YOU HAVE PROBLEMS: FRINGE VETERAN AARON KOZAK HAS THE PLAY FOR YOU - BITTER LEMONS
Short Plays for All Your Problems!
YOU HAVE PROBLEMS: FRINGE VETERAN AARON KOZAK HAS THE PLAY FOR YOU
Interview by: Sheana Ochoa
You Have Problems: Fringe Veteran Aaron Kozak Has the Play for You – Bitter Lemons
From his adolescence writing “demented short plays” to his latest fringe show “Short Plays for All Your Problems,” Fringe veteran Aaron Kozak shares his latest show’s origins in his attempt to bring awareness to the universal human problems such as pooping your pants in the third grade to the proper care and feeding of slave robots. You may not have these particular problems, but Kozak claims there’s something for everyone in this show, which attempts to do nothing less ambitious than to define that ambiguous animal of theater called the short play.
SO: Take us through the process of “Short Plays for All Your Problems” from idea/conception to final production.
AK: Once, in high school, I did a one-man version of “The Hardy Boys and the Mystery of Where Babies Come From” by Christopher Durang, a very dirty, wonderful ten-minute play. My parents saw it, and forced my theater teacher to make me stop performing because of the hilarious sex stuff. My mother tried to make me perform a motivation prose piece from one of her scripture based inspirational books instead, and then I got in trouble for not doing that. This entire childhood trauma resulted in me writing a ton of demented short plays with lots of swearing, sex, and violence; and then hiding my shame from everyone on various computer disks that I labeled “homework stuff.” I’ve waited fifteen years for this moment in my life to happen. My original plan was to do thirty-five ten minutes and one acts in a two night event that was three hours each night, but my friends said they wouldn’t come see it if I did that. So, after cooler heads prevailed, I picked the nine best plays of the bunch and whittled the whole thing down to just under an hour and half.
SO: Thank goodness your friends talked you out of the three-hour double features! Did you have any goals for this show?
AK: My goal was to assemble a foolproof cast of winners who were ready to get real stupid, and do something that rocks your world, but not your wallet. And while we really tried to add enough pretentious theatre BS to hopefully keep all our colleagues at bay, we REALLY wanted to do something that our normal friends could enjoy without having to think too hard (or at least not realize that they’re thinking about things until later when they’re at the bar or wherever).
SO: Will your scripture-reading mother come out to see this production?
AK: My mom is a really good sport and an incredibly kind lady, and while I’m not sure she’ll be able to make this one, she has come to all the others. Honestly, I think she’s just happy I’m not living in my car.
SO: Tell us about your career journey from your Durang solo to Hollywood Fringe. Did you study writing or acting? Where do you feel more comfortable, on or offstage?
AK: I’m proud to say that I’m a fifth year Fringer, as a director, but as for mounting my original plays, this is my third time at this festival. My first play “The Birthday Boys” earned three nominations and won the “LA Fringe Critic’s Choice” and “Fringe First” awards during the Inaugural Fringe back in 2010. It was pretty huge for me because it led to an Off Broadway run, a run at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts in Australia, and the original fringe cast was the first live theatre production at the Historic Texas Theatre since the Vaudeville era. The Texas Theatre is historically known for being the place where Lee Harvey Oswald was captured after shooting JFK, and that run actually was listed as Dallas’ Top Touring Show of the Year alongside the Broadway Tour of Billy Elliot, which is just insane considering it was a Fringe show. Writing is my main thing now, and has been for sometime, but I occasionally get the acting bug.
SO: Your play proclaims to address many of life’s problems. Can you share an example?
AK: Oh, you know, the usuals: Porn addiction, roommate drama, the fear of death and the unknown, wishing your brother would be nicer to his slave robot. Things we all deal with at some point.
SO: In other words, those universal problems of the human condition [smirk]. It’s been said that this production is an attempt to define the short play. What are your parameters?
AK: There are a lot of different ideas about the parameters of what a short play is, what it needs to “do,” and even what to call each medium. I always thought of short plays as being ten-minute plays, and the longer, short plays being one-acts. Like you would never do a ten-minute play at a one-act play competition, or at least, I wouldn’t. That is where the idea of “redefining” the short play came from, and nothing more. I’m not pretending that I’m going to revolutionize theatre, or that every play is going to make you get off your ass and change the world like “The Normal Heart” or something. David Ives and Christopher Durang’s short play compilations aren’t always dictated by an urge to say something important, or to follow the rules (principles, perhaps). They’re fun, and they’re funny. This is not to say I don’t see tremendous value in the meatier kind of work because I absolutely do, and on other projects, having that dimension is very important to me. This show, however, has a robot that wears a tuxedo, so I can’t in good conscience tell you that there was an important reason for bringing that to Fringe beyond trying to be funny. That being said, there are a few pieces that I think will definitely appeal to the more elevated tastes. There’s really something for everyone in this show, and that’s the awesome thing about short plays.
Tix and Info for “Short Plays for All Your Problems” June 7 – June 29
at The Ruby Theater (at The Complex) 6476 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood, CA
www.WinnerEntertainmentCompany.com
- See more at: http://losangeles.bitter-lemons.com/2014/06/07/you-have-problems-fringe-veteran-aaron-kozak-has-the-play-for-you/#sthash.AHMTusHz.dpuf
