Interview: Isaac Gómez of THE NIGHTSHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS at Alley Theatre

Broadway World writer Brett Cullum talked with playwright Isaac Gómez about their upcoming world premiere at Alley Theatre called THE NIGHTSHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. It opens on December 5th and plays through December 29th. The plot's summary is about a woman named Margot who works the graveyard shift at a fast food restaurant on Christmas Eve. Various spirits visit her throughout her night, which greatly serves Margot like Scrooge in another famous play. It's a one-woman, “very adult” holiday comedy. Isaac wrote this as a love letter to Houston and to all who have worked in fast food or retail during the holidays, which many audience members can easily relate to. 

Brett Cullum: So you have a world premiere at the Alley, which is a huge deal! Is this your first play that's being produced on this scale, or are you an old pro at this kind of thing?

Isaac Gómez: I feel very fortunate that over the last ten years, I've had a pretty incredible run of productions in a variety of scales at regional theaters all over the country, be it at Steppenwolf in Chicago or the Seattle Repertory. This is my second production with the Alley; I’ve had shows on Off-Broadway, and so on and so forth. So yeah, it's certainly not my first on this scale, but it doesn't mean it ever gets old or easy.

Brett Cullum: That's amazing. It sounds like you've really penetrated a lot of markets with your work and made an impact on the industry. But how did this show come to you? It is mentioned in the summary that it's a love letter to Houston. How did you decide to write this one?

Isaac Gómez: One of the most incredible things about The Alley Theatre in Houston, Texas, is their commitment and support, not just to new voices and new writers, but writers with a deep, long history with Texas. The Alley has its annual new play festival, called Alley All New, which the former director of New Play Development created, Elizabeth Frankel, who came to the alley by way of The Public Theater in New York. She is a visionary in her own right, and she created this to help include the Alley in a larger conversation about new works and writers across the country who are trying to speak to our current moment. Like many regional theaters around the country, the Alley produces A CHRISTMAS CAROL during the holidays for their wider audiences. Then, in their more intimate space, they typically have something a little bit more adult, such as the SANTALAND DIARIES. Artistic Director Rob Melrose wanted to curate what would be a modern version of something like SANTALAND DIARIES that spoke specifically to the Houston experience in a funny, warm, hearted, holiday-oriented way. They reached out to a couple of Texas playwrights to loosely pitch some ideas around the story they may or may not want to tell. 

I grew up in Texas and was born and raised along the US and Mexican border in El Paso, Texas, near Juarez, Mexico. I went to school at UT Austin. I have a lot of family in Houston, and my mom worked at Walmart for 26 years. I have these childhood memories of being with her at a retail store during graveyard shifts. No one could take care of me and help her at the store, and one of the more chaotic moments was Christmas Eve. 

There are so many people in the world who have to work on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or other holidays. I really wanted to tell a story that could speak to that experience. You know those who are working hard to keep the world running during our holiday season. I was excited and curious about telling a story about a woman who worked at a fast food restaurant, a “Mom and Pop” Burger shop. It could give the Houston small-town, big-city vibes that I always loved in Houston, and I want to honor that perspective. Charles Dickens's A CHRISTMAS CAROL is such great source material for this reason. One of the reasons it's such a timeless tale is because it requires us to examine our relationship with regret, grief, love, and family. 

And I was very curious about what a modern-day woman's version of that narrative would look like. That's where Margo was born, and the story of the NIGHTSHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS takes us through an incredibly chaotic, robust evening in which she's visited (or possessed) by four spirits who are trying to help her work through something quite deep. Throughout her evening working in this fast food restaurant and being possessed by these spirits, she uncovers the deeper meaning behind why she chooses to work at this place on Christmas Eve every year. She, in turn, has experienced an incredible transformation in response to that discovery.

Brett Cullum: Now, this is a one-woman show. So, this actress is actually possessed by ghosts. Is that right?

Isaac Gómez: Yes, yes. Something that really excited me was the ability to give a Latina woman in the State of Texas an opportunity to have a tour de force performance. And so in the play, she's playing multiple characters, I think, somewhere around 7 or 8; she has to be quite proficient at physical comedy because of the possessions that unfold. There are line dances, and she sings live music. There are gorgeous, tender moments that are deeply heartfelt and dramatic. It is a masterclass in watching the actor take their time to demonstrate the breadth and depth of their instrument.

Her name is Briana Resa, and one of the many things I value about Houston and the Alley is their commitment to local talent. The Alley is one of the larger regional theaters, not just obviously in the city, but in the state and in the country, so to have an institution of that caliber be a place where local actors can call home in their attempts to expand their skill set. The Alley is quite adamant about providing that opportunity. We stumbled upon a large array of talented women who are really ready for this kind of tour de force performance. 

And Briana is such a gift to the city of Houston in a way that I hope the city continues to value and appreciate. I think she is incredibly talented, very thoughtful, deeply inquisitive, leads with curiosity, is incredibly present and open, and really funny and really moving, and I think one of her many gifts is her ability to open her heart to us so that we can open our heart to her. And it really gives this character a level of depth and complexity that I'm not sure we always get to experience with Scrooge. 

Brett Cullum: Isaac, it's smart because CHRISTMAS CAROL was about exploiting the working class. That was really the point of Dickens's work in the characters of Tiny Tim and the Cratchits. This is a neat parallel to modern times because this would be exactly the scenario that Charles Dickens probably would have to choose in setting his store. So I love that you've taken this and made it and that you're doing this while the Alley is doing the original version upstairs. What a wonderful opportunity to do that! 

So, were you there for the rehearsals? Were you part of that process?

Isaac Gómez: Yes, for a world premiere play, it's especially imperative that the writer be involved. I've been building this play with my actor, Briana Resa, and with my director, KJ Sanchez, who's also an incredible visionary and a great dramaturg, and with the artistic staff at the Alley, who are incredibly thoughtful and thorough in their feedback, and ensuring that the vision of what we hope that this will be and continue to be ideally, not just for the Alley, but for other regional theaters across the country is maintained. It's been a fun and intentional process.

Brett Cullum: Great. Tell me a little bit about you. How did you get into playwriting?

Isaac Gómez: I was born and raised in a border town, and I grew up in a pretty poor working-class family, a part of town that did not have access to art and whose access to education was quite limited. I was in 5th grade when my teacher introduced me to the theater via a play adaptation of a children's book that she wanted us to perform for her 4th graders, and it was then that I was like, “Oh, wow! Stories are meaningful to me!” It wasn't until she introduced the possibility of this being a viable career path to me that, even conceptually, it just wasn't something I ever thought was an option. I'm forever thankful to her for that. 

I primarily acted between there all the way through my undergraduate studies in college. But I've always been a writer. I've kept journals since I was seven. I would write poetry as well. 

It wasn't until my freshman year of college when a friend of mine who lived in the same dorm as me committed suicide, and I was having a really hard time processing his very sudden and tragic death. I felt compelled for the very 1st time to write a play about it. UT Austin has an incredible graduate play rating program. It was a combination of this tragic event that happened in my life, being around graduate students who are living playwrights writing plays around me. That's when it surfaced for me as something I could possibly do. And so I wrote my very first play.

Then, throughout the course of my undergraduate years, I spent a lot of time back home with women whose … (Isaac pauses), you know, unfortunately, and not just in Juarez, but around the world, right? We experience and see femicide and feminicide as one of the greatest catastrophes of our lifetime. In Juarez, there's a lot of cultural awareness around the missing and murdered women. So, returning back to Juarez as an adult and spending time with women whose daughters are still missing and who would drive buses for us or work in factories became a pretty strong pillar for me in wanting to help get their stories out into the world. 

My first two plays came out of that experience. One was called THE WAY SHE SPOKE and the other was called LA RUTA, and both of those became my very first publicly produced plays. Those were in Chicago, one at Steppenwolf Comp Theater, and one at a smaller storefront theater that no longer exists. 

Brett Cullum: That's amazing. THE NIGHTSHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS sounds like a big departure from those two and a little bit lighter. 

Isaac Gómez: Totally, very different, for sure.

Brett Cullum: Who are some of your favorite playwrights? Do you have some that you are looking for inspiration from?

Isaac Gómez: Oh, my God, yeah, of course. Yes, most of them are living. Thank God! Playwrights that have inspired me and continue to; one of the greats in my mind is Brandon Jacob Jenkins. I think he is so prolific and so profound. Incredibly economical and really thoughtful. I think Rajiv Joseph is another one of our greats. I think he's also quite economical in how he writes. Amy Berryman is a playwright I came across last year in a writer's group, and I'm such a huge fan of hers and Inda Craig-Galvan. The list goes on and on. The art of playwriting is in one of the best places it's ever been. The business of theater and playwriting is in one of the worst places it's ever been. So that's an unfortunate contention because so many playwrights are unable to sustain themselves. So we have to rely on other forms of income, which involve other mediums like television and film - myself included. Unfortunately, that means losing a lot of playwrights because the business is not sustainable for us.

Brett Cullum: Yeah, so you're doing television and film, too. Is there anything notable that you're working on? 

Isaac Gómez: I am. I wrote for season 6 of NARCOS on Netflix. I wrote on a television show called THE LAST THING YOU TOLD ME for Apple TV with Jennifer Gardner. It's an adaptation of a book, a thriller, a summer hit. This show on Paramount Plus called JOE PICKETT, which is also based on a series of books. A few shows that haven't aired yet, but hopefully, they will between now and the next two years. I've sold pilots to FX and to Focus Features.

Brett Cullum: Well, now I feel like I am going to track down all of your work. I started this interview off feeling like you were lucky to be at the Alley, but Isaac, it sounds like the Alley is lucky to have YOU! You are amazing, and I can not wait to see what you do with this show. 

Isaac Gómez: Everyone get your tickets because we've extended before rehearsals even started. These tickets go really fast for the show. So, I highly recommend getting on it sooner rather than later.

Brett Cullum: I was looking. And yeah, it's selling like crazy. So I'm excited for you and your cast! 

Isaac Gómez: Can't wait for you to see it. You're gonna have such a ruckus and a good time. It's really fun! You're gonna enjoy yourself thoroughly.

THE NIGHTSHIFT BEFORE CHRISTMAS opens for previews at the Alley on December 5th and runs through December 29th (as of this writing). It’s a quick one-act performance in the Alley’s smaller space, the  Neuhaus Arena downstairs. It is performed in the round and runs seventy-five minutes. This is a world-premiere commission from Alley Theatre. 

To post a comment, you must register and login.