1. What's your FIRST LOVE? Acting? Writing? Producing? Going to Vegas?

Definitely acting. The writing and the producing came about because of the deep desire to create roles for myself. Writing became a second way to express creativity, though. And so it has developed into a love nearly equal to acting. Producing is nowhere to be found in my list of favorite things; it’s more of a necessity sometimes. Las Vegas is certainly a love of mine but sometimes it’s just a little too sad and so it’s further down on the list. I’m no longer a gambler, in point of fact. Or at least not much of one. I just don’t do it well enough. So I find other fun things to do when I’m there.

2. What other writers inspire(d) you? How has that inspiration fed or informed your work? Or did it just make you go out and start writing?

Some of my favorite writers haven’t yet inspired my work. Carl Sagan and Michael Shermer have enhanced my life and my beliefs, but they haven’t found their way into my scripts yet. The writers who come to mind quickest are Oscar Wilde, Mr. Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, Noel Coward, Edward Albee…. All very old school, I know. Wilde pretty much did it with just one play, “Earnest.” I’ve read three of his other plays and some of his prose writing but nothing has popped out at me like “Earnest” did. And Shakespeare showed me how rich characters can be. I will admit here that I don’t enjoy reading Shakespeare plays. I’d so much rather see them in production. I was inspired by bad writing once. When I lived in New York in the 1990s, I saw a play and I didn’t think it lived up to its promise of surreal weirdness and magical realism. So I wrote my own play that veered in that direction.

3. When did you decide to produce and perform in your own work? The first time?

In the fourth grade. I wrote this little play with a king and a queen and a jester and some other characters. My teacher, Mrs. Aiken, let me get some kids from the class and perform it. I don’t remember a lot about it but I had one character use the word “inebriated” and that made me very happy that I could work that word into the dialogue. After that it was many years later when I wrote a 30 minute commedia del arte piece for the theater company I was a member of in Florida. I wrote the scenario and most of the dialogue and then left a few spots where various people could ad lib their way through some scenes, incorporating local people or events into the plot. It was a blast and several people told me I should write more. So I took it to heart. The next thing I did was a two character one-act called “Grievances” which I gave to other people to perform. I just sat back and enjoyed being the playwright on that one.

4. How many of your pieces have you written and performed in?

I’m thinking about ten all together. That would be two full length plays, some one-acts, and some sketch comedy pieces over the years. Oh, and plus a few more little things in college where I took acting and playwriting courses.

5. Pet peeve about producing your own work? (or being in it)

Marketing and publicity. It becomes everything! Let someone else do it for you because doing it correctly requires a lot of time, phone calls and emails. Connections help. Creativity helps and if you’re acting in a show and maybe directing also, you need to surrender the marketing details to someone who can think fresh thoughts.

6. After a production have you sat back and said, "I wish I'd done it another way!" Or were you happy that you did it?

Oh, course there are always things I could have done better or differently. If I’d had a bigger budget or a better marketing plan or any number of things. We might have gotten more bodies in the seats if I’d done this or that. But you never know how anything would have turned out. I produced a play a couple years ago and we performed on the off nights on the set of a show that was playing on weekends. It was much cheaper to rent the space for just Tuesday and Wednesday nights. But we ended up performing most of the run of my show on a set that was dark and didn’t have enough instruments to light our show correctly. That is a lesson I won’t need to repeat again.

7. When performing in your own work . . .

a. NEVER . . . assume you know what looks best from the audience. Never assume your writing is so perfect that good suggestions by those around you are unmerited. If you have a director you trust, listen to him or her and don’t be a dick. If you don’t have a director, find someone whose opinion you value and install that person to be your eyes and ears. Notice I didn’t say you NEED to get a director.

b. ALWAYS . . . surround yourself with people who are enthusiastic about the project. You’re going to need them. I’ve been lucky in that regard. Didn’t always realize how lucky I was to have people involved in the show who could buoy each other up during the low times. The nights when you get one or zero people showing up to see your play. It happens in Los Angeles. There’s a lot of theater here and that makes for an overwhelming number of choices for your potential audience. And when it comes to getting the word out about the show, your first line of attack is with your cast members. You want people who are tickled to be in the show and want their friends to come see it. And if they have the time and inclination to help go around town putting up postcards and posters, you’re indeed blessed.

c. Also . . . let the other people do their job. Let the director direct. Let the designers design. Let the stage manager stage manage. I have a great relationship with my favorite director, Douglas Leal, because I understand how to back off and let him use his talents. We’ve worked happily together on two plays now and I will call him again when I’m ready to do something else. I’m sure I have annoyed him in various ways but it’s minimal and we move on. And we each understand where the other is coming from and try to see things from the other’s point of view. That’s a good skill to develop as well.

8. Do you have an opinion of reviewers (not by name) in Los Angeles?

It’s kind of hard to talk about reviewers right now. In Los Angeles, I’ve never felt a play of mine had got a solid review that truly reflected the show. And yes, I know how that sounds. But I feel justified. It’s backed up by plenty of other people not associated with the productions.

9. Do you feel that most reviewers are fair when they come in?

Let me put it this way, I no longer read play reviews. Not of my shows or of other productions. When friends in a play send out emails with reviews of their shows, I just ignore the review and go see the play without reading someone else’s opinion on it.

10. What are your feelings about working with friends?

Love it. It’s my preference. When I produced my last play, I started it by casting people I knew and loved and wanted to work with. Who wouldn’t? I had to put up an audition notice for one of the roles and I found someone, Darren Meekin, who has since become a friend. And I’d work with him again any time. The play of mine that’s in production now as I write this, “Capsized Flotsam”, I’m appearing in but it’s directed by my friend, Douglas Leal. I’d also work with him any time. He gets me, gets my humor, understands comedy and communicates his ideas very well. Any writer is lucky to find a director like Douglas whom they can work with on different projects.

11. Is it difficult to cast a project you've written because you're so close to the material and specific with the characters? How does that work?

Difficult? Nope. I love casting! Love it. It’s creative, it’s fun. It’s a chance to work with people I want to work with. If I could get away with it, I would cast the various roles in a play myself and then turn the show over to a director and let him take over from there. Or direct it myself if I had to. But that would make me a control freak, and I shouldn’t confess to such things publicly.

12. How do you put a production team together?

Call up friends. My first thought would be to call Douglas and see if he’s free to direct. Then I’d let him do all the harder stuff like finding a stage manager and designers and I’d start thinking of casting ideas and start badgering him with them. And then I’d complain about the design sketches when they come in. And then he tells me to shut up and go learn my lines. That’s how we work.

13. Are you open to edits to the piece once you're in the production process or is that difficult?

Oh, heck yes. We keep playing with it. As of this writing, we have two more weeks to go in this production of “Capsized Flotsam” and we’re still making little tweaks. I’ll add something or change a line and a couple other people are feeling comfortable enough to do the same and we’ll try things out and see how they play. It’s a living thing almost. When it’s over, I’ll go through the script and make all the changes that seemed to work best. And then call it a day. One thing I try to be conscious of is screwing around with a line that is someone else’s cue. I’ll warn them first. And of course in rehearsals we’re always tweaking little things. Sometimes a line will never sit well with me, it could be my own line or that of some other character, I either look for input from others or just make a change and give the new line out. There is no set procedure. Things can pop up organically. And a good cast brings in some terrific ideas. I’d be an idiot not to acknowledge and utilize that stuff.

14. What led to the publication of Annoyed by Life? Were you approached? Did you pursue this independently?

I was a lucky sumbitch and it fell into my lap. A guy named Emmett Loverde came to the show who was a friend of someone associated with the production. A bunch of us hung out afterward at a diner and he told me he’d enjoyed the play a lot and would be happy to recommend it to his publisher, Heuer. I knew nothing about publication at that time and thought, “OK, sure.” So he put in a good word and I sent a copy of the script out. A few months later, the owner of the company called me and said he thought it was a gas and would like to publish it. So we talked it out. I expressed some concern about the content of the show not fitting in with the kinds of shows I’d seen represented by his company and he explained he wanted to branch out into more edgy, quirky plays. I liked the way he presented his company’s vision. And so we worked out the details and I signed the contract.

a. What did that process entail?

Most of their catalogue is for plays geared toward high schools and junior high schools and community theater. My script, “Annoyed By Life”, isn’t really suitable for that market. Well, it would be fine in community theater. But not so much for kids in school. It’s not an easy play to perform well. Anyway he explained his vision of wanting to acquire plays that were outside of that mold. Stuff that could play well on a stage off Broadway or off off Broadway. He used the word “edgy” and I liked that. That phone conversation sold me on going with him as publisher.

15. What are your feelings / knowledge about self-publishing?

I’ve no experience with it. But I’d do it in a heartbeat, though, if I felt it was the right way to go with some of my work. I don’t know if scripts are part of the world of self publishing. I don’t know how a single person, like a playwright, could market a script. He needs a publishing house behind him to push his scripts in a catalogue of some sort.

16. What advice would you give a writer who has never staged his/her work who is going to stage his/her own play for the first time?

I’m actually in this position right now. In a couple weeks, I’m doing a script reading of a play by a writer who’s not done this before. I’m helping him gather some actors together so he can hear his script aloud. My advice to him is to get to know actors. They are the key link between the playwright and the production. A writer should consider joining a theater company so he or she can expand his circle of friends and get a sense of who he can call on. Start partnerships. Try writing something with particular performers in mind (either friends or famous actors). It doesn’t matter if that person never gets to be in the piece. It’s a way to focus yourself on the writing and the character. If a writer lives in an area where there is no theater maybe there’s a way to hook up with college kids or writers’ groups where you have access to people who can come on board and help take your dream somewhere. You can’t afford to be shy if you really want to start working in theater. Step up and volunteer in places where you can come into contact with like-minded, creative people. If there are none around you, you may have to move. Think about what is important to you and act on it.

17. Because you are an actor - - do you always write a play or screenplay with the expectation of being one of the characters?

Always. I should say “nearly” always. When I wrote the one-act “Grievances” I wrote it about two kids in college, a guy and a girl. By the time I wrote it, I was too old for it. But… a couple years later, I turned that play into my first film script, a romantic comedy. I fleshed it out with many more characters including a couple whom I could play on film if I ever sell the rights to the thing. So, yes, I’m always thinking of ways to smooth my path into the next career level.

18. What's next for Donaco Smyth?

I’ve already started my next play. It’s a farce. Takes place in England with British characters (and one American and one Frenchman). I have about 6 pages of it done and a few pages of notes.

19. Tell me about Reach Through Writing.

Reach Through Writing is my freelance writing business. It’s business letters and ad copy and some web content. It supplements my day job. Doing the creative writing for small businesses or individuals who would rather hire someone to do their writing and copy editing. But because I’ve been in rehearsal or production of one play or another for the last nine months, I haven’t been doing much business writing. When I do any writing, it’s been for my own projects.

20. Do you actively promote your business, Reach Through Writing? How do you secure work?

Referrals lately. I haven’t put any money into advertising for a while. I will when I get around to it. I’ll pay for placement on Google search results. But my immediate interest is in writing my next play. And I can’t do too many things at once or I just spin my wheels.

More about Donaco and Reach Through Writing - Freelance Commercial Copywriting www.reachthroughwriting.com
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