Playwright-TYLER OLSEN

                                         Tyler Olsen backstage at "Crime and Punishment".

 

From left to right:

"Crime and Punishment" creators Joanna Harmon, Noah Bremer and Tyler Olsen 

                        

 

The "Tea Room"  where audience could gather and get mentally

prepared to enter "Crime and Punishment" and enjoy tea of course.

 

A special seating area for THE NAKED ONES, those who paid for the extra experience of 

The $100 man. 

 

Cast members from left to right

Joann Oudekerk, Nadia Honary, Susie Campbell, Brian Watson-Jones and Christopher Barton

 

 

Cast Member:

Candace Barrett Birk

Cast Member:

Stephanie Fellner 

All Photos by Ted Dewberry

It’s a challenge for me to describe just what Crime and Punishment was, even though I was an actor in it!  Crime and Punishment, inspired by the Dostoyevsky novel of the same name was an immersive play in 2015 created by the team of Tyler Olsen, Noah Bremer and Joanna Harmon.  What do I mean by immersive?  This was not a play where you could sit and passively enjoy the performance.  To experience the play you,the masked audience member, had to actively find the performances (or stumble upon it by accident).  Audience members could explore as much or as little as they wanted in the very large set modeled after the grimy St. Petersburg of the novel.  Just the sets alone were worth the price of admission, but with the sound effects, smells pumped in to the space and the stunning performances, the experience was life-altering for those lucky enough to experience it with an open mind.  Writing this article, I just can’t be objective.  I am still haunted by this play.  Through my brief foray into stage acting (I’m a screen and novel writer), I stumbled upon a very rare gem indeed.  I reached out to Tyler Olsen, the playwright who was presented with problems never faced by writers of traditional theater.  By definition, an audience member would never hear most of the dialogue.  It was physically impossible to be everywhere at once.  How does a writer wrap their head around such things?  I asked him a few questions to get a clearer picture of the process of immersive theater and "Crime and Punishment" in particular.

TED
“How did you even begin the process of writing this kind of interactive theater?”

TYLER OLSEN
“Noah, Joanna and I spent many many hours together creating very general character arcs for all the characters. These included emotional arcs as well as plot points.  Most of it was based on the book, but there was also a lot of invention, as not every character in the book has a full line- they come in and out of the pages, but they were always in the world of the show, so they needed things to do. Lizveta is a perfect example- she dies very early on in the book, but the idea of her haunted Raskolnikov throughout, so although she was dead, she continued on in the story.  Once we had the basic road map laid out (and it didn't include any of the minor characters), I then took that and started writing. As a playwright, all of my early writings were farces, which meant that they were very heavy plot shows- lots of high speed escapes, fast ins and outs, etc. They're still some of my favorite things to write, and I've gotten pretty good at judging how long things take (i.e. traveling in space, costume changes, physical business, etc.) For C&P, I started with one character- I think it was Raskolinkov's sister, Dunya, and just started writing her storyline. If she met somebody else from the story, I'd make a note of it, but keep writing until I ran out of steam for Dunya.  Then I would take whoever she had met along the way and think, OK, how did they get to that point?  I'd then either start with them from the beginning, or the moments just prior to them meeting Dunya, and write that. Inevitably, they would also meet new characters along the way, and so it would ripple out from
there.“



TED
“Interactive theater is fairly new frontier for theater.  During the writing process, how did you weigh the storytelling aspects of the script against the reality that it was physically impossible for patrons to watch all of your work being performed since the actors were spread out across such a large space?”


TYLER OLSEN
“(One clarification- C&P was IMMERSIVE theater, not interactive. In interactive, the non-trained spectator has a direct effect on the narrative, which was not the case in C&P). As for the question:  This was always a consideration. However, right from the outset, we knew that this was the reality- no one was ever going to see the whole thing. So instead, we focused on creating a similar emotional journey to be for the audience to go on, regardless of where they were.  Then we looked at the characters, and weighed in on how their relationship with the audience could reinforce that feeling.”


TED
“As an actor in C&P, the sound played a huge part in not only the timing of the play but in the mood.  Did you previsualize or pre-auditorialize the soundtrack while you were writing or was it something you left for the sound design team to figure out?”


TYLER OLSEN
“This was all Michael Croswell, and he hit it out of the park! There was definitely input from us, but the richness of the design was totally his art!”


TED
“There were three levels of ticket prices, the highest of which was the $100 MAN.  As an actor, I had a few interactions with that character.  Was that role scripted or ad-libbed?  What was your process in creating that character?”


TYLER OLSEN
“This character was almost completely improvisational, and was based entirely on reading/anticipating the desires of the $100 patron and the show they wanted to see. This was about giving audiences a key into the world that nobody else had- someone who could get you anywhere and knew where all the action was.  Chris Barton and Brian Watson Jones created this whole experience to dynamically with the existing show, while adding elements that no one else would ever see...”

TED
“With such an intense interactive experience under their belt, what did you want the audience members to leave C&P with once they ascended the stairs back to the real world?”


TYLER OLSEN
“I wanted them to be excited, overwhelmed, and open to a new kind of performance experience!”


TED
“What advice could you give to someone that wants to do an interactive play, but doesn't know where to begin?”

TYLER OLSEN
“There's a few questions I would have them ask themselves, as this kind of work requires a colossal amount of time and resources to pull off well. The biggest question is WHY? What does making it immersive or interactive do for the story besides making it "cool".  After that, I think our approach of emotional arch to general plot to character arcs to writing worked really well.   Oh, and to let them know to not make any other plans- this work is consuming and never ending!  We worked for almost 2 years on the one-hour show that Crime and Punishment became.!  And, I'd  tell them to work with people who have done it before.  Jeff Wirth with Interactive Playlab in NYC is an amazing authority on this work, having studied and taught it for over 30 years and is an tremendous resource for anybody looking to do this work!"

INTERVIEW: Screenwriter-Vanessa Ionta Wright

                                          Image Courtesy Vanessa Ionta Wright



Vanessa Ionta Wright is a very talented screenwriter that I met at Shriekfest 2014 when we both had projects in competition.  I recently got a chance to talk to her recently about her writing past, present and future.


TED

“Vanessa, please tell us how you got your start with screenwriting.  What was an early inspiration for you?  Was there one film that made you say ‘I want to be a writer.’”

VANESSA

“I think I actually started writing scripts before I knew that's what I was doing.  I would write down all these directions and descriptions of what I wanted to film and then would write lines for my "actors" to say.  Most of this was chicken scratch on a legal pad, but for all intents and purposes they were scripts.  Once I went to college and took a screenwriting class I realized "oh, that's how you do this."”
“I don't know if there was a specific film that made me want to be writer, but there was a film that made me want to make a career out of filmmaking.  It was Reservoir Dogs.  I saw the film with my mom when I was 16 at the local 'art house' theater.  Up until that point I thought that movies only had huge stars and expensive explosions.  I had no idea there was something called 'independent film' and that all you needed was a group of hungry filmmakers and a great story.  I realized it was a possible career choice, and that you didn't have to "make it" in order to make it.”

TED

“How did you make it through that vulnerable transition from the dream of being a writer, to making the hard commitment to do it?”
VANESSA
“Vodka...lots and lots of vodka.  I'm kidding, of course.  I think with anything you have to make a commitment to it, whether it's teaching, or medicine or accounting, etc.  I think anytime someone makes a career in the arts it's risky.  I think if you love it, if you're passionate about it and you commit yourself to it, you absolutely will be successful.  So, for me, the commitment wasn't hard, there were no other options. This is what I want to do...this is what I need to do.”

TED
“What was the breakthrough script for you?”

VANESSA

“One that I read or wrote?”


TED
“One that you wrote.”

VANESSA
“I like this line of questioning, by the way, this is fun, we should talk more like this, lol.”


TED

“Lol.”


VANESSA

“I think my breakthrough script was my comedy, ‘Bayou Gold’.  It was the first time I finished a feature without any stops.  I understood the story beginning to end and knew exactly where it was going to go.  Lately, I start with a strong beginning, or end or middle and have to build out from there.  It makes it much more
challenging to work backwards...or sideways.”
did I understand that question correctly?”
TED

“Yes.  Perfect.”

“What is the Vanessa Iona Wright brand?”


VANESSA
“I can't even begin to think about how to answer that, lol.  what does that even mean, the Vanessa Ionta Wright brand...I'm special Ted.  Is this one of those, "if you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be" questions?”


TED

“Its Ok, we can skip that question.”

VANESSA

“Or at least come back to it once I figure out how to answer, lol”

TED
“You've recently wrote a Stephen King adaptation.  Can you tell us about that?”

VANESSA
“Sure!  I obtained the non-exclusive rights to Stephen King's Rainy Season.  We are currently crowd funding through indiegogo and are set to shoot this Spring.   The story is about a young couple that arrive in the town of Willow, ME. After repeated warnings from town locals to leave, they stay and learn the horrific price the town must pay for prosperity. Every seven years, the rainy season descends upon Willow in a downpour of vicious, man eating toads. The newest inhabitants of town are then sacrificed and suffer the deadly consequences of their choice to not head the warnings. We have an amazing cast & crew and I am very excited to be working with these guys.  I am also the Executive Producer on the film, which is new territory for me.”


TED
“Woah, that's awesome!  Is this the first time you've stepped into production?”

VANESSA
“No, but it is the first time as an EP.  I actually got my start in music videos working as a production coordinator many moons ago. I definitely prefer the more creative side of production, it's just the way my brain works, I understand it better, but I think it's important to have a larger scope, fuller understanding of the entire process.”
TED

“So do you think its a good idea for writers to get some production experience?”






VANESSA
“If they want to move past the page, then absolutely yes!  I think it's important to understand how the words on that page get to the screen.  Not just the technique and proper form, but the actual turning those words into live action (or animation).  Sometimes things are written on the page that become logistical nightmares and it's important to know how to solve those problems while preserving the story.”

TED

“Any other advice that you could impart to new writers?”
VANESSA
“Write.  Very simple.  Don't say it, do it.  it may not be great, but each time you lay pen to paper or fingers to keyboard you improve.  If you have a story in you, let it out.  Read as much as possible, and write as much as you possibly can.  Find your voice and let it be heard.  And never, ever take no for an answer.  if you have a script and studios and agents say no, get off your keister and find some hungry filmmakers and make it yourself.  If you have a book that publishers have scoffed at, self publish.  You have the power to succeed and to fail, choose the former.”


TED
“Good advice!   Thank you, Vanessa!!”

“Thank you!  This was fun...now what?  wink emoticon
xoxo”

TED
“Now, I turn into a pumpkin...”


VANESSA

“poof, splat”

Inverview: Writer - Samantha Kolesnik

 I met Samantha Kolesnik last year at Shriekfest. 
I was impressed with her work and finally got a chance to interview her.


TED

Samantha, give us some background information about you, where are you from? Why did you choose to be a writer?

SAMANTHA
"Well I'm not from any one place in particular because my father was in the U.S. Navy, so I moved to a different state every three years as a child. I lived in Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, New York, and Maryland. Currently I live in Pennsylvania, and I love it here. It's interesting, but I never consciously chose to be a writer. I began writing at a very young age and it's always been a natural part of my life. I think there's something about my personality that fueled it, too."

TED 

How would you describe the Samantha Kolesnik brand for someone who didn't know your work?

SAMANTHA
 
"Dark. Gritty. Psychological."

TED

Can you tell us about one of your screenplays?

SAMANTHA 

"Sure! I'm currently working on producing a feature from my screenplay, "Turning the Girl". It's a story entirely about women, and it really digs into the issue of female-female sexual abuse, which is a topic that is often buried by mainstream media and society."

TED

I don't know of any film based on that subject. What inspired you to write it?


SAMANTHA

"An amalgam of real life stories, a fascination with the side that doesn't get told, and research. It happens and unfortunately, because of the way women are pigeon-holed in our culture, victims often aren't taken seriously or given the resources they need to heal. There's a prevailing sentiment that women can't rape. And that's just not true. "


TED

Any writer that tackles difficult subject matter like this is courageous, so kudos to you.


SAMANTHA

Thank you, Ted!

TED
Some of the writers I've talked to have trouble translating a great idea into a finished screenplay. Tell us
about your writing process. Once you have that great idea, how do you get those pages written? Do you set a page goal? Do you wait for inspiration to strike?

SAMANTHA

"I don't have page or word count goals, but I do aim to write every day, and most days, I get that done. Lately, I've been inspired more often than not, and I'm in a position right now where I have more ideas than I have time to get them onto paper, which is a great place to be as a writer. It's my passion. It's not work, though it does require a strong work ethic. If I have an idea, I sit down and I write, and I keep going until it's finished. "

TED

That's a good place to be. Where do you see yourself in five years?

SAMANTHA

"I have no idea!"

TED

Well, I look forward to seeing "Turning the Girl" when it's done! Thank you, Samantha!

SAMANTHA

"Thank you, Ted."