well Detroit is famous for its music and
cars and food and whatnot but you may
not realize it also has quite a legacy
when it comes to professional theater
you've very much likely heard of the
Fisher but there are other small
professional theaters making big waves
in Detroit with first-class performances
we are joined by Mollie Smith Metzler an
award-winning playwright whose play is
showing at the Detroit Public Theatre
and it will be especially touched the
lives and hearts of women everywhere
right I think so excited welcome to live
in the D thank you for having me I'm
very excited to be here so give us the
background tell us tell us all about it
so cried out is a comedy it's about a
set of new parents living in a suburban
town in Long Island where there's a lot
of class difference within the town so
you have like wealthy wealthy people and
less fortunate people so it's a little
bit about the socio economics of being a
new parent in those choices you have to
make but it's it's hard it's really
about you know the hot mess of maternity
leave in this country and all the humor
that comes with it and all the heart and
I need to connect and make mom friends
definitely there is a real need to
connect for new moms if you isolate it
yes so you delve into this what is your
inspiration for this play it is that
very thing I had a baby and ended up
living in this in a town where I didn't
have any friends and my husband was at
work all day with the car and I was home
alone trying to figure out what my
identity was and you know the experience
of having a baby really cracks you open
in every way and I was desperately
lonely until I found another friend and
so I think it's sort of a love letter to
to friendship between new moms and I was
very inspired to also talk about sort of
how painful and difficult these
decisions are and this period in our
life and I don't think it's on stage
enough um
new new moms and new dads it's just a
topic we should be talking about with a
lot more empathy yeah in the mainstream
because anything in amongst women you
talk about it you whine about it all day
yeah you get into you know sociological
things like working-class stay-at-home
moms versus ladies of leisure versus
working moms I mean there's different
kinds of moms and how they treat each
other and that sort of thing yes the
play you know it doesn't want to be
didactic but there is a character who's
from the 1% and there's a character
who's a community school dropout who
works in an entry-level job and I very
much talk about how those experiences of
being home with a child and maternity
leave are very different and you know
it's one thing to leave your child at a
daycare you don't feel good about it and
it's another thing to not be able to
afford daycare at all and it's another
thing to get to go to the $45,000 a year
daycare so I really kind of you know get
in there and talk about it so you know
it's a socio-economic issue of these
choices we we tend to talk about them
like they're just choices but they're
not they're financial choices yeah and
big ones and big ones that are your life
and your child's life so the Detroit
Public Theatre is in its fourth season
what do you like about it
everything okay Public Theatre I mean
I've flown here to be here for this I
just think they're doing remarkable work
but my favorite thing is that it's
founded by and run by three women which
is almost unheard of and you know in
terms of this actual play they're also
three women who are mothers working
mothers our directors of working mother
a lot of people involved in the show are
working mothers and and fathers and I
think you know it's three women running
it that's incredible I want to be here
so having written for TV shows like
orange is the new black and shameless
what's it like to write four characters
on the stage versus what we might see on
TV or cable well my work as a playwright
is a lot like shameless and orange is
the new black in the sense that there's
a lot of drama but also a lot of comedy
so in terms of the writing I'm drawn to
very similar characters for both but the
big difference is you know plays take
two years to write approximately and you
are doing this sort of intensely slow
and methodical work of bringing those
characters to life in TV you know right
now I've got three episodes of shameless
on-air that did not exist in June you
know it's so fast so you're writing it
and then you're shooting it and then
you're in editing and then it's up so
it's the the primary difference is the
speed you know it's just you learn these
new muscles and then you you flex them
very fast
that's the furious furious yeah you know
braiding a plays a little like writing a
piece of music it takes forever forever
again cry it out is showing at the
Detroit Public Theatre through December
thank you so much for thank you mommy