Scott C. Sickles - Playwright and much, much more!

Taking the Plunge

          On the second floor near a movie theater in Oakland, Pennsylvania (near what passes for the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, I sat in the back room listening to fledgling playwrights have their work read by talented actors happy to voice their own talents.

          I had adapted my novella, “Dear Jennifer” into a play and after reading a small release in the paper, braved this strange territory for the first time.

          Scott Sickles, then a student at Carnegie Mellon, created this event and took it a step further by not only selecting “Dear Jennifer” for production but creating opportunities for other works I had written that were languishing in my proverbial desk drawer (really my computer files).

          Years have passed, but through the magic of Facebook, we are once again in touch, albeit on opposite coasts.

          I’m happy to introduce readers to Scott who is hard-working, super-talented, funny, and – well, read on! He is a writer and why not let someone who describes themselves as a “wordsmith” have his way.

         

         

Scott C. Sickles on the High Line in NYC with deceptively flattering lighting. 

Photo by Jade DaRu

Scott C. Sickles

Scott C. Sickles is a playwright, soap opera scribe, Off-Off-Broadway theater producer, movie lover, and Sagittarius, who is used to writing about himself in the third person for theatrical bios.

While movies were his first love, he turned to playwriting because he didn’t know how to produce his own films, but his own plays... that was doable, even in his hometahn (sic) of Pittsburgh.

A descendant (or at least alleged distant relative) of Congressman and Civil War General Daniel Edgar Sickles, whose amputated leg (along with the cannonball that hit it) is on display at the Smithsonian, Scott feels the temporary insanity defense is part of his birthright.

He currently serves as artistic director of the WorkShop Theater Company (www.workshoptheater.org), now entering its 20^th Anniversary Season. This spring, his play Moonlight & Love Songs opened GayFest NYC to critical acclaim. He recently received his first two Emmy nominations simultaneously as part of the Writing Teams of both One Life to Live and General Hospital (which he hopes you tune in to weekdays from 2pm to 3pm on ABC).

His comedy Intellectuals (published by Smith & Kraus in New Playwrights: Best Plays 2007) opens at Nevada’s Reno Little Theater in September. A very proud uncle to his nephew who just graduated from high school, Scott also freely admits he would be nothing and nowhere without his friends.

          

1.      Who are you? List 5 nouns that define you.

Friend – Romantic – Wordsmith – Over-compensator – Dreamer

2.      What have you done that you’re most proud of?

Personally: This spring I lost 100 pounds. Granted, I never should have gained it in the first place and I still have quite a ways to go, but I lost 100 freaking pounds! When I went to the gym that day, I picked up at 100-pound barbell and couldn’t believe I once carried that much additional weight around on my person.

Professionally: Viki’s Speech in the penultimate episode (on broadcast TV, that is) of One Life to Live. As the characters of Llanview gathered to watch the final episode of their favorite soap opera, Fraternity Row, they were first treated to a speech by the show’s matriarch Victoria Lord (Gordon-Riley-Burke-Riley-Buchanan-Buchanan-Davidson-Banks) about “Why We Love Soaps.”

I was entrusted to write the speech. I stood on the shoulders of a brilliant story outline, the show’s 43-year history, and an insanely wonderful genre and did my best to fashion an homage. The Speech has been very well received, in large part to the beautiful work of Erika Slezak and the entire OLTL team for putting together a landmark episode, and has since been reprinted in Soap Opera Digest and online.

Artistically: When he was 51, E.M. Forster fell in love with a much-younger policeman named Bob Buckingham, who eventually married an even younger nurse. The relationship between the three of them is the inspiration of my play Shepherd’s Bush.

After a staged reading at the Carnegie Mellon University Showcase of New Plays, a gentleman came up to me and said, “My wife and I weren’t sure we wanted to stay for the whole thing because of The Subject Matter, but we’re glad we did. A friend of ours came out as gay and ended up leaving his wife and family and we all condemned him for it. But seeing your play made us realize how hard that decision must have been for him.”

They say if you can change one person, you’ve succeeded. One down...

3.      If you could change one thing in your past, what would it be?

I have this saying that I conjure up when things are going either exceptionally well or have turned absurdly ridiculous: “Every moment of my life has led to this one.”

Since things have by-and-large turned out rather well so far, I try to live without regrets. Granted, I’ve made many, many huge mistakes over the course of my life and when I say them out loud, or type them out as it were, they seem maudlin, trivial, or way to embarrassing to share. So this is a difficult question because if it weren’t for those maudlin, trivial or humiliating events, my life could be markedly different in unwelcome ways.

That said, if I had to choose one thing... I wouldn’t have put so much stock in my detractors. Sometimes the people who point out our inadequacies “for our own good” actually aren’t doing so for that reason. Sometimes they are, but they’re not helping.

While I’m grateful for everyone who expected more from me, I do at times regret that I satisfied those who required less.

4.      On a personal level, what drives you crazy? What gives you joy?

My brain drives me crazy. Not because it’s crazy, but because the bastard is crafty. As someone with ADD, I am constantly hiding things from myself, getting distracted from tasks, losing track of time. When I look at the time, my brain will make sure I think that’s still the time, that no time is passing, while I end up doing other things and even more things in the middle of those other things.

When I ultimately look up and see half an hour has passed, my brain is like “Psych, Loser! Gotcha again! Now try to find that phone that was just in your hand. No seriously, TRY! But before you do that... FACEBOOK!” This is constant.

Another thing that drives me crazy: people who think the things that are happening to folks with ADD are “just things that happen to everybody.” Yes, everybody gets distracted or misplaces things or loses track of time, but it doesn’t happen to them CONSTANTLY. They don’t have to endlessly try to end-run their own brain. Their minds don’t wander into complex new scenarios a few seconds after they stop talking, almost every time they stop talking.

They have probably never put their underwear, shirt, socks, shoes, jacket, and backpack on and left the house only to reach for their keys and discover they forgot their pants. (That’s only happened a few times.) For everyone who’s ever said to me, “You’re not having any trouble paying attention to the conversation we’re having now,” I say, “You don’t know that! I’ve been fake listening to people for thirty years.”

Other things that drive me crazy:

·         Apostrophes used to make words plural.

·         “Nucular”

·         The denial of the Brontosaurus and the status of Pluto as a planet.

What brings me joy? In addition to obvious things like my friends, my work, the members of my family I still speak to, great food, good plays, and movies that are either really good or really, really bad... I think I’m happiest in rehearsal. That may also be obvious. It should be if you’ve ever seen me in rehearsal!

5.      Given no restrictions (i.e. money/physical capabilities) – what would you most like to do? 

Given no restrictions, I would...        Get into the kind of physical shape where I could be described as looking like a “cute but eccentric literature professor.”

• Seduce three very specific people, then marry the one I know actually plays for my team. (One does; one doesn’t; the third is unconfirmed. I will neither confirm nor deny their identities.
• Adapt my plays into films, develop new TV series, and resurrect American Playhouse for PBS.
•  Eat carbs without consequences.
• Pay off my [EXPLETIVE] student loans. Hell, since this is a fantasy... I’LL PAY OFF EVERYONE’S STUDENT LOANS! 
• Three Words: Viking River Cruises

Me, early days.

A super-pretentious selfie in front of the Grace Building on 42^nd Street. I saw the white “marble” tiles and I couldn’t resist. It was also like 100 degrees.