Jacuzzis & Collaboration: A (Really Awesome) Chat With The Debate Society

The Debate Society is an Obie Award winning, Brooklyn based company that creates new plays through the collaboration of Hannah Bos, Paul Thureen and Oliver Butler.

They’re also some of the most awesome people we know.

Casey McLain, our Operations Manager and self-proclaimed Debate Society fan, sat down with Hannah, Paul and Oliver to chat about their collaborations, aspirations…and how to do their Jacuzzi without an actual Jacuzzi. Take a read!

Casey McLain: The Debate Society has been working together for 11 and half years. What were your aspirations when you first started out?

Hannah Bos: We first just made a play together, and we loved the process. After the first play we decided we wanted to do another project. And then that project lead to another project. And then 11 and a half more years of projects.

Paul Thureen: We wanted to make stuff together.

Hannah: There was something about the three of us working together that felt bigger. I remember when we made our first set together, part of our writing process somehow spilled into how the set was made. We were all building it together, using all the different ways of creating the script. We then started to think, “This is bigger than just doing a play.”

Oliver: If we had any sort of vision for what we would be, it was definitely focused on making plays. There were certainly no Broadway aspirations or anything. The idea of making and producing a play yourself seemed like a really hard, impossible thing to do.

Casey: But you guys did it! Now, in the past 11 years Debate Society has had a great career, performing at PS122, Ars Nova, Powerhouse, and Sundance. How do you account for all your accomplishments?

Paul: I think there are a few things. First, we had a lot of people we asked a lot of questions of. We sort of intuitively figured out the artistic thing, at the same time we were intuitively figuring out the business side. Part of that was asking people who had done these things before. How do you make a Tech Rider? How do you rent a theatre? How do you hire a designer?

Hannah: Also without even thinking about it, we decided to produce our own work. I feel like that taught us a lot about running our little business. Making a decision to do chili cook offs and stoop sales and apply to grants was just like deciding to write a play and put it up.

Oliver: All of those opportunities, they all came out of long relationships that we cultivated and kept fresh over the years. We know people at all of the organizations we have performed at. In theatre, you get this ability to make your rounds in all these organizations as long as you maintain your relationships with all the people that work there.

Hannah: We have built a lot of our company on being nice to people, inviting them to events, and having conversations with them afterward. Some of those curators are now friends, or vice versa.

Paul: Sundance was a big thing for us. We worked at PS 122 and the Ontological Incubator, and we knew and loved the New York theatre people. When we were invited to go to Sundance, that exposed us to people around the country — and around the world actually. These people who were fun, interesting, and creative — and had no idea who we were. I think our world expanded at that moment.

Then it became fun because we weren’t pigeonholed as experimental or uptown/downtown. We were then able to move in and out of those worlds, with people who responded to what we were doing and enjoyed working with us.

Casey: In your process, you guys do act sometimes in your shows. When you’re coming up with characters, do you already have actors in mind?

Paul, Hannah, Oliver: Ideally.

Oliver: But not always.

Paul: Our first three plays, it was just Hannah and me in them, and I know it was a big growth in the company when we started writing for other people. We started writing specifically for other people. First there was Michael Cyril Creighton and Oliver’s mom Pamela Payton-Wright. We don’t start out looking for the great Hannah part or the great Paul part.

Hannah: For Blood Play there were moments where I wasn’t sure which character I would play. I feel like we try on all the characters when we are writing and developing them.

Paul: We are super nerdy about research. We love research. I think for us the very start of the project is the most fun part, because it’s just the three of us dreaming and creating the world.

Hannah: Researching and bringing things in to inspire each other, that’s the best part.

Paul: Like Jacuzzi.

Casey: Jacuzzi! Was the process for Jacuzzi like all your other plays?

Paul: I think what’s different about Jacuzzi is that it literally started with the title. And the idea: what would we love to see if we were sitting in a theatre. What’s something we have never seen before?

Hannah: We were also thinking this might be the worst idea, and we kind of loved that. It sounds hilarious. What’s the deepest play that would start with a Jacuzzi onstage? Then we had this dark, dark, story unravel.

Paul: It starts with us, just for months, kicking ideas around, almost like a really intuitive game of telephone. A Jacuzzi. Ski culture. Class. Squatting. French pop music. And more squatting. That becomes this big world, and we feel the mood of the world before story and characters come out of it. That’s when things get a little more traditional.

Hannah: It’s like sculpture, it’s very much like chiseling down the play.

Oliver: It reveals itself to us, which is fun. Three different people deciding what is and isn’t not a part of the play.

Hannah: We laugh and argue through the whole process, but that’s how we find our play.

Paul: And we end up with a script of a play that other people can do too. Some companies do the play, and afterwards they transcribe it and that’s their script. For us, the script is always evolving in the process.

Hannah: The script starts coming very slowly as we go on this journey together.

Casey: What advice can you give to theatre companies who are considering producing Jacuzzi? Do they need a Jacuzzi?

Hannah: I don’t think you need a Jacuzzi. We had a great workshop at the Almeida in London, which had lights in a wooden box — we called it a Faux-cuzzi. That actually worked really well, with just sound cues in the really simple box.

Oliver: The worst option for a Jacuzzi is using a kiddie pool with water in it. You either want to imagine the water completely or just get the Jacuzzi. Real water onstage is really exciting.

Paul: We have written a page of production notes for future producers in the script that will help with that decision.

Casey: Any last words before we part?

Hannah: Believe in your dreams, do our plays, and we will try and come see the production.