Interview with Luke Harlan, Director of I’m From Driftwood

Our New York New Playwright Festival is steadily approaching! The festival will showcase three new playwrights and three new plays including I’m From Driftwood, an adaptation of a book by the same title. I’m From Driftwood is also an online community and a non-profit organization founded by Nathan Manske. Recently, we sat down with Luke Harlan, Director of I’m From Driftwood to talk about the play.

MB: Can you tell us the journey of I’m from Driftwood - from book, to website, to theatre piece?

LH: Nathan tells this story better than I do, but I’ll attempt. In 2008, when MILK came out, Nathan saw the film and, like many of us, was inspired and encouraged to join in the LGBT movement, somehow. There is a scene in the film where Harvey Milk is holding a sign that says “I’m From Woodmere, NY”, which is where Milk was born and raised. Nathan was struck by that statement. We all come from such wildly different places. Major cities, small towns, rural areas, or coastal communities, but we share the same struggle, the same desire for love and equality. Nathan is from Driftwood, TX, and so began the idea of “I’m From Driftwood”.

Nathan and his videographer friend, Marquise Lee, then travelled on a 50-state tour to interview queer people all over the country. The idea was to collect video stories. Most of them are around 2-3 minutes of length, but few of them are actually “coming out” stories. They are incredibly diverse, showing a range of ages, orientations, backgrounds, races, and beliefs. As the tour progressed, the project gained a lot of support and the website was launched in order to collect the stories in a public forum. Then people began sending in written stories, and audio stories, while Nathan and Marquise were still collecting video stories. Now there are hundreds of stories from all over the world, available to read and watch and listen to on the website.

I met Nathan when he came to my apartment to film my story. We immediately hit it off and I was incredibly intrigued by the whole project and I think Nathan was already thinking about the next steps for Driftwood. I saw him again at a benefit and he started to tell me about his idea to adapt the stories into a theatrical event. I have experience on similar projects, having worked with Moises Kaufman and Tectonic Theater Project (The Laramie Project) and I thought Nathan’s idea was really powerful and exciting. I said yes immediately. Since then we have talked a LOT about it and I am so grateful to Project Y for giving us the opportunity to workshop it in front of an audience and move it to the next level.

MB: How has the response been to the other incarnations of I’m From Driftwood? What do you hope to get out of this Workshop Production with Project Y? Where do you see this show’s process going in the future?

LH: The response has really been incredible. As you can see from the progression of the project, people are really seeing this as a very important resource for the LGBT community. It is a way for queer people to communicate the stories of their lives. When I was young and in the closet and frightened, a website like I’m From Driftwood would have been an invaluable resource. Just to know that I wasn’t alone. This is a huge part of this project. Reaching out to young queer kids and sending that message, “You are not alone”. But it is also creating a worldwide collection of queer stories, something that has not existed before all in one place. You can go to the website and, in 10 minutes, read stories from the US, Europe, Asia, and South America. And what is incredible is how these stories interact and overlap. And this is what I find most exciting about adapting these to the theater. What is shared between all these people and their stories? How do they interact? What makes us want to tell our story?

MB: You are collaborating with Nathan Manske on creating this piece - can you talk a little bit about that process and what its like to make a play based off many others’ stories/a book/a website?

LH: This is what we are learning as we go. I have done work turning interviews into theater, documentary theater as it is often called, but this is different. These are not people telling the same story, or the same narrative, these are people giving personal accounts of their daily lives, or events in their life, that are un-related to each other. So it is a matter of finding that common thread that links them together and communicating that through the medium of theater. This is new ground for me and for many of my collaborators, so it is a learning process, and a very enjoyable, insightful one.

MB: Who should come see this show? Who will enjoy this play?

LH: If any of this intrigues you, you should come. Or even if it doesn’t! This workshop is also a chance to put this in front of an audience and get feedback. We want to know what you think and what you respond to in the room. But what is amazing about I’m From Driftwood is the incredible range of experiences that are represented. I truly believe there is something for everyone.

I’m From Driftwood will be presented on Oct 14th at 8pm and Oct 15th at 9pm.

Purchase tickets for I’m From Driftwood.

Got a question or comment for Luke about I’m From Driftwood?

Tweet @lukedavisharlan and use hashtag #NYNP