Maya, what have you found gets your generation to stop scrolling and do something?
MP: I have always been a solutions-focused activist. I’m not going to be someone who tells you, “This is the problem, something needs to be done about it,” and then gives no further explanation. I am one of those people who has always centered what can be done, what’s already being done, because something else that happens is you don’t actually see the hard work and incredible impact that so many changemakers are having. You don’t get to hear a lot of those stories: the ocean that gets cleaned, the terrifying bill that does actually get blocked. This is why Dear Everything is super powerful, because the show itself is not prescriptive, it’s about getting you reconnected, resensitized, and energized to do something. And then through V-Day and the Youth Council, we center the people in real life who are doing this amazing work: Here are the young people on the front lines who are really helping us to fight for a livable future, and here’s how we’re supporting them.
V, you told American Theatre that when the show was put into a musical format, it became very twee. Can you talk a little bit about boiling it down to its essence?
V: It’s very strange with pop music, because pop often tells you a lot of things in a way that musical theater doesn’t. We were trying to fit it into scenes, but pop demands something else—more Brechtian, more forward-facing, much more rabble-rousing. Once we understood that, the form shifted. It became a narrated kind of concert-storytelling-happening thing. The minute we found that, everything began to work. I think we were really experimenting with the musical theater form, which has never been my forte. I like things that feel revolutionary and radical and just kind of come at you. One of the composers said the best time this ever worked was when I narrated the story and we played all the songs. So we tried that and it was like, Oh, here it is. Sometimes it’s right in front of you.
Jane, I feel you don’t lend your name to just anything. What was it about this that felt particularly true to you?
JF: It takes the notion that we’re part of nature, we can’t allow ourselves to be cut off or exploited. It’s part of us, if we want to survive on any level. This is my deepest belief about where we’ve gone wrong. So for one of my best friends to have written a play that reveals this in a very inspiring way, you bet I’m going to sign on. But I sign on to things [all the time]. I just signed on to [executive produce] Steal This Story, Please! [a documentary about independent journalist Amy Goodman].
V: Yes, I heard! I’m a producer on that, too, by the way. Jane signs on to everything. She’s the most supportive advocate I’ve ever met.
