Liliana Padilla Discusses the Process of Writing HOW TO DEFEND YOURSELF, Co-Directing the Play & More

The New York Theater Workshop is currently presenting Liliana Padilla’s How to Defend Yourself, co-directed by Rachel Chavkin, Liliana Padilla and Steph Paul. How to Defend Yourself runs until his Sunday, April 2, 2023.

This funny and honest play is set in a DIY self-defense class where college students are learning to use their bodies as weapons.

The How to Protect Yourself cast includes Amaya Braganza (The King and I), Sebastian Delascasas (“The Promise”), Jason Lee (Hooded: or Dummy Black), Ariana Maharati (Sky Forest), Tegan – Includes Meredith (“The Skies Forest”). Calling”), Gabriela Ortega (“Safe Haven”), Sarah Marie Rodriguez (“Manifest”) and Talia Ryder (“Do Revenge”).

Broadway World spoke with Liliana Padilla about the process of bringing How to Defend Yourself to the stage, co-directing the production and more.

What inspired you to write How to Defend Yourself?

I don’t know if I’d use the word “inspired”, but I actually ran like hell from this play. It lived in my body for a long time, and I think it existed beneath every other play I wrote.

I went to graduate school at the University of California, San Diego, and had all kinds of support: a great community of peers, great teachers, and medical insurance. And then a group of writers got a series of prompts, all of the same ingredients, a term Paula Vogel insisted on, and they parted ways and made a bake-off-writing assignment to write as much as they could in 48 hours. They are humanly capable. And I take that assignment pretty seriously, and I think in that her 48 hours he wrote 70 pages or he wrote 80 pages. The first 10 pages of my current play are almost identical to the first 10 pages I wrote for that assignment.

very! I don’t know why someone slept in two days he wrote 80 pages?

You stop thinking about what you are writing. I have a painter friend who was looking at one of her own paintings and described the process as follows: And it sticks with me. Sometimes you can write and create with a very free hand within these tight restrictions. In that case, your instincts will be freer and have more space to thrive.

You wrote How to Defend Yourself and co-directed it with Rachel Chavkin and Steph Paul. What is it like to co-direct a piece with her two others?

I mean, it’s honestly great! I am very grateful to have worked with them and they inspire me every day. We went through the process with Sheena her leadership coach named Wadawan. Because I knew she was unconventional. But just because something hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it won’t work. It doesn’t mean it’s good. We wanted to be intentional and vocally candid about how the power dynamics exist in the room and how we imagine something different. I know that having three of us can confuse the team and the potential pitfalls of wanting to make decisions in terms of “Okay, who’s leading it?” And when we don’t overlap, when we have disagreements, it’s very clear, very respectful, and an opportunity to see things differently.

It is very interesting to decide the direction of the play together with someone. You have to influence the work in a different way than if it were just one person.

I hope the result is something more complex and layered.

This play tackles a topic that many young people are currently grappling with. What was it like working with this young cast and exploring these themes and bringing them to the stage?

They are curious, hungry, ferocious, and bright. They are incredibly generous to themselves, to each other, and to the team as a whole. So, honestly, it was a real pleasure and an honor.

In that regard, the show’s audience was full of young people. How do you feel when you see how people are reacting to how you protect yourself?

Early on in the workshop, I was like, ‘Who do you want to come? It was really great to see the audience of A few years ago, I was doing a talkback in Ojai about this play. The Ojai audience tends to be older most of the time, and I was shocked and really humbled by the feedback from some people in the audience. One woman, who I believe is her 60/70 plus, said that she “at different points in her life, she saw herself in each character.” And it was beautiful in how people of multiple ages could relate to the characters from their current perspective.

What do people who come to see How to Defend Yourself hope to take away from it?

As a writer, I write something that has clichés and scares you. I think with my writing, I’m really destabilized and I’m finally trying to release a part of myself. Part of my goal in writing this, and part of my response to this, is what I’ve come up with in a singular, reductive story about assault. It’s something I feel stuck in, and I’m not really interested in doing that. This play was made as a vehicle, hoping to open something up. I hope people will know that I have the ability to want to.