Before we announce the winners of our 2024 Critics’ Pick Awards, we’re proud to present our annual Nominee Interview Series.
This is playwright Nick Green’s second year in a row with season-stealing plays in both our Outstanding New Work and Outstanding Production categories. After last year’s triumphant Casey & Diana, Nick did it again with Dinner with the Duchess, a bold and complex character portrait that closed Here For Now Theatre’s summer season in Stratford before going on to a Toronto run at Crow’s. The incredibly busy playwright took the time to answer our many questions about his stories, his process, and the depth of his research.
What was your first experience with theatre?
A local drama teacher came to my class in Grade 3 and did some improv games with us, and that was it! Next thing I knew I was in every drama class in the community, seeing every play, and amassing a collection of Original Broadway Cast Recordings!
Do you remember the first thing you ever wrote?
I remember it was terrible! In Edmonton, there was this annual event called the Loud and Queer Cabaret, put on by Guys in Disguise (led by an early mentor of mine the great Darrin Hagen). I remember going to it one year and being so inspired by the community and creativity, so in my final year of theatre school I decided to write a 10 minute three-hander for it, and nearly died when it got selected! It was such a thrill to see it read at that year’s event.
You were nominated last year for Casey & Diana. Tell us a bit about the genesis of that script.
I got the inspiration while doing research for another play Body Politic, which required a lot of time in the newspaper archives at the Reference Library. I remember coming across an article about that visit and kind of earmarking it for later. Well, when the time came to start a new project, that one came to mind. So I reached out to Casey House to see if they would be open to the idea and they welcomed me with open arms!
This year’s nominated piece is Dinner with the Duchess. How did that idea first develop?
A little back-story: I have had a complicated relationship with the arts. I’m sure most would say the same. In my career, I have gone from full-time actor and writer to someone who has a full-time day job in another field as well as being a writer, and have quit acting all together. This transpired after a period of really wrestling with my place in theatre, and theatre as a profession. Since that drama class in grade 3, theatre has been IT for me. My life’s passion, my heart, my breath. But I did notice that over the years, especially as I’ve worked towards making a living in the arts, my relationship to it has changed. I noticed that it started to become all that I am, and not what I do. And it was turning toxic. There were times when I felt a type of resentment towards theatre. It was really impacting me as a person; my self-worth, my attitude, my outlook on life. So I made a change and it was the best decision I could have made. I sat down to write Dinner with the Duchess with this experience in mind, the potential for something we devote our lives to become something that can begin to destroy us. I was visiting my family for a week and I sat down on their porch and wrote the whole first draft. Now of course once I started meeting the characters, the story and themes evolved, but at it’s core this is what it’s about.
Tell us about your writing process. Do you write in order? Do you outline? Do you mainline coffee and work mostly at 4am?
I am definitely not a late-night person, so no 4am writing. I’d be more likely to wake up at 6am and get going. My process depends largely on the piece. In the case of a play I start usually with some sort of outline of at least the first half, and then I write monologues for the central characters – some of which never see the light of day. A really effective exercise for me is to write a monologue for a character who is trying to get something from someone by telling a story. It helps me figure out a lot. First, you have to think of something that the character wants, which is essential, obviously. Then you have to work with indirect tactics by having them try to get it through storytelling, which reveals a lot about how a character’s mind works. And then there is no better way to discover a character’s voice than to have them tell a story. Are they direct and spare in the way they speak? Do they use floral language to describe the setting (I like to call that “speaking in cursive”)? Do they go on a million tangents? With Duchess, the first thing I wrote was Margaret telling the story of a violin virtuoso performing in Russia in the 1800s and it unlocked so much about her. In Casey and Diana, I started with the opening monologue when Thomas describes Diana getting married, which taught me so much about stakes, tone, setting. Then I wrote the monologue about his sister and her funeral dress. And just like that, I had a really clear idea about the central conflict of the whole show.
Your central character has an incredibly rich knowledge of classical music. How much research was involved in making her expertise authentic?
I was President of the Toronto Gay Men’s Choir at the time, and the conductor is the pianist for the National Ballet, so he was a huge resource, given his experience in classical music. I also interviewed classical musicians and did a ton of reading. Beyond that, a lot of the themes related to a life devoted to a passion are pretty transferrable from theatre and other mediums. I heard that an audience member of this last production was a Judge, and had a lot to say about how the themes resonated with her career.
You workshopped the script at the Next Stage Festival in 2019. How has it evolved since then?
It is a very different script. The original had this whole aspect of alternate reality and some twists that just didn’t really pay off. When I sat down with the show’s dramaturg Marjorie Chan to develop this draft, she really pushed me to consider just telling the story, rather than trying to get fancy with conventions and surprises. It was the best prompt for this piece. There is so much more to be mined out of the play when everyone is managing real stakes in real time.
The play takes place in real time. Tell us about developing your structure and the ebbs and flows of the piece within that self-imposed limitation.
I love a real time pressure cooker play! I tried to shape this play like a piece of music, with different movements throughout in a way where the ending seems inevitable. I considered tempo, variations of characters in scenes, tone, repetition, all the things that make for a moving musical composition. On top of that, however, I am always focused on story structure, so I’m strategic in placing moments where objectives are stated, circumstances change, and conflict building and diffusing.
How did you choose the music that’s featured in the production? What are the pieces we hear and how do those recordings relate to what’s described by the characters?
The one piece that is always in the show is Vitali’s Chaconne. It’s an important piece as it’s the one the lead character is most famous for. In truth, I chose it because I was listening to it when I came up with the idea while walking by the river in Stratford, but it was really perfect. A chaconne is a piece of music that is based on a simple theme that is then explored over and over. I thought that this was a really beautiful metaphor for life, which is talked about in the final monologue.
Were you involved with casting at all? How does Jan Alexandra Smith’s central performance alter or augment the character as originally written?
I almost always am consulted on casting, but ultimately casting decisions rest with the Director and producing company. That said, I was thrilled with all three actors brought forward and held my breath that they would say yes! To answer your question, Jan is an absolute genius and I have admired her since I was in theatre school. She memorized her lines word perfectly. So there was no augmentation to the script, but she brought colours and ideas and nuances that I couldn’t have dreamed of. That’s just what happens when you’re lucky enough to work with a brilliant artist.
What were you hoping audiences would take away from the production?
Mostly I’m hoping this play gets people talking. I think it’s an interesting time to be thinking about legacy, our impact on others, and the idea of forgiveness.
What are some of the most memorable responses you received?
Honestly it’s been the way that people responded to Jan Alexandra Smith. I’ve been doing this thing where I get free tickets for a group of playwrights for my shows and get them all to come on the same night- mostly it’s because I have no friends and I’m trying to force people to hang out with me but that’s another story. Anyways, the night they all came, the minute the play was over like every single playwright was like JAN WAS AMAZING. I could not agree more.
The points of view you tap into in both Casey & Diana and Dinner with the Duchess are so different from each other (and presumably different from your own). What’s the secret to taping into such distinct perspectives and voicing them with such honesty?
To be honest, they aren’t so different from my own. In fact… I’d say that most characters I write come from a deeply personal place. In Casey and Diana particularly, every character really is an aspect of me (my friends will tell you that I basically AM the sister, which I am deciding to take as a compliment). Definitely the titular character of Duchess – so many aspects of her are from my heart. Of course there are huge differences and aspects of each character’s experience that I haven’t lived, but I think the starting place for me is finding a truth to a character that I deeply connect with. Then you give that character a circumstance and a need, and in the best of times the rest kind of writes itself.
You’ve had a busy winter with Dinner with the Duchess’ run at Crows and Casey & Diana opening with a new production in Hamilton. Tell us about the experience of revisiting your work for subsequent runs, how involved are you in those processes?
It’s what you dream about as a writer. It’s taken a long time to have a second production of any show that I’ve written (much less more than that!). It’s thrilling that there continues to be interest in my plays, and I’m so excited to see new interpretations of the work. It’s also an exercise in letting go. I find myself wondering about what the design will look like, or casting, or I might send a little DM to a director just wondering if they want access to any research, but then I need to remind myself to let it go. It’s in their hands now. What a DREAM!
What are you working on now/next? Anything to plug?
I just finished a two week workshop of a new musical that will hopefully be produced in the next couple of years, starting a workshop of a different musical later this month, and am finally starting page one of a new commission with Soulpepper! So yeah… maybe some stuff to plug in like 2032 but not just yet.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
Thanks for all the work you do! It’s so lovely to have resources like your website that are run with such a clear love of theatre!