Hometown: Alamo, CA
Education: New York University, Department of Dramatic Writing
Favorite Credits:Felix & The Diligence which a high school in Vermont performed and it was the most magical experience of my life. It’s a fishing adventure with mermaids and sea monsters and Nazi spies. Everything Flashes, a tour of your memories which I’ve developed and am still developing with so many folks (The In-Between People, Theater Reconstruction Ensemble, and Pipeline Theatre Company), and this video: The Greatest Play Ever.
Why theater?: It’s magic. Sometimes with LITERAL magic. Great theater is the closest I think I get to a religious experience. Bad theater is the closest I get to hell. And as a writer, theater is definitely the most fun form. You’re working with people, often smarter than you, and if you work with the right people, they’re making your stuff WAY better the entire time. And then you get credit for it.
Tell us about Kitchen Sink Experiment(s): It’s a kitchen sink show with a real kitchen sink. It explores what it is to feel observed, what it is to feel judged, and asks how the heck can we ever get comfortable in our own skin.
What inspired you to write Kitchen Sink Experiment(s)?: I wanted to challenge myself to write something hyper-hyper realistic and see what that would mean for an audience. It’s a show you can kind of live in and reach out and touch, without being “immersive” in the ways I don’t like. Nobody is going to force you to do anything, you can just observe and be taken care of. The seed of the idea came from a podcast I’d heard about a similar research project that had not gone well, and I thought “Oh, that’s a play!”
What kind of theater speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?: Honestly? Magic. It doesn’t need to be real magic, but if you can do something that seems impossible onstage, I am sold. That can be big, like redefining a space, or it can be small, like taking me somewhere emotionally I did not expect. I like twists and turns.
If you could work with anyone you’ve yet to work with, who would it be?: I have to second pretty much ALL of Andrew’s list. And would add probably Woodshed Collective into the mix.
What show have you recommended to your friends?: Go see Pipeline Theatre Company’s The Gray Man. It’s running right now and is beautiful and spooky and magic.
Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?: I’d like it to be Ryan Gosling and it would be called “That Colby Sure is Sexy.”
If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?: I’d love to go back and see the original failed run of Tennessee Williams’ Camino Real. That show is such a mess in a way that I love and admire and would 100% want to see. Or Our Town? I’m a sucker for sentimental shows.
What’s your biggest guilty pleasure?: Black & White Cookies. I will never not buy and eat one and I have strong opinions about each and every brand available in the NY metro area.
If you weren’t working in theater, you would be _____?: A used car salesman.
What’s up next?: I’m doing a workshop of my show [untitled time dilation play] in November and then am putting together a reading of Edgy Christmas Reboot, a dark, gritty re-telling of the Rankin & Bass Claymation Christmas specials.
For more on Colby, visit www.colbyday.com. For more on Kitchen Sink Experiment(s), visit www.crashboxtheater.org.