Jonclair Richter

I have acted in plays at drama school. I have been an assistant director for an Off-Off Broadway play in New York. But it was when I was a playwright’s assistant focusing on the script, keeping the actors on book, maintaining the newest version of the script, that I began to realize something that was so basic, yet so telling for my future – there would be no play without this script. No beginning, no middle and no end.

In drama school, while everyone was thinking about their own development of the characters they were playing, I was searching between the words, looking to the playwrights for meaning, direction. There was an art beyond the characters and dialogue. There was subtext between and under the words.

From thin air, a playwright creates a story. I can’t help but be intrigued by that fact. Attracted to that opportunity. Well, then the fear sets in. A whole play? Harnessing that freedom into a tangible piece of work can create anxiety. My specific fear was whether I could write the kind of characters I wanted to – whether I could fit into the confines of playwriting.

Then it struck me – what confines? These playwrights that I had been looking to didn’t seem to care about rules or regulations. I saw Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County in London with my father. My eyes widened as each act unravelled. Surely, the colorful displays of Beverly Weston, whether it be her addiction to prescription pills or her paranoia and mood swings, did not have roots in right and wrong. Portia in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice dresses up as a man and acts as a lawyer’s apprentice to save the life of her suitor’s friend. The rules in her society in the late 1500s didn’t support her actions. These playwrights were teaching me to break the rules, expand the confines and challenge the audience.

Max Decker, Lindsay Seim and Nick Warnock

That left me with – No rules.  No boundaries. Just write a play.

The beginning came from an impulse. A need to create. When I started to write the prologue for It’s Good 2 be Crazy, it poured out quickly. The themes had been tossing around in my mind for some time. I had just moved back to LA after a peaceful summer on the water being a whale videographer in Cape Cod. I would go out on a boat for 10 hours a day, spend all my time on the fly, the highest part of the boat, away from everyone, capturing these powerful creatures on video. The energy when they first break the surface was churning up my creativity, deepening my thoughts. I was talking less and listening more.

So when I returned to LA, my mind was clear, allowing me to actually take in my peers. I started to notice patterns in behavior. A lot of people around me in their late 20s wanted to be doing something – they all had this faint image of their future. They would talk about it nonchalantly. When you focus, that image becomes ingrained, but if you don’t, it could wash away. So why the nonchalant attitude?

It’s an interesting time when you are young and have all the energy to create. This is the time to be creating, right? But what I noticed, with the ocean breeze still lingering, was that there is stagnancy in all of us. Maybe it is because we are young and we feel that we have all the time in the world. Or logic tells us to pursue something that is more financially stable? Or we think nothing can break us. Or that it will just come to us.

Merryl, the lead character in It’s Good 2 be Crazy is one of us. Her faint image could wash away at any minute. Joel, her boyfriend, challenges her: “You love music. It lights you up. You’re just in the closet, hiding away. Spread your wings.” If only if it were that easy. Merryl’s process of finding focus is an exploration for me to understand what I observe in my age group. She learns to harness her creativity throughout the play, giving life to her no-longer-faint image of being a singer/songwriter.

Lindsay Seim and Nick Warnock

The actors and the director have the piece now. The actors color the words, implementing motivation to fuel the dialogue. The director’s vision is clear and brings the piece right from the page to the stage. Everyone is interpreting this play in their own ways. And as we approach opening night, this coming Friday, July 8, I am still learning. It’s Good 2 be Crazy is breathing on its own. Its heartbeat will be found when people fill those seats. That impulse launched a play, yes – a whole play. So even within the confines of playwriting, it’s good to be crazy, right?

It’s Good 2 be Crazy, presented by Strictly Stages and SST Productions, opens July 8; Fri. and Sat 8 pm, Sun 7 pm; through August 14. Tickets $20. Hudson Guild Theatre,  6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. (323) 960-5774. http://plays411.com/goodcrazy

**Production Photography by Siddhartha Abbazi

Joanclair Richter’s It’s Good 2 be Crazy is a finalist in the Eventide Arts Competition and for the Kaplan Prize. One of her short plays, Executor, was part of Phoenix Repertory’s project in which various plays were sent to Chile for the trapped miners to enjoy in September 2010, and her short play, Dingy, is out to many short play festivals. Joanclair has worked as a publishing editor at Tinsel Road Books and as assistant director of The History of St. Paul’s, an Off-Off Broadway show written by Mark Troy and produced for the New York Lab Series in 2010. In film, working with a number of screenwriters, Richter has been part of the development of numerous feature film scripts, including Who Kidnapped Grandma, starring Rob Schneider.