Many Milwaukeeans still associate Mark Borchardt with film—and he continues to work in that medium. His latest, The Dundee Project, is a documentary shot at the UFO Daze event held each summer in Dundee, Wis., that has traveled the festival circuit and is out on DVD and available on digital download. However, Borchardt has focused his attention in recent years on writing for theater. Off the Cuff caught up with Borchardt with a few questions.
What is theater?
Theater, as far as we understand, began with primitive religious rituals and ultimately transmuted into the dramatic form we now know it to be.
Tell me about the plays you've had produced lately.
In 2017, the Village Playhouse in Milwaukee accepted my play The Painting for their One Act Festival. In the same year, I got another one of my plays, What's in The Box?, at Samuel French in Los Angeles for their Shorts Festival. I have to thank Lilah Wilson for getting some mighty fine actors for that performance. The following year, I had a third work produced, again at the Village Playhouse for their 2018 One Act Festival, titled Coffee Shop.
Working on any new plays?
I have three full-length ones that I've substantially written for. One of them is a charming ensemble entitled Winter Lives. It's about a group of people, the remnants of a party, who find themselves sequestered in a house due to a fierce snow storm. I have another one called Playwright. I'll leave that to you to figure out. And a very immediate and present one that I have been extensively working on concerns the rollercoaster ride of a tumultuous relationship.
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They each have gained substantial form and are gradually making their way into final existence. I work on a number of concurrent projects being the result of a very inspired and active psychology. It's a lot of intellectual property to contend with but that's a good thing.
Will we get to see one soon?
Depends if you're sitting in the theatre. I've got news for you: time flies; it'll be sooner rather than later. We'll both look forward to it.
Do you have anything to plug?
If we had a rowboat with a hole in it, we'd have to plug it.
Any upcoming Milwaukee pieces you're excited about?
Ibsen's An Enemy of the People at UWM. Take the holy trinity of the latter half of the 1800s: You've got Ibsen, Strindberg and Chekov, and they're obviously all translations. Unless we know the language, who's to say what exact interpretation we're receiving of the text. That said, I enjoy all three's work immensely, especially on cold winter mornings.
What other playwrights do you like?
I've always dug Edward Albee. David Mamet can have bite. Sam Shepard's post-experimentalist period has some rather riveting offerings.
What's that dialogue you're working on over there right now?
“Hey, you're a good writer.”
“That doesn't mean I can't write bad. And I don't need any consolation, I just need to write better.”
What's that from?
A new screenplay I'm writing. But it's just rough dialogue that will probably get thrown out. It's a film regarding this playwright, and she is in a thematic crisis. She's thematically imploding, that is, feeling that she's becoming redundant and obvious in her work. It's like the omniscient oppression of low cloud coverage.
Why do you write?
I thoroughly enjoy the process of writing because it is a divine communication with the self and the material I involve myself with is a tapestry of the experiential as well as a heavy dose of critical thinking.
Where is theater going?
That's the dumbest question I've ever been asked.
