Spotlight on Writing Workshop Leader Patricia Loughrey

This year we are very fortunate to have Patricia Loughrey join us as one of our Writing Workshop Leaders. Patty's plays include: Nicaragua USA, at the New Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, and Not Who You See, But Who I Am, with the Mark Taper Forum’s Improvisational Theatre Project. Her HIV education plays include Secrets, produced by Kaiser Permanente and The Inner Circle - over 500 productions worldwide. Patty wrote the book for the family-friendly musical The Daddy Machine, and the interview-based play about Harvey Milk: Dear Harvey. She has been a resident playwright at the William Inge Center for the Arts and currently coordinates the play reading series: Queer Theatre – Taking Center Stage at Diversionary Theatre.

Native Voices: What drew you to the profession of theatre?

Patty Loughrey: When I was about nine years old, my parents took me to the Magic Theatre in San Francisco to see One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (I have no idea why they picked this show. We never went to the theatre. I was a bird lover, did they think it was about birds?). I was of course appalled by the violence of the story, but I was transfixed by the performances. The piece was very physical - the bodies of the patients expressing their wildy extravagent and poignant inner worlds. I felt like I was hearing a music that I had never heard, and it called to the deepest part of me.

NV: If you could go back in time, which era would you visit?

PL: Having just finished a play about Harvey Milk, I have to say I would like to visit the Castro in the mid-seventies. Ironically, I was living barely 20 miles from there at the time but I was too young and too unaware to appreciate what was happening.

NV: What's the longest standing item on your "To Do" list?

PL: Travel in Europe. Gasp. I have never been.

NV: What is your greatest indulgence?

PL: Right now it's Star Trek novels. I will change soon (I can only hope).

NV: Fill in the blank: It's not theatre if it's not ________.

PL: It's not theatre if it's not making visible something invisible.

Patty's Writing Workshop will be held on Wednesday, June 17th from 6p-9p and it is open to all retreat participants, the San Diego Native community, and SDSU students. Admission is free although space is limited. Email carlenne@gmail.com by Friday, June 12th in order to reserve your spot.