How I Did It: Establishing a Playwriting Career by Lawrence Harbison

Author:Lawrence Harbison [Harbison, Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: theater, playwriting, General, Performing Arts
ISBN: 9781495025983
Google: DrsVCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Published: 2015-03-01T23:49:52.205811+00:00

16.

Rajiv Joseph

Courtesy of TheatreWorks. Photo by Mark Kitaoka

Rajiv Joseph’s plays include Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo (a 2010 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), Gruesome Playground Injuries, Animals Out of Paper, The North Pool, The Lake Effect, and Mr. Wolf. He is the bookwriter and colyricist for the musical Fly. Rajiv also wrote for the Showtime series Nurse Jackie for seasons 3 and 4. Additionally, he was the coscreenwriter of the film Draft Day, which was released earlier this year, starring Kevin Costner and Jennifer Garner. Joseph received his BA in creative writing from Miami University and his MFA in playwriting from Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. He served for three years in the Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa.

LH: You went to NYU, right?

RJ: For grad school. I went there to study screenwriting. But I also took playwriting classes with Janet Neipris, Arthur Kopit, Martin Epstein, and Gary Garrison.

LH: Did they do your plays there?

RJ: My second year, they did a play I wrote called Huck and Holden in the Festival of New Works, when it was a one-act. After I graduated, Janet sent it to Angelina Fiordellisi at the Cherry Lane Theatre for their Mentor Project, and it was accepted. Theresa Rebeck was my mentor. It was produced in the studio theater at the Cherry Lane. Because of its reception, Angelina gave it a fully produced production on the main stage the following year.

LH: What came from that?

RJ: Well, this led to my second production, at Second Stage Uptown. Carole Rothman and Chris Burney came to see Huck and Holden. I think they had heard about it through Theresa. They asked to meet with me, and I gave them the new play I was working on, which was All This Intimacy. They decided to do it in their Uptown series.

LH: Did you have an agent by this time?

RJ: No. I got an agent after All This Intimacy. I had been trying to get an agent, with no success. Then Seth Glewen, who was Joyce Ketay’s assistant at Gersh but who was transitioning to becoming an agent, asked to represent me. I got a good vibe off Seth, so I signed with him. I had had some friends who snagged big-time agents, but they didn’t do much of anything for them. I liked it that he was young and hungry—like me. It’s been a match made in heaven.

LH: All This Intimacy was pretty successful. It’s been published by Samuel French. Did they come to see it?

RJ: I don’t remember if they did or not. But they took both Huck and Holden and All This Intimacy. Seth sold them as a package.

LH: But all the rest of your plays since then have been published by DPS. Why?

RJ: I guess they made a better offer than French.

LH: So then, Second Stage did Animals Out of Paper.

RJ: That was a commission. Second Stage got a grant from Time Warner to commission ten playwrights of color.

LH: You’re a playwright of color?

RJ: I’m half Indian.

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