Playwright Liz Duffy Adams shares her thoughts about OR,.

Freedom is a constant theme in Or,- sexual, spiritual and artistic.  Do you feel all three are linked and is it possible to have one without the other two? 

And don’t forget political freedom. I think they’re all linked, yes. Where there’s political oppression all other freedoms suffer, and in those wonderful periods and places that cycle through human history, where the power is less abusive, and people can make free choices in whom to love, what to believe, and what art to make—those are utopian moments, however inevitably flawed, and that’s what Or, celebrates.

Or, plays off the echoes between the 1660’s and 1960’s – two periods in history which allowed for enormous freedom after much repression.  Do you think our society allows people such freedom? 

I think we’re relatively lucky in our current society here. Taking even a casual glance around the world and through human history it’s easy to see how lucky we are, but still, it’s a lot less free for some people than others. I hope we’re heading toward a time of even greater freedom, for many more people. (Of course, even the word “freedom” is subject to interpretation; ensuring all citizens freedom from want and freedom from fear is a part of any civilized society, and we’re not there yet.)

A sense of hope, the promise of change and the need for acceptance seem interlaced throughout Or,.  The advent of the Obama Administration has fostered similar feelings in the US.  Did this moment in our history inspire the creative process in anyway?

Yes. I wrote Or, before President Obama was elected (during the primaries, actually). But I think I wrote it out of the same hopeful longing that millions were feeling, that helped elect him; hope does echo at this moment in history. I was tired of writing out of the anger, outrage and grief that the last few years brought us. I was dreaming of a new era: rational, enlightened, expansive. I was thinking about the cyclical nature of history, and wondering if the wheel was going to turn again.

Aphra Behn is a fascinating historical figure – how did she influence the writing of Or,?

Or, was inspired by a 10-minute play I wrote when I was in the WP Playwrights Lab (run at the time by Lisa McNulty) in 2001. The theme of that year's short play festival was money; I had just read an Aphra Behn biography and she was always short of money, sometimes desperate. 
It's called Aphra Does Antwerp, now published and licensed by Playscripts, Inc. It's set just before the events of Or, when Aphra was stuck in Antwerp on a spying mission that was going badly.

It's different in tone, form, and style from Or,--it's completely in rhyming couplets, for one thing--but the idea of writing a full-length about Aphra stuck with me for years. I did research and reading off and on over the years, then wrote the first (and close to the final) draft very quickly in 2 weeks during a New Dramatists Playtime workshop. It had another New Dramatists reading and workshop, then a mini-workshop last spring with New Georges.

The character of Aphra Behn is a smart sexy woman who charts her own destiny regardless of the limitations of her gender.   She is the sort of gal who would fit in beautifully at WP!  As a working playwright, how important do you feel Women's Project (WP) is in American Theater?

I think WP serves a great and important need in the American Theater. There’s been a lot of debate lately about the fact that far fewer plays by women playwrights (and directed or designed by women) get produced. The fact that this hasn’t changed since the time of WP’s founding 32 years ago is just bizarre, I have to say, and it makes WP’s mission more critical than ever. It looks like it could be another generation before we achieve parity, and in the meanwhile WP helps redress the imbalance, encourage some discouraged playwrights, and rescue some plays that I for one want to see.

They say most people will have at least three careers in one lifetime – have you always been a playwright?

No, I started out as an actor, or really first as an experimental theater artist, both writing and performing. Later I studied classical acting, Shakespearean as well as Restoration, and played in some little off-off Broadway classical productions, which turned out to be good training for writing, especially in verse! And I was a copywriter for a while, then Editor for two years of the now defunct Stage & Screen Book Club (nee Fireside Theater). I’ve also had a long career in scrambling for a living, starting when I was 17; I’ve had by rough count some 28 kinds of jobs, some more respectable than others. Also pretty good training for a writer. (See photo of the playwright at left--as Elmire in Moliere's Tartuffe).

On a personal note, would you like to share with WP’s audience a favorite pastime?

Fantasizing about real estate. I think I became a true New Yorker when I stopped daydreaming about love and began dreaming about square footage and terraces.

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