Interview: Elaine Alexander and Della Freedman of CAR TALK Make Finals In Manhattan, New York

Car Talk, written by Elaine Alexander and directed by Della Freedman was chosen as a finalist for the Manhattan Repertory Theatre's One-Act Playwriting Contest. The Manhattan Repertory Theatre is an off-Broadway theatre located in the heart of Times Square. In the audience, it is not unusual to find Hollywood stars such as Meryl Streep and Tracey Ullman and famous playwrights.

Tell me about Car Talk and how the concept of writing it originated?

A lot of play festivals have a specific theme. In 2012, The Warehouse Performing Arts Center hosted a play writing contest entitled, "Car Craze", with the flexibility to write about anything concerning cars. So I started thinking about my experiences in purchasing cars, and my relationship with it. What does a car reveal about a person who buys it? Cars represent how we want the world to see us and how we see ourselves.

Car Talk is a short one-act comedy that depicts the story of an accountant who goes car shopping with his status-seeking fiancée on an expedition to find the perfect car for her, which led him on the quest to find his true self. With every car that he encounters, the actress who portrays that particular car changes the accountant's personality according to the car that is being driven (Prism, BMW, pickup truck, mini-van, etc.). It was one of the winners at the Warehouse Performing Arts Center.

Car Talk has done extremely well and have receive many accolades. Out of all my plays, Car Talk is my straight "A" student. It has been performed at stage readings in Los Angeles and Inca, Ecuador. It recently won first prize in a play festival, in Denver, Colorado. It also won third place at a festival in Canton, Michigan. The second prize winner was an Emmy-award winning writer for Lou Grant, so I am proud of third place. It was also a part of a collection of plays that satirized contemporary life entitled, Life As We Know It, directed by Jeremy Fiebig and Robyne Parrish. This series was a nine-show running, performed at the Gilbert Theater, in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Last April, Life as We Know It, directed by Della Freedman, had an eight-show running which sold out at Warehouse Performing Arts Center. Car Talk was one of plays in that series.

How long had you been writing plays?

I started writing plays approximately four years ago. However, I have always been a professional writer as a journalist, an advertising copy writer and I always performed theatre as well. I must give credit to an acting course I took, J. D. Lewis Actor's lab. J. D. is a mover and shaker who teaches a very intensive actor's class. We had to perform monologues in class. I grew tired of performing monologues that were geared to a much younger age group. So, I started writing my own monologues which were very well received by J. D. and fellow classmates. Afterwards, J. D. encouraged me to write more monologues. The first play I wrote, The Ying and Yang of Parenting was performed at Theater Charlotte's "Just Do It" play writing festival. The audience laughed and loved my writing...so I continued. I also attended classes in Rock Hill, North Carolina under the tutelage of well-renowned international playwright, Terry Roueche. Terry helped me to grow and taught me how to develop my play structure.

So Terry Roueche taught you how to structure a play?

Mostly, I am self-taught - I read about playwriting and various stay plays. However, I credit Terry with stressing the importance of structure and conflict and teaching me how to choose my content and dialogue carefully without wasting words. Terry also taught me how to build to a climax. Also, J. D. Lewis would tell me when I was hitting my mark. He would instruct me when "it was too much on the nose" or "too much exposition". He also had very good comedic instincts and taught me how to deliver in a funny way. So I credit both of them for my success thus far.

Speaking of monologues, one of my monologues just won one of four Judges Choice award in the national TentSquare Holiday Journal monologue contest. My monologue was performed by a New-York based actor, Paddy Tubbz. It was one out of four chosen out of 268 performances.

What made you submit Car Talk to the Manhattan Repertory Theater?

I belong to many websites that have play writing contest listed and this particular contest was posted. Their artistic director, Ken Wolf, told me that there were approximately 150 entries and 30 plays were selected. Car Talk were selected amongst the 30. In the semi-finals, we competed against five other plays. Six total plays were selected for the finals. This is an all-Charlotte team. Della Freedman is a veteran community theater director and is the owner of her murder mystery company, About Town Tours. I asked her to direct because she had directed Car Talk twice prior. Dan Brunson, a veteran actor who plays the accountant, has performed off-Broadway in New York City and has toured nationally in Forever Plaid. Melissa Bowden, who portrays the car, is a veteran actress who is extremely versatile. She has performed everything from Shakespeare, to Improv, to musicals. Dave Maloney, who plays the salesman, is also a veteran actor who performs murder mysteries as well. And myself, who portrays the status-seeking fiancée. Originally, I asked cast members who previously performed in the Life as We Know It series. Two of the performing artists were unavailable and I assumed the role as the fiancée. It is exciting to also perform in the play that I actually wrote.

What are your future projects?

Rock Hill Community Theatre will be producing the world premiere of a new set of plays that I have written with a southern fried theme, A Southern Girl Gotta Have It! It is short, sexy, southern fried theme plays - dealing with what a girl want to have...a Yankee boyfriend, her copier to work, to get her daughter in Clemson, etc. The series will be performed the last weekend in March - March 26-29. I specialize in writing comedies-comedies that people can find their truth and laugh about.

My play, Six Figures Under was chosen for the first annual Down For The Mountain festival by Appalachian Creative Theatre and will be performed at UpStage in early March.

My play Hard Copy will be produced in late February and early March at Main Street Contemporary Theatre in Rock Hill. Tom Moody is directing and I will be performing in it.

Follow Elaine Alexander onTwitter @Elaineplaywrite

DELLA FREEDMAN:

Della Freedman, the director of Car Talk and the owner of the murder mystery theatrical company, All About Town.

Della, where are you from?

Queens, New York

As a native New Yorker, what does this experience mean to you as a director to be a finalist in the Manhattan Repertory Theatre's Play Writing Contest?

I studied acting at Queens College and HB Studio in Manhattan. I didn't get my opportunity to pursue my dream of theater in New York because life happened and I moved. So, after years of acting and directing here in Charlotte, it was special to get the opportunity to return to my hometown.

What theaters have you performed in Charlotte?

Probably, all of them. In the capacity of both director and actress, I have performed at Theatre Charlotte, Golden Circle Theatre (when it existed), Uwharrie Players, Davidson Community Players, Rock Hill Community Theatre and Old Courthouse Theatre. In 1995, I directed a play entitled, A Novel Romance, written by Judy Simmons Cook, at Old Courthouse Theatre in Concord which won the North Carolina Theatre Conference (NCTC). It then went on to Louisville, Kentucky, but we did not win.

How did you get involve in directing Car Talk?

Actually this is the 3rd times I directed it. Three years ago, I directed it at Warehouse Performing Arts Center's first 10-minute play festival in Cornelius. Last year in the spring, I directed it again and other pieces in a collection entitled, Life As Know It, at the Warehouse. And now, at the Manhattan Repertory Theatre.

Della, what are the key points that makes a good director?

1. Trust In Your Actors

2. Casting Well

3. Seeing Something in the People Who You Cast that No One Else can Give You

4. Pay Attention to Others Needs. I was a Psychology major before I studied theater - so that helps tremendously.

I was told that the local New York audience actually picked the winner of the contest and that you won second place out of the six finalists. That's quite an accomplishment for a Charlotte-based team. What do you think makes Car Talk so likable?

It's real! And the way it's written, the characters are totally flushed out. It doesn't just have a surface meaning about a guy and his fiancée looking for a car, it has real depth to it because this guy is looking for himself and as he goes through the various experiences with the different cars to a point that he has a lightbulb moment in his head. Also, when I am working with people I don't let them be lazy and just skim over the surface of that first layer you may find in a play...I have the actors to dig deeper. Elaine said that she was pleased with the deeper level I was able to bring out of the actors to develop the characters in the play. I believe the audience saw that! And, the acting was good as well.

Have you worked with these performing artists before?

All of them were in the collection of plays entitled, Life As We Know It. Two of the original actors of Car Talk couldn't make it. Dan Brunson performed in two of the other plays in that series and Elaine filled in as the fiancée.

What's the name of your production company?

It is called About Town Tours. The troupe of actors are the ComeSolveIt-Charlotte Players. We are in our 13th year of performing murder mystery shows. We have performed in Savannah, Georgia and Wilmington and Asheville, North Carolina. As a matter of fact, as I was returning from New York this past Saturday, a group of my actors were performing a murder mystery at a country club in Raleigh.

I can tell that you are not only a seasoned director, but a seasoned producer as well. You wear many hats. What are your future projects?

As an actress, I have been cast in a TV pilot at Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), in Savannah, Georgia. I will portray a customer service representative for a shady cosmetic company. In the meantime, several of my actors will be performing murder mysteries, in my absence.

Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

I don't know, I would like to do more teaching - mentoring teenagers. My acting teacher at HB Studio told me that he saw me down the road - because of my personality - becoming a teacher. I love the outpouring of creativity that comes from a teenage mind.

For more information concerning Della Freedman and her future projects visit her website:

http://www.abouttowntours.com

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