The Long Fringe at FronteraFest continues tonight at the Blue Theatre, including a 9:15 production by Capital T Theatre of Jason Schafer's i google myself. The short production run marks the first time the piece has played outside New York. Another (and final) Austin performance is scheduled for Friday night at 7pm.

Congratulations. Your play, i google myself was nominated for a GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) award just this week. You've also worked on iconic gay projects including Queer as Folk and penned the gay-themed movie Trick. Gay audiences have always been starved for more (and more realistic and accessible) depictions of themselves in film and video. Discuss.

When I graduated from college, there's weren't a lot of gay characters in movies and TV. This was the mid-90's so when there was a gay character, he was usually dying of AIDS. I saw every one of these movies, but I was desperate to see characters more like myself.

That's what led me to write Trick. In the years spent getting that movie made, the spectrum of gay stories grew wider and I hope that trend continues. I was amazed when I heard about the GLAAD nomination. I totally wasn't expecting that, particularly since none of the characters in google actually identify as gay. I'm happy GLAAD is supportive of many different ideas about what it means to be gay.

i google myself is described as the unusual story of three very different men with the same name brought together by an internet search engine. What was your initial inspiration for the script?

Years ago an out-of-touch high school friend left a note on my parents' doorstep. She was trying to track me down and hadn't been successful using the Internet. In her note she said something like "I'm assuming you're not the Jason Schafer who makes gun holsters." She was right! So that started this idea of people out there with the same name and I always thought I'd do something with that. Years later I was trying very hard to write another play that just wasn't coming together and I took my chihuahua for a walk. Suddenly the same name idea popped into my head and, for some reason, I also thought about this question-and-answer piece with a porn star I had read in a magazine. He was asked how he came up with his name and, without any elaboration, he said he took it from someone he went to junior high with. The two ideas seemed to fit together nicely so I went upstairs and deleted that other play and wrote the first scene of i google myself.

The city of Austin is definitely an appropriate place for the regional premiere of a play dealing with high tech and gay plotlines. How are audiences reacting in other areas?

So far the play has only been presented in New York and now Austin. Certainly the title and the central idea of the piece seem to be provocative to people. We had wonderful, sold out audiences in New York and several theater companies requested copies of the script. Of course, being a Googler, I looked up the companies and Capital T blew me away with their really interesting taste in plays. There aren't many theaters mounting Happy Days and Mr. Marmalade back to back! So when (they) emailed me and told me they wanted to do google I was thrilled. And now, whenever I mention this production, people always have great things to say about Austin. It seems like everyone heard it was a really cool city before I did.

Anyone who says they don't googlebate (entering one's own name in a narcissistic search for website hits) is a liar. What are your weirdest google hits?

Well, I mentioned this other Jason Schafer who makes handmade gun holsters. His motto is "We don't do pretty" so, aside from our name, I can't imagine we'd have much in common. For a very long time I was the first hit, then all of a sudden it was him. A reporter told me sometimes people pay to be first hit which made me lose just a little respect for Google, but things are better now because for whatever reason I'm back on top again.

What's next, creatively speaking?

I'm going to direct a documentary about this amazing woman I met when I lived in Los Angeles. She's tried to make it in Hollywood her whole life and she's been everything from a nude model to a psychic to a food critic. I googled her and found old magazines with her pictorials and naked screenshots of her from crazy '70's movies. And she's had so many names! I'm going from three guys with one name to one woman with dozens!