Checking in with the Jeromes

RYAN CAMPBELL

With your Jerome residency at the halfway point, what have you been working on?

I’ve been working on re-writing two scripts that I began during my years in graduate school—diving back in to their worlds and developing the tools for the re-writing process. I’ve also been doing research and taking notes for new projects that will tell stories about existentialism in suburban life as well as stories of ex-soldiers.

KRISTIN IDASZAK

With your Jerome residency at the halfway point, what have you been working on?

I just finished the first draft of a new play called Another Jungle. The premise is that the audience shows up to see an adaptation of The Jungle by Upton Sinclair to find that the play has been canceled. Instead, Upton himself is there to provide a slideshow history of the Chicago stockyards. It’s a play ostensibly about the way sediment of history accretes in a community, but it becomes about how it accretes in a single person. Another Jungle has been gestating for years, and all my previous failed attempts to write the play factor into its current incarnation. Because of that, the play is formally unlike anything I’ve ever written before.

Now I’m embarking on a new play called Ten Months. It centers on a pregnant woman who’s recently been in an accident that left her paraplegic. It’s about her fight to prove her proficiency as a parent so her sister-in-law can’t take the unborn child from her. It’s inspired by Euripides’ play Andromache, so there’s also this human embodiment of Hold Muzak who’s our Greek chorus. This project is also an experiment in process. It’s a collaboration with three other artists—a director, an actor, and a dramaturg. We live all over the world and have been building the world of the play together via Skype. Now I’m writing the first draft in preparation for a workshop in February while they cheer me on. It’s a great way to write a play.

ANDREW ROSENDORF

With your Jerome residency at the halfway point, what have you been working on?

I have been working on a new play called Cottontail which takes place in 1980s Belle Glade, Florida when it was declared the AIDS capital of the world. I have also been taking the time to research a new play that centers on Buffalo, New York and takes place in the shadow of the construction of the Erie Canal.

What is one surprising thing from your fellowship year so far?

The way that our cohort of fellows has bonded has been truly lovely and has immensely helped in making a successful transition to Minneapolis. Additionally, the theatrical community here in Minneapolis has been incredibly welcoming and supportive.

KELIHER WALSH

With your Jerome residency at the halfway point, what have you been working on?

I’m working on two plays. One is about a young woman poet who lives on a remote island in Maine. Another is about drug dealers, witches, and goddesses stuck in a time warp in Salem, Mass.

What is one surprising thing from your fellowship year so far?

The year has been full of surprises. Maybe that’s what’s most surprising. The process of working in such a concentrated way without distractions is a revelation in and of itself.

What is your experience with the Twin Cities theater community so far?

My husband is acting in Lullaby at Theater Latté Da, so I’ve gotten a good dose of theater and the inside workings of it here. And we’re going to see Pericles on his off night. It’s the most theater-happy town I’ve ever known. Where else would people come out in thirteen below zero weather to see a play? Certainly not L.A., where I come from. So I think it’s amazing how much the audience in Minneapolis is hungry for story.

 

Learn more about Ryan, Kristin, Andrew, and Keliher.