41 - Mary Laws (Monsterland)

Showrunner Mary Laws joins host Jenny Curtis to discuss her career, writing, and her new anthology series on Hulu, MONSTERLAND. Throughout the conversation they discuss: 

0:37 - Finding her way to the arts as a young child. 

2:20 - Receiving some harsh but beneficial advice from a teacher in undergrad. 

3:36 - Starting out as a playwright and the first play she wrote, FINGAL’S CAVE. 

4:50 - Tina Howe’s observation of Mary

5:35 - Going to NY and working at Rattlestick Playwright’s Theater

6:21 - Not giving up on getting into Yale

7:39 - Studying with Paula Vogel and taking lessons from her to MONSTERLAND. 

8:51 - Going from playwriting to writing NEON DEMON with Nicolas Winding Refn. 

11:55 - Writing with other people and creating now for a visual medium in film & TV. 

15:36 - The experience of being a first-time showrunner. 

16:43 - Adapting from Nathan Ballingrud’s book NORTH AMERICAN LAKE MONSTERS. 

19:34 - The choice in naming the episodes after the locations they were set in. 

21:07 - Staffing the writers room and creating an open environment. 

24:24 - The first day on MONSTERLAND and challenges with wind. 

25:33 - Creating one world that the anthology series exists in. 

26:20 - The monster Mary is the most proud of and using practical effects. 

29:11 - Wrap day on MONSTERLAND and the challenges of doing an anthology series

32:24 - The exciting opportunities of working in television. 

34:55 - What storytelling has done for Mary on a personal level. 

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