10-YEAR ODYSSEY

‘The term ‘seed money’ is really appropriate,” says Eric Bogosian. “There’s nothing like a deadline and a paycheck to motivate you.”

The New York-based writer and performance artist, known for his corrosive solo shows such as “Drinking in America” and “Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll,” ought to know. A $2,000 grant he received from the Massachusetts Arts Council in 1987 finally convinced him to write a play that had been germinating for some time--a hyper-energetic drama about kids hanging out in front of a suburban convenience store in much the way he himself had hung out in his hometown of Woburn, Mass.

That play, “subUrbia,” has now been made into a film, directed by Richard Linklater and now in limited release. But retracing its circuitous, 10-year journey is an object lesson in the critical importance of nurturing artists through constructive engagement--and money:

1987-89: Bogosian receives a $2,000 grant from the Massachusetts Arts Council.

Bob Riley, the head of the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, approaches Bogosian, whom he knows from his solo shows, and asks if he is interested in writing “a larger piece” if a grant can be arranged. In fact, Bogosian has long wanted to write an ensemble piece that would appeal to a different demographic than the boomers who are his following.

“I really wanted to make something that rocked for young audiences,” Bogosian says, “because when I first came to New York in the ‘70s, I ached to sink my teeth into something onstage and there was nothing around.” The result is the first draft of “subUrbia,” about how the return of a budding rock star to his suburban hometown affects the lives of his former buddies.

By that time, the institute’s focus has changed so in the fall of 1989, Bogosian directs a student workshop of the play at Boston’s American Repertory Theater. In the cast is Steve Zahn, a neophyte who would remain with the project to the end.

“I tend to be blind to my own defects. Otherwise, if I realized how rickety something is, I’d just give up,” Bogosian says. “I thought the ART production was pretty good.” But he is distracted by the production and promotion of the film of his “Talk Radio,” and the project is temporarily abandoned.

1992-93: Bogosian sends the play to Lincoln Center Theater.

Having studied Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” and David Rabe’s “Hurlyburly” to know how to “build a play,” Bogosian submits a new version of “subUrbia” to Lincoln Center Theater. Producer Andre Bishop and dramaturge Ann Cattaneo believe that it needs more work. They suggest to Bogosian that Michael Kahn at Juilliard’s Theatre Program is looking for playwrights to work with acting students on new material.

“I had run out of steam again and my loft is filled with half-finished scripts that stay that way unless somebody encourages me to keep working on something,” Bogosian says. “I was lucky that LCT just happened to be reaching out to Juilliard at that time.” Bogosian directs a workshop at Juilliard where a number of film companies express interest in the property.

“I was advised to just write it as a screenplay,” he says. “But I wanted to see it realized as a play first. Besides, when I started it in 1988, the idea was fresh and original, but by 1993, ‘Clerks’ and the grunge scene had surfaced in movies and it looked like I was just swimming along with the trend.” Three months later, Bogosian completes a new draft of the play.

Spring 1994: “subUrbia” opens in a full production at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.

After Juilliard, Bogosian believes that people are not sufficiently enthusiastic about the play. He works on other projects until a friend prevails upon him to send it to Bishop at Lincoln Center Theater.

“I felt that Eric’s early drafts were lively and colorful but it was not yet a play,” Bishop says. “But contrary to his stage persona, Eric’s a very disciplined artist who studies theater religiously. What he handed in was a very contemporary play in a very traditional form.”

Bishop and Cattaneo tell Bogosian that “subUrbia” will be the last in a series of three new plays at LCT’s alternative space. Robert Falls is hired to direct. There are some scheduling difficulties, however, but they are resolved when a conflicting project falls through. “Funny how your fate is connected to everybody else’s fate,” Bogosian says. The play, featuring Zahn, Josh Hamilton, Martha Plimpton and Tim Guinee, is a critical and commercial success and runs through the entire summer, drawing a young, hip sellout audience to LCT.

Fall 1995: Bogosian moves toward locking in a film director.

While “subUrbia” begins to receive a number of studio and college productions throughout the country, including one at USC that will move the next year to L.A.’s Namaste Theatre, a number of independent filmmakers express interest in transferring the play to film. Bogosian completes the first draft of a screenplay. His first choice for film director is Richard Linklater (“Slacker,” “Dazed and Confused”). Bogosian travels to Austin, Texas, to meet with him.

“Rick’s serious, but he’s got a great sense of humor and irony,” Bogosian says. “All the other directors I talked to sounded like they were going to make a movie about aboriginals in Australia.” Linklater is also keen on the project but is committed to completing “Newton Boys” first. Linklater invites Bogosian to perform his solo act in Austin, where the director’s film company is based.

Before Bogosian returns to New York they drive around the suburbs of Austin, enthusiastically jamming on how the film of the play might be done.

“The thing about coming from the suburbs is that you are critical of them but you don’t hate them,” Bogosian says. “It’s like a dysfunctional parent you love anyway.”

January 1996: Linklater suddenly becomes available to direct “subUrbia.”

When “Newton Boys” is postponed, Linklater calls Bogosian in New York and the two get to work on the film. “Ever since I’d seen the play at Lincoln Center, it had stayed with me, which is a good sign,” Linklater says. “The theatricality of the piece seemed to be a big challenge but an exciting one.”

The director quickly convinces Martin Schaeffer, head of production at Castle Rock, to “take the leap of faith” to finance the film, and eight weeks later, “subUrbia” goes before the cameras with a cast including Zahn, Parker Posey, Samia Shoaib from the LCT production and Amie Carey, who had starred in the L.A. studio production. “We had three weeks of rehearsal, 22 days of shooting, and two weeks of editing,” Linklater says. “It never went through the Hollywood wringer.”

Appropriately, a series of benefit premieres of “subUrbia” around the country have benefited the Texas Homemakers Production Fund, a nonprofit organization to take up the slack from the demise of government grants to young filmmakers. “I got a grant to finish ‘Slackers’ from an NEA program that no longer exists,” Linklater says. “ ‘SubUrbia’ came about because of some little grant and it has employed hundreds of people and given a lot of audiences a lot of enjoyment. It’s a real tragedy that the government is giving up on artists.”