Playwright Nina Louise Morrison

Born Naked by Nina Louise Morrison will be performed as a staged reading to an invited audience this month. Watch this space for updates from rehearsal and further developments from the playwrights. We talked to Nina about how the workshops are shaping up.

SPK: What has your experience in the Boston Project been so far? 

NLM: SpeakEasy has supported my process from concept to first draft, which is incredibly powerful.  Having a clear deadline and the promise of a workshop from before I’ve written a word is a huge motivator.  I can’t wait to get into the room with the actors, director, and dramaturg. I will get to hear the play out loud for the first time, have time to revise and rehearse, and then we will share it with it’s first audience.  Each of these things – deadlines, read-throughs, workshops, and staged readings – are essential to me in order to develop the play, but rarely assured or in place when I begin writing something new.  Imagining Born Naked as a play that could potentially belong in a big space like the Virginia Wimberly Theatre or the Roberts Studio Theatre – in terms of the literal stage space and size of the audience but also something more elusive and intangible – has also given me the chance to think about what a “big” play is (and whether there is such a thing) over the last few months and experiment with that. Ultimately the Boston Project has dared me to think as boldly as I can. Writing the first draft has been a fun, challenging and surprising ride.

Has any particular experience in Boston changed how you write or view playwriting?

For me, Boston is all about the people.  I’m inspired every day by the kind, passionate, brilliant people I get to work with as a teacher and theatre maker. So it’s interesting to see that reflected in Born Naked which is in part about working relationships, and also about transplants like me who have come to feel like Boston is home.  Also for this play I got to do some really fun research on the Freedom Trail!  Now I think I will always write plays that require me to go on such enjoyable research outings.

What play would be made better with Boston accents/slang?

This one totally stumped me!

Nina was totally stumped on this. Tell us what play would be better with Boston accents or slang using #BOSproj @SpeakEasyStage.