Stuck at Home

With Bryan Starchman

What inspired you to write this play?

I was inspired to write this play because like everyone else, I found myself stuck at home staring at the same four walls and I wanted to process how my life had changed. While I don’t have kids, I went through a lot of the same challenges like running out of toilet paper, putting on a hazmat suit to go grocery shopping, and surviving one terrible day without WiFi. 

What’s your favorite part or line in the play?  Why?

I relate to the son. I have a tendency to get really into something and study it for a week and then get distracted by something new. During the pandemic I was going to watch a famous film a day, then I was going to complete a great course every week, then I moved over to Master Class, I ran through the entire film studies series on Crash Course, then started cooking potatoes in every way imaginable after being inspired by videos on TikTok. So my favorite line is when he has just learned about the lock down and already he is learning how to say “My father does not wash his hands” in Spanish. It’s subtle and some audiences might miss it, but I love that kind of humor.

Where did the characters come from? Are they based on people you know? 

Even though I don’t have kids, I have two sisters and my parents are a bit like the parents in this show. After writing additional scenes I started to realize that I was also inspired by the family dynamics in Schitt’s Creek (a show that I binged in about a week during lock down). I feel that the sister is definitely inspired by Alexis Rose from that show.

What did you try to achieve with this play?

This was such a stressful time that I needed to find the lighter side of something that we were all struggling with. I had drama students who were seniors and they were realizing that they would never be in another high school production. I was able to workshop an early version of this script with them and it gave us all some closure as we ran the lines over Zoom. I feel that once we are able to return to the stage, students are going to want to work through the stress of 2020 and I think this show will be cathartic for both the actors and the audience.

Do you have anything else you’d like to add?

This was a challenging show to write because it is also a very serious subject. I strived to never poke fun at the real tragedy of this pandemic. It has affected us all. I’ve lost people to it. And I hope you will produce this show understanding that we all need to talk about the last year and find the collective humor while respecting just how serious this pandemic was.