Interview: Neil LaBute and COMFORT at NJ Rep in Long Branch

Comfort is a new play by award-winning writer, Neil LaBute. The two-hander will be performed at New Jersey Repertory Company (NJ Rep) in Long Branch from April 17 to May 11 with matinee and evening shows available. 

Comfort is directed by Evan Bergman and stars Jordan Baker and Rudy Galvan.  This world premiere play follows the complicated relationship between a mother and her estranged son as they barrel towards the unknown, battling over the authorship of a treasured manuscript. 

Broadwayworld had the pleasure of interviewing Neil LaBute about his career and the upcoming show at NJ Rep.

Neil LaBute is an American playwright, film director, and screenwriter, born on March 19, 1963. He’s best known for his play In the Company of Men, which he later adapted into a film that earned honors from the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, and the New York Film Critics Circle. His other film credits include Your Friends & Neighbors, Possession (based on the A.S. Byatt novel), The Shape of Things (adapted from his own play), The Wicker Man, Some Velvet Morning, and Dirty Weekend. He also directed Nurse Betty, Lakeview Terrace, and the American remake of Death at a Funeral.

On television, LaBute created the series Billy & Billie, writing and directing every episode, and also created the series Van Helsing. More recently, he served as executive producer, co-director, and co-writer for the Netflix series The I-Land, and has directed episodes of shows like Hell on Wheels and Billions.

When did you first realize your penchant for writing?
I was a writer—or would-be writer—from a very young age. The public library was my fountain of youth, and my mother was an avid reader (fairly middlebrow stuff, but she loved the act of reading and that was infectious). I can remember writing little stories as some of my earliest memories—crafting covers, stapling them together, or punching holes and tying string through them to create a “book.”
High school is where I truly discovered theatre and my desire to write plays rather than act in them or build scenery. Once I wrote a monologue and then a short play, I was hooked.

We'd love to know a little about your education and how it inspired your career.
Assuming you mean beyond high school—that’s a very mixed bag. I went to Brigham Young University on a scholarship (and I wasn’t a Mormon—there’s a story for you), then the University of Kansas for a master’s, NYU Tisch for my MFA, and finally back to BYU to work on a Ph.D., which I never finished because I got a teaching job before completing my dissertation.
I learned a lot at each place—both good and bad—but the real learning experiences that shaped my writing were in the in-between moments. Like a trip to England to watch theatre, a fellowship at the Royal Court in London, or being hired as a TV writer while still in school in NYC. Writing is a craft as much as it is an art—you have to get your hands dirty to make good work.

As a writer, director, and producer, how do these multiple roles inform your creativity?
I slipped into directing along the way, and I love it. Producing to a lesser degree. But if I had to choose only one for the rest of my life, I’d be a writer. It’s what I do best. It’s what I wake up for and go to sleep thinking about.
Directing allows me to bring a script to life, to share my vision—but that only happens about 50% of the time with a new script, and that’s fine. I’ve had great luck with other directors, though there have been a few who were either self-important, scared, or full of it. That usually shows up when they don’t want to collaborate with me or the cast. That’s a crime in my book: hiring people for their talents and then not letting them use them.

What advice do you have for people aspiring to work in the entertainment industry?
“Don’t ever give up.” It’s simple, but easy to forget when the going gets rough—when you’re not getting cast, or produced, or when you’ve fallen out of fashion.
I always tell people to remove the word if from their vocabulary and replace it with when. Be ready when your time comes. The good folks in this industry love to work, they just don’t get enough of it. I still write because I love it, not because I know it’ll get staged or filmed. Writing needs an audience to come to fruition, so I stay hopeful that my work will find its people.

What are some of the challenges of bringing a play to the stage?
First, finding a theatre, company, or producer who truly believes in your work—not someone just looking to make a buck.
Casting is the real monster. There are so many great actors, but only so many roles. Then you have to think about box office, the working environment, all the logistics of a show. When the process is as important as the product, that’s theatrical heaven.
Broadway is tough because of the numbers—you start thinking like a producer, worrying about how to fill 900 seats a night instead of focusing on dialogue and story. And now the answer seems to be, “cast movie stars and charge a thousand dollars a ticket,” which… doesn’t make any sense to me.

How do you like working with the team for your new play, Comfort, at NJ Rep?
This is my favorite kind of experience—a mix of new faces and familiar ones. I just made a movie with Jordan, who had also done a reading of this play, so having her play Iris is a gift.
Rudy is new to me, from Chicago (my old stomping grounds), and brings such great energy to the role of Cal. Evan and I have been talking about doing this play for a while, and doing it in a theatre he knows and loves makes me incredibly happy.
My work has been done around the world, and I’ve found generous audiences in truly remarkable places. I hope this is the start of a long relationship with NJ Rep—but my bags are packed and I’m ready to go wherever the phone rings.

What would you like audiences to know about the show?
Comfort is a play about writers and writing—something I’ve explored before, because I know that world and it fascinates me. Who owns a story? The person who lived it? The person who watched it? The one who wrote it down—or the one who made it up from scratch?
We’re so quick today to say stories don’t belong to anyone. I have thoughts—of course I do—but I’m interested in hearing other people’s too (even if I think they’re full of it).
It’s also a play about a mother and son. I lost my mom not too long ago, so there were things I wanted to say about that relationship. As always, I just want to tell a great story and feel justified in asking people to give their time and money to come hear what I have to say.

Anything else—absolutely anything—you want BroadwayWorld NJ readers to know?
I’m a Pisces. I love the color gray, dogs, and films from other countries (especially France). Oh—and I’m working on liking musicals more every day, and I’m slowly getting there. My new favorite is Sondheim’s Passion—though the source material is an Italian film, so that almost feels like cheating.

New Jersey Repertory Company is located at 179 Broadway in Long Branch. The theatre's entrance is in the rear of the building with plenty of free parking. For more information and to purchase tickets for Comfort and all shows in the upcoming season, please visit HERE or call 732-229-3166.

Photo Credit: Robert Ascroft