Your play, Fatboy, is adapted from Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi. What inspired you to adapt Jarry's play, and how does Fatboy differ from it?
Fatboy is more inspired by Ubu Roi than adapted from. I always loved the extremity and the rawness of Ubu and the fact that it caused a riot the night of its premiere. Imagine what you'd have to do today to start a riot. The major difference between the plays is Fatboy is much more directly political than Ubu.
2006 has been a very busy year for you. In addition to the publication of Fatboy, I think you've directed at least four shows on two different continents since January. How has the year been, and what exactly have you been up to?
It's been a great year. It started with a one-night presentation of Cincinnati, a solo show by Don Nigro that Nancy performs. We did that in January as part of the NEUROfest. Then I went down and directed and devised a show with students at Rowan University which we ended up calling 30 Years From Now. I directed Brian Parks' Goner at the Kraine, Fatboy at the Ohio, screwmachine/eyecandy at 59E59 Street Theatres, and Americana Absurdum and The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett at PS 122. That was all over the course of six months. Then I got hired to direct the stage adaptation of
Midnight Cowboy for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival , so in June I flew out to London where we developed the script, rehearsed over there in July and presented it in Scotland in August. Madness, but good fun.
You and your wife, actress Nancy Walsh, run a company together: Clancy Productions. What does the company do, and how was it first started?
Clancy Productions is a contemporary American theatrical producing and consulting organization we started in 2002 to bring shows over to Edinburgh and produce them here in New York. We mostly produce our own work but are always looking for what's interesting out there. As consultants we offer services geared towards young theater companies in New York looking to take the next step.
You and your wife have worked together for a number of years now. How easy or difficult is it to strike the right balance between your personal and professional lives together? Or are they both the same thing to you now?
We've been married for fifteen years and were working together before that, so it's hard to distinguish the two sometimes. I've directed her, she's directed me, we've developed shows together and she's now the president of Clancy Productions, so I guess I work for her. We have a rule that when we're not in production we stop working at 6:00 and don't work on Sundays so we can have a semblance of a normal home life. We don't always stick to that rule but it's a good one to have. I think the trust and confidence we have in each other extends into all of our projects and makes our collaborators more relaxed and open as well.
You are one of the pioneers of what is now just starting to be called "the Indie Theater Movement," and a staunch advocate of Indie Theater Reform here in New York. What are some things about the Indie Theater scene you'd like to see change in the near future?
Weird to be a pioneer at 43, but all right. The most immediate, concrete challenge is updating or scrapping the AEA Showcase Code. It's anachronistic and stops shows and companies from developing work. A few of us are working on that and I'm optimistic that we'll see some changes.
Are you taking the rest of 2006 off, or jumping head first into the next project?
I'm teaching at Rowan University in Glassboro NJ for the 2006/2007 academic year, so that's keeping me pretty busy. I'm working on a few other projects and keeping notes to see if I've got a book on acting and/or directing in me. But the rest of 2006, which is about a month and a half, I guess, will be taken up with the classes down at Rowan.
Interview with John Clancy was conducted by Michael Criscuolo November 2006.