Spotlight on Playwright Vickie Ramirez
Are you excited for the upcoming Festival of New Plays at Native Voices? I interviewed one of our playwrights whose work is featured in the Festival, Vickie Ramirez (Tuscarora, Six Nations of the Grand River), who wrote Stand-Off at HWY #37. See what she has to say about writing! What is your favorite thing about playwriting? I love telling stories, always have but the amazing thing about playwriting is that you start with your story, share it and then watch as other artists take the story and create their own stories on top of it. It's like a great big game of telephone. Love it.
What is your least favorite thing about playwriting? Never being satisfied. You know no audience will react the same way every day but when a line that got huge laughs the night before falls flat, I hate that desperate reflex that makes me want to run up onstage with pages and a red pen, saying "here, try this one instead." But I also secretly love that too. (I'm a masochist).
What is your favorite play? Soooooo many - anything by Tompson Highway, Stephen Adly Guirgis, Caryl Churchill, Long Day's Journey Into Night, A Streetcar Named Desire, Grandchildren of the Buffalo Soldiers, The Baby Blues, The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and The Goat or Who is Sylvia, The Cherry Orchard, Hamlet (not ashamed)...I could go on and on and on...
What’s a production that you’ve seen recently and think everyone should see?Really excited about Larissa Fasthorse's "What Would CrazyHorse Do?" But warning, gird your loins! It's a tricky one.
What’s the best cure for writer’s block? Dancing
What would the title be of the play/movie based on your life? Not a clue...actually...yep - that's the perfect title!
What play do you wish you had written and why? Dry Lips Oughta Move To Kapuskasing - first Rez play I saw and it blew my mind. Poetic and lyrical, it took the voices of the folks I grew up with - folks I had taken for granted - and reflected them back as magical and lyrical. I went back home and took a second look at my family after that, and started seeing the complexity and beauty. I only wish I could get one quarter of that beauty in my work.
Where do you get your inspiration for your work? family, stories my grandfather told, stories my mother told, stories my father tells, the people and places I see and experience, scifi and fairy tales... (food too...) Could go on and on and on....
What are you most looking forward to during the workshop and festival? meeting new folks, sharing new stories, checking out the west coast ndnz and west coast theater peeps and ....sunshine...really desperate for some sunshine...