Artist Profile: Sean Lewis

Photo courtesy of Sean Lewis

Sean Lewis is a theatre artist who has worked for multiple theatres in the area, most notably as one of the founding members of Working Group Theatre in Iowa City. He is a playwright as well as an actor and director: his plays include Killadelphia: City of Numbers, I Will Make You Orphans and Militant Language.



The Iowa Theatre Blog recently asked him about some of his upcoming projects.

ITB: How did you start out in the theatre?

Lewis: It was by chance really. I was in my Sophomore year of college. I was on the Wrestling team at SUNY-Binghamton and in a preseason match I busted my knee. I ended up in a movement class as part of my rehab. The teacher of that class was a theater professor and she asked me if I'd be interested in auditioning for a production of Romeo and Juliet. (Basically, she needed someone to carry Juliet off stage at the end of the play and I was bigger than most of the other actors). I did the play and fell for Lady Capulet. The relationship didn't last but my commitment to acting and to theater did.

ITB: How did this style (documentary theatre/solo shows based on interviews) evolve? Was there a moment of inspiration/turning point where you decided it was the right way to approach things? Or did it develop more gradually?

Lewis: Another chance. After grad school at the Iowa Playwrights Workshop I had a year long residency at Interact Theatre. While there, the theater was approached by the Mural Arts Project of Philadelphia. They worked with Lifers at Graterford prison. This is how Killadelphia got made. What blew me away was that the people I had worked with and interviewed—in prison and in the community—they all saw the show. That was mind blowing. From there I just kept looking for opportunity to do that work. It's been really gratifying. Mayberry, this past Spring with Hancher, was a really exciting moment for me.

ITB: Tell us about the NPN Fellowship. What is the play about? What's the process (interviews, etc., or something else?) When/where does it go up?

Lewis: The NPN Fellowship/Grant is for a play called Rust. This was written by me and Austin Bunn (with contributions by Jennifer Fawcett as well). It is based on interviews with workers at a GM plant in Wyoming, Michigan that closed a year ago. We tracked the workers for almost three years and developed the play out of that. It had parts of it published in the NY Times Magazine last year and opens at CSPS/Legion Arts in Cedar Rapids Labor Day Weekend. We then will do a run of it for two weeks at Riverside Theatre in November.

ITB: Your play A-Plus looks at our education system. What are your personal feelings about America's schools? Are they helpful to children? If you had the power to change something directly, what would you do first?

Lewis: Right now I have no opinions. Most my plays start that way. I'm just doing a lot of research on the whole charter school versus public school argument. It's a commission with the NNPN and Horizon Theatre in Atlanta—so I'll be down in Atlanta interviewing people involved with the big teaching scandal they had. I think right now what I'm most interested in is how children bring out the darkest parts of their parents. I think if you really want to see how tolerant and open someone really is just mess with their kid.

ITB: Have you learned anything surprising while working on this play, or changed your attitudes?

Lewis: Not yet. It's still too early in the process.

ITB: You also have a play being produced by Riverside Theatre this season. Tell us a bit about that.

Lewis: Manning Up is a really different play for me. It's a straight ahead comedy. It's based off of some of the experiences my male friends have had with fatherhood. Really, Jim Van Valen—who is in the show—would visit a class I'd teach at Cornell (he's on faculty there). His wife was pregnant at the time and he was amazing, he'd share stories or say things at the time I found hysterical. I started writing them down... then Martin Andrews did this great story at Was the Word about his own daughter's birth (Martin is in the show too) and at that point I was like these guys need to be on stage saying this. It's been pretty lucky, the play is getting a rolling world premiere across the country: after the Riverside production it'll then play Salt Lake Acting Company in Utah and Actor's Summit in Cleveland.

ITB: Are you able to find time for Working Group projects while juggling all these other balls? What's coming up on that front?

Lewis: Working Group is my main priority. So yes. I'm directing Rust right now for the opening at Legion Arts (I'm also in rehearsal for True West at Riverside where I'm playing Lee). We then have a big project on Alzheimer's throughout the year that will end with a new play The Broken Chord with Hancher Auditorium at the Englert in April 2013 (tickets are already selling quick—I encourage folks who had a hard time seeing Mayberry to get tix as soon as possible). I'll direct Broken Chord as well.

Working Group is the best thing that's ever happened with my professional life. I won't be avoiding projects with them anytime soon.

ITB: You've worn a lot of hats in the theatre world—writer, director, performer, teacher. Which is your favorite and why?

Lewis: I like them all. It's nice: they each speak to each other and inform each other, so I feel they help me become a more useful person in the room... Each time I direct I understand writing better, writing helps me understand acting. I like variety so it's nice to sometimes go and act for awhile after a long stretch of directing or vice versa. I like them all...

ITB: Any advice for young artists just starting out?

Lewis: Just make things. Don't assume you need to be in a specific place to be succesful. The internet has changed all of that. You can have a career anywhere. Go where you want to be, where you are necessary, where you'll grow.

Also, find collaborators. Great ones. Push each other. I'm not the artist I am and Working Group isn't the company it is without Martin Andrews and Jenn Fawcett (not to mention the wonderful artists we collaborate with on each show).

ITB: What artists inspire you?

Lewis: So many. I love Miranda July for the sheer artistic spirit. Sam Shepard was the first person who wrote a play that I read where I said "this can be theater too?" Caryl Churchill was the one after that and Bernard Marie Koltes. God I love Koltes. Dan MacIvor and Danny Hoch for the great solo inspiration (people forget what an incredible solo performer John Leguizamo is too). Peter Brook. Mabou Mines. Can I say Geoffrey Tenant? He's a fictional character (from Slings and Arrows) but I'm always ready to do some theater after watching an episode...


You can learn more about Working Group Theatre here, or follow Sean Lewis' blog here.