Cara Haycak, playwright for our upcoming staged reading of Paying For It was kind enough to tackle some questions via email from our Co-Artistic Director, and director for this reading, Katie Jones!
Keep reading for an exploration of the pathways that authorship has taken Cara, a look into her creative process, AND what makes her tick! Be sure to grab your tickets for the staged reading of Paying For It, tonight, 11/10, at 7:30pm!
Katie Jones (K.J.): How did you get started writing plays?
Cara Haycak (C.H.): My background in creative writing goes back to the late 80’s/early 90’s. I’m published as a young adult novelist and spent two years in an MFA program learning how to do that. Prior to that I worked as a story editor in screenplay development in Los Angeles, where that Syd Field method of storytelling (you know, the classic hero’s journey) got emblazoned on my brain.
I started with 10-minutes plays, since there seemed to be opportunities to have your work produced in festivals all over the place. However, I quickly realized how different and unique play writing is. So, thanks to the pandemic, I was given a lot of free time to learn as much about the craft as I could. But having a lot of experience writing in those other worlds gave me the chutzpah to think I could do it. Ultimately…I think in story. That’s how my brain works. And the challenge of doing that for the stage was something I felt motivated to tackle.
K.J.: How would you describe your personal creative process?
C.H.: Usually there’s a real life situation that screams out for a dramatic rendering. It could be a bit of family history I discover. Or taking in a museum exhibition about murder in the ancient world. Or reading an article about kids that get lost in the foster care system. There also has to be seemingly insurmountable conflict inherent in the situation for me to want to write about it. There has to be friction in my thoughts, a back and forth over the topic. Then I do more research. This is the best way for me to find the characters at the center of the story.
Once those characters start to come alive, I start jotting down ideas for scenes on index cards. Before I flesh them out as scenes, the best of those scenes go up on a segmented board (3’ x 4’) and the shape of the play starts to form. Meaning: is the plot going to move forward and backward in time? Or do I see it all happening in one night? Those kind of structural questions are important ones to decide on before I start writing.
K.J.: What was the impetus to write Paying For It?
C.H.: It started in a writing workshop I took. We were given a very basic assignment: Character A wants Character B to do something, and Character B doesn’t want to do it. Boring? Maybe. But what if Character A wants Character B to pay for sex, and Character B doesn’t think they should have to? Who would those characters be? A married couple…that would be weird, wouldn’t it? I wrote that scene and it led to Paying For It. The miracle, for me, is that the play I ultimately wrote became about a lot more than that.
K.J.: Do you have a favorite character or scene, to give us a taste of the play?
C.H.: Not a favorite character, but one who grabs my heart like no other. That character is Conrad, the 17-year-old son of the online porn/sex worker Sue. I have a son close to that age, and I had concerns about how porn might affect the growth of his sexual identity/expression. There’s lots of articles about how porn desensitizes young men to the joy of real life sex. But because Conrad has been exposed to porn in a totally different way, he lives with it, the affect on his psyche is much more complicated. Like my son, Conrad is a deep soulful individual, whose pain must be acknowledged and healed.
K.J.: What’s the number one question you’d like to ask an audience coming to see this reading?
C.H.: I want to know if they were entertained and surprised and affected by the piece…and how?
K.J.: How has your experience been, working with The Magnetic Theatre?
C.H.: Because I had a 10-minute play that ran in the 2022 One Act Play Festival at the Magnetic Theater, I knew there would be a buoyant and positive energy around this workshop. I knew the actors would be really good and on point with the material. But I had no idea how truly talented they all are. Mind-blowing! I also got to work with Co-Artistic Director of the theater, Katie Jones, and I learned so much about directing. Thank you Katie.
K.J.: What are some other plays you’re working on currently?
C.H.: Another full-length play I’m working on, I Know What I Know, is set in the oldest spiritualist community in the U.S. It’s an exploration of how our beliefs in the afterlife are formed by the scaffolding of our point of view. It focuses on two sisters who have grown up in the community.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful answers, Cara! We can’t wait to see your work. But a staged reading needs YOU, dear audience member! After the reading, we will ask for audience feedback to make Paying For It the best it can be. So, be sure to grab your tickets and enjoy being a part of play development here in WNC!