04.17.08
Interview with Syllabus of Errors Author Jenn Dubois
Jenn Dubois is the author of 11:11 Theatre’s May 2008 production, Syllabus of Errors.
So what’s the play about?
The play is about a father, David, and a daughter, Claire, grappling with the death of David’s brother, Alan. After Alan dies in prison, Claire and David are left to deal with their competing understandings of who Alan was, and what his death meant. Ultimately, the play is a meditation on what we choose to believe - and why those choices are more important to our lives, often, than what is actually true.
Which was harder to write, your first play or this your second play, and why?
The second play was much harder to write, because the first was fueled by pure cluelessness. With this one, I had a slightly better sense of what I wanted to do, so I have a slightly better understanding of the play’s limitations.
Since your last play, you began attending the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop. How has grad school affected your writing?
My fiction, I hope, has gotten less conventional and more ambitious. Also, hopefully I catch certain cliches and gimmicks before I even think of them. The best thing I’ve learned at Iowa is not to try to be clever or cute.
You also write fiction, what do you find to be the differences in approach and mindset between fiction and the stage?
I find fiction to be much easier, since there’s more latitude in terms of perspective. With a play, you’re forced to write in a sort of third person — which isn’t my strength as a fiction writer — and you’re also dealing with the opportunities and limitations of writing something that is necessarily visual. Writing a play means your characters have to interact with each other, and they have to be dragged outside their own heads.
You write a lot about professors and students in college…where does that come from?
Being a child of professors and a perpetual student, probably.
In Syllabus of Errors, there is a great pondering of faith, truth and perception…sorry to be nosy, but any reflections here on the author or your own childhood?
I wasn’t raised in any particular faith, so I’m very interested in the psychology of religious believers. I usually write about things as a way to try to understand them. I also was a philosophy major in college, so I’m still recovering from that.
Being off in Iowa, you’ll be seeing Syllabus for the first time on opening night, any particular anxieties you have about the show or elements you are most looking forward to seeing?
It’s really interesting getting to walk into the show with no sense of what it will look like. I’m excited for everything - especially seeing the choices and interpretations of the actors and the director. At this point, it belongs to them as much as it does to me, so I approach it as a spectator.
What is next for you after Syllabus?
Finishing up at Iowa, then probably living under a bridge.
