Corine Cohen: Brooke, I loved HUNTING AND GATHERING! As a New York City Dweller I could relate with this fabulous and touching play. Do you have to be a manipulative predator to survive in the concrete jungle?
Brooke Berman: I don't think you have to be a manipulative predator, but I do think you have to be grounded, focussed, able to separate fact from fantasy. A few years ago, I was invited to participate in a traditional "vision quest", a Native American ceremony where you are led up a mountain and basically, left there, without food or water for 3 days, while you pray and fast and confront your demons. I didn't go in part because I realized I didn't have to go somewhere exotic to learn those things; the process of finding an apartment in New York would be exactly the same thing. When you come down off the mountain, or finally close the deal on your apt, you know what you're made of. I moved out of Greenpoint that summer.
Corine Cohen: Interesting! Are you Bess or Ruth? I related
to Ruth and found her to be the central character.
Brooke Berman: All of the characters
have me in them, including Bess. But having said that, yes,
I am more of a Ruth. I tend to make decisions based on the
heart, on intuition and connection and relativity, and at
the end of the day, what matters most to me is transformation,
not accumulation. But Bess and Ruth complement each other
- each needs a little bit of what the other has.
Corine Cohen: Can you please tell me some funny apartment stories that you may have left out of the play?
Brooke Berman: OMG. I have so many! There was a loft in Williamsburg
with an open door bathroom policy. 5 lesbians, a cat, and
me. There were the adorable neighbors across the hall when
I lived with Michael Chernus on 7th (we wanted our own sitcom
called "Between B and C"), my ex-boyfriend moved
in a block away (!) with the new girlfriend. There was The
Casa Tres Girlies in Greenpoint, where we were only supposed
to have 2 people living there, but we had a third, who had
to pretend she was someone's cousin from out of town. She
sunbathed on the roof topless, which wasn't the greatest way
of staying on the DL, if you know what I mean. There was a
big fire one night in that building, one of our neighbors,
a teenaged girl with a Korn fetish, burned the place down
with her candles and everyone had to go stand on the street
in the middle of the night waiting for the Fire Dept. to come.
After that, we had no gas for like, almost a month because
the building was found "not up to standard." I survived
on waffles, because Aaron my ex had bought me an electric
waffle iron and it was the only form of cooking we could do
without gas. What else can I tell you? More apt. stories are
on my blog: http://moregathering.blogspot.com/
!
Corine Cohen: It gives you great material as a writer.
Did you really have a transvestite neighbor who cut off bird
heads?
Brooke Berman: I did! I was subletting on First Avenue, and the super really did knock on the door to tell me that there were these crack vials and decapitated pigeons on the roof, but that he thought "it's probably kids" and we were "...all safe." In that same buildling, there was a transsexual neighbor, a FTM who had started the operation procedures but not completed them, and there was all sorts of drama around her. She used to glare at me in the hallways, and I did hear rumors about santeria rituals.... Her association with the beheaded birds was never proven. Who knows. I think I saw her the other day at Mud Cafe.
Corine Cohen: That is really funny! Do you have any plans to bring the show to a permanent theater?
Brooke Berman: Perhaps. We shall see... But I do have another
play, called A PERFECT COUPLE (it's about marriage) premiering
in June at the DR2 with WET.
Corine Cohen: I can't wait to see the new play! Who do
you admire most and why?
Brooke Berman: In the play, definitely Astor with his big
heart and great fashion sense.
Corine Cohen: Did you find the apartment of your dreams?
Brooke Berman: I did. For awhile. And then my dreams changed.
Corine Cohen: Dreams always change! How many years did it
take to write the play? Was it a diary of your experiences?
Brooke Berman: This play took longer than any other I've written!
For the first year (I started it in late 2002), the characters
would only speak to me inmonologue, they refused to get into
the same room with each other! The Buck Hunter material started
as a separate play I was going to write for some actress friends
of mine (Liz Reaser, Rosemarie Dewitt, Yvonne Woods...) and
then, the two trajectories merged, and the whole playfell
into place. That was 2004. Then, Leigh and I workshopped the
play with Underwood Theater in 2005. Then, we brought it to
True Loveand Daryl Roth. There was another workshop. And now,
this beautiful production. It's not a diary of my experiences,
though.... (for that, see the blog!)
Corine Cohen: Are you married to the man with the van?
Brooke Berman: Nope. Not even a little bit.
Thank you, Brooke. It was a pleasure seeing HUNTING AND
GATHERING and I hope to see the new shows this summer.
Note to readers: Check out HUNTING AND GATHERING at Playwrights
Horizons at the 59 East 59th Theater. Tickets are available
through March 1st by calling (212) 279-4200. It is a must
see for anyone that lives in this City or wants to live here.
It is a Corine's pick. I adored it.
Photos by James Leynse
Interview conducted by Corine Cohen
