Q&A with Gary Shapiro and Susannah Talley (2-24-19)
What kind of work do you do and what projects/shows are you presently working on? My longtime career endures in Interior Design but, as a passionate reader, illustrator and wordsmith, I wrote a graphic novella, Celeste’s Holiday back in 2001 and folks in the entertainment world were quite taken with it. Theatre critic and author, John Lahr, was even kind enough to help me search for a screenwriter to adapt it for the screen. When the few scriptwriters we approached were too busy with other projects, I wrote the screenplay myself and it recently made it to 20th Century Fox, but was ultimately passed on, though with nice feedback. I’ve written two additional screenplays over the past six years, one actually devoted to the power of the theater as it effects a mother/daughter relationship. Actress, Holland Taylor has shown interest in this project and I’m presently working on finding a producer and adapting it fittingly to a stage play.
What do you like most about being in the arts? Everything
When was your first interest in the arts? The Little Golden Book, The Colorful Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown. I wanted to do just what those mischievous little felines were doing, creating mesmerizing new colors with abandon. I was, and am, dyslexic and as a child, by sheer nature, I was drawn to drawing and also making people laugh. Supported by the best parents one could hope for, dyslexia did not keep me from writing everything from poetry to satire, often with illustrations.
What has been your most memorable experience in the arts? There are so many but I can narrow it down for space constraints to these… One would be, at the age of seventeen, entering an illustration contest to do with interior design in which I won a scholarship to study art history in Italy at a very unconventional summer school the hills of Trespiano overlooking the city of Florence. When you’re seventeen everything, even the fireflies make a profound impression……Then, somewhat older, I recall several stage plays that moved me in such a way, I could not let go of my respect for the power of acting, plot, and meaning. Two such plays I saw in London, A Voyage Round My Father John Mortimer ’s autobiography adapted for the stage with Alec Guinness and Jeremy Brett. And then, years later, when I took my first- born daughter, Philippa, then a teenager, to Willy Russel’s Blood Brothers. I loved how a generation apart, “Pip” and I both adored that play and played the record over and over once home…..Discovering the genius of Ruth Draper, the playwright actress who, in a most powerful way, changed my life for the better. Don’t get me started…..Last but hardly least, discovering with both my daughters —J. Seward Johnson’s sculpture The Awakening in National Harbor, M.D. just outside Washington D.C.. We were gobsmacked.
How did you learn about the Lambs? By way of a resident in my building, to whom I shall be forever grateful.
What hobbies or interests do you have outside of work? My work is my hobby, as there just aren’t enough hours, but to be fair to this question, I love the instant gratification of photography and have had three one woman shows of elder portraiture work. To decompress, I play with my grandchildren, Holden and Mabel, whose six and four-year-old minds I find an absolute hoot.