Name: Kristen Kosmas
Title/Occupation: Playwright, Performer
Organization/Company:
URL:

1. Where did you grow up and how did you end up where you are now?

I grew up in a very small town in Florida called New Smyrna Beach in a very unusual house that was made of cinderblock with the ocean in front of it and the river behind it. We didn’t have any neighbors for miles and there was mostly just strange and beautiful nature all around.

I always feel like I’m still coming from there, but I’m not sure I’ve ended up anywhere yet.

2. Which performance, song, play, movie, painting or other work of art had the biggest influence on you and why?

The painting Black Square by Kasimir Malevich completely blew my mind when I was twenty. Everything was different after that.

3. What skill, talent or attribute do you most wish you had and why?

I wish I were a painter. Less words!

4. What do you do to make a living? Describe a normal day.

I have no idea what a normal day is. I piece together a living working as a receptionist, a teacher, an actor, and a playwright. There is no normal day. My favorite kind of day is waking up early, drinking coffee, having breakfast, going for a walk, writing down notes and fragments, reading something and getting absorbed in it, listening to the radio, maybe going to the movies or somewhere then maybe afterwards going out for a drink or home and having a nice meal with people I like and staying up too late talking about the movie or the thing we did and then going to bed tired and intrigued by something and sleeping well and having a good dream and remembering it in the morning before I drink coffee again and have breakfast? That sounds nice. That sounds like a nice normal day.

5. Have you ever had to make a choice between work and art? What did you choose, why, and what was the outcome?

No. Work and art are the same.

Do you mean money and art?

I did once have a job as an Artist In Residence at the New City Theater in Seattle where I could support myself in a basic way being an actor and writer and curator and general helper. But I felt kind of lonely and disconnected living like that, so I went out and got a waitressing job so I could interact with people.

Things were better for me then. After that.

—–

It would be wonderful if you could join Kristen
and Ugly Duckling Presse
in celebrating the release of
Hello Failure
the book

Thursday, December 3rd
@ The Old American Can Factory
232 3rd Street at 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn

Reading at 7 pm
with David Bernstein,Benjamin Forster,Gibson Frazier,Janna Gjesdal,Megan Hart,Joan Jubett,
Matthew Maher,Aimee Phelan-Deconinck,Tricia Rodley,Jenny Schwartz & Maria Striar
Party to follow at 8:30
Feel free to come to one or both.

Please RSVP to attend the reading as seating is limited: udp_intern@yahoo.com

Hello Failure is No. 1 in UDP’s new Emergency Playscript Series.
http://www.uglyducklingpresse.org/events.html