Interview: Abby Koenig Talks Her New Comedy Play COMPLAINT BOX AND/OR GOOD TIMES

Houston playwright Abby Koenig got the idea for her new play, COMPLAINT BOX AND/OR GOOD TIMES, in 2014 after the shooting in Charleston. The comedy follows three estranged sisters-Mindy, Amanda and Margo- as they confront family and racial tensions while packing up at their childhood beach house. But really, it's about "[making] sense of that place in the middle, where you care so much about the world but then your own crap gets in the way," says Koenig says in her conversation with BroadwayWorld below.

Those interested in seeing a fresh new work are in luck. Wordsmyth Theater Company presents a staged reading of Koenig's play tonight January 25, 2016 at 7:30 pm.

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How solid is the play right now?

It's in pretty good shape (she says very unsure of herself). [Laughs] I would say that I am currently working on the fifth real draft of it, and I feel very good about the plot, the characters and the ending. There are bits and pieces that I think need some strengthening, but overall it's almost there. I am lucky that I had Wordsmyth and the actors of this reading to help sort through some of the more challenging moments. We had an initial read and I received tremendously helpful feedback - from actors that know their stuff.

I also just want to mention the amazing actors in the reading and their assistance in the writing process. They have been incredibly helpful in realizing these characters. Additionally, Wordsmyth has been awesome, integral in the writing process - especially Melissa Flower who is director/dramaturge the reading.

But that is not to say it is done. The purpose of this reading is to get even more feedback from an audience of "real" people. Not that actors aren't, but they know a bit more about structure/characters/plot on a learned level - I want to know what an audience thinks of these components as well.

How long have you been writing it?

A year or so. I received notification of the Individual Artist's Grant [award] from Houston Arts Alliance in February of 2015 and I started writing in earnest in the spring of 2015. I did a good amount of writing over last summer and a lot of the real revisions over this holiday. But it's evolved and changed in so many ways. [Ed - COMPLAINT BOX AND/OR GOOD TIMES is being funded through the Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant program.]

What inspired the piece?

If you look at my original grant proposal and then read the play - they are very different. I got the idea for this play in the summer of 2014. I was at a beach house with my two sisters, babies, husband and it was terrible, so I thought. It was small, the babies were crying and got rashes, Galveston had that horrible seaweed problem. Anyway, I spent a lot of time complaining and had been doing a lot of whining in general that year - and I decided that it was all so silly! I was at a beach house, with my sisters who I rarely see and my two babies that I struggled to have and [I thought] why am I'm upset about this?!

So, that was the inspiration. But [Pauses] as I was writing it, the shooting in Charleston, SC happened, and very quickly writing about white people complaining about nothing seemed very meaningless to me. For a little while I didn't want to write about anything at all and I was giving up on art/theater - it felt very narcissistic and pointless. I kept looking at blogs and Facebook and seeing this odd dialectic of people mourning and the same people complaining about their Starbucks. And I was not looking down on this in any way because I was empathetic to both! I was trying to make sense of that place in the middle, where you care so much about the world but then your own crap gets in the way. I was talking with a good friend about this and he said, "So write about that." So I did. Much of the original plot is there (three sisters, complaining about their lives) but the heart of the story is about hiding how we really feel -- about life, race, ourselves -- and pretending that we are being truthful.

Why did you decide to pursue this idea and project (as opposed to the other ideas that swirl around in your head)?

I think, right now, we need to talk about race. But I think we need to laugh about it too. I am a comedy writer at heart; I feel like there's this desire to talk about racial issues but we're all kind of scared. I wanted to write about racial issues from a genuine perspective, sad and funny. Life is really funny - you have to laugh or else you'll spend all day complaining! That's the purpose of this project.

Can you give us a run-down of the story and characters?

Three estranged sisters, Mindy (Kim Tobin), Amanda (Shelby Bray) and Margo (Mischa Hutchins) meet up at their childhood beach house; they have to finally clean it out so that they can sell it. The play opens with one of the sisters, Margo, finding out that her nanny is sick and offers to send a replacement, the nanny's cousin. When the cousin shows up, however, it turns out to be a young black man (Joe Palmore). The three sisters, and Mindy's son Milton (Jakob Hulten), are put into a place where they face a lot of the family issues they have been hiding because they connect with this new person in their lives. He shakes their boat in an uncomfortable way and it forces realizations and confrontations.

What is the complaint box?

Many of their secrets have been physically hidden over the years in a "complaint box:" a chest, of sorts, that their parents used to make them put written down complaints into. It's been locked up all this time, and now that the sisters are back in the house, they debate opening it up and reliving all of their old complaints. The young man, too, is forced to face some of his own issues, and how maybe he is also ignoring some of society's racial stereotypes and undue influence. But it's really funny!

Additionally, there is an audience interactive component to it, where the audience is also asked to ponder their everyday complaints. This may or may not go well. [Laughs]

This interview has been edited and condensed. Natalie de la Garza contributed to this article.

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Wordsmyth Theater Company presents COMPLAINT BOX AND/OR GOOD TIMES by Abby Koenig on January 25 at 7:30p. Spring Street Studio 101, 1824 Spring St. 713-726-8953. Free.

Promotional artwork courtesy of Wordsmyth Theater Company

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