An “Interview” with Playwright Madeleine Butler

Huzza! It’s another “interview” with one of the playwrights featured in the PlayGround’s 29th Festival of New Works! Unlike traditional playwright interviews, we asked our writers to reply to our questions with either a single word, an image, an obvious lie, or a rhyming couplet (or whatever they wanted if they weren’t in the mood). And if you’re looking for tickets to the festival, you can find them here.

Enjoy our “interview” with playwright Madeleine Butler whose play The Case of the Missing Messenger is part of Best of PlayGround(SF) ’25 May  at Potrero Stage.

1. What is your hometown?

PA Amish country, where “noir” refers to the dress codeers.

2. What is a song that represents your play?
Every Breath You Take (The Police).

3. What is a piece of art that represents your play?

Magritte, The Menaced Assassin

4. What do you do creatively other than writing?
Procrastibaking (see above)

5. Give a teaser for your play.

The Capulet family called it a tragedy. The police called it a coverup.

6. Give us an out-of-context spoiler for your play.

The walls have ears.

7. What was the seed of your play?
Realizing that the Capulet tomb was a crime scene.

8. What artists (theatre or non-theatre) inspire you or your play?
Improv comedy, where humor arises from incongruity.

9. If you hadn’t written this play, what is the play you would have written for this MNP prompt?
I’m lucky to get one idea. Are you kidding?

10. Describe where you were when you wrote this play.

Sitting by a window, watching a squirrel give urban attitude.

Madeleine Butler, she/her, has had various plays staged for Monday Night PlayGround including A Beautiful Evening, The Story of Our Lives (People’s Choice Award), The River God (Best of PlayGround 2016), The Last Pirogue, Beshert, Stuck, and The Case of the Missing Messenger. Her short plays have also been staged by Playwright’s Center of San Francisco, FABUM (Washington, D.C.), Drama with Friends, and 3 Girls Theatre, including an episode of a collaborative serial radio drama. She has regularly attended the Kennedy Center Playwriting Intensive since 2021 and studies playwriting on an ongoing basis with Anthony Clarvoe.

ABOUT THE PLAY: It may seem like a simple tragedy, but Sergeant Venerdi Officer Fabbro of the Verona detective bureau uncover a darker crime. More…