05 Aug OOB Final 30 Countdown – Pia Wilson

And on day thirty of the Final 30 countdown, to bring us to a fabulous close, let’s give it up for Pia Wilson!

Pia Wilson is a 2015 Sundance fellow, and a recipient of the 2014 Sarah Verdone Writing Award. She is a 2012-2013 resident with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council’s Workspace program, a member of the 2008 Emerging Writers Group at The Public Theater, and a 2009 playwriting fellow with the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Her drama TURNING THE GLASS AROUND was produced by Workspace Collective in October 2014. GENERATION T, was produced at Adelphi University in March 2014. Her play, THE FLOWER THIEF, was an August 2012 co-production between Horse Trade Theater Group and The Fire This Time play festival.

1.When did you start writing plays? If you had a moment where you realized you wanted to write, what was it?

I started writing plays at the end of 2006, maybe October. I was writing short fiction and screenplays at the time. An actress in France was looking for a two-hander, and I told her I could do that. I had no idea how hard it was to write a two-person play. It wound up being too American for her tastes, so I produced it myself. That was my first step on this journey.

2. How did you come to write your OOB play? Was there a particular inspiration behind its creation? How has it developed?

I wrote Mama’s Seeds as part of Noor Theatre’s 48 Hour Forum. The playwrights involved took inspiration from different news stories, and mine was about an Egyptian woman who had posed as a man for more than 40 years to be able to work and take care of her family.

3. What are 5 words that describe who you are as a playwright?

Black, feminine, intelligent, dark, poetic.

4. What/who are some of the major influences on your writing?

Suzan-Lori Parks, David Henry Hwang, James Baldwin, Lynn Nottage, Tennessee Williams, politics, music, identity, poetry.

5. What’s one fact someone would never guess about you?

I used to sing jazz in clubs in the city.

6. What are some of your favorite plays?

Topdog/Underdog, Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1,2&3), Yellow Face, Our Lady of 125th Street, Our Lady of Kibeho, Streetcar Named Desire, Ruined, Hamilton.

7. Any new projects you’re working on or shameless plugs?

Not that I can announce by the time this comes out.  Folks can keep track of what I’m doing through Twitter or my website! Thanks!

Her play Mama’s Seeds will be performed on August 11th at 6:30pm. In desperate need of a loan to save her farm and what is left of her family, Sudi does what she feels is necessary.