Playwright Spotlight: James E. Custer, "This Too Comes By Hard"
This summer, Unreal City will be producing its first play, This Too Comes By Hard at the Capital Fringe Festival. We decided to sit with the playwright and artistic director, James E. Custer, and ask him a few questions.
UCT: Tell us about your journey as a writer.
JAMES: I started writing when I was in middle school. I would make up stories and create my own little worlds. I would write page long short stories about these worlds and the characters within. That continued into high school, where I created a fiction blog. I started taking writing more seriously in college. I wrote more short stories along with plays. Playwriting as a medium appeals to me because drama is a much more interesting way to write because you are not given as much to work with. When you’re writing plays, you’ve got two people with a goal to accomplish, and they use language to accomplish that goal. Language is a primary tool that we use to express ourselves in this world. Being able to explore the way that people talk fascinates me. My main influences are Sam Shepard, Duncan Macmillan, Jon Fosse and others who experiment with dialogue and its forms. Playwrights who try to accurately portray real dialogue are who I’m drawn to, and that certainly influences how I write.
UCT: What's This Too Comes By Hard about? (Without giving any spoilers away!)
JAMES:It is about a man who is trying to make sense of reality. His perception is heavily influenced by his inability to differentiate between his memories and his dreams. His familial relationships are tested by his struggle to comprehend what is real.
UCT: Why this play now?
JAMES: I think this play is absolutely relevant to today, especially with the cultural climate that is prevalent both in the news and in our daily conscience. What we’re seeing are groups in the United States that feel they are forgotten and taken advantage of. Their stories are often overlooked and ignored, making it particularly important for art to address them.
UCT: What do you want the audience to take away from This Too Comes By Hard?
JAMES: I want the audience to feel something. Anything. It can be that they hate or love it, as long as they feel. I hope it sparks thought with how one fits in the world. I want the audience to leave the theater and reflect on ways that their own journey is similar or dissimilar to what they just saw.
UCT: How does this show contribute to the Capital Fringe Festival?
JAMES: Look at the word "fringe." What is on the fringe of society? The forgotten. These types of characters don't often get their stories told. Also, the way it is written and the way it is to be performed is not typical theatre. That’s what people who go to fringe festivals want to see.
UCT: How does this show fit into the mission of Unreal City Theatre?
JAMES: One of our goals as a theatre company is to bring to light new playwrights whose voices are often forgotten by the theatre industry. This play will also challenge the audience: When you see this play, you can’t sit down and check out. It makes you confront the topic, and it makes you think. That's essentially what we want as a company: to encourage thought and spark conversation. There’s a thought that the truth is stranger than fiction and I wanted to accurately represent the people that grow up and experience the fringe of society. I see how often they are misrepresented. It’s time for art to pour out of the hills, so to speak.
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| James E. Custer, playwright of This Too Comes By Hard and artistic director of Unreal City Theatre |
JAMES: I started writing when I was in middle school. I would make up stories and create my own little worlds. I would write page long short stories about these worlds and the characters within. That continued into high school, where I created a fiction blog. I started taking writing more seriously in college. I wrote more short stories along with plays. Playwriting as a medium appeals to me because drama is a much more interesting way to write because you are not given as much to work with. When you’re writing plays, you’ve got two people with a goal to accomplish, and they use language to accomplish that goal. Language is a primary tool that we use to express ourselves in this world. Being able to explore the way that people talk fascinates me. My main influences are Sam Shepard, Duncan Macmillan, Jon Fosse and others who experiment with dialogue and its forms. Playwrights who try to accurately portray real dialogue are who I’m drawn to, and that certainly influences how I write.
UCT: What's This Too Comes By Hard about? (Without giving any spoilers away!)
JAMES:It is about a man who is trying to make sense of reality. His perception is heavily influenced by his inability to differentiate between his memories and his dreams. His familial relationships are tested by his struggle to comprehend what is real.
UCT: Why this play now?
JAMES: I think this play is absolutely relevant to today, especially with the cultural climate that is prevalent both in the news and in our daily conscience. What we’re seeing are groups in the United States that feel they are forgotten and taken advantage of. Their stories are often overlooked and ignored, making it particularly important for art to address them.
UCT: What do you want the audience to take away from This Too Comes By Hard?
JAMES: I want the audience to feel something. Anything. It can be that they hate or love it, as long as they feel. I hope it sparks thought with how one fits in the world. I want the audience to leave the theater and reflect on ways that their own journey is similar or dissimilar to what they just saw.
UCT: How does this show contribute to the Capital Fringe Festival?
JAMES: Look at the word "fringe." What is on the fringe of society? The forgotten. These types of characters don't often get their stories told. Also, the way it is written and the way it is to be performed is not typical theatre. That’s what people who go to fringe festivals want to see.
UCT: How does this show fit into the mission of Unreal City Theatre?
JAMES: One of our goals as a theatre company is to bring to light new playwrights whose voices are often forgotten by the theatre industry. This play will also challenge the audience: When you see this play, you can’t sit down and check out. It makes you confront the topic, and it makes you think. That's essentially what we want as a company: to encourage thought and spark conversation. There’s a thought that the truth is stranger than fiction and I wanted to accurately represent the people that grow up and experience the fringe of society. I see how often they are misrepresented. It’s time for art to pour out of the hills, so to speak.
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