Maurice Herzing wrote and is producing Bank Robber, a world-premiere, original play about money, identity, and institutions too controlling to fail.
Q: What inspired you to write Bank Robber?
Herzing: I’m very interested in how people navigate reality through abstract concepts like language, money, and images that can take precedence over the objects they represent. And, what happens when words, money, images, concepts and the like reference the imaginary and are no longer rooted in reality?
Of course, no one wants to sit through a philosophical diatribe, so I figured that the best way to address this is though Brechtian style humor.
Q: What do you enjoy about the production?
Herzing: The production is very fun, a laugh on every page! I’ve been amazed at the talent I’ve been able to work with. There is some complicated language here that the actors have been able to make sound truly conversational. I feel that I’ve been able to get all of my important ideas into the production in a way that is accessible to the audience. Hopefully there will be a lot of laughter now and a lot of discussion later.
Q: How did you find your path into writhing and/or producing?
Herzing: I’ve tried my hand at writing some novels and short stories, but have found it’s most rewarding to hear my words spoken and acted on a stage. In Chicago I wrote some short pieces at Chicago Dramatists and had the opportunity to have those pieces performed and read at various venues. The Minnesota Fringe Festival offers the perfect opportunity for beginning playwrights to produce their own work in spaces that we normally would not have access to. I was fortunate enough to be selected this year.
Q: If you could have coffee with any other playwright, who would be the dream, and what’s one thing you’d ask?
Herzing: In my case, I would prefer to have coffee with a playwright. I’d love to have coffee with Mickle Maher who wrote The Stranger and Jim Lehrer and the Theater and Its Double and Jim Lehrer’s Double as his work has encouraged me to explore how people operate in abstracted systems. I’d ask him about his process and what issues he’s seeing on the horizon, or if that horizon even exists.
Q: What inspires you as a producer?
Herzing: I am inspired to get the best scripted theater on the stage that I can write. I want to create theater that changes how people think about themselves and how they interact with the world.