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Letters From Alex
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The High of Theatre

If you’ve ever been involved in live theatre—in any capacity—you know there’s nothing more exhilarating. Or terrifying. Or humbling. Or ego-building. Or addicting.

When that opening arrives, come hell or high water, people are in that space, and the lights rise and…

I like the lyrics to the song “Welcome to the Theatre,” from the musical Applause (adaptation of the movie All About Eve, lyrics by Betty Comden/Adolph Green). Which begins:

Welcome to the theatre
To the magic
To the fun
Where painted trees and flowers grow
And laughter rings fortissimo
And treachery’s sweetly done.

I myself was hooked on theatre for a long while—acting, directing, writing—and though I moved on to other exciting vices, I still hear that siren song. When I see a show, I like to sit as close as possible so I feel like I’m in it.

I don’t see nearly as much theatre as I used to, but recently I had the good fortune to attend three shows in 11 days.

Alice By Heart 
In a quirky theatre in Chicago, in a black-box basement space. Low tech, low budget, but dynamite theatricality and performances. A teenage girl in London during WW2 re-enacts Alice in Wonderland to cope with the impending death of her best friend. Saw it with a childhood friend, with whom I used to see lots of shows, so felt like time traveling.

Once Upon a Mattress
A daffy musical version of The Princess and the Pea, on Broadway, starring Sutton Foster. High jinks of the highest order. Theatre gets even more thrilling when I see it through the eyes of my seven-year-old daughter who accompanied my wife and me. We were on the front row, and during the curtain call Sutton looked right at my kid and waved.

Stereophonic
All the rage on Broadway now, but I managed to snag a single ticket. Set in a recording studio in the 1970’s where a band is making an album. Like insects on the wall, we watch the collision of their talent and tension. Years back, I hired the playwright, David Adjmi, to teach for Gotham, which was prevented by his acceptance into a Julliard program. Glad he’s caught fire. 

By now I’m guessing you want to dive into some theatre yourself. Well, Gotham offers Playwriting classes. And we offer two other ways to get that crazy performance high: Stand-Up Comedy Writing and Songwriting.

Or just go see something.

Also, I am appearing in something like a show soon. At the upcoming Gotham Writers Children’s Book Conference (mostly on Zoom, September 28 & 29), I will be interviewing our featured guest Maureen Johnson.

Not too late to get tickets!

Alex Steele

Gotham President

Letters From Kelly
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No Heroes, No Villains

Sometimes, when writers get together, an idea will ignite and become a kind of running theme for the duration. And so it was this week during HippoCamp Weekend, a mini-conference put on by Hippocampus magazine, that one refrain almost became the motto:

No heroes. No villains.

“Of course we do have people who have been heroes to us, or who have behaved villainously to us,” said Jiordan Castle, author of the YA memoir Disappearing Act. “It’s very important in nonfiction…just like it is in fiction, that the gray areas are not only more interesting, they are also more true.”

This is a different take on how we as writers usually think of heroes and villains. We like to say, make them three dimensional. We (including me!) like to say, look for their shadow selves so you can make them more fully human. You can have heroes and villains, we say. Just make them believable.

This was not that. When these writers said none, they meant, None.

This idea might sound radical, but I don’t think it’s new. In an interview a few years ago, Jamaican-born novelist Marlon James alluded to it while talking about readers who crave more Black characters in books, but want them only to be heroes.

“But representation doesn’t just mean heroes,” James said. “If we want to show the full range of human experience, it must include the bad. It must include the difficult. But I also want to believe they’re people, as opposed to types. Otherwise, we’re just going to end up with a bunch of one-dimensional villains and magic Negroes.”

It’s OK if you’re skeptical. But let’s say you were going to try to give up heroes and villains, cold turkey. The question then is, how?

James immersed himself in the mythology of African cultures, “because I wanted to know what it feels like to have that thing so far in the back of my skull that I take it for granted.” That, he said, it changed the way he viewed the world, and stories.

Castle sought heroes and villains that were things other than people. Her book is about growing up while her father was imprisoned, so “a more interesting villain is, in my case, the criminal justice system, a system [I’m] fighting against.”

And her hero? “It’s not someone coming in to save anyone. It’s the journey, the realization you have.”

Maryann Aita, author of Little Astronaut, had maybe the most fun method for avoiding heroes and villains: Self-deprecation.  

“It’s always okay to make fun of yourself, but avoid being cruel,” Aita said. “Self-deprecation brings a sort of awareness. You don’t want to be so cool that people don’t like you.”

For example, she said, if you write about a time you rushed to the bedside of someone in the hospital, be sure to include the fact that you packed three pairs of shoes.

“You need to ask, why would I bring—to a hospital visit—a pair of high heels, a pair of flip-flops, and a pair of sneakers?” she said.

Kelly Caldwell

Dean of Faculty

Letters From Alex
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Hello, August

Sure, lots of places shutter the shop in August and go off for a spell of leisure. And we hope you can slow your pace a bit, perhaps relish a slice of watermelon. (And, of course, we have many readers in the Southern hemisphere who might prefer a hot cocoa on a winter’s day.)

If you wish to weave some writing into your August, Gotham is here for you. We’ve got classes starting in August, free Friday Write-Ins, our monthly edition of The Razor, and these two special things…

The Writer’s Mind

The Writer’s Mind is a fascinating new course, or rather a reinvention of a course we offered a while back.

Unlike most writing courses, it’s not about the craft of writing. It’s about something deeper and more mysterious. It’s about techniques for thinking as part of your writing process. Such as …

Letting your mind aimlessly roam, which often leads to great ideas and solutions.

Slipping back in time to engage in child’s play, where the imagination runs wild.

Accessing your dreams and semi-awake state, as a path to your subconscious.

The Writer’s Mind debuts August 6, in an asynchronous Online class. Sorry, that one is sold out, but it also be offered Online starting September 10 and October 8. And you can put it on your Gotham Wish List to be notified about future dates and formats.

I don’t know of a course like this offered anywhere else. Are you up for an odyssey of the mind?

Gotham in Bryant Park

Every summer, Gotham takes up residency in NYC’s Bryant Park for free Thursday night classes. We just did three of them in July. Now, we’ve got three of them in August:

August 1 – Fiction Writing
August 8 – TV Writing

August 15 – Memoir Writing

These outings are maybe my very favorite Gotham event. The park is a luscious green rectangle surrounded by soaring buildings and right next to the magnificent NY Library building (the one with the lions). Not only do we get great crowds at our classes, but it’s a collection of interesting folks, a real mix of what the city and its visitors can provide.

As the summer day turns to night, the magical light brings a kind of magic to the writing people do in these classes, and those who want to can share their words into a microphone.

These events are worth the trip.

Have a great rest of summer…with us.

Alex Steele,

Gotham President