Austin Script Works' Time Steps: Tim Thomas [interview]

The last of today's mini-interviews with the eight winners of Austin Script Work's annual Out of Ink showcase, for which participating playwrights took no more than 48 hours to pen a 10-minute play and were required to use the following "ingredients": The play must go backward, from beginning to end; Include a sudden dance break that causes a shift in the action; Include three things your mother told you not to do. Prolific writer and new papa Tim Thomas regaled us with his usual wit.

Give us brief intro to you—an idea of who you are and what you're about.

I'm a founding member of Loaded Gun Theory, a local company that produces almost exclusively new, local work. Our next production will be (fellow Out of Ink scribe) Max Langert's play Teacher, Teacher. I started writing plays in college because I thought I wanted to be a director and needed royalty free scripts to produce. I ended up not enjoying directing as much as writing, and eventually started LGT with four other playwrights from my classes at the University of Texas. I'm expecting a second daughter any day now so I have no future projects planned, but I'm sure something will come up during the many hours of sleep deprived rocking.

Give the title and a very short synopsis of your play. Is this something you had in mind before the Fling, or is this a new idea that was inspired by the ingredients?

Hungry Love is your typical Valentine's dance story. The dancing. The kissing. The unexplainable hair growth. The play was completely inspired by the ingredients. There are enough of them that it would be incredibly hard to shoehorn any previous ideas into their form. I suppose it's possible that one could have an idea that fit into them, but it seems improbable.