Magic Forest Farm

Zayd Dohrn: A Playwright on the Rise

Zayd Dohrn

Zayd Dohrn’s name is showing up with increasing frequency as his most recent plays—including Magic Forest Farm, which you’re seeing tonight, and Sick—garner attention and acclaim, as well as productions across the country. Winner of the 2008 Sky Cooper New American Play Prize at Marin Theatre Company, Zayd has visited MTC several times over the past year for a series of workshops to develop the play, culminating in this world premiere production.

In a brief interview before MTC’s production of Magic Forest Farm began rehearsals, Zayd opened up about his process as a playwright, and how this particular story came to life.

What inspired you to start writing plays?

I guess I was always interested in the ways people treat each other – the impact their words and actions can have in the world. Plays exist on a very human scale. They’re all about relationships and conflict, and that’s what I find most fun.

How do you approach playwriting?

I try to start with questions. For Sick, I was wondering “How do we deal with the scary things happening on our planet without retreating into a bubble?” For Magic Forest Farm, it was something like, “How do we as a generation make sense of our parents’ legacy?” or more specifically, “How do kids raised in the shadow of The Sixties keep the parts of that experiment that were healthy— the idealism, the hope, the courage—while getting rid of the narcissism and silliness that had the potential to undermine all that?” The questions take the form of conversations in my head; those conversations hopefully turn into characters, and then I go from there.

Where did the idea for Magic Forest Farm come from?

I spent some time living on communes as a little kid, but always felt like a bit of an outsider there. The stories of the kids who were real lifers always interested me and I listened to how they talked about their parents and their lives. It was usually with some admiration, confusion, bitterness – the way we all talk about our families. But it made me start thinking about how each of us comes to terms with where we’re from. And it somehow felt relevant now given the debate in this country about whether our generation is turning a corner on the Sixties, becoming “millennial,” “post-racial,” or whatever.

Do your plays have a characteristic theme or style?

I don’t know about a characteristic theme – I guess there are some common concerns: the way the public culture presses in on private life; how people make and remake themselves as they grow older; the political possibilities of trying to imagine a better world; and stories of escape seem to come up a lot – people feeling confined by their circumstances and struggling to find something new.

Where do you think you are in your career as a playwright?

Wow, I don't know. The beginning? The middle? Hopefully not the end.