MEN VS. WOMEN

INTERVIEW: JOHN BOLEN

BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO

I remember sitting at a Conundrum Theatre Company play committee session in January to read the over twenty original plays that were submitted. The rule was: We’ll read only the first ten pages to get a sense of the work, then we’ll move on to the next play. Before long we came upon The Red Dot by John Bolen, the title didn’t speak to us right away, however, what we discovered within those pages made up for our indifference for the title—by the time we reached page ten, there was no turning back. We completed Act 1, and the group was speechless prompting us to tackle Act 2. Upon completion, the play sparked an in-depth conversation that occupied the rest of our evening. We made our decision to produce this play under the revised title The Death of Jubal and contacted John Bolen shortly after.

Writer John Bolen.

John Bolen is a novelist/playwright/actor living in Southern California. He has been published by Applause Theatre & Cinema Books (Hal Leonard Publishing), Independent Play(w)rights, Indigo Rising, Scars Publications, The Write Place at the Write Time, OC180news, Eunoia Review and YouthPLAYS. John is also the Producing Artistic Director of the New Voices Playwrights Theatre & Workshop. His play Aurelia’s Magic, for young audiences, (under its original title Dancing on a Grave), was produced in Southern California by the Vanguard Theatre and Garden Grove Playhouse.

Here is my interview with John Bolen about the upcoming reading of his play The Death of Jubal.

What inspired you to write The Death of Jubal?

I was inspired by the video “10 Hours of Walking in NYC as a Woman” that went viral on YouTube. It was about all the terrible things that men were doing to a woman while she’s walking down the street: catcalls, comments and so forth. What it reminded me of was when my daughter just started driving and my wife was concerned about her going out by herself. About this, I remember saying, “She’s sixteen now, she can handle driving alone” and my wife said, “It’s not just that, it’s men.” “What do you mean men?” I asked, to which she replied, “Men make noises.” It was such a strange comment. I’ve never made noises. I grew up in a small town where there’s no anonymity, so there’s a different kind of behavior. And women surrounded me. I had a much older brother, but also two sisters and a widowed mother. So I was struck by this problem: the eternal battle of the sexes. But it was also the way in which these men were making these comments and defending their comments. Male assertiveness is certainly an attraction to females, but sometimes there’s a line that gets crossed and it becomes aggression and then there’s all those grey areas in between. That’s what this play is dealing with. It’s about those lines and how they are perceived.

Where did you start in your writing process for this play?

My background is as an actor, so I start with the characters. I really have no idea of plot. I place the characters together and find out what they would say to one another. The plot evolves through this process, but the characters are always my starting point.

If you had to summarize The Death of Jubal in three words, what would they be?

Men verses Women—that’s it.

The first act of your play has a very shocking ending. What’s the reason for an ending like this?

It’s Leland’s behavior that leads to it—it’s the way he smacks against the horrors that Roxie has been through. Even when he goes way over the top saying, “No wonder your boyfriend beat you,” it’s not until she’s left the room that he throws out an apology, but it’s half-hearted. There not a sincere understanding in his apology of what he has done and how he’s added to the torture of this woman’s life. And hopefully this creates the powder cake that eventually explodes—things go completely overboard and nobody’s right, Roxie’s not right. Also, in order for people to have interest in the play, I believe very strongly that the play should be entertaining as well. I think audiences are going to walk out at the end of the first act and really be intrigued as to how the second act is going to unfold given what just happened.

What do you want audiences to come away with after viewing your play?

Certainly to spark conversation on the topic and hopefully create a greater understanding how these actions, which seem so innocent, can be perceived or lead to something completely different. In the play Leland tries to drag the girls onto the floor to dance with him, then he crosses the line and begins pushing. He crosses the line between assertiveness and aggressiveness. Hopefully audiences will understand what triggered those moments in the play.

The original title was The Red Dot and was later changed by Conundrum Theatre Co., but what was the reason for your first title?

The Red Dot was not only the bar, it was Jubal, it was the child and the sin that is shared between Leland and Maggie. They chose their own lives in front of their son’s—they chose to drink and snort cocaine. It was always, “Oh just one more day” and it was that one more day that killed him. To me, it’s real life—a baby that’s four months along the way, a child, a creature. People have funerals for these children. It’s not the one day fertilized egg, it’s something more and their sin is that they had no consideration but for themselves—that’s the other red dot. It meant something different to Maggie and Leland never gets it, never finds any redemption for his part in that whole thing.

John Bolen, center, at rehearsal for the May 2, 2015 reading of The Red Dot at Stage Door Repertory Theatre in Anaheim.

Do you have any favorite moments in The Death of Jubal?

I really like Marla Mae’s monologue about how she’s come to be in a situation with George. I’ve worked on that. It comes out to a few lines, but at one time it was a lot more lines and I’ve whittled it down to hopefully the place where it’s supposed to be. I really like this moment with Marla Mae. Also the contrast of Maggie being placed in a compromising situation with Oscar and her reaction is to describe how she and Leland met while being forced into this act that she does not want to do. I like the tension of that and I think it’s going to play well when we see it on stage.

Did you make any changes to the play after the first reading in 2015 by New Voices Playwrights Theatre?

Yes, I helped the play by developing the relationships between Jan, Darlene and Roxie, I added quite a bit. There was also a lot added to Roxie; originally I had left too much for people to read between the lines on where her character was going, but I didn’t want to overwrite her because then it gets trite and everybody sees the train wreck coming from too far off. So I worked a lot on Roxie, I also trimmed Marla Mae’s dialogue and a lot of other stuff. I’m the type that never stops rewriting, every time I pick it up I am going to see something and say, “Oh this would be better if I . . .” I’m never happy.

Best case scenario, what would you like to happen with your play?

I’m just so anxious to see it come to life, to work with the cast, and the director. I have a vision of the stage, but I want to see what other ideas people bring to the project—I love the whole collaborative process of play making. I make more money as an actor in film, but at one time I was such a stage whore, I was doing 4-5 productions a year, continually on stage, rehearsing on one while performing in others. Now I produce two a year and usually get on stage once a year.

Conundrum Theatre Company’s reading of The Death of Jubal is on Saturday March 12th at 8pm at Old Oak Cellars in Pasadena and is directed by Jed Reynolds. Thereafter a decision will be made whether or not this play will be submitted to the 2016 Hollywood Fringe Festival this summer. For more information and tickets visit: www.DeathofJubal.eventbrite.com.