Friday, August 21, 2015

Spotlight On...Quincy Confoy and Kevin Confoy

Name: Quincy Confoy and Kevin Confoy

Hometown:
QC: Brooklyn, New York
KC: Trenton, NJ

Education:
QC: I graduate from Fieldston High School in 2016.
KC: Rutgers University, CSC Conservatory, Playwrights Horizons Directing program

Favorite Credits:
QC: As an actor, probably Maureen in Rent or Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker.
KC:  As an actor, the Clown in The 39 Steps, as a director, WIN FOR LIFE!

Why theater?:
QC: I’ve been involved with theatre from a very young age, and it’s always just seemed right. For me, writing plays is the best way to explore human connections and relationships between people. Theatre is always where I’ve felt at home.
KC: I like working with a group on a shared project. I like to work on plays because they help me figure out why we behave the way we do.

Tell us about Win For Life:
QC: Win For Life: A Corny Play is about Millie, an extreme couponer, who wins the lottery by sending in labels from the back of creamed corn cans. Her two children then plot to kill her to get the winnings before she can spend it by renting out Graceland. It might seem dark, but the play really is about family and about the bonds and love a family can share.
KC: Win For Life is a farce in the classic definition. It’s about a group of people (a family) in a series of improbable, exaggerated situations who have to figure out how to work together to make it all work. It has larger than life characters, a murder plot, lots of creamed corn and lots of Elvis.

What inspired you to write Win For Life?:
QC: I began writing Win For Life in my sophomore year playwriting class. I knew I wanted to write some sort of dark comedy, and I was really inspired by the plays of Martin McDonough while working on the piece.

What kind of theatre speaks to you? What or who inspires you as an artist?:
QC: I think I’m most interested in comedy, or situations that are odd and darkly funny. I think that often, people connect the most with comedy and can really find truth in it.
KC: The theatre that affects me most is that which engages me emotionally in the struggles of it characters. I am most inspired by those artists who find ways to make personal stories and images resonate and by those who can figure out new ways to make things work.

What show have you recommended to your friends?:
QC: I loved Hand to God. It was hilarious and everyone should see it.
KC: Anything by Martin McDonagh

Who would play you in a movie about yourself and what would it be called?:
QC: Ideally, Ellen Page would play me. And the movie would be called “How Much Cream Cheese Can I Put On One Bagel? The Quincy Confoy Story”
KC: I would try to cast myself, only younger. It would be called “On Being Quincy’s Father”

If you could go back in time and see any play or musical you missed, what would it be?:
QC: I would go back and see all the productions of Cabaret over the years.
KC: Anything that Laurence Olivier ever did.

What’s your guilty pleasure?:
QC: I’ve seen a ridiculous amount of episodes of the Goosebumps TV show from the 90s. But I wouldn’t even call that a guilty pleasure. I feel no shame.
KC: Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia

If you weren’t working in theatre, you would be ____?: 
QC: I’d want to be a lawyer. A criminal defense lawyer. Or maybe I’d be one of those reality TV lawyers instead. I could be the next Judge Judy.
KC: A professional baseball player

What’s up next?:
QC: My senior year of high school! I’m really excited to just keep learning and exploring what I want to do and what kind of path I want to take.
KC: I return to teaching at Sarah Lawrence in a few weeks. I will be directing an upcoming production of Creditors by Strindberg for The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble.