Today we are very excited to have Whitehall author Liz Duffy Adams on the blog! Over a bowl of questions we learned a bit more about her and we invite you to pick the brain of this delightfully droll award-winning dramatist.She who would be queen must win the love of a king—and a country.Whitehall is set in the 17th century court of King Charles II and focuses on his queen, Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza. Her journey to find her place as the foreign wife in a court riddled with political and religious intrigue – not to mention the many mistresses of Charles the “Merry Monarch” – is a tale of perseverance only a true queen could endure. Love mingles with betrayal before a sensual renaissance of art, culture, and sex in this lush historical serial.Released in weekly episodes, Whitehall began on May 18th and is written collaboratively by Liz Duffy Adams, Delia Sherman, Barbara Samuel, Madeleine Robins, Sarah Smith, and Mary Robinette Kowal.Read it or learn more at SerialBox.com!
What comes to mind when you hear, “Serial Box”?An bottomless box of cereal, like in a fairy tale. Which you must admit would be more useful than a lot of what people get in fairy tales.Can you describe your most recent project in one sentence?A one-person play about an advice columnist who may or may not be an alien.Where are you a local?Some of the time, when I’m lucky, at the Montague Book Mill in Montague, Massachusetts. If you could live in one fictional world, which would it be?This one.Who would be the 5 people (alive, dead, or fictional) at your dream dinner partyAphra Behn, Stephen Maturin, Spike the vampire, Fran Lebowitz, and, just for decoration, Will Ladislaw. Who is the author or book you will always recommend?Patrick O’Brian, all of the Aubrey-Maturin books.Favorite quote or line?“‘Twas a rough night.” From Macbeth. Hilarious, in context. Who is your favorite writer outside your genre?Iris MurdochFirst Love: Book edition. What was it and when? (i.e. what book made you love reading?)This wasn’t the first because I can’t remember that, but among the first: a hardcover set of Winnie the Pooh and House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne that I got for Christmas when I was around seven. I sat hugging them to me, waiting impatiently to be released from company to go read. I still have them. You now have a time machine – to where and when do you go?I would be torn between back to the first performance of The Tempest (or Twelfth Night. Or Macbeth. Or…) and 100 years in the future—because it’s so annoying not to see what happens next. Not that I’m optimistic. If you could have one magic spell up your sleeve, what would it be?Honestly? Money from thin air. I know that makes me the villain in every story, but I would do such good things with it.Where is your happy place?A river. On or in. Last thing you read that made you think, “Well damn, that was cool…”C.S.E. Cooney’s spectacular and gorgeous collection Bone SwansIf your soul was manifested outside of your body in the form of an animal (like in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series), what would it be?Well, I’d like to say a falcon, fell and sleek. But in fact it would probably be a sloth.
Liz Duffy Adams is a playwright whose play neo-Restoration comedy Or, premiered Off Broadway at Women’s Project Theater and has been produced some 40 times since, including at Magic Theater and Seattle Rep. She’s a New Dramatists alumna and has received a Women of Achievement Award, Lillian Hellman Award, New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Weston Playhouse Music Theater Award, and Will Glickman Award. Her plays include Dog Act; A Discourse on the Wonders of the Invisible World; Buccaneers;Wet or, Isabella the Pirate Queen Enters the Horse Latitude; The Listener; The Reckless Ruthless Brutal Charge of It or, The Train Play; and One Big Lie. @lizduffyadams.
