How did the idea for Pure Shock Value come to you?

Being a bottom feeder in Hollywood, you see a lot of desperate hustlers putting “real life” on hold to try and have a career in Hollywood. You get depressed watching them because they seem to have no real hope or honest passion for Hollywood. They just got it in their head that Hollywood is where you go for money and glory. But then, at the same time, while you’re judging people, you have to look in the mirror and realize that YOU haven’t reaped any real money or glory in Hollywood, so WHAT AM I doing here. I wanted to capture that kind of vibe --- which you rarely see explored in detail.

In the author's note or introduction to the play, you write, "I have my own personal bias against plays about Hollywood. Probably because I’m always hearing people say we don't need any more plays about Hollywood." So given your bias against them, why did you feel the need to write one? And how does this Hollywood story differ from some others people may know--like Mamet's Speed the Plow or the films Swimming with the Sharks or The Player?

Almost exclusively, plays, TV and film about Hollywood takes place among the elite – or even when they try to do something about a character that is down and out – it’s a formerly successful person in Hollywood trying to get back. I wanted to write about a group that hasn’t made it, may never make it, might not even deserve to make it, and are living in squalor deferring their real lives – people not born in Los Angeles, but flocking here. Pure Shock Value is about the fleas and ticks of Hollywood. Tex, Gabby and Ethan are so down on the food chain, they aren’t even in the food chain. I haven’t seen that yet, and that describes the majority of those that come here. I felt this is the kind of story that needed to be added to the mix.

You live and work in Los Angeles. Are any of the events in the play based on events that happened to you?

Almost everything in the play is based or inspired by real events, either ones I experienced or ones told to me.

For example, as revealed in the play, the idea to have a wacked out celebrity found in the character’s backyard is taken directly from incidents involving Margot Kidder and Robert Downey Jr.

The man who was stalking Spielberg is true, though he didn’t have a newsletter.

The characters mortgaging their futures on million-to-one Hollywood gambles are everywhere, at every job I’ve ever held.

I was a Paramount Studio Page when I first moved to Los Angeles, and saw lots of strange and desperate behavior. I’ve also spent a lot of time on El Centro, which is a block from Paramount.

I knew a girl who slept with the manager of a Burger King to get a promotion … and didn’t get it! That’s what inspired the Gabby/Intern incident.

The idea for Barking Spiders came from a million bad ideas I’ve heard… one called “Sperm Burglars” comes to mind.

Emotionally and psychologically speaking, I consider this play a docu-drama about the lowest rungs of the Hollywood sausage factory.

Break down the characters a bit for us. Can you tell us how you developed them and how they may have changed as you've worked on the play?

In earlier drafts, Tex and Ethan were’t brother and sister. By and large, Tex stayed the most constant during all the drafts. Gabby and Ethan also weren’t really romantically involved earlier. Gabby and Ethan developed the most, trying to balance bringing a sense of honestly to their relationship with maintaining a tone that would allow the audience to buy the strange plot turns that happen.

This piece is pretty deeply rooted in the film industry. Does that mean it has a specific audience? What in it would speak to, say, a Minnesota audience or an audience that may live far outside Hollywood?

Hollywood is a state of mind that belongs to the world – it’s not a regional story. Everyone is clued into Hollywood – everyone in Hollywood hustling are from other cities – so it’s as much an American play as anything else. I think this will have a bigger life outside of Hollywood simply for the sad fact that naming names (especially the Spielberg bits) may worry people in Los Angeles. People like to bite the hand they hope will feed them—but some of these jokes may be too dark.

San Francisco gets referenced in the play. You used to live here and you went to school here. Does anything about your experience here inform your writing at all--or your opinion of where you live now?

San Francisco has been the biggest influence on my plays. COCKROACH NATION started here when in the 90s there was a huge tent city of homeless people outside of city hall. TERMINUS AMERICANA, about an office shooting that leads to the end of America, started after a shooting rampage here in the mid 90s. You've been working with Laley and the cast in rehearsals, further refining the play.

Have these actors influenced the changes you've made to the script?

Absolutely. Actors are great for finding weaknesses in character and motivation. Mostly they’ve helped bring the characters into stronger focus, and help them to stay as active as possible.

What's it been like working with Laley? How has she pushed you?

 Laley is a brutal taskmaster who’s pushed me to make the script as tight as possible…which I love.

You're known for writing dark comedies. Some of the titles of your plays are pretty dark: An Impending Rupture of the Belly, Cockroach Nation, Drive Angry, Terminus Americana.... Do people have misconceptions about you based on your work that get upended when they meet you? Does your work share a particular worldview?

And if so, where does that come from? The play I worked on at San Francisco State was called the Fear Manifesto, and was about a cult that helps people embrace their fear. My lead character would scour San Francisco collecting dirty hypodermic needles. So I guess my view of theater was always dark. I always thought the stories that worked the best for the stage were a bit surreal and dark but funny in a sick way. In my late 20s I got the cancer and had chemo for a year – that experience probably helped to solidify my darker world view. To me, it’s hard not to be truthful and honest about human nature and not have the play turn dark and funny. To me, that’s our world: Dark and tragically humorous. In contrast, a lot of theater now tends towards the whimsical and funny, and in most cases, that seems like a complete fantasy better suited to film and TV. I’ve yet to experience something in real life that felt whimsical.

What's next for you?

I just finished a new play called NOgoodDEED about three heroes – a fireman who rescues a young girl from a well, a security guard who finds a bomb at an amusement park (based on Richard Jewell) and a teenager who rescues a girl from an assault. All three character’s lives are ultimately destroyed by their good deeds, sending two of them to commit suicide and one to descend into drug and crime. Act two finds these three characters in an alternate reality where they become super heroes snorting “white kryptonite” with a master plan to make their lives whole again: They’re going to use their “powers” to travel back in time and undo their good deeds. Hopefully someone in SF produces it!

 
KML's world premiere production of Matt Pelfrey's Pure Shock Value opens February 26 and plays through March 22 at the Exit Theater. Reserve your tickets right here and to read the blog written by the characters in the play about the making of their dream film, Barking Spiders, please click this link.