Meet Tim Venable | Playwright & Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tim Venable and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tim, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
“The American playwright should snarl and spit, not whimper and whine.” – Sam Shepard

I love and admire and yes okay worship Sam Shepard, and I return to this quote constantly in my work as a playwright, feverishly reaching for something true and unsettling, and I think there’s something right about anger (love, pain, joy, suffering), that drives the work of a dramatist. The admonition to “snarl and spit” is a call to have the courage to express something that people might not like, or indeed are deeply troubled by or even hate but that, from the playwright’s point-of-view, must be said; and in terms of the theatre, and in particular the American theatre as Shepard points out, it’s the last kind of pure, maybe secularly religious place where the intention and desire of the artists who come together to bring the play alive, and the audience who come to see and hear and feel what’s being manifested, are forced to reckon with each other in the moment, which can only happen if the playwright doesn’t “whimper or whine” about the world, but is after something deeper and more complex, that is to say human.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I moved to Los Angeles in 2004. I’m originally from Iowa, and studied Acting at Illinois State University, and I was (and still am) an actor, but all I knew was theatre and writing, so when I got here, I was lucky enough to start working in the amazing, vibrant LA theatre scene, and kind of stumbling my way into film and television, while working in bars and restaurants, and doing the thing; but most importantly, I got clean and sober that same year (coming up on 21 years in March), which saved my life, and I somehow, slowly, learned how to live through the joys and sorrows of the last two decades without drugs or alcohol, which is a stunning, humbling fact I feel profound gratitude for every single day.

So, during the pandemic, when everything shut down, I sat down and started writing (and rewriting) plays and screenplays, and when we came back, Rogue Machine Theatre Artistic Directors Guillermo Cienfuegos and John P. Flynn read my play “The Beautiful People,” and produced it in 2022; and then following a run of my play “Baby Foot” in New York City, which I produced and directed, we brought the production back to Los Angeles, and had a successful run at Rogue Machine from September 2023 to February 2024; and now this year they’re producing my play “Adolescent Salvation,” which will open in September, directed by Guillermo Cienfuegos.

The thing I would say, beyond the value and beauty, and very special ever-changing thing that is Theatre, and specifically, our beloved Los Angeles theatre community, is faith. There’s something inside of me, which I think led me to drugs and alcohol in the first place, but which also led me to getting clean and sober; and it lead me to LA; and it’s why I write plays. There is something relentless within me that is always after something that I don’t know I can really define, but it has something to do with an inherent faith and belief in our human potential, and dealing with the heartache in bearing witness to its failure, a fire of certainty that I/you/we can do better. And I think the Theatre has the potential to provoke and challenge us to do it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I would spend a day with them in Highland Park, and go to Cafe de Leche for coffee in the morning. Maybe a (vegan) lemon scone. Great vibe, really cool staff, and a great spot to people watch on the corner of York and N Ave 50 (fun fact: Quentin Tarantino shot a few scenes from Reservoir Dogs right on that corner!).

Lunch at Kitchen Mouse, which has some of the best vegan food and pastries and coffee in the city. The vibe and the energy is very cool, I go there often to write. The staff is super-friendly, and it’s a great spot on the Figueroa side of Highland Park.

I would have scored tickets to a screening at Vidiots on Eagle Rock Boulevard. The legendary non-profit video store that has managed to survive and thrive since 1985, and. has evolved into a cinema-lovers paradise. (I just went with friends to see a 35mm print of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch Drunk Love).

Before or after the movie, we’ll have dinner at BeeWalli’s Vegan AF, which is my favorite restaurant in Los Angeles, and not just because I’m vegan (almost 9 years!). It’s amazing food, the owners Bee and Walli are the coolest, friendliest, community-minded people, and it’s just the best. Non-vegans freak out, it’s so good. I love it. Go!!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Honorable mentions:
Videotheque
New Beverly Cinema
Vista Theatre
&
last but definitely not least, my artistic home, Rogue Machine Theatre, which produces world premieres of new plays, primarily by Los Angeles based playwrights, and plays new to Los Angeles, including American, West Coast, and Regional premieres of significant contemporary theatrical works. Their mission is to seek to be a theatre of ideas and imagination, a theatre which mirrors and examines contemporary culture, a theatre which nurtures contemporary playwrights, and a theatre whose work continually engages the community and creates a dialogue which resonates after the curtain closes. https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/

Instagram: @timvenable

Image Credits
Monique Carboni
Daniel Reichert