Meet Serena Norr mom of 3 girls and the amazing playwriter and director of the Agency of the Lost at the Tank! Let’s learn about how she became a play writer and why she loves living in Northern Westchester!
photo credit: https://www.instagram.com/dvckmedia/
How did you get involved with playwriting?
Growing up in Brooklyn, there was a sense of magic and wonder that came from
creating. This involved making skits, plays, and songs with my sister. I always loved to
write, too but never heard of playwriting, or even knew that was a “thing” until college. At
that time, I thought I wanted to be an actress where I mainly worked as an extra and
auditioned for plays.
After taking a playwriting class at Hunter, I instantly felt connected to that style of
writing. While I loved writing dialogue, my career followed a path of editorial, writing,
content management, and EIC roles, working behind the scenes to manage writing
teams, craft social media as well as write marketing. SEO, and blog copy. It was really a
little bit of everything to stay home for my kids and work. This started with writing a blog
called Seriously Soupy, Mama Goes Natural, and then Weekend Jaunts. I enjoyed this
type of writing but it wasn’t exactly what I felt my “calling” was.
It was challenging as a new mom to both work and creatively write “on the side.” Around
2010/2011, I felt a push to get back to playwriting where I wrote a play for a 24-hour
writing festival that was performed in NYC, and then dipped in and out of playwriting,
jotting down ideas but I didn’t really have the bandwidth to figure out how to literally
make a play. It seemed impossible with small kids!
It wasn’t until 2018 after I took a continuing education class at Westchester Community
College that something “clicked” again. I reconnected with playwriting, which led to the
writing of over 50 plays/monologues since then! This was also the push that led me to
starting my company Let’s Make a Play in 2021 where I reconnected with my
passion/love of playwriting as well as my interest to help others do the same to tell their
stories.
Now, I am thrilled that my first off-book full-length play “Agency for the Lost” will have a
run in NYC at The Tank. This is a quasi personal play about what it means to “be”
oneself faced with the deep longing for wanting to meet/connect with someone who is
seemingly left forever.
What is Agency for the Lost about?
Agency for the Lost revolves around the central character of Mae, a diligent typist
whose quest to find her lost dad takes the audience on a Twilight Zone-esque ride as
she tries to decode who she actually is and find her place in “this” world.
Throughout the play, we follow Mae’s journey of living by the life that she’s “supposed”
aka what I call “the order.” This includes typing memos for the & “important”; at Memos for
the Less.
However, her hands suffer as she types daily, sending memos to the faceless on the
27th floor. But something needs to be added. Is it her dead-end marriage? Or the
constant messages she gets from her shallow officemate or the lingering feeling of
abandonment when her father left 36 years ago. It all seems to change when she goes
to the Agency for the Lost, a quasi-detective firm with a founder who has a penchant for
cigarettes and egg salad sandwiches and promises to find her dad in the "lost
dimension," a place everyone leaves. When he comes back, or the person who she
thinks is her dad, she realizes that longing for the idea of someone isn't the same idea
as the actual person. As her hands and body continue to weaken, she learns from her
dad (who may or may not be her dad) that there is another way. A place where she
doesn't have to follow the rules that she doesn't get or chase the preverbal carrot to get
to the 27th floor. Will she give it all up and leave like her father, or stick around and
finally feel &”found”?
In this world, the lost go to a place called the Lost Dimension where they start a
seemingly different life in a parallel world to our own. These lost individuals never return
or contact the people that they left behind. The only way to find them is under the helm
of the Agency of the Lost, a quasi-detective firm with a founder (Gennifer) who has a
penchant for cigarettes and egg salad sandwiches. When Gennifer and her trusty
employee find who they believe is Mae’s dad, her world seems to change as she listens
to his raw and uncensored quasi-fatherly lessons. Mack, however, doesn’t believe he is
her father, continually professing that he wants to return to the Lost Dimension, urging
Mae to do the same and leave her life behind that perhaps he did.
It’s a dark world mixed with dark humor that questions our world in a subversive way.
Why this play? Why now?
I never understood my father’s absence. Back then, words like “deadbeat dad” were
used as many friends’ dads also left. Overtime, I better understood that this was
abandonment. Writing really helped me to process this where I first wrote about meeting
my father in a play called “To The Person I Never Meet” and the monologue “Other.” My
writing style has a quasi-Twilight Zone-vibe where I came up with this idea to question
the dynamics of work culture, finding “the lost,” understanding what it means to “be,”
and more through a darkly comedic and subversive lens.
Any advice for moms who want to get back into creativity?
We are creative – no matter how old we are and what roles we have. I think moms, in
particular, have to give themselves time and be easy on themselves – easier said than
done, of course! When I look back on my journey with creativity/motherhood, it was
really small things at first like creating art and doing cooking projects with the kids. As
they got older, I slowly had the mental space/time to write more and eventually actually
see my work come to life in a play! None of this was overnight, and I think every parent
has to find that creative surge/connection and honor it a little each day – and include
their kids in their world so they can see how their parents still have dreams/goals and a
dynamic inner life.
How do you include creativity in your home?
When the kids were little this was through art projects like making collages, painting,
cooking, etc. Even though I didn’t think it was creativity per se, I see how this was part
of me being me while also introducing them to creativity, play, and expression. Now, we
love going to plays together, exploring/traveling, and art!
What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
I love doing different things in our amazing community. Sometimes that means checking
out a new restaurant or hiking or going to NYC to check out a play or a concert.
Writing/expression is so important to me so I try to do it a little every day but also have
been tapping into trying to slow down and do less!
What do you love about living in Westchester?
It’s funny but I never knew anything about Westchester growing up. I used to think it
was upstate (oops!)! When I moved here 10 years ago, it was sort of on a whim
because we needed more space with three small children. I thought that we could
always come back to Brooklyn if it didn’t work out. In Westchester I had to learn how to
live a different way and found myself loving the access to nature and amazing
community here. Not only do my girls have an amazing school community, I have met
so many dynamic and incredible women that I’ve collaborated with in plays, art, events,
etc as well as genuine friendships. I feel so lucky to live here.
Who is Agency for the Lost for?
Everyone! Even if you don’t have a “lost” dad, there is messaging in the play about
being lost – and having lost loved ones – and what it means to be/become yourself as
well as what happens when you question everything around you and start to live for
yourself. I hope it will spark questions as people resonate/follow Mae’s journey and see
that we (Mae) can live our lives for ourselves and not necessarily what we are
“supposed” to do.
AGENCY FOR THE LOST SYNOPSIS
Mae has the simple life she is supposed to, typing memos for the "important" at Memos
for the Less. However, her hands suffer as she types daily, sending memos to the
faceless on the 27th floor. But something needs to be added. Is it her dead-end
marriage? Or the constant messages she gets from her shallow officemate or the
lingering feeling of abandonment when her father left 36 years ago. It all seems to
change when she goes to the Agency for the Lost, a quasi-detective firm with a founder
who has a penchant for cigarettes and egg salad sandwiches and promises to find her
dad in the "lost dimension," a place everyone leaves. When he comes back, or the
person who she thinks is her dad, she realizes that longing for the idea of someone isn't
the same idea as the actual person. As her hands and body continue to weaken, she
learns from her dad (who may or may not be her dad) that there is another way. A place
where she doesn't have to follow the rules that she doesn't get or chase the preverbal
carrot to get to the 27th floor. Will she give it all up and leave like her father, or stick
around and finally feel &”found”
Come see Agency for the Lost at The Tank
Tuesday, January 28th at 7pm; Wednesday, January 29th at 7pm and (live-streamed)
Saturday, February 1st at 7pm, and Sunday, February 2nd at 3pm
Tickets on sale now: https://thetanknyc.org/calendar-1/2024/1/28/agency-for-the-lost
For $5 off using the code Lost.
