Hannah Moscovitch is one busy woman but had room in her crammed schedule to squeeze in an interview over coffee. “I’ve had two coffees already.” Was her reply when I offered to buy her one. The thirty-year-old playwright took time out of her full schedule to sit down for a brief chat to discuss her career and current projects at Ideal Café, at the corner of Foxley and Ossington.
I feel luck to get an interview with such a busy schedule. Ms. Moscovitch is already high on carffeine from an earlier meeting, and in-between engagements. (Turns out she planned the interview perfectly; her director is sitting a few tables over, working out the details of a current project). East of Berlin, which reopens at Tarragon Theatre in January 2009, is Ms. Moscovitch’s current project. The play is inspired by the testimonials of the children of Nazis. What resonated with Moscovitch is the twist in story: the interviewer is Jewish. When asked where she finds her inspiration, she needed to pause for reflection. “It’s so specific to each play that I write. I read this book about the testimonies of the children of Nazis. There was something about the relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee. The interviews were all conducted by the child of Holocaust survivors. Something about that relationship inspires me.”
Inspiration can be found everywhere, but why write? “It’s significant to me to express my vision of the world, which is a deliberately ambiguous way of saying it. I am [not interested] in creating work that is didactic. I’m more interested in telling the individual story, the human story. Overall, I’d say I do it because I’m interested in hearing my own voice.”
Hannah trained as an actor at the National Theatre School in Montreal, but was asked to transfer to script writing. “They asked me if I’d like to switch from acting to playwriting in my second year, and I was very insulted.” Despite being disappointed that acting was not her calling, Moscovitch had the knack for writing since she was a young girl growing up in Ottawa. “I wrote in my teens and early twenties and when I was very young.” Still, being a talented writer does not make one a motivated writer. How does she motivate herself? “I often get asked that in interviews, but I struggle not to work all the time.” Is there a time of day when she’s at her best creatively? “I often work first thing in the morning before I even get out of bed. I’ll pull my computer into bed and work until I get hungry. I’ll work late at night because it’s quiet, after eleven once people have gone to bed. Sounds really fruity, but the city gets quiet. It does seem to create a sort of energy when the city is awake.”
And even after all this writing, Moscovitch admits that she does not consider her plays complete until they are published. Like a painter holds on to his masterpiece, Moscovitch refuses to sign a contract to publish her plays, constantly reworking and fine-tuning her creations. “They rarely are [complete.] Even though they’ve been mounted, I still feel the work is never done. I constantly revise.” Perhaps it’s a perfectionist’s nature, or perhaps the scrutiny of the media that motivates the revisions of her work. Moscovitch would never admit to a journalist that she reads reviews. “Mostly I do read them, but if this was a preview for a play and if I was asked that question I’d say I didn’t. I don’t like them having power over my creative process.” Even though she may not like the power the media holds, she understands that she needs to have an idea of what they’re saying about her work. “For the last round of reviews I didn’t read the reviews, I read the headlines, so I knew the general idea. People view you through the veil of it.” Moscovitch is very aware of the public nature of mounting a play and the responsibility that comes with it. She hopes the audience comes away with a pleasurable experience, whether it is cathartic, emotional or extreme.
Moscovitch has experienced success as a playwright at a young age, but that success has not come without its challenges. She describes the circumstances of her career as the most challenging aspect. “It’s not remunerative and it takes a long time to build a career. And you get reviewed, so you’re dragged through the media.” But the most rewarding aspect, Moscovitch explains, is the ability to express herself independently. “Others aren’t wholly independent and don’t get to express themselves creatively at all, and that seems awful. So I feel like those are hugely rewarding.” Moscovitch describes herself as a career writer, but admits that writing falls under the category of passion. “You have a sense that your words can in fact inspire other people. And you can, through your work, bring words and ideas and voices and philosophies and ideologies to life. And you can express them in a palatable way. We respond to narrative, it’s a great vessel to convey an idea.” With that thought in mind, we say our goodbyes and Ms. Moscovitch moves on to the next meeting that combines her job as playwright-in-residence and her passion as a writer. Our meeting was brief, but her insight was anything but.
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