Buddy Thomas is a widely produced playwright, and is the author of last year’s completely sold out FringeNYC hit, Devil Boys from Beyond, which starred Everett Quinton. It won the FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award for Outstanding Play, and which was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding New York Theatre, off-off-Broadway. Its commercial off-Broadway run begins in November, produced by Foster Entertainment. Buddy is also the author of, among others, The Crumple Zone which was an off-Broadway hit in the 2000-2001 season starring Mario Cantone. His plays are published and licensed by Samuel French and have been produced around the world, with major U.S. productions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and foreign productions in Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands. Buddy is also an agent at International Creative Management. Currently in his thirteenth year, he represents many internationally known writers, artists, and Estates.

Check out Buddy’s plays,
available from Samuel French

Spotlight
Devil Boys From Beyond
The Crumple Zone
Physical

Q & A with Buddy Thomas

Q: Your play, DEVIL BOYS FROM BEYOND, was the runaway hit of the 2009 New York International Fringe Festival, and it’s beginning its commercial off-Broadway run in November. The show, which follows a hard-boiled newswoman who flies down to Florida to investigate rumors of disappearances and flying saucers, is part homage to the drag romps of Charles Ludlam, part 1950’s sci-fi movie spoof. Where did you first get the idea for this comedy? What classic movies/influences affected you as you were writing this piece?

Back in 2000, following the success of THE CRUMPLE ZONE off-Broadway, my friend Paul Pecorino (who played Matt in THE CRUMPLE ZONE and plays Mattie Van Buren in DEVIL BOYS) and I wanted to do something really different. THE CRUMPLE ZONE is a very grounded, realistic play, and we wanted to go in exactly the opposite direction for a follow-up. We tried to get the stage rights to JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS, but the screen rights had been sold, which made stage rights unavailable. One night, Paul and I were sitting around drinking margaritas and watching tv, and we stumbled upon a marathon of old black and white sci-fi movies, I think on TCM. They were showing stuff like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS; EARTH VS. THE FLYING SAUCERS; THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL; etc. I don't know if it was the tequila or the movies - probably both - but Paul and I sat there cackling hysterically at these movies all night long. Paul and I have always been big fans of Charles Busch and Charles Ludlam, and we realized that they had never done a camp take on bad sci-fi movies. The next day, I started writing the play, and it just came pouring out. I think I finished the entire thing in two days. We did a reading with the producer of THE CRUMPLE ZONE (who was then Paul's boyfriend), and Jason Moore directed it. It went really well, and we were going to move forward with it, but then our producer suddenly found Jesus, broke up with Paul, married a woman, and moved to California ---no joke. So everything came to a screeching halt. We weren't quite sure what to do with it, and to be honest, I was pretty insecure about its quality, as I had never written "camp comedy" before. Everyone kept telling me how funny it was, but I just didn't believe them. At one point, we talked about it being a musical, and Davil Nells (THE GREAT AMERICAN TRAILER PARK MUSICAL) even wrote a few songs for it. But everything kept stalling, and with my job at ICM, I just never had the time to give it much attention. Eventually I tossed it in a drawer in my office, and that it where it lived for the next nine years. In early 2009, Paul and I started talking about the play again. The suggestion came up that we might send it to the NY International Fringe Festival. Again, I was still feeling insecure about the play's quality, but Paul kept insisting, and he eventually arranged a reading. Paul and Chris Dell'Armo (who plays Lucinda Marsh) had recently done a well-received production of Ludlam's THE MYSTERY OF IRMA VEP, and they had become friendly with Everett Quinton, who was the long term partner of the late Mr. Ludlam. Paul asked Everett if he would play the role of Florence Wexler at the reading, and to our surprise, he immediately agreed. The reading went over better than any of us could have expected, and I decided to apply to the Fringe Festival. A few months later, we got an acceptance letter. Then, we just needed to figure out who would direct. Paul said he was going to try to get in touch with Kenneth Elliott, who directed all the classic Theatre-in-Limbo Charles Busch plays. I thought he was crazy, but Paul found his contact information and got in touch with him. Ken read the script and signed on right away. Everett Quinton also signed on. And Ken brought on a lot of the team from the old Theatre-in-Limbo productions. Suddenly, there was a lot of excitement about the play. During the rehearsal process, Ken asked if I minded if he played around with the script. Who was I to argue with the king of camp? I told him that by all means he could tinker with it. Well, he ended up doing a lot of work on it, actually, and completely revised the ending in a radical manner. It all worked great, however, and I thought it was only fair to give him co-author billing for all future productions. The Fringe production opened to rave reviews, including a 5-star review in Time Out New York. The play won the 2009 FringeNYC Award for Outstanding Play, and later, it got nominated for a GLAAD Award for Best NY Theatre, off-off Broadway.We sold out every single performance, and were extended into the Encores Series, where we also sold out. There were lines of people around the block each night trying to get in. Producer David Foster was at one of those performances, and he soon optioned the play for an off-Broadway run. The rest, as they say, is history!

Q: In CRUMPLE ZONE, a comedy about three gay roommates and a love triangle (that could very well be a love square) all coming to crisis over one Christmas weekend, your treatment of gay themes is handled with a very realistic tone. In contrast, DEVIL BOYS plays on the theatrical traditions of drag and camp while still addressing issues relevant to the gay community today. Can you discuss the various approaches to writing about these issues within your works?

The funny thing about THE CRUMPLE ZONE is that it is really not a gay play at all. It’s a very universal story about the breakup of a long-term relationship. The fact that the characters happen to be gay is never commented on in the script. Many of the reviews from the off-Broadway production mentioned this, and the audiences were really about a 50/50 mix of gay and straight. It turned out to be a real crowd pleaser with both.

When I wrote THE CRUMPLE ZONE, it seemed like the only plays out there featuring gay characters were set in worlds that I did not recognize. LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION!, for example, is a fantastic play, but it features a cast of gay characters who are totally rich and affluent, running around on a country estate, and in the meantime, I was literally counting out pennies some mornings to be able to afford a subway token. Watching, LOVE! VALOUR!...I just couldn’t believe people lived like that, and soon, I was writing THE CRUMPLE ZONE, which is set in a run-down apartment on Staten Island.

This play was inspired by the break-up of my first long-term relationship. Most of the things in the play actually happened. People always think that the character of Terry is supposed to be me, and while there are bits and pieces of myself in each of those characters, the one that was me in the real life version of these events was Matt. I had a lot of anger issues while I was writing that play. I thought I had been completely wronged, and that I would never be in love again, and all that "cry me a river" nonsense that people go through after a break-up. Writing that play was almost like therapy. Once I was finished with the play, I was finished being upset. It really helped me get over a lot of difficult issues. On the other hand, I was in a very "light" place when I wrote DEVIL BOYS, and as mentioned above, I wanted to do something completely different ----wild, wacky, and just plain fun. Aside from the drag aspect, which was the original intention, the gay issues that are touched on in DEVIL BOYS, such as gay marriage, were mainly from the brilliant mind of Ken Elliott. While I was content to just write an insane, drag, alien romp, Ken very smartly wanted to use this as an opportunity to address some of the things that are happening in our country right now, in a very hysterical fashion, of course.

Q: You have an interesting full-time job (aside from that of playwright!) – You are a Theatrical Agent for a large NY based talent agency. How do you balance both of your careers – working for playwrights and for yourself as a playwright? How has being an agent, and working on the business side of the theatre industry, influenced you as an author?

To be perfectly honest, my job as an agent is all encompassing. It's literally a morning to midnight type of job. The roster here is huge and we pride ourselves on being available to our clients at all times. I also handle all the foreign stage rights for the ICM playwrights, and so it is not unusual for my e-mail box to start overflowing at midnight or later, when other parts of the world are waking up. I almost never turn off my home computer. It's a lot of work, but it's a great job, and never a dull moment. So, I haven't had a lot of time to write in recent years. However, I've just started working on a new play.....I just have to remember not to stick it in a drawer for 10 years when I'm done with it.

Q: The newly published SPOTLIGHT, a hilarious look at the always over-dramatic college theatre scene, is a one-act. How is your approach different when tackling a shorter piece?

I don't really approach it differently at all. I think however long it takes to tell a story is how long it takes. SPOTLIGHT takes place in real time, just before and after the cast list for a college production of WEST SIDE STORY is posted, and due to the frantic mood of the whole thing, it zips along to its conclusion in just about 30 minutes.

Q: When and/or how did you know that you wanted to create plays?

I was writing when I was in junior high school. I would write novels on notebook paper - a chapter a week, and my friends would pass them around, reading them and demanding the next chapter. I don't know what happened to any of them, but they were usually a few hundred pages. I'm sure they were all God-awful. In high school, I got involved in theatre, and I wrote the book to a musical that went to a Thespians competition, and in my first year of college, I wrote PHYSICAL, which is about a couple of mismatched roommates. On a fluke, I sent it to Samuel French, and was surprised when an editor called me a few months later saying that French wanted to publish it.

Q: What inspires you to take on a new project?

My current client list is so massive that something really has to blow me away in order for me to consider getting involved. Drew Fornarola and Scott Elmegreen are the perfect example of two young writers who are the real deal. They are incredibly talented and have all sorts of projects in the pipeline, and as you know, they were winners at a recent Sam French One Act Festival with their play THUCYDIDES. Similarly, my clients Tim Drucker and Randy Blair are a team that you should definitely keep your eye on. They had a huge Fringe hit a few years back with their musical, PEREZ HILTON SAVES THE UNIVERSE, and their current project, FAT CAMP, co-written with my client Matt Berger, was a hit at NYMF and is currently under a First Class option.

Q: Have you ever come across a production that made you see one of your plays in a new or unexpected way?

Productions of my plays? I once saw a really awful, amateur production of THE CRUMPLE ZONE that had me wanting to put a bag over my head and sneak out the back door halfway through. On the other hand, I had planned to wear a bag over my head when I went to That Theatre Company's off-off Broadway production of my play PHYSICAL at 45th Street Theatre in May. PHYSICAL is one of the first plays I ever wrote, and I'd never before seen a production of it. I was sure it was going to be a rotten piece of garbage, badly performed. But I was totally surprised to show up and see a really smartly directed, well acted production, where the jokes all landed where they were supposed to land, and the message about how people are so often judged solely on their physical appearance is much sharper than I remember it being.

(Photo courtesy of the author)