A Tale of Two Viruses with June Carryl and Tira Palmquist
In this episode, writers June Carryl & Tira Palmquist discuss the two viruses that have been plaguing the world together since 2020, COVID-19 and racialized violence. Moderated by L. Trey Wilson.
This month:
Actor, playwright, & director, June Carryl, reads her essay, OUR BAD ROMANCE, inspired by former president Donald Trump and his toxic relationship with the United States.
Playwright Tira Palmquist reads three monologues from three plays.
June & Tira discuss how to combat complacency and inspire action in regards to climate change, Trump, & racialized violence.
Tira & June muse on the palpable & powerful differences between reading and hearing the other writer’s work.
Both writers answer, “How was your thought process before writing the first word on paper? What happens before you actually put pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard?”
June admires the powerful imagery behind Tira’s piece on climate change.
June comments on the predictability of the January 6th insurrection.
Tira explains how her writing is impacted when there are other people whose voices need to be heard more than hers.
Both writers discuss how to combat apathy with radical empathy.
Tira talks about how she writes & edits in her real life, even when she isn’t typing a single word.
June expresses how she feels about her piece now that Trump is no longer president.
Tira & June highlight the cognitive dissonance in patriotism.
“I think that apathy is partly about being able to turn away from what is true for others simply because it’s not true for you.”
Pieces Read
OUR BAD ROMANCE by June Carryl
A short essay that June wrote during the uncertainty and unease leading up to the 2020 election. Her piece explores America’s 4 year long “bad romance” with the 45th president of the United States from the “honeymoon phase” to the near bitter end.
Three short monologues by Tira Palmquist:
From the play THE BODY’S MIDNIGHT
From THE WAY NORTH, a play about a former sheriff-turned-adventure-guide
From, TWO DEGREES, a play that Lower Depth Theatre’s founding member, Jason Delane, was featured in at the Denver Center.
June Carryl
Playwright & Actor
June Carryl grew up in Denver and studied Political Science and English Literature at Brown University. Her plays include CONSORTIUM (Lower Depth Theatre’s BIPOC Voting Plays), TOW (Coeurage Theatre’s NOMAD PROJECT), THE LIFE AND DEATH OF (Vagrancy Theatre), COLOSSUS (Semi-Finalist, O’Neill National Playwrights Conference) BOOM (Semi-Finalist O’Neill National Playwrights Conference), and THE GOOD MINISTER FROM HARARE (Playwrights Arena Summer Series, Saroyan/Paul Award). Recent directing credits include ROAD HOME (Sky Pilot Theatre), and WHEN WE BREATHE (Blossoming Festival, Vagrancy Theatre). Favorite roles include Fraulein Schneider in CABARET (Celebration Theatre) and Gerty Fail in FAILURE: A LOVE STORY (Coeurage Theatre).
Tira Palmquist
Playwright
Playwright Tira Palmquist is known for plays that merge the personal, the political and the poetic. Her play The Way North was a Finalist for the O'Neill and an Honorable Mention for the 2019 Kilroys List, and was featured in the 2019 Ashland New Plays Festival (in addition to many other readings and festivals). Tira’s other plays include Two Degrees (Denver Center, others), The Worth of Water (Clutch Productions), Safe Harbor (Lower Depth Theater Ensemble), Ten Mile Lake (Serenbe Playhouse), Age of Bees (NYU Stella Adler Studio, MadLab Theater, Tesseract), And Then They Fell (MadLab, Brimmer Street, New York Film Academy). Tira has also been commissioned to write new work for the UC Irvine graduate acting students: Hold Steady (2019), All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (2020) and The Last Time We Saw Madison (2021).