An Interview With
Tim Errickson

Endless Summer Nights

 

Endless Summer Nights is, to my way of thinking, a beautiful play depicting likeable characters of many different shapes acting normally and as mature adults.  Where did this play come from and how did it evolve into the play I saw?

Thank you. When I started writing, I wanted to write about people who were my age, closing in on 40. I think that age makes you very aware of the length you've come, and the amount of ground you might still be able to cover. Maybe that's sobering, maybe it's invigorating, but it is definitely something. Christopher Thomasson (director of Endless Summer Nights) and I had a conversation when he was in grad school about how all good drama is about loss. Either you have lost something and you are fighting to get it back, or you are about to lose something and you realize you can't bear to lose it. And while thinking about it, I began to wonder about the idea of having lost something, and realizing that getting it back would only ruin it. Kind of like Lenny in Of Mice and Men, what if having something meant you could only ruin it, no matter how hard you tried not to? Would you then really want it back at all? And that led to thinking of lost loves, lost parents, lost confidence and lost innocence. And it sort of took off from there.

I have known you for a very long time, always as a director and as an advocate for indie theater.  Tell us about these two roles, how you found them to be to your liking and where that has led you.

I went to a small college within a larger University and had the advantage of training in black box theaters with 40-60 seats. So the theater that I am the most passionate about is right in front of you, palpable and breathing three feet in front of you. As such, I work in that arena and fight constantly for that kind of work. My goal now is to continually improve the image of Off-Off/Indie, to the point where OO/I is seen as just a different venue for theatre, not inferior. I don’t believe that OO/I is any weirder or more challenging that things at St. Ann’s or BAM’s Next Wave Fest. It's all perception. So funding that idea, stabilizing that community, is important to me.

You are also the artistic director of Boomerang Theater Company, a well-respected company in existence since 1999.  Could you tell us about the beginning of the company, how it has grown and your vision that has helped guide it over the years?

In the beginning, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the Lower East Side was full of performance spaces, I worked for a company down there doing Shakespeare and Chekhov. And when things got squirrely down there and I was fired from a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, I decided I wasn't ever going to let idiots control what I directed and when I directed. It was on me to make my career happen. From that, I gathered some theatre folks together, cashed out my 401k (I don't recommend this) and produced Boomerang's first season in 1999.   The goal has always been to work in rotating rep, to allow plays of various time periods and sensibilities to communicate with each other. For example, in 2010 we did Fry's Venus Observed, Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, and Endless Summer Nights. What excites us is how a 1940's comedy about a lothario can connect with Chekhov's passionate and despairing 1890's tragic-comedy, and where ESN can connect to them as well. Are universal truths like love, passion, family, trust, or sex the same in different eras? Have we improved our world and our culture, or are we backsliding in some ways? The shows stand on their own as unique plays, but the compare and contrast takes the experience to another level. That said, each production has to be passionately produced and has to be new and of its time. We cannot get away with throwing up old revivals without the zip and drive of the era in which we live. So programming this vision of new, energetic productions that can communicate together has been the driving vision.

You list director, producer, playwright as your theatrical jobs.  How come no acting?

The actor in me only comes out once in a blue moon. Honestly, I'm just too good at it and it embarrasses everyone else I'm working with to see my level of talent and theirs pale by comparison. Or it could be that I like directing more.

Having you as a director is something that would thrill many playwrights. Yet for your own play, you chose not to be the director.  What was behind that decision and would you like to direct Endless Summer Nights at some future time?

Well, I’m not a fan of playwrights directing their own work, especially new work. As a producer, I would not be down with this, so I couldn't have that situation here. On top of that, as a new playwright, I still need all the help I can get. Luckily for me, one of my best friends is an outstanding director, so it was a no brainer to ask Christopher to work on this with me. I think it allowed me to go away from rehearsals so I could return a week later and see it with fresh eyes, and I think it also made the actors more comfortable saying "I don't like this" or "this doesn't make any sense" to Christopher rather than to me. Would I like to direct a production of it now? Sure, why not.  

An anonymous benefactor with an unlimited amount of cash to disperse told you that you could do anything you wished with/for your career and/or Boomerang's.  What would you do?

I think I would travel more, see more of the world. I work so much that I am just now beginning to give myself time off to refresh and explore. In terms of my career, I think unlimited cash could help me by taking ESN or other plays on tours or internationally to festivals and get exposure for the work in new ways. Or I might just buy a warehouse near the High Line and open a new theater space that looks like the illegitimate love child of CSC and BAM's Harvey. And I would have free ice cream at the end of each and every performance.  

Any ideas for your next play?

Without talking too much about specifics (someone's gonna read this in five years or so and go "he never wrote that play he said he was working on! What a fool!"), I will say that I am still interested in exploring themes of home, identity, sex, fate, and family. The play I'm currently writing is in some ways very different from ESN, but at the same time it's ideas are some of the same territory but in new ways. Honestly, this new play scares the hell out of me, and I resisted writing it for a while. Mostly because I could see how powerful it could be, and I didn't know if I had the skill to execute it. But I'm in now with both feet, so we'll see what happens.

 

Interview with Tim Errickson was conducted by NYTE Small Press April 2011

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