{"id":3136,"date":"2017-05-03T14:37:22","date_gmt":"2017-05-03T14:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/?p=3136"},"modified":"2017-09-25T14:50:03","modified_gmt":"2017-09-25T14:50:03","slug":"playwright-interview-ricardo-soltero-brown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/performerstuff.com\/mgs\/playwright-interview-ricardo-soltero-brown\/","title":{"rendered":"Playwright Interview: Ricardo Soltero-Brown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playwright Interview: Ricardo Soltero-Brown<\/h3>\n \"\"<\/a><\/span>

Written by\u00a0Ashleigh Gardner<\/p>\n

May 2, 2017<\/p>\n<\/font>

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Welcome back to Performer Stuff\u2019s new series that celebrates our playwrights! Every week or two, we interview a playwright who features their work on PerformerStuff.com, asking them questions about their inspirations, their process, and the craft of playwrighting. Our series continues with playwright\u00a0Ricardo Soltero-Brown. (Find his monologues\u00a0here<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span>!)<\/p>\n \"\"<\/span>

1. What or who (or both) inspired you to become a playwright?<\/h4>\n

Dialogue, plain and simple. The way people speak is endlessly fascinating. People say all sorts of things, they confuse words, forget them, mistake their meanings, they make up words; sometimes it\u2019s what they don\u2019t say, or can\u2019t; they stutter, pause, shut up, trail off. People don\u2019t speak with regard to punctuation, which is a literary device; they freight-train their way through a speech, or halt for emphasis. Grammar is altered by accents, dialects, emotions, even a state of mind; they\u2019ll start a new thought without finishing the previous. Fun stuff to try and write down. Those tics and flubs can affect the course of action in a plot. Someone might say something they don\u2019t mean, or could misinterpret what they heard. If someone keeps silent, is it because they\u2019re angry, offended, or at a loss? Communication, and the failure of it, can serve and provide for the drama, sometimes it is the drama. The whole thing is a great mystery to me, I just happen to love exploring it.<\/p>\n

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2. What themes, images, or relationships appear most frequently in your work and why?<\/h4>\n

I certainly gravitate toward gender relations and sexual politics. What if a character’s goal is directed to a person or relationship? With so many romances told over time, we expect certain behavior from the players. In stories, when someone fights to win over the heart of another, it\u2019s understood to be love. In real life, it\u2019s harassment. The questions remain the same, though: Will they stop, listen, buckle?<\/p>\n

The other focus is the use of hypocritical, ironic, and paradoxical language. One of my favorite lines of Shakespeare is in Othello<\/em> when Roderigo says to Iago, \u201c\u2026your words and performances are no kin together.\u201d People do this intentionally and unintentionally, both, and everyone does it for a different reason every time. Status, affection, trust, etc. Whether it\u2019s a politician making a promise impossible to guarantee, or a friend disguising a betrayal, people find a way to get as much of what they want as possible. The can also put their foot in their mouth, or blurt out something self-incriminating, or self-contradictory.<\/p>\n

Words can be a weapon. They can be a shield. They can also build. Words can be harmful or heartening.<\/p>\n

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3. Tell us about the play that you are proudest of having written.<\/h4>\n

Time changes this sort of thing, but I wrote a play called Vagabond<\/em> about a man who takes in a drifter, a woman. He also has this guy who works for him, just kind of does stuff, and who is immediately suspicious of this new person that\u2019s been brought into their lives. The whole thing begins with everyone acting on their best intentions, however, those intentions were designed to get something they want, and what they want is each other, but no one\u2019s willing to give themselves. It\u2019s not just a triangle, though. It\u2019s about loneliness, connection, companionship, friendship, partnership, and the sense of home; questions about money, class, poverty, origin and past come into play as well. It\u2019s about how if we focus our best intentions to where they\u2019re not wanted, we could miss where they\u2019re needed.<\/p>\n

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4. If you could have written one play in the history of theatre, which would it be?<\/h4>\n

Anything by Annie Baker.<\/p>\n

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Read more about the playwright below:<\/h4>\n

Ricardo Soltero-Brown<\/strong> is a playwright, actor, director, and poet. His plays include Jealousy<\/em>, The Princess of Caspia<\/em>, and The Jacket<\/em>. He won the Florida Playwrights Competition in 2014. His plays have been produced and received staged readings at Valencia College, Rollins College, University of South Florida, Horizon Theatre Company, and Dixon Place. His work\u00a0will also be produced by Pipsqueak Collective in July of 2017. He was included in the 2017 Atlanta One-Minute Play Festival at Actor’s Express. He has been published in The Louisville Review<\/em> and The Dionysian<\/em>. Find his work here<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> on the New Play Exchange.<\/p>\n
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Hungry for more theatre history? Check out our other stories below!<\/h3>\n