Playwright Sharyn Rothstein is in THE HAVEN!

V Helena interviews Right to Be Forgotten playwright, Sharyn Rothstein. Tune in to hear about Sharyn's success in writing
for television (Suits) and process for bringing her award-winning creations to the stage.

Episode Transcript

(00:53):
Hello, dream Catchers, and welcometo another exciting day in the Writers Heaven.
I am your host the Helena andtoday in studio with me is award
winning writer and producer Sharon Rothstein.Sharon has written and produced a number of
shows for television and stage, includingepisodes of the award winning television series Suits
and several award winning plays, amongthem By the Water, All the Days,

(01:18):
Land Ladies, and Tell Me I'mNot Crazy. Her play Right to
Be Forgotten makes its world premiere atArena Stage this fall, and we are
happy to have her here to talkabout this project and other notable accomplishments.
Join me in welcoming, writer,producer, playwright Sharon Rothstein. Welcome to
the Haven. Shane. Feel soglad we were able to join us.

(01:42):
Tell us about the world premiere ofyour play, Right to Be Forgotten?
Yeah, it's pretty exciting. SoI started working on this play about five
years ago. It follows the storyof a young man who is now in
his late twenties, but when hewas in high school, he he made
some terrible mistakes, and those mistakesare all over the Internet. Some of

(02:07):
what's on there is true, andsome of what's on there is not true,
and it's basically haunted his whole life, and in the play, he
wants to have it removed from thesearch engines, which if you live in
Europe you have the right to do. It's called the right to be forgotten.
But we in the United States don'thave that right, and a lot
of experts think will never have thatbecause of our First Amendment rights. And

(02:30):
like a lot of my play isit started with a question I didn't have
the answer to, and I stilldon't have the answer. I don't know
what the right thing is. Idon't know whether we should be able to
remove information about ourselves from the Internetor not. And I certainly don't know
who should get to make that decision, whether it's tech companies or individuals or

(02:53):
government. And so the more Ithought about it, the deeper I went
down the rabbit hole of all ofthese philosophical questions, and I spoke to
a lot of experts, and slowlythis play came together, and I shared
it with Arena Stage I think abouta year ago, and they were really

(03:15):
excited about it, and I'm sothrilled that it's getting its premiere at Arena,
both because Arena is such an amazingtheater, but also because to have
it in Washington, d C.At a time when our government is seriously
grappling with questions about tech regulation andprivacy feels like the perfect setting forward.

(03:39):
Absolutely, absolutely, And I knowthat you have a background, like in
sociology and things like that, Sodo many of your plays just have that
tinge, that theme that is soimportant in terms of the social responsibility that
all of us have in this community. Definitely. I yes, My undergraduate

(04:01):
degree was in sociology, and Ialso have a master's in public health,
and I'm constantly interested in politics,in civil discourse, in the idea of
what is a community and what dowe owe each other? And often an

(04:21):
interest in some newsworthy topic we'll findits way into a deeper question about human
relationships and who we are and whowe want to be as individuals. And
then that all gets thrown into thebubbling cauldron of my you know, anxiety,

(04:43):
brain and creativity. That's a nicerway to put it, and outcomes
of play eventually, Yeah, yeah, that's great. Now, how long
have you had this desire or letme rephrase the question, your writer's journey.
When did you begin so I wasone of those annoying kids who used

(05:03):
to make my parents sit through lengthyplays at holiday dinners. So, you
know, my parents would probably sayfrom the very beginning, I was always
doodling. I was always writing shortstories and in my head writing you know,
kind of fairy tales and that kindof thing. And I did.

(05:25):
I was a theater kid in highschool, but I never really wanted to
perform. But you know, Ithink, like a lot of people who
end up in theater but are notactors, we often were drawn to the
theater. We love the energy ofit, we love the feel of it,
and yet we just feel wrong onstage. And I was always and
maybe idolized the process. Yeah,the actors and the directors and everybody were

(05:49):
like, oh wow, that's justso amazing. They've got it. Try
I don't they've got it. Idon't, you know. I was always
cast as like peasant woman number sixlines the line. I was always like
the singing tree in the background ofthe forest. But you went into sociology.
Yeah, so you knew that youhad this yearning, this artistic bone

(06:11):
in you, but you you wentin a different direction. I love the
way that you synergize that and itall just kind of came together for you
as a playwright. But but talkto us about why you moved in that
direction, because I think a lotof people do that they have that artistic
bone, that flair, but thenthey don't really allow that to expand as
they move on in their careers.Yeah, you know, that's such a

(06:33):
great question, because I think you'reso right. I got to college.
I took an intro to theater class, and all of the incredibly gifted,
passionate, exuberant actors in the classscared me out of my mind, and
I just, I just I didn't. I froze, And so I started

(07:00):
taking other classes and felt that sociologywas its exploration of the world around us
really kind of unleashed my imagination.And to start to think really critically about
the world and about government and culturewas endlessly fascinating to me. It still
is, and you know, thewhole time I was still writing. I

(07:25):
wrote plays in college, and Iwas incredibly fortunate in that I got into
a writer's collective called Young Blood inNew York right after graduating college, and
that was amazing because it gave mea community and this was your bachelor's Yes,
yeah, yeah, So right afterI graduated undergrad, I moved to

(07:46):
New York and I had gotten intothis really wonderful writers group that's still around
today, and it's a writer's groupfor you have to be a playwright under
the age of thirty. So Istayed there till they till I aged out,
until they gave me my papers andsent me along my way. But

(08:07):
it was just a wonderful experience.I made friends in that group that are
still my friends today. But alsoit really showed me how you can make
a life as an artist in NewYork. Yeah, and it gave me
a lot of experience seeing my workon stage, which every young playwright needs
to do in order to figure outwhat works and what doesn't work, you

(08:28):
know. Yeah, And do yourecommend writers' groups for folks who are out
there writing as playwrights or just writingfor literature or whatever they're writing. I
can't recommend them highly enough. Imean, I think that when you're young
and you're starting out, they areinvaluable because, like I said, they
give you a community, They giveyou an idea of how you can make

(08:48):
your life as a writer. Butthen as you're older. As you get
older and more experienced, you findthat you especially if you're a playwright.
I mean, the entire your thinkingabout being a playwright is you need to
hear your words out loud to knowif they're working. So you can sit
in your office paying away at thekey is all you want until you hear

(09:09):
how how it sounds with other voicesin a room. You don't really know
if it's working. So to beable to bring your work to people that
you respect and have them say itout loud but then also get their feedback
is wonderful. But sarre when you'rewriting, Do you hear your characters' voices

(09:31):
as you're writing? Well, that'sa good question. I try to come
up with good questions. You reallydo, Yeah, do you hear their
voice? Because you're you're birthing them, They're they're coming out of you.
They're like your children. It's true, It's really true. You don't even
know what they look like. Youknow what the things that irritates them,

(09:54):
that angers them, that you knowbrings so much love to their hearts.
And I just wonder if you becauseand the reason why I ask is a
lot of writers of literature. Theysay that all the time, like the
voices in their head. They can'tshut them up. They have they must
write. So I just wonder withplaywrights if that's true as well. I
think it is true. I mean, I don't know that I hear them

(10:16):
as much as I just know whothey are and I know what sounds right
coming out of their mouths. Andyeah, you're completely right. There's a
very intimate relationship with your characters.You You know, a writer that I

(10:39):
know and love talks about how wethink of them as our children, and
yet we torture them all the time. And it's really true, you know.
I mean, a good play it'sgoing to torture its characters a little.
They have to go through hell inorder for it to be worth watching
in a way. So it's justa really interesting relationship. You have characters,

(11:00):
but they are completely alive and theyare completely three dimensional, and I
will kind of argue with them andthey will argue with me. So I
think to that extent, I amhearing their voice. But at the same
time, it's almost more intimate thanthat, because it's almost more I just
know when it's right coming from theirmouth or not. So let's talk a

(11:26):
bit about your process. Now.You mentioned that you know, social responsibility
and correctness or you know, howeverway you want to couch. It is
something that's the theme that's always justkind of resonating with you. So when
you're actually sitting down to write,what does that process look like? Do
you outline it? Do you justtell us how you go about that process

(11:48):
of creating. Yeah, it startswith coffee. That's important. It starts
with an excessive amount of coffee.When I'm starting a new play, usually
what will happen is I will tryto give myself enough headspace to hear which

(12:09):
characters have something to say about thesubject, and does that character's voice just
throughout the rest of the play.Is that the perspective, Yes, although
sometimes it changes. I've certainly hadplays that started with a character telling me

(12:30):
what the play was about, andthen by the time that play got to
stage, that character was gone.In fact, I find that kind of
happens often because that character is oftenthe least interesting dramatically, Yeah, character
that has something invested in the story. So often that will happen. You

(12:54):
know, for instance, right tobe Forgotten, I think the first scene
I wrote for this play was ascene between Darryl, who is the young
man who has wants to get hispassed off of the internet, and his
roommate who's telling him, you needto go, you need to fight,
you need to do this, youneed to do that. That roommate is
long gone, and basically everything thatthe roommate was telling him to do now

(13:16):
makes up the structure of the play. So, you know, often I
will try to give myself some timeand space to just scribble lines thoughts I'm
having, and then often I'll alsostart doing more research. I'll just start
reading and reading. It all dependson whether I'm up against a deadline or

(13:37):
not. You know, if theplay is a commission and it's like TikTok,
then I'll force myself to just startwriting and see what happens. I
don't tend to outline with theater.I like to kind of find what the
story is based on what happens inthe last scene I wrote, and what

(13:58):
feels Do you write lineally or often? I often write literally. I don't
always, but more often than not. And I also give myself permission to
overwrite in the first draft and probablythe second and third draft, so that
usually by the time play gets intorehearsal, I know, okay, I'm
probably gonna have to cut at leastten pages out of this. And that's

(14:20):
where being in rehearsal and having adirector and a dramaterg is so invaluable.
They can kind of look at meand go, you don't need the line.
But also I get to hear itin the mouths of actors, and
when you have really gifted actors,and I do for this Arena production,
I'm so lucky you can hear whatyou need and what you don't need,

(14:46):
because often a really wonderful actor isable to convey so much without the line,
so it allows you to pull itout. And so I often find
that the rehearsal process is a processof winnowing down to what is most moving
and most necessary. Gotcha, whatare some of the challenges that you've had

(15:07):
Let's just stay with right to beforgotten. What were some of the challenges
that you had in writing that youknow? This play is so that's the
right word. This play is sotimely that absolutely, from the time I
started writing it five years ago tonow, it just feels like I'm constantly

(15:31):
having to update it. I meaneven to a few days ago, forty
eight state ags came out and saidthat they were investigating the tech companies.
Well, that is like a majorplot point in my play. So I
had to completely revamp what's going onin my play in order to take that
into account. So there's been atremendous amount with this play of research,

(15:56):
staying on top of the research,staying on top of current events. And
you know, when I started theplay five years ago, which was before
the twenty sixteen election, a lotof people were not talking about or really
aware of some of the more nefariouseffects of you know, what can happen,

(16:18):
for instance, if there's fake newsonline. And our awareness of all
of that as a society has changedso much, absolutely that I had to
change a lot of where my charactersare coming from to reflect that. So
that's been really interesting. So therewas maybe some naivete, but now everybody's

(16:40):
woke about it exactly. Yeah.I have one character in the play who's
an attorney who's taking on these techcompanies, And when I started writing the
play, she was like, youknow, this lone wolf out in the
wild, howling about what's going onand everyone was ignoring her or just thought
she was being hyperbolic. Well,now no one thinks that anymore, so

(17:02):
so that has all had to changein order to reflect what's going on right
now in American society, and that'sbeen It's been incredibly rewarding to be able
to keep it up to date.It's also really challenging. Okay, probably
the most challenging play today when itcomes to that aspect. Yeah, yeah,

(17:26):
it definitely is, because this isthe most of all the plays I've
written. This play has experts init. You know, these are lawyers
who deal with these companies. Oneof the characters is a state's attorney general,
so they actually do have to soundlike they know what's going on,

(17:48):
as opposed to, you know,a play about a family just kind of
talking about these issues and everybody that'sa little bit lighter. I imagine the
research that you put into writing.This amount of research and Arena has been
incredibly helpful in putting me in touchwith experts. So it's really been amazing.

(18:11):
I just finished writing and producing onthe television show Suits. I was
lucky enough to be on that showfor five years, and our series finale
airs in two weeks. Yeah,So I'm wrapping up five years working on
suits, which has been an amazingexperience, and what that allows me to

(18:33):
do is trying new things in television. So I am working on a few
different new television projects, and I'malso I'm teaching television writing at n YU,
your alma mater. Yes, yes, okay, so that's really fun.

(18:55):
And then I have a bunch ofother plays that are in development.
I've been working for the past yearon a stage adaptation of the film Hester
Street, which is a really kindof beloved independent film. That's going to
be a play with music that hopefullywill find its way to a stage in

(19:15):
the in the year ahead. AndI've also been working on a commission for
Manhattan Theater Club, a play aboutMargaret Chase Smith, who was She was
the first woman who was both inthe House of Representatives and a senator,
but she was also the first Republicanto stand up to Joseph McCarthy, and

(19:37):
that's what the play is about.So those are what's the working title,
Declaration of Conscience, which is thename of the speech she gave on the
floor of the Senate. Okay,so those are these kind of two major
projects that I that are going totake me into the next day very anxiety.
Looking forward to hearing more from younow before we wrap. What advice

(19:57):
would you give to it a firingplaywright for television or for the stage,
just given your experience and what youknow about the field. Yeah, you
know, I would say the firstthing is, don't believe anyone who says
you can't do it, and don'tbelieve the people who are like, oh,

(20:19):
I'm so sorry. It is it'snot easy, but nothing worth doing
is easy. And when you getto do the thing that you're passionate about
for a living, it is suchan honor and and it really feels your
heart will oh, it's amazing.It's amazing. And you know, there

(20:41):
have been so many times where I'vefound myself, you know, just the
summer, for instance, in Williamstown, Massachusetts for a month working on a
play. And what a fantastic wayto spend a summer and to spend a
life. Yeah, So it's reallywonderful and thrilling. And I feel like

(21:03):
there's a lot of scare mongering outthere, but the truth is, if
you feel it in you, ifyou need to write then you should be
writing. And that's the second pieceof advice, which is just keep writing.
You can't stop. You can't stop. You can't become afraid of the
rejection. You can't start thinking toyourself like, oh, I'll just do

(21:26):
it tomorrow. You just have tokeep doing it. And you know,
obviously not everyone is going to beable to make a career doing this,
but there are plenty of people whodo. The entertainment industry is big and
we will always need writers. Weas a society will always want to come

(21:48):
and sit in a room together andhear stories told. So if that's in
you just keep working on it andbelieving in it. Yeah, and you
know, I really think that thetide is changing a bit with respect to
writers and creatives in general, becausethere was some I can't remember. I
want to say that it was theone of the big magazines, maybe Fortune,

(22:10):
that polled CEOs and seventy two percentof them said that they invite more
creatives. Is how they counted itinto their businesses. Because there's definitely a
place for people who can write creativelyor creatively think about other ways of doing
business, not just the NBA's andthe accountants Sharon. Who are some of

(22:34):
the playwrights that inspire you in yourwork? I read a tremendous amount of
plays, and I see a tremendousamount of plays, And there are playwrights,
contemporary playwrights. I love Lucy Kirkwood, I love now. Of course

(23:00):
everything is just I that always happensto us. I don't understand where that
comes from. Let me start again. There's a lot of contemporary playwrights I
love. I love Lynn Nottage,I love uh Lucy Kirkwood. I Uh,
what do you love about their work? What I love about their work

(23:21):
is how unflinching it is. Ilove playwrights who can nail what is funny
and true in human nature and whodo not look away. Okay, not
apologetic, not apologetic, but butalso just revealing, you know. And

(23:42):
I tend toward I'm always inspired byplays that are distinct in their voice,
uh, and yet their characters feelreal. They're not so stylized that I
can't IDENTI to find who that personis and seotyped right, that there's a

(24:04):
real three dimension there. And Itend to love playwrights and plays that are
investigating social issues, that are investigatingpolitical issues that aren't afraid to write something
big as opposed to something a reallysmall story. And you know, I

(24:27):
try to see as much theater asI can, and I try to read
as many plays as I can.And then, of course there's a lot
of playwrights now that are writing fortelevision, so you can see a lot
of really really good television, andyou know that there's an overlap between the
theater and the screen now, soyou know, I just try to watch

(24:51):
as much of it as I can. Yeah, how did you get into
the television piece of your writing?You know, I had. I got
my graduate degree in television writing becauseI was already a playwright, and I
figured, if I'm you know,if I'm going to give hold this money
away, maybe I should learn anew skill. So I took a class.

(25:15):
I took many classes in television writing, and then I continue to work
as a playwright and I had aplay in New York that went pretty well,
and off of that play, Ihad a lot of meetings in LA.
They call it the water bottle tourbecause everywhere you go, they development
exec gives you the water bottle.And one of those meetings went incredibly well,

(25:38):
and I ended up meeting the showrunnerfor Suits, Aaron Korsh, and
he said, you can move fromNew York to LA in two weeks,
right, And I was like,yeah, no problem. Then at the
time I had a three year oldand a one year old, and basically
within two weeks I was in LAAnd I'm so grateful that I was given

(26:03):
that chance. Now you just revealedsomething. I love that you are balancing
your career and being a mom.Sometimes I'm imbalancing it. But that's great
to hear because sometimes you know,people when they're thinking about careers and you
know, should I wait and beforeI start a family and really get involved

(26:23):
in my creative passionate vocation or isthat something that I can do simultaneously.
Yeah, yeah, I think,and I'm certainly not the first person to
say this, but I think thatbeing a parent and being a writer will
make you such so much more ofan efficient writer. Your time is not

(26:44):
your own, so you you know, I wake up really early to get
writing done, and that's just kindof what you have to do. But
it does. It focuses you,you know, and look seeing the world
through a brand new perspective. Yeah, it's YouTube creativity creatively and you know

(27:07):
it's a great guest. Yeah.Absolutely, Kids in general just have a
way of changing your perspective on life. And I can't see my floor anymore,
so that changed my perspective just coveredin you know dolls that. Yeah.
Well, Sharon, thank you veryvery much for joining us on the

(27:27):
Haven. And you know, asI said, really really look forward to
seeing your play and seeing your visionjust kind of materialize with the characters that
you have empowered to tell this greatstory. I mean, I think that
the theme is just as you saidearlier, it's on point, it's very
today, and again this is agreat time to do it in. So

(27:48):
thank you, congratulations, thank you, and wish you much much more success
dream Catchers. I know you enjoyedthis episode of The Writers Haven Show.
Sharon is one of many playwrights thatwill appear on the show, and if
you're in the Washington metropolitan area,check out the lineup of performances at Arena
Stage. It's an exciting season ofentertainment, so you don't want to miss

(28:11):
it. If you're just tuning inand want to catch up on our shows,
visit our website at www dot WritershavenShow dot com. To stream our
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(28:37):
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