Tory Stewart grew up in the Boston area and received her undergraduate degree at Barnard College in New York City.  After college she returned to Boston to work as a stage manager.  Her first script idea came to her while working on an international tour with stage director Peter Sellars.  After writing the script, she immediately applied to graduate schools and was accepted into the University of Iowa’s Playwriting MFA program.  She then came to Minneapolis in 2003 on a Jerome Fellowship.

 
Cory Hinkle grew up in Oklahoma and attended the Acting BFA program at the University of Oklahoma, and then moved to New York to pursue a career as a professional actor.  When he grew tired of waiting between acting roles, he turned to playwriting.  His first major success came in the form of the 2003 Jerome Fellowship, which Hinkle believes was instrumental in helping him find his voice as a playwright: “It gave me a community of writers and the time to figure it out.”  

Hinkle and Stewart met in July 2003 at a reading of Kira Oblensky’s Quicksilver, as both were just beginning their fellowship year.  They began dating that winter. In 2005, Hinkle was accepted into the Brown/Trinity Rep Playwriting MFA program, so Stewart followed him to Providence where she worked as a stage manager while Hinkle studied playwriting under Paula Vogel.  Not sure where to head after school, they applied to fellowships and residencies throughout the country and were delighted when Hinkle received a second Jerome Fellowship.  They packed their bags and returned to Minneapolis where they still live.  Last year, Stewart received a prestigious McKnight Fellowship for Minnesota playwrights, and they both continue to be active in Playwrights’ Center activities.  They were married in Boston in the fall of 2008.  

What’s it like to be married to a fellow playwright?  ”It works pretty well for us,” said Stewart, “Cory’s my first reader for pretty much everything.”  Hinkle says “It’s pretty great.  It’s surprisingly uncomplicated, but then so is our relationship.  People expect that if you’re with another artist there’s competition, jealousy.  But that’s just not the case.  We operate as a team, I want her to succeed as much as I want to succeed myself.”   

“It helps that we have different styles,” says Stewart.  Although she does admit that it’s not without its occasional challenges. “He did cause me to burst into tears recently.  I gave Cory a draft to read and afterwards his first question was ‘So where are you at with this?’  I knew what that meant.”  “It needed work,” chimes in Hinkle.  “It did,” admits Stewart, “and it’s much better now.  But sometimes you just want the praise.”   

“I think we have a tendency to abuse the relationship a little,” said Stewart, “Making each other read and re-read not just the full drafts of our plays, but even the mini-drafts, like draft 2.1.”  But instead of being frustrated by this, they relish the opportunity to read each other’s work, even if it does occasionally make them nervous.  “This summer I had a script I was working on, but I was withholding” says Hinkle, “I kept telling her ‘I can’t wait for you to read this’…” while Stewart kept telling him, “I can’t believe you’re withholding it!  I can’t wait to read it!”  

Hinkle and Stewart are active members of the Workhaus Collective, an organization in which playwrights collectively produce each other’s work.  The company strives to give the playwright complete autonomy in the production process.  In regard to her most recent production, 800 Words: The Transmigration of Philip K. Dick, Stewart said “Workhaus gave me the opportunity to see the production I wanted to see.  The buck stops with you.  If you don’t like it, you can put your foot down.”  In addition to providing production opportunities, Workhaus gives Stewart and Hinkle the opportunity to approach each other’s work from a different angle.  Hinkle has performed in Stewart’s plays, she has directed his, and this past year they traded off the role of Props Designer for each other’s script.  In any case, both agree that Workhaus is a “fantastic process with fantastic people.”  

While both still receive numerous writing and developmental opportunities outside the Twin Cities, when asked about Minneapolis, they were excited about the low cost of living compared to other metropolitan areas like Chicago or New York.  Stewart’s work has been produced locally at the Commonweal and the Guthrie, both for their high school and summer program.  Though Hinkle’s work has been developed at the Illusion, Guthrie and Red Eye, he’s had greater visibility outside the state.  “I think there’s more interest in my work elsewhere,” said Hinkle.  “But for me in Minneapolis, I just want to do more scrappy stuff.  The cost of living is low, so you can really create your own opportunities here.  That’s what I want to be doing.”

jheimbuch@dramatistsguild.com