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Patricia Lynn
3 Plays2 minutes ago
Patricia Lynn is a playwright/actor who has worked extensively in NYC independent theatre. As a writer, Patricia fancies herself to be a gothic feminist; she loves to subvert the classic genre by creating provocative plays inspired by traditional gothic stereotypes. Her plays have been developed at Triad Stage, New Perspectives Theatre Company, The Secret Theatre, Rogue Theater Festival, and Phillips’ Mill Community Association. As an actor, Patricia has worked at TheatreWorksUSA, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Soho Playhouse, Capital Fringe, NYC Fringe Festival, and many more. MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University; MFA in Acting from Brown University/Trinity Repertory.
In this episode we talk about her new play The Truth about Transylvania debuting during Halloween week October 24, 2025.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing. Creator and host, Ken Valente. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer.
Meet Patricia Lynn
00:00:14
Speaker
Hey everybody, this is Ken Valente with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast and we've got Patricia Lynn on this episode.
00:00:25
Speaker
Patricia is a New York City based theater maker.
Patricia's Gothic Feminism
00:00:28
Speaker
She fancies herself to be a gothic feminist She aims to reclaim the traditionalist genre by writing contemporary gothic plays that ask provocative questions about women and society today.
00:00:40
Speaker
She also adapts iconic gothic novels for the stage. All right, I purchased my ticket. I'm in, Patricia. ah Great! We'd love to have you. Tell us, tell us, um, I mean, that's provocative to me.
00:00:55
Speaker
Uh,
00:00:59
Speaker
I love the gothic. love gothic literature. You take a class of gothic work, you're thinking about the stage, you're going to like, we get a ah center women and in this. but What's going on with your process? Like what what's coming out that's new when you go into this creative process?
Re-reading Gothic Classics
00:01:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, ah just a little about me. i I was always obsessed with Gothic literature as a kid. And then as an adult, you kind of start, you reread things you loved as a kid and you see it through a different lens, kind of with age and maturity. And one thing I observed about a lot of that work is the traditional stereotypes of women or the misogyny.
00:01:50
Speaker
are all the kind of things that happened in like 19th century Gothic literature specifically. So Dracula, Jekyll and Hyde, all those classic works. i Even Mary Shelley with Frankenstein, you know, the men really take the center stage in that story while Elizabeth has more of a secondary role.
From Acting to Directing
00:02:09
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:09
Speaker
um so And I think gothic is so suited for the stage in terms of how heightened it is, how dramatic it is. It's probably why I loved it as a kid so much because I've been making theater since fourth, fifth grade.
00:02:24
Speaker
um So kind of that's probably why that style of literature always spoke to me so much. So um as I became more of a writer, I started as an actor. I kind of do everything, really. I've directed, I've stage managed, I'm the costume designer and the scenic designer for The Truth About Transylvania, and I'm in it.
00:02:44
Speaker
um so um So I think I love kind of just...
Challenging Masculinity in 'The Truth About Transylvania'
00:02:49
Speaker
um finding ways to honor the original story that I grew up loving so much, but also finding what's a way to put my stamp on it, whether it is centering women front and center, or in Truth About Transylvania, what we're doing is actually asking a lot of questions about what is the conception of masculinity, and how does that, these concepts of, quote unquote, what is a real man,
00:03:14
Speaker
yeah um drive um men to act a certain way. um Because in some ways, ah you can't have a conversation about what's happening with misogyny and patriarchal culture without like looking what is the impact on the male psyche as well.
00:03:31
Speaker
so you know So this story kind of centers men more than most of my work, but then you do have... the character I'm playing who is struggling with, I don't want anyone to see me as a damsel in distress.
00:03:44
Speaker
Um, because I'm stuck in Transylvania, um, and apparently bitten by a vampire. Um, so I know how everyone's going to see me. Yeah. so no I don't broad, broad, like sweep here on like classic topic.
Empowering Female Characters
00:04:03
Speaker
It's almost tell me if you agree, like, uh,
00:04:07
Speaker
the the women can be part of the expected set piece, right? It's a question of agency well within it. um I found in general, my thinking, the overall concept of doom that sometimes you're introduced to like early on affects the agency and affects female agency because it's like There's something about the God that he was... I'm thinking of, like, Fall of the House of Usher.
00:04:43
Speaker
Like, you're giving these details, cracks, the relationship. You're like, this is fucking doomed. Like, and then within that setting... what agency do you have did you let me let me twist it a little bit like with some of the works you've gone back towards it have you been surprised or like what you could develop and what you saw in female agency and say a classic ah gothic piece of literature
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, because it's interesting because i think what you're speaking to is, you know, what is the question of agency for these women, especially when most of the times trauma that happens to them in these stories end up driving the man to action?
00:05:31
Speaker
um Because, oh, no, my partner has been injured or bitten by vampire um or, you know, um, ah the Frankenstein's monster, Carol's, spoiler alert, kills... Sorry.
00:05:47
Speaker
Sorry if you haven't seen the new movie. There's a movie coming out too, I guess. Yeah, there's a movie coming out. It's going to um that ah That it drives the man to action. It doesn't drive the woman to stand up for herself.
00:06:01
Speaker
um and kind of overcome this is what happened to me. um So I think the the female characters can become their trauma instead of who is the person outside
Creative Process and Imagery
00:06:12
Speaker
of their trauma. i got to yeah um and So that's what I like to dive into in terms of like, I don't necessarily want to shy away from the doom, from the drama, from like all those things we love in Gothic literature.
00:06:24
Speaker
um but how do you twist it so the woman ends up standing on her feet more? and standing up for herself more. And that's always what's surprising because I don't always know when I start.
00:06:36
Speaker
I just know like this is the person speaking to me. Yeah. and you know And I'm a very image-driven writer. um its So it's usually some weird dream I've had or I'm like about to fall asleep and then I get this...
00:06:52
Speaker
image There's this whole thing in Truth About Transylvania about the truth chair, which is if you have it was you sit in the chair, you have to tell the truth. And everyone's like, how do you how did you think of that? and I'm like, I don't know.
00:07:07
Speaker
um but it's this image in my head of like so john who's our central character in this if he sits in this chair he has to tell the truth and because that's what his father taught him and that's what his father said this is how you this is what a man her um and so he's trying to retell his story because ultimately john is trying to convince everyone what happened that dracula is real and what happened in transylvania is true um and so he that's his kind of overall journey throughout the so it's a memory play um and i didn't always see yeah and i didn't always see it as's a memory play either which is interesting so you start out with how do you want to adapt these works um and then the work sometimes surprises you or the character surprises you or this truth chair image pops in your head and then i'm
00:07:59
Speaker
And then I'm up at 5 a.m. rewriting ah a monologue that I'm all sudden, I'm like, oh, this is how this play starts.
The Magic of Live Theater
00:08:10
Speaker
yeah I love that. no i havent and Thanks for taking us in, too, because like yeah ah what I like about talking about that way is the text having such as these residual properties that you don't know.
00:08:27
Speaker
in be working or thinking about it again where those pieces are going to be, where you develop. Right. True chair.
00:08:38
Speaker
True chair. and Goodness gracious. hey yeah Maybe I'll put one here somewhere when I need some truth from sleep. Right. Might catch on as an idea. Tell us about, you mentioned, you know, you've been doing art and stuff for while and talking about talking about you. um Was there moment, uh, your life where you said, I'm an artist, like this is what I do. like You leaned into it. What was that journey like?
00:09:09
Speaker
I think for me, i mean i i think I mentioned earlier, I i started doing theater fourth, fifth grade. um Fifth grade, I know that's when I was in my first show called The Planet of the Perfectly Awful People, by the way, ah classic bit of literature. It sounds good to me. I'm a sucker.
00:09:29
Speaker
sorry I got a pie thrown in my face. I mean, how can you not want to do theater for the rest your life? After getting that yeah that big of a laugh. As long it's not a pie. Exactly.
00:09:40
Speaker
um So I've always kind of been drawn to ah telling a story, whether that it is on the actor on the stage, or I also remember writing, I think I wrote my first play in fourth grade for an extra credit.
00:09:56
Speaker
um You could write an epilogue for the mixed up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Yeah. um which was a book we had read. love that book. And I still remember, it's such a good book, right? Nobody wants to read it when I recommend it to other people. they look at me with a sigh. I'm like, bullshit, read that book.
00:10:14
Speaker
Oh, it's wonderful. I know. I'm in the wrong crowd sometimes. Yeah. um I'll start recommending and see what happens um and see I get the same response. um And so, and I just always remembered, it's just, it's telling stories and there's something to me about telling a story live.
00:10:32
Speaker
So sometimes people are like, you want to adapt this to a screenplay or make this a short film. And I'm usually like, no. because there is something about the immediacy of telling a story and you've got one shot on this night to tell this story to this specific group of people that's the piece that blows me away like um and i love that i've been able to talk to him my show like the creators theater broadway off broadway and i'm able to but tap into the like a creative piece that's just like really
00:11:09
Speaker
fascinates me ah but like the energy around it like live performance and I talked you know about you know say comedy and theater and when it's like as opposed to other art experiences it was like you know you can talk about in a way that second night I fucking killed it or like you know or being like boom you know let's go The promise of live performance that has all these particularities to it, don't think people sit down on the bench and think about that a little bit. I love the the surprise that the format guarantees.
00:11:55
Speaker
Well, I still remember having a conversation with my family when I was doing theater. And I remember talking to my dad because my dad went to every single one of my brother's football games and he only saw my plays once.
00:12:08
Speaker
And I was like, why do you see all of his sports games, but you only see my play once? And he's like, well, it's the same. And I'm like, go see it again. And now he sees my shows multiple times.
00:12:20
Speaker
Yeah, Dad. You explained it. Good, Dad. um Because he was like, oh, the football games are different. And I was like, um the football games look exactly the same. me
00:12:33
Speaker
um So it's all about perspective. But and then, ah yeah, there is something to the immediacy of and the nuance that can come out. um yeah Even just doing the difference from a first show and a last show that um the bond you can have with your actors deepens.
00:12:51
Speaker
um And then just the story becomes more textured and rich the more you tell it in front of an audience. um Because the audience is the essential component of theater. Like that's what makes it theater. um So learning um what they respond to, whether it's a laugh or whether it's a gasp or my favorite is actually just that silence but where you could just hear a pin drop because the entire room is just really listening everything that's happening on that stage.
Art as Passion and Collaboration
00:13:23
Speaker
Like that's gold.
00:13:25
Speaker
That's magic. yeah Um, and, and, and cause everyone's just built that collective unraptured with this story and what's happening on this stage right now.
00:13:37
Speaker
Um, and and you can't beat that. I mean, in my opinion, like that's like the dream. That's why I, stay up late and, um, you know, paint things till two in the morning and, you know, do all you have to do to make that live experience for an audience.
00:13:53
Speaker
Yeah. love that. What is art? What is art? Um, I mean, the first word that came to my head is passion.
00:14:05
Speaker
Art is passion. And when passion is such a great, broad word. And I think art is the same. So, like, we can have a similar passion for a story, but that passion can derive from a different place, whether it's energy-wise, whether it's idea-wise, that um can compel you to tell this story. Like, the cast we have is fantastic.
00:14:28
Speaker
Yeah. and but ah And you can tell all of us are passionate about different sides of the same story. um So I think art is passion to me. And the most exciting art to me to take it a step further is when all those passions come together and you collaborate to make it one big piece, whether it is a it is visual. Thank you Yeah. I've asked this question a million, billion times, much to this a chagrin of some folks around me, but um yeah, I don't.
00:15:08
Speaker
when i heard passion It popped into my head, like the word, not that people an answer about passion, but passion as a concept really stuck out to me.
00:15:19
Speaker
right, what's the role of art now?
Modern Gender Themes in Dracula
00:15:23
Speaker
is that is that Is the role of art change we're recording here? a little later 2025 is you know whether it's a place or any piece of art is the role of art different now or is art just kind of arty like it has to and it should have well I think um wonder if it's little of both
00:15:50
Speaker
because I think the the function of art within the society should always be malleable. Just like passion is always malleable. Passion changes, passion deepens, passion fades.
00:16:02
Speaker
um That's one of the exciting things about it. And I think, especially in a more tumultuous time, um art moves art changes art um but art sustains just like i think passion always sustains or whether it can darken or it can brighten but like once you have a passion for something i think that never fades so i think in my opinion art will never fade but art will always change love it
00:16:35
Speaker
Can you geek out on the truth about Transylvania telling us about the print about the production and people involved in bit of the story without compromise?
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah. So I'm always happy to geek out about something I wrote. So thank you for this opportunity. ah guess that's a courtesy. um So it is inspired by Dracula, just going through basics. um And kind of the story has become centered on John Harker, who...
00:17:15
Speaker
in my opinion in the book is a wonderful wonderful character but in a lot of adaptations he doesn't really get the spotlight i think he deserves um and there's a lot in the book about there all the other male characters like because the book is diary entries um phonograph recording so you get in everyone's um point of view which is nice and all the men keep thinking about him um Oh, he's not. I was expecting someone more manly. Okay. Like, um because he survived um being with a vampire. And, oh, and this little guy came in.
00:17:55
Speaker
And that always just irked me. Because I was like, this is a wonderful, flawed, intelligent man. Why are we constantly judging him?
00:18:08
Speaker
Yeah. And... And in thinking about what's happening in the world today with gender identity and role, i think a lot of this comes back to we have this conception of what is a man. yeah and um And if you don't fit that mold, you are...
00:18:28
Speaker
ah yeah judge And I think that's spilled out to how we see women, how we see trans, how we see, you know, cisgender or trans, how we see all these other identities that exist in our world, I think come back to there is a concept of what is a man.
00:18:44
Speaker
And if you are not bad, you are failure. um And so it's been interesting juxtaposing that with traditional Dracula. So a man goes to a castle.
00:18:57
Speaker
It is set in modern day. um So it is 2025. And so John takes his wife to Transylvania for their kind of a second honeymoon.
00:19:09
Speaker
Chris, why not? Go to Transylvania. um Something different. You know, silver flyer. yeah Beautiful, um beautiful nights. be it Beautiful nights. The mountains. it's and There's a lot of forests. Actually, if you look up images of Transylvania, I was shocked.
00:19:25
Speaker
I was like, beautiful here. That's why people go. Yeah, let's go. So he goes to Transylvania with his partner and they've you know they've been having a rough time so they're looking to reconnect.
00:19:39
Speaker
Um, on, um, and of course, um, vampire madness and students. Um, and so he's trying to convince the world. So there's a lot of director dress monologue cause he is basically doing a live stream, trying to convince people guys, Dracula is real.
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah. Here's how I know. And so then we kind of jumped back and forth in time the kind of, as he tells his story. Um, and, um, and we're kind of playing with a different conception of Dracula, not to give too much away, but it's not going to be Bela Lugosi up there or, you know, Gary Oldman or Franklin Jella or those kind of, um, archetypes that we've come to know with the Dracula myth.
00:20:29
Speaker
Um, like we're playing with something more visceral, more primal, um, at going back to that conception of, uh, what is made.
Gender Roles and Identity
00:20:39
Speaker
um um In like kind of that caveman dark sense. Yeah. i am
00:20:46
Speaker
I think it's such an important question that you posed at the beginning, particularly because comports with my understanding like the definition of a man or male and and like things flown from that. Right.
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah. but characteristics and attributes that a man might exhibit that look male and then like a counter bit basic maybe relationships with women it's like deep care deep sensitivity and it's like there's something about regardless on the gender question it's always we're calling this like duality and the categorization doesn't
00:21:35
Speaker
it I think it creates just so much difficulty in life of ascribing attributes, characteristics, failings by mere presentation.
00:21:52
Speaker
um Short changes to everybody. Yeah, and it and and you're right. It's it's all identities that wrestle with. like Sometimes we're expected to be a concept, not a person.
00:22:03
Speaker
Yeah. Because people are unique. People are specific. People are nuanced versus this concept of whether it is man, woman, non-binary, whatever your identity may be. there' is usually And there's a pressure to meet that standard. And if you don't, you're a failure as a person.
00:22:24
Speaker
when really the joy of being a person is being human, which means you will make mistakes, which is great to have in a monster story because you have a monster and then you, and I do think the best monster stories are the ones where you do focus on the humans.
Desire and Duality in Vampire Lore
00:22:42
Speaker
And it's because we always are fascinated by the idea of what a human being is going to do when faced with a monster. So that's when you see how, who that person really is. I think about it all the time.
00:22:55
Speaker
Monsters. yeah Monsters is, yeah. ah I find that the, just talking about Dracula vampires and such for me, like it's always been such a fertile area. Like even when I've observed casually, I mean, it's,
00:23:22
Speaker
blood and there's eroticism and homoeroticism and ah just intense, like palpable atmospheres, things seem to threaten.
00:23:40
Speaker
Senses are pitched because, and I think there's such, ah and particularly the work that you do in good i'm not talking about the word like that you do in rewriting recreams just seemed like in general that area has so much fertility and for areas that humans can be shown keen interest over time, darkness, sex, uh, living forever, curse, haunted. And I'm like, I get excited about it because like all these big life things are, are, are in that mythology and just the presence of blood and sucking blood and like that contact is like, well, there's a ton in there.
00:24:29
Speaker
And I wish I could, I would hopefully, uh, see the truth about Transylvania, like how that manifests.
00:24:42
Speaker
um Question you and as an actor, and this is like a little bit of a lens into, what's it like for you to be the character in the thing that you wrote when you acted?
Acting Insights and Playwriting
00:25:01
Speaker
Yeah, i i I think because I was trained as an actor first, um because i have I have a master's degree in acting, and then 15 years later, I got a master's degree in creative writing. Where were those from, Ivy? I'm sorry to interrupt.
00:25:16
Speaker
Oh, sure. and I went to Brown University, Trinity Repertory for acting. Yes. And then i went to Leslie University, and I just graduated in 2023. Yeah. sorry. I just had the like budge rating there.
00:25:32
Speaker
I'm from Rhode Island originally. Oh. Yeah. And so Trinity Rep for me and I love this coming from my parents. It's like they weren't like into art and stuff.
00:25:44
Speaker
Trinity Rep. and they created this great, like being proud of it in Rhode Island. Yeah. Trinity Rep and having this great art. So the reason why I ask that, I'm trying to remember, I thought, the howl of Trinity Rep. Sorry to interrupt you. We were talking about you in...
00:26:07
Speaker
act in your work. Yeah. um So I think there is something to, and I've talked to like a couple other playwrights who also act in their work, um that there is something to, when you're trained as an actor, like that's how you enter a play.
00:26:24
Speaker
And so much of the writing is you want the dialogue, you know, I always want it to zip and pop. Like, my stuff is usually witty, um even in high tension situations, um even if there's blood and violence. I'm like,
00:26:37
Speaker
no, there's a joke. Don't worry. Because humor comes out of those situations. You're nervous. so many Yeah, exactly. so many It's a different kind of laugh, but yeah there should be a laugh. um So ah there is something to doing it with them.
00:26:54
Speaker
Because um sometimes you can feel um instead of listening. So listen, I can analyze it too much. Versus if I'm in the trenches with them, if I'm in the rain, if I'm like going through the story right along bit with them, I can usually, specifically cuts, I can usually go, this scene is too long.
00:27:16
Speaker
Because the pace, I'm with them. And I'm like, yep, the pace this is where we want to feel Yeah, it's ah it's a heart thing instead of a head thing. And I think the best writers can balance both.
00:27:28
Speaker
um so So sometimes when I'm acting in a work, sometimes we'll read the whole thing and I won't play my part. I'll kind of ask someone to come in so I can hear it and then I can analyze it and then I can do my heart work when I'm playing part.
00:27:42
Speaker
Can I ask you a a question? I heard a couple of points you mentioned earlier. it seems like dialogue is super important to you and to be like, I want to explain something like in writing, I'm always tilted towards writing.
The Importance of Dialogue and Rhythm
00:28:00
Speaker
um the dialogue, like always, always, always. And I feel sometimes um what I try to tell myself to do for the rest of the world is like to tell myself, can have them describe like what color is around or what something looks like or anything like that. And so dialogue. like I love connected to them, but like sometimes in creating, it's like, what is people like? Where are they? What's the atmosphere? and um But I love the way you described it as far as like
00:28:44
Speaker
words chris me and like um english speak, the words, I become so um ah pulled in by those.
00:28:55
Speaker
But um do you look at the dialogue for kind of likeaded andy themm eat or or in like the meter? Is that your guided principle? Yeah, I mean, this is actually Truth About Transylvania is the first show I've kind of done in more heightened language. i like My earlier work is a pretty contemporary um like ah um I always like to think I was highly inspired by Gilmore Girls because that was my favorite TV show and that sparkle in the dialogue and and how how many contemporary references can you throw in and things like that.
00:29:32
Speaker
um But then with Gothic works, because as we were talking about, it is heightened. The stakes are always high, literally and figuratively. um that ah we ah heightened language just suits it. so it's not So this play isn't verse, but it's not contemporary. It sits somewhere in between.
00:29:55
Speaker
So there is cadence and a rhythm. And actually, our actor who's playing John was talking about it the other day. And he was like, this feels like Shakespeare sometimes, which I was like, well, that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. Thank you. Thank you. I hit my mark.
00:30:13
Speaker
Yeah. um Because he was like, ah because Shakespeare has that very specific iambic spectameter. Yeah. And when you're memorizing Shakespeare, you know immediately when it's wrong.
00:30:25
Speaker
Because it's just like, no, the rhythm is off. Yeah, it's again, it's a heart thing. um And so so i think this play is like a really, there's a heart rhythm to it. So it's not as precise as iambic pentameter or anything like that.
00:30:39
Speaker
You know, there's no rhyming couplets or things like that you that you may prescribe to traditional verse. But there is like a heightened quality and a heart rhythm. that drives the piece um because that's what's driving this man is that he wants to tell his story he wants to prove the truth which is such a personal thing so for me like contemporary language just wasn't enough yeah oh it's fun talking about that i've been i didn't plan on it but um
00:31:16
Speaker
I've just been having to bump into Gothic artists and writers and such and
The Allure of Gothic Art
00:31:22
Speaker
novelists. And it's this time of the year, but I didn't overly go for it. So it's nice to bump into.
00:31:29
Speaker
i i just i just love all this. Can you tell, um we're recording here in mid-October, 2025. Can you tell us bit about can you tell us a bit about um the truth about Transylvania, ah the performance, where the performance is going to be and just like, you know, this being out there and having life.
00:31:59
Speaker
Sure. Yeah. So performances are going to be at the Art New York theater spaces, which is at, for those in Manhattan, 53rd Street and 10th Ave. um In the Mezzanine Theater, they have two theaters, so it's in the larger space.
00:32:14
Speaker
uh, performances start October 24th. We're only running for one week, the Halloween week, of course. yeah Um, so our last show is November 1st.
00:32:26
Speaker
So there are only seven chances to catch it. Um, and there's information on our website, which is, uh, www.transylvania, the play.com.
00:32:38
Speaker
Cool. That's awesome. Um,
00:32:44
Speaker
I wanted to ask the big question just to get out of the way, you know, like, cause I think Patricia might have the answer. Why is there something rather than nothing?
00:32:59
Speaker
Say that again. I'm sorry. You broke up. Why is there something rather than nothing? Why is there something rather than nothing? Okay.
00:33:09
Speaker
Well, I think it's what we've been talking about. I think it's passion. I think it's as long as there's people, I think there's human. i think even though sometimes in this world, it can feel like there's nothing and it's hopeless.
00:33:24
Speaker
There's always something because there's always passion and there's always art. And maybe that's a little naive of me, but that's what's fueled me from day one.
00:33:36
Speaker
There's... semi naive components in my own head that I don't get rid of. Cause they feel you.
00:33:46
Speaker
They may be quote unquote naive, but they they get you through. I'm going to keep that space in my head for survivability.
00:33:58
Speaker
Um, uh, I wanted to ask you additionally, since you've done, uh, so much work, um, in plays and et cetera, can you, um, uh, can you talk about, um, some of the other adaptations, uh, that, that you've done? Cause this is, there's some back behind this about your reworking the Gothic, um,
00:34:29
Speaker
the feminine and feminist. um What other projects have we tried they get to and creed why after you Yeah. um So i'm going I've been working on a Jekyll and Hyde adaptation for a while that ah will be done next year at Art New York.
00:34:54
Speaker
um So I'm excited about that. I've done a Turning of the... I almost called it Taming of the Shrew. No. Turn of the Screw.
00:35:05
Speaker
Yes, I saw that as well. I love Yeah, that's a one-act play. that Really? wrote Yeah, that i i but I think Turn of the Screw is just...
00:35:16
Speaker
um And that's not an adaptation as much as it's inspired by, because it actually takes place after the events of the novel. No way. andla I should say, because i'm I've always been like, spoiler alert again, everyone.
00:35:30
Speaker
um It ends with the boy... dying and i'm always just like even the last sentence like he yeah yeah like yeah why exactly yeah um and so i literally thought well she's screwed um and i was like oh screwed that's the name of the play um because it's about how no one believes her side of the story um that's for of what Yeah. Flora believes her.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah. um and um And so... The governess. Yeah, the governess. Yeah. Because she doesn't get... governess doesn't get a name. um i James doesn't get her a name.
00:36:14
Speaker
And...
00:36:19
Speaker
And Dracula is probably the book that started me on this whole Gothic adventure. So I've always said i would write a new Dracula every five years.
00:36:33
Speaker
awesome so And highlight a different character because there's so many great characters in there. um So I'm already tin tinkering with the next one. and And I do original stuff as well, as you mentioned with my bio. um So it's things that are inspired by Gothic, but not necessarily an adaptation. So last year we did a show called The Maiden and the Mesmerizer, which is a two-hander about a romance between um a stage hypnotist and the charming assistant
00:37:06
Speaker
who wears a maid costume. So she's the maid, he's the mesmerizer, and it's inspired by like Jane ey Weathering Heights, those kinds of Gothic romance novels specifically. um ah And so it's just a two-hander love story that goes wrong.
00:37:26
Speaker
um Spoiler alert again. I'm just dragging them all over the place. Yeah. Well, I mean, if you know Weathering Heights, like that does not end well. Yeah. um ah so um ah So sometimes it's taking the concepts or the tropes and themes from that work and applying it to an original storyline is something fun to do as well.
00:37:50
Speaker
And another indulgence here, Turning the Screw for me is one of the greatest works of art, ghost story, et cetera. I think Henry James is...
00:38:06
Speaker
I mean, just as far as a writer is just a brilliant, brilliant craftsman. Turning the Screw has so much to it. And I want to tell you about one experience that blew my mind. I tell everybody about this.
00:38:22
Speaker
When I was, but so there was, what's the name, the Truman Capote screenplay, the movie they made of that, i think was called the era that they made of, of, of turning the screw.
00:38:37
Speaker
Truman Capote writes the screenplay for And I'm like, in my head, when I first found out, I'm like, true I adore Truman Capote. And I'm like, Capote's doing the screenplay for the turn the screw. It's like, a you know, just in a story, beautiful thing.
00:38:59
Speaker
As the carriage, ah kind i transporting the governess on an initial scene, moving through a boggy, swampy area over, laid with fog, moving, through bumping around, governess is getting over to her a new location.
00:39:22
Speaker
When I watched that, it was please we how i envisioned that scene looking and i'm not into like accordance like the whole movie versus book thing is it's just so ill calibrated i love talking about it but it's still calibrated but my mouth dropped because i'm like i adore truman cabote i adore henry james now somebody's doing this visually and i I am watching what was in my mind, just on the approach. It wasn't like the characters looked like in my head or anything like that. Just the entry, the grounds, it all comported exactly in my head.
Vampires' Timeless Appeal
00:40:09
Speaker
And i was like, I've never had that experience. It was so cool. Yeah, that's amazing. oh One, it sounds so like, the word we've been talking about so much is Gothic, which I think is, for me, Gothic is the juxtaposition of beauty and horror or beauty and scary.
00:40:29
Speaker
So yeah like you have the carriage. Yeah. You have decay happening, but it's beautiful somehow. And it's, and that juxtaposition and that duality that we love in um the best of stories, whether it's life and death,
00:40:44
Speaker
And so for me, it's obviously life and death is a huge part of Gothic literature, but for me, it's beauty mixed with death, decay, horror. Yeah. um Yeah. because then and Which is why I think vampires are so iconic to Gothic work is that you're terrified of them, but they still entrance you versus other monsters.
00:41:08
Speaker
um Not as much, but there is that allure of a vampire. that um even though you know it's not going to end well. Yeah.
00:41:19
Speaker
Yeah. there's it It drops into the frailty of, like, human desire and not knowing, like, you know, ambiguity around wanting to be consumed or not choosing your consumption and, like...
Rehearsal Process and Collaboration
00:41:37
Speaker
There's so much so much there. Well, thank you for operating in this area, Patricia. And yeah, I really love ah talking about um ah about the Gothic. and And in this play, I was reading about the work that you've done and how do you think about it.
00:41:59
Speaker
And I just get excited about the writing. And yeah, ah uh best of luck on this you've taken us all the way this truth about transylvania all the way through all saints day november 1st yes that's absolutely fantastic um since we have the privilege of the you know we're talking with you about you're going to be going back in to rehearsal can you just take us in what do you we doing when you go back into rehearsal, what that's like, just to give us the kinetic energy. Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't know.
00:42:42
Speaker
You don't know. No, well, I do, well because they're screaming in the background sometimes, and I'm like, oh, you're on that scene. No, we have the out-and-yum dance for the show, so I just let it, know.
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah. um And we're going to be doing actually our first full run through after I'll be going back in and we'll be able to do it's a 90 minute, no intermission show, which are my favorite.
00:43:06
Speaker
So we'll be able to just um do the full ride and which is an exciting thing. My favorite part as an actor, actually, is the first run through because that's when you learn the most of, okay, here's the part of the story I get and I'm excited and here's the part I need to like look at my scripts and think about.
00:43:26
Speaker
um So we'll be doing that journey today. Awesome. We, audience, we have to let Patricia Lynn get into her play. Thank you so much, Patricia.
00:43:40
Speaker
Thank you. Real thrill to hear you. I'm glad to hear Trinity Rep.
00:43:51
Speaker
And really appreciate your enthusiasm. Like part of doing the show, gets me excited. is the losing your mind is losing time and excitement. So otherwise don't know what the heck we're doing. So.
00:44:14
Speaker
Right, exactly. Break a leg. Great talk to you, Patricia. All right. Great to talk to you. Thank you so much for this.
00:44:25
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:44:40
Speaker
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00:44:50
Speaker
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Speaker
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Speaker
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