CFA Professor Kirsten Greenidge (left); Jade Davis in a production of Greenidge's Baltimore at Boston University in 2016 (photo by Kalman Zabarsky)
Kirsten Greenidge, Assistant Professor of Playwriting and Theatre Arts, shares some thoughts on her path to writing, infusing herself into her plays, and what it feels like to be surrounded by the vibrant, overflowing creative energy of CFA.
Interview by: Alex Ross (COM’22)
What is it about playwriting that made you want to pursue it as a career? How did that translate into becoming a teacher?
When I look back, I have essentially been writing plays for my entire life. I began creating small plays in my family's living room when I was about two or three. I think many people who make their life in the theatre begin that way. Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be a writer, and around junior year of high school I realized playwriting was the way to make writing a part of my life in a lasting way.
I come from a family of teachers, so teaching has always been part of my life as well. Culturally, teaching was also important to my family and the communities that I found myself within as a young person. In terms of playwriting and theatre, teaching is critical: those of us who value teaching and who enjoy it, owe it to the craft to ensure those who come after us get the training they need not only to do the work they would like to do, but also to move the work and the discourse that surrounds the work forward.
How would you describe yourself as a teacher? What tools do you equip your students with in order for them to be successful in their dramatic writing?
I try to uplift as well as instruct. With writing, so much of the "battle" is finding your voice and learning how you want to say what you want to say. So what I aim to supply within my students is a sense of self that is indelible and resilient, as well as dynamic and creative.
I understand many of your plays tackle the issue of race. Do you draw inspiration from your own life and experiences as a black woman?
I usually describe my plays as being hyper-realistic. I often take the seemingly small minutiae of everyday life and extrapolate and alienate it in some way; fixate on it by repeating language or gesture or image.
As for race, I often write about race, but I really write about how race, class, and gender intersect. However, I will say that plays that are not consciously about race are still actually telling a story about race – just because there may not be people of color on a stage or in the pages of a play, does not mean a play is not telegraphing messages to its audiences about how race and class and gender interact with each other.
In terms of drawing inspiration from my own life, if I am doing my job correctly, my plays always have me in them, even when my subject is as far removed from me as seemingly possible. If I don't see even a glimmer of myself in a character, then I've probably failed in some way.
How has being a part of the BU and CFA communities impacted you personally and professionally?
My students and fellow faculty in the SOT, SOM, and SVA are each and all inventive, industrious, and innovative. While I would love to be able to work in my CFA office, sometimes I can't just because there is actually too much creative energy flowing around me in the building – I have to get out. And that is actually a fabulous thing – that there is so much vibrancy in 855 that it can be felt. How many people in this world can say that about their workplace?
What is your favorite aspect of BU’s playwriting program and School of Theatre here at CFA?
The playwriting track is multifaceted and growing. I love that it is open to Theatre Arts majors, but also to Acting majors and Design and Production majors as well. If you've got things to say, playwriting is open to you. It is a cliché, but I often feel that everyone has a writer within them. I think writing is something that many of us are told we can't do, very early on, or that many of us feel a lot of shame about in our early years as students. While I love writing, and have for a long time, one of the things that separated me from other people is that as a small child, those that cared about me said "you're good at this, keep going." Looking back, I was not good at it, those plays in my parents' living room were terrible. My first essays in school probably weren't much better. But I had people who saw that I liked something, and cared enough about me to foster it. Sometimes even the people we love don't do that for us. In my classes, a lot of what I start with is figuring out what a student's relationship to writing is, because even those who love writing, even some who have gotten As or scored well on their English AP, have a very damaged relationship to their writing self, and that can mean the difference between taking one playwriting class and proceeding through the entire track and possibly working through to a Senior Thesis and having something to submit to theatres.
Your plays— Sans-Culottes in the Promised Land, Milk Like Sugar, Luck of the Irish, Feeding Beatrice — have such unique and colorful titles. What’s the process of a playwright when titling a play? How do you sum up each intricate theme, plot and character into just a few, incredibly meaningful words?
It's different for every writer. I will come up with many titles, a whole list, usually, and work to either find the action of the piece, or the essence of it.
You were featured in The New York Times this past fall in a series discussing the first plays from leading writers. While you didn’t do any re-writes for Sans-Culottes in the Promised Land, what can you tell us about re-working your graduate thesis, Feeding Beatrice?
Ah, here's my secret. I often do interviews, but I completely shy away from the final product, most of the time, so I am not sure what was printed, but, correction: I most definitely rewrote and rewrote Sans-Culottes, just not after that initial production's printing.
For Feeding Beatrice, I was due to rewrite over last summer and due to working on another piece, Greater Good, for Company One and The A.R.T. here in Boston, my rewrites were delayed. I really wanted Feeding Beatrice to reflect my current voice, not what I felt was my voice from years ago...a big mistake. I changed my formatting and really ruined the rhythm of the piece. So I did a page one reformat and rewrite of new beats and new material overnight, some in my rental apartment in St. Louis, some on the plane, and some in Logan Airport once I landed so I could submit before rehearsal. That is when I really rely on collaborators to speak truth and say 'Whoa. This does not work.' Not everything can be a lovely yes.
Is it possible for a playwright to have a favorite play of their own? I understand August Wilson’s performance of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone made you want to be a playwright, but do you connect more so with any one of your own plays over the others?
I do not have a favorite play. I have two kids, actual kids, and I do not have a favorite. When I say this, people say come on, everyone has a favorite. Nope. I don't. Each play has its own strengths and weaknesses, just as people do, but I do not have a favored play, although sometimes in some moments, I will root for one more. But that rights itself again when another needs more attention.
As BU shifted to remote learning for the second half of Spring 2020, the semester looks a lot different than originally imagined, especially for student artists. How have your classes been adapting?
For Ensemble, I had to adapt the syllabus because we normally do a lot of group work and create pieces and then have a final large group presentation. I've had them do small work on their own and share and discuss, and they will create short filmed responses to their thoughts on what community means to them in this moment. We have also talked a lot about artistic responses to this moment and to similar moments in history. To make sure we are not in one spot all the time, we do physical warm ups led by small groups and repeat those each class. These are fun and kind of zany.
Before break this class was broken up into groups for something called The Boston Project, where they researched Boston neighborhoods, in prep for their original final of devised pieces about these neighborhoods. So we have had the Roxbury group lead a dance video or the Fenway group lead the Cha Cha Slide. It has helped us build community.
What are you looking forward to for the rest of the semester?
I am so looking forward to working on Little Row Boat with Adam Kassim and our cast and designers. We had our first week of Zoom rehearsals last week and while not ideal, it was just amazing. I am so lucky to be with this team. This week is a writing week and I am excited to delve into the script more and see what happens next.
Read more about Kirsten Greenidge's work
- Playwright Kirsten Greenidge has her finger on the pulse (The Boston Globe, January 2016)
- College students absorb lessons on race in 'Baltimore' (The Boston Globe, February 2016)
- Kirsten Greenidge's New Play Lets Us Roam The Halls of a Failing School (WBUR, July 2019)
- My First Produced Play? Ah, I Remember It Well (The New York Times, November 2019)
CFA's Faculty Feature series spotlights the exceptional faculty from across Boston University College of Fine Arts. This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
At BU, Kirsten Greenidge teaches Ensemble I: Introduction to Playwriting with first years, Adaptation for sophomores, and Playwriting Colloquium with seniors. She is the recipient of a Village Voice Obie Award for her play MILK LIKE SUGAR, which was commissioned by La Jolla Playhouse and Theatre Masters, and co-produced by La Jolla Playhouse, Playwrights Horizons, and WP Theatre. MILK LIKE SUGAR has also received a Lucille Lortel nomination, an AUDELCO nomination, and an Independent Reviewers of New England (IRNE) Award. Other plays include THE LUCK OF THE IRISH, originally produced by the Huntington Theatre Company; BALTIMORE, which is the product of a Big 10 Consortium Commission, a program created to address the lack of roles for female BFA candidates; ZENITH, most recently produced by San Francisco Playhouse’s Sandbox Series; BUD NOT BUDDY with music by Terence Blanchard (Kennedy Center; Metro Stage); BOSSA NOVA (Yale Rep); SPLENDOR (Company One Theatre Company); and SANS-CULOTTES IN THE PROMISED LAND (Humana Festival/Actors Theatre of Louisville). Learn more about Kirsten Greenidge and playwriting at BU.