Artistic Statement
When I told my parents that I was going to move from West Virginia to New York to pursue my dream of acting, my mother said: ‘You’re going to be a writer.’
I’m not sure what she based that on because I hadn’t been applying myself as a writer up to that point, but my father always said she was ‘witchy’.
At any rate, I moved to New York and chased my dream. Met my wife and we had a child, which put the acting on hold as we took a sabbatical to see to raising our daughter. Then I saw an ad in Backstage for a production of The Trip to Bountiful. All the parts were regional and the men were all in my age range . . . so I had to do it. Since I had no monologue that was appropriate, I decided to write one about my grandfather, who was a farmer in Kentucky.
That monologue changed our lives. I was ultimately cast in the play. Ellen Burstyn was the lead, and through her we found Nyack, NY, where we have lived ever since. I also got into AEA through that production. After that experience, my wife said these fateful words to me, ‘See what happens when you write?’
Indeed.
Since then I have written many full length plays and a few one act plays. About 2008 or 2009, I decided to combine my acting and writing and try my hand at solo work; I have written and performed six solo pieces, most recently at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, where my solo piece, Like a Sack of Potatoes garnered a four star review from North West End UK.
There is a glue that holds my writing together, and that glue is my Appalachian heritage. I was born in Kentucky and raised in West Virginia. I half-jokingly say the voices in my head have Appalachian accents. I feel that my strongest pieces are rooted in that heritage and the people who live there.
It is important to me that I am not viewing my characters as an outsider, I know these people. It is also important to me that my plays are universal and just happen to be about a particular part of the world and the people who live there. My four star review in Edinburgh sums it up well in saying that my character “possesses an intelligence and sensitivity that belies the Hillbilly stereotype”.
I’m not sure that I could put into words what I strive to do any better than that.
I’m not sure what she based that on because I hadn’t been applying myself as a writer up to that point, but my father always said she was ‘witchy’.
At any rate, I moved to New York and chased my dream. Met my wife and we had a child, which put the acting on hold as we took a sabbatical to see to raising our daughter. Then I saw an ad in Backstage for a production of The Trip to Bountiful. All the parts were regional and the men were all in my age range . . . so I had to do it. Since I had no monologue that was appropriate, I decided to write one about my grandfather, who was a farmer in Kentucky.
That monologue changed our lives. I was ultimately cast in the play. Ellen Burstyn was the lead, and through her we found Nyack, NY, where we have lived ever since. I also got into AEA through that production. After that experience, my wife said these fateful words to me, ‘See what happens when you write?’
Indeed.
Since then I have written many full length plays and a few one act plays. About 2008 or 2009, I decided to combine my acting and writing and try my hand at solo work; I have written and performed six solo pieces, most recently at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, where my solo piece, Like a Sack of Potatoes garnered a four star review from North West End UK.
There is a glue that holds my writing together, and that glue is my Appalachian heritage. I was born in Kentucky and raised in West Virginia. I half-jokingly say the voices in my head have Appalachian accents. I feel that my strongest pieces are rooted in that heritage and the people who live there.
It is important to me that I am not viewing my characters as an outsider, I know these people. It is also important to me that my plays are universal and just happen to be about a particular part of the world and the people who live there. My four star review in Edinburgh sums it up well in saying that my character “possesses an intelligence and sensitivity that belies the Hillbilly stereotype”.
I’m not sure that I could put into words what I strive to do any better than that.
←
Ric Siler
Artistic Statement
When I told my parents that I was going to move from West Virginia to New York to pursue my dream of acting, my mother said: ‘You’re going to be a writer.’
I’m not sure what she based that on because I hadn’t been applying myself as a writer up to that point, but my father always said she was ‘witchy’.
At any rate, I moved to New York and chased my dream. Met my wife and we had a child, which put the acting on hold as we took a sabbatical to see to raising our daughter. Then I saw an ad in Backstage for a production of The Trip to Bountiful. All the parts were regional and the men were all in my age range . . . so I had to do it. Since I had no monologue that was appropriate, I decided to write one about my grandfather, who was a farmer in Kentucky.
That monologue changed our lives. I was ultimately cast in the play. Ellen Burstyn was the lead, and through her we found Nyack, NY, where we have lived ever since. I also got into AEA through that production. After that experience, my wife said these fateful words to me, ‘See what happens when you write?’
Indeed.
Since then I have written many full length plays and a few one act plays. About 2008 or 2009, I decided to combine my acting and writing and try my hand at solo work; I have written and performed six solo pieces, most recently at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, where my solo piece, Like a Sack of Potatoes garnered a four star review from North West End UK.
There is a glue that holds my writing together, and that glue is my Appalachian heritage. I was born in Kentucky and raised in West Virginia. I half-jokingly say the voices in my head have Appalachian accents. I feel that my strongest pieces are rooted in that heritage and the people who live there.
It is important to me that I am not viewing my characters as an outsider, I know these people. It is also important to me that my plays are universal and just happen to be about a particular part of the world and the people who live there. My four star review in Edinburgh sums it up well in saying that my character “possesses an intelligence and sensitivity that belies the Hillbilly stereotype”.
I’m not sure that I could put into words what I strive to do any better than that.
I’m not sure what she based that on because I hadn’t been applying myself as a writer up to that point, but my father always said she was ‘witchy’.
At any rate, I moved to New York and chased my dream. Met my wife and we had a child, which put the acting on hold as we took a sabbatical to see to raising our daughter. Then I saw an ad in Backstage for a production of The Trip to Bountiful. All the parts were regional and the men were all in my age range . . . so I had to do it. Since I had no monologue that was appropriate, I decided to write one about my grandfather, who was a farmer in Kentucky.
That monologue changed our lives. I was ultimately cast in the play. Ellen Burstyn was the lead, and through her we found Nyack, NY, where we have lived ever since. I also got into AEA through that production. After that experience, my wife said these fateful words to me, ‘See what happens when you write?’
Indeed.
Since then I have written many full length plays and a few one act plays. About 2008 or 2009, I decided to combine my acting and writing and try my hand at solo work; I have written and performed six solo pieces, most recently at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, where my solo piece, Like a Sack of Potatoes garnered a four star review from North West End UK.
There is a glue that holds my writing together, and that glue is my Appalachian heritage. I was born in Kentucky and raised in West Virginia. I half-jokingly say the voices in my head have Appalachian accents. I feel that my strongest pieces are rooted in that heritage and the people who live there.
It is important to me that I am not viewing my characters as an outsider, I know these people. It is also important to me that my plays are universal and just happen to be about a particular part of the world and the people who live there. My four star review in Edinburgh sums it up well in saying that my character “possesses an intelligence and sensitivity that belies the Hillbilly stereotype”.
I’m not sure that I could put into words what I strive to do any better than that.