CLICK HERE TODOWNLOAD IN .PDF FORMAT

OUR 2012-13 RUTH EASTON NEW PLAY SERIES IS

here, and it starts with a bang … and a THWAK … and

several other more colorful words. And righteously

so. This winter, I am thrilled to bring second-year

Core Writer Qui Nguyen into our lab to workshop and

present his newest play: War is F—king Awesome.

Written in Qui’s signature style, this new piece crackles with geek-culture

moxie and irreverence—with a wild cast of characters who smash their way

through theatrical conventions, cultural sensitivities, and of course, bad guys.

What inspires me most about Qui’s artistry is that, for him, the stage has no

limitations, and War is F—king Awesome demonstrates what’s possible when

one grips onto that notion … and doesn’t look back. From aerial dogfights

to giant Nazi robots, he weaves these excavations of our war history so

fantastically, and in such refreshingly unexpected ways, that he doesn’t allow

us to look away.

For years, that flair for smart, live action-adventure theater has sparked sold-

out crowds at Vampire Cowboys, the Obie-winning New York theater company

where Qui serves as Artistic Director and playwright. Over the past few years,

his work has caught fire around the country, enthralling audiences from L.A. to

Chicago—and with this workshop and reading, Qui makes his first appearance

(of what surely will be many) in the Twin Cities.

Prepare to be gravely offended and uproarously entertained. And for those of

you in conversation about bringing the next generation of theatergoers into

your theaters, meet the incredible Qui Nguyen—join us December 3 for the

first Ruth Easton New Play Series reading of the season!

JEREMY B. COHEN

WA

R IS

F

KIN

G A

WES

OM

E B

Y Q

UI N

GU

YEN

PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Unity has carved out her perfect domestic life:

husband, daughter, suspicious age-defying

looks. But after disarming a squad of CIA

agents at the grocery store, Unity is forced to

tell her daughter the truth about her last and

longest job—as Uncle Sam’s very first army of

one. It’s a politically incorrect tour of America’s

military history, complete with robots, kung fu,

and big fking guns.

WA

R IS

F

KIN

G A

WES

OM

E B

Y Q

UI N

GU

YEN

PART OF THE

2012-13 RUTH EASTONNEW PLAY SERIES

PROJECT JOURNEYFEBRUARY 2012CORE WRITER WORKSHOP AT THE PLAYWRIGHTS’ CENTER

MAY 2012WORKSHOP AND PERFORMANCE AT OHIO UNIVERSITY

DECEMBER 2012WORKSHOP AND READING IN THE PLAYWRIGHTS’ CENTER’S RUTH EASTON NEW PLAY SERIES

DECEMBER 3, 2012 • 7 PM • FREE • AT THE CENTERRESERVE SEATS: INFO@PWCENTER.ORG • (612) 332-7481

WHAT, IN YOUR OWN WORDS, IS WAR IS F—KING AWESOME ABOUT?It’s about a young girl who’s been cursed to fight in every major American war from the American Revolution to present day and onward into the future. And she has superpowers. Mainly of the Kung Fu-ey variety. And she’s hot. Mainly of the “she’s hot” variety.

WHERE DID THIS CONCEPT COME FROM?I was going to write a play called Vietnam: The Whole F—king War, but around that time I started production on my play The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, which was more directly about my Vietnamese heritage. When I was done with that, I felt like I had tackled what I wanted to do with Vietnam: The Whole F—king War, but I still liked the idea of exploring war using my “Vampire Cowboys” aesthetic—this high-action, rude, comic book style that I like doing.

So I had to work out which war actually affects me the most, besides the Vietnam War, which led me to this hysterical conversation with playwright Aditi Kapil’s husband, Sean Brennan, about terrible ways to retcon war movies. This prompted me to go “Wait just a friggin’ minute, why should I just choose one war? I should exploit all of them!” Because that’s the concept; it’s a complete exploitation play about war. And it’s funny and offensive and awesome.

TELL ME ABOUT VAMPIRE COWBOYS THEATRE COMPANY. HOW DID THAT ACTION-ADVENTURE AESTHETIC YOU MENTIONED EVOLVE?Well, I don’t know if you can tell, but I’m a bit of geek. I like geeky things like action movies and sci-fi flicks and epic stories about saving the world. That’s not to say I don’t like emotionally charged plays, it’s just that to me, a complex drama about human relationships is still a complex drama about human relationships whether it’s happening in a living room or during a robot invasion. And the latter provides for way better action sequences, so why not do that instead?

KATE FODOR AN INTERVIEW WITH:

QUI NGUYEN

Theater often has this terrible tendency towards avoiding “action and spectacle” because many would believe those elements are better suited for film and television. I disagree. To steal a quote from my director Robert Ross Parker, the difference is that if you’re going to do a space opera on film, you actually have to show everything that you’re talking about realistically. That means you need a gigantic budget. You can’t just do it on a shoestring or it’s going to look terrible and it will be a movie that no one will care about or want to see. Whereas in theater, I can do a space opera with just a table, chairs, and some funny hats and still make it feel super epic and awesome, because our budget isn’t monetary—it’s the audience’s imagination, and that’s infinite. So, in actuality, theater has more freedom to do spectacle, more freedom to do big, big shows than a medium that requires you to have a million dollars to succeed.

Vampire Cowboys began with that simple thought in mind. And, luckily, we were fortunate to find an audience quickly within places like NY Comic Con using that aesthetic. And that support and fandom helped us grow. I always say the reason I have a career isn’t because I was one of these lucky young writers who won a whole bunch of awards or had someone who

“IF YOU’RE GOING TO DO A SPACE

OPERA ON FILM, YOU ACTUALLY HAVE

TO SHOW EVERYTHING THAT YOU’RE

TALKING ABOUT REALISTICALLY … I

CAN DO A SPACE OPERA WITH JUST

A TABLE, CHAIRS, AND SOME FUNNY

HATS AND STILL MAKE IT FEEL SUPER

EPIC AND AWESOME, BECAUSE OUR

BUDGET ISN’T MONETARY—IT’S THE

AUDIENCE’S IMAGINATION, AND

THAT’S INFINITE.”

“discovered” me; I have a career because the geeks of New York paid for it. They sold out my shows and gave me a budget. They were the ones who kept asking “When’s your next show?” and kept me motivated. They gave me a home in a city of nine million people and made my voice relevant. It’s an amazing feeling as an artist to have people who not only like your art, but anticipate it and cheer it on.

And then there’s the—I always call it my “secret mission” of Vampire Cowboys, that we’ve never put in any grants or on our website or anything like that. But Vampire Cowboys’ secret mission has always been one of aggressive diversity. This is a very important element to my work, as important as any of my fights or theatrical tricks. When you look at our stage, the cast looks as diverse as a trip on a subway train. There is no majority. If you get on a New York subway, you can’t say there’s more white people here, there’s more black people here, South Asians or Latinos or East Asians or gays. You can’t. It’s impossible. It changes every stop. And that’s awesome. Vampire Cowboys is very active in putting that diversity onstage. We create heroes who are as diverse as our city. We have an Asian-American lead kill the devil and never make a comment about them being Asian-American. Or we have

“WE HAVE AN ASIAN-AMERICAN

LEAD ... AND NEVER MAKE A

COMMENT ABOUT THEM BEING

ASIAN-AMERICAN. OR WE HAVE

TWO GAY SUPERHEROES SAVE

THE WORLD, BUT THE SHOW HAS

NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM BEING

GAY AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH

THEM BEING SUPER.”

two gay superheroes save the world, but the show has nothing to do with them being gay and everything to do with them being super. We’ve kept this mission secret for years because I wanted people to subconsciously take in what I was doing, to prove that diversity can be put onstage without making a big deal out of it, and that it can indeed sell tickets. Lots of tickets. Since our inception, we’ve sold out the entire runs of seven of our last 10 shows. I’m very proud of that. Diversity kicks ass.

IN ADDITION TO EMBRACING DIVERSITY, A LOT OF YOUR WORK, INCLUDING WAR IS F—KING AWESOME, PUSHES THE ENVELOPE IN TERMS OF POLITICALLY INCORRECT CONTENT. WHAT’S YOUR PHILOSOPHY IN TERMS OF OFFENDING PATRONS, OR IS THAT EVEN A CONSIDERATION?I’m never actively trying to make people feel uncomfortable, but I don’t mind it when they are. Part of art is that you’re supposed to look at yourself when you look at it, and sometimes when you look at yourself, it’s not always good. It’s not about looking in the mirror and saying, “Good going!” Sometimes it’s about saying, “Ooh, those are some f—ked-up thoughts that I have. And this show is making fun of it, so maybe I should question why they’re making fun of it.” Because making fun of it shows you how outrageous that form of thinking is, when it comes to racism or homophobia or what have you.

WHAT OTHER PROJECTS DO YOU HAVE IN THE MIX RIGHT NOW?For new works, I’m working on a screenplay adaptation of my play She Kills Monsters with LoNyLa as well as a new musical commission with Children’s Theatre Company with my composer Shane Rettig through a partnership with my other theatrical home, New Dramatists. As for productions, the stage play version of She Kills Monsters is being produced in Chicago at Steppenwolf by Buzz22 as well as in Boston by Company One; my hip-hop musical Krunk Fu Battle Battle is being produced at Pomona College; Alice in Slasherland will be produced in Birmingham, Alabama by Theatre Downtown; and my zombie Shakespeare show, Living Dead in Denmark, gets produced in Louisville, KY by The Alley Theater and then in NYC by a new young company, Just Kidding Theatre Company. So there’s a lot of watching my work go out and do its own thing. It’s like your kids running off into the world, trying to strike out on their own. You’re like, “How are you guys doing? Are you going to succeed or fail? I’m not going to be there to help you out. You’re just going to do this on your own, okay? Good luck and try not to get into bed with too many people that suck.” It’s a little bit of that, but that’s what makes it fun … and excruciating … and awesome.

WHAT DO YOU LIKE OR DISLIKE IN A PLAY?I tend to like ambition in plays, whether they succeed or fail. If you’re going to do something and you go big with it, I don’t mind if it fails, because I always appreciate ambition—whether it’s in the subject matter, whether it’s in form, style, aesthetic. I tend to love ambitious stuff, things that are bold. I just think that it’s so boring to be safe—in any medium, not just theater. Remember, no one says Two and a Half Men is their favorite television show for a reason.

ANYTHING ELSE?This is sort of my Minneapolis coming-out party. This is my first time playing here and I actually have no idea what’s going to happen. I’ve workshopped all my plays with pretty much the same crew of actors for the last ten years. They all know me very, very well. No matter how crazy I get, they’re like, “Oh, it’s Qui. That’s what he does.” They know my voice. In Minneapolis it’s much more of a blind date, but instead of one night of potential awkward conversation, it’s going to be a whole week of it. It could be strange. Or it could be magic. Either way, we’re gonna do it and I hope we won’t regret our time together come morning.

“I JUST THINK THAT IT’S SO BORING

TO BE SAFE–IN ANY MEDIUM, NOT

JUST THEATER. REMEMBER, NO

ONE SAYS TWO AND A HALF MEN IS

THEIR FAVORITE TELEVISION SHOW

FOR A REASON.”

The Playwrights’ Center is a fiscal year 2011 recipient of an Institutional Support grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. This activity is funded, in part, by the arts and cultural heritage fund as appropriated by the Minnesota State Legislature with money from the Legacy Amendment vote of the people of Minnesota on November 4, 2008.

THE PLAYWRIGHTS’

CENTER CHAMPIONS

PLAYWRIGHTS AND

PLAYS TO BUILD UPON

A LIVING THEATER THAT

DEMANDS NEW AND

INNOVATIVE WORKS.

The Playwrights’ Center fuels the theatrical

ecosystem with new ideas, new talents, and

new work—the future of the American theater.

One of the nation’s most generous and well-

respected artistic organizations, the Playwrights’

Center focuses on both supporting playwrights

and bringing new plays to production. Work

developed at the Playwrights’ Center has been

seen on stages nationwide.

facebook.com/pwcentertwitter.com/pwcenter

www.pwcenter.org

2301 E. FRANKLIN AVE., MINNEAPOLIS, MN 55406 • (612) 332-7481 • INFO@PWCENTER.ORG