For an emerging playwright there’s nothing like getting your work published on Indie Theater Now, run by the amazing Martin Denton who single-handedly does so much for the New York Theatre scene – championing plays and playwrights alike.    But how about getting three of your plays published on Indie Theater Now in just one month?

Meet Natalie Menna, an award-winning playwright and actress who is celebrating the fact that three of her plays were just published and are now available for purchase.  All different in scope, length, and subject they still all have Natalie’s signature brand of insight and humor:

Natalie chatted with me about where her comedic voice comes from, how she handles each milestone of success, and puts to rest the question of ever meeting a poor vegan.

Natalie! February was a terrific month for you! You had 3 of your plays published on Indie Theater Now. Amazing! So, first of all, congratulations.
Natalie Menna: Thanks, Karen!

Secondly—what does it feel like to now have your work out there officially? Is there a feeling of “I’ve arrived”?
Natalie: If I ever feel that way, please tie my hands to the bedpost. And not in the good way. Seriously, if I feel that way ever they’ll be no need to write anymore. I write precisely BECAUSE I’ve never thought of myself as arriving, arrived, about to arrive, or on the way to arriving. Departing, maybe, on a sinking ship …

Of course, publication isn’t the only way to ‘arrive’ right? All three of your plays have gotten acclaim by winning awards. What goes through your head when you find out that something you’ve created is not only being celebrated with a nomination, but then championed with an actual award win?
Natalie: I do like awards! Momentarily, I feel like I’m not on that sinking ship. But then I’m right back on it. Hours. Sometime minutes later. And then I keep writing.

In Roberta, I-Pod, and Zen A.M. you’ve shown you have a knack for writing, if not comedy per-se, then extremely comedic characters. When you conceive of a concept for a play do you set out for it to be funny, or is that just a part of your personality that shines through?
Natalie: This is a tough question. Requires me to analyze myself, which I hate. I only like analyzing others. Let’s see — a lot of people say this, and I wholeheartedly agree — “There’s comedy in everything.” EVERYTHING! That’s the way I’ve survived my life so far. The way we all do. I don’t think I consciously set out to write a comedy. I can be writing about a serious topic, for example, my play Committed, which deals with the last two days of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh‘s life before his murder. A regular laugh/riot, no? Believe it or not, audiences for the reading of that play were laughing steadily throughout. Humor is the ultimate coping tool, even under the worst of circumstances.

I’m also of the Larry David school of comedy – that anyone, anything, or any circumstance can be used for comedy. I think sometimes this clashes with the aesthetic of the current climate in theatre today, but I won’t let this affect my work. Comedy is life, and there’s comedy in everyone and everything on the planet.

I’ll be blunt: your main characters are very fun and interesting on the page, but they definitely come with a lot of issues! Frankly, I think if I was friends with Roberta, let’s say, I’d want to pull my hair out. And yet the play is fantastic. What’s the key to making a character likable on the stage even as you know that in person they’d be unlikable?
Natalie: Really? I feel like all of my friends, including myself, have BEEN Roberta (well maybe not to that degree!).  But sure, at one point or another … I think maybe it’s about heightening the reality — I seriously have never gotten this obsession with ‘likable’ characters — sort of like what David Mamet says about the ‘polemic’ play – BORING! (Despite disagreeing with him politically, I LOVE his writing).

I love creating characters who are deeply flawed, bad examples, crazy, self-involved, etc. That’s why it’s theatre! When I am in an audience and a play has a character who ‘represents’ goodness, morality, nobility, etc. I feel so bored I want to slash my wrists. (Okay –that’s a tad dramatic– I just want to go to the restroom and never return.) Bring on the crazy! That’s entertainment. That’s theatre!

And on that note, (and this may seem obvious but you’d be surprised) just because my character is saying something does not mean I agree with it. As an example, in my solo show i-POD, the character at one point says “No coincidence I’ve never met a poor vegan”.  A playwright approached me after the show and informed me that he was offended and knew many poor vegans. But of course! It’s this character’s view!

I think I may have digressed. Back to your question. I think people are responding to the uncensored truth. I try to create characters that are always speaking from their truth. Unpleasant or not. I try to avoid ‘flowery’ dialogue intended to make the character look like ‘a good person’. And I think people crave the truth. The truth of that particular character and their life.

You make a good point, Natalie.  Flawed characters are speaking from a place of their own truth – and letting the audience go along for the ride means bringing them on a specific journey.  Getting inside the head of someone who thinks a particular way is what innovative and audacious theatre is all about!

Now that you’ve got three published works and they can be accessed by other people, what would be your biggest dream for these shows?
Natalie: To have audience members say “That hit me. That made me laugh. That made me think differently“. That’s all. That’s nirvana.

Well, Natalie, based on what I’ve read, you’re well on your way to nirvana already!  Here’s to more truth, more flaws and more productions!

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For information on how to purchase any (or all!) of these plays by Natalie Menna, simply click here for more information.

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NATALIE MENNA is an award-winning playwright and actress living in downtown Brooklyn. A native New Yorker, she recently won Outstanding Overall Production of a Play and Best Actor for her full-length drama Committed at Planet Connections Theatre Festivity 2015. Committed, produced by Ego Actus, received six nominations, including Outstanding Production of a Staged Reading, Outstanding Playwright For A New Play in a Reading, Best Director, Best Actress, and Two Nominations for Best Actor.

She was nominated for Outstanding Writer for her full-length comedy Zen A.M. in Planet Connections Theatre Festivity 2014. Her solo show Roberta! was featured in United Solo Theatre Festival, Theatre Row, in November 2014. Select previous awards include The Nettie Award for Best Solo Show for her play I-pod in the Network One-Act Festival, and Best Actress for I-pod in The Midtown International Theatre Festival. Her play Hiroshi-Me, Me, Me was a finalist in both The Strawberry Festival and The Network One-Act Festival, with two nominations for Best Actress and Winner for Best Supporting Actress.

Her work has been developed with Casey Childs, Andrew Leynse and David Caudle at Primary Stages, and Nicky Silver at The Vineyard Theatre.

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INDIE THEATRE NOW is an engine for discovering new American drama — one that enables teachers, students, actors, directors, producers, and artists of every stripe, as well as those not involved in the theater, to experience the brilliance of contemporary indie theater as close to first-hand as possible.

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You know you’re at a David Mamet play when, before the show even starts, you’re asked to turn off your fucking cell phones.

While the play was first produced in the seventies, the subject matter is hardly dated; nothing gives away the time period (except for John Leguizamo’s crazy-patterned shirt — which could easily be more of a nod toward his character’s thrift-store-shopping-habits than the decade); even in the program “The Time” is listed only as “One Friday”.

And really, do we need to know more?  Almost unfolding in real time, this slice-of-life drama takes us through one random Friday when three guys, passing in and out of Don’s Junk Shop, decide to steal back an American Buffalo nickel after they come to the realization that it was sold for a fraction of its worth.  Honestly, the nickel has very little to do with this two hour drama … what you’re really there to see is the way men interact with each other when trust, pride, reputation, and money are at stake.

Language is very important to Mamet.  His rapid-fire dialog is to theatre what the Andy Warhol soup can is to art … immediately recognizable, hypnotically repetitive, and a little colorful at first … but once you fall into the rhythm the magic can start.

For the first few minutes of this production of American Buffalo it’s very difficult to let go of the “I’m watching a play” feeling. Cedric the Entertainer, as Don, delivers his lines with a natural cadence, and a believable conviction, but for the most part Haley Joel Osment fires back his lines not so much in response, but more in a desperate attempt to keep the ball in play.  You can literally hear him thinking “My turn! … (bam) …. pause … my turn! … (pow) … pause … my turn! … (thwack) … move to the chair … Oh, my turn again?“  His character is supposed to be a little angsty, but there are moments when Osment’s brow-furrowing doesn’t seem like acting, but more like confusion as to how his face should look in order to match what his mouth is saying.  At times he speeds up the rhythm to an unnatural pace, stepping on the previous line (thwack) … but Cedric volleys back like a pro, as if he was speaking from his heart, not his script.

Once John Leguizamo comes on the scene all bets are off; he quickly becomes the focal point and here’s where it starts getting interesting.  From his opening rant he’s immediately enjoyable  “Fucking Ruthie … Fucking Ruthie! … Fucking Ruthie …” It’s amusing just to see how many ways he can skew the same two words.  You can hear an audible click as the rhythm of the back and forth now becomes something more; not just a one / two / one / two back beat, but a beat you can dance to.   Here’s when you sit back and get sucked in.  Suddenly, it seems like you’re listening in on something very private.

It’s no wonder — both John Leguizamo and Cedric the Entertainer are seasoned comedians, their bread and butter is in the timing.  Both men understand how to work an audience by twisting a line just so in order to get the desired effect.  This isn’t something you learn, this comes from years of being in front of a live audience delivering well crafted jokes spoken as though they were spontaneously thought up on the spot.  Leguizamo and C the E earned their stripes in front of a live audience.  Just as Teach tells Don, “One thing makes all the difference.  Knowing what the fuck you’re talking about …“  These guys know what they’re talking about.  (Don’t worry, little Haley Joel … just as Bob needs to be put through his paces before he can play with the big boys, so will you learn how to master this acting thing.  We all know that first Oscar Nomination was for the cute factor.  Luckily … you don’t have to worry about that anymore).

It can’t be easy though, reviving a play with men who are best known for comedy.  While no one can deny that Leguizamo and C the E can deftly handle the corners when moving from comic to tragic moments, there seemed to be some inappropriate laughter at certain moments from the audience … laughing in spots where they may not have laughed at, say, Robert Duvall in the 1977 production or Al Pacino in the 1983 revival.

Laughter’s a hard thing to account for … aside from applause it’s really the only way an audience has to communicate back to the actors.  It’s sometimes just as often a way of saying “Yeah, I’m with you” or “Hey, I appreciate that” as it is of saying “Boy, was that funny …”.  That can be both the blessing and the curse of casting men well known for a specific style.  Celebrities of any kind bring their whole history on stage with them, and often an audience goes to gawk, deride, or pander to a “name” as much as to watch a show.  Casting Madonna in Mamet’s Speed-the-Plow  … need I say more?  The minute these men of comedy command the stage, the audience is ready, and willing, to laugh.  This is a particular deterrent when Teach’s complete dismissal of an injured Bob comes off as cluelessness as opposed to steely indifference or even just an anxious need to get on with the matters at hand.  And yet, maybe that’s the unexpected benefit of using a less traditional cast for this production.  New layers are allowed to unfold, nuances can be explored, shades of meaning arise where they hadn’t been before.

Speaking of diversity … this is the first time that American Buffalo has been cast with men of color; the producers were looking to bring an “urban identity” to the project.  I think one of the joys of watching great performers, however, is being so drawn into the story that race becomes just a footnote.  After all, American Buffalo deals with bravado, suspicion, and honor … themes that cross all races.  Honestly, I didn’t see the cast as “diverse” as much as I saw them as “talented”.  Still, it’s a great day when we can witness color-blind casting.

Ultimately, this is a great revival of a strong play … the new cast is exciting, and the junk shop set (which looks like eBay exploded) is fun to stare at while you wait for the show to start.  Definitely try and catch this limited run while it’s still around.

American Buffalo by David Mamet opens at the Belasco Theatre on Monday, November 17th and stars John Leguizamo as Teach, Cedric the Entertainer as Don, and a  much-taller-than-I-remember-him Haley Joel Osment as Bob. Tickets can be purchased through TeleCharge.

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