J.S. Puller is a playwright and author from the Windy City, Chicago. She has a master's degree in elementary education and a bachelor's degree in theatre from Northwestern University. She is an award-winning member of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education. She is the author of two novels, CAPTAIN SUPERLATIVE and THE LOST THINGS CLUB, both published by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. We sat down to catch up with J.S. Puller and hear about these incredible new plays!
What inspired you to become a writer? What inspired you to write for TYA?
I’ve always been a writer, and everyone in my life knew it before I did. Pretty much from the get-go, my favorite thing was coming up with stories, whether it was playing imagination games on the playground or crafting my very first self-insert fanfiction. I was (and remain) the type of D&D player who wrote ten-page backstories, much to the chagrin of my GMs. Going into college, I was all set to become a performer, but then I took a class in playwriting and had way more fun.
As I was transitioning from actor to playwright, I had the incredible good fortune of studying under a remarkable man named Rives Collins. In his TYA class—which I mostly took on a whim—I realized that I was in love with children’s theatre. I will never forget the day we studied The Yellow Boat, a deeply moving play by David Saar. By the end of class that day, there wasn’t a dry eye among us. We were all hugging and sobbing. I’d never felt that way in years of studying Ibsen and Chekhov. I realized there was something to TYA that just spoke to me, to a raw, emotional, core part of my being. I won’t say that I’ve never looked back, because I’ve definitely written plays for adult audiences. But TYA is my happy place, the place where I most feel like I belong.
Many of your stories incorporate elements of Greek mythology. What inspires you about these ancient stories?
I’ve always loved classical mythology. So much so that I more or less accidentally became a classical studies minor in college. I think what I love most about Greek myth is that it’s constantly being revived and reinvented. There’s no old, dusty book called “Greek Mythology” which has the unquestioned uncontested “true” versions of the stories. They’re constantly adapting and evolving, even as far back as the days of Euripides. That whole thing about Medea killing her children? That wasn’t originally part of the story. He invented it and it just stuck.
Greek mythology is a way to tackle any subject you want to address, in a way that’s more fun and less didactic. The movie version of Julius Caesar took on McCarthyism. Disney’s Hercules questions what it means to be a hero. The Netflix show KAOS examined fascism. The Percy Jackson series tackles learning disorders. Any issue you want, there’s a myth waiting to speak to that.
What do you hope for the future of theatre for young people?
Those of us who spell the word “theatre” in the correct way have a tendency to quote Stanislavski liberally. His name is sacred, said in a hushed whisper that others would reserve for prayer. While my feelings on method acting borderline on blasphemy, I have to give credit where it’s due; Stanislavski got one thing right when, in a possibly apocryphal anecdote, he commented to one of his actors, “We act for children the same way we act for adults—only better.” So this is the part where I say it loud and I say it proud: I am a practitioner of children’s theatre. I believe that children deserve the best of the best, in order to benefit. And I have the audacity to rewrite Stanislovski, making it “We write for children the same way we write for adults—only better.”
So what’s better? I think the body of TYA deserves more in the way of original stories, stories that speak to the lives of kids today. My hope for the future of theatre for young people is that the body of work available continues to expand, to incorporate more stories, especially stories they don’t already know. Stories that challenge and excite them. Stories that let their imaginations run wild, filled with possibilities for both fantasy and reality.