Interview: Cody Daigle-Orians and THE BOOK OF D at The Growing Stage

The Growing Stage, The Children's Theatre of New Jersey will present a World Premiere play, The Book of D written by Cody Daigle-Orians on a limited engagement from February 12th through February 21st. In the play, D is a young outcast who escapes into a world of stories. He keeps a book, The Book of D, to grapples with the tough things in his life - his parents' divorce, his lack of friends, and the reasons for everything. When he makes a new friend, Blu, who introduces him to Greek mythology, friendship becomes a new story for D to write. Broadwayworld.com had the opportunity to interview Cody Daigle-Orians about his career and the The Book of D.

Cody Daigle-Orians is a Louisiana-born writer and teaching artist now living in Hartford, CT. He was the resident playwright for The Playhouse Tulsa's 2013-2014 season, the company playwright for Acadiana Repertory Theatre and a company playwright for Manhattan Theatre Works. Plays for The Playhouse Tulsa: William and Judith, Tulsa! A Radio Christmas Spectacular, Little Women and The Bottom of the Sea. Plays for Acadiana Repertory Theatre: In the Bones, The Survivalists, and The Woman's Part. Plays for Manhattan Theatre Works: Providence, A Home Across the Ocean. His work has been produced and/or developed at the Astoria Performing Arts Center, New Jersery Repertory Theatre, The Actors Company Theatre (NYC), The Growing Stage (Netcong, NJ), Gadlfy Theatre (Minneapolis, MN), StageRIGHT (Seattle, WA) and the Great Plains Theatre Conference (Omaha, NE). He's worked as a teaching artist or created plays for young actors/audiences for the Delta Grand Youth Theatre, AUI Summer Theatre, The Playhouse Tulsa and Union Public Schools in Tulsa, OK.

What was your earliest interest in writing and theatre?

I've always been a writer. I started writing stories and poems when I was six. Until high school, the goal was to become the next Stephen King. (I had a thing for horror.) Theatre found me in high school through speech and drama. Theatre was the first place I felt, as a little queer nerdy kid in the south, validated and affirmed. So I started writing plays.

Important mentors?

Dr. Stephen Taft was the department head for my college theatre program, and he gave me space and encouragement to really grow as a playwright. He was the first person to look at a play of mine and say, "Let's do it. Let's produce it." That's everything when you're 19 and think you suck and only have these amorphous ideas of what "being a playwright" is. I owe him a lot.

What playwrights/writers do you enjoy?

I'm inclined to tell you about new and emerging playwrights that I love. They really inspire me. Jacqueline Goldfinger is a Philly playwright who's just amazing and funny and ferocious. David Hilder writes really human plays that I adore. Ben Jolivet is a playwright in Providence that's fiercely funny and dark and challenging. And J Julian Christopher is a New York playwright who's writing ambitious and funny and fabulously queer stuff.

What was the inspiration for The Book of D?

The play is really inspired by my experience of childhood -- being a bit of a loner, being obsessed with story, not fitting in. I wanted to write a story about this kid who's saved by story, saved by the world of imagination he lives in.

Tell us about the challenges of writing for a young audience.

I think the big challenge, especially in a play for young audiences about real life issues, is keeping it relentlessly honest. Kids have amazing bullshit detectors. They can spot your insincerity or your trickery. You have to really write what's true. Simply. Honestly.

How do you like working with The Growing Stage?

They're amazing. The process they've created to nurture new plays is a dream. So often, it's either just a read and the development stops or you're thrown into production without the benefit of nurturing. They've created this process that allows a play to grow, to deepen, to mature. I'm incredibly grateful to be working with them.

For the future?

I'm working on a young adult fantasy novel about a town that's rehabilitating monsters so they can live in the world with the rest of us, the underground resistance trying to stop them and the young girl at the center of it.

For more information on Cody Daigle-Orians, visit his web site at http://www.codydaigle.com. For information on the New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/users/1258/cody-daigle-orians

Follow Cody on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/codydaigle and on Twitter: @bowtiedwriter

The Book of D will be performed at The Growing Stage, The Children's Theatre of New Jersey from February 12th through February 21st on Fridays at 7:30 and Saturdays and Sundays at 4:00. The play is recommended for ages 8 and up. The theatre is located at 7 Ledgewood Avenue, Netcong, NJ 07857. For more information, call 973.347.4946 or visit http://www.growingstage.com/.