OuterStage presents OUT-Words: Following the Fresh Fruit Festival’s 15th Anniversary: Let’s have a baby with John J. Enright

John J. Enright handed us a really cutting-edge 21st century comedy.
He looks at tradition -well- nontraditionally!

Beth and Carrie, an interracial couple …
want to have a mixed race baby …
so they use a white sperm donor …

But just as Beth is due to give birth, she reveals she secretly found a black donor.

Their fight is interrupted by the donor himself … that’s where their troubles really start!

We wanted ti get into the head of the man who thought this up!

John, great to have you with us, what inspires you as an artist?

What inspires me is anybody I see struggling to realize a worthwhile goal in the face of obstacles, the sort of everyday heroism that is all around us if we just stop and notice it.
I see that’s where some of your ideas for this play came from. 

I particularly admire people who persist. I’m like everybody else, I get discouraged often enough, and often I wonder whether the stuff I’m working on is truly worthwhile or not. It lifts my spirit when I see someone really push in a dogged way, because I think that’s how progress happens in this world. And that’s a lot of what drama is about – it’s about people pushing for things from each other – incompatible things, as a rule – which is what drives the conflict, and the scheming, and the debate. In romantic comedy, which I love, there is often a way to triumph over the apparent incompatibility, because, in the end, our conflicting wants are typically more compatible than we realize.

These three words usually get long answers: Why bring your play to independent theater?
I love the combination of freedom and talent that abounds in independent theater. If you want to do something a bit off-the-wall, you can afford to do it in independent theater. And the whole scene is full of creative people who are eager to work on something fresh. And, above all, you get these great indie audiences, people who delight in seeing something different on stage. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love big productions too, so  if any Broadway producers happen to be reading this, and would like to produce one of my plays, I would be happy if they were to give me a call. But life is short and I want to see my plays on stage, not stuck in development, not sitting on desks waiting for a reading – I want to see them up and running in front of an audience. That’s the way you find out what really works. And when it does work, it’s just so satisfying, just such a rush of instant gratification, to hear a crowd sigh with sorrow or laugh with happiness, and to know that it’s your imaginary world that they are plugged into.

mixedpostimage (1)

ALL MIXED UP
BY JOHN J. ENRIGHT, DIRECTED BY ROB BELCHERE
FRIDAY 7/14, 5:30PM; SATURDAY 7/15, 4:30PM; SUNDAY 7/16, 8PM

Beth and Carrie agreed to have a mixed baby,
who would look like both of them.

But Beth changed her mind, 
and now the situation is all mixed up…

even if the baby isn’t

A comedy about love, betrayal, trust,

and the things that keep us apart.

Habi Coulibaly, as Beth
Ana Marie Calise, as Carrie
Jordan Fassina, as Ada
Andre Ozim, as Daniel

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s