A Talk Back with Playwright Y York

On October 25, "... and L.A. Is Burning" playwright Y York returned to see the finished production and give a talk back about her prize winning play. Here is a brief overview of the event from my notes. (sorry if they are a bit sketchy...)

Approx. 60 people from the sold out house stayed for the event, prompting Y to say, "Oh God! You guys all stayed!"

Y was thrilled with the cast and the production.

When asked if the character of Sylvia was based on her, Y said that she wasn't specifically based on her, but that the person she is will come out in all her characters.

When writing a play, Y thinks about what the character expects from a scene and then thinks about how that goal is thwarted. A writer must be careful as they can jump to conclusions about their characters. Her goal is to write something that you have never seen on stage before.

When writing a play, there is no rule of thumb as to how long it takes to complete it. It can take weeks of even years. "... and L.A. Is Burning" was originally conceived in '92 during the events in L.A. while Y lived in Seattle. But it sat dormant for years until the character of Haddie came to the forefront of her consciousness again 2006. At that point, the story just started to flow and the finished play took about 6 months.

Why did you choose "The King and I" as a running theme through out the play?
"The King and I" is so much about race and all of Y's characters get associated with it in some fashion. In the middle of "King and I" is the presentation of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" which is viewed very differently by both Alvin and Haddie.

Y was able to join the cast during the first week of rehearsal. Very little of the script was changed during that time as the team worked on the script. Only about 5 lines were changed and the phrase during Sylvia's Act 2 monologue about "people without clout" was changed to "people without power".

When asked about her characterization of Haddie, Michelle Britton said she made the specific choice for Haddie to be deliberate and still as she tries to understand the people around her. She thinks of Haddie as both a listener and mimic as exemplified by how she imitates phrases from her favorite TV show, "The Cosby Show".

One closing thought from an audience member was that the play was a "rarity", because they felt that the actors, whom many of the audience were familiar with from their acting work in many Houston theaters, disappeared into their roles, becoming the characters they portrayed.

And that's the word on the street!