In partnership with our friends at The CRY HAVOC Company, we are thrilled to announce that we’ve chosen our cohort of four playwrights for the inaugural cycle of our development series, Brave New Work. The series invites NYC playwrights to create original works that will draw inspiration from Shakespeare’s canon, but evolve into something wholly their own.
MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT
Maximillian Gill
Maximillian Gill‘s work has been staged by a number of companies and festivals including the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival in Liverpool, Theatre West in Los Angeles, the Abingdon Theatre Company, Gloucester Stage Company in Massachusetts, and the New York City Children’s Theater. His plays include Your Undecaying Flames (Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference short list finalist), Stay Up and Keep Rolling (Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference semi-finalist, Premiere Stages semi-finalist), Machines Eat People (Seven Devils Playwrights Conference semi-finalist), and Blank Slate (Bay Area Playwrights Festival semi-finalist). Much of his work can be read on New Play Exchange.
I chose Macbeth as my play. It’s one of my favorites because it’s the one best suited for an ’80s goth rock soundtrack. I also enjoy the way it pretends it’s telling a story from history, but by the time Shakespeare got his hands on it, it was so far from the original events that we get witches. Which NYC neighborhoods make you feel the most at home?
Queens is my favorite borough maybe because it’s under-rated? Take the 7 train and do a world food tour with restaurants in Sunnyside, Woodside, or Elmhurst. What types of prompts or source material are you most drawn to as a playwright? How would you describe your artistic voice or point-of-view?
I tend to be a cynical optimist. My characters end up hopeful because they have to, but the journey there is usually tough. I like prompts that allow latitude in terms of tone because my work tends to not fall easily into either comedy or drama but freely draws from both.