At the PWC this week: James Anthony Tyler

Many Voices Fellow James Anthony Tyler is at the Playwrights' Center this week and next, workshopping two new plays: The Drop Off with director Jamil Jude, dramaturg Christina Ham, and actors Austene Van, Traci Allen Shannon, Jasmine Hughes, and Mari Harris; and Stewart and Lamb with director Hayley Finn and actors James A. Williams, Rudolph Searles III, Aimee K. Bryant, Kory Pullam, Warren C. Bowles, Mike Swan, Steven Hendrickson, and Jasmine Hughes. We asked James a few questions at the top of his fellowship year, in summer 2015:

What are your thoughts about spending a year away from NY and having time to focus on your writing?

How do I even wrap my mind around not being in New York City? This month marks my 10th year living in New York City. I LOVE everything about New York, but I have heard so many positive things about Minneapolis and The Playwrights Center. I feel very fortunate to have been granted this amazing opportunity, so my thoughts are to be grateful and to be open to learning about the culture of another big U.S. city. Of course, I'll write as much as possible, and I will be on a mission to find restaurants in Minneapolis that are as good or even better than New York City restaurants! 

What will you be working on this year?

I want to rewrite a play I started a year ago titled You're Sitting in the Dark. I started writing this play and I was talking to a good friend about it. He then recommended that I reread James Baldwin's essay "Stranger in the Village." I re-read that essay and there is this line that reads, "People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them," and that is what the play is all about. The play is set in 1909 and it explores the complexity of American history and love. I'm also going to finally write a play about coming of age in Las Vegas. Vegas is my hometown and for years my friends have said, "You should write something about growing up in Las Vegas." I'm finally going to take that advice. 

Why do you write plays?

I wish I had a really deep and profound answer for this question. So deep and profound that people would read this answer and their mind would be blown to the point where their head would actually explode. Unfortunately, I don't have one of those deep and profound answers. My reason for writing plays is that I simply enjoy doing so. It's fun.