Interview: Jeffrey Lo of 21ST ANNUAL NEW WORKS FESTIVAL at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley

One of the great perks of my job is that I get to attend brand-new plays and see them before others have predigested the shows for me and told me what to think about them. I can go in blissfully free of any preconceived opinions or plot spoilers and just enjoy the work on its own merits. What do I think the playwright is trying to communicate? Am I entertained? Does it genuinely move me? Does it take me to unexpected places?

Well, TheatreWorks 21st Annual New Works Festival offers everyone that same opportunity by presenting staged readings of four new pieces that have been embargoed from review because they are still in development. Experiencing theater in this more stripped-down fashion can be immensely rewarding as it allows you to see the bare bones of each play and imagine for yourself how it may, or may not, benefit from a fully staged production, turning you into an active participant in the development of new work in the process.

This year’s festival includes a particularly strong lineup led by the musical 5 & Dime written by the creators of Everyone’s Talking About Jamie and the stage adaptation of Brokeback Mountain. Based on Ed Graczyk’s classic play Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean and Robert Altman’s subsequent film, the musical promises a rollicking country score, downhome humor and a heart-rending exploration of gender and faded dreams. In a different vein, Bay Area theater mainstay Molly Bell contributes Molly Bell’s Hysterical, a madcap musical romp based on her struggle to balance being a performer, playwright, composer and suburban mom. Vichet Chum’s mines a surprising amount of humor out of tragedy in his play Liebling about two Americans confronting war-haunted heritages, Cambodian and German, hoping to salvage their personal lives in the process. Jordan Ramirez Puckett’s A Driving Beat combines a road trip with a coming-of-age tale that explores whether a white mother and brown son can find common ground in their uncommon pasts. A topnotch team of directors is helming the readings, including Timothy Near, TheatreWorks Artistic Director Giovanna Sardelli, Shannon R. Davis, and Jeffrey Lo, who also serves as Artistic Producer of this year’s festival.

I spoke with Lo by phone last week as he was scurrying around attending to a zillion last-minute details before the festival’s kickoff event that evening. If Lo was feeling the least bit frazzled, it was not in any way apparent from his unhurried, thoughtful answers to my questions and frequent expressions of gratitude for the contributions of his colleagues. I got the impression he’s someone who loves his job and intends to savor every minute of the experience. We talked about TheatreWorks’ commitment to incubating new work even in these financially-challenging times, how he went about programming the festival, and what he personally loves about each of the plays being presented. The following conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.  

In these times when virtually all regional theaters have been forced to make massive budget cuts, I was thrilled to see that TheatreWorks is still able to proceed with a robust New Works Festival. I take that as an indication that the company continues to see the incubation of new works as a major priority.

Yeah, I think you’re super spot-on. All around the country with a lot of arts organizations having to (hopefully temporarily) tighten their belts in terms of budgeting and programming, the development of new works is oftentimes what gets cut because it means putting resources into workshops and playwrights and in-house work that doesn’t necessarily bring the same income or ticket sales as a mainstage show, so obviously those things are really on the chopping block. At TheatreWorks, I feel really grateful and honored to be part of a company that continues to make the development of new works a priority.

I think there’s a couple of reasons for that, and the first is that the company was founded on new works. The very first show we did 54 years ago, Popcorn, was a brand-new musical. I think they performed it in front of Palo Alto City Hall, and it was about a diverse group of people standing up for what they believed in. So this company was founded on people creating new works and new stories to wrap their head about the times they were living in. I think the fact that that’s what our roots are as a company is why we keep on doing this work.

And also I think for me and for the company as well, the development of new works and the creation of new plays and musicals and performances is really the only way that the American theater is going to stay vital and continue to be a real lifeblood of creativity for this country. That’s how we’re going to bring in new audiences and keep audiences that are already in our doors engaged. Because our lives, our minds, and our perspectives are always evolving.  

How did you go about choosing this year’s lineup?

It was my first year taking the lead curating the festival, and of course I collaborated with the other members of the artistic team, [Artistic Director] Giovanna Sardelli and [Line Producer] Reed Flores. We read a lot of work and all year round really try to keep track of the writers that are exciting to us. We looked for a combination of different perspectives and to find stories that haven’t been told yet. We also looked for uplifting stories that TheatreWorks audiences are going to respond to and love, and tried to find that right balance that will excite, challenge and entertain them.

One thing that we knew we wanted to work on was the musical 5 & Dime, which is going to be a part of our mainstage season [in June, 2025]. Knowing that we were going to be workshopping 5 & Dime and bringing that team in to continue to help develop that world premiere musical was a big starting point for us in terms of choosing the plays for the festival.

With Molly Bell’s Hysterical, we’ve known Molly for a long, long time as a performer. She acted in the very first New Works Festival when she was 25 years old, and has grown so much as a performer, as an artist and as a human being. She’s a mother of two and her life is so, so different than it was when she was 25. At TheatreWorks, she just starred as Rona in The Putnam County Spelling Bee, and I was really interested in knowing that she was working on a solo show that combines both her identity as a writer, which is gonna be new to a lot of TheatreWorks audiences, and also her identity as the performer that we already know and love. Our audience can really connect with Molly in so many ways and get to know her on a deeper level. I wanted also to just support a local artist, a local star, in Molly.

Then there’s Jordan Ramirez’ Puckett’s, A Driving Beat. They are a Bay Area native who I had worked with in the past and they just finished their studies in the playwrighting program at Juilliard. I find A Driving Beat to be this really fun, funny and heart-filled story that is so interesting and beautiful because it’s a coming-of-age story where a mother and son are on this road trip. You see a teenage son come of age, which is to be expected in a coming-of-age story, but side by side with that you watch his mother come of age as well in an entirely different way, which I think makes this play so unique.

And you’ve chosen to direct Vichet Chum’s Liebling yourself.

Yes. I had the great honor of directing his play, Bald Sisters, at San Jose Stage and I was so taken by the combination of bravery and honesty and comedy in his writing. Vichet’s has said a number of times both in his work and in interviews that finding a way to laugh and also absorb great challenges in life and tragedy is a real trait of the Cambodian community. I saw firsthand during that production of Bald Sisters what Vichet’s work and words and stories meant to the Cambodian community. To uplift his voice and be a part of that was something that was really special to me.

This is your first go at producing the festival, but luckily you have its former producer, Giovanna Sardelli, available to consult with.

Yes, Giovanna and I have been working side by side for a long time.

Is there any advice she’s given you that has been especially helpful?

A lot of things, so it’s hard to pick only one. Giovanna has been really mindful of helping to keep me confident in being able to do this. She’s said it often that she was so relieved when she came into her position as Artistic Director that she could hand off this festival that was her baby for about ten years to me. And that really means a lot to me. Giovanna has guided me along the way and identified [aspects of the job where it’s] “Hey, you got this!” but also “Here are some things that I might have learned the hard way and I’m gonna try to make it so you can learn them the easy way.”

Of course, you bring your own vision and life experience to the table. What do you bring that might be a little bit different?

Giovanna and I have worked together so long that we’re aligned in so many ways, but I think we bring different perspectives, like any artists do, right? There’s a lot of overlap, but we have different tastes in some ways, unique things that we find funny or different loves. What’s really funny is that the first mainstage show we’ll be doing is Rajiv Joseph’s King James, which Giovanna is directing. We both love his work, and Giovanna is so skilled at presenting stories about human beings and friendship and all of that, but she doesn’t have as much background as I do with a love for sports and basketball and fandom, which is a part of the show. So I’m going to be listed in the program as the “basketball consultant” for that show. [laughs].

This kind of festival is a huge undertaking, putting up presentations of four ambitious and wildly different new plays within the span of about a week. What’s the most nerve-racking part for you personally?

For me personally, the thing that makes me most nervous is there’s a lot of public speaking. What’s so funny is I feel super confident talking in front of a group of artists and helping give them guidance and checking in how everyone is doing. But when we get in front of the audiences, our supporters, our subscribers, sometimes I get a little nervous, if I’m being perfectly honest, because there’s a lot of things to juggle. I want to make sure that we thank all of our supporters and foundations, but also I’m being counted on to introduce these pieces and share with everyone the excitement and love of these new works in a clear and succinct way. I get in my head a little bit about it, and I get worried that if I flub a little bit before a show goes up, I’ve started us off on the wrong foot, and I put a lot of pressure on myself with that.

But I will say the thing I’m not as nervous about and the thing that’s really my priority is that I want to make sure the artists and the staff at TheatreWorks get to put on this festival with joy and feeling as supported as possible. As you said, it’s an enormous undertaking, and I don’t want to burn out the staff or the artists. I think we’re doing a really great job of that, and I feel really confident in that. That’s my priority as a producer, to make sure I am keeping the lines of communication clear and open, and we’re supporting everyone so they can feel like they’re doing their best work and are being taken care of.

Not all of these shows are necessarily going to go on to have a future life at TheatreWorks. Since you’re so invested in each and every one, how are you able to let go of them once the festival is over?

In some ways, we don’t entirely let go. With some pieces, it might not be in the immediate future but in like a couple of seasons that we’ll be able to find the right spot for them. Or there are times where although it might not end up being a fit for TheatreWorks, or it wasn’t a fit for TheatreWorks in the right timeframe, we continue to support these artists and these works in other parts of the country, in other parts of the Bay Area, at other theaters. You’re totally right that we love all of these works, but by the nature of what we’re doing as a development festival, we’re not expecting to do every single show [as a mainstage production].

We are oftentimes choosing based on belief in potential and what we think can be, so there’s a level of risk-taking in developing new works. We’re doing this because we believe in the voice, we believe in the writer, and hope that the script will become the best it wants to be. What’s helpful [to keep in mind] is that once the festival’s done, if we did our jobs right we helped the script and the playwright take their next steps, regardless of where it goes after us.  

How do you plan to recuperate after the festival ends on August 18th?

You know – no rest for the weary! [laughs] My recuperation’s gonna happen a few days afterwards, because we go right into auditions for some of our mainstage shows the day after. I honestly have done a bad job of figuring out what I’m going to do to recuperate, but I’m going to try to catch up on sleep, I’m going to spend time with my wife and my family - and I’m going to start reading scripts for the next festival.

(photo of Mr. Lo is by Tasi Alabastro)

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TheatreWorks 21st Annual New Works Festival runs through August 18, 2024 at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Rd., Palo Alto. Festival passes and single event tickets can be purchased online at theatreworks.org or by calling (650) 463-1960.

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