Writers’ Rough Drafts – Episode #63 With Audley Puglisi

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Audley Puglisi is a playwright and poet. Cutting his teeth on the acting side of theater, he decided to step away from the stage when he started studying at Oberlin College, where he majored in Africana Studies. After a particularly insightful course on African and black performances, and some encouragement from his professors, he decided to look into playwriting. After school, he worked at community theaters like the Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, while also working diligently on his own scripts. 

Eventually, he took the leap and applied for The Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation (or VONA) fellowship, and was awarded a coveted spot. Since then, he has landed a residency at the Blue Mountain Center in Blue Mountain Lake, New York, and a Lambda Literary Fellowship. He currently is studying for a Master’s in Fine Arts at Yale University, and he had his New York City workshop debut with his show “Blues for Miss Lucille,” a Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award finalist.

What You’ll Learn About Writing This Week:

• How you can love something—but that doesn’t mean you have to do it in “that certain way”
• Making the mental leap from acting to playwriting
• Why it matters so much for people to see themselves in writing and art
• The value of mentors when you’re figuring out how to pursue your dreams
• Why you should find the intersection between the traditional stuff you love and the new stuff you’re intrigued by
• Ways to build your own community of writers and creators, even if it’s outside of a program
• How the specific reveals the universal
• What happens with a script after you share it with the rest of a theater team

Mentioned in This Episode (Links and Resources!):

• Aristotle’s Poetics, which goes into Aristotelian models of theater
• The Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation
• Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun
• Lambda Literary Fellowship
• Blue Mountain Center (Residency)
• Fleabag/Phoebe Waller-Bridge
• Penumbra Theatre
• Yale School of Drama
• Toni Morrison

You Can Find More of Audley and His Writing On: 

• New Play Exchange

Shareable Quotes From This Episode:

• “There is something magical about [theater] … it’s different every single night, and then it all goes away … and I think there’s something so beautiful about that.” – Audley Puglisi on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Representation matters, and it’s so impactful … Not only in terms of content do I see my family or myself represented on stage, but also in terms of form.” – Audley Puglisi on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “The sense of play should be in all types of writing … you should get free from that critical eye to get that sense of play.” – Audley Puglisi on #WritersRoughDrafts
• On finding opportunities as a playwright: “Just send [your plays] places … I sent [them] out thinking no one would pay attention, but I got some workshops and community from that.” – Audley Puglisi on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “You can’t do it alone … I found it very empowering to have a community of writers who work in the same form, to give each other notes and support … It can be anywhere.” – Audley Puglisi on #WritersRoughDrafts 
• When sharing your work beyond your writing community, consider: “Who is your audience? Go to them, seek them out … It’s equally important to your workshop time.” – Audley Puglisi on #WritersRoughDrafts 
• “That’s what I hope theater does, no matter who you are and no matter what the story is, that you leave changed in some way … you leave more empathetic than you entered.” – Audley Puglisi on #WritersRoughDrafts
• “Get the man off your shoulder and get that fear out, and just go for it.” – Audley Puglisi on #WritersRoughDrafts