Here is part one:
In August, the comedic play “Kidnapped by Craigslist” ran at the People’s Improv Theater (see 8/18/07 review), and its co-creator, Katie Goan, has plans underway for productions of the show in other cities, including Austin, Texas, where she went to college. “Craigslist” is culled from and inspired by ads in the popular website that serves as an online version of classified ads. While Goan performed in the New York productions, she prefers writing and directing, and plans to cast the touring version of the show with local actors in each city, as well as revising the show in each city to draw from Craigslist ads from the site’s pages for that city. Jester spoke with Goan about the evolution of “Craigslist.”
Katie Goan: In touring of ‘Kidnapped by Craigslist,’ the first stop will be Austin, Texas, because I know a lot of people there and all my friends are there producing and directing theater. So two of my friends from Austin came to see the show and are very excited about producing it. That will probably be the first leg of its future in development, substituting in Austin postings from Craigslist and do a show there. We’re thinking of a late night show in a cabaret space or something like that. Eventually we want to do Seattle, San Francisco and all the places where Craigslist originated.
Jester: Do the postings say the same or have they changed throughout the runs of the show?
KG: So far it’s been the same because we’ve only done New York. All the postings are from the New York site. The postings are from over the past two years. We started doing the show about two and a half years ago, and some of the postings are as recent as three months ago.
J: Are you adding postings to the show?
KG: We stopped doing that because we needed to solidify that particular show. But we’re always looking for new postings from new cities, because we always want to make the show about where we’re going to perform. Hopefully, you get a very New York feel from this show. In Austin, we’ll put in more rockabilly type music, with a country and western twang kind of sound; obviously we’ll have no subway-related postings.
The whole carnival aspect of the show -- the carnival barker’s speeches and introductions to carnival-type attractions, will all stay the same. All we have to do is look for postings from Austin about love and sex and put that into the Tunnel of Love section, and postings that are rants and raves to put in the dunking booth section. Much of it will stay the same but the postings will change.
J: Are you and the cast that recently did it going to be in other performances?
KG: I’m not sure. In Austin, it will be an Austin cast. In a perfect world, once we get a substantial amount of money, I would love to have one company that goes all over to do it. The show is always changing and evolving though, so it will be interesting to see what other people do with it.
J: It’s been running for two and a half years. How has it evolved?
KG: We did a workshop at the PIT one year ago, last June. We flew in a director from L.S.U. It was just a cast of three people -- Nitra, the co-writer, myself and a friend of ours. For about a month … the postings started off with a large stack and boiled it down to the 20 or 30 that are in the show. It’s a matter of finding out what fits together the best and how you can represent Craigslist the best way.
J: How does a particular posting inspire you to write it into the show?
KG: We thought the carnival theme made it into a show. At first we were just pulling postings that we thought were interesting, funny or sad, or just were different types of people -- something that had a definite angle to it. Then, from going through a large stack, you think these people are freaks, but they’re not. They’re actually you and me -- this person could be a librarian who is the most introverted person you ever met, yet she’s complaining about her boss and cussing him out and talking about how she wants to seduce him. So then we start seeing the difference between who people are in real life and how they portray themselves. That’s when we realized it was a carnival theme, with the “Rants & Raves” section being the dunking booth and the “Missed Connections” being the Tunnel of Love. That’s how we were inspired to put it into the show.
Then we added the music, which we thought would be exciting and cool. A lot of what is on the stage (in the recent version of the show) in the fluidity is from Kimmy (Gatewood). She’s the most unbelievable director I’ve ever worked with; she’s fantastic. She really tied it all together, made it flow and made it the piece that it is.
J: I think of direction as visual as in film, but in this world it often involves tightening up the writing and the organization of what’s presented. What are the differences?
KG: For anything about the writing, Kimmy comes to me. Because we went from a 90-minute show to a 56-minute show, and now I can’t even imagine it that long because now it’s under an hour.
So a lot of the characterizations are Kimmy’s ideas because your first instinct when doing something like this is to push it and be angry. You want to be the angriest person you can think of and conjure up. She said, ‘No, why don’t you play against the anger and make it humorous or touching or charming.’ She helped us to play against the character to actually make these people believable.
J: So it is some directing of the acting?
KG: Yes, a lot of acting and a lot of staging. The stage pictures themselves were all Kimmy and a lot of the music too.
Part Two:
J: Where did everyone from the cast now come from?
KG: Michelle O’Connor, who played the barker, is Kimmy’s good friend from college. They’ve been collaborating on theater projects together for many years, and they write a lot of music together. Jacob Brown is in my improv class, and is on the Sid Viscous improv team at The PIT. Him and I became close through our improv classes at The PIT. Jared is a good friend of Nitra, the co-writer, and they do improv together for at-risk teens, about bullying and drugs and things like that.
J: Most of the characters go from start to finish and you see them all at once, although Jared does a character that reappears at points. Why do you go back to just that one character or why don’t you follow the others through more?
KG: Just to get as much diversity as possible. Jared did make a specific choice -- it’s one character that you see different aspects of. That is the pot-head lady guy [insert explanation] and the subway guy from the beginning. He chose to tie those two people together, where you see the guy frustrated on the subway and then smoking a joint at home on his patio. That was an experiment. But mostly we wanted to do the complete opposite … different characters to show diversity of who uses Craigslist, what are the reasons, are they escaping something from their lives, are they looking for attention? Why are they going on Craigslist?
J: I wondered when reviewing the show whether, in how Michelle hosted the show, whether you were thinking about ‘The Twilight Zone’?
KG: The creepiness of it, yes. We wanted an eerie, creepy feel to the barker, which is interesting from her because she’s a pretty woman. To see her be a sexy seductress but also kind of a hard ass, and also the taskmaster of Craigslist, and everyone’s her minions to do what she says. So in that aspect, yes, the stream of consciousness of the piece is very much like The Twilight Zone, and the creepiness and eeriness of it. You want the audience to question what they’re seeing. That’s the ‘Twilight Zone’ aspect of it too -- ‘Did they just … oh they did!’
J: What’s your a criteria for what you’re putting into scenes or what you find funny?
KG: When we look at them now, we’re just looking for diverse stories from individuals. At this point, the show is love and sex heavy. That’s a major change I want to make for the future of the show. Especially for New York, I need more apartment posting stories, or finding roommates. We touch on it in the show but we don’t dive in as much as we should, especially for New York. They don’t use Craigslist as much for that in Austin. … Now when I talk to people in New York, the most interest is in “Missed Connections” or one-night hookups -- ‘come over to my house right now,’ much more so than apartments or roommates.
I guess for criteria, we’re looking for people who have a point of view and just a crazy, kooky wackiness that’s out there. You get everything from those looking to sell their Beatles collection to ‘I cheated on my wife, what should I do?’ So diversity, and people who have a story to tell.
J: Are there other shows that you’ve written or are thinking about doing?
KG: I’ve written others and produced others. They’re usually always comedy. The dramas I’ve written aren’t very good. I’m into short comedic plays, or more vignettes than actual plays, but also not quite sketch either. I like it to have a theme or through line so it’s not just random sketches. The next show I’m working on is a one-woman show. I’m writing it thinking of myself but I probably wouldn’t perform it in the long run. It has different wacky characters. It’s about a Texas girl who’s transplanted into Yankee land.
J: Most performers who write a one-person character showcase show do it for themselves. Why are you thinking about transferring it to someone else?
KG: I would probably direct that show. I would want to find someone who could have the diversity of different characters. … That was my big problem with acting. It was always your director telling you what to do. You can explore things as an actor and try different things but at the end of the day, your director decides. I want to be the one who actually creates it and puts it out there for people.
J: Most performers find comedy more difficult to do than drama, but you find drama more difficult.
KG: It’s more difficult for me to write. I’m not sure how to even explain that. I find that comedic dialogue is easier for me to write than dramatic dialogue. In dramas, the climax has to be so solid, and all the elements of the story, like your introduction, rising action, climax and falling action all have to be so clear and set for it to be effective. In comedy, anything goes. That’s the difference to me. That’s why it makes it easier. You can put something down on paper as comedy, and if it stinks, throw it away, or it can be the most brilliant piece of comedy you’ve ever seen in your life. Drama doesn’t work that way. It either works or it doesn’t. In comedy, you can find something that works about it, or change it.
J: What comedic performers, movies or TV influenced you?
KG: Growing up it was always Gilda Radner. Everyone says that, but watching old Saturday Night Lives, the Gilda Radner sketches were definitely what I wanted to do. She did physical comedy which was unusual for women back then. As to films, “Clue” is one of my favorite movies of all time. I like the different characters and different types of people all coming together for a murder mystery, or the dinner party, or whatever the case may be.
J: That’s why you’re doing “Craigslist” -- because you’re inspired by “Clue.”
KG: I guess you could say that. “Clue” is one of my definite favorites. Another favorite is “Waiting For Guffman” -- again, such different types of people thrown together in a situation. That’s comedy gold if you ask me.
