Artistic Director Jeff Love in the News

Ted LoRusso of United Stages interviewed playwright and POY Artistic Director Jeff Love regarding a piece he wrote for New World Theatre's summer production Hamlet: Evolution. His modern Hamlet adaptation Priscilla opened July 7th.

Here is the interview:

United Stages spoke with playwright Jeff Love about his latest play Priscilla, a female Hamlet for modern times, commissioned by New World Theatre as part of their show Hamlet: Evolution.

To avenge the death of a beloved parent, or wallow in self-pity and indecisiveness? To follow the advice of well-intentioned friends and advisors, or take the road less-traveled and follow one's own heart? To take up arms and fight for what's right, or put on a play? To be or not to be? Sound familiar?

It should. Then again, maybe not. For while the above questions can be attributed to William Shakespeare's Hamlet, arguably the greatest play ever written about a pussyfooter, they also belong to another wishy-washy title character named Priscilla.

Written by Jeff Love and currently playing at the Stella Adler Theatre, Priscilla is a boldface, contemporary rewrite of the Bard's great Dane. With a female at the helm.

So how does one rewrite Hamlet? For a girl? "You don't," said Love, "you grab the essence and you run with it. You create something new."

Indeed. Less a rewrite, more a redux, Love's Priscilla takes Shakespeare's orgy of indecision and plunks it in the backyard of a young, twenty-first century career gal, who wonders aloud if she's settling for Ray, the man she claims to love, or maybe there's someone better on the horizon.

"It only takes one mistake," says Priscilla, "going left instead of right. Choosing one guy over another," to lead her to her death. Then there's Priscilla's recently-murdered mother, or the ghost of her recently-murdered mother, reminding her that there's something's rotten on the patio.

The play was commissioned by Bob Zick, artistic director of New World Theatre. Zick wanted a contemporary comedy to play in rep with NWT's production of Hamlet 1603: The First Quarto. For playwright Love, adapting Hamlet was an easy fit.

"I'm interested in the act of indecision," Love said in a recent telephone conversation. "Women of the Gen-X and Y-ers are faced with more decisions than their mothers or grandmothers ever had to deal with. Indecision leads to destruction."

And in the hands of Love, destruction is funny. Career or motherhood? The guy I'm with, or the knight in shining armor I've always dreamed about? Avenge my mother's death, or go shopping? For Love, as with Shakespeare, it's the big and the little decisions that make a character come alive.

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