FLOATING IDEAS
by Lisa Ann Williamson
Staten Island Advance, Thursday March 20, 2008
Susan Fenley's Sundog Theatre company ventured beyond the borough for this year's 'Ferry' tales

Susan Fenley wanted to open things up.

So, the artistic director of Sundog Theatre Inc. -- which produces the annual "Scenes from the Staten Island Ferry" -- decided to hold a national competition for writers to come up with a short play set on the Staten Island ferry. Six winners would be selected. Each would receive $100.

When the project started in 2003, writers were asked to ride the ferry up to 90 minutes consecutively and write a short one-act play that would be performed within 24 hours.

But things changed.

All passengers must now vacate the ferry upon docking which "disturbs the creative process and was no longer practical," Fenley said. "By doing submissions beforehand, we have a little more control over the end product. That gives the actors and audience a better experience."

With a little more time to develop the scripts, characters and dialogue, "some really good scripts and greater variety" have evolved, she said. But one thing hasn't changed: As in past years, directors and actors get scripts 24 hours before the first performance.

"Scenes from the Staten Island Ferry" made its debut five years ago with Fenley offering six playwrights the opportunity to fast-track their work into a one-act play featuring two actors. The work would be presented to an audience the next night at the former Muddy Cup.

The ambitious project proved so creatively exciting, Sundog made it an annual event.

Fenley helped the process by adding a structural element each year for the writers. Casts could be two or three actors. One year, each playwright was asked to incorporate a holiday into their work. Another year, a prop, like a stuffed animal or trophy had to be used. And yet another year, each writer was given a specific time of day the action must take place.

Another benefit of the annual project is the opportunity to develop new works and meet new playwrights. "Scenes from the Staten Island Ferry '08" taps writing talent from California, Washington, Ohio, New York and New Jersey. Each of the playwrights had a different method to get characters, ideas and themes onto paper.

Jonathan Galvez, Linden, New Jersey : For Galvez, the process of writing was so effortless, he woke up and his play, "My Bench of Dreams," was finished.

"I literally wrote this in my sleep," said the New Jersey high school English teacher and drama coach who graduated from Wagner College in 2006.

The assignment came through his Manhattan writing group: Each member wrote a piece and entered in the "Ferry Scenes" search.

Finding time to write is sometimes a tricky proposition, he said. It comes in snatches of time between school and rehearsals or en route from one appointment to another. So, in the wee hours of the morning he thought he'd get in a few pages after considering how to incorporate homelessness and war into a play.

The writer/teacher will be busy the next couple week seeing three of his works produced, starting with the 10-minute ferry play next week and a full-length play next month as part of the Manhattan Theater Club's Amazing Play Festival.

Lisa Soland, Los Angeles, California: For Soland, it wasn't the format of the 10-minute play but the concept of the ferry that took her to the research annals.

The City of Angels scribe had never lived on an island, so never needed a mode of transportation to connect to a mainland.

"I Googled the ferry and photos and what it did and what you saw when you were on it,"said Soland.

While she aspires to the pace of a Neil Simon (six pages a day) or novelist Ray Bradbury (10 pages daily), she's happy creating deadlines for herself. That strategy has gotten her work produced across the country and published in several short-play anthologies.

AWE/MCSWEENEY

Morna Murphy Martell, St. George: Murphy Martell prefers her ideas to marinate. Although she directed "Scenes from a Staten Island Ferry" for a couple years,"I never dared attempt to sit on the ferry and write a play," she told AWE from her North Shore home.

For the sixth annual event produced by Sundog Theatre, Murphy Martell was able to take her time and write "On the Way to Shangri-la" over a two-week period. Her play was chosen as one of six plays in the national writers search.

No stranger to writing, Murphy Martell has had her original works and adaptations produced in London's West End, around the country at regional theaters and on Staten Island. But it was the impression made upon immigrants from the windows of a ship coming into New York Harbor that inspired her to write for the ferry project.

Barbara Lindsay, Seattle, Washington : Lindsay doesn't like to sound too "woo-woo," but most times her characters just "come visiting."

They may come as she's on a bus, in a coffee shop or waiting for a symphony to begin. As fast as she can, Lindsay jots down dialogue or themes.

This method helps her produce about 120 plays each year and submit to about 250 competitions annually.

"The whole point of being a writer is to get inside the skins of people and get inside their thoughts and feelings," said Lindsay from her Seattle home.

Not having ridden the Staten Island Ferry, Lindsay did not count herself at a disadvantage since Seattle has its own ferry system.

Alison Minors, Queens : Minors wanted to ride the ferry for inspiration.
The Queens resident took her pad and pen and boarded at the Whitehall ferry terminal. She watched people, took in the scenery and wrote. After the roundtrip, she had the first draft for her play, "New Jerusalem."

"When I get an idea, I just have to go with it then I edit is down to something that will be ok," Minors said.

The strategy won her a spot in this year's ferry offering.

Minors unknowingly went back to the method first used by Sundog Theatre when area playwrights were asked to write a play on the roundtrip ferry ride and submit their work later that day to directors and actors who would then produce the work the next evening.

"It's really an interesting way to stretch your creativity by setting some type of limitation," said Minors, who also finds inspiration writing at the New York City Public Library on Fifth Avenue.

Alan Jozwiak, Cincinnati, Ohio : Jozwiak thought he'd celebrate his first decade as a writer by submitting his works to 50 writing competitions.

Years ago he'd visited New York City and taken a ride on the ferry, so the submission to Staten Island would allow him to take a detour from his usual humor writing and experiment with a more serious subject in "Staten Island Passing."

"A good 10-minute play feels like its been sliced out of a larger work," said Jozwiak, a self-taught playwright who also teaches English Composition at the University of Cincinnati.

Jozwiak said he needs to have a deadline looming to jump-start his creativity. For this script he drew on events from his own life and that of his family and friends.

"I've found plays are the stuff of your life," Jozwiak said. "First you get the big idea and then you start to fill in details."