Interview with Len Falkenstein
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Playwriting in New Brunswick, with a focus on passion, craft, and resources for aspiring writers.
Summary
Guest, Len Falkenstein - Director of Drama at UNB, Artistic Director of Notable Acts Theatre Company, and New Brunswick Playwright - discusses the importance of developing new plays by New Brunswick writers and the value of creating work rooted in the province's unique cultural and political environment. Falkenstein shares his insights on the future of playwriting in New Brunswick, expressing hope for continued growth and diversity in the theatre scene with more opportunities for emerging writers and a greater representation of marginalised voices, while emphasising the importance of government support and resources for the arts to ensure financial stability and continued creativity in our region.
Links and Citations
Transcript
Len: Just sort of knowing that I have this thing to come back to, I think what's brought me back to it is the fact that of all the things that I do that are fulfilling career wise, writing is probably the main one. It's the most fulfilling, even though it's the one that I probably have the least time for. So it's been sort of a magnet that's always brought me back to it.
Tosh: The voices of New Brunswick writers are the heart of WordCraft, a podcast aimed at creating community through words. WordCraft is a creation of the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick (WFNB), a nonprofit organisation that helps New Brunswick writers to write, acquire skills, and showcase their talents to the world. The show is hosted and produced by Jenna Morton with technical production by Tosh Taylor. The WFNB acknowledges that the land on which we live, work and gather is the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik and Miꞌkmaw peoples. And we honor the spirit of our ancestors' treaties of peace and friendship. We acknowledge the support of the Canadian Council for the Arts.
Jenna: New Brunswick writers are standouts in every genre. So far this season, we've talked [about] fiction, nonfiction, youth, music, and now we turn our attention to the world of playwriting. I'm your WordCraft host Jenna Morton. And in this episode, you'll hear my conversation with Len Falkenstein. He's the director of drama at the University of New Brunswick, where he teaches playwriting theatre and drama. His plays have been on stages across the country, and his thoughts in journals from around the world. Len is also the artistic director with several companies, including Notable Acts, which has a mandate to develop and produce new plays by New Brunswick writers. Welcome to work craft, Len,
Len: Hello, thanks.
Jenna: I really love to start these conversations by going right back to the root of everything or the origin story as my children like to say. And I'd love it if you could share a little bit about the journey from Len, the child to Len, the professor and playwright. When did you start to realise you were a writer and turn that into a career?
Len: Yeah! Well, I guess relatively early on. I have fond memories of, you know, recruiting my elementary school buds into doing plays that I had written back in the fourth grade or so. But I wouldn't really say that was the start of my writing career, but I guess it sort of showed that I had something in me that wanted to keep working as a writer. I started getting serious about writing in my undergrad, had a few sort of half formed projects that didn't go much of anywhere, but that, I guess, sort of planted the seeds for later things. As I got into doing more and more theatre, I got involved with shows that were happening at Fringe Festivals, particularly in Saskatoon and Edmonton. Fringes were always great seeding opportunities for so many writers, especially playwrights, obviously. At a certain point, I was acting in plays as an actor and thinking I could probably try my hand at writing a play someday. So when I got free of my PhD, I started working on my first play, which I performed at the Fringe in Edmonton, I think it was back in 1997. And it was, it was a pretty bad play, and it did terribly, which is neither here nor there. But it's one of those things you learn from experience and failure. I didn't let that experience set me back too much, and came back at it the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and eventually got to a point where I was producing more and more as a writer, and I've had to combine my writing with my teaching career over the many years that it's been. You know, with family commitments as well, and the fact that I run a lot of theatre companies - it's been sort of a balancing act over time. But that's kind of brought me to where I am now.
Jenna: I think that's a theme with a lot of writers, especially in Canada and in rural areas like provinces like New Brunswick, where we are a little bit smaller population and a little bit more reliant on having multiple hats to wear. Can you talk a little bit about keeping your passion for writing when you can't quite rely on it full time as your income?
Len: Yeah, it's difficult because my opportunities to write are kind of limited by the fact that I've a very busy professional life as an academic, and director. So I have to sort of take my opportunities when I get them, which are a few blessed weeks a year, usually - unless, I'm on sabbatical, which is a bit of a godsend when you're a professor. So it's always, for me, a case of having a project on the go, there's always something in the back of my mind that's kicking around something that I'm working on. In the case of my marrow or recent play, it's something that I've literally spent over five years on just kind of working away at it in the times that I could. Just knowing that I have this thing to come back to, I think what's brought me back to it is the fact that of all the things that I do that are fulfilling, career wise, writing is probably the main one. It's the most fulfilling, even though it's the one that I probably have the least time for. So it's been sort of a magnet that's always brought me back to it.
Jenna: Can you talk a little bit about what it means to be a writer living in New Brunswick?
Len: Yes. It means in the case of being a playwright - which is my experience of being a writer specifically - well, you are certainly not entirely alone. There's definitely a community of playwrights in the province, but we're not chockablock with playwrights by any means. Although, I would say that certainly that's different from what it was when I first arrived here in 1999. I would say that I was one of a very few playwrights in the province at that time, but partially because of that, I among some other people created a company called Notable Acts Theatre Company that has a specific goal of of nurturing a playwriting culture in the province, and certainly, since then, we've seen a lot of growth among playwriting culture, and a lot of playwrights. It means having a pretty supportive environment among those of us here writing. But of course, not a lot of money. There's a good support network, both informally and also professionally in the form of Playwrights Atlantic Resource Center. It means being informed by obviously, living where we do: the social, cultural, political environment that we're in. My work is always very rooted in the here and now and what's happening, and I tend to write works that are sort of factually based and inspired by what's going on in the world around me. So New Brunswick has featured as a setting in my work since I've come here. Yeah, so there's a lot of ways in which where I live is certainly prominent to what I do.
Jenna: I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the importance both from the career and craft side of it, growing playwriting in this province, as well as the importance of having playwrights who are reflecting this place back to those of us who live here - whether we're writers or not,
Len: It means something when you're creating work that is rooted in the place that you're in. I remember the first few years of Notable Acts Theatre Festival, when we were staging plays that were written about and set in New Brunswick, and for the audience, just what an experience that was to hear people reference place names that were local and local characters and events and politics and just that spark of recognition. Because that was new, and it was different. And the fact that we were worthy of writing about as a province and a people just wasn't commonplace. And I think that's changed a lot too. And I think that it takes a while, in a place like this, to kind of grow into the fact that we don't have to have an inferiority complex, because we're not Southern Ontario or we're not BC or even Alberta. We do have a vibrant culture that's worth writing about. We do have things that happened here that are just as important as they are anywhere else in the world. And overcoming that somewhat limiting psychic, internalised obstacle is maybe part of the journey for most writers in this place. But yeah, I feel relatively secure in the fact that we've done some things and made some strides in the last few decades that mean that's less of an issue.
Jenna: You spend a lot of time with up and coming writers and aspiring writers, young writers. What are some of the bits of advice and maybe some of the enthusiasm maybe that you pass on to them that you could share with us?
Len: I think that some of the major things that I try to inculcate or pass on are nothing too radical that people haven't heard before. There is always value in writing what you know, and having faith in what you know, and who you are. And in trusting your instincts, and not feeling like you need to write like somebody else who's more famous, or from somewhere else. I think a lot of people can get hung up on, "If I'm a writer, it means having to sound like or set my work somewhere else that's more fashionable." Yeah, I try to steer people clear of that. Just the fact that it's hard; writing is always hard, and you need to work at it. It's not something that's going to come easily to pretty much anybody. And the fact that's, you know, you are realistically doing this not as something that's going to make your life radically different, and you're probably not going to make a living off your writing. So if you do write, it's got to be in large measure, because you enjoy it and you derive some personal satisfaction from it. You're probably going to not be the next big thing that's going to top the bestseller lists or in the case of playwriting. Well, there's not exactly a lot of really famous Canadian playwrights who even make a living at playwriting. You're doing it as a calling - as a passion project. So, yeah, I think things like that, but recognizing that when people have this need and a spark, they want to nurture that. Doing everything I can to try to encourage them and sort of sense where they're coming from and what resources they can best make use of to fulfil the type of writing that they want to do.
Jenna: On that note, I'm wondering what are some of the resources - whether it's people or organisations or writing or something completely different - that you draw on when you need that reminder to keep going.
Len: MmmHmm. As I mentioned earlier, PARC. The acronym stands for Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre. It's a really fabulous organisation that is a playwright support centre that serves playwrights in New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland. It's headquartered in Sackville, and Halifax, and runs a lot of terrific programs that provide workshop opportunities for writers. It provides services where playwrights can be paired with a dramaturg: someone who will read their work and give them a professional crafted response to it. They will even organise readings of first drafts of plays. And it's a great way to find out about opportunities for plays. They maintain a weekly newsletter and resource of companies that are looking for scripts, contests, etc. writing retreats. So they're a great professional resource. Beyond PARC, which has a regional mandate, there's the Playwrights Guild of Canada, which functions on a national scale, to do similar sorts of things: connect writers with one another, connect writers with opportunities and run a lot of programming that has a national mandate. If I can go back to blowing [my] own horn a little bit - Notable Acts - the company that I'm Artistic Director of has a great opportunity for playwrights in this province. We run a playwriting contest every year, and we produce a festival entirely of new works every July that mainly consists of plays that were chosen through this contest. There's categories for emerging writers in the form of a high school contest, there's categories for 10 minute plays, one act plays, site specific plays. So if you're an emerging writer, our company is a really great one to get involved with. We also do have some occasional workshop opportunities, and every year we have a writer in residence, who works with our writers - not just the ones who are in the contest, but also people from the broader community. So there's a lot of great resources out there. There's a lot of great writers. Ryan Griffith, one of our finest, is somebody who is more than happy to respond to questions [and] take new writers under his wing. And he's not the only one among our professional base. So look us up! Look, PARC up. Look Ryan Griffith up. *chuckle*
Jenna: You've obviously spent a lot of your time and your energy to help grow the community of playwrights in New Brunswick. And you say [that] you've seen that success over the last 30 years. What do you hope to see in the next 30?
Len: Well, as we continue to grow, and we've got this lovely sort of population boom thing happening in New Brunswick. It would be great for that to continue, and certainly for people to continue to be invested in theatre and interested in theatre and writing theatre. I'd love to see our current Theatre Company continue to prosper and grow and perhaps see more emerge. We're continuing to grow the diversity of our population and the multicultural nature of our population, as more and more newcomers move here. It would be great to see our theatre scene grow in that direction as well. I'd love to see more investment in our arts by our governments so that we can survive financially. And that organisations - granting organisations and theatre companies themselves - have more resources financially. These are the main directions that I'd hope things continue to move in.
Jenna: I'm wondering if you can share some final thoughts on the writing that happens now in New Brunswick, and what it says about this place?
Len: Yeah. It's great, because one of the joys of my life is that we do run this contest every year - the playwriting contest for Notable Acts - and I'm never on the jury, but I'm always the person who coordinates it. So that means I get to read all the works that are coming in. It's fantastic to see what's out there, and what people are writing about. So many works in the last decade and more that have emerged from different quarters, especially the types of voices that previously didn't have much of a voice: so much writing being done by members of the queer community; writing that's emerging from other previously marginalised groups; people who are writing about New Brunswick in new and interesting ways. Whether that's traditional naturalistic kitchen-sink kind of plays, or they're writing sci fi that's set in New Brunswick, or they're writing works that are sort of fantasy based, or they're writing murder mysteries that are set in New Brunswick, or all sorts of really cool and interesting things that break the mould and reassess what it means to live here, that sort of turn our political and cultural realities on their heads - that's always what we need at any time. So it's quite inspiring to read a lot of new work, and that's got so much to do with what the "kids these days" are *chuckle* getting up to. And seeing that, despite there being a certain homogenization of culture in the world - a certain similarity of things that's inevitable with a global culture and the spread of online culture and social media - that there are still really unique and interesting voices who are emerging from that wall of noise, to do really cool and interesting things.
Jenna: I think that's a very optimistic place for us to wrap up our conversation for today. Thank you so much.
Len: Thank you.
Jenna: Len Falkenstein is the Director of Drama at the University of New Brunswick, and our third guest on this first season of WordCraft, a podcast by the Writers' Federation of New Brunswick. On our next episode, I'll speak with children's author Jennifer McGrath. If this is your first WordCraft listening experience. Please go back and listen to my conversations with Leo LaFleur and Beth Powning and subscribe so you don't miss our upcoming guests too.
Tosh: WordCraft is a project by the nonprofit Writers' Federation of New Brunswick (WFNB). The show is hosted and produced by Jenna Morton with technical production by Tosh Taylor. We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts. The WFNB acknowledges that the land on which we live, work and gather is the traditional unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik and Miꞌkmaw peoples. And we honour the spirit of our ancestors' treaties of peace and friendship.
