ECHO: We are interested in your own name [Mary Fengar Gail] vs. your writing name. What challenges or conditions influenced your name change decision?
I recently moved from California to New York, and what's the point of moving clear across the continent if not to reinvent oneself? It may sound insane, but I was weary of the letter "i" so I changed it to the Gaelic e, and my middle name Fengar comes from the Fen, which is medieval English for swamp or marsh, and Gar from the medieval English gore, meaning spear. Then I discarded the Mary because I wanted a gender neutral name, though I think blind submissions are the best policy for theatres and competitions. There was a Harvard Business school study using stacks of equally qualified resumes and both men and women chose male WASP names first, male ethnic names second and the women's resumes last. To be honest, I'd like to create a new name with each new play. That would be truly liberating!

Speaking of names: virtually every human name (first and last) in DEVIL DOG SIX is from a racetrack somewhere in the world! The horses are named after humans. In no time at all the names started to fit the characters personalities.

ECHO: How did you come up with the idea for your play, DEVIL DOG SIX?
I'm not certain where my ideas and stories come from -- beyond the jumbled phenomenological sphere of experience stored in my demented brain. I just make myself available in the silence of early mornings, slouched on the sofa with the companionship of a cup of steaming coffee. Then I start writing by hand, and when the characters start speaking, I feel boundless gratitude. It's become a habit now. Later in the afternoon I transfer my scribblings to the computer.

At least some of the ideas for the play came from my boyfriend dragging me to so many race tracks!! (He thrives on the mathematics of handicapping!) Of course, I noticed there were very few women jockeys or trainers, so I did some research and interviews, and the story just evolved, and because I do admire the magnificent horses themselves, I couldn't exclude their presence in the play. I especially loved the Fairgrounds race track in New Orleans, and had read that southern male jockeys make it especially hard on the women trying to break in -- at least according to a book of interviews called WOMEN IN THE SPORT OF KINGS.

ECHO: Is there anything else you wish to share about the structure, etc.?
About the structure: I'm weary of linear-sequential domestic realism which I think is choking the life out of the American Theatre and which film and T V seem to excel at. I think audiences are eager to experience plays that take risks in their stories, themes and structures and are truly theatrical. My plays also tend to have metaphysical dimensions for which I'm often dismissed as delusional, ha!

I must confess, it's been a special challenge peddling DEVIL DOG SIX! I've received some scathing responses from people in the gate positions of major theatres, claiming it was silly, absurd, that no audience would gallop along for the ride. Some of these letters came from graduates of elite theatre programs. But imagination is not something that comes with academic degrees, it's cultivated by people who can live anywhere in the world, who have receptive, open minds that allow for a theatre that requires a fusion of art forms: impassioned acting, poetry, music, dance, artful visual elements. I think the theatre, with its ancient roots in myth, poetry, and spectacle, is starving for visionary creators to continue its purpose as a vital, confrontational art form. But it also needs courageous producers, directors, and audiences who are willing to participate imaginatively and emotionally so that going to the theatre becomes a creative act unto itself. That the Moxie Theatre [in San Diego] production was so well liked was nothing short of a miracle for me, and I'm thrilled that the Echo Theatre is giving this latest version of the DEVIL another hearing!! Bless you!!

[May 2010]

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