Writing a new chapter, at the beach

Once it was for guests of early movie star Marion Davies. Now artists like writer Lucy Wang get to work here.

The image of the professional writer is often of the “starving artist” variety—churning out pages in cramped, meager surroundings.

So far in 2012, Lucy Wang’s experience has had a very different look to it.

Wang is about to put a wrap on her artist’s residency at the beautiful—and publicly owned—Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica, where she’s enjoyed a working environment most scribes could only dream of.

“It is definitely different,” said Wang. “People think writers only need something to write on, they don’t need a window. It seems very luxurious there; you have the ocean and the PCH behind you.”

To showcase some of the work that grew out of such idyllic surroundings, Wang will give a public reading at the Beach House on Monday, March 19, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Reservations are required for the free event, and directions are available online.

The city of Santa Monica, which operates the beach house, created the residency program to allow artists to work for 10-week periods in extraordinary surroundings while sharing their gifts with the public. As part of the deal, Wang, who lives in Glendale, received free workspace in what was once Marion Davies’ guest house on the legendary property, where early Hollywood stars once frolicked.

Writer Lucy Wang. Photo/Julia Dillon

Wang wrote a blog during her residency, and also worked to turn her unpublished young adult novel, Teen Mogul, into a play. The novel, like much of Wang’s writing, is semi-autobiographical. It tells the story of a teen who donned business attire one day and got a job at a Chicago marketing research firm.

After Wang’s youthful foray into marketing, she got a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago (an alumni magazine account of her career’s twists and turns is here) and landed a gig as a bond trader on Wall Street. There, she says, she endured regular insults because of her ethnicity, a theme that permeates much of her writing. When the sudden rise of Asian-American basketball sensation Jeremy Lin became a media phenomenon in February, Wang began writing comedy based on the stereotypes that started leeching from sources as mainstream as ESPN.

Wang also worked for a former New York mayor, David Dinkins, as his deputy chief of staff. She said she owes her writing career to Rudy Giuliani, who defeated Dinkins in the 1993 election, forcing her to take a new path.

That career change seems to have panned out. Her first critical hit—the quasi-autobiographical Junk Bonds—came quickly, in 1994. It was named Best New Play by the Katherine and Lee Chilcote Foundation and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays. Her scripts have been finalists for Sundance Screenwriting Labs and Heideman Awards, and another play, Bird’s Nest Soup, was staged locally at the Mark Taper Forum.

Her residency at the Annenberg Beach House, which began in January 16, has included participating in the “Beach=Culture” community event series. Wang has invited the public to regular storytelling sessions, creating lively literary exchanges on themes including “life-changing foods” and “the soundtrack of your life.”

At her final public event at the beach house on Monday, the author, comedienne and playwright will read samples from Junk Bonds and Teen Mogul, as well as a few other surprises she’s still deciding on. Attendees can expect the serious issues underlying her work to receive a somewhat playful treatment.

“The thread that combines my work is comedy,” said Wang. “It’s kind of black, but it combines all my work.”

Posted 3/15/12