Not (Not) Lonely: Produce-produce-produce

An interview with Brysen Boyd on making playlists, when to ditch the writing, and the isolation of losing a pet.

Hello hello, 

I hope everyone’s having a great week! Today’s interview is with a friend and talented playwright, TV writer, and non-fiction writer Brysen Boyd.

I always knew Brysen was a good writer from reading his essays, but a few years ago, I was lucky enough to see his play FAMILY SLIDESHOW at Ensemble Studio Theater and was completely blown away. (And I wasn’t the only one… it was a Playwrights’ Center Venturous Prize Nominee, O'Neill Conference Semi-finalist, 2022 Juilliard Finalist, Winner of KC-Melting Pot National New Play Competition, and will have a production in Kansas City in Spring 2025!!!!)

As someone interested in experimenting with different kinds of writing, I’m constantly impressed with Brysen’s range. He can write in any forum and has even convinced me to finish watching Succession, a show he was part of the writing staff for. (I know I’m way behind, but I finally finished season 3 and am hooked—no spoilers!)

Originally from Seattle, Brysen lives in Brooklyn with the cutest Dachshund Alvin. Let’s hop into the interview!

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Hey Brysen, can you share a bit about how you got started as a writer? What came first: playwriting, TV writing, or essays? 

TV came first!

I grew up in Tacoma, Washington and my parents had me quite young and didn’t have a lot of money, but loved boxing, so we always had HBO as a luxury. So I grew up watching Sex and the City, Six Feet Under, Oz, etc. So I wanted to write TV.

But when I got to undergrad, they didn’t have a proper film program, so I picked up playwriting because the writers on Six Feet Under were mostly playwrights. And I picked up nonfiction just for fun! Then I got an MFA in both, so now I work in all three mediums.

I’m so impressed and jealous haha. I want to write in more mediums! … How do you approach writing an essay vs. TV pilot vs play?

I’d say every piece is different. Sometimes a line comes to me, sometimes an image that might be a cool scene or moment to explore, sometimes it’s absolutely nothing and I just start writing.

I guess the one main thing that always happens is that whenever I think of a new play or TV thing, I start a new playlist of songs for that piece. It can be anywhere from 3 to 60 songs, but usually when I’m in writing mode for that project, that’s all I listen to. No deviations. 

Oh wow, that’s such a good idea. Sometimes when I’m working on a scene I listen to the same song over and over again, but I’ve never organized it by playlist… Okay, this is another thing I’ve been asking people — I think it’s interesting to see what gets stuck in someone’s mind — but, is there a line from a TV show, play, or essay, you can’t stop thinking about?

This is quite hard. One of my close friends, Nazareth Hassan (one of my absolute favorite playwrights!!) wrote a play I read a bit ago and had this line where a character calls out another and says THIEF—it was brilliant. They’re a brilliant playwright. But you need the context of the play to fully understand that particular line. 

There’s a line from someone I worked with on Succession, Lucy Prebble, that is in the forward of her anthology (also please go check it out!). She says “I have never been a writer who would prefer to write than to live,” and explains that’s why there are only four plays in her anthology.

I think it’s an amazing thing to outwardly say—writers are constantly seen as commodities and, as such, are expected to produce-produce-produce. But unlike a tech company with millions in the bank and hundreds of workers, we have to create something from absolutely nothing and then make the world understand why it’s important. Often with no support.

What we do is very hard—and we can only do it by also living our lives. Experiences are important to everyone’s life, but particularly for people who have to make up whole worlds and put them on the page.

Or, for nonfiction, bring the entire huge wide world we live in, and condense it somehow within an essay. If someone says “Let’s go do this fun or scary new thing”, I think like Lucy, I will absolutely ditch writing for the day and go do that fun thing because that fun thing will ultimately lead to better writing. And even if it doesn’t, at least I tried.

Yeah, I think it’s easy to get caught up in trying to create all of the time… but after a while, it grinds you down. The well dries up. I like the way Lucy (and you) talk about it. It’s a good reminder as someone currently caught up in the ‘produce-produce-produce’ pressure. Speaking of living, and doing fun things… How do you balance connecting with others and the solitude needed to create? Do you think being an artist is lonely?

I think with nonfiction I can feel quite lonely—but that’s precisely why I love it.

Theater often requires me to be in rehearsal with actors, directors, etc. Playwriting in NYC, for some, is also being a member of playgroups. So I spend a lot of time around other playwrights (a lot of them are my friends now!)

But nonfiction is the best respite for when my social barometer is low and I want to escape to prose. I could not be a writer if I didn’t work in both mediums. I need the balance.

I didn’t think about that with theater projects. I’ve heard of TV writing rooms being collaborative and busy spaces, but it makes sense that writing plays would also require a lot of collaboration. Have you worked on a project recently that has themes of isolation and/or connection in it?

I thought I’d link a short play folks can read if they’d like. It’s only 20 pages, but only runs 15 minutes on stage. I wrote it back in December and it deals with the loneliness and isolation one feels after the death of a pet.

It’s dedicated to Simon Guillory-Boyd. I hope people find something in it that resonates! 

Here’s a sneak peek, but you can find the whole play here.

Head here to find Byrsen on IG. And when I asked Brysen if he wanted to add anything, he had the best note:

If anyone ever wants to chat about writing or needs advice, I’d be nowhere in my career if it weren’t for people being kind enough to have a simple Zoom or coffee with me. Please don’t hesitate to shoot me an email and I’ll try my best to find time to chat. Brysen.boyd@gmail.com

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Thank you for reading! It’s been so fun to talk to friends and artists about how they create. We have one more in this series before the project comes to a close.