Carla Ching on Game Theory, Killing Her Darlings, and Her New Play FAST COMPANY

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2546","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"640","style":"line-height: 1.538em; width: 380px; margin: 10px; float: right; height: 380px;","title":"Carla Ching","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"640"}}]]On March 12 previews begin for FAST COMPANY by Carla Ching, this year’s EST/Sloan Mainstage Production. The new play, directed by Robert Ross Parker, features a beguiling family of magicians, pickpockets, con artists, and a fierce student of game theory with something to prove. We caught up with their creator this week to get the skinny on what to expect.

In an interview a few years ago about another of your plays, you said that you always begin your writing with a question. What question did FAST COMPANY begin with?

My question for this one: Why do people screw over people they love? I try to go into the writing open to answering these questions, without a pre-conceived notion, to find the truth and complicated answers from the characters' points of view.  

Intense family dynamics infuses every scene, every word of FAST COMPANY. How do the Kwans resemble your family—or not? Were you ever abandoned on Coney Island? 

I grew up in Los Angeles, and no, I wasn't left anywhere. Family dynamics fascinate me because family are the only people in this world you can't leave. 

The EST/Sloan production will be the New York premiere of FAST COMPANY but it had a production last October in California at the South Coast Repertory Theatre. Has the play changed much in the intervening months? Have you made adjustments for the New York audience?

It is radically different from the SCR version. That was for a 350-seat house. They have a much older demographic, and a larger stage. We had a great time making that version, the director and creative team and actors and me. This version is customized for the EST space. Small. Intimate. A little more brutal. And I've tried to cut the fat and clarify. When you watch a play fifteen times with an audience, you start to get a sense of what can stay and what can go. And it becomes easier to kill your darlings. 

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2547","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"416","style":"line-height: 1.538em; width: 250px; margin: 10px; float: left; height: 347px;","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"300"}}]]Vintage comics play a vital role in the plot of FAST COMPANY. There was a famous incident of the actor Nicolas Cage losing his terrifically valuable edition of Action Comics No. 1. Did that influence the writing of FAST COMPANY?

Yes, that specific case is the basis for the inciting incident of this play. And then I depart wildly. 

FAST COMPANY makes some demands of your actors: they need to be able to pull off feats of magic and sleight of hand. Did you have any concerns about how this would affect casting?

I knew that if we got amazing actors, they'd be able to get there. Ruy Iskandar is our magic consultant and is kindly teaching Moses and Chris. Ruy is an actor now, but he used to be a magician, and wowed me years ago, so I knew he could help our guys find the right things to play onstage. I have always loved providing these kinds of challenges, because as an audience member, I like seeing something that rips me into their world, something I don't see every day. 

Blue, the daughter in the Kwan family, has been studying game theory and cites several terms from her studies: the Stag Hunt, the Signaling Game, Brinksmanship, Credibility of Threat and Commitment. How did you get interested in game theory? Do you have a favorite model? Any practical application in your daily life?

To be honest, when I saw the Sloan Cultivation Event coming up several years ago, I looked at the list of subjects for anything that looked cool. Economics was on the list. What? I dug further and stumbled on game theory and was fascinated by the notion that people's moves could be studied and predicted. And that big business and law enforcement often use it to make their best strategic moves.  I love the Stag Hunt because it encourages cooperation and so much of game theory feels like it’s about beating the other guy. But there are many cooperative models, which I like. I can't tell you how I use it in daily life, but I do. 

What kind of research did you do in writing FAST COMPANY?

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2548","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"430","style":"line-height: 1.538em; width: 300px; height: 323px; margin: 10px; float: right;","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"400"}}]]I read a couple of game theory books for lay people (there are fewer than you think for regular folks): Rock, Paper, Scissors: Game Theory in Everyday Life by Len Fischer and The Art of Strategy: A Game Theorist’s Guide to Success in Business and Life by Avinash K. Dixit and Barry J. Nalebuff.   I also did some reading on the life of David Blaine for the magic stuff, and some books on cons. I watched every caper/grifter film I could get my hands on. I was reading The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons at the time. Simmons founded Grantland and is one of the best writers about sports and its application to life that I've ever read so that probably influenced my creation of H and his sports writing.  

Did you work with any professional game theorists?  

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2551","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"467","style":"line-height: 1.538em; width: 250px; height: 167px; margin: 10px; float: left;","title":"Gabriel Cwilich and Qingmin Liu","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"700"}}]]My science advisors were physicist Gabriel Cwilich and Qingmin Liu, a game theorist who teaches at Columbia. They were both wonderfully helpful and creative. Qingmin sent me a bunch of movie clips that demonstrated different game theory principles, like scenes from The Princess Bride and Batman. And I have to say, Qingmin gave me the idea to use the Credibility of Threat and Commitment, which really helped the play tremendously. A smart, small decision that really launched the second half of the play.

FAST COMPANY has gone through the EST/Sloan First Light development process and had a reading at EST two years ago. Could you share your experience of the process? How did it shape the creation of your play?

It's been an incredible process. I’ve worked very closely with Linsay [Firman] and Graeme [Gillis] over four years to make this play. Doing a draft, doing a small workshop or public reading, going back to the drawing board to do notes, bringing in a science advisor for weigh in, more revisions. Somewhere in there, I also moved to LA, so we've had to work across coasts, but somehow it's worked really well.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"2550","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"700","style":"line-height: 1.538em; width: 340px; margin: 10px; float: right; height: 453px;","title":"Linsay Firman and Graeme Gillis","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"525"}}]]They have known this play from my first bad proposal where a game theory book fell on Blue's head in the library, and that's how she discovered game theory. So they know the heart of it very well, and that close relationship has helped me grow the play—they get what the play is trying to do. And they both have great instincts and narrative sense (Linsay being a director and Graeme being a writer) which help. And none of us is afraid of daring changes/choices. Also useful. Nobody gets scared at taking risks.  

Most importantly, First Light allowed me to see my play with an audience. I realized during the first reading that I had burdened the play with so much exposition that it was very heavy. Going back to the drawing board and re-writing it with that in mind allowed me to consider where the characters weren't just talking about the science, but putting it into practice. Making this play has been a long exercise in trying to find ways to show rather than tell concepts. 

This production is a co-venture with Ma-Yi Theater Company and I know you’ve developed some of your plays as part of the Ma-Yi Writers Lab. How has Ma-Yi affected your writing?

Yes, Ma-Yi produced my last play THE SUGAR HOUSE AT THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS and I've been part of their writers lab since 2004. I have met some of my greatest friends there and they will always be a creative home for me. They helped me fix a lot of plays, and I learned a great deal by watching them birth new plays. Most importantly, watching my fellow writers’ plays get developed over years, how they expand and contract and change when you get to production—that taught me a lot.  

Rumor has it that you’re a very hands-on playwright. You like to be involved with casting, attending rehearsals, rewriting on the spot. That must make every production—even of the same play—different depending on the dynamics with the director, the actors, the schedule, the physical space.  Take us inside how this experience has differed for you from show to show.

Yes, hands-on is a nice way of putting it. And this is the first time I've had to do a production from across the country, so this is the first time I wasn't at every design meeting, rehearsal, casting, etc. Fortunately, Robert, my director, has been great. And I've worked with Nick (the set designer) and Shane (the sound designer) before and I trust them both immensely. And the actors understand that I'm there for them, even if far away (we did first read-through and second weekend rehearsals via Skype and I've flown back every other weekend). And yes, I tailor the writing to the actors I'm working with. Another reason this show will be different from SCR. I almost think of them as just two totally different animals. Twins separated at birth who grew up in different parts of the world. 

Have you written any other plays that engage science, technology, or math?

This is the first.  

Do you have a favorite play about science?

I quite enjoyed PHOTOGRAPH 51 and HEADSTRONG [both previous EST/Sloan Mainstage Productions]. 

What’s next for Carla Ching?

I am currently writing for the TV show Graceland (and am trying to write my first episode as we go into tech, eek.), and I'm working on a commission for South Coast Rep that will be about Motel Kids and Parachute Kids in Orange County. I'm really excited to get back to it.