Your new playBack At The Dojotakes inspiration from your own parents. Was your family always supportive of your pursuit of a career in the arts?
My family have always been super supportive of my writing. They always encouraged my brother and I to follow our hearts (as long as we worked extremely hard at it). I was really surprised when I was in my 20s and met friends whose parents didn’t think they should be striving for the arts. That just hadn’t been a thing in my life. My parents’ belief in me has made all the difference.
What parallels should audiences expect to find between the family of Back At The Dojo and their own?
There’s a few generations of family in this play. The more I live, the more I realise how much of my parents and my grandparents are in me. Sometimes I like this – sometimes I don’t – but my ancestors absolutely inform who I am. I think that will ring true to most families.
It’s not as autobiographical as some of your other plays, but it’s not that far removed either. Is ‘write what you know’ one of your golden rules?
My only golden rule is to write with my heart and write what feels emotionally true to the characters and story. That is a lot easier when you use people you know as inspiration. However, I usually end up making up stuff too (I’ve taken a lot of liberties with the truth of my father’s youth) – the characters in my plays are often half based in truth and half in imagination. My other rule is, do whatever is best for the story!
You moved to Australia from the US as a teenager. How welcoming did your family find this country?
We found Australia very welcoming. Within a year my father had given up his US citizenship to become an Australian citizen.
How thrilling is that feeling of premiering a new work on the stage to a live audience?
It’s the most thrilling and terrifying feeling that I know. It’s very surreal, suddenly to be in an audience watching a world full of characters that I half know from life and half live with in my dreams. The first couple of minutes of opening night I can’t stop thinking how weird it is. But then very quickly I just fall into the rhythm of the show and live and die with every little bit that goes right or wrong!
[Back At The Dojo photo by Brett Boardman]
Back At The Dojo runs untilSunday July 17 at Belvoir St Theatre.
