An interview with Madeleine Adriance
It wasn’t too long ago that Madeleine Adriance was a Young Professional at OCT, working alongside her peers to learn about the ins and outs of making a career in the theatre industry. During her time with the YPs Madeleine worked professionally as an actor, dramaturg, and assistant director from 2016–2019; now, Madeleine is attending Brown University, and has studied playwriting with Julia Jarcho and Lisa D’Amour. She has received the Robinson Potter Dunn and the Susan Ross Steinfeld Awards for her work. We recently sat down with Madeleine to talk more about the unique development process for SPIDER, her experiences working with mentor Matthew Zrebski, and how it felt to watch her work move from the page, to the rehearsal room, and finally to the stage.
Tell us about the process of writing of SPIDER: how did it come to be?
Dani Baldwin, Matt Zrebski and I started talking about this commission back in February 2022. My assignment was to write an intermissionless full-length play for six or more actors to perform. We set up an initial meeting with the YPs in May 2022 for me to get inspiration for the story. We ended up talking a lot about their experience with social media: the pressure to perform a false version of themselves for other people, and the feeling of powerlessness against their addiction to it. But because I was also dealing with those intense experiences, I actually found it difficult to write about them directly. So I ended up exploring similar issues by writing about younger kids addicted to YouTube. I was haunted by these strange videos I saw, where these grown people dress up as cartoon characters and act out bizarre scenarios in their backyards. These mindless, inane, and sometimes disturbing videos are designed not to help children process the darkness of life with nuance and care, but to get clicks – to appease the mysterious god of the YouTube algorithm.
That first meeting with the YPs also fell two days after the Uvalde shooting. I remember one of the YPs saying that after the Parkland shooting in 2018, the response was galvanizing and hopeful – they believed young people were going to make sure gun laws changed. But after Uvalde, they just felt numb – we’ve said “never again” so many times, and here we are. I started thinking about how even if you’re nowhere near a shooting, it can still end up killing you in a way, because it takes the joy out of being around other people in public places. And the way we often hear about it is we’re scrolling, and it’s like, “selfie, selfie, infographic, twenty people were murdered horribly, selfie, food picture.” We’re so desensitized. I hope that this play can help breathe life and humanity into the way we process these experiences.
From a playwright’s point of view, how does it feel to see your writing come to life? How has it been working with the actors?
I didn’t hear the full script out loud until the first rehearsal, which is unusual for a new play process. But Matt (the director/dramaturg) reassured me that the script was in good shape. After the first read through, I joked that I felt like Oppenheimer – I saw my creation come to life, and I was like, “oh God, what have I done.” The show has a lot of humor and heart, but it’s also intense. The next day, I came into rehearsal, and I was like, “this ending is too much, it’s too dark.” And everyone said, “No, it’s honest.”
The cast has tackled the show with so much professionalism and joy. There is a deep spirit of generosity in the rehearsal room. I’m proud to be part of helping them learn how to tackle challenging roles and intense material in an environment where their emotional safety is a top priority. Matt stressed from the beginning that the job of the actor is to use their craft to commit fully to telling the story onstage, and then leave it on the stage – not take it with them. Holly Wigmore, a therapist and actor Matt has worked with, also came into rehearsal to talk to the cast about techniques for getting in and out of emotionally difficult acting moments. The actors have grown so much through this process, and I’m so proud of them.
What, if any, challenges have you faced while working on SPIDER?
The biggest difficulty in the writing process was balancing this with my schoolwork and other creative endeavors. Some big deadlines for this piece overlapped with big deadlines for other writing projects. But ultimately that’s a great problem to have as a writer! Emotionally speaking, it was also not always the easiest thing to work on – in my research, I ended up watching a lot of the testimony from survivors of different shootings, which was harrowing. But that’s part of the job too, and working on this gave me an outlet to deal with what was haunting me.
It also would have been nice to have a bit more time to workshop the play with actors. Matt was right that the script was in good shape, but new insights about the story always crop up when a play gets on its feet, and it would’ve been ideal to have more time to fine tune things. At the same time, this process has been very smooth overall, and I’m happy with this production.
How has it been working with your mentor and director of SPIDER, Matt Zrebski?
I’ve known Matt for a long time! I took playwriting and directing classes with him in high school, where I discovered my love for theater. He is just as generous and thoughtful as a collaborator as he is as a teacher. In our conversations about the script with Oliver, our YP assistant director/dramaturg, Matt would always explain what kind of feedback he was giving me, to help Oliver understand the thought process that goes into creating a new work. Through the writing process, it was helpful to have someone who could say, “take it or leave it, but when I read this, my directorial imagination goes here.” Often, I was like, “that’s awesome! I’ll take it!” We had our creative disagreements as well, but we always worked through them with a lot of generosity and respect.
I’ve also loved seeing him work with the YP actors. He is hyper aware of everyone in the room, and knows exactly what each person needs to hear to take their performance to the next level. I deeply respect his artistic ethos – he takes the craft of theater so seriously without taking himself seriously. He reminds us that at the end of the day, we’re playing make believe, and we all have huge egos to think people should pay to sit down and watch us. But also, in every rehearsal, he’s always putting himself in the position of an audience member who knows nothing about the show, and he’s putting an immense amount of thought and care into making sure that this experience is going to move them.
What advice do you have for young folks that want to pursue playwriting?
My first piece of advice is super boring, but unfortunately it is true: Write! If you want to be a writer, you have to put words on a page. And then share them with people you trust. You learn a lot about what you’re trying to do in your writing by seeing other people interpret it.
I’ll also share some advice that Matt has given me over the years: Be ambitious and unafraid of failure. Write the story that you don’t know if you can pull off, because even if you fail (and you will fail!), you will learn more. And finally, something I’ve learned from working on this piece: Don’t be afraid to look darkness in the eye and write what you see. Don’t be afraid to laugh at it, either.
What’s next in your creative journey? Are you working on anything new as a playwright?
I am working on a musical comedy called Cheesy Love Songs with Nathan Winoto, a friend from Brown who is a brilliant composer. It’s silly and fun, so basically the opposite of SPIDER. Beyond that, I’m working on a few other plays, but I still have one semester of college left in the spring, so I should really be working on my thesis...
Madeleine attended many of the YP’s rehearsals of SPIDER.
Pictured here with director Matt Zrebski and two of the cast members rehearsing a fighting scene.
We’re beyond excited to bring Madeleine’s poignant and impactful story to life—get your tickets now to see SPIDER, opening this Friday!