1. IN THE SLUSH is a recent play you’ve submitted to The Baltimore Playwrights Festival. What is it about?
The play is about two editorial assistants reading through their publishing house’s slush pile of manuscripts. One of them is newly married and newly pregnant, and she comes across one manuscript that claims she is not human. She is instead a vessel for her baby which is actually the second coming of an ancient cosmic darkness.
Now, obviously (especially as I type this), that sounds absolutely ridiculous. But I’m a big fan of destabilizing moments in plays. So the play is really about…what if it’s not ridiculous? What if it’s true? What would that mean?
2. What was the inspiration for the play? Did the initial story change once you began writing?
You know, I don’t recall a single source of inspiration. I think it was mainly the coalescing of several things that were running through my mind at the time. Some of it was the fact that I’m a huge horror nerd, cosmic horror and existentialist terror being a subset I’m particularly fond of. Anything where humanity is tossed up against the idea that there are massive cosmic forces that couldn’t care about us in the slightest is fun for me.
But that “genre” smashed into my corresponding rabbit-hole journey of slush piles and the folks who wind up going through them. How does it affect them to read so many people’s stories and aspirations? How does it affect their own? I became entranced by so many hopes and dreams in one place, and I got really intrigued by the thought “What if some of those dreams are just bad? Terrible? What about evil or malignant?”
All that combined and came to a head in what became the play.
3. What came easily in the writing of IN THE SLUSH and what challenged you the most?
The most challenging part was determining how much to reveal about the exact nature of Laura Beth’s “predicament.” Without spoiling whether the manuscript is true or not, the play dives into questions of identity and ambition and how much of our self is defined by others. The interpersonal conflict of the characters is, to a degree, ultimately more important than the logistics of the world-building, so it’s a very thin line of how much do I need to give the audience so they don’t question too much and are satisfied, but not so much that they lose sight of the questions that I’m more concerned with.
Or rather, the exact nature of the darkness is the less important idea when compared to the implications of what it means. The possibility that your entire life as you know it might be a lie. If you aren’t who you think you are, then who are you? What is your purpose now? Does it change? It was a challenge to try and tackle that and include the perfect amount of “what do we need to know?”
4. Tell us about yourself.
I am based in DC, but originally from Charlottesville, Virginia. Most all of my writing is based around attempts to put something on stage that I’ve never seen before, so it usually results in a lot of genre-bending fare. I have a special love for absurdism, folklore, and horror, and was definitely the kid in class way more affected by Ionesco’s “Rhinoceros” than anybody else. That and Annie Baker, whose voice and delivery I just freaking love, have probably been my biggest influences. I love how unafraid she is of silence.
I also act, and usually split my time between the two. When not doing either of those, I legitimately enjoy long walks on the beach, red wine, video games, and biscuits. I graduated from UVA and am a member of the Dramatists Guild.
You can find my work at: https://newplayexchange.org/users/10769/daniel-prillaman
5. What are you working on now?
I have a full-length in progress about a colossal humpback whale that suddenly appears along the Southern Appalachian Trail. Like, giant. It’s as big as a mountain. Naturally, humanity likes to do things they arguably shouldn’t, so some folks start hiking it and climbing to the top. But nobody who’s done so has come back down. Our protagonist decides to make the trek to find their partner, and things get…weird. It’s very magic realism and folk horror. Have I mentioned that I like horror? I don’t feel like I’ve mentioned that enough.
6. What is coming up next for you?
I have a reading of my short play, “The Furniture Store,” coming up on January 30th by the lovely folks at Root Beer Occasion Theatre Company. It is a part of their Garbage Revue, and will be a night of deliciously, intentionally bad theatre. https://www.rootbeeroccasion.com/garbage-revue
On the other side of the table, I’m moving to Sandusky, Ohio soon to rejoin the cast of Cedar Point’s “Forbidden Frontier on Adventure Island” this summer. It’s like Westworld, but for all ages. We’re the robots.