A conversation with . . .

Lucinda McDermott Photo by Alan Kim | The Roanoke Times

Former Radford University theater arts professor Lucinda McDermott is happy these days. Her play, "Feeding on Mulberry Leaves," is due to premiere at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon this weekend, directed by Richard Rose. A native of Natural Bridge and formerly of the New York music and theater scene, she and her family moved to Radford in 2003. Among her achievements as a playwright, director and actor, McDermott has been working on this particular play, off and on, for the better part of a decade. On the eve of the world premiere of "Mulberry Leaves," McDermott offers a peek into the production of a play from draft to stage.

What’s the significance for you, personally and professionally, of having this play produced at the Barter Theatre? How does it stack up with your previous experiences?

Lucinda McDermott: I’ve had several plays that have been done around the country. Probably my most successful play was a one-woman show that I wrote and performed called "O’Keeffe!" about Georgia O’Keeffe. Other than having your show on Broadway or off-Broadway, to have your plays produced in a regional theater is a great boon. The Barter Theatre is one. "O’Keeffe" I had done in several regional theaters, including Mill Mountain Theatre. The Barter is great … although I lived in New York for 10 years and traveled around the country, we’ve been here for the last two years and I grew up in Natural Bridge , Va. , from the time I was 9 years old, and that’s where the play takes place. So having it done in Southwest Virginia , in a theater with a great reputation — the director’s doing a great job and I love the cast — is great. I had reached the point with the play where, a new play goes through what a lot of playwrights and even theater people call "developmental hell." … Sometimes it’s really easy for new plays to get caught in that developmental reader pocket.

If it stays out of the performance realm too long?

L.M.: Well you don’t know what you have. … I had reached the point with this where I thought, "That’s it, no more readings because I don’t know what I have." So it was just thrilling when I went to the first rehearsal, to have the play in the hands of actual actors, professional actors who were going to develop the characters over a period of time — that was great.

And you were writing it for a long time, right? It was workshopped in 1997?

L.M.: Yeah, it was workshopped in ’97, and it won a couple prizes. I won the Delaney Prize in play writing from UVa. In 2003 I think it was, at Mars Hill College they have a Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, and it was one of the winners there. So it was just really wanting it to be in the hands of actors and have it performed.

It was being performed in readings but not in performance?

L.M.: That’s right. It’s being read by actors, and there might be some limited movement. You’re not gonna have props, you’re not gonna have sets — there’s really no budget. They might be on stools, they might get up and move around a little bit. At least you have an actor, one actor per role. So those are beneficial, but then you get to a point where you say, "OK, I’ve done as much as I can with it at this point." I’ve lost track of how many drafts I’ve done of this play. It’s constant tweaking. My dad is a sculptor, so I liken it to sculpting. You put a bunch of clay out on a form. And for me play writing is about taking a lot away. I love editing, I love cutting.

Right, that’s where a lot of the real artistry takes place.

L.M.: When I teach play writing and one of my student writers has brought something back to me and I can see they’ve done a lot of cutting, a lot of work, I can see that they’re a craftsperson. That’s where the work really comes in.

Right. I’ve read that Eliot and Ezra Pound cut more than a thousand lines out of "The Wasteland." A thousand lines of poetry — and considering the author, I’m fairly sure those weren’t bad lines either.

L.M.: I want to see what he cut! Yes, plays are like sculptures: you have 360 degrees, you have people on the stage, so if something can be done in action, there’s no sense it having it repeated.

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