Austin Script Works' Time Steps: Aimee Gonzalez [interview]

The final post in our series of 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. Gadabout Aimee Gonzalez—who wrote the hilarious Five 'Til for FronteraFest this year (we still laugh at memories from the show)—closes out this flurry.

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

I started writing wacky dysfunctional family plays at the age of seven. I'm sure my poor sweet family would like me to change up the subject matter more often, but alas, twenty years later, I still have plenty of material to run with. [laughs.] I moved to Austin by way of New York, so I'm still discovering the Austin theatre scene. There's no one particular theatre company I'm dating, I prefer to play the field. I'm currently working on a full length version of my short play Larius Likler. If all goes as planned, that puppy should be up and running this summer.

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?

My play is titled Bernard Henry's Magic Tricks. It's a comedy about a little boy who whips up a little magic within his family. The idea was totally inspired by this year's ingredients.