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Meet the author of the clever family dramedy Successions—Michaela Di Cesare!

Describe yourself in one sentence.
I’m tall on the inside. 

Tell us a little bit about your new book.
Successions is in no way plagiarizing that similarly titled HBO series. I started writing the play in 2015, it premiered in April 2018. The-show-that-shall-not-be-named premiered in June 2018. So if anything, they ripped me off. 

What’s something unique about you or something you like to do?
I make homemade dog food. Is that unique or just eccentric? 

What does your happy place look like?
A sandy beach in Calabria on a scorching August afternoon eating an almond granita.

What is something you’re curious about?
People. Always. Their constant contradictions and their deeply held beliefs. I marvel at people with rigid convictions. I’m never sure of anything. I question everything. Most often myself. And so these people become my characters and they often interact with a stand-in for me, who breathes into the spaces between their certainties.

What are some of your favourite plays?
In no particular order: A View from the Bridge, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Six Characters in Search of an Author, If We Were Birds, Jewel, Gas Girls, Harlem Duet, The Supine Cobbler… I could go on and on, and simultaneously could never choose. 

What are you reading these days?
I’m knee-deep in research materials for some new work. One of the most interesting of the sources is The Pomegranates and Other Modern Italian Fairy Tales, a brand-new anthology edited by Cristina Mazzoni.

What’s something that makes you laugh?
When I arrive home and find my husband has made yet another effigy of me in one of my standard writing positions:

Learn more about Michaela Di Cesare:
Michaela Di Cesare is a playwright and performer with an M.A. in drama from the University of Toronto. Her solo show, 8 Ways My Mother Was Conceived was presented across Canada and in New York City. Next came In Search of Mrs. Pirandello at Centaur Theatre’s 2016 Wildside Festival, followed by the main stage world premiere of Successions in the 2017/2018 season. Extra/Beautiful/U won first place in the 2017 Write-on-Q competition presented by Infinithéâtre. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) premiered with Geordie Productions in September 2019 (Outstanding New Text Nomination, METAs 2020). Michaela was playwright-in-residence at Centaur Theatre in 2019/2020, writing Terroni or Once Upon a Time in the South. She is currently working on two new plays, Hot Blooded Foreigner for Tableau D’hôte Theatre and Oppression Remedy, the sequel to Successions.