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Fair State runs January 22nd – February 1st at Riverside Theatre. Read and watch our interview below with Writer/Performer Megan Gogerty.
First, tell us what your new play Fair State is about?
Megan Gogerty: What do we do with our problematic relatives? I’m asking that question both up close and far away. So the up close part is the story of my charming, funny, eccentric, alcoholic, and very dead father, who was a very interesting man and a terrible father, by his own admission. The thing about having a parent who is not a great parent is that you have to wrestle with seeing them for who they are once you grow up. It’s tempting to want to focus on all good or all bad, but really, we have to hold the good and the bad at once. We have to see their whole picture. So that’s the up close part.
But where it gets, I think, really interesting is…I’m also looking at the history of Iowa. I’m a sixth generation Iowan through my father’s side of the family, and thinking about the history of Iowa is kind of like thinking about a problematic relative in that there are wonderful things in our history, extraordinary things, things that I am so proud of, and there are some things in our history where maybe we didn’t live up to our highest values. How do we make sense of that? It’s tempting to want to just sweep the bad stuff under the rug, or maybe, if we’re feeling particularly masochistic, to ignore all the good stuff and focus on the terrible things. But the truth is kind of in that mushy middle. That’s what Fair State is about, the mushy middle.
The title is really intriguing. Where did Fair State come from? What does it mean to you, and how do you see that play out in the production?
MG: The title Fair State is State Fair backwards. I don’t know if you picked that up. It’s subtle; this is why I get paid the medium dollars. The State Fair is a motif throughout the play – the play is not about the State Fair, but the State Fair comes up an awful lot as this sort of emblem of Iowa history, and also Iowa family. My dad was a huge state fair fan. Some of the biggest scenes in the play take place at the state fair. I like the idea of a play that is interrogating our history, to take this big, iconic thing… the State Fair…and then flip it around right. We’re looking at the underside of the rock. It’s also a bit of a play on the word fair: are we being fair? Have we always been fair? Are we a fair people? I mean, this is a state that is founded on these really egalitarian ideals that we haven’t always been able to live up to, so the idea of fairness comes into the play quite a bit.
This is your seventh solo play at Riverside. Can you talk a little bit about that journey?
MG: Yes, this is my seventh solo show premiering at Riverside Theatre. Oh boy, we’ve come a long way, baby, we’ve come a long way. My first show was back in 2008, if you can believe it, and it was called Megan Gogerty Loves You Very Much. And then later, I retitled it to something a little bit better. But when I started that very first show that I did, I had a title, I had an opening date, and that’s kind of all that I had. And the artistic directors at Riverside, Jody Hovland and Ron Clark, were so lovely to me. They were like: “We believe in you; we know that you’re going to deliver something; give it a shot, Megan,” and I have never forgotten that kindness. The fact that Riverside, from the very beginning of our relationship, has supported me, even during times of not knowing, oh, that has meant the world to me, and it has allowed me, I think, to grow into the artist that I am. So every play I do gets a little weirder. I try to push myself out of my comfort zone, but I never forget who I’m talking to. I try to stay really rooted in this community, and I try to challenge both myself and my audience to go a little bit farther than maybe we did in the last play.
I would love to hear you talk about the process of writing and rehearsing this play. You’ve done other plays that are autobiographical in nature, but this one is so clearly rooted in your personal experiences. Were there any surprises that came up for you?
MG: This play is really close to the bone. You know, I am kind of telling some family secrets a little bit. It’s about my alcoholic father, and I’ll tell you, one of the things that I think is so exciting about theater is that sometimes the more specific and individual your story is, the more universally it resonates. I mean, I know that I am not the only person in the world who has a problematic parent. I know that there are folks who have kind of a complicated relationship with their family, where they love them, but have maybe suffered at their hands, and that is always such a push-pull. And the thing about theater is that even though it’s a play by Megan Gogerty, starring Megan Gogerty, about Megan Gogerty, it’s not actually about me. The play is about you. The play is about the audience. It must be. Otherwise, why come to see it, right? So I know the play is successful when people come up to me afterwards, and they say: I got to tell you about my cousin; I got to tell you about my dad; I got to tell you about the experience that I had. People are seeing in my story their own story, and that’s how I know that it is connecting.
I wonder if you can talk about the nuts and bolts process of what it is like to be a playwright, to go from an individual process to putting it on the stage in a more collaborative environment.
MG: So I have two jobs. I’m the playwright and the actor, and those two people don’t always get along. I start as the playwright, where I am creating a roller coaster for the audience to ride, right? I’m building in the hills; I’m building in the twists and turns. It’s a very sort of macro idea. It’s full of motifs, it’s full of metaphors, it’s full of poetry, and I get really full of myself. Then, I have to turn it over to the actor, and the actor actually has to say these words to the audience. And sometimes the actor discovers that the playwright may be a little overwritten…maybe the playwright little too in love with her own turn of phrase, and some of this needs to get pared down.
Part of the rehearsal process is making that leap, and I’m having the best time in this rehearsal process. The myth of the solo show is that it’s only one person. In fact, it takes a whole army of people to put a show together; an extraordinary stage manager, a brilliant production designer, and the whole team at Riverside has united behind us to make this work, and I’m just so grateful. But my favorite thing is when the audience shows up. Because the thing is, you can have sets and costumes, and you can learn your lines, and you still haven’t made a play. You’ve just made a rehearsal for a play. The play doesn’t actually start. The art doesn’t actually start till you show up. When you show up, now I’m talking to you, and you are responding to me with your energy or your laughs or your attention. This thing is happening between us, and that is the art.
What are you hoping people will take away from the play; what do you hope will stick with them? What are the conversations you hope people will have after seeing Fair State?
MG: I think there’s something really necessary about telling hard truths. I think there’s something really cathartic about it. I think it’s something that brings a community together, that knits people closer. It is easy sometimes not say the thing that needs to be said for politeness. We don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings. But there is a great release of energy that comes when we can say the full truth, when we can tell the secret that has been too long held. I want audiences to have that rush. I mean, this play is funny; I got some zingers in here. It’s a great time; I don’t mean to sound like it’s going to be depressing. It’s a real roller coaster of a ride, but I think that audiences who go on the journey are going to laugh, some of them are going to cry, and we’re going to have those big feelings together, we’re going to be together.
It’s that togetherness that makes theater unique among all the art forms, right? We are creating community when you come to the theater, and that is powerful, because we are experiencing it together. I think in this time, in this heart-sick world, there’s something really healing about being in a room together and about talking about the things that maybe we’re not supposed to talk about. I think it’s good for us. I think it’s good for the soul.