25 Jun Meet Our Festival Playwrights – Bennett Fisher
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Bennett Fisher
Fresh off winning a Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award and an outstanding new play nomination from the San Diego Critics Circle, Ben Fisher brings his new play Damascus to the Festival. The play explores extremism as a Somali-American drives a stranded teenager from Minneapolis to Chicago in his shuttle cab.
Sunday, July 16 at 1:30PM and Friday, July 21 at 4PM
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Why are you writing this play now?
This play is, in part, born out of a family tragedy. It’s my attempt to understand, forgive, and even love a group of people who committed a violent act. I’m taking on a very politicized topic, but I do not have a political agenda. I’ve read many plays about terrorism, and almost all feel written from the outside – very big picture, very focused on the larger geopolitical and cultural questions. I wanted to take a different approach, to focus on the intimate, the personal. I wanted to write about the victims of terrorism, because I feel I have a unique perspective on that. And I include the perpetrators among those victims, since their lives are destroyed as well. It took me a long time to get to a place to write this play, but it’s something that’s been with me since I was a teenager.
How does your writing process begin?
I start with character, generally. That’s usually the first thing to come into focus. They are generally unlikable characters – I’m very interested in asking an audience to find empathy with people they may be poised to hate. After that, it moves on to their voices and their dialogue. I think it’s a little pretentious when writers talk about ‘hearing the characters in their heads,’ but there’s some truth to that. Once you get into a rhythm with the characters’ voices, it just sort of flows.
And how do you know you have reached a grand idea for a story?
I know I’ve found the ‘grand idea’ when the idea scares me a little. I don’t think of writing as therapy, but I think that by confronting our fear, we stop trying to be clever and are forced to be vulnerable and honest, which is the whole point.
For you, what is special about the Playwrights Foundation or the festival overall?
Playwrights Foundation draws together an incredible cohort of theater makers every year, and I’m hoping to learn from them and be inspired by their voices. The organization is a tireless advocate for new work, new voices, and risk taking. I think they have incredible integrity, and they have a wonderful understanding of how to help playwrights realize a play’s full potential.
Why do you keep writing or creating stories?
I undoubtedly have a lot of selfish reasons to want to keep putting myself out there. But I think I’m able to do my best work when it feels selfless. The best plays are gifts, presented to an audience in the spirit of unconditional generosity. When you’re searching for what that gift might be, you have to think more about what’s going to make the other person happy than what’s going to make you happy. I hope the thing that keeps me writing isn’t just my own need but the needs of others.
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