Foundry Talks: Franky Gonzalez & Liza Powel O'Brien
OPC Foundry Project playwrights and plays (top, L to R): Anna Ziegler Antigones”| Bill Cain “The Patriots”| Gideon Jeph Wabvuta “One More Sunday”| Samuel D. Hunter “A Case for the Existence of God| Jon Robin Baitz “I’ll Be Seein’ Ya”| Liza Powel O’Brien “Apostrophe”| Luis Alfaro ”My Father’s House” | Franky D. Gonzalez “Even Flowers Bloom in Hell, Sometimes
INSIGHTS INTO THE OPC FOUNDRY PROJECT
We have made significant progress in the Foundry Project journey, OPC's new online play development program which began in late July.
The eight socially committed and passionately engaged playwrights participating in this program have been working intensely to experiment, refine and deepen their dramatic investigations into our turbulent, troubled world.
They have been collaborating with the Foundry community of playwrights, directors and dramaturges to revise their plays based on feedback received during our weekly Zoom gatherings. It's thrilling and gratifying to witness the progress that has been made as the Foundry playwrights move to fulfill their theatrical visions.
We are pleased to share insights into our process in this second installment of the Foundry Talks series, featuring interviews with Franky Gonzalez and Liza Powel O’Brien.
FRANKY D. GONZALEZ
EVEN FLOWERS BLOOM IN HELL, SOMETIMES
A Columbian American playwright and television writer, Franky’s plays have been produced or developed at The Lark, the Sundance Institute, the Goodman Theatre (Live @ Five Series), Repertorio Español, LAByrinth Theater Company, and the Dallas Theater Center. Recipient of the Crossroads Project Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative Award and a MacDowell Fellowship and co-recipient for the 2018 MetLife Nuestras Voces Latino Playwriting Award, Franky divides his time between Dallas and Los Angeles.
About Franky's new play EVEN FLOWERS BLOOM IN HELL, SOMETIMES: An intimate, powerful examination of a system of social control through mass incarceration that shapes every aspect of life both for those inside the prison walls struggling in isolation to find meaning and self-worth, and those outside, including younger generations struggling to resist – or even whether to resist – the social forces, political policies, and racial discrimination that targets generation after generation. Inmate-correctional officer relations, the passing of time, theatre as rehab, and the resiliency of love within a prison system that has swept up so many fathers, uncles and brothers are the focus of this dynamic drama.
LIZA POWEL O'BRIEN
APOSTROPHE
Liza is a playwright whose work has been seen and developed at the Geffen Playhouse, The Blank Theatre, Unscreened LA, Naked Angels LA, Ojai Playwrights Conference, Hedgebrook, and The Lark. She was an inaugural member of the Writers’ Room at the Geffen, and holds an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. Liza has been involved with OPC for many years - as a playwright (Judy Goes Shopping, OPC 2012), a dramaturge, and a member of the OPC Reading Committee.
About Liza's new play APOSTROPHE: At a prominent private high school with a troubled past, a legendary drama teacher employs unorthodox and intimate methods with her star student; a reforming Headmistress uses silence and erasure to protect the vulnerable; a father tries to protect a daughter; and two friends lurch bewildered through the unnamed space between girlhood and womanhood. Apostrophe asks: How do we protect ourselves from the people we love? How do we protect ourselves from the people that love us? Is it truly possible to erase a problem?? What gets lost when we try?