Interview: Playwright Elizabeth A.M. Keel Gives Us a Sneak-Peek of the Magical World within Mildred's Umbrella's TOOTH AND TAIL

The world premiere of the fantastical TOOTH AND TAIL will be presented by Mildred's Umbrella starting next Thursday! In excitement of seeing this production myself next week, I reached out to speak with Elizabeth A.M. Keel, the playwright of the show, in order to get an inside scoop as well as a sneak-peek of the play. Through my conversations with Keel, we discussed how the show came to be, the magic of the production's technical designs, the joy that the permission to play can bring, and more!

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Firstly, can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Are you from Houston? If not, what brought you here? What got you into playwrighting?

I am a native born and raised here in Houston. I was a student of HISD, and then I went to the University of Houston not once, but twice! I am a very, very Houstonian writer. I studied theatre at the University of Houston, and I started playwriting in 2007 with Lanford Wilson and then later with Edward Albee when he came back for his last hurrah. It's funny because most of the people (that I studied with at least) were focused on realism, the pure "kitchen sink drama". However, I myself began to gravitate towards writing mostly science fiction, fantasy, and magical realism! I love stories where the audiences' imagination is a key component because, when we are performing theatre live, there are other humans in the room other than the actors. Therefore, I believe that it is important that the audience does some thinking and dreaming right alongside us artists.

Tell us a little about the TOOTH AND TAIL. What is the play's story?

I do not want to spoil anything, so I will keep it short... A princess is kidnapped, and her rescuers are mercenary. There is a dragon, and the soldiers have to battle pirates, witches, and monsters to try to get the princess home again!

How did you connect with Mildred's Umbrella in order to produce this work?

I started the play way back in 2015. Jennifer Decker, the artistic director of Mildred's Umbrella, took me out to lunch and said, "Hey, why don't you write something for us?" I was like, "Oh my gosh...OK!" You know, that's half the battle for writers; you need someone to take a chance on you and your work. So, it was really awesome to get that opportunity here in my hometown. I had always wanted to write a play with what I call "the Shakespearean forest": there is a collection of this motley crew of delightful people who are magically traversing across the stage. We just go with them as they are adventuring miles and miles without leaving the theater! I love that kind of play, and so I thought, let me see if I can play with this idea and also put more women in it since that is one of the core tenants of Mildred's Umbrella. We want to showcase the work of women and tell stories that feature women and not just "his girlfriends". So, over the course of a few years, we did private workshops, we did a staged reading, and then we were going to produce it when-- of course-- the pandemic hit. So, it got turned into a Zoom performance, which was still pretty delightful. However, it was not the same thing. So, now we are finally poised to do it for real, 3-D with actual people. Third time's the charm!

When I Googled the title of this show, a video game of the same name popped up. Does this show have any connection or inspiration from that game? If not, where does the title come from?

The title is core to the plot! I don't play video games, so I am actually not sure what that game is all about.

I understand that the script underwent a live workshop reading as well as a virtual one during the pandemic. What were the successes and difficulties in producing it virtually? Was performing it live always an end-goal?

The pandemic was a pretty dark time as a writer. I had five or six planned productions that fell through. So much slid through our fingers like sand for all of us in the theater industry. We had plans, and we lost them at a massive scale. Contracts and dreams evaporated. So, it was so nice in the pandemic to gather 10 people in 10 different homes around the city to play-pretend enough to get my play on film. I am still struck by the image of 10 different adults-- the director, the 8 cast members, and I-- who did the Zoom version seriously. For example, some actors were hiding out of sight, under their desks, preparing to emerge as a monster to create that illusion for the screen! I just love to give adults the permission to play, and the play is a reminder to all audience members to play. This show is not a children's show; it is a play for adults which young people might also enjoy! Everyone is welcome around the campfire. There are princesses, pirates, and sword fights, but it's not cute. It's probably closest to "The Princess Bride".

Despite the success of the virtual production, I think the key ingredient for the play-- the salt that the soup needs-is people. We need you to gasp and to laugh and to worry in the room together, and when you do it on Zoom, you close that feedback loop. I am delighted to get the chance to have actual young girls dress like princesses and attend the play! I say this because my husband is a middle school theatre teacher, and he teaches this play in class. Therefore, it's going to be really exciting for them to come see the show!

Were any of the performers or members of the artistic team involved with this production also involved with prior productions of this show, whether it be the initial reading or the virtual production?

About half of them were in the Zoom production, but the only person who has been with me for all the different versions is the director, Rob Kimbro. Rob is definitely the kind of director that you hope for as a playwright. He has joked that it's interesting to work with a living playwright as opposed to a dead one because I argue back! He asks me questions all of the time, and it is amazing; Rob excels as a director in asking those hard questions.

Since it is a newer script, has it gone through changes in rehearsals? Are actors involved in the writing process at all?

I have been living and thinking about these characters for years, and now I am getting to share them. So, sometimes one of the actors will tell me what I jokingly call "fanfiction theories". Sometimes, I go, "You know what...you're right." Then, it is part of the canon! We have all made decisions together, and that is so much more fun than imagining alone. I joke that, when I'm at home doing all the voices, it's not as good as when we can we have the whole team in the room. The script has not made huge changes, but we are working with the text and creating a brand-new world as well as rules for this brand-new place. Together, we answer questions like, what is this country's economy like? It's been great to have 10 brains and not just mine on these questions.

When did you start rehearsals for this production, and what is your rehearsal schedule like?

Sometime around March? Gosh, time isn't real! We usually have six rehearsals a week, but it depends. We are about to go into tech, so it's a bit more. We try to take at least one day off a week. It varies from theater to theater, but we've been working from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm to try to give people a chance to eat dinner and commute, especially if they're going to be working as hard as they do for this show. We want to make sure that they eat!

As the playwright of this show, what does a typical day of rehearsal look like for you?

Well, I'm not just the playwright; I am also doing the props, which is fun! So, it's been particularly exciting to imagine a potion bottle and then build that potion bottle, buy jerky for them to eat, or find the right bag for my adventurer to wear. The show is a 3-D manifestation of what's been in my mind for so long, so when I show up to rehearsal, there's combat, puppetry, and choreography to watch as well as direction and text work to do. So, we're playing across all of these fields at once, and it's going to come together as a play!

Since this show involves princesses, dragons, pirates, and more, can you talk to us a bit about the show's costumes?

What's wild is I'm doing double-duty as playwright and props, and then we have two designers who are also doing double-duty! Edgar Guajardo is doing lights and sound, so they're coming together organically with what we see and what we hear. There is such richness with the light colors and the soundscape! Then, our costumes and our set are designed by the same woman: Danielle Hodgins. She is a UHD professor, and she has pulled and built along with some of her students at the school. They have sown flags, ship sails, and the most glorious costumes I think I may have ever had as a playwright! I requested bright colors, and she basically said, "Hold my beer!" I wanted bright colors to give us that otherworldly feel, and she has said that it's not often that a designer gets the chance to go nuts without having to hold on to history. This show is not set in England or America; it is a fantasy continent with completely different cultures that we are completely making from scratch, so we're not beholden to any certain silhouettes. She can really play!

Are there any other technical elements in the show that we can look forward to?

Sitting in the front row of the Deluxe Theater is pretty wild! We were watching last night with the stage fights, and it is max action! The fight choreographer is Justin Gibbons; he's really outdone himself with the fighting

What is your favorite part to watch in the production?

Honestly, the actors! Because we are a small theater, we all come to rehearsal after long days of work at other jobs, so the actors are so excited to play in this world at rehearsals, especially with the combat. We are up and down, falling and leaping, stretching and more! You could easily be grumbling about having to do all of this physical work, but instead, they're like, I want to go again! We don't want to go home at the end of the night since we just want to keep playing. We don't often get roles like this or have the chance to tell stories quite like this. In this play, we are not in a unhappy marriage or set in a kitchen; we are loose in the forest!

Any last thoughts about the production that you want to share with us?

We do want to be clear that, although younger people are welcome, there is some swearing, combat, and violence. We want to make sure that parents aren't completely in the dark about that. We give it about a PG-13 rating. I personally have worked with 10 year-olds at schools-- my specialty was third grade students-and I got to know plenty of bloodthirsty 8-year olds who wouldn't bat an eye. However, to be safe, I think it is good to give a heads-up that adventurers sometimes swear!

To finish us off here, when and where can we see TOOTH AND TAIL?

You can see TOOTH AND TAIL at the Deluxe Theater, 3303 Lyons Avenue, May 4th to the 13th. All tickets are pay as you can!

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