{"id":2448,"date":"2018-05-23T14:41:46","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T18:41:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/?p=2448"},"modified":"2019-11-19T10:19:19","modified_gmt":"2019-11-19T15:19:19","slug":"marcus-youssef-discusses-new-play-young-audiences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.playwrights.ca\/fr\/2018\/05\/23\/marcus-youssef-discusses-new-play-young-audiences\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcus Youssef discusses his New Play for Young Audiences"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Harris Frost<\/span><\/p>\n

Acclaimed Canadian Playwright and 2017 Siminovitch Prize winner Marcus Youssef<\/strong><\/span> is currently workshopping a new play for young audiences entitled The In-Between<\/em> <\/strong><\/span>with Geordie Theatre<\/strong><\/span> in collaboration with Playwrights\u2019 Workshop Montr\u00e9al. He kindly sat down with us to discuss his new play, his writing process, and how his work engages with hot-button issues (although he\u2019d prefer you didn\u2019t call them that).<\/h4>\n

 <\/p>\n

PWM:<\/strong> Fist of all, congratulations on winning the Siminovitch Prize. So far, has this win affected your writing habits or the types of projects you gravitate towards?<\/p>\n

Marcus Youssef:<\/strong> Well, the projects I have lined up have been lined up for a while. So I guess there hasn\u2019t been any direct change. I feel fortunate in some ways that I\u2019ve been really busy, and was going to be busy anyway. Because I haven\u2019t had too much time to really think about it. I haven\u2019t gone \u201cOh my god! Now I have to radically rethink everything I do!\u201d Because I think that would ultimately be a mistake. I mean, there\u2019s no question that it\u2019s given me a kind of confidence to pursue some things that I\u2019m thinking about.<\/p>\n

PWM:<\/strong> Broadly, what do you think is the role of theatre today?<\/p>\n

Marcus Youssef:<\/strong> For me personally, the importance of performance or theatre has to do with the fact that we\u2019re, as people often say, all in a room together. And the aspect of that that feels particularly critical for me at this time is the much-discussed migration of human communication onto screens which, you know, produces exciting benefits of course. At the same time it often leaves me feeling like I\u2019m hungering for connection that\u2019s physical, that involves my body in the presence of other bodies.<\/p>\n

And as someone who was raised by secular parents who disavowed their parents\u2019 religion like so many people of my generation in kind of intelligentsia culture or whatever, I do very much feel like theatre is a place of communion for me. That\u2019s related to being in each other\u2019s presence and for me it\u2019s also about it being a place where we can go to experience artists contending with some of the fundamental unknowables of being alive, of being in a society or of being a human.<\/p>\n

PWM:<\/strong> The play you’re working on right now is aimed at a teenage audience, what specifically would you say is the importance of theatre to young people<\/p>\n

Marcus Youssef:<\/strong> I\u2019m interested in writing work that speaks to young people’s experience. It\u2019s often located in schools. Because kids are compelled to be in schools, legally. So the fact that they spend most of their public time in a place where they are legally required to be, that\u2019s a really fundamental condition. It feels to me like in addition to all their peer relations, schools are places where young people learn about systems, about power, about institutions about bureaucracy and a whole host of other things that are very important to our lives even though they\u2019re not super fun to talk about.<\/p>\n

Also, I think I write about schools because most of them are public institutions and public institutions are very important. They\u2019re fundamentally important to the kind of world I want to live in. They are places, unlike many, where everybody is. And as you get older, you get very good at narrowing your social circle to people are like you and agree with you and make you feel good about being you. That\u2019s not what happens in schools. And that\u2019s a really important public function. It\u2019s also really complicated. And that feels like a really rich area of exploration to me.<\/p>\n

PWM:<\/strong> What are the major differences in your writing process when you\u2019re writing for adults vs. when you\u2019re writing for younger audiences? In the latter case, are you more likely to start with an \u201cissue\u201d that you want to tackle?<\/p>\n

Marcus Youssef:<\/strong> To me the fundamental difference is that, because of the way my writing for teenagers is disseminated – it\u2019s sold to high schools and goes into high schools – to me, the style and genre is already set. So this work is actually more traditional than much of the work I make, which is often much more experimental. These feel more like plays than a lot of my work.<\/p>\n

In terms of writing for them, I don\u2019t think the process is very different from the process that I  usually employ. I have a question I want to explore or I\u2019ll hit on characters or some sort of conflict. All my work deals with what some people might call issues. And I resist the use of that word because I feel that it\u2019s sometimes unconsciously used as a way of compartmentalizing and making safe what is actually a site of real contention and conflict. And that\u2019s how I would generally describe it, as work that\u2019s about a site of real contention and conflict.<\/p>\n

What I love about writing for teenagers and writing work that goes into schools is that it forces me not to be nihilistic. There has to be hope in the work. You can\u2019t leave a bunch of young people going \u201cit\u2019s all fucked, we\u2019re all fucked.\u201d That\u2019s just wouldn\u2019t be fair. Some of my other work is a bit dark so I actually really like the challenge of going: \u201cNo, this is not going to end bleakly. It just can\u2019t.\u201d And I really like that, it\u2019s informed my other work.<\/p>\n

Another thing I like about writing for teenages is that I\u2019m going to be held to a very clear standard. If they don\u2019t like it, they won\u2019t pay attention, they will undermine it, they will heckle, they will make it clear that it\u2019s not working. I find being held to that standard useful.<\/p>\n

PWM:<\/strong> And because this show will be touring schools, in most cases the audience is not electing to see the show, it\u2019s just being put in front of them.<\/p>\n

Marcus Youssef:<\/strong> Yeah, I think I\u2019m always considering the fact that half or more of the audience will be coming in having no idea what they’re going to see and with a very legitimate reason to not want to engage with it at all. Then it becomes my job to acknowledge that somehow in the writing and also to offer some reasons why it might be worth engaging with. And actually, I should do that more in my other work. Because what that implies is a deep respect for my audience and I think that\u2019s really important.<\/p>\n

PWM:<\/strong> And do you find it difficult navigate these (for lack of a better word) issues without coming off as didactic?<\/p>\n

Marcus Youssef:<\/strong> If there\u2019s one thing I think I\u2019m pretty good at, it\u2019s that. It\u2019s figuring out ways to get inside contentious social or personal questions, and to do that in a way that is not didactic. And really that just means being willing to surrender having the right answer. The word \u201cissue\u201d gets employed when authority has decided that they know the correct response and the correct behaviour. A point of contention is experienced by multiple people with multiple perspectives any one of which has legitimate and illegitimate reasons behind it. And to me that\u2019s what it\u2019s about, recognizing the complexity behind anybody\u2019s experience of a point of contention.<\/p>\n

And then humour. Humour is a way of manifesting complexity in a way that allows us to experience a moment of relief and recognition at the fundamental irresolvability of the conflicts that we have in our lives. Cause that\u2019s the illusion, right? The illusion is peddled that if we just figure out all the answers, then everything will be perfect. And it\u2019s art\u2019s function I would say to hold a mirror up to that lie.<\/p>\n

PWM:<\/strong> How much do your plays tend to change from the first table read to the final performance?<\/p>\n

Marcus Youssef: Oh, a lot. I\u2019m a writer who likes to work collaboratively. At the first table read we did with this play I brought what I called a first draft. But it wasn\u2019t really a first draft, it was really just collections of scenes and scene fragments. They rarely have a throughline. The plot is something that evolves over time. For me, that almost always happens in workshops and almost always when working with Emma Tibaldo because she\u2019s extremely good at plot.<\/p>\n

PWM:<\/strong> And you\u2019ve worked with Playwrights\u2019 Workshop Montr\u00e9al a few times before, correct?<\/p>\n

Marcus Youssef:<\/strong> Yeah, I think is my third time working with PWM. And Emma is a dramaturg I deeply respect and admire so much. When I was dramaturging a piece out West that my company was commissioned and I asked her to send me her bullet notes to being a good dramaturg. And they were five of the smartest, clearest instructions that I could imagine. Things like \u201cDon\u2019t settle on what you think until the third read.\u201d Just really practical and excellent suggestions.<\/p>\n

A place like PWM has been a tremendously important resource to me. Besides all the terrific people who work here, it\u2019s important to have another voice in the room that\u2019s the writer\u2019s and that\u2019s not the commissioner. These have been among my most successful commissions.<\/p>\n

I often find as the writer that I get as much from the commissioner and the dramaturg disagreeing as I do when they agree. Because it\u2019s all conflict, right? It\u2019s all about how conflict manifests because drama is conflict, essentially. And in a way, they\u2019re unconsciously representing the conflict that exists in the play.<\/p>\n

The other part of play development centers that\u2019s really important is the resources that they put into the development of new work. That\u2019s critical a to playwright like me. I wouldn\u2019t be flying out here if it wasn\u2019t for PWM and this just wouldn\u2019t be happening.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The In-Between will tour High Schools and CEGEPs across the province as a part of Geordie Theatre’s 2018-2019 season. The scripts for Peter Panties and King Arthur\u2019s Night, both co-written with Niall McNeil, will be published this month. The latter show is also being prepped for an international tour. Marcus is currently writing Theatre Replacement\u2019s annual Christmas Pantomime show. Jabber, another Geordie production developed with PWM, is touring Saskatchewan with the Persephone Theatre next year. The show is also being produced in German at the Grips Theatre in Berlin in the Fall.<\/em>
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By Harris Frost Acclaimed Canadian Playwright and 2017 Siminovitch Prize winner Marcus Youssef is currently workshopping a new play for young audiences entitled The In-Between with Geordie Theatre in collaboration with Playwrights\u2019 Workshop Montr\u00e9al. He kindly sat down with us to discuss his new play, his writing process, and how his work engages with hot-button … <\/p>\n

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