Interview: Ana Nogueira Talks New Play WHICH WAY TO THE STAGE, Writing for DC & More

Ana Nogueira is a multi-talented writer and actor whose current and upcoming work includes everything from a world premiere Off-Broadway play, to feature films, and a role on the small screen.

Ana's original play WHICH WAY TO THE STAGE- centered on two theatre loving friends whose conversation while waiting at a Broadway stage door changes the course of their decades-long friendship- is now in previews at MCC Theater. It will officially open on Tuesday May 10 for a limited engagement through May 22, 2022.

Ana is also the first writer to be put under contract at DC, and is currently working on some of their most top-secret projects, and her play EMPATHITRAX, which received its world premiere in New York at HERE Arts Center, is currently being developed as a feature film with Berlanti Productions.

In addition to her incredible writing projects, Ana can also be seen recurring as "Donna" on the Starz crime drama HIGHTOWN, now in its second season.

We spoke with Ana Nogueira about all of her exciting projects, what its like working in so many different facets of the entertainment industry, and more!

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You have so many projects in the works! Let's first talk about the Off-Broadway debut of your play WHICH WAY TO THE STAGE. I love what this play is about, what was your inspiration for this play?

So, the play came to me really out of nowhere from a conversation I was having at brunch with friends, in a very silly way. I think that's kind of how inspiration always works, never when you sit down to really think about something deeply are you going to come up with something. We were talking about stage doors, and Idina Menzel, and friendships, and I was like, "I see this play," and then I went to write it. And then, of course, what happens when you're writing is you realize that the reason you were inspired by something seemingly innocuous is because some small kernel of that idea actually is the tip of the iceberg, and underneath is this whole continent of things to explore.

For me, I've been in this business now for many, many years, 15 years, and prior to that I got a BFA from Boston Conservatory, which is a very specific sort of life choice to make. I've observed a lot in this business, and I sometimes tell this story. When I was at Boston Conservatory, we had a drag show every year, and it was student run, and it was pretty extraordinary. It was some of the best theatre that the school put on, which was insane. It was run by a bunch of the Senior guys, and they would pass it down to the next year. And it was amazing. They did it twice a year, and it was so fully-produced and fully realized. And one year after it, in class, a teacher said to a Senior girl after she got up and performed her song, "Did you see the drag show last night?" And the girl said, "Yes," And the teacher said, "Well, you should talk to your friend and have him teach you how to perform a song like a woman." Which is a really intense thing to say to a 20 year old girl, and the teacher didn't really see anything wrong with it. And then at the same time, all of these gay students who were performing in drag, and doing such an incredible job, when they were out of drag and performing traditional musical theatre in class, they were being told by the faculty to sort of hide the fact that they were gay.

And it just made me think about the relationship between gay men and women in musical theatre, in this industry, and that allyship, and that deep, deep friendship that we kind of are constantly unearthing, constantly talking about, straight women and gay men and what that compatibility is. And I wanted to talk about it in terms of this industry that is in some ways so incredibly inclusive, and in other ways so in the dark ages, especially with these two communities who it pretends to be for, but can really sell those groups short.

What do you hope that people take away from the play when they see it?

The biggest thing is I hope people have a great time. It's a comedy, it's trying to be entertaining in all ways, and so I hope people actually leave feeling uplifted and joyful about these characters and the journey they've taken to self-actualization within themselves, and in some ways within the business. But I think it's not as much about the business. I hope that people care deeply about this main friendship. And I hope people also think critically about our industry and the ways in which it falls short at serving its community, and the ways in which it falls into some stereotypes about groups, and maybe isn't as progressive as it thinks it is.

Things we should be thinking about and talking about.

Yeah! We should be. It's so tricky, we're just full of such an incredible community of people who are diverse in so many different ways, and yet, in some ways, the actual commercial theatre we put up feels like it's not pushing the envelope. It does every now and then. But I think about what we could do if we really were daring with gender and-this play isn't about race-but also about race, and sexuality. We really could be at the forefront of those sorts of conversations, and sometimes I feel like we're a little backfooted.

In addition to this play, you are also writing some top-secret projects for DC, and you are the first writer to be put under contract at DC. How does that feel?

It's so much fun! I started working for DC over the pandemic, so it's really not lost on me that I was able to, not just be employed, but have one of my favorite jobs during a time when so many people were treading water in really scary places. So that is what I feel the luckiest about. But the experience at DC has been fantastic. I always joke with them, "Wait till you see what this play is about!" [laughs]. I'm writing things that are, obviously, based on comic books and superheroes and all that kind of stuff, so it seems extremely different, but to me, it's all the same because it's all character based, which, coming from being an actor that's the only way I really know how to approach anything.

And the experience has been really fantastic, they've been really writer-forward, and I feel very much a part of every project that I've gotten my hands in in some sort of way, whether it's in the beginning I'm on something, or if I'm jumping in at the tail end, or somewhere in the middle, I feel very respected and very much a part of it. DC underwent huge changes before I got there, so I'm working with this team of people, kind of a smaller team, and everyone is super hands on. I don't think it's what you would expect necessarily from a huge company like that. It feels like a small business. Everyone is hands on, it's not run in this giant, corporate way, at least not in my experience.

How is it for you knowing that you're working on projects that are being as heavily guarded as state secrets, and that there is so much hype around them?

I really just put on my blinders, and I don't think about it. I truly just come from a place of worry that I'm not going to be able to execute a good script, so I just try to think of it in those small baby steps. I've been doing this for a long time, and as an actress I've been cast in pilots that don't go, I've written a million screenplays that were about to get made and then don't, so I've just found that the less you think about the big picture the better. And that can be to guard yourself from disappointment if things don't work out, and it's also to keep yourself from losing your mind and being totally terrified about how big the project you're working on is.

It's hard work, writing a screenplay, writing a script, especially off of IP, so I just try to focus exclusively on the hard work. Not because I'm a more dedicated writer than people that don't, but because I'm truly trying to preserve my own brain space! If you start thinking about the big picture, you're going to be let down when things don't go your way, or you're going to be completely paralyzed by how big it all could potentially be. I'm just like, "I have to write this scene, I have to write the next scene, and that's what I have to focus on. And beyond that I have to make lunch, and then I have to pick up my dry cleaning!" [laughs]. I have to think about it tiny little spoonfuls or I'll lose it.

It sounds like you've got the right head about it!

It took me years to figure that out, but I'm there [laughs]. Somewhere there!

Some people never figure it out!

Exactly!

Speaking about your writing projects, your play EMPATHITRAX, which received its world premiere at HERE Arts Center, is currently being developed as a feature film with Berlanti Productions. What can you tell us about that, and how does it feel for your work to be adapted into a feature film?

Well, I feel really lucky because I adapted the script, and that's not always the way it is. Sometimes it's like, "We want to option the script and we want to give it to another writer," or they'll be like, "We want you to write it! JK, we're giving this to somebody else," and someone will re-write your total baby. Things are rewritten in Hollywood all the time, but it's a little trickier when it's your play, and that didn't happen here. So, that has been a great experience.

We have a director, and we've had Berlanti Productions on it for years, and I feel, again, in that scenario that I'm respected as the creator of the idea, and not just a writer for hire. And it's interesting to me because it was on stage, to the think about how it works on camera, and that it's not a direct transfer, and that the storytelling is different, and that there are ways in which it has to be bigger, and that there are also ways it has to be smaller. The end of Empathirax has this big moment where the world kind of breaks open, so we had to say, "What does that mean on film?" And say, "How do I transfer to this medium?" I wrote that script a long time ago. Everything is in development for years, and it was a huge lesson for me. There were a bunch of rewrites in that process, so I kind of learned to not be so stubborn about something I felt so incredibly close to, and rather see how I can make it better and different and reach a different audience without breaking its integrity.

Was that an easy process for you? Adapting it from a stage show to film? Or was it not so easy?

Well, it was easy in the way that I liked the people I was working with. I feel like there are two kinds of hard when you're dealing Hollywood, or maybe anywhere. One is the work environment is difficult, but the art is easy, and the other is the work environment is great and the art is hard. And I feel like with that, the work environment was really positive, but, for me, it took me a few steps to find a way to break open something that I felt really close to. But I felt really supported in the process, so it wasn't a negative experience.

I like doing hard work as long as I'm not dealing with hard relationships and hard politics and all of that yucky stuff that can come up. I truly don't mind doing a million rewrites, I've done so many rewrites on so many things. But, I think for me, emotionally it was difficult to be like, "Okay, you're going to have to get rid of this scene, this doesn't work anymore, this part of the idea doesn't work anymore. You're going to have to blow out this world a little bit, and put one of these characters in a situation you would never see them in on stage, and you can do that in a way that doesn't break the whole story."

In addition to all the writing projects you've got going on, you also star in Hightown on Starz as Donna. The show is currently in it's second season, what's it been like working on that?

I love that show. I shot the first season of that show in 2019, and that was a job where I had my audition slides, and I knew from the six pages that this was so well-written. Which can be a tricky thing when you're a writer, to come across things that you as a writer are like, "Damn, this is good." And so, I really just wanted it so badly, and then it all worked out, which is fantastic. And then, even better than that, everyone that works on that show, top-down is so dedicated to the material and the storytelling, and is just easy and chill to be around.

It's so fun. And we shot the first season in New York, and then we moved production down to Wilmington, North Carolina. Which is its own thing, to have to have everyone be out of town, and that's when you realize how close you all are because you're the only people you can hang out with. And we loved it down in Wilmington, it's so beautiful down there, and it's just a great community of people. So that for me has jut been a dream acting job, where I feel like I get to do real stuff that I find to be challenging, and also still have time to write. It's ideal. And it's telling a story that I think matters about the opioid crisis in a way that doesn't feel preachy or after school special-y, but feels really honest. It's hard to tell that kind of story without getting a little maudlin, and I just think that Hightown is really human about addiction.

How do you feel about getting the opportunity to work in so many different mediums on so many different projects all at the same time?

I feel so lucky. It's kind of a 'when it rains it pours' situation, as is everything, and I have had some very lean times in my life and in my career, and I'm obviously busy, but I'm not overwhelmed, I feel like I've been preparing for this, and to be busy and working on things that challenge and excite me, I'm never going to complain about having work, and getting to work. The idea that I could write things that came from me entirely and that somebody says, "I want to put that up, I want to put money into that, I want to make space for that," and some actors will say, "I want to be involved," that's an overwhelmingly incredible feeling. That people see something you made up out of thin air and they want to dedicate time, space, money, and effort to it. That's what keeps me from feeling overwhelmed, that all these other people are also dedicating their time to things I'm working on, so I have to show up as well.

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For tickets to Which Way to the Stage, visit: https://mcctheater.org/tix/whichwaytothestage/