Adam Szymkowicz: I Interview Playwrights Part 765: Nehprii Amenii

I Interview Playwrights Part 765: Nehprii Amenii

Hometown: Augusta Georiga

Current Town: Brooklyn Ny...

Tell me about the Women Playwrights International Conference

The Women Playwrights International Conference is an event that happens every 3 years. Each year it’s hosted in a different country, from Switzerland, Mumbai, and Philippines. This year it was held at the University of Capetown in  South Africa. Women playwrights from around the world submit scripts in hopes of begin able to share their work with an international audience. A local director  and cast are assigned to work with each script. In addition to the staged readings, there are daily keynote speakers, panel discussions, writing workshops, and evening performances.  This years conference, was scheduled to coincide with the  Grahmstown Arts Festival, which is the largest theatre festival on the African continent, so participants were really inundated with inspiration. It was an honor to share the stage with playwrights from around the world such as Talia Pura of Canada, Fatima Uygun of Scottland,  The Gurilla Girls,   Herlina Syarifuding of Indonesia,  Mumbii Kaigway of Kenya, and more…

...Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person. 

Great question. Ummm… Mud pies.  I remember, I was the best at them.  My friends would make a mud pie what would last for just moments before crumbling. But mine would last for days… weeks even, and stay perfectly round and smooth. I was in Georgia, where the dirt is red. And I remember at 4 years old, trying to explain to my friends “you have to dig really deep until you get to the sticky dirt!” Well, later I realized, I had discovered clay.  (Interesting that also became my first fine arts medium.)  And, I guess, that experience is not different with my writing or who I am. I try to dig really deep down into myself… where things get pretty sticky…and honest. And from that place, I  try to pull up the dirt and turn it into something smooth, refined—beautiful..…and something that can have long lasting impact…. Hahah,  there it is. It’s  all just Mud pies!

Full Interview here

http://aszym.blogspot.com/2015/07/i-interview-playwrights-part-765.html