Interview: Lucas Gomez of BLACKLISTERS at Brelby Theatre Company

Lucas Gomez is a theatre artist based out of Phoenix, Arizona. Much of his work has been with Brelby Theatre Company, a theatre founded by his college friends that he has been with since it's founding. Now entering it's 9th year, Luke has performed, directed and designed just around 30 or more shows within that time frame. His primary passion in theatre, however, is playwriting and has had 5 scripts seen production in Phoenix's west valley. In between that, Luke also works frequently across the Phoenix area as an actor and also in improv comedy. Luke has lived and worked in the Phoenix area most of his life and is and graduate of Northern Arizona University.

Hi, Luke! Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions today. Please tell me when you first became interested in theatre, what were the first few projects you did and what was the one that made you say "Ah-ha! This is what I want to do with my life!"

My family mentions that very early on I was constantly trying to perform, so like many kids theatre was probably just a direct result of a kid who can't get over not constantly getting attention. My mom did theater semi-professionally in California before she met my dad and she encouraged me to perform and my first few plays were schools plays that my mom happened to direct because she was a teacher there. I didn't get any good roles because my mom didn't want people think she was playing favorites.

There were 2 shows when I was in middle school. The first was a kids play about Jack and the Beanstalk with Missoula children's theater and then a show called An Irish Christmas Carol with Vagabond Youth Theater which is unfortunately no longer around.

I think what gave me the spark towards theatre more than anything was learning from the directors of those programs. It encouraged and made me think "Oh so there are chances outside of Broadway and Hollywood" and that was a big thing for me. I was always naturally pessimistic even as a kid, so I thought fame was a very slim possibility regardless but it seemed that it was more possible to make a living at this. Granted, that's still pretty optimistic but marginally more realistic.

It stayed with me into high school and then wavered in college early on, until I eventually gave in and majored in it. It was also less of an "Ah ha!" And more of a "Well I'm not really good at anything else so, might as well."

When did you start writing?

High school. My first script was a short film that never got made and it was going to be a kung fu comedy movie starring Jesus. That was very exciting for a church kid, and it thrilled me when I'd tell my church Youth group about it and make the adults uncomfortable. I had a few opportunities to write scripts in English and theatre classes and the one really big moment for me was when a script I wrote was selected for Arizona's Thespian Conference to be read. It definitely inflated my ego to the point where I kept at it, though my writing output would be pretty sporadic for a long time.

How do you work? What is your process?

It used to be largely based off procrastination and alcoholism. These days it leans on procrastination. In the last year or two I've been lucky to be in places where someone would want to stage something I've written and I've written specifically for that staging, so to a certain degree I often rely on theater friends to help keep me focused on finishing a work.

Starting them is easy, if an idea strikes me, or a scene, or a single quote for a show, I'll try to get it immediately written down. Eventually down the line I'll collect every idea got scattered across my laptops and phone and notebooks and collect them all and begin to prioritize what I should work on based on what strikes me the most.

I used to actually make this list into a big super list of ideas and I would send them to other theatre people and ask them which ones they liked. I'd tally the votes and work on it from there. Obviously I try to write for myself but at the same time it's important that I can make something that will get people's attention. It's like sales to me in a way, if I can just get one minute of their time, I can draw them in to the whole pitch and sell them on my story.

The biggest factor for whenever I start a story is I need to have two elements decided before I can consider it a proper working script. I need the opening and I need the climax. From there I just need to fill in the blanks like algebra. I tend to write fairly unstructured with minimal outlining unless my brain just bombards me with ideas, so having those two elements is essentially my compass as I explore a story.

How do your personal political convictions fit in to all this?

How long do we have? This is gonna be fun, I don't normally do therapy so I think we're all in for a treat. The uncertainty I feel was born out of the political situation in my show, but it's also something I've felt for a long time. I grew up in a religious household in conservative surroundings, and I considered myself an anarcho-communist in high school and college but now I've mellowed out on both ends. I consider myself moderate but increasingly my positions move me more towards the left. Despite that, there's still a lot on that side that makes me hesitant to fully take that side. Then on top of that, I get annoyed by the idea that I'm too afraid to take a side and do you see where this can loop around on itself?

My politics merged much like my religious beliefs: I leaned heavily one way and then eventually went in the opposite direction until I came to the realization I don't know nearly enough to hold strong opinions either way. That being said I still have strong opinions, because, y'know, we're all human.

When I wrote Blacklisters, I was focusing on fascism and totalitarianism through the perspective of the individual in relation to absurdism. It's strange now considering the relevance a lot people who've been involved with the script have given it. On one hand it bugs me that the current events are being very tightly tied to the story when it was not my intention, but I can't deny that interest in it has picked up as a result. As I see it, what I wrote in this show was designed to be slightly unreal and terrifying but not beholden to a specific time period. I also can't deny that inspiration comes from weird places and like most people I was obsessively watching last years politics unfold, largely in horror, so it probably affected me.

How do you separate from your personal convictions when writing characters that hold conflicting views?

I think it's fascination. When someone holds very different beliefs than I, ones that may even be kind of awful, I'm always interested in the reason behind those ideas. Even if that person is a racist, or a sexist, a religious extremist, I'm interested in what else they believe in. It's like anthropology. I don't know if you've ever gone down a facebook rabbit hole after someone who's posted a crazy awful comment and find out they have pictures of their dog?

To that degree I don't try to separate myself, but rather think about how this character might be like me, what we could agree with and go from there.

How do you make characters real? What elements need to come together for life to be breathed into the people in your plays?

This is a tough question because I often write stories in what can be considered "offbeat" or at least not normal. Real is not usually a huge issue for me, but I do try to make them varied and interesting. I think that's not a unique thing with writers. It goes back to my point about finding things I can agree with characters I completely disagree with. I like to think of contrasts within characters, what are sensitive parts of tough characters, or what are dumb parts of smart characters.

Often times it's the main story that I start with, and slowly the characters fill it up in ways they can serve it. It's part of my exploring style of writing.

What do you want the audience to be left with, when the play is done?

This might sound like a weird answer, but I hope I leave them with a foreboding sense of dread. I say this on top of my other desire to make sure the audience enjoyed themselves. Again, I know that sounds weird but my hope is that I can present a dark and horrifying story the audience can enjoy. I also have another set of one-acts going up in Phoenix shortly after this show which also deal with dark subject matter, but they're much more comical. This one is much less funny, so it's a bigger challenge for the audience. Ultimately, if we can present this story, grimness and all, and get the audience to like it still, that'll be the best accomplishment.

Thanks, Luke. I'll see you at the show - and I'll plan to go out to a funny movie afterward!

Folks, if you haven't already checked out Brelby's ShowGo program, you might want to give it look. They've got tons of programming going on all the time, and for 12 bucks a month you can see it all, as many times as you want. Is that a great deal, or WHAT?!