Maria Dizia (2:53)

Nice to see you.

Alison Stewart (2:54)

And also the show's directors and one of its stars. Calling from a trailer in Vancouver, Marie Dizzy, we know you might have to leave. Nice to talk to you.

Maria Dizia (3:03)

Nice to talk to you, too. Thanks so much for accommodating me.

Alison Stewart (3:08)

Listeners. At any time during this conversation you feel like you need support, please call the National Domestic violence hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE.

Interviewer / Host (3:17)

That's 1-800-799-7233.

Alison Stewart (3:21)

Or you can text that hotline by texting start to 88788. Marin why the title Pre Existing Condition?

Interviewer / Host (3:29)

We had a long discussion, my friend.

Alison Stewart (3:31)

And I, after seeing the show.

Marin Ireland (3:32)

Oh y it used to have a different title for many years of its work, which was Big Mountain, which is the first thing that is said in the play to a it's like you have this big mountain to climb. And that was just what came up. When I went to save it for the first time, that line came up and I was like, great, that's a working title. And then in 2017, when the Affordable Care act was under threat, there was a lot of information coming out about how before Obamacare, domestic violence, among other things, including rape, things like that, would be considered a preexisting condition by many insurance companies in many states in this country. And so you would be denied coverage or your premium would skyrocket. And before that happened, I didn't know that personally before that was suddenly a thing in the and even now, if we went back to that in the foreseeable future, some states have protections against that happening again, but some do not. So there would actually still be places in this country where it would be considered a pre existing condition. But it also resonated with me in terms of the fact that this play to me is not about this single event in somebody's life. It's about things before that in this relationship. It's about things before that in this whole system that we all live in and multiple systems we all exist in. It's about what was happening in that woman's body and mind before she even met this person and about the bigger kind of multiple systems we all exist under all the time.

Interviewer / Host (5:14)

Maria, what did you think of the piece when you read it?

Maria Dizia (5:21)

I learned a great deal reading it. I mean, when I read It. I was struck by the honesty of the relationships. They all felt so real to me, which is especially important, it felt. Because the scenes are, you know, happen kind of like on a scattergram. You know, they're just tiny, little. We dip into scenes rather than seeing an entire relationship evolve over time. And so I was so impressed by how I was able to understand those relationships by just dipping into them for a few seconds and. But then, in terms of the content of the play and what Marin was just speaking about, I felt, in hearing it, that there are so many things that I wish that I knew when I was a younger woman, and that there were things that it felt so important for this play, for the words of this play to be spoken out loud in a room for a group of people to hear together. And those are the things that struck me the most when I first read it.

Alison Stewart (6:31)

Marin, you've talked about your own experience with domestic violence. This is a very personal story. When did you know you wanted to approach it, to write about it?

Marin Ireland (6:42)

Many years ago, I had another writer friend who just suggested that I just start writing things down. And I was never thinking of it as a play until maybe, like, a month ago. I just thought, wow. I just thought, you know, I'll just write some things down. And I told this to Maria. It was funny. And I think it's just because my whole life has been working on new plays, mostly that what I would do is I would write down my memory or of a sort of, like, abstracted version of conversations I had with people, instead of writing down just notes about something. Cause I would think to myself, okay, it's like, if you've gone through something, like a medical diagnosis, you want to take notes so you remember what was said afterwards. So instead of just writing down notes, I would write it down in conversation form. So without characters or anything. And at some point, I was like, this looks like something. And then almost as a lark, I would sort of be like, let's get a few friends together and read some of this out loud and just see what it feels like. But it was always very closed. It was a long, weird process for me. And then over the years, people go, what happened with that thing? What happened with that thing? And I was like, I don't. What is that thing? I don't even know. So it took friends. Like, I have some great friends, like David Ajmee and Heidi Schreck, who, over the years, were big supporters of this as a piece. And that was what made me really see it as something more But I never thought anybody else would ever really see it.

Alison Stewart (8:04)

What was it like when you heard it?

Marin Ireland (8:06)

That was, like, the most harrowing experience of my life. And luckily, I know a lot of writers who, you know, were like, that's normal. You know, I was like, this is excruciating. How do you guys handle this? You know, because when you're an actor, you're very busy. So even though you might feel frightened or whatever, when you go out on stage, you have so much to do that you don't have time to think about it. But just listening to it was. Was really overwhelming for me.

Alison Stewart (8:32)

The lead role is played by a diversity of women, diverse ages, from 28 to Deidre O' Connell in her 70s. Maria, how does the context of the play change depending on the identity of the person in that role, even if the words don't change?

Maria Dizia (8:48)

Yeah, that's so interesting. I actually think that maybe what's fascinating about it is that the context does not change, in a way, and that what's interesting is to see that. And I think that part of what was important to Marin was not to pin the experiences of a. On one identity. That this is something that happens to one person either, you know, whether they're defined culturally or as an individual. And really, what's amazing is to see the vulnerability and the. What's the word that I'm looking for? It's like the porousness of whomever is in that position. And I think that that's also something that is important in some of the conversations that we've had and the research that we were doing for the play is that there is an assumption sometimes that this happens to someone who is already vulnerable or someone who is, you know, in an infirm place in their life. And that really this could happen to someone that we would say is a strong person, you know. And I think that that's something that's important and which I was excited about. Didi, in particular, is someone who is a very strong person in her work. And having gone through so many experiences and to see her subject the same confusion, and I hate to. I'm trying to think of another word to use instead of gaslighting, because I think that that word is so overused and it has lost, you know, but the way in which I think the insidiousness maybe, is what I mean of the experience and how anyone can be subject to that. Because I think, you know, in just speaking about it now, and which one of the characters says in Marin's play is that the hard thing is that because there's love. And I think that that is one of the things that complicates domestic violence in particular, is that it gets reduced to events happening on a piece of paper, but in reality, the experience is happening within a romantic relationship. And so where vulnerability and porousness are, you know, an important part of. So it's very easy to be manipulated.

Interviewer / Host (11:24)

I'm speaking with playwright Marin Ireland and director and star Maria Dizia about their new play, Pre Existing Condition, which is running at the Connelly Theater through August 3rd. It's a show about domestic violence. So if at any time you need support during this conversation, please call the national violence hotline, 1-800-799-SAFE. That's 1-800-799-7233. Marin, what does a think about domestic violence? What is her opinion of it before it happens to her?

Marin Ireland (11:56)

I think that something that she says in the play is that she is realizing, first of all, that she probably hasn't thought about it very much ever before because she certainly didn't think that it applied to her situation until the play starts. And I think it felt like. I mean, I think about when I tried to personally think about, well, where else have I seen this portrayed in TV or movies or on stage? And the primary example I kept coming up with was Streetcar, which, you know, is such a classic kind of romantic moment of it. I mean, it leads to, you know, Stella, and it's like such a sort of dramatic. And then they kind of reconnect. And then Blanche is like, you can't stay with him, you know, and you're like, it's such a melodramatic sort of romance, kind of iconic moment. But I didn't want the play to have violence inside of it. And so I was trying to find a way to kind of create, you know, figure out a way to bring the conversation about afterward, but make it a safer space for people to kind of come into to watch something like this. And I think that, to me, it's like, right. The ideas we have about it is that it happens when people are wasted. Maybe they're of a sort of poor class. Maybe they, you know, it's a particular image that we, I think, collectively have. And I think that's what she's sort of coming to grips with in the beginning of the play.

Interviewer / Host (13:33)

Maria, the supporting cast is really excellent. They play many, many different roles.

Maria Dizia (13:37)

They're extraordinary. Yes.

Interviewer / Host (13:39)

Let's give them a shout out. I'll let you explain who plays who. Who plays all the different Characters?

Maria Dizia (13:47)

Yes. Adele. Orlando Smith plays character B, Sarah Steele plays character C, and Greg Keller is character D.

Interviewer / Host (13:59)

I was sort of wondering because they're so recognizable. These actors are really recognizable from tv. They've been working a long time. Was that part of the casting process?

Maria Dizia (14:11)

No, it wasn't actually thinking about them being recognizable people. I do think that one of the reasons, you know, your questions make me thinking. I do think that they are very idiosyncratic and very strong personalities as actors, and they bring their own idiosyncrasy and their own, you know, the particularity of their personality to their roles. And I do think that that is what drew us to them. I do think also in such an interesting way is there are also people who, despite being very particularly themselves, they're also, I think, able to change a lot. You know, I think that they both. All three actors are very deft at understanding lots of different emotional arcs and what. You know, what inspires a lot of different kinds of behavior. So I think that maybe that's the thing that those three actors have in common is that they're really strong personalities and they're also nimble. And so that's why we wanted to work with them, because it was so important. I think that as a. Is having. As she says so often, I don't know what I want, that having a character at the center of the play who is in such a place of confusion that it felt like the play really becomes legible. Right. Is really visible and also a safe container for a. When the people around her are very strong and do have a sense of what they want and have a personality to go along with it. Because I think maybe that's also the way A feels. Is that A feels, I think maybe that her, you know, her identity has been turned upside down. She. I think, maybe feels like she does not have an identity any longer. And that's what the play is about, is trying to integrate this very challenging experience into her sense of self. So it helps to be surrounded by people who have. Who are very clear in that one.

Interviewer / Host (16:22)

Character says that to a. Just. It slowly comes out over the course of it. But she says, what do you want the character that's defending. That's defending the boyfriend? What did you want to show about the differing opinions, the differing versions of. Of someone that would be affected in this circumstance? What do you think? Like, how would all those differing versions really impact A. Oh, you mean the.

Marin Ireland (16:54)

The. The versions of the outside? Yeah. Yeah. I think for me, it was. There was something really interesting to me, about especially placing us in the point of view of a. Where we don't know what scene is happening next, we don't know which character this is for sure. We're not sure who we're being talked to by at the very beginning of each scene. There aren't a lot of indicators. And so for me, it was a little bit in that way, as something that says near the end of the play about, like, good things and bad things start to sound the same. So it's a little bit, for me of creating that sense of confusion and a little bit like, is this a safe person? Is this a dangerous person? Where am I in this? Is this person my friend? Is this person going to turn on me in a second? And to me, that is a little bit of experiencing the world after a traumatic event where you. She says something about, you know, it's like a piano fell on my head one day. It's that feeling of like, could this conversation at any point sort of turn on me and the landmines kind of in that. There was a phrase that is on the website that was brought up to us by one of our consultants, which is about the everyday indignities of the aftermath of this thing, which I think came up for us a lot then in conversations where it is a little bit of that. You think you're in a conversation with a friend and then they say something and you sort of feel like you went through the looking glass and suddenly the world is sort of. Your perspective on everything has changed, but the world around you has not. So suddenly you're seeing everything kind of refracted differently.

Interviewer / Host (18:31)

My guests are Maria, Dizia and Marin Ireland.

Alison Stewart (18:34)

We're talking about pre existing condition running at the Connolly Theatre through August 3rd. Maria, was the plan always going to be that you would perform in the show?

Maria Dizia (18:45)

Yes, it was. It moved, like, in and out because I had done a reading of the play and I expressed to Marin how much I loved her work and that I wanted to be a part of it. And then Marin mentioned that she might be interested in having me direct the production. And I said, you know, you probably should talk to some other directors first before you make that decision.

Interviewer / Host (19:14)

She's got a big smile while you're.

Alison Stewart (19:15)

Talking, by the way.

Maria Dizia (19:16)

Yes, yes, yes, I heard her smile. I mean, I heard her laugh. And so then as the conversation about directing took over, the acting kind of fade into the background, because we did start to think. It's one thing. I had made a short film where I directed myself, but it's Another thing entirely, to try to direct yourself in a play. But then Marin was actually very adamant about me being a part of it, which I really appreciated, because I think as a director, it's hard to advocate yourself. Advocate for yourself to be the star.

Marin Ireland (19:55)

No, to be clear, though, what Maria's not is that when I asked her about directing it, I said this could only happen if we can absolutely rotate the A's, because you have to be in it. But I think you would have to build the show on another actor before you could step into it. And I was like, so you can only direct it if you can also be in it? For sure. Because her work and the reading, those were the terms. Yes, yes. She can't say that, but I can.

Maria Dizia (20:23)

Yes, yes, that's true. And so, I mean, I have been in the position before of replacing an actor. And I also, you know, had the really great experience of stepping in for Heidi Schreck in her play what the Constitution Means to Me. And on both occasions, I actually really loved the experience. I loved being able to see what someone else did with a role and for me to use their, you know, use their work as a foundation for my own. I think it's so interesting. Like, in so many other disciplines, we're really able. I think people are really able to stand on each other's shoulders in that way. You know, you can take someone's research and then build on it. And I think in acting, you're, you know, obviously, you know, people study and learn from what people have done in the past, but not necessarily really at the same time in that way, you know, and to really be able to take someone else's work as a document and then elaborate on it. And so that was an incredible part of this process, to share it with other women and to learn from them. And it's so much for what a person wants to do and they become an actor. Right? Is to get. Is to learn as much as you can about the human experience and to see things through other people's eyes. And so it has really been an incredible thing to get to see the way other people interpret this part and to take that on and to, you know, and for each of us to add our own understanding to it makes it feel that it really is, you know, it. That the part becomes as full as it can be as each iteration builds on another.

Alison Stewart (22:18)

It's in the.

Interviewer / Host (22:20)

When you.

Alison Stewart (22:21)

The woman playing a. Has a script, she's holding a script, the other actors are not. Was that part of the process? Is that a Realistic thing. Can you have five different actors playing the lead?

Marin Ireland (22:33)

It was something for me, honestly. When we saw the reading, when we did the reading with Maria, and I remember thinking, you know, this. This play could be done with four people just sitting in chairs. It could be done. I don't know if it needs to be fully staged. Like, it was an idea that we came up with where it was like, maybe people just holding books. That's fine. That would be fine to me. And then as we discussed the idea of rotating, it was absolutely like, well, you know, if we're asking somebody to step in for maybe a few shows or a week at a time. Honestly, for me, as an actor myself, I was like, I want to make this sort of as easy as possible on actresses, actors. To be able to say yes to this and to be able to take on such a difficult perhaps task. And it became something that, you know, we were working on the dramaturgy of all the way through our rehearsal process and trying to find a way to it makes it feel to me like somebody's enacting a ritual that sort of is passing along. And it became very, very powerful to us to see, you know, that character sort of holding something very tightly. But also I think there's something about it that makes me feel like she is the actress herself. Like, I feel very much like, oh, she's being cared for, because then I don't worry about her as much. She can just sort of take refuge in this item, this totem that she's holding onto. It's a really sweet little family, the A's. They all kind of. They all talk to each other, they hang out with each other, they sort of. They watch each other's rehearsals.

Interviewer / Host (24:03)

Oh, interesting.

Marin Ireland (24:04)

It's a really beautiful thing that I remember Tatiana saying. She was like. I always had this dream about Tatiana Maslany, who was the first A we had perform. And she was just like. It was always a fantasy of mine to be able to share a role with actresses like this. And she would come and watch the put in rehearsals with Julia and Maria would be there and we. Everyone would sort of talk to each other. Dede's been in and out all the time throughout just to kind of share this experience as opposed to think of it like. And the next one is. It's very much a shared, lovely little community. Community that's really unique to my experience of theater.

Interviewer / Host (24:35)

I can see that Marie's is sort of on the move. She's got somebody doing your hair and.

Alison Stewart (24:40)

Checking out, so you're you're about to leave us before I let you go.

Interviewer / Host (24:45)

And if you need to go, please, please go ahead for us.

Maria Dizia (24:48)

Thank you.

Alison Stewart (24:49)

Obviously, go ahead.

Interviewer / Host (24:51)

Something my producer noticed when she saw the show. Jordan said that her. The audience was very, very emotional. When I saw the show, it was a very thorough, thoughtful. There wasn't a lot of crying. Jordan said there was a lot of crying at her show. How do you feel seeing people have all the different experiences?

Maria Dizia (25:11)

Yes, it's something that I feel very fortunate that I got to experience those different audiences, first as a director and then later as a performer. Because as a performer, even though it's a very intimate space, you really can't see past the first row because of the lighting. And as a director, I was able to see, you know, it's a really beautiful thing about doing theater is that, you know, there's 60 people in a room and 60 people come to a consensus, you know, about how they're going to behave in that room, you know, and it's a really interesting, amazing thing to see that I. I don't totally understand how it happened, but what I was able to feel is that there were very emotional audiences. Sometimes. Sometimes they were very quiet. And it feels either respectful to what's going on or actually strength, you know, that they're experiencing. They feel stress, you know, and not quite sure, you know, and. And what I was able to see is that that's true. I mean, that's how we experience big events like that, is that some of us are able to release, some of us go into a more intellectual place in order to think about it. And that what I was able to see is that the audiences were never receding from the production, and they were never bored by it. They're always very engaged in a different way. And so it was something that I shared with the actors, is that, like, there was one particular time the audience was very quiet, but I saw someone having a very emotional response in front of me. But because I feel like that particular audience had decided we're going to be quieter, he didn't necessarily feel permission, you know, to, you know, do that more. But that, you know, that something I shared with the actors is that it is reaching the audience, no matter what you're hearing from people vocally, you know, and it's different every night. And I've certainly, you know, I identify with that very much in experiences of grief, you know, that sometimes I. You know, you feel like you're able to express it really fully with your whole body, and other times it's just as deep and sincere, but it's something that kind of feels hidden. So, you know, it's very interesting.

Interviewer / Host (27:38)

Marin, what's Marin, what is one thing you would like people to talk about after they see the show? They go out for coffee, ice cream, whatever. What would you like them to talk about?

Marin Ireland (27:49)

Hmm. That's an interesting question. Usually I feel like, you know, my work finished a little while ago, so I'm sort of just interested in whatever anybody has to talk about about it. But. But I guess, you know, I'm interested in how people receive sort of the open ended elements of the show. I'm interested in them trying to sort of answer the questions that are posed in the show for themselves. I think I told Maria a lot like I really there are a lot of things that I am grateful are being kind of expressed out loud in a space and maybe people will hear things before they need to hear. They might have otherwise needed to hear something. Maybe then after they meet somebody who's gone through something, they'll have a different words or a different language to share as a result of something they heard. I think there's a lot of questions raised in the show. And so that's sort of, I think it would be nice to me if people were able to sort of discuss their own thoughts about those things. But yeah.

Interviewer / Host (29:02)

My guests have been Marin Ireland and Maria Dizia. Pre Existing condition runs at the Conley Theater through August 3rd. Thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.

Marin Ireland (29:11)

Maria and Marin, thank you.

Maria Dizia (29:13)

Thank you.

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Interviewer / Host (29:44)

Ready.

Marin Ireland (29:45)

Let's go.

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Marin Ireland (29:48)

All right, unc.

Alison Stewart (29:49)

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Interviewer / Host (29:50)

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