Exclusive: Playwright Lindsey Ferrentino Talks National Playwrights Conference (the Deadline is Approaching!), UGLY LIES THE BONE & More!

With just one week left until the close of open submission the for National Playwrights Conference, it seemed like a perfect time to chat with a vet of the conference who also has a play lighting up the New York stage at Roundabout Underground - Lindsey Ferrentino.

Take a look at the play, and read below as she tells us about both the production, process and conference!

Tell us about UGLY LIES THE BONE? What is the genesis of the play?

Ugly Lies the Bone is about a female soldier Jess, a burn survivor, returning to her Florida hometown and doing virtual reality video game therapy for pain management. The play is set at the end of NASA's shuttle program and I saw a parallel between soldiers looking for a way to start over and the town itself doing that same thing. At the time I was writing, most narratives about soldiers returning home were either suicides or love stories. I was interested in trying to tell a story about a woman trying to live somewhere in the middle and take the first steps forward.

How long after you initially wrote it did you submit for development to the National Playwrights Conference?
I started Ugly Lies the Bone in May and submitted it in September... so that would make the script about five months old at that time. It's a tricky thing to submit such a new play because you keep working on it, long after that October deadline has passed. Part of the brilliant application process at the O'Neill is that finalists have a chance to submit a later draft. I always appreciated that opportunity.

Why did you submit? What did hope an O'Neill workshop would achieve?
The O'Neill always seemed like an idyllic place to go, but I don't think I knew much about how the development process worked there. I just knew it felt like one of those unattainable benchmarks and one that I would continually apply for year after year. I had very specific rewrite goals and questions about the play. At the time of submitting, I was still unsure if there would be an audience for a play about a female burn survivor soldier, set in an economically depressed town. At the O'Neill, they treated that as if it were a given, so the actual work on the play could begin.

How did those expectations change during the residency?
I had the opportunity to work with Jill Rafson (Roundabout's Director of New Play Development) as a dramaturg. Jill had picked Ugly Lies the Bone for Roundabout's reading series prior to my time at the O'Neill, but that was only a one day reading. Being at the O'Neill allowed my relationship with Jill and the Roundabout to grow. Jill was very focused on making sure that the virtual reality therapy scenes served and still moved the story forward. I did most of my rewrites at the O'Neill restructuring that journey. The O'Neill's literary staff takes care of typing changes, printing pages, so your only focus is to be a writer. This was the first time in my professional career where the storytelling felt so served and supported at every level. Changes are encouraged, the actors are eager to accept them, and you can really try things that do not work and take those changes back.

Has the play changed since, now that it's in full production at Roundabout?
The play has continued to tighten. I've tried to respond to what the cast of actors brought to the room, shorten and lengthen transitions based on the space we were in. Nothing structural has really changed, but on a line by line basis there are innumerable differences.

What was your favorite part about spending time at the O'Neill Center?
I really appreciated getting to know so many playwrights. Living with them in a little hallway. Having late night conversations about our fears and annoyances, rejoicing and celebrating each other's work . I'm still good friends with the writers I met while there and suddenly became colleagues with so many writers whose work I'd already admired. Also... that stretch of beach. I became excessively tan and sand would be pouring between the pages of my scripts.

What advice do you have for playwrights considering submitting a play?
Just do it. Submit year after year until they let you in. If you're not accepted this year, try to go up to Connecticut and see the work that they're doing. I just think the O'Neill is a vital theater institution that should be continually supported by playwrights and a part of the national conversation. Also, be very specific about your development goals in the proposal. I think that really matters to the literary staff.

Is there a play you've written in your mind, and not yet on paper?
I'm currently working on the Roundabout production and three commissions so think I'm pouring all of my heart into those plays. This is something I'm learning about myself as a writer - that when I finish a script, I always feel as if I've used up all of my thoughts, ideas, and energy and that nothing is left over. Of course that's never true, but the more I write I try not to save anything for next project and have to trust that the well will refill again.

What plays are on your nightstand right now?
I'm taking a writing class led by Sarah Ruhl (in my final year at Yale) and we are reading many plays through the lens of unexpected and sudden transformation. Most recently, I've read Sagittarius Ponderosa by MJ Kauffman. This week is Fornes. I've returned a few times to Significant Other by Josh Harmon, a play that touched me recently, very personally. In general, I'm not a great play reader and would always so much rather see a production and then return to the script to further understand what I saw staged.

What is your least favorite question about your work?
I'm always interested in what audiences get from the play, project onto it, etc. and in that spirit, try to maintain that no reaction is invalid. What I don't appreciate as much are questions that have more to do with the audience member's preconceived notions about what the play would or should be about. For example, "I thought it was a play about this... Why didn't you include..." As long as the questions are meeting the script where it is living, I'm usually open for chatting about any of it.

What is most helpful to you as you sit down to write a first draft?
My house must be clean. My dog must be walked. My desk must be clear. And I need a day (preferably two days in a row) to be all by myself - no plans in the evening, limited phone calls, etc. I am a skilled procrastinator when it comes to starting a first draft so I try to be as proactive as I can about preventing that... I have to create an environment where there is literally no other option, but to write. And then I usually go outside with a notebook and pen and get to work.

For more information on the National Playwrights Conference, visit www.theoneill.org/npc/submission

About the National Playwrights Conference - Authors of selected works are awarded a month-long residency at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, with stipend, housing, meals, and transportation, in support of a week of intensive script development and two public readings. Deadline for submissions for the 2016 National Playwrights Conference is Friday, October 16th at 11:59pm (PST) - visit www.theoneill.org/npc/submission to apply online.

Questions about the submission process? About the developmental process at the O'Neill?
Join playwright Jenny Connell Davis (End of Shift, 2015) and O'Neill Literary Manager Anne G. Morgan for a live, online Q&A Tuesday, October 13th @ 6pm on the O'Neill Center Facebook Page.

LINDSEY FERRENTINO is a New York-based playwright originally from the sunny state of Florida where many of her plays are set. Ugly Lies the Bone is the winner of the 2014 Newman/Woodward Drama Award. The play was developed at the National Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center as part of their 50th Anniversary Season and had a workshop production this past fall at Fordham University. The play was also chosen for Roundabout Theater Company's Underground Reading Series, Premiere Stages New Play Contest, Florida Studio Theater's New Play Festival, and The Great Plains Theater Conference as a Play Lab selection. More recently, Lindsey was granted the 2015 Emerging Writer's commission from South Coast Repertory. Her work has been developed/performed at Atlantic Theater Company, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, New York Theatre Workshop, 3LD Art and Technology Center, Manhattan Repertory Theater, and The Marilyn Monroe Theater in New York. Her work has been seen regionally at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, The Alliance Theater in Georgia, The Blank Theater in LA, and The Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. She was a 2014 Kendeda Playwright with the Alliance Theater. Ferrentino is a recipient of the Edward Albee Playwriting Fellowship and Residency as well as The Blue Ridge Summer Theater Festival's Playwriting Fellowship. Her short stories have been published in New York magazine and Aaduna Literary Magazine. She holds a BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, an MFA in playwriting from Hunter College, and is currently pursuing a second master's degree in playwriting at the Yale School of Drama.