You’re a busy bee at this year’s festival. You’ve written two plays that are on the program (Gargoyles in our Street Theatre series, and Animate Objects, which will be part of our Play Out Loud readings on Saturday, August 3); you’re directing one of our One Act plays (Predormital by Garrett MacLaughlin) and you even acted in a reading (playing your friend Jason McIntyre in his play A Fantastic NotaBle One Act). How have you been managing to juggle all these different roles?

I certainly have had a busy-yet-rewarding festival this year, and my time is certainly at a premium. Between working a full-time job and all of the rehearsals and edits I’ve had to do for the festival, my evenings and weekends have been full since the start of July. I’ve had to be very intentional with my time, prioritizing plays that are receiving a full productions this year, namely Gargoyles and Predormital. My one act reading, Animate Objects, certainly received less attention from the playwright (me) as a result; however, it has received invaluable feedback from this year’s dramaturg, Jena McLean, and I am excited to hear it read aloud by a talented cast of actors while it’s in such an early state in its development.

Between directing, acting, and playwriting, do you find there’s one of these that you find most fulfilling, and why?

I am not sure if I find any one role more fulfilling than the other. I am certainly very excited about playwriting. I have been a voracious reader of plays for many years, but only recently have I started writing. Last year’s festival’s dramaturg, Julia Lederer, really inspired me to start writing, and I now have a google doc full of drafts and ideas for plays. In recent years, I have begun gravitating away from the stage and towards the director’s chair, which feels like a very natural progression for me as an artist.

Tell us a bit about the two plays you’ve written—where they came from and what the writing process is like for you.

Gargoyles is about two gargoyles who guard the Christ Church Cathedral, one of whom is set in his ways and content with life and the other has decided to jump from his perch with the hopes that he can fly. It started out as a warmup exercise, and has become a piece of writing I am very fond of.

Animate Objects tells the story of Lee and James, a married couple who both work in tech. Lee is the architect of a new Artificial Intelligence called “Ada” that has been taking the tech world by storm, displacing thousands of developers, including James. The play follows the months leading up to the release of “Ada Home,” the next iteration of this product. While Lee is fighting to keep her project and her marriage afloat, James is developing – let’s say – a more than friendly relationship with their beta version of “Ada Home.” This play sprouted from my experiences as a software developer and a really depressing article I read online about an app that offers lonely men on the internet “AI girlfriends.”

Predormital is a challenging and intense play. Can you tell us how you approached it as a director? What’s it like working on such a play in the unique environment of NotaBle Acts, where works are in development as opposed to finished pieces? And give us an elevator pitch for it?

Predormital tells the story of Brock, who is approached by an old friend, Vincent, who wants him to test a drug that allows the user to revisit memories in their sleep in a sort of lucid dream. It explores themes of grief, loss, and our connection to memories – all in a very tight seventy-minute one act play.

Putting on a play like this in three weeks, rehearsing only on evenings and weekends, is quite challenging. Because NotaBle Acts’ aim is to foster the development of new works by New Brunswick playwrights, it was important for me to communicate with the playwright to ensure his vision was being served by the production. It was also paramount to have a cast and crew of extremely talented and committed theatre veterans who were up to the task, and thankfully I have that with this show.

I think an important role of the director on a play like this is to create a rehearsal space that is safe and supportive, where we can talk about some really serious topics. That’s why it was important to me to bring in Naomi McGowan for intimacy coordination, who absolutely knocked it out of the park.

As the director I needed to come to every rehearsal prepared for the scene work with a clear vision. With such a tight timeline there were not many opportunities to revisit scenes in the play more than once. Fortunately, the last play I directed was also a dream play set in a doctor’s office, so I felt equipped with the tools necessary to do this moving piece of theatre justice.