Interview by: LeeAnne Nakamura, Staff Writer
Transcript
Leah Geisler [LG]: Welcome to The Grappler Wrights of Spring Series for 2022. This week, we will be sharing four interviews with you from the third-year playwrights. These interviews are like telescopes into the world these playwrights are in and how they went about creating their work. Stay tuned this week to listen to the rest of the series. Today we have an interview for you from the playwright Helaina Coggs who wrote Unaccompanied.
Helaina is a playwright from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, where one of her plays a Boy Called Mary premiered at the New Playwrights Festival. Helaina currently has a playwriting fellowship at Congo Square Theater. She is a third-year playwright with minors in film production and screenwriting. She's always exploring ways her passion for theater can intersect with her ventures in film and television.
LeeAnne Nakamura [LN]: It's May 22, and I'm here interviewing Helaina Coggs. Want to introduce yourself? Give yourself a little personal bio.
Helaina Coggs [HC]: I'm Helaina Coggs, I use she/her pronouns. I am currently a third-year playwright at The Theatre School. I'm from Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. Yeah, that's me.
LN: Perfect. So I read your synopsis online about your play, but I was wondering if you would kind of either briefly give your synopsis or maybe add a little more to it, like a pitch, basically.
HC: OK, so my play centers around a young woman named Sammy. And basically, she has a really chaotic childhood, like many of us. But by way of like trauma and like an unstable, like, parental dynamic, she creates this kind of imaginary friends who kind of help her when she's feeling isolated or alone. But then they kind of overstay their welcome because she grows up and she can't have imaginary friends that she created, which is fine when she's 16 and 20, you know, but she creates this imaginary friends to kind of cope with this really toxic and chaotic relationship with her mom, who's really mentally ill and not the best parental figure. And our play actually starts in the present where Sammy is like 20 years old, and her mom comes to visit her abruptly, unannounced, and it's like Christmas Eve. And Sam is like, "Why are you here? I don't even like, you know, I don't like you." And then we flashback to see point in their relationships. And we go back and forth and then the and then the imaginary friends are kind of our narrators who guide the audience through time and space. But yeah, that is my play Unaccompanied.
LN: Thank you. I love hearing that. What exactly, was it always set in mind that you wanted to do? Kind of like in the present and then going back? Or was that something you kind of decided on as you're writing it? How did that kind of doing that, I guess maybe nontraditional time narrative or time structure?
HC: Yeah. My favorite thing about plays and movies and books is structure. I love structure, and I think the way people choose to play with that and manipulate that is amazing. And I am a person who really tries to stray away from linear time frames that actually is like really like crippling and difficult for me. I feel like it's like fun to go back and then go for it and then, you know, like those movies where you pick up on clues as you go on and you're like, "Oh, that's what that meant." Oh, that happened five years ago. I just think that I was like an audience member. That experience is always more like, kind of like a puzzle. And so I think I always know that I'm going to aim to not do a linear time piece, but I think this play especially lent to that device, I try not to make it super forced and all of my work, but I feel like it made more sense to go back and then go for it and then go back and then like, you know, like dice, you just like rolling the dice and see where you land.
LN: Yeah, that's super cool. And then also kind of maybe adding on. What has the writing process been like for this piece? Has this been something like maybe an idea that was forming beforehand and you're coming to it now? Or was it just kind of, "OK, let me sit down" and this is what you created or like goes out kind of like the writing process, like for this play.
HC: So I've been working on this play since like October, November. And when I started, I didn't know what I was writing about. I had like two really funny random scenes with these imaginary friends and this teenage girl, actually, they were imaginary friends honestly, until maybe like two months ago. But they always were kind of like these personified beings of anxiety. And so they were always like mouthpiece and they would have all this high energy and they'd keep her up at night and she'd have like anxious nights. They throw out these random anxious thoughts, like, at the most, an opportune times. Like, I was inside, she goes, and then I was, as I was developing the main character more, I was like, What is her problem, though? Like, what? Why does she have these anxiety demons? And then I, you know, was my own personal story, kind of like puts on some of that in the story and explored that and then I was like, oh, this girl feels isolated. And yes, she has anxiety, but also she has nobody. So if you're 5 a.m. nobody, what would you do? And theatrically, I thought it'd be interesting to explore transitioning them into imaginary friends, which is a very recent development. But I think a very telling and successful one. But I think what I'm learning this year is to not, like, say no to any ideas and just try everything that you think. Even if you think it's silly or stupid, just go for it. And I think that's what I've done. I've explored and I've played a lot, and I think that has paid off.
LN: That's so interesting to hear and also really interesting to hear about like that. Playing with ideas maybe besides the kind of transitioning them to imaginary friends, maybe without like spoilers or anything, but is there any other aspects of that? Just playing with ideas that you did incorporate into like the piece that is being presented right now.
HC: I love being super like secretive or I mean, like in class when teachers ask you to check in, I hate that. You don't need to know how I am. Let's just start the lesson, like I had to really, like, explore things within myself and then my life. I have to make this character realistic and to make this story palpable and understandable. And that was really difficult. And I put up a front for a while about like, I was like, "Oh, this is nothing to do with me." This is, this is fiction, like, nothing at all. And I think the more I did that, the more authentic I was. And so I think having to explore things even within yourself that you really don't want to or things you don't want to talk to, like, I want to show open yesterday. And I feel like the exploration of self and these imaginary characters really paid off. I feel like the audience really understood it. And I was thankful that they listened and they're thankful that I shared. And it was a really magical experience. And I think what I'm learning is to explore all always. Yeah.
LN: That's really cool to hear. Thank you so much for sharing about. I mean, really, thank you. And then kind of branching off a little bit. Have you done Wrights of Spring before? And if so, how has like this year or this piece kind of differed from previous pieces or previous experiences?
HC: Yeah. So this is I'm this is my third year at The Theatre Schook. This is my first in-person Wrights of Spring because my first year, you know, is when COVID happened. So like we had fall and winter quarter. And then I just want to pass over like I see you in a dorm room. I was like frantically like packing things up. Like my dorm was a mess with me and all my friends. It was chaos. So I did Wrights of Spring online that year and then the following year we were also still online last year. But my play last year, it's on Spotify, it's called Timed Avoidance if you want to check it out. But that's about a girl whose closest friend dies in a car accident and she blames herself because her friend was on his way to come pick her up and so she has these nightly anxiety terrors where she sees him in her dreams and they like to play out their friendship and make up for lost time. Except that then she's realizing she can't move on. She says she's finally spending time with this person and she wakes up every day and he's not there and she's like reliving the trauma but in that story, I played a lot with non-linear time, and I did flashbacks to when he was alive and stuff like that. And so I feel like that's why I read it by comfortability and non-linear time, and if that's something I could do. So then this year, being actually in person, I was kind of nervous because I never had an in-person audience for Wrights of Spring. And so being able to pick up off of the audience vibe and the reactions if they were following the story. Whereas I was just on Spotify and I was like, "Well, I hope you understand it." Like, I think the, the live audience reaction and them laughing at things like that, like making sounds and you like the, the live experience I think is much far better than the Zoom experience.
LN: And since there was a performance last night, Saturday May 21st, what was that like?
HC: I see shows all the time. I see theatre, but I think it's been a minute since I've seen my own work and to there's just something about, I guess working on your, your own things and watching actors make changes or really get into the character or do things different in rehearsal based off of their connection with the audience is really neat and really fun and it's like, "Oh, look at all these new discoveries that we didn't even make." Like, it's happening live. I don't know, that's like theatre. It is live, but it was just really magical last night. Honestly, and I felt really supported by The Theatre School community. A lot of people came out, my show sold out, so we were in the healing space, which is nice, and it was pretty full and I was amazing and so much fun.
LN: Yeah, but I guess going non-linear, well, it's like rehearsal, like leading up and you know, having that not say not the live aspect, but not having the audience there to feed off or perhaps, you know, maybe not necessarily alter effects, but just being in the rehearsal room. What was that like?
HC: Being in the rehearsal room was great. I think I was very particular about the actors I chose of some actors. I have some comedy artists and I have some theatre arts people that I chose as my cast, and they're all people some that I know super well and some that I know kind of well. But I needed it to be good people that I felt comfortable and safe with of this story. And I honestly, the six of us have really, really bonded this these past few weeks. And I can tell that they care about the story and I care about the story. And so, like the inquisitive questions that they ask or the questions that I ask are all because we care and we and we want to make sure it's, you know, like specific and translatable to audiences. And I could really like... at the end of the show that I have to give like a speech before and after I look at the other. I was just shouting about like the actors. I was like, "You guys did amazing. And I appreciate you guys like so much," because it's like, I didn't I mean, I wrote the thing, but I did half the thing and you guys, like, physically did the thing. Yeah. It's been a while since I worked with actors and an in-person because I've been online for so long and then I've been writing this entire school year, so I haven't been in a rehearsal, but I definitely think choosing people that you trust is definitely key and and also making you feel comfortable.
LN: Yeah. And then, I mean, there's definitely some heavy subjects that your play touches on. How did you approach your actors are like creating an environment that felt, you know, safe or people could you know, address any potential concerns, like make sure it felt like a safe environment. I'm just curious, like, what's your kind of style or technique? Or like, what did you do to address that?
HC: Well, what I was asking all of my actors to be a part of it. I was very like upfront with the content warnings about talks of suicide and talks of mental health because I didn't want them to say yes and then get a little house, a room and be like, Oh my gosh, what is this? You know, I think that's totally unfair. And there are artists that do that and that's harmful and wrong. So I was very upfront and then we talked about it and they all expressed comfortability and then before we started every rehearsal, I made sure the first page of my play when the person does my stage directions, they say the title Unaccompanied, when they give the content warning. So I was like, "OK, we're all here." And then they also all read it before rehearsal. So then if they were uncomfortable or things that they didn't feel safe saying or doing, then, you know, then I know before rehearsal, but they were all OK with it. And we had a lot of great discussions which I think is important because the characters in our story, the mom and the daughter, don't have these great discussions and they just gloss over things. And that is part of the conflict. And I was like, "No, we have to talk about everything here. What are your thoughts? What are your opinions? How do you feel?" And I honestly communication just like and even when it feels redundant, I would say just keep talking and keep asking, keep checking in. And I also think something that I tried to explore with this story is to not be so explicit about things like I would try not to spoon feed the audience and spell it all out about what has happened. And I also think that lends itself to not be super heavy.
LN: OK, thanks. That's really interesting to hear. And it's really cool seeing like how upfront everything about like content, whatnot you are with this. So that's really interesting. I think I have like two more questions. So the first one is kind of like what do you hope people will take away? Or like the lasting impression of your piece?
HC: I hope that people take away that there is there's a, a theme in the story that doesn't really come in towards that doesn't come in until the end. And it's kind of about forgiveness and second chances. And I think forgiveness and second chances is something that is optional. And not guaranteed. And there's a theme about unconditional love. And if that is kind of abusive sometimes and I think I want people to take away that you have the right to to cut off the people that you want to cut off.
LN: You have the right to not forgive the people that you want to forgive just yet. Or to not give them second chances. But there is also something really powerful about someone who is seeking redemption and is so clearly apologetic and wants to make things right and that if you feel safe, imagine what could happen if you did, you know, give that person another chance and and added this new facet to your life that you've been trying to like cut off. But keeping in mind that all those things are up to you and you know, you are like the god of your world. And the way I see it on anything, you're uncomfortable.
LN: Yeah. That's, again, really interesting to hear. It's like hearing all this stuff,I'm like, "Please let my schedule work next week." And then lastly for our future rising classmen, what advice do you have towards other playwriting majors?
HC: Well, first, I think everyone should take the playwriting class if you're not a playwright, I think you should do it. So that's number one. And then to playwrights and people who are interested in writing, what I've learned this year is to explore every thought, every idea just like run with it like you're a kid. And also something that was really helpful for me in the workshop process. Why do you read things in class? Also, like, I took my roommate down some days when I was really anxious about pages. I wasn't sure if these jokes were landing or if this made sense, and I would just be reading these 60 pages now sit like and getting thoughts from people who aren't in your playwriting classes. Maybe people who aren't even theatre people might be really helpful to I would just be like, I would say, Don't be afraid to explore and don't be afraid to ask for people to read and to listen and communicate. Communicate with your actors. Communicate with your directors. Be explicit.
LN: All right. Well, thank you so much.
LG: Thanks for listening to The Grappler's 2022 Wrights of Spring series. This interview was conducted by LeeAnne Nakamura, audio engineering by Ember Sappington.
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