Austin Playhouse interviews the playwright of 

The Book of Will, Lauren Gunderson. 

We close our 19th Season with The Book of Will by Lauren Gunderson. The Book of Will tells the story of the determined community that begged, borrowed, and stole so that they could publish the true versions of Shakespeare's plays in the First Folio. 

Austin Playhouse was thrilled when Lauren Gunderson agreed to answer a few of our questions about The Book of Will. 

You may recognize Lauren Gunderson's name if you have visited Austin Playhouse recently. The Book of Will is the third Gunderson play Austin Playhouse has produced. Past productions include Silent Sky and Miss Bennet. Check out the interview below!

AP: The Book of Will is about the community that came together to print Shakespeare’s First Folio. How did you know that this would make a great story and why did you feel it was important to tell?

LG: This is a story less about Shakespeare and more about community. It's about friends, legacy, and what we can accomplish when we come together. It's also a love letter to theatre and how great storytelling can resurrect, inspire and bring people together. 

AP:The story of The Book of Will could feel like a history lesson, but you humanize these characters in a way that everybody can relate to. Why did you feel that was important and how did you begin that process?

LG: Shakespeare doesn't need much help being glorified, he needs help being humanized. I saw this play as a way of finding what is human and true and funny and awkward and lovely and hard about Shakespeare through his best friends.

AP: One of the things we love about your plays are the vivid, compelling female characters. How do you see their role in the world of The Book of Will?   

LG: I see everyone's role as supporting the group. The women are equal members of this group and join their tribe in doing something impossible.

AP: While doing research on this historical event, did you wish that you knew more about the real people in the story or were you pleased to be able to fill in storylines?

LG: So much! Come to the play and see!

AP: What do you hope the audience will take away from the story of The Book of Will?

LG: That life is short but the life of stories can be long lasting. By telling stories and watching stories we get to time travel, to reconnect and to life our best lives in conversation with art and the full human experience. 

AP: And our last question, do you have a favorite Shakespeare quote? If so, what is it?

LG: There are way too many to count. We read Sonnet 116 at our wedding which ends:

"Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me prov'd,

I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd."

The Book of Will runs May 31 - June 30 at Austin Playhouse at ACC Highland. Performances are Thursday - Saturday at 8pm, Sunday at 5pm. Call 512-476-0084 or online here. www.austinplayhouse.com

SUMMER AND BIRD From Page to Stage: An interview with Katherine Catmull

Austin Playhouse's Marie Fahlgren recently interviewed author/playwright Katherine Catmull about the process of adapting her young adult novel Summer and Bird for the Austin Playhouse stage. 

Katherine Catmull on the
Summer and Bird set.

Where did you find your inspiration to write Summer and Bird?

I was babysitting the two young daughters of friends of mine, and I wanted to make up a story to tell them that night. In the car on the way over it popped into my mind: two girls who looked like them, named Summer and Bird, whose parents had gone missing--a good babysitting tale! But they had already picked out books for that night. So when I got home I wrote down all I had thought of, the first page or so, and filed it away. A few years later when I decided to write a book, I was looking through old scribbles and found that one, and it grabbed me.

The girl Summer was based on recently graduated from college, by the way! And the younger one will graduate soon. Children move with terrifying swiftness!

Madi Palomo and Sarah Chong Harmer.

What challenges did you face when adapting the book Summer and Bird into the stage adaptation? 

That book is quite dense in many ways: dense language, dense with images, dense with ideas, dense with plot. It was my first book, you know, so I was like: HERE IS EVERYTHING I KNOW. It was also a bit melancholy, partly because it’s about family breakups, older-sister anguish, etc and partly I suspect because it was a sad period of my life (my mother had had Alzheimer’s for six years when I began it, and she died four years later, just before I finished my first draft—in the book, the Swan, this lovely white creature Summer can no longer communicate with, holds some of my feelings about all that).

But a one-hour play cannot be dense—it needs to be spare and bright and clear. It’s also a bit unfair to invite a bunch of young folk to a play and have it be relentlessly gloomy. It was actually Lara as she dramaturged my early drafts who helped me solve that one: she suggested I reconceive the Raven, who is a quiet, serious figure in the book. She said she imagined the Raven in a top hat and shiny suit, and that was all she had to say—I immediately got a vivid idea of this jokey trickster figure.

So basically the process of adapting was twofold: cut cut cut cut (I was so sad to lose Summer’s visit to the Green Home! and the patchwork bird!), nope, cut some more, nope, more than that; and brighten and lighten it up.

What did you enjoy the most while writing the adaptation of Summer and Bird?

That Raven was enormously fun to write! I love a snarky outsider who always has a rude remark to make. It’s almost the opposite of me: I’m a ridiculously earnest person who has more than once managed to ruin a joke setup by answering seriously: “Hm that’s interesting, I wonder why a priest a rabbi went would go to a bar together! Some sort of ecumenical effort, perhaps?” etc. But if I can write the Raven, I must have a snarky trickster in me somewhere.

Since you are also an actress, what was it like to have your writing world and theatre world combine? 

It’s the loveliest. I was an actor first, so collaborating with others and adjusting to their needs and taking notes—that’s all quite natural to me. It makes me feel supported rather than challenged, as it does for some playwrights. Writing is horribly LONELY. I also very much appreciate that hard deadline theater provides.

Madi Palomo, Sarah Chong Harmer,
and Jen Brown

What message do you hope young audience members will take away after seeing Summer and Bird?

Oh gosh, what a great question and I have no idea! Something about how families can be apart and yet together, I hope; something about how being a sibling is both the hardest thing and the best, most precious thing (it has been so in my life—I have five younger siblings). Also something about how we bring ourselves when we make meaning—we do “choose what things mean,” as Ben says, and we can choose differently if we like. Nothing important means only one thing.

When did you start writing? 

I wrote tons as a kid, and then as a teenager I got pretentious and anxious and stopped. Grad school in English lit did NOT make me any less pretentious and anxious, let me tell you, and it took a while for that to wear off. The first thing I wrote and finished (the finishing is key) as an adult was a FronteraFest monologue I wrote at the end of 2002 and performed  in 2003, called “Pizza Apostrophe” — a woman  calling to the pizza she has not ordered but still hopes will come. “O how could you not tell from the ache in my voice that I wanted extra cheese?” I was 42! Talk about a late re-start.

Is there anything else you would like young audience members to know about either you or the story of Summer and Bird? 

The main thing I would say—my second book, The Radiant Road, is actually about this—is don’t do what I did! Don’t get all shy and self-conscious about your beautiful makings, whether your making is writing or dancing or music or building robots or writing games or drawing or painting or WHATEVER. Whatever creative thing you do, please don’t stop. Keep going. We need your voice, we need you so badly. Keep going! And don’t forget to finish things, that’s EVERYTHING. 

Summer and Bird runs May 3 - 12 at Austin Playhouse. Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm,  Saturday and Sunday at 2pm. All student tickets are FREE! Adults are sliding scale: $7 - $28. 

Click here for tickets! www.austinplayhouse.com

Top 10 Reasons to Catch SUMMER AND BIRD

In 2012 local author Katherine Catmull published her fantasy novel Summer and Bird. The story takes readers on an adventure from Up (our world) to Down (the bird world). 

The story is navigated by two smart, strong, stubborn, loving, and brave sisters, Summer and Bird. It's a complete delight of a book, filled with achingly beautiful prose creating a new fantasy world that feels connected to a tradition of fairy tale storytelling, while being wholly and completely its own creation. And the story, of two girls whose family may be breaking up in spite of the love they share also felt very relevant and meaningful to children who might be in a similar, though possibly less fantastical, situation. 

All of which inspired AP's creative team to commission Katherine to adapt her novel to a stage play. 

We think there are tons of reasons to check out the world premiere of Summer and Bird, but we asked director Lara Toner Haddock to write up her top 10!

10. Because when you were little you longed for more adventure stories with strong, smart, real girls.

9. Because you know someone who needs to be introduced to the magic of theatre.

8. Because you believe in giving books a new life.  All the puppets are made from recycled hardbacks destined for the great library in the sky. Now they’ve been transformed into parrots, sparrows, owls, flocks of birds, and the cutest baby phoenix you’ve ever seen.

7. Because you’re obsessed with Game of Thrones, but it’s only on once a week and you need to see more awesome girls wielding sharp objects defending the realm.

6. Because you believe in supporting local art and local artists.

5. Because you don’t want to anger The Puppeteer. Seriously. Don’t make this lady mad. She eats birds.

4. Because your heart will grow three sizes watching Sarah Chong Harmer take care of a baby phoenix.

3. Because you’re doing it for the kids. Your ticket to a public performance subsidizes free tickets for elementary students.

2. Because you want to learn the bird language too (hint: Birdsong is a map!).

1. And the #1 reason to see Summer and Bird…. Because it’s a really wonderful story. And the world needs more of those.

Summer and Bird runs May 3 - 12 at Austin Playhouse.

Performances are Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm and Saturday and Sunday at 2pm

Box office: 512-476-0084 or online here.

www.austinplayhouse.com