When Kristin Idaszak was writing Second Skin, she spooked the hell out of herself.
"I was looking for a genre I don't usually write in," she told Windy City Times. "In the research process, I made the mistake of watching [the acclaimed Australian horror flick] Babadook by myself, at night. The story was different but the use of the monster to talk about a larger, emotional experience is the same," she said.
The scares didn't end with the movie: Idaszak's Babadook viewing was followed by a run-in with a spider and a drive down a dark road. She took both as signs she was on the right path with her play, which opens in previews Tuesday, Sept. 11, at the 2B Theatre in Wicker Park's Den Theatre.
The world-premiere ( a recipient of the Kennedy Center's Paula Vogel Playwriting Award and the Jean Kennedy Smith Playwriting Award ) Wildclaw Theatre production centers on a woman called home to care for her dying mother. The play's theme of redemption is universal, Idaszak said, and will play well in the intimate, 50-seat theater.
Windy City Times: Why the horror genre?
Kristin Idaszak I'm really interested in the things that haunt us. The ghost is a metaphor or a function for the extreme of living with anxiety. Anxiety is so pervasive, it's become a social condition. This genre drew me because I was able to take an experience that's debilitating and tackle in a way that is theater.
WCT: You've got 30 seconds to describe Second Skin. Go.
KI: This is a play about the mistakes we make, [and] about the way we hurt the people we love the most. And how we can live an entire life in the mistake of the moment, and the anxiety that comes from that.
WCT: In an age of digital media, how does telling this story feel in a live space?
KI: It's powerful to be in a room full of friends. [It is] a space we don't always get to inhabit. It conveys how radical it feels to just be telling the story.
The all-woman cast [Stephanie Shum, Paula Ramirez and Hilary Williams]grapples with a part of my experience with gender and gender identity, the anxieties around caregivers, about caring enough, my queerness. It can only happen when we are all in a room together. You cannot replicate it.
WCT: Compared to your other work, how personal is this?
KI: For me, this is a really deeply personal play. Even though it's a magical world, my hope is that there is something about the actors that the audience connects with. The actors are so deeply vulnerable and deeply committed to telling this story. It's an opportunity to feel a little bit of the possibility for redemption and, hopefully, cry.
WCT: What are you looking for on opening night?
KI: I sit in the back of the theater and watch the audience. I watch closely, when they sit back, when they really pay attention, when they are looking at the program, leaning forward or holding their breath. It's really magical. It feels really nebulous and it's compelling to watch.�
WCT: Who do you see as the audience?
I believe that even those who might not go see theater but are invested in this genre can use this for dealing with larger, political questions in a way that is fun. It is unapologetically a thrilling experience to have.
WCT: During the writing process, do you imagine [the play] one way, while it may turn out another way on stage?
It's not drastically different. I always have something in mind. I leave enough room for the other artists involved. What begins as a kernel grows and there's real joy in finding collaborators. It's even more exciting than you can imagine who share this.
Second Skin runs Sept. 11-Oct. 13 at the Den 2B Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave. Tickets are $15-$30; visit thedentheatre.com .
