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Interview with Jack Neary by Michelle Aguillon

Hovey Players is honored to produce The Fall of the House of Usher by local playwright, Jack Neary, in March 2005. Jack Neary's work has been seen at Hovey before, recently at Summer Shorts 2004 with Keeper of the Curse, Beyond Belief with the Lyric Stage Company in Boston, and many famous others. Mr. Neary's play is adapted from the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, who was also born in Massachusetts, specifically in Boston in 1809. We spoke to Mr. Neary recently to catch up with him.

Where do you reside? Did you grow up here?

I live in Lowell, where I was born and raised. In fact, I live now in the house where I spent my formative years. It's the family house, owned now by me and my siblings. They all live elsewhere, but I stay here, manning the castle.

What inspired you to start writing plays?

Writing plays is usually the first thing a dramatic writer tackles, before moving on to where the money is (in TV and movies). I knew I could write, and I was an actor, so naturally the two disciplines blended into playwriting for me. As far as inspiration for a particular play goes, I often write with an actor in mind. I'll work as a director with an actor and I'll see something in that actor which triggers a story I might want to tell, so I build the story around that actor. I wrote my first full-length play, First Night (soon to be presented at the Majestic Theatre in Springfield), with thenlocal actress Maryann Plunkett in mind. Before long, however, she was off to New York and a Tony (for Me and My Girl) so she wasn't available. Years later, though, when we brought First Night to New York, Maryann was on-board for about three weeks--until she became pregnant with her son Jamie. So--she never did the show.

Which do you prefer writing? Comedies? Dramas? Why?

I have no preference as a writer. Both are difficult to write, for different reasons. Comedies are a challenge especially if the comedy is jokebased. I once wrote a four-page article for Dramatics Magazine on the process taken to achieve one specific laugh in my play Jerry Finnegan's Sister. Bottom line--the goal is to write a stage piece that compels the audience to care about what happens next—act-by-act, scene-by- scene, line by line. If that's achieved in any genre, the playwright has something special.

Keeper of the Curse was alot of fun and a favorite at Summer Shorts this year - about a crazed Red Sox fan trying to get rid of The Curse that he's been carrying around in his briefcase! Hovey's own Patrick Flanagan played the fan and Michael Corbett played Epstein, and it was directed by John MacKenzie who is directing Usher, too. Did you catch it? Even if not, how do you generally feel about the interpretations of your plays, given that you work so closely with them not only as a playwright, but also as a director and/or actor?

An excellent question, by the way…I did not see Curse at Hovey, nor did I see another reading of it by Gloucester Stage earlier this year. I directed the production of the play at the Boston Theater Marathon in April, featuring Andy Dolan and Chris Loftus. My reaction to seeing my plays directed by people other than myself has been mixed. When I find somebody who "gets" my stuff, I'm elated. Often, though, I find that directors don't achieve the balance of storytelling and joke-achieving that's needed to make the plays work. When I see a play of mine staged by another director, I'm often encouraged by the audience's reaction to the story. Most of the time, audiences care about what happens and stay involved. But if I'm watching one of my joke-oriented plays and the laughs aren't there, it's...painful. I like to say that the characters in my comedies are funny because they ARE funny--and the characters usually KNOW they're funny. Not the actors—the characters. And often, this is missed by directors. In the case of something like Usher, which has only a few laughs, what may be most important from a theatre's standpoint is casting. Casting actors who understand the characters, who understand the characters' place in the story, and who know how to translate that understanding of the playwright's intent to the audience--that makes all the difference. Directors shouldn't have to impose a character on an actor. The actor should be able to present the director with an interpretation he or she can mold into an integral part of the

production.

What inspired you to write this adaptation? Are you a big fan of Poe?

I can't say I'm thoroughly versed in Poe, nor can I speak in any way as an expert on him. But, I am fascinated by thrillers onstage, and I thought the Usher story was one that could and SHOULD be adapted (again) with a theatre audience in mind. The short story itself is dense and open for all kinds of interpretations. I decided that a theatre audience might be interested in the story if it were clearly presented as a 1930's-style detective thriller. All the aspects of the complicated Poe tale are included in this adaptation, but I think it has a distinctive theatre flavor to it. It's also a show for adults, as the story is a story for adults.

What are you currently working on?

A number of projects, as is the case with me most of the time, as I try to eke out a living in theatre. I just staged my adaptation of A Christmas Carol for the Foothills Theatre in Worcester. On December 14, I go into rehearsal as director of my aforementioned play First Night for a January production at Danny Eaton's Majestic Theatre in West Springfield. I'm working on another rewrite of my Beyond Belief, which was presented at the Lyric Stage last year and at CityStage in Springfield earlier this year. I have high hopes for the script. I think it's kinda commercial. And finally, I'm working again with Spiro Veloudos and Rebecca Low at the Lyric Stage on my play Kong's Night Out, which is a show biz comedy that takes place in the hotel room next to the room where the Fay Wray character is whisked away by Kong from the bed, and on that same night. We've already done a reading at the Lyric, and the hope is to consider it for a production in the 2005-6 season.

John MacKenzie will direct The Fall of the House of Usher. The production performs March 11, 12, 18, 19, 24, 25 & 26, 2005 at 8:00 pm and March 20, 2005 at 2:00 pm.