Interview with Ezra Kushmaul, Author of "Getting A Grip on Reality"

Ezra Kushmaul, Author of Getting A Grip on Reality

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• Question:  Could we start off by having you tell me a bit about yourself and your piece?

​"I'm a 17 year old genderqueer person who goes to Pioneer High School, and I've been exploring my writing since about 7th grade. I'm also an actor, and I've lived in Ann Arbor for almost two years. I wrote this piece originally for Mr. Sabo's Acting 2 class to put on in the annual Performance Festival in May, and later made the decision to submit it to Pufferfish. When I was writing it I drew a lot of inspiration from my own life and people I know, and also my ability to lucid dream. The main message of my piece, that dreams and reality often coincide and mirror each other, reflects my own experiences."

• Question: Your piece is a play and therefore we are missing the components which the cast would add to the piece in an actual production. How do you feel as the playwright about the distortion of the piece?

"When I was writing Getting a Grip on Reality, I put most of my time into the lines and developing the characters, and less into stage directions and setting some sort of a scene. I assumed that when staging, these things would change as there are limits to what teenagers can achieve in a high school theater. I had also never written a play before, so I found stage directions to be tedious, and ultimately inadequate at conveying my vision for the movement of the characters. Another aspect that is missing on paper is what each actor adds to their character and therefore the play. In my experience as actor, I've seen very talented people take lackluster roles and put their personal spin on them, making the character more compelling and interesting to watch. I wrote Getting a Grip on Reality looking forward to seeing how the actors would embellish my characters and the play as a whole, and without that aspect I think it's up to the reader to imagine how they see the roles being played."

• Question: I know you are working on bringing this play to the stage as well, how do you hope the physical production will assist the play?

"Like I said before, I really hope to set more of a scene with the staging of Getting a Grip on Reality. Since there is no mention of a setting or time, I'd like to accomplish grounding the play for the viewer. Another aspect that I think will benefit from the production is costumes. The only mention of clothing in the play is with the Woman in White, who wears a white dress, but I think costumes for the other characters will further the setting and atmosphere."

• Question: Could you talk to me a bit about your character the woman in white? There were two lines that really stuck with me in particular, “WIW: Close the damn window, can't you see everyone's getting in… There isn’t any more room!” and “WIW: I know all the secrets you keep from the people you’re scared of/(pause where MC doesn’t repeat anything)/WIW: but not me! You aren’t scared of me!” I was wondering if you could elaborate a bit on this scene.

"One of the first things I thought about when beginning this piece was how I wanted to incorporate the darker side of dreams, nightmares. The idea that the main character talks about right before that, how they often find '(people) from my life, made into (characters) by my dream-mind,' and that 'these characters...are hideous and terrifying,' is something I've personally come across in my own dreams. The way that I wrote it, the main character is based off me, and the Woman in White is the character or dream/nightmare version of my mother. I wanted to make the scene as real as possible, so I took a person from my life and wrote about the way that she manifests her way in my nightmares. The relationship between the main character and the Woman in White revolves mainly around the immediate power that the Woman in White holds over the main character. When the scene opens, the Woman in White has the main character locked in 'a trance-like state,' and the main character is repeating the last word of every sentence the Woman in White says. I wanted to put emphasis on these words that the main character is repeating, such as 'force,' and 'death,' as if they're a sort of signal that the Woman in White is telling the main character these things and they're absorbing every single word. The lines that you listed are the point when the Woman in White begins to, for some unknown reason, start to lose her control over the main character. Her composure starts slipping, and she is freaking out about some kind of person/thing/force 'getting in'. When we staged this scene, her line, 'THERE ISN'T ANY MORE ROOM,' was out to the audience, and I'm really pleased with the way that portrays her anger and fear not always being directed at the main character. Her last two lines, 'I  KNOW ALL THE SECRETS YOU KEEP FROM THE PEOPLE YOU'RE SCARED OF/(pause where MC doesn't repeat anything)/But not me! YOU AREN'T SCARED OF ME,' are obviously a threat, but are also meant to convey the lack of connection between these two characters. These lines are, in a way, the Woman in White's last ditch attempt at reestablishing her lost connection to the main character that was the trance, but she is unsuccessful."

• Question: No author has the ability to provide their audience with the story and thought behind a piece. However as a writer myself there have been a lot of times where I have really badly wanted to provide my audience with some type of knowledge before presenting the piece. Do you have anything you’d like people to know before or after reading/viewing Getting A Grip on Reality?

 I've gotten a lot of questions about Ghost Boy from people who've read the play and even the actor playing him. Though it's arguably a small role, I put a lot of thought into how I wanted to portray his character. I went back and forth between a few different names as well (Dead Boy, The Ghost, Ghost Man), even though when it is performed his name will never be spoken. I chose the name Ghost Boy because of his presence in both the main character's dreams and reality. He has the ability to move through the main character's dreams to their reality, and is a recurring force that moves the play along. But he is not much of a ghost at all, since he is heard by the main character and a solid person when the come in contact at the end of the show. Another factor that I find interesting about Ghost Boy is how his intention is never disclosed. He appears multiple times in the main character's dreams and takes action to shape them, but it's really up to the reader to decide if he is 'good' or 'bad.' The idea I had for Ghost Boy when writing the play, [he] was based off a Hypnic Jerk, which is an involuntary twitching of a muscle, the myoclonus, that occurs just as you're falling asleep. It often causes you to wake up suddenly, and feel as though you've experienced a dramatic falling or jolting sensation. Most likely this happens due to a nerve misfire as your nervous system relaxes and slows down when transitioning from awake to asleep. This sort of bridge between awake and asleep, or reality and dreaming, is how I imagine Ghost Boy functioning. When he yells,'WAKE UP,' he is jerking the main character out of their dream and back into reality. Whether his intentions are good or bad, or whether or not he is a conscious being or simply a kind of force, is for the reader to decide."

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To learn more about Ezra, Getting a Grip On Reality, and their writing, join us at the release of The First Edition of Pufferfish Magazine, in which they are featured, Saturday, April 30th at 310 E. Washington St. ​(see Facebook event for more details)