Brick Shithouse – Found Q&A
Hey Foundsters! As the opening of Found Fest get closer, we’re taking a closer look at some of the projects in our lineup and what they’re all about!
About Brick Shithouse: Influencers are millionaires and inflation is on the rise: so, seven best friends/worst enemies are anonymously livestreaming their fight club in a desperate attempt to keep up with rent. When their viewers start to demand more and more (and offering top-dollar to get what they want), each fighter must figure out where they draw the line. At risk of doxxing, death threats, and darkweb pervs, these seven must figure out how to band together before they tear each other apart.
Brick Shithouse is a fast, funny, unforgiving new work wrestling with questions of love, need, power, and consent – and how all that changes when there’s money on the table. Find tickets to Brick Shithouse HERE!
Promo photo by Brianne Jang, BB Collective.
Common Ground (CG): What are some of the inspirations behind the piece you’re bring to Found?
Ashleigh Hicks, Playwright (AH): Thirst traps, credit card debt, the fear of emotional intimacy. The ouroboric cycle of anger-grief that comes free with being queer under a conservative hegemonic state. Blood. Sweat. Tears. Wanting something so bad you disgust yourself. Cheap beer, picking at scabs, picking fights you know you’ll lose. The f-word.
CG: What do you feel inspired by as an artist?
AH: Resistance to all forms of oppression. Upbeat music with tragic lyrics. Bonfires. Spite.
CG: What’s been the road leading up to Found for this work?
AH: I wrote a first draft of this play (almost unrecognizable) back in 2015; our director, Sarah (J Culkin), read that draft not long after I was finished, and saw something in it that I never could. She’d been keeping the idea of it alive, on the back burner, for years, until one day I looked at the call for the Fresh AiR program and texted her like, “hey, if I pitched Brick Shithouse to Found Fest, would you direct it?” And by some miracle she was in, and by some miracle it was selected for the program, and by some series of miracles we’re here, putting up a show.
This is my first time producing something at this scale, or anything close to it, and the road has been steep, but I’ve been so lucky to be surrounded by a team that is right here with me, every step of the way. We’ve got a huge team, and they’ve all been so all-in on making this thing happen. We’re a few days out from the start of rehearsals at the time of writing this, and it still doesn’t feel real. To go from a haphazard, half-discarded draft to a solid project pitch to a workshop reading to grant applications to nailing down a the venue of our dreams to building a top-tier cast and creative team – to be here, almost ten years later, on the precipice of sharing this show with this incredible festival… what a road it’s been.
CG: What should audiences expect from your piece?
AH: Everything happening on top of everything else.