James Lewis Huss is a widely traveled poet, novelist and playwright. A reading of his Tom Middleton and The Ur-thello is being presented this season by the BPF. James responded to a series of questions posed by BPF Board Advisor Larry Lambert to discuss his literary career, his motivation and creative direction.
L – The initial premise for Ur-thello is like something ripped out of the headlines. Then you time warp a few hundred years back to the English Renaissance. What on Earth had you put these two universes together?
J – Tom Middleton and the Ur-thello is the fifth in a series of Mock Renaissance Tragedies, a term I coined. The other works in the genre are written as though they were lost plays recently discovered: Shakespeare’s Robin V, Kit Marlowe’s Henry, etc. The plays are limited to what a Renaissance dramatist might write about, so I had to find stories with themes that were universal enough to appeal to modern audiences. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it is best written in verse.
L – What was the inspiration for Ur-thello?
J – Ur-thello is an obvious satire of Othello, a play that I have taught to high school students. I find Othello to be problematic in many ways and wanted to highlight these problems, though in a genuinely authentic way, which meant that I could not write a straight satire of Othello. So I wrote a satire about the creation of Othello. Tom Middleton is me, the white guy who really wants to do the right thing but doesn’t always know how.
L – You received your Bachelor’s in English Literature and Master’s in English, not to mention teaching English around the world. Is it safe to assume that Shakespeare has had a strong influence on you?
J – Shakespeare and I have a love/hate relationship. I have learned much from him, both how to be a playwright and how not to be a human being. He was a consummate genius when it came to writing, but his personal flaws are difficult to ignore. I have based all of my full-length plays on his five-act structure, but I have also satirized him in two of my plays. So yeah, I think about him a lot.
L – Ur-thello has a large cast. How did you tie them together? Is there a special process for writing a play with so many parts?
J – I have a difficult time writing full-length plays with small casts, and I admire playwrights who can pull off two-handers or even solo shows. But Shakespeare had big casts, and in order to satirize him I need at least a moderate group of characters. Making these characters realistic is part of my prewriting—I create a plot diagram for each character with their own conflicts, climaxes, and resolutions. Then I bring them to life in my head while I’m writing. I just imagine a room full of these people and how they would interact with each other and write down what they say.
L – You write that Tom Middleton is a white writer who has no idea what it’s like to be black. Have you ever run into similar circumstances?
J – There is a scene in Ur-thello that is based on a real incident that happened to me and a very good friend of mine. We went to a bar in Argentina, and the bouncer started to let me in. But when he saw I was with my friend, who is black, he turned us away. I was so angry I wanted to fight the bouncers. I really did. But my friend told me not to be mad because it was just a thing that happened, and we couldn’t fight people over things that just happened. It was a very real moment for me, so I put it in my play.
L – What would you most like your audience to come away with after this performance?
J – I want them to laugh, and I want them to think, and I want them to realize that the same racist tropes we used 400 years ago are still being used today, and we should work harder to change that.
L – You are a novelist, a poet and a playwright. You have more recently written two YA (young adult) novels. Is there one avenue that you consider your passion? Your strength?
J – I’m a poet most of all. This is why I write all my plays in blank verse. Poetry has an effect on the brain that prose does not, so it doesn’t matter what message I have— if I write it in verse it’s more powerful.
L – You are credited with creating a new literary genre—the Mock Renaissance Tragedy. Then you coined the term Post Pandemic Renaissance, What is behind these new terms.
J – The Mock Renaissance Tragedy is a play dissembled as a lost tragedy by a dead playwright. It was originally an excuse to write in blank verse, but I found that the juxtaposition of poetic verses and coarse humor is really effective in creating funny and memorable scenes. The Post Pandemic Renaissance came about because I began writing these plays while living in Taiwan during the pandemic, and all the theaters around the world were closed. I imagined some kind of artistic renaissance after coming out of that mess, so I penned the term myself.
L – When you were in Taiwan you founded the Post Pandemic Renaissance Theatre Company, a theater group dedicated to developing and producing your plays. Is that still in operation?
J – The PPRTC has done some staged reading and monologue competitions, but English theater is challenging in Taiwan where there are many English speakers, but the vast majority of people still speak Mandarin.
L – Given the breadth of your interests, where will your next journey take you?
J – My primary goal at the moment is a full production of one of my plays, but I’m always working on something—I have a novel in the works and some ideas for plays, and maybe one of my other books will gain some notoriety in the meantime.