Lewis Black gives local High Schoolers Q&A session

I just had the opportunity to sit in on a very cool Q & A session. Lewis Black and Joe Grafisi are in town working on a staged reading of a play Black wrote called One Slight Hitch. They’re rehearsing and revising with local actors all week here at the Patel Conservatory, but took some time out this afternoon to chat with about 50 high school theater students from area schools. While the students were all familiar with Black’s acting and comedic work, this gave them the rare opportunity to get to know Lewis Black the playwright.

He detailed his journey and the persistence it takes to get a play produced, telling the story of a play he worked on in a New York theater where he wouldn’t even be willing to live if he had been offered free rent. But that was just part of the journey. He and Grafisi also talked about One Slight Hitch and how they have worked together to get the piece to the reading stage it’s in today. His advice to the students? Figure out what it is that you want to do and go for it. Don’t let anyone prevent you from doing so, because it’s your life, not theirs.

Black and Grafisi will follow up each of the staged readings this weekend with post show discussions so the audience can also have an opportunity to learn about the process and contribute their own thoughts.

- Tara M.