back, and he was like, "The seed of this is good, and everything you wrote around the seed of it is crap. I think you need to start again." And I spent a whole day being really mad about it, and then got to the end of the day and I was like, "Yeah. Okay. He's right," and so sort of pulled the whole thing apart. And so this new draft, I got rid of that other couple. I added in sort of the comedic handyman. But the seed of this couple dealing with deception and making life decisions stayed the same, but everything around it changed.
Jason: Interesting. So you have had a chance to work [inaudible 00:06:17] obviously a vastly different version of this script for Secret Hour. You've had a chance to kind of work that a little bit. What would you say, though, as a playwright, the most valuable part of this workshop process is, of a workshop process is for you?
Jenny: Sure. I love the workshop process, I think mostly because it's collaboration. As a playwright especially, you're just alone with your play for such a long time. It's just you in a room being like, "I think this works. I think this joke is funny. I don't know." And then the chance to actually get in a room with other people and hear it out loud and bounce ideas around and find out like, "That joke was not funny. Thank you," just that process of getting to not be alone with it and get other smart brains and eyes and hearts on it is so helpful. So I love that part of the process. I'm really excited about it
Jason: As am I. I'm very excited about that portion. The fact that I'm going to get a chance to kind of see this and hear it as it comes and grows through it is going to be great. For you, what happens after this particular workshop? Or just in general, after any workshop, what happens for you in your playwriting process?
Jenny: Usually after an intense workshop like this, I'll tend to try to put it away for a couple of weeks. I'll take just millions of notes after the last rehearsal, after the last reading, and then just sort of put it away for two weeks, walk away, and come back and see like, "Okay, which of these new ideas stuck? Which of these new ideas sparked something else?" And then often, kind of depending on where we get to in the workshop, I might work on another draft of it, do another round of it before trying to send it back out in the world and make more things happen with it.
Jason: Awesome. Yeah, I'm definitely a... All of my ideas need to stew and ruminate, and then I'll come back to it, sometimes 12 hours later, sometimes couple weeks later, and I'm like, "Oh, I guess that's just been playing in my head this whole time. Now I have an answer for it."
Jenny: Yeah. The distance is helpful sometimes after an intense process.
Jason: Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, so that's pretty much all of my questions about your process, and I'm really excited to kind of get a chance to work on Secret Hour. So I have a couple of just like I'm interested questions. In our time we have found at Prologue Theatre a lot of people tend to subsist on coffee, chocolate, sometimes a drink of choice, and that's pretty much what that is. So I'm curious. For you, coffee or tea?
Jenny: Coffee.
Jason: And how do you take it? Coffee?
Jenny: Yeah. Coffee for sure. Depends on how stressed I am. If it's stressed, it's usually like full of sugar, full of some kind of crazy pumpkin caramel creamer or something. And if I'm not stressed, then I just try to go with like almond milk and not as much sugar.
Jason: Okay. What is one item or thing you can not live without?
Jenny: Probably books. I know that's like a broad thing, but I think I would have a really hard time without books. I like to read, and I'm a nerd and I like to research things.
Jason: Okay. Do you have a favorite, like all-time favorite book, or is that like an impossible question?
Jenny: That's an impossible question. [inaudible 00:09:49] I've been reading a lot of memoirs. I read something like 20 memoirs during quarantine, just because I get so interested in people's lives and things that people have gone through and... Yeah, so if I had to pick a genre, I'll go with memoirs.
Jason: Very cool. I'm recently going through a bunch of historical fiction. I love the idea of like, "This all really happened. These are real people, I think." So do you have a favorite season?
Jenny: Fall. Have to go with fall
Jason: Check. And then final question, if you could have a meal with any celebrity, living or dead, who would it be?
Jenny: I'm going to cheat and pick two and make it like a little dinner party. I'm going to go with Charles Dickens and Billy Joel. I think the combo of the two of them would be a great dinner party.
Jason: That's a lot of fun, yeah. The last time I got asked that question, my answer was Angela Lansbury.
Jenny: Ooh, good call.
Jason: I was a big Murder, She Wrote fan when I was growing up. My grandmother... Literally always on the TV, so she'd be just a great conversationalist. But thank you again so much for your time. It's been great talking to you. I'm really looking forward to working with you on Secret Hour. And again, thank you. Jenny Stafford, playwright and authoress of The Secret Hour, which will be our first workshop with the Forward New Work series brought by brought to you by Prologue Theatre. So thank you, Jenny.
Jenny: Thank you so much.
Jason: Hi, Jenny. Thank you so very much for joining us. I'm really super excited to have you here with us and to be able to work with you on The Secret Hour in this workshop for Prologue Theatre. So how are you doing today?
Jenny: I'm doing well. Thanks so much for having me both for this and for the workshop. I'm really looking forward to it.
Jason: Awesome. Yeah, this is very, very exciting time to really kind of be able to do these kinds of things. So how have you been handling COVID times as an artist? What's been going on for you?
Jenny: That's a great question. I feel like it changes hour by hour.
Jason: Understood.
Jenny: Yeah, I think kind of back at the start of it, I kind of had like a year of theater work lined up of like workshops and productions and things, and obviously all of those got canceled, just kind of one by one as soon as COVID hit. But there's been some other really cool opportunities that have come up this year, like this workshop, like things that I probably wouldn't be able to do if it weren't for COVID and everything being moved online. So I don't know. It's taken away some things, but it's offered some things too, so it's a mixed bag.
Jason: Yep. Ups and downs. So for all of our viewers who have never met you, because you're not really a DC Area person, can you maybe tell us a little bit about yourself and maybe what your typical day is right now?
Jenny: Sure. So I'm based in Denver, Colorado right now. I actually was a DC person for a while. I went to Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia, spent some time there interned with Arena Stage in DC, so I love the DC area even though I'm not there now. So like I said, I'm based in Denver now, but before that I lived in New York for about eight years. I lived in Chicago before that. I was on tour as a performer before that. So I've kind of bounced around a lot, but now I teach theater at a university in Denver. That's kind of what I'm doing right now. And in my normal before-times life, I bounced back and forth between New York and Denver a lot, but this year I've been pretty much in Denver.
Jason: Yeah, that's great, no. And good to know that you do have a little bit of a tie here, so that's great. So as far as the playwriting process goes for you, do you have a particular writing routine or a particular writing philosophy that you follow?
Jenny: I do have a writing routine. I didn't really, until the last couple of years. I kind of just wrote when I had a deadline, and then panic-wrote until I'd met it. Then in the last couple of years, I started just getting into a routine where I get up and I write for the first hour of each day. I just roll out of bed and make a cup of coffee and make myself sit in front of my computer and write. And it's been really nice, actually. It's been nice to have that to hold onto when the world kind of went crazy this year. But I don't know. It's like a nice way to start the day, and it's a nice way to make sure that I'm still making progress on the things that I'm working on, even if it's just little, incremental steps each day.
Jason: Do you set specific goals for yourself every day? Like, "I'm going to write for 20 minutes," or, "I'm going to write five pages." Or is it just, "I need to spend time writing whatever comes out"?
Jenny: Yeah, my only rule is it's an hour. I have to sit there for an hour. And some days a ton of stuff comes out, and some days it's like staring at the wall and trying to come up with ideas, and like a sentence comes out. But I figure as long as I'm sitting there in the space, I'm doing my job as a writer.
Jason: No, absolutely. I feel that way most days when I'm sitting in my office going, "Okay. I'm here. Let's work."
Jenny: Exactly.
Jason: So for this play specifically, for Secret Hour, was there a very specific inspiration for this? Or did you have a kind of ethereal thing you were trying to hit? What was the inspiration for this play?
Jenny: They say that playwrights, a lot of times the things that you write end up being your therapy, and I feel like that felt a little bit like what this play was. I spent a very long time in a relationship where we were dealing with these exact two issues of whose career gets to determine where we live and are we going to have kids or not, and so those were sort of two things that I was just dealing with for years on end in my own life. And sort of a lot of what is in this play was sparked by those conversations and those internal thought processes and just trying to work that kind of stuff out in my own life.
Jason: That's okay. So over the course of this, what has changed about this play from when you first conceived it?
Jenny: Yeah, this play, this draft that we're starting the workshop with is completely different from the first draft that I wrote of the play. This is the second draft. And in the first draft, it had Ben and Kate. It had the main couple. But it had another couple, and there was like a whole other plot about infidelity. There was just a lot going on with that one. And I sent that draft. I did a few table readings and people were like, "I love it." And I was like, "Something about it isn't right, and I can't figure it out."
Jenny: And I sent it to a playwriting professor of mine from grad school, and he wrote back, and he was like, "The seed of this is good, and everything you wrote around the seed of it is crap. I think you need to start again." And I spent a whole day being really mad about it, and then got to the end of the day and I was like, "Yeah. Okay. He's right," and so sort of pulled the whole thing apart. And so this new draft, I got rid of that other couple. I added in sort of the comedic handyman. But the seed of this couple dealing with deception and making life decisions stayed the same, but everything around it changed.
Jason: Interesting. So you have had a chance to work [inaudible 00:06:17] obviously a vastly different version of this script for Secret Hour. You've had a chance to kind of work that a little bit. What would you say, though, as a playwright, the most valuable part of this workshop process is, of a workshop process is for you?
Jenny: Sure. I love the workshop process, I think mostly because it's collaboration. As a playwright especially, you're just alone with your play for such a long time. It's just you in a room being like, "I think this works. I think this joke is funny. I don't know." And then the chance to actually get in a room with other people and hear it out loud and bounce ideas around and find out like, "That joke was not funny. Thank you," just that process of getting to not be alone with it and get other smart brains and eyes and hearts on it is so helpful. So I love that part of the process. I'm really excited about it
Jason: As am I. I'm very excited about that portion. The fact that I'm going to get a chance to kind of see this and hear it as it comes and grows through it is going to be great. For you, what happens after this particular workshop? Or just in general, after any workshop, what happens for you in your playwriting process?
Jenny: Usually after an intense workshop like this, I'll tend to try to put it away for a couple of weeks. I'll take just millions of notes after the last rehearsal, after the last reading, and then just sort of put it away for two weeks, walk away, and come back and see like, "Okay, which of these new ideas stuck? Which of these new ideas sparked something else?" And then often, kind of depending on where we get to in the workshop, I might work on another draft of it, do another round of it before trying to send it back out in the world and make more things happen with it.
Jason: Awesome. Yeah, I'm definitely a... All of my ideas need to stew and ruminate, and then I'll come back to it, sometimes 12 hours later, sometimes couple weeks later, and I'm like, "Oh, I guess that's just been playing in my head this whole time. Now I have an answer for it."
Jenny: Yeah. The distance is helpful sometimes after an intense process.
Jason: Oh yeah, absolutely. Well, so that's pretty much all of my questions about your process, and I'm really excited to kind of get a chance to work on Secret Hour. So I have a couple of just like I'm interested questions. In our time we have found at Prologue Theatre a lot of people tend to subsist on coffee, chocolate, sometimes a drink of choice, and that's pretty much what that is. So I'm curious. For you, coffee or tea?
Jenny: Coffee.
Jason: And how do you take it? Coffee?
Jenny: Yeah. Coffee for sure. Depends on how stressed I am. If it's stressed, it's usually like full of sugar, full of some kind of crazy pumpkin caramel creamer or something. And if I'm not stressed, then I just try to go with like almond milk and not as much sugar.
Jason: Okay. What is one item or thing you can not live without?
Jenny: Probably books. I know that's like a broad thing, but I think I would have a really hard time without books. I like to read, and I'm a nerd and I like to research things.
Jason: Okay. Do you have a favorite, like all-time favorite book, or is that like an impossible question?
Jenny: That's an impossible question. [inaudible 00:09:49] I've been reading a lot of memoirs. I read something like 20 memoirs during quarantine, just because I get so interested in people's lives and things that people have gone through and... Yeah, so if I had to pick a genre, I'll go with memoirs.
Jason: Very cool. I'm recently going through a bunch of historical fiction. I love the idea of like, "This all really happened. These are real people, I think." So do you have a favorite season?
Jenny: Fall. Have to go with fall
Jason: Check. And then final question, if you could have a meal with any celebrity, living or dead, who would it be?
Jenny: I'm going to cheat and pick two and make it like a little dinner party. I'm going to go with Charles Dickens and Billy Joel. I think the combo of the two of them would be a great dinner party.
Jason: That's a lot of fun, yeah. The last time I got asked that question, my answer was Angela Lansbury.
Jenny: Ooh, good call.
Jason: I was a big Murder, She Wrote fan when I was growing up. My grandmother... Literally always on the TV, so she'd be just a great conversationalist. But thank you again so much for your time. It's been great talking to you. I'm really looking forward to working with you on Secret Hour. And again, thank you. Jenny Stafford, playwright and authoress of The Secret Hour, which will be our first workshop with the Forward New Work series brought by brought to you by Prologue Theatre. So thank you, Jenny.
Jenny: Thank you so much.
