Indus - Are there any characters or stories you miss writing? Tell us about them!
Oh man. I miss my MFA thesis play. Especially with the amount of tik tok sea shanties circulating my dash, it’s like I’ve been thrown back to 2016 ahahaha. Here’s the official synopsis since I’m too tired to write out a new one:
When Anne Bonny and Mary Read meet aboard the ship of Captain Jack Rackham, they find themselves inexplicably drawn together. But the world of the black flag is violent and unforgiving, and pirates are hunted and executed throughout the Caribbean. Soon, Anne, Mary and the crew are forced to question the very essence of who they are and what they are willing to sacrifice in the name of survival.
I miss those characters so much. I miss the setting, the research... Anne and Mary’s unabashedly queer relationship. The dynamic between the crew. Rackham being a charismatic, chaotic dumbass that you really like, but you’re also like “oh buddy, you’re in over your head.” The amount of times I fought with my graduate supervisor about the amount of characters in the show (Him: Seven is too many, consider cutting three or four characters - Me: You can’t have a PIRATE CREW without the actual CREW, I am NOT BUDGING ON THIS).
I still think it’s the best thing I have ever written and while it’s gotten close to being fully produced, it hasn’t yet (there’s a director in Seattle who really wanted to take it on, but the circumstances never aligned and Covid happened and the theatre industry is shut down). Idk. The play’s going on 5 years old, I still have hope someone, somewhere will pick it up some day.
Leo - Do you have a favorite place to write?
Phoenix - How do you develop your ideas?