UpClose: Hope Lynne Price-Lindsay, Women’s Voices Theater Festival

Playwright Hope Lynne Price-Lindsay’s new play, For the Love of Oscar, debuts October 28, 2015, produced by The New Millennium Howard Players.She is a certified Theater Teacher in the District of Columbia Public Schools and has been teaching K-12 for the last seventeen years at schools throughout the district, including the acclaimed Duke Ellington High School of the Arts and the Fillmore Arts School. Prior, she was Drama Director of Montgomery Blair High School, where she directed all theater productions and taught drama and directing.
Her plays: Brave Bessie, Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum; A Love Supreme, The DC Black Theater Festival; For The Love of Oscar, reading at The Dramatist Guild’s National Conference 2015. Children’s book: These Hands, Disney’s Hyperion Books for Children) and novelist (Luke Warm, Archway Publishing). She has performed in TV & film, off-Broadway, regional theater and summer stock.  She is now the Artistic Director of The New Millennium Howard Players in Washington, DC.
and invites you to contact her.

Why are you a playwright?

I’ve been writing since childhood, it’s my calling, however, after graduating with a degree in theater and a short lived acting career, I began writing spec scripts for television and found that I had a gift for writing dialogue. That blossomed into writing for the stage, which is probably where I should have started anyway!

What type of theatre most excites you?

The type of theater that touches you. The type that has you still thinking after the curtain closes, theater that tells a story worthy of being told, theater that provides glimpses of places I otherwise wouldn’t know, theater that brings about catharsis, theater that tells a really good story with poignant messages or makes me laugh out loud, ALSO I do appreciate theater for the sake of escapism, sheer entertainment, a good musical with exciting choreography and memorable songs!

What starts a play moving in your imagination?

Situations in real life or history.

Describe your writing day.

I tend to write in spurts, and deliver with deadlines. However, I have to give myself credit, because with many of my works (novels, screenplay, plays) the initial deadlines during the writing process were self imposed. My goal is to write two hours a day, with each new year, that is my resolution!

How did you choose this play to debut at the Festival?

I just had a reading of FOR THE LOVE OF OSCAR at The Dramatist Guild’s national conference in LaJolla this summer and had just finished a revision and it was ready.

Which playwrights have influenced your writing and how?

Probably August Wilson the most. We actually write in a similar style. The exception is this play that’s in the festival FOR THE LOVE OF OSCAR, which is more like a BAREFOOT IN THE PARK, with no ethnic affiliations, very universal.

What’s missing from theatre today?

Theater has become unaffordable for those that are not affluent. I love Broadway, but even I can’t afford to see a Broadway show regularly! I heard the cost of an orchestra seat for one of the new shows on Broadway is over $500.00! What happened to $40.00 tickets that are not in nosebleed alley?

What are you working on now?

A play titled THE ROYAL MAJESTICS, about a Black male doo-wop group in the sixties.

Answer this: “If I weren’t a playwright, I would be … ”

A staff writer for a television show! I’m good at coming up with great plots!

Anything you would like to add?

I’m so grateful for this festival. At The Dramatist Guild’s national conference this summer there was a major panel discussion about the very low percentages of woman playwrights getting produced hosted by Marsha Norman, Julia Jordan and Lisa Kron and then I come back to DC and learn of this fantastic festival and I was determined to be a part of it. It’s awesome and I hope it will become an annual or biannual festival. This festival puts us at the forefront of the country on this issue!

Read on

Our Guide to Women’s Voices Theater Festival
and
More interviews with WVTF playwrights