Interview of the Playwright, Troy Loftin, by the Dramaturg, Connor Woods

Interview of the playwright, Troy Loftin, by the dramaturg, Connor Woods

This show has been in development for a while now. Would you like to talk about the process that you have gone through to get to this point?

Yeah. So, we first had some workshops right after it got chosen to be the play for the fall slot, and at that time there was only about half the play. So, the first workshop was the first act. We picked out some actors that we thought could work in the parts, and we all got into a room and read it out loud. Everyone shared their thoughts, what they like about their characters, where they thought it could grow. Dr. Shimko did the same, and it was super helpful and helped really inform me where the second act needed to go. Because, for a farce, the second act is kind of that hardest thing to wrap up because all of those frayed ends you created in the beginning have to be tied up.

Putting a nice bow on it all.

Right, so we had one of those, and then we had two more workshops after that, and there was a second act that came into being. By the end of the initial workshop process, I had a completed first draft of the script. Then after we got the cast list, we started another workshop process, and things changed pretty significantly in terms of lines and who says what where, and some moments even switched around to different characters. Structurally, things stayed generally the same.

How would you say those workshops, especially once the cast was settled, helped you with developing the script and the changes that eventually came about?

The cast was monumental in helping determine who the characters were and how they really sounded because up until that point I had had basic outlines of the characters, and they were cemented in my mind as far as who these people are. But you get the first cast and they are reading them out loud and they are saying these lines: in their mouths it comes out differently. You can’t help but have that imprint about that. So, in particular the character of Brock was a little bit fuzzy in my mind before Josh Eguia was cast. Once he was there, I started writing things in the vein of Josh and what I thought was funny and what I thought he could pull off, and so it gave the character a sort of new life which permeates the rest of the play.

Which I find really interesting because Brock, this sort of super sensitive escort, ended up being one of the most unique characters in this world very clearly populated by unique and interesting characters.

Thank you.

Cuckoo has obvious notes of traditional farce, but also you have worked in some contemporary ideas. Where did the inspiration for that come from?

Well, I really, really like the farces of Georges Faydeau, and I worked on one of his plays [Paradise Hotel] as a dramturg my freshman year. That was the first time I had really worked on a farce, so I thought, “that’s really cool.” He’s the traditional 19th-century French farceur. Everyone bows down to him. But then sophomore year, actually end of freshman year, we read a play in Acting II called Loot by Joe Orton, and that really changed how I thought about comedies. Joe Orton was a farceur in the sixties in Britain, and he is totally crazy in what he does. And Loot is very anarchic and full of energy but also sort of insane; anything can happen at any moment, and there is a sort of darkness to it as well. I really liked that, and I thought that was the farce of the 20th and 21st centuries. So I wondered how you could combine the two to make a farce that is able to be enjoyed by a lot of people but still has that sharp edge to it. When writing Cuckoo, I wanted it to not be safe and toothless, but at the same time something that is relatable and a fun night at the theatre.

This show includes a lot of taboo sex and sexuality topics, some of which are becoming less taboo, but did that ever cross your mind while writing it, in terms of how far you felt comfortable pushing it?

Definitely. In the beginning, I didn’t really know what I was going to show onstage since it is a one-set location, and it is the living room, and it all revolves around all these people having sex, or trying to have sex. I asked “okay, what are the sort of limits I can push that are still funny but not gross or disturbing.” One of the rules that Dr. Shimko talked about in the workshop process is that it is funny when people are trying to do something they shouldn’t, but then they get caught or stopped mid-way through. So, in the majority of farces, they never complete the act. It is just them wanting to, and in the end everything gets placed back the right way, and they realize what they should have been doing all along is what they want to do now. I liked the fact that I am able to show some kinky objects and suggest some imitate acts. Rev the engine without starting the car. That really translates well because the goal is not to show pornography onstage, but use it for the funny.

Of course. One of the main difficulties that many writers have with farce is that there are so many balls up in the air all at once. Would you consider that the biggest trouble for you while writing?

The plot and figuring out who goes where when was definitely the hardest part of this show. Because you do have to worry about what happens more than who or why at times. Not to say that farces shouldn’t have characters that are believable with inner lives, but it very much is an outside-in writing process. So I had to determine what needed to happen and then find characters who would do those things. In the first act it’s easier because you can let them do what they want and get into the problems they will get choked by later.

Sometimes quite literally.

Yes! Wink. But in the second act it gets more difficult having to unravel that. One day when I was three- fourths through the second act I was completely distraught, not knowing what to do. So I put away my computer, got out a sheet of paper and a pen. I sat there for about two hours writing just the entrances and exits of the characters very methodically from that page until the end. Even from that it changed again, but that is sort of the approach you need to have to get going.

Would you consider this a typical Troy Loftin script?

I’m not really sure if I know what a typical Troy Loftin script is at this point just because my ten-minutes have all been dramatic pieces with some comedic elements, but they weren’t comedies. This is my first full-length so I am just growing into that, and I have television pilot I am working on with Theresa Rebeck that is sci-fi horror. So I am dabbling with a lot of different genres. The first play I ever completed was a one-act religious satire with farcical elements, so I guess comedy is what I have been leaning towards. I like to be funny, and I really like comedy. Even in the most effective dramas and tragedies, there are moments of comedy. I would say Cuckoo is very representative of my style but not necessarily what I like to laugh at.

Interesting. How do you go about revising jokes?

The first joke you come up with is probably not the best one. For some, I had to revise more than a few times. It is a matter of tweaking the joke, and sometimes expanding it. There was one point where I had Brock talking about being a marine biologist, and it wasn’t really landing, so over a few workshops I expanded it to two semi-sizable monologues. Now it works much better. So, sometimes joke writing is a matter of coming up with fifty things and then choosing two and finding out what works.

Do you have other plans for this script?

Yes. I would love for it to go to Broadway and run for 800 shows and get me a lot of money.

As do all playwrights in the world.

I am sending it off to the Kennedy Center American Theatre Festival, and I will know about that pretty soon. I applied specifically for the Mark Twain comedy writing award. Going into this process, I had my eye on that, so I wanted to write a comedy that commented on society like a Mark Twain novel. It is funny but also says something, not just fluff. Because I think a lot of comedy and especially farce is fluff, and I don’t want to write something that doesn’t say anything. So the Kennedy Center contest is out there, and I would love to send it out to theatres that have a policy of reading unsolicited scripts. I have been contacted by someone who has a theatre in the Midwest who has said, send it anytime.

That sounds amazing. Hopefully it does go to Broadway because it is a wonderful, self-aware farce.