Q&A with Mark Childers, Bookwriter of the Musical Love Quirks

The new musical Love Quirks started out as a song cycle by composer/lyricist Seth Bisen-Hersh. Now it's a book musical about four roommates (two straight women, a gay man, and a straight man) living together in New York City and falling in and out of love. Mark Childers was asked by his brother, Love Quirks director Brian Childers, and Bisen-Hersh to write the book scenes.

The cast of Love Quirks: (from left) Teresa Hui, Brian Shaw, Lauren Testerman, Robert McCaffrey.
Photo credit: Mark Childers

Childers says that he and Bisen-Hersh work really well together, which made it easier to write a book for a collection of songs that already had a structure. "Seth is a great guy to work with. I feel we have a strong collaborative process in the sense that we don't hold back. We are very honest with each other and willing to listen to one another; rewrites, new dialogue, new songs, plot changes. It's all part of the process and we both really enjoy that side of it," Childers says.

Another challenge was writing in Bisen-Hersh's voice, so the songs wouldn't feel disconnected from the dialogue. Childers was able to do that by listening to him in conversations, but what he found most helpful was watching him work. I also spoke to Childers about how audiences can help in the development of the show, working with his brother, and what's next for Love Quirks.

Q: It says on the website that you intend to improve the show in front of an audience as a stepping stone to a commercial Off-Broadway run. Has the audience reaction been helpful to you so far?

A: Yes. When you see an audience see it for the first time and you didn't know something was funny, that's the fun part. You're listening for something and they're laughing at this other part and you're thinking, "I didn't write that to be funny." And then stuff that's [written to be] funny, they're silent. We're definitely learning a lot from audiences and we look forward to our next round of rewrites.

Q: So, are you rewriting now or are you waiting until this run is finished?

A: I write every day in my head. I'm always writing. I could change everything. You're always doing that because that's what writers do, or at least I do. You're always looking to improve. Especially when you're in the process. That's the mindset that you can change those things. But what's been nice is someone eventually takes it away from you and the production team has taken it away from us. I cannot make changes for this run, but we are absolutely thinking about it constantly. Looking to the next draft. Looking and thinking forward. 

Q: Bookwriting seems like a difficult job. People often blame the book when a musical doesn't work. Why did you want to get into that?

A: I started writing because I had stories. I've written for musicals. I've done this before for a book musical with material that was also existing except it wasn't already structured [The Kid from Brooklyn: The Danny Kaye Musical]. I write because I have stories to tell. Why do I write? I'm masochistic? I can't answer that question.

Q: Do you have any inspirations?

A: Probably the play that made me want to write was Six Degrees of Separation. The first time I read Six Degrees of Separation, I decided I was going to be a writer.

Q: What's it like working with your brother?

A: Working with my brother is great, actually. We make a great team and we've had lots of practice at it because he was part of The Kid from Brooklyn. We've worked together back in the day when I used to get up and do shows. Back in--I'm not telling you what year--he was Tony and I was Riff in West Side Story. So we've been working together for a long time. And if we fight through it, we fight through it and it always stays about the piece. We don't cross those lines.

Q: What else do you want people to know about the show?

A: I want people to know that this show is a lot of fun. It is not heavyhanded. It is just heart and just come and have a great time and laugh. Don't come in here looking to have your life changed or anything, but just remember moments in your life that you can relate to. The music is great. The actors are fantastic.

Love Quirks is playing at Theatre 54 through September 28. $30 tickets are available here.

Interactive Theater on Governors Island

I'm not usually into audience participation. I'd rather watch the actors from a safe distance. I'm also not good at making decisions. I'm always afraid to make the wrong choice. So Trade Practices, an interactive theater experience in which audience members choose how to invest their time and money, took me out of my comfort zone. But I'm happy to say I survived and even had fun.

Left to right: Mike Iveson, Peter McCab, and Dax Valdes. Photo credit: Carl Skutsch

Trade Practices is produced by HERE and performed at Pershing Hall on Governors Island. If you've never been to the charming Governors Island, which is a quick $2 roundtrip ferry ride from Manhattan, that's reason enough to see the show.

Audience members are given colored tickets upon arriving and are soon greeted by enthusiastic intern Darlene (Brooke Ishibashi), who shows a welcome video about Tender Inc., the fictional company that makes the paper that American money is printed on. Then the audience is divided into groups based on ticket color. I was sent to the executive office to see the opening scene of the owners storyline (the others are communications, management, and workers). After the first scene, everyone heads to the trade floor and and we are told to talk to others to find out about other stories and trade tickets for a different scene (each opening scene is repeated once). I chose to see workers because apparently I make my theater decisions based on which actor seems funniest in the short introductions (that would be Daniel Kublick as foreman Franklin). At the next regroup, everybody is given money, which is used to buy stock in stories and gain admittance. Between each scene is a trip to the trading floor with more chances to buy stocks in other stories or sell your own. That was probably the closest I'll ever be to being on a trade floor, and I enjoyed the rush.

Jenniffer Diaz (purple jacket), Dax Valdes (green jacket). Photo credit: Carl Skutsch

The show was created by Kristin Marting and David Evans Morris (also credited with the idea's conception). Scenes were written by Erin Courtney, Eisa Davis, Robert Lyons, Qui Nguyen, KJ Sanchez, and Chris Wells. I saw at least one scene from every story except for management, so I have to live with never knowing what I missed out on. Some of the stories went in strange directions (assassins and robots were involved), but I don't want to reveal too much and influence your decisions if you see the show. The financial advisers (played by Mike Iveson and Daphne Gaines) were necessary to tell the audience what to do, but long discussions about their personal lives and musical numbers are unnecessary when there is already so much going on. (The running time is over two hours with no break.)

At the end, I was left with stock in communications and workers, worth $11. I had the option to trade it in for a tchotchke, origami, or real money at a horrible exchange rate. I went for the real money, just to see how much I'd make. I earned 38 cents, but that's still 38 cents more than I had when I arrived.