Workplace Injuries: Interview with Actress and Playwright Joan Mathieu

“Workplace Injuries” is a collection of three one-act plays — all of which are enjoying their world premieres — by playwrights Eric Maierson, Joan Mathieu, and Grant James Varjas. The plays will enjoy their debuts at New York’s Paradise Factory, a performing arts space founded by iconoclastic actor, writer and director Tom Noonan. The plays are described, via the official press release, as:

• BOOKSTORE. It’s just before closing time at a bookstore in Beacon, New York, when one last customer arrives to challenge the store’s owner.

• THAT PICTURE OF YOU. A college professor faces a reckoning.

• DIET COKE FOR THE DEAD. Two park rangers spend the night watching over the body of a hiker who has fallen to his death.

Joan recently discussed her experiences in this show via an exclusive interview.

Meagan Meehan (MM): How did you discover your talent for theater and did acting, writing or directing come to you first?

Joan Mathieu (JM): When I was about 13 or 14, I read Harold Pinter’s “No Man’s Land.” I was too young to understand it, but it blew my mind. That same week I read Hamlet twice in one sitting, had incredible dreams all night and woke up thinking in iambic pentameter. A few years later I joined my hometown high school drama club, got cast in George Kelly’s “The Torch-Bearers” and Jack Heifner’s: Vanities” and went on to direct a number of plays. I wanted to do Pinter, of course, but knew that wouldn’t fly in high school, so I chose Neil Simon’s “Plaza Suite.” It was a real crowd-pleaser and we had so much fun.

MM: Can you tell us about the plot of your short play and what inspired it?

JM: I had been living in the Catskills when I read a local newspaper article about some park rangers who had to watch over the body of a hiker who had fallen to his death. It was a place I hiked often, so it was a bit disturbing. And I wondered how the rangers got through the night, what they talked about, how they felt. It seemed like it might be a good play.

MM: How did your piece get included in this show?

JM: Ken Forman, who plays one of the park rangers, and his wife Angela Muto originally read “Diet Coke for the Dead” for me when it was a full-length play. That was a few years ago and I kind of forgot about the play until recently when Ken suggested I cut it down to a one-act for our festival.

MM: How long did it take to write this play?

JM: I wrote the original play in about three days.

MM: What’s your favorite part of the play and why?

JM: I like the exchanges that are written in such a way that the actors can freely perform them in any way they feel in the moment — joy, anger, fear, longing, sadness.

MM: How did you get into acting in another one of the plays in this lineup?

JM: I’ve always been interested in acting but felt like I’d gotten a bit too long in the tooth to start. I had written to Austin Pendleton about how much I admired him, and we corresponded for a bit. At one point I asked him if he thought it was too late for me to act. He wrote back that some of his best students were older and that I should go for it. Also, the actor playing Moss in Diet Coke for the Dead, Monique Vukovic, who is so wonderfully instinctual, often urged me to jump into acting. She told me to “be brave.” Between the two of them, I had no choice.

MM: What do you hope audiences take away from this overall performance?

JM: That it’s true to life and true to the writer’s intent.

MM: What is some of the best feedback you’ve gotten about this show so far?

JM: A fellow actor told me that I was staying within myself and within the moments — and that I wasn’t trying to create something that wasn’t there.

MM: What other projects are you working on right now and/or what themes might you tackle in future works?

JM: I’m working on a few plays. One is called “Queen of Sorry”, which I describe as an episode of “I Love Lucy” as written by Shirley Jackson. It explores the noirish desperation of the American dream. I’m also working on a King Lear-like story set in a Michigan lumbering town.

MM: What are your ultimate goals for the future and is there anything else that you would like to mention?

JM: Ultimately, I’d like to act in one of my own plays, continue to build the Paradise Factory company, attract loyal audience members, build collaborative relationships with our supporters and create a thriving community of passionate artists. I’d also like to mention that we are very excited to be co-producing “Leni’s Last Lament,” starring Obie-winner Jodie Markell and directed by the legendary Richard Caliban. The very funny Gil Kofman wrote this cabaret-style satire of Nazi collaborator Leni Riefenstahl — unfortunately it couldn’t be more timely, but we love having this sensational team under our roof.

*****

“Workplace Injuries” runs May 29 to June 8; for tickets and information, visit www.paradisefactory.org

All photos by Leandro Badalotti