At the PWC this week: Kira Obolensky

Core Writer Kira Obolensky is at the Playwrights’ Center this week, workshopping her new play Changelings in partnership with Ten Thousand Things. She is collaborating with director Michelle Hensley and actors Shá Cage, Ricardo Vazquez, Luverne Seifert, Kurt Kwan, Kimberly Richardson, Joy Dolo Anfinson, and Annie Enneking. The workshop will conclude with a free public reading on Thursday, December 10, at 3:30 p.m. Learn a bit about Kira in this mini-interview.

How has writing for non-traditional audiences (such as in your collaborations with Ten Thousand Things) influenced the writer you are?

Writing a play for everyone—audiences from every walk of life—makes a playwright think big. What are the questions, situations, characters that are going to allow for both a homeless woman and a CFO to engage with? It’s forced me to imagine the audience as I write, and my plays have become bigger, more ambiguous and, I think, funnier too. Humor is essential!

What makes a successful long-term collaboration?

A successful long-term collaboration involves trust, respect, a good sense of humor—and joy. I feel lucky to have all of those things with director and artistic director of Ten Thousand Things, Michelle Hensley. Rehearsals usually mean a whole lot of laughing (and hard work).

Finish this sentence: If I weren’t a playwright I would be…

an anthropologist.

What are you working on this year?

In addition to Changelings, I’m working on a screenplay called The Triad, and another play about stewardesses.