Erin chats with us about Branched, Brooklyn Generator and the lengths she will go to help dress her sets.
InViolet: Tell us about your journey with InViolet
Erin: It’s been a five-year love affair so far! Many years ago while on a theater retreat (for a different company), Melanie Maras and I were randomly assigned to be bunkmates in a rundown mouse-infested cabin. Needless to say, we bonded. InViolet was in its super early stages and Melanie was one of its founding members. A few years later when they were looking for new members, they invited me along on their annual retreat (no mice this time!) and I was instantly smitten.
InViolet: What is your favorite InViolet memory?
Erin: I’m going to be greedy and pick two: watching Tara Westwood, Michelle David and Andrew Blair engage in “Family Lap Time” each night during our production of Branched, and standing in the kitchen during retreat ’15 while Jeff Kurtz, Bernardo Cubria and Bixby Elliot serenaded my then 7-month-old son, Jett.
InViolet: The Brooklyn Generator is moving into its 5th Season this January. What’s it like producing this project with InViolet member, Bixby Elliot?
Erin: Unbearable. A total slog. Ha! No, Brooklyn Generator is one of the great joys of my creative life and Bixby is a dream partner. I am endlessly amazed by what playwrights can create in less-than-30-days. Our new season starts in January (stay tuned as we announce our writers!) and I am first up at bat to write. I keep telling myself “Write small plays, Erin, small!” But… it’s looking like this one wants to be 8 to 9 characters. What can you do?
InViolet: Branched was just published! How does that feel?
Erin: I’m pretty pumped about it! Jason Aaron Goldberg and Original Works Publishing rule. We had a blast a few weeks ago launching the play at Drama Book Shop with a party and performance. Three of our original InViolet cast members (Andrew, Marguerite and Tara) reprised their roles, joined by our dear Amy Kim Waschke and original director Robert Ross Parker who whipped us quickly back into shape. I’m super turned on by the idea of getting this play on as many university and regional stages as possible, so if any folks reading are still connected to their alma maters and want me to gift a copy of the play to their school, let me know!
InViolet: You have several projects happening right now with our friends at The Collective. Tell us about that!
Erin: Yes! I feel so lucky to have two plays, Check Out and Zero Efs (1st written for an InViolet one Night Stand!) involved in The Collective’s annual short play festival, C:10. They fully stage 12 plays and publish them in a fancy anthology each year. Check Out is playing December 7th through 10th at Paradise Factory in NYC. Want to know how excited I am about this one? I spent the past few days soliciting empty tampon boxes from every woman I could find in my neighborhood so we can dress the set (the play takes place in a Duane Reade’s feminine product aisle). Yup, that excited. But before all that, the company challenged us to write pieces in response to the election. I wrote a new one act called The Carving, which tackles the dreaded 1st Thanksgiving post-11/9. That’s happening December 1st, and all the proceeds from the evening are going to Art Start, a great organization that uses the creative arts to transform young, at-risk lives.
InViolet: What’s next for you?
Erin: I’ll be doing lots of Brooklyn Generating and audiobook-narrating as usual, and diving into some cool opportunities to whip a few of my full-length plays into shape. My play A Mind Out of the Gutter is having a reading with American Theatre Group, Good Riddance is having a mini-workshop with Project Y Theatre and The Other White Meat, my play with talking farm animals, is part of Writers Theater of NJ’s Women Playwrights Project.
Website: www.erinmallon.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ErinMallonActor/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErinMallon
Brooklyn Generator: https://www.facebook.com/TheBrooklynGenerator/