Voice Of The Playwright: Theresa Rebeck

By Leora Kanner, Broadway Magazine

In this exclusive interview with Theresa Rebeck, Broadway Magazine and Broadway.tv gives you insight into the playwright's new play, "Our House," a satirical comedy about the blurring of reality TV with network news. As a news anchor becomes host of a reality tv show (probably because she is sleeping with its producer), Rebeck satirizes how two extremely public, and real figures, became "historic figures." One of the main characters becomes preoccupied with why the news cannot turn him a profit while the others use reality TV to replace their own lives.

Theresa discusses how the show evolved out of her fascination with TV (she has worked in both television and theater.) She believes their is power in the television culture because everyone has a television and everyone wants to be on TV. With "Our House," Rebeck attempts to give a harsh warning to all those who would be complacent over something as "powerful and omnipresent" as network television.

According to Rebeck, the show is "funny and very dark as well" and she means to "scare the audience." Rebeck heaps praise on the cast of "Our House" saying that they are a "fantastic, brilliant cast" of "first-rate New York stage actors." She has "nothing but the highest praise for the cast of this show" and has been told that she has the "best cast in New York."

Theresa's advice to burgeoning playwrights is to constantly "make sure to do you're own work and not wait for someone to give you permission to do it." She herself has done a lot of self-producing because she feels it gives her more control over the material; she doesn't wait for someone to adopt the material because she feels it is debilitating to the artist. In the same way that she believes television is powerful, Theresa praises the rising use of the internet in producing new art. Because people are blogging, making small movies, and using YouTube, Theresa feels there has been "tremendous development" in the art form because art is "communal again." Theresa leaves her fans with these final words: "You don't need someone's approval to do your art."

Watch the entire interview with Ms. Rebeck right here on Broadway.tv.