Cleansed deals with some controversial subject matter. Tell us a little bit about it, where you got the idea for the play.
Well I get all my subject matter from the real world in one way or another. In America you are considered Black if you have one drop of black blood and are expected to embrace your black identity. One of the reasons that I wrote this play is to question that assumption. Why can't someone who's bi-racial choose to embrace their white identity? They're just as white as they are Black. It's not just about black and white. It could go for anyone who's bi-racial.
The issue of race figures prominently in your work. What's the importance of that topic to you, as both a writer and a citizen?
When I first started writing I didn't write about race at all. I wasn't very interested in the issue. However, when I was in graduate school I realized that I could explore this subject matter in ways that others couldn't, so I became very interested. I'm especially intrigued by the aspects of race that we don't talk about in our society, especially in the theater. Many theaters want work that's affirming of race in some way, plays that focus on "Let's all hold hands and get along" multiculturalism. I also find that many theaters are interested in seeing plays that focus on how the white man kept the Black man down and/or show Black people's struggle in the ghetto.
I'm not very interested in those things. Coming from an upper-middle class backround I am more interested in Black middle class life today. Not in a fairy tale American dream sort of way, but in a way that focuses on the things that no one talks about. This clearly comes through in Cleansed. In Cleansed the Black father is a doctor who is married to a white woman, dealing with the issues of their bi-racial daughter. This is a truer portrait of how the middle class grapples with racism in the twenty first century. Different problems arise as we become a much more integrated society. I also deal with this issue in my play Purity, which follows a Black Professor of Romantic Literature at an Ivy League University.
My newest play Dawn has nothing to do with race. I just follow my interests.
You graduated from college with two Bachelor's degrees: one in Playwriting, and one in Sociology. Why two degrees, and why Sociology?
I got the degree in Playwriting for obvious reasons. I got the degree in Sociology because I had this fantastical notion that I might want to go to law school one day. I was hedging my bets.
I understand your mother was very influential in steering you towards the arts. How so?
My mother has always wanted me to be an artist. She sent me to this grammer school called Far Brook School in Short Hills, NJ. We spent half the day focused on academics and half the day focused on art. I played the role of Macbeth in the 7th grade! We studied a lot of Shakespeare there. I owe her a lot for encouraging me to go into a field that is very unpractical. I think my father thought that I was insane for majoring in playwriting. "Why are we paying 34,000 dollars a year for you to major in playwriting!" My dad's an engineer. I think that he wholly supports my career now, but he and my stepmother are always trying to encourage me to write plays that are more mainstream.
My mom often comes to every performance of my plays. She's very supportive.
You studied playwriting with two very notable writers, Mac Wellman and Chiori Miyagawa. What was it like to study with them and how have each of them influenced your writing?
When I was in high school I was told that I couldn't write the plays that I write because they're too offensive. It didn't make me change how I wrote, but I wondered whether my high school drama teacher was right. Chiori was the first person who really encouraged me to keep going down the path that I was on with my writing.
And Mac Wellman taught me how to be completely free with what I wrote. He's also helped me in inumerable ways with the practical aspects of being an artist. I owe both Mac and Chiori a great deal.
You've also acted in plays by both Richard Maxwell and Young Jean Lee. What were those experiences like?
I think that in order to be a really good playwright, you have to understand acting. Working with Rich and Young Jean were very fulfilling and demanding experiences. They're both awesome people and awesome to work with.
You've recently been hailed as a playwright to keep an eye on by both Time Out New York and The Village Voice, and you were nominated for a New York Innovative Theatre Award for Cleansed. How do you feel about all this attention?
I want more.
What have you got coming up next?
There will be a reading of my new play, Dawn, at New York THeater Workshop on Janury 28th at 3pm. Anne Kauffman is directing. My play Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist is being produced in Los Angeles in June.
Interview with Thomas Bradshaw was conducted by Michael Criscuolo January 2008.