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Interview with Meadows Basement We recently had the opportunity to talk with Aaron Ginsburg and Wade McIntyre, Co-artistic directors and founders of Meadows Basement Theatre. For the past few years, the company has produced works that introduce new writers to the theatre scene in Los Angeles. Recently re-established in a new location with Theatre Theater, Meadows Basement, Ginsburg and McIntyre speak of their writing, their plans and their ambitions with contagious excitement – almost like kids about to embark on a new adventure. Perhaps this is why they chose the current production for their opening at the new location. RP How’s the current production going? (Kids Simple – playing at Theatre Theater) AG It’s
going well – it’s a really exciting show and its definitely the most
challenging that Meadows Basement has ever tackled.
Technically massive in detail for us. AG They’ve been great! Backstage West gave us Critic’s Pick which was really good – the Daily Breeze gave us a wonderful write-up. RP We’ve been seeing all of your plays from the time you were on Hollywood Boulevard in Theatre Theater – and we’ve written about all of them. Do you have any one production that you feel is a favorite play that you’ve done up to now? AG I think for me, working with Wade on Isabella’s Fortune last year was definitely one of my favorite experiences. It was a similar play to Kids Simple – there was a huge cast and it was technically hard and it was very fulfilling – buy I really think that this current show is unlike anything I’ve ever done before. RP Wade – do you have any favorites? WM Yeah – I think Isabella’s Fortune
was probably the most fun show – it was a clown show and had a big cast
– The other play that we produced that’s one of my favorites was
Eighteen by Allyson Moore, which was a
chance to bring in the work of a writer that has not been seen
before. Allyson Moore was a
classmate of ours at SMU in RP
You mentioned AG
No – I’m actually from RP Is that by coincidence or by design? AG It’s a little of both. It started out as design, because we all had the same working vocabulary – we knew how each of us ticked – and it made for producing really solid theater because we had the same training. Since we’ve been out here, occasionally new people from SMU where we went to undergraduate, appear and want to work with us, and they’re from the same professors, for the most part, so its fun to work with them. RP Just to clarify – SMU is Southern Methodist University? WM That’s right. The drama school there
is called the RP I was going to ask about the name – would you think that it could be like a little code that people from SMU who happen to be here could immediately recognize? AG I think so – it seems to be, although it was never meant to be a code – it was just a fun name and it kind of reminds us while we’re working on the show of when we started that we had very little budget and we just had to put on great theatre in the bowels of this large school. RP
You’re no longer in the downtown AG No – We moved with Jeff Murray and Theatre Theater. They relocated to the Pico and La Brea area and we moved with them. RP How do you find that new location? WM It’s a great new space – In the former space there were some limitations – like the ceiling that was so low you could almost raise your arm up and touch it. The new space has the stage that’s 30 feet wide – 20 feet high – it’s a really big space with about 60 seats. AG
And we also don’t have the same problems we had with parking in RP Are you going to miss working around that column that was in the center of the room? AG We were joking that we want to build a column – RP Actually, you guys were always able to work around it all the time. AG Yes – and it definitely became a part of the theater. There’s definitely nothing like that here. It’s just a great space and Jeff has done a great job putting it together. RP So after you finish this current production – what plans do you have for the next production? Do you have any holiday plans or is this your holiday presentation? AG Since we are a smaller theater, we don’t have the resources to do that many productions a year. The next big project down the line is going to be pooling our resources and bringing Allyson Moore back – we’re not exactly sure when we’re going to do that, but that’s the next play coming down the pike for us. There’s a great show that was at a festival this past year and she really wants to work with us again. RP And what play is that? AG
It’s called RP What about some other members that were with you – Isabella’s Fortune had Jenny Kirk AG
Yeah – Jenny Kirk is still with us and she did the costumes for this
show. During the summer she was doing a Shakespeare show up in RP In Isabella’s Fortune there were some characters that had a sort of white face make-up. Was that part of the script or was it something you added or came up with? AG It was sort of compromise. The play was set in the times where they did Commedia dell'arte, which is the style we used to write the play, they would probably be wearing full masks – but that meant they couldn’t use the full range of expression, and our actors are pretty funny with what they can do, so we used grease-paint instead without losing their expressions and what they could do. RP Aaron, you also write – are you also a producer/actor director?’ AG Well, both Wade and I have training in writing and directing. The company was started with the intention of setting up our plays and it just got a lot bigger than that. We’ve a lot of people that are excited to work with us – other playwrights and other directors –but we both have training as writers and directors. RP Do you have a preference? AG That’s a good question. I think I don’t. I don’t like directing my own work – I like directing Wade’s stuff. RP What about you Wade? WM I definitely like writing. I think I like writing better. RP Writing plays. WM In the last week of rehearsal every time I direct I find myself not getting any sleep and tearing my hair out. Writing is definitely more relaxing. RP Is that the last week of the play when you’ve directed a play? WM When directing – maybe it’s because I’m coming from directing Kids Simple which had hundreds of sound cues and lighting projections on the wall and props and such. When you’re a writer you don’t have to worry about that stuff. Just write it in the script and it’s somebody else’s problem. RP Let the director worry about it. AG Right. The current show is so technically difficult our tech lead was quite a roller coaster ride. But we managed to come through, and the show’s come together really well. RP Let me ask you both – as directors. When you are watching the performance on stage do you ever say to yourself – “Oh he didn’t do that right” or “She did that too slowly” or whatever. As you watch, do you ever have that kind of anxiety? AG I don’t think it’s quite anxiety – but one of the things that comes with being a director, you are able to watch the audience and the performance – and later you can say “if you had held that a bit longer, you might get more of a laugh” or something like that. But it’s definitely not an anxiety thing. Within our company it’s really easy to chat with the actors afterwards and say – “maybe you should try it like this – I think you’ll get a better response” and the actors are always very eager to make the best show possible. RP So, would you say it’s a little like a sports event where the coach and players watch the replay film afterwards to learn their mistakes? AG Definitely – definitely WM Especially with comedy. Comedy depends on everything being really specific, and the timing being just right, and since we’re both sort of perfectionists we like to get our hands in there and be really specific about it. When it doesn’t go well, it does cause some anxiety, but we have a great ensemble of actors also dedicated to having that kind of perfectionism, so it all works out pretty well. RP Now, there’s a common belief – perhaps not true – that when a person is a perfectionist that person is very difficult to get along with. Does that apply to anyone around? AG I hope that’s not true of us! We’ve all been friends for so long that whenever we’re producing a play it’s rarely – I won’t say never, but almost never a problem. We all get along very well, and everyone knows that collaboration in theatre is all about compromise and working together with a common goal of putting up a great show, and we seem to have no problem working together as a group. So I think that we’re all perfectionists. RP Do you ever have any actors that want to a scene one way –divas that want their way? AG No –we really haven’t. In a way, everyone’s a diva, but somehow all their ways work together well. RP As writers, Wade is there one theme that you seem to explore more than others? A preferred subject. WM A theme? RP You know how some writers write about their family – their surroundings? Do you have a preference? WM That’s a good question. I guess – do I have a theme? I do tend to write silly plays about sort of intellectual concept. I start with something really heady, like I have a play I wrote about quantum physics and another about linguistics, but instead of making it sort of a text book, I try to make it into a farce – make it into a comedy. Sort of a silly way to address an intellectual idea. RP Aaron – do you have a preferred theme or style? AG I definitely draw a lot on my own experiences. I find that I try to capture moments in my life and what I was feeling, whatever the theme might be, so that years later I can look back and remember – “Oh I used to really feel like that – I used to believe in that”. RP Do either of you actually sit down and consciously say to yourself I’m going to write a play now? How is the creative process for you? Or does it just come spontaneously? AG When it comes to plays, it usually sits in my head for a long, long time, and them I force myself to sit down and write it. If I didn’t force myself, it probably would never get written. RP How does it get in your head in the first place? AG Oh, just experiences, or things – I’m not sure I can come up with an answer for that. Sometimes you’ll be thinking and thinking and an idea will pop into your head and rather than just run it down, I’ll just let it sit for awhile – see where it develops. RP Kind of let it grow and develop and then you write it down. AG Something like that. RP Wade – is that true for you too? WM I think if you sit down and wait for the lighting bold of inspiration to strike, it never strikes. You have to kind of say, “I’m just going to sit down and write and see what happens” and then if you’re lucky you’ll strike that idea or scenario that creates more and more ideas around it – and then it starts to get exciting and then you want to start to sit down and follow that trail and see where it takes you. The fact that we get together everyday and say, “OK let’s write something today – let’s work on something today”. That keeps the juices flowing and that’s how you get your inspiration. RP So you really write something everyday? AG Yeah – well that’s what we out here – We’re writers, so we get together just like a regular work day, and eight hours later we wrap it up and try to keep the ideas flowing and we work on different projects. WM There’s a lot of goofing off – that’s part of writing. RP When you write do you write it as a script – or in prose – like a short story and the convert it to a play? AG All of our stuff starts as just ideas – bullet points – I guess you could say prose, but the whole time we’re thinking of it as a script. WM Not so much prose – more like an outline – and from that we’ll go to certain dialog and that kind of thing. RP So you visualize a story coming out as a script – already in theatrical scenes? WM Yeah – definitely RP What about motion pictures? AG We have written a handful of screen plays – it’s definitely something we’re excited about and interested in. Very different medium though. RP Usually what you write for film seldom comes out exactly as you wrote it. AG Besides, you can image a company spending a lot more money than a small theater company. RP Any poetry from either one of you? AG I have not written poetry since I was a young boy! WM I took a poetry class in college, but it’s now safely tucked away – RP I guess the answer is that neither of you is interested in pursuing that medium? WM You may have happened on the only form of writing that’s less profitable than theatre. The poetry that I do is sort of for me – it’s not something I want to publish or anything. RP Which brings up the question – either one of you have been published anywhere? AG Well, one of Wade’s plays was published by the Southwest Theatre Association, but we’ve written other things – not theatre per se but we have written a video game that we wrote that just came out last week – a giganting 300 page script. RP When you say came out – does that mean it was published somewhere? WM It’s a World War II video game called “Call of Duty” and it has just been released in stores for the X Box and PlayStation and our job was to write the dialog and create the characters that would be sort of fighting the Germans in this World War II game. RP I understand that game writing can be quite lucrative. AG Well I hope so! We haven’t seen that part yet, but our fingers are crossed. WM It’s good, and you’re right. It’s sort of a growing media and it’s becoming another way for writers to make a living. We really like making a living. We have to do it once in awhile. RP Which leads me to ask – do you guys have a regular source of income? AG We are fortunate enough that in the last couple of years we have been paid to write – full time. We definitely have periods where we are between jobs. We’ve been fortunate. That’s what we wanted to do when we came out here and we’ve been paying the bills for about two years. WM We’ve been writing for a couple of different shows – like MTV – the video game – TV writing and reality show producing has been our day job for the past two years. RP So your work is related to the media – it’s not like you do accounting by day and theatre by night. WM Right – I spent some time as a tour guide at Warner Brothers – but I’ve put that behind me in favor of writing. RP Let’s move ahead a few years. If in 20 years people were to see a retrospective of Wade and Aaron, what would they be looking at? WM Interesting question. AG I’m going to let Wade answer that! WM I think I would like for someone to find a DVD set of a TV show that Aaron and I created – or maybe a screen play that made a difference. And also it would be great if somewhere in Los Angeles there was a little underground theatre called Meadows Basement that had the next wave of young theatre artist that came to Los Angeles and were determined to do good work even though they didn’t have a lot of money to do it – this little theater would still be chugging along, maybe doing more shows with a little more success, but still existing. AG I would agree with that! That’s a good answer! I couldn’t have said it better myself. RP Wade, when you say a screen play that would make a difference – how or what difference do you mean? WM I’m not a political theatre guy but maybe something that people would remember. RP Now that you have a new space, are you going to write for the space? WM Well, maybe do some combat scenes – Aaron has a background which kind of expands the stories we can do. RP Do you plan in doing any of the old established classics in your new space? AG I wouldn’t rule it out, but definitely what Meadows Basement looks for is new works by young upcoming playwrights. That’s definitely where our passion lies – finding new voices and sharing them with people. RP If an aspiring writer wants to pitch a play to Meadows Basement, what do they do? AG Our website has a link where writers can send us a query, saying this is what my play is about. We don’t read everything we get, because we have a small company, and the play has be able to be cast with the people we have. WM We don’t really have the resources or the inclination to do development, where the play needs work. We let the writer work it out and once the writer has a script that he/she feels good about, then we produce it. A lot times there’s a lot of theatres out there that lead the writer along, give him notes and change the play around, and do all this sort of workshop, script in hand and all; I think there’s value to just sort of taking a play, even if it’s not perfect and actually putting it on stage to see what people think. RP Now that you both are pretty much established in directing and writing is either one of you interested in acting again? WM I would not inflict that on any one AG I definitely would not do it Not only were they firm about their future non-acting plans; Wade and Aaron are certain that their future lies with the written word and in bringing new works to the stage. Their policy of refunding your money by the end of the first act if you don’t like the play says something about the confidence they have in their productions and the body of work presented to date shows a definite growth in scope and in concept. A quick glance at their mission statement tells you all you need to know about them. “WHAT
IS THE BASEMENT? Meadows Basement is a lovably irreverent theater company
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