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Brett
Neveu
Age:
32
Title: Playwright
University/Training: I attended the University of Iowa and have worked with various Midwest play development groups, such as The Playwright’s Center in Minneapolis; No Shame Theatre in Iowa City and Chicago; and I’m currently a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists.
Recent/Current Projects: My play, Eagle Hills, Eagle Ridge, Eagle Landing was produced this past April by Spring Theatreworks in New York (and again with the same company in Fall 2002). It’s currently running here in a Factory Theatre production at Stage Left. Also upcoming in Chicago are productions of my play, Empty, with Stage Left and Eric LaRue with A Red Orchid Theatre. I also performed with The Pup At Theatre: P.Imps. Show for the Chicago Improv Festival.
How has your training/college education helped prepare you for a career in theatre?: When I attended the University of Iowa, there was an odd lack of professorial supervision and an abundance of risk-taking playwrights. I was very lucky to have classmates, such as Carson Becker, Rebecca Gilman, Naomi Wallace, Peter Ullian and David Hancock there to challenge an undergrad (me) who had a wavering interest in acting and a fast-growing interest in playwriting. The University of Iowa’s playwriting program also helped ready me for the development process that shapes all plays as they reach the stage. Students were given public reading of plays, asked to critique each other’s work and asked to expand on their definition of 'playwriting.’
Why did you choose to ply your craft in Chicago?: Just after I had gotten out of school, my wife and I moved to Minneapolis. After enjoying the city for a few months, it was suddenly WINTER, and it was so cold that people were doing super-sprints to their cars every morning. I called a friend in Chicago to complain and see what he was up to, and he told me that his newly formed theatre company was performing a Pinter one-act at Cafe Voltaire. He told me how little the space had cost and how well the whole thing was received. There they were, these 22- and 23-year-olds self-producing, getting non-profit status and being reviewed in The Reader. I, of course, wanted a part of that. So, five months later, we moved.