Profile: Qui Nguyen, Playwright / Fight Director of Vampire Cowboys Theatre

				(Photo: Peter Bellamy)
				By Jimmy Aquino, Pop Culture Contributing Editor Playwright, screenwriter, and Co-Artistic Director of the OBIE Award-winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company, (a group that produces comic book-inspired theatre and calls itself “Downtown theatre’s most committed lowbrows,”) Qui Nguyen is also a badass fight director. Having moved to NYC from Arkansas, he quickly established himself in the New York theater scene. He currently lives out of a suitcase between NYC, LA, and Minneapolis while writing, teaching, and directing fights. Qui is a proud member of New Dramatists, The Ma-Yi Writers Lab, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The Playwrights’ Center, and an advanced actor/combatant with the Society of American Fight Directors.
	BEING AN ARTIST IS…?			…badassical!
				(Soul Samurai, Photo: Theresa Squire)
	WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON?			Adapting two of my plays into screenplays and developing a new play, War is F**king Awesome.
				(Trailer for the 2011 play, She Kills Monsters, The Flea Theater, NYC)
	WHAT INFLUENCES YOUR WORK?			Comic books, Joss Whedon, Community, Yuen Woo-ping, Bruce Lee, movies by guys named Tarantino, Spielberg, The Shaw Brothers, Kevin Smith, the complete works of Douglas Adams, all my collaborators at Vampire Cowboys, and of course my wife Abby Marcus. She’s the bomb.
				(Qui in Jack Daniel Stanley’s 2006 film, BONEHAND. Photo: Jack Daniel Stanley)
	OF WHAT PROJECTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD?			My favorite thing I’ve created so far is my Blaxploitation/samurai play, Soul Samurai, which was produced 3 years ago at HERE Arts Center. The main character Dewdrop is a hero I had sketched out when I was a teenager, so to finally see her alive onstage nearly 20 years later was a real dream come true. I still have plans on expanding her into other mediums. I’m also very proud of the two shows I did this past year, She Kills Monsters and Agent G. Both of them feel like huge leaps for me as an artist as I combine more personal elements [with] my action-adventure aesthetic.
				(Qui demonstrates his “close, personal friendship” with famed playwright, David Henry Hwang, in David Henry Hwang vs Qui Nguyen EPISODE 1, a promo for The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G)
	WHAT’S YOUR DREAM PROJECT?			Seeing Soul Samurai onscreen.
				(Behind the scenes of Soul Samurai)
	TO WHOM DO YOU LOOK FOR INSPIRATION?			Oddly enough, whenever I’m down or frustrated about making arts, I tend to turn to sports. I love watching and reading about underdogs rising above their circumstances, whether it be individual stories like Jeremy Lin or Victor Cruz or entire teams like the NY Giants beating the undefeated Patriots in Super Bowl 42. It reminds me how important belief in one’s self is and that persistence will pay off if you keep working. It’s strangely very uplifting for me. I’m also clearly a huge NY sports fan.
	IS THERE ANYONE FAMOUS YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH AND WHY?			The Rock. Ever since he made the transition from wrestler to actor I’ve been waiting for him to have that breakout role that would define him as an action star much like Rambo or Rocky did for Stallone, Predator and Terminator for Arnold, Die Hard for Willis. This may sound cocky, but I truly think I could write that movie franchise for him. I really do. So if you’re hearing me, Hollywood, give me a ring.
				(Fight Girl, Photo: Theresa Squire)
	IF YOU COULD LIVE/WORK ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD, WHERE WOULD IT BE ?			That’s easy. It’s New York. Though I’m currently pursuing new career goals which require me to pop back and forth outside of my beloved NYC to Minneapolis where my wife works and to LA where I’m currently getting wheels rolling on a few projects, NY is always gonna be home. If I could stay here solely and have a successful career in movies, TV, and theatre, I would. Right now though, I’m living in a suitcase. Which is fine. I’m on a journey. I think this is where I’m supposed to be right now.
				(The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G, Photo: Robert Ross Parker)
				(Qui and David meet at last in David Henry Hwang vs Qui Nguyen EPISODE 3)
	WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST JOB?			Being a waiter at my mom’s greasy spoon eatery, East Main Dairy Diner, in El Dorado, Arkansas. It was a great place to work and grow up. It also prepared me for my first post-college job working as a waiter for the now-defunct restaurant Raymond’s Cafe that used to be on 18th Street and 7th Avenue. An equally talky establishment, but far more expensive than my mom’s digs.
				(Soul Samurai, Photo: Theresa Squire)
	WHAT KEEPS YOU UP AT NIGHT?			Writing deadlines.
	WHAT GETS YOU UP IN THE MORNING ?			My two-year old son, Sam. And always WAY too early in the morning.
				(She Kills Monsters, 2011, The Flea Theatre, NYC Photo: Joan Marcus)
	DESCRIBE YOUR WORK IN THREE WORDS.			Funny. Geeky. Badass.
				(Soul Samurai, Photo: Jim Baldassare)
	IF THERE WERE A MOVIE OF YOUR LIFE, WHO WOULD WRITE, DIRECT, AND STAR IN IT ?			Paul Feig (Freaks and Geeks) would have to write it cause I’m geeky and grew up in the 80’s, Wes Anderson would have to direct it ‘cause he’s awesome and he’d turn my boring ass childhood into something funny to watch, and Will Smith would play me because…well, he’s Will Smith and I loves me some Will Smith.
				Visit Qui Nguyen… beyondabsurdity.blogspot.com @beyondabsurdity www.vampirecowboys.com