Steve Patterson has written over 50 plays, with works staged in Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Austin, Tampa, and other U.S. cities as well as in Canada and New Zealand. His full-length works include Waiting on Sean Flynn, Malaria, Altered States of America, The Continuing Adventures of Mr. Grandamnus, Turquoise and Obsidian, Bombardment, and Delusion of Darkness. In 2006, his play Lost Wavelengths was a mainstage selection at Portland Center Stage's JAW/West festival. The Centering, a one-man play he co-wrote with Portland actor Chris Harder, has been featured at the Edmonton Fringe Festival and the Boulder Fringe Festival, and, in 2007, Mr. Harder won a Drammy Award for Best Actor for his work in the play. Mr. Patterson’s play Liberation was published by Original Works Publishing in 2008. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America and former member of Portland Center Stage’s PlayGroup playwriting workshop. His play Lost Wavelengths won the 2008 Oregon Book Award, and, in 2009, and, in 1997, he was the inaugural recipient of the Portland Civic Theatre Guild Fellowship. In 2009, he became the Dramatists Guild's co-representative for Oregon.
How did you get started in theatre?
Writer’s block. At the time, I wrote fiction—mostly short stories, but also a couple novels—and, without getting into the gory details, I just wasn’t getting anywhere, which led to my locking up. As a way to get through the block, I began writing monologues keying off of a book of fine art photographs. One monologue a day, and never skipping ahead. Besides being good discipline, I ended up with a stack of monologues and had no idea what to do with them. A writing buddy of mine was also a director, and, when I asked him what he thought I should do with them, he said, “Let’s rent a place and stage them.” So we did. The whole experience was predictably crazy but kind of fun; so I decided to write a piece where characters actually talk to each other. The result was “Bombardment,” produced by Portland’s Stark Raving Theatre in 1991 and nominated for an Oregon Book Award the following year. I’d found my form.What time of day do you write? Do you have a ritual that you follow? What do you do when you feel stuck?
I used to write three nights a week, but these days I write for a hour-and-a-half each morning before work (I pay the bills as a technical editor). Some mornings are dry sockets, but I’ve been able to stick to that schedule and get quite a bit of work done. When I do get stuck, it usually means I’m either between plays or just need to take a break, so I read or do marketing. Sometimes you have to give the well time to refill.
I understand that you started out as a journalist. How has that background influenced you as a playwright?
In college, I majored in journalism and minored in creative writing, and I snagged a reporting gig straight out of school and did that for about three years. Though journalism was great fun, I finally decided it was impossible to write all day long and then write nights or weekends. Journalism provided a good background for meeting deadlines, and I think the many interviews I did helped train my ear to the sound and cadence of speech. I’ve also written a couple of plays about journalists, usually as a vehicle for looking at war (Waiting on Sean Flynn, Liberation, and Depth of Field, the last of which is still in progress). As journalists serve as our eyes and ears, they provide a useful narrative point of view. Plus I think they’re interesting people.
What kind of writing inspires you?
I'm really moved by unusual work—in subject matter or form—that's willing to take chances and plays games with the mind. In Portland, we recently had a revival of Sam Shepard's Fool for Love, and I'd forgotten how wonderful his voice is and how rich his material. Sam Shepard and Sam Beckett are probably the two writers who led me to playwriting; so you can see I don't much go for kitchen-sink dramas. The "well-made" play is admirable, but it can be limiting as well, as much as I admire the craft behind such works.
It seems like Portland's theatre scene has really bloomed since I left Oregon in 1997. What do you love most about producing theatre there?
I'm pretty much out of the producing game these days. Lisa L. Abbott, the director I worked with for years, took a tenured teaching position in Savannah, which left me to run my company, Pavement Productions, on my own, so I just kind of figured it was time to put Pavement to bed and concentrate on writing. Portland's proved to be a great laboratory, however. It's relatively inexpensive to produce here, so you can take chances. If something you've written or produced doesn't work, you just pick yourself, dust off, and move to the next thing. It's not like all the critics in New York have murdered you. I am part of a group called Playwrights West, which is forming to produce it's members work—all run by playwrights. We're shooting for a group show in January, and then will concentrate on producing a member's work. The production model is to take as much time as necessary to raise money and do it right, so we're talking a play a year or so, though there's no telling what it might grow into.
As to the scene here, it's pretty remarkable, despite some tough economic times. Although we have only two Equity houses—Portland Center Stage and Artists Repertory Theatre—we have some 100 theatre companies. Not all of them produce consistently, most produce now and then, but that’s still pretty amazing for a mid-sized city. Right now, Third Rail Theatre’s probably the most universally respected house in town, but Vertigo Theatre, Miracle Theatre Company, and defunkt theatre all have consistently interesting seasons. Portland Playhouse is a new company making waves, doing some new plays.
What are you working on right now?
It's been a busy time. Last year, I wrote Bluer Than Midnight, which kind of mixes the blues, the civil rights movement, and the afterlife into this sort of noir gumbo. Dark, but I think funny, and lots of music, which I love. Plus doing the research led me to buying an electric guitar, and I play now…badly. Earlier this year, I finished a draft of The Rewrite Man, which kind of mixes a LeCarre spy story with Phillip K. Dick paranoia. That's going to have a reading during Portland's Fertile Ground New Works Festival in January. I thought I'd kind of take a breather after than, and then a new play leapt, unbidden, into my head, and I'm dealing with it. I don't want to say too much as it's still in progress, but it feels pretty damn good. We'll see…you're always in love with them while you're writing them.
