Each month on The Subtext, Brian speaks with a playwright about life, writing, and whatever itches we are scratching.
This time, he chats with Patrick Gabridge, the entrepreneurial playwright who founded Plays in Place, which produces site-specific new work, as well as Rhombus Playwrights Group (Boston) and the online community Playwrights’ Binge. He also helped start Chameleon Stage (Denver), Bare Bones Theatre (New York), and the New England New Play Alliance.
Their conversation spans traditional and museum theatre, differences in process between screenwriting and playwriting, and challenges and joys in site-specific work. Gabridge also emphasizes the value of community engagement, multi-use spaces, partnerships across institutions, and fellowship among playwrights. He says, “I believe that if we help ourselves as a group and profession, we all get smarter. We all do better.”
Plays in Place, where Gabridge serves as producing artistic director, has worked with museums, historic sites, and other cultural institutions including the National Park Service, Mount Auburn Cemetery, MassBike, Historic Northampton, Historic Deerfield, the Texas Historical Commission, and the Old New-Gate Prison and Copper Mine. This work has involved hundreds of theatre artists and commissions for over a dozen playwrights.
Gabridge’s plays include Blood on the Snow, Chore Monkeys, Distant Neighbors, Drift, Lab Rats, Mox Nox, Constant State of Panic, Blinders, and Reading the Mind of God. His short plays have been produced in all 50 states and 17 countries. He also has several audio plays and screenplays. His four novels are The Secret of Spirit Lake, Steering to Freedom, Tornado Siren, and Moving (a life in boxes). He has been a playwriting fellow with Huntington Theatre Company and New Repertory Theatre in Boston. Commissions include plays and musicals for In Good Company, Central Square Theatre, and Tumblehome Learning. A strong believer in service to community and fellow artists, Gabridge is also a past regional representative for the Dramatists Guild, and a past board member of the Seven Devils New Play Foundry, Fresh Ink Theartre, the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, and more.
