5 Questions with Talia Green

Continuing our 5 Questions with a Playwright series for the 2014 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival with...

Talia Green
11th grade, Bergen County Academies

1. What inspired you to write Ink Never Dulls?

I've always been particularly sensitive towards the subject of domestic abuse, as such violence in one's childhood has the ability to affect his/her perspective of the world for the rest of their lives. I also read often about stories that romanticize abusive relationships, such as Captive in the Dark by CJ Roberts, or Stolen by Lucy Christopher. Though thrilling, stories like these manifest a pretensive light on abuse, as though reshaping it to make it more entertaining. For that reason, I decided to write a play that portrays abuse as all that it is: highly disturbing, and difficult to watch. I am hoping that my play can help absolve the misconceptions that the media helps produce regarding abuse, and can also help teach what to do if placed in a similar situation.  

2. You have won awards for your poetry and social activism. Please tell us more about those experiences.

Writing has been a significant part of my life since before I can remember. I cannot recall a period in my childhood during which I did not carry around my journal to jot down whatever surfaced in my thoughts; I have always been more articulate in my writing than I've been in speech, and this realization led me to writing poetry more seriously and frequently. Only recently, however, have I been able to fulfill what I've yearned to through my poetry and music: write messages that mean more than just my experiences. I have such strong opinions of, and hopes for, us as a progressive society, and I have finally written work that can express those concepts. I believe that if an idea is planted in your head - through a poem, song, or any other medium - it has the incentive to grow into a thought that you construct yourself. Through that, you can reevaluate the way you see things, and allow that idea to widen your field of perception. This is what I hope to accomplish through my writing, and am honored to have been awarded for some of my works that succeed in such a task.

3. In addition to your writing, you are a vocalist. What kinds of music do you typically perform?

Though I tend to perform a wide range of genres, I mostly perform soul/blues. I also write indie ballads. (I may have just invented a genre of music.)

4. What has been your most memorable theatre experience to date?

This past winter, I performed as Reverend Hightower in the Bergen County Academies' production of Bat Boy. It was the most rewarding theatrical experience I could ask for. I was able to develop a character so unlike the serious characters I tend to write; the Reverend was silly, exciting, and extremely individual. I was also able to intertwine my love for soul music to this crazy character.

5. If you had the opportunity to sit down and have dinner with anyone (living or dead), who would it be and what would be your most burning question?

I would love to sit down with Mathew Arnold, and ask him what inspired him to write the poem "The Voice". That is the first poem I've ever really connected to, and up to now, It's still my favorite poem. My second burning question would be to see the original copy of "The Voice", including all of his pen blotches and scratched lines and illegible handwriting. You can tell so much about a poem and it's writer by the way it's written.


See Talia's play Ink Never Dulls at the 2014 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival on Tuesday, June 3 beginning at 7:00 p.m. Performances will be held in the University Center Little Theatre on the campus of Kean University. Please reserve your space by contacting us at njypf@ptnj.org. See you there!