Your play, Bel Canto, is adapted from the Edgar Allen Poe story, "The Tell-Tale Heart". What inspired you to adapt that particular work?
I have always been a huge fan of Edgar Allen Poe. "The Tell-Tale Heart" is one of my favorite Poe stories. As soon as I was approached about participating in the evening of short works, "What's Old is New." I was certain that I would want to focus on an Edgar Allen Poe story, he fit the criteria for the evening very well. I just wasn't quite sure which one I wanted to focus on.
In Bel Canto, most of the characters are dressed in 1940s style dress suits, and you write that "Time and place are more a feeling than a reality." Quite a departure from Poe. What was the motivation behind this choice?
I don't know. I think I was just exploring ways to create a really different type of world. The impetus to move away from reality was more about the narrator and the paranoia that he is experiencing—that it's not about reality, that it's more about what is going on in his head, HIS reality. So I wanted to move all of the actions into a place where it was more about the mind and imagination than a concrete, identifiable place. As I was working on the play, it just became about these guys in that world. As the story evolved I realized the play had taken on a particular style and it was natural that they would be in the type of dress I identified.
You write in your bio that you split time in your formative years between Michigan and the Deep South. What kind of influence did those two environments have on your artistic sensibilities, if any?
A great deal. A number of my plays take place in the south. A number of the ideas for my writing are generated by the environment, culture and experiences of being in the south. If I were to really look for it, I'm sure there is manifestation of the conflicts between those two environments that occurs in my plays.
By day, you work in the educational theatre field for Roundabout Theatre Company. Could you tell us a little more about what you do there?
Yes, I have a very long title..."Director of Instruction and Curriculum Development" everyone laughs at the length. I just wanted to make sure all the bases were covered about what I do. I develop curriculum for the various programs that the education department operates in the schools. I also work with the teaching artists in a number of ways in terms of training, advisement and collaborating on new content. I also work with an after school student theatre company that is new to Roundabout as the artistic director.
You're also a writer for an organization called Zinc, which has a very interesting focus. Would you mind telling us a little bit more about them?
Zinc, is an organization that works with a variety of professional athletic organizations as they develop programs for players around life skills. I have written scripts and been an actor with Zinc for the past twelve years or so.
In addition to being a playwright, actor, and director, you are also a singer. Are you going to be gigging around town anytime soon?
Not right away. I've just finished a VERY short run of From The Front Porch which is a play with music, primarily blues and rhythm and blues. Again, set in the south. We had a really wonderful run and the band performs with me during that show. Hopefully, we'll be playing out again soon. I'm focusing on the student show which opens next Sunday.
What else is up next for you?
VACATION! (I hope) A brand new short play is currently running as part of The Drilling Company's Security II evening. The piece is called Continuum. And that runs for another week.
Interview with Renee Flemings was conducted by Michael Criscuolo November 2006.