This podcast features writer Robert Faires (photo credit: Leon Alesi), talking about his creative space. Faires is the Arts Editor for The Austin Chronicle and has been active in the city's theatre scene as a writer, actor, and director since 1980.
It's part of a series spun out of Fusebox Festival's The Writer's Room, A Home Studio Tour curated by Elizabeth Doss and Annie La Ganga.
Producer Deepa Donde in association with American Short Fiction gathered writers into a studio for this series. Donde got a preview of the walking tour, and shares these thoughts about Robert Faires' space.
Behind the hustle and bustle of Austin's SoCo district are the homes of humble writers, chefs, musicians, and filmmakers. On that sunny Sunday afternoon, Robert welcomed us into his home, with the kind of Texan hospitality befitting one of the city's most prolific writers.
The splendid display of comic books suspends you into this speeding time capsule of a time that can still live today. Superman, DC Comics, Teen Titans, Lost Annual Next Wave Agents, Thor the Mighty Avenger, and The Green Lantern (one of my absolute secret crushes as a young teenage girl). It was obvious to take note, the specifically placed figurines, an army of supermans, wonderwomans (I always take note of how many in a man's collection - it speaks volumes of his character - and he has a dazzling number.), In the spaces between those boyhood moments, there are glimpses into the man Robert is. The books of Tolkein, Tom Stoppard, Michael Chabon, the Keith Jarret album. Stephen Sondheim's Finishing the Hat & a beautiful book on Frank Llyod Wright. But what astounds us writers is his own comic drawings - his hand drawn replica of a comic book that he bought when he was 9. When comic books only cost 12 cents. And as he points proudly to a replica of the Daily Planet, where for a moment, I imagine that this mild-mannered reporter who works for a newspaper of a mid-sized city, could bear resemblance to Clark Kent. This intimate beautiful journey into Robert's home reveals a writer's transformation from the inspired place of a young boy to the man he has become today. And if you are lucky, there might be a chance to find out, like I did, that the really best martini in Austin is one made by a master like him.
The Writer's Room, A Home Studio Tour was part of the 2012 Fusebox Festival in Austin, Texas.
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