An Interview with Rinne Groff

Executive Director Sarah Boone recently spoke with
playwright Rinne Groff about The Ruby Sunrise.
Here are a few of her comments:

Before we talk about The Ruby Sunrise, can you give us a bit of your background and how you came to be a playwright? Did you always know you wanted to write?

Ever since I was a little girl, I have been interested in theater and performance, and for a long time, I wanted to be an actress. But after college, in addition to pursuing an acting career, I started making theater in a collaborative process with some friends from college and some other folks we had met in NYC. This group of people evolved into an experimental theater company called Elevator Repair Service. I always think of my work with ERS as the beginning of my career as a playwright because it was there that I began to take an active hand with how shows were built. Writing in that context isn’t necessarily about the dialogue that was spoken, but more about the shape of the theater piece as a whole.

Then, somewhat on a lark, I performed some monologues that I had written at a cabaret show called Yikes! It was by far the most terrifying experience I had ever had on stage. The first time I did it, I was so nervous that, in the end, I had to bring my script on stage with me, because I was afraid I would blank out. Part of me knew that the reason it was so terrifying was that it was the most naked thing I had ever done. The characters I was playing weren't me--it wasn't a confessional-style piece--but at the same time it was all so ME. It was my words. And putting them out there in that way was, as I said, terrifying. But something about how deeply it scared me showed me how much it meant to me. And I thought, I want to do things that mean that much to me. I haven't stuck with the self-scripted monologue form, mostly because I just like plays with lots of characters so much better, but doing those monologues really opened the door for me as a writer.

How did you get the idea for The Ruby Sunrise?

I believe it was a mentor of mine, my former professor Martin Epstein, who first mentioned to me a NOVA special about Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of the all electrical television system. It struck me as odd that TV is such a part of modern life, but that neither I nor most anyone I asked knew who its inventor was, or the circumstances of its technological evolution. Since working on the play, a couple of books have come out about Farnsworth, analyzing his life and work in various ways, but when I began writing The Ruby Sunrise there was really very little. Obviously, this play does not tell Philo's fascinating story, but it was strongly inspired by his successes and his failures.

This play has had quite a bit of success starting with its inclusion in the Humana Festival of New American Plays. What was that experience like for you and how important do you think Humana is in the development of emerging playwrights?

I loved working at the Humana Festival, and I have had the pleasure of doing so twice, the first time with a play called Orange Lemon Egg Canary. Working on that play was the first time that I worked in regional theater and it was a fabulous experience to be outside of New York City, away from other work obligations, just focusing on the task of getting the play ready for production. And the productions they give to new plays there and really remarkable. Seeing my work mounted like that was a tremendous gift, the greatest gift you can give a playwright.

Fiction and reality go hand in hand in The Ruby Sunrise. Was this a hard balance to maintain? I would think lots of research was involved to stay true to the twenties and fifties even with full creative license.

I love to do research.
The way a play usually starts for me is that someone says something to me, or I read something in the paper that sparks my interest. I get an inkling that there is a play buried in this particular historical detail, or this generally expressed concept, although I don't have any idea of how, or what the play might be. Then I go a little research-crazy, reading lots and lots of books about this subject matter that has peaked my curiosity. It's like I'm looking for the play in all the research, and if I'm lucky, some characters and some plot begin to emerge. The key for me to have a lot of source material to deal with, but then to let it all go and not be restrained as I create new characters and new situations.

What do you consider the main theme of the play to be? Is there more than one?

I’m interested in the relationship between idealistic aspiration and realistic compromise. Often, compromise is thought of as a bad word, but as a theater person who is deeply interested in collaboration, I consider the art of compromise to be a skill that has to be developed. The Ruby Sunrise also plays with the tension between solo enterprise and group achievement. It’s more romantic to think of a genius as a lone inventor, sticking by her guns and going it all alone. But that kind of personality (and that kind of creative process) can have downsides, and one of those downsides is the work of such a genius might never find its way to the light of day.

Any advice for budding playwrights?

See as many plays as you can. Plays, dance, opera. And also read plays on the page so you can appreciate more how they work on the page.

And are you working on any new projects?

So many. The two biggest ones are: 1) A new musical called Saved written with collaborators Michael Friedman and John Dempsey which opens at Playwrights Horizons in June, and 2) a new play which I am developing for the Public Theater in New York and Berkeley Rep in California.

Lastly, since this play is so much centered around the world of television, just for fun, I'm curious to know what your top five favorite tv shows of all time are.

I’m actually not a huge TV-watcher and I’ve never had any shows that I just had to watch. But I like the homey thing about television: that you can come home after a long day and it’s there. It can be very comforting. That’s how I like TV best.