Last year I got to catch up with Award winning Director Del Shores to get his perspective on Jiggs Burgess' play Wounded when it was part of SoHo Playhouse's International Fringe Encore Series.

NOW, I get to talk to the man himself,  Playwright Jiggs Burgess, about expanding this show into a full two-act play, and it's return to SoHo Playhouse.

In this interview, Jiggs answered my to call to share:

• The most challenging part about making Wounded into a full length play
• Why he chose Del Shores to direct
• Finding laughter in the darkness
• What is something he is still healing from that is a roadblock as well
• So much more

Connect with Jiggs: Website, Instagram

Wounded tells the story of a nobody who believes he’s somebody. A frustrated mother and daughter. An ex-con looking to move on. Welcome to Wounded. Carrol could’ve been somebody, after all he had a book made into a movie, but his unhealed past got in the way. Katie had a devoted husband and a bright and beautiful little girl until, in a split second, everything changed. In spite of graduating with honors from Baylor, Robert stumbled down the road to addiction and eventually prison. In this darkest of comedies, a trio of lost souls cross in a take-no-prisoners battle of psychological warfare.

Newly expanded into a full length two-act play, Wounded will play at the SoHo Playhouse in NYC through March 16, 2025!

1. Your play Wounded was originally presented as a one act play at the 2024 SoHo Playhouse International Fringe Encore Theater Series, and won their 2024 Overall Excellence Award. After already winning four awards at the 2023 Hollywood Fringe festival for Wounded, what did winning this additional award mean to you, and for the play? In a word? Everything. In many words? The SoHo Playhouse has given legs to a script that could very well have gone right back into a drawer after its initial fringe production, never to be seen again.

For me, just the honor of having a full length show produced Off-Broadway in a respected theatre like the SoHo Playhouse legitimizes my work in a way that is hard to accomplish any other way. And I’ll forever be grateful for that. Who knows what happens next, but whatever that may be Darren Lee Cole and company have given me a helping hand to step up to it.

2. You have now expanded Wounded to a full-length two-act play. Did you always envision Wounded as a two-act play or did the idea to expand it come to you after these initial runs? Wounded was always intended to be a full length play. I wanted each act to stand on its own, and each to be producible by themselves, which is why, I think, the edited version of the second act (also titled Wounded) worked so well at the Hollywood Fringe.

I even had enough material to present act two as a complete 90 minute piece after the International Fringe Festival. However, with the encouragement of Darren Lee Cole at the SoHo Playhouse, and Del [Shores], my director, we decided that the better, more interesting story lies in having both acts as originally planned.

Shaw Jones and Craig Taggart in Jiggs Burgess' Wounded
Photo Credit: Russ Rowland

3. What did expanding the show into a two-act play allow you to do that the shorter one act version did not? I get to tell Carrol’s story in a much more nuanced way. In the first act, we get to witness a side of him that we would never see otherwise. A cynical man by nurture and nature, Carrol finds real connection with Katie in that first act.

For that reason, I think we begin to love him in that park. Carrol is a complicated character. Is he a villain or is he, in his own warped way, some kind of hero? To tell the truth, he’s both, as are we all. But it’s still a question I want my audience members to debate over a cup of coffee. In Wounded’s expanded form, I get to play with the contradictions that are within Carrol. That’s the fun part.

4. What was the most challenging part in expanding the play? Cutting some amazing material from the second act that just would not fit. 99% of what I had to cut was muscle, not fat. It was excruciating, but it had to be done.

5. Award-winning Director, Writer & Producer Del Shores has been your Director for Wounded. What is it about Del's artistic vision that aligned with yours that made you say, "Del would be the ideal person to help bring this show to life?" Our visions aligned while the script was just a hastily written monologue about a guy and his hummingbirds. Even before that though, my play The Red Suitcase won The Del Shores Foundation’s first writer’s search and Del stepped up to direct the 2023 world premiere of that show in LA. So we had already developed a shared language.

But more than that, Del has a talent for delving into the psychology of the characters that, I believe, is unparalleled. And essential for Wounded. Plus we kind of, as Del puts it, “come from the same soil.”

I don’t think I could have survived the process without Del and I can’t imagine anyone other than him directing Wounded. I’m not sure I want anyone else to direct the premieres of any of my plays.

Left to Right: Director Del Shores and Playwright Jiggs Burgess

6. Who or what inspired you to become a playwright?  There is no short answer to that question, so I’ll focus on a small portion of the answer… I had incredible mentors and teachers growing up, not the least of these being my high school English/Theater teacher, Jack Cody. It was because of Jack that I was able to access the whole history of theatre. And I found it glorious. I saw the breadth and depth of the world portrayed there.

7. Let's find out a little bit more about you through some of the themes throughout the show:

• One theme that is tackled is "A nobody who believes he’s somebody." - Has there ever been a time you felt like a nobody, and if so, what event made you feel like a somebody? All. The. Time. It’s usually small things that make me feel that way. Mundane things. Things like not remembering to pay a bill or running out of toilet paper. And family can often make me feel that way. Then I look at my dogs, who look at me like I’m King of the universe, especially my sweet stray, Cooper, and all is well.
• Another theme in the play is "His unhealed past got in the way." - What is something you are still healing from today that you feel is a roadblock for you? You don’t have time for the real list. I have some things in common with Carrol, the main character of Wounded. I’ll leave it at that. No. No I won’t…there is the religious trauma that so many of us have in common. Sexual wounds. Emotional ones. Don’t we all have those? In the end, it all makes for good fodder. The good thing about being a writer is that you can make it all into art.
• Lastly, "In this darkest of comedies..." - How do you find laughter in the darkest of times? How do you not? I mean I don’t think we just find laughter or humor, it’s a part of us at all times. We access it. And we have to laugh in the darkest of times, lest the darkness take over. It’s true that we need the tears as well, tears can cleanse, but we can’t survive without the laughter. It’s what gives us mere mortals power in the dark times. Laughter gives off light and we can find each other that way. It doesn’t mean we don’t notice the darkness, but humor and laughter sends out these little sparks, and with enough of those sparks, we can build a bonfire to get us through to the next sunrise. Which always comes. It may take a while, but the sun does rise again.

Craig Taggart, Kristen McCullough in Jiggs Burgess' Wounded
Photo Credit: Russ Rowland

8. What is like to see Wounded grow from an idea to an award winning one act to fully produced two-act play? Glorious. Unreal. Incredible.

9. What is something we didn't get to talk about in this interview that you'd like my audience to know about you? We haven’t talked about the people that prop me up and make me look good. I’ve been beyond lucky to have amazing folks who seem to pop up at just the right times. From producers like Jon Peterson at P3 in Hollywood (who was also the first to produce The Red Suitcase for me), to the SoHo Playhouse in New York, and Beard Collins Shores everywhere all time (thank you Louise Beard…Emerson and Del, I’ll get to you below) to my brilliant cast of Craig Taggert, Shaw Jones, and Kristen McCullough. These actors inhabit these roles in ways I cannot even begin to describe.

And, good lordy you, Emerson Collins! I have one track, and can barely keep the single train that runs on it from derailing at that. But Emerson! He’s always directing 10 or 15 trains at once and they all run smoothly and on time! I do not know how he does it. He’s a genius actor as well, so y’all take note.

Then there is the most incomparable Del Shores. I have no idea where I’d be without that man. His heart is bigger than Dallas and worth more than gold, as they say back home. Del has been far to me better than he ever had to be. And not just to me.  He’s full of good humor AND he’ll fight for you as well…if we ever sit down for drinks, I’ll tell you about that one time in Palm Springs…but that’s a story for another day. The point is, I love him and cherish both him and the friendship that has formed between us. It’s beyond words. And that’s saying something because, to paraphrase Carrol in Wounded, “I’ve never been any good at having friends.” I could go on for pages about Del. I won’t, but I could.

Finally, Adam, thank you for this opportunity. I appreciate it and I appreciate you.

More Wounded Interviews:

2024 (Watch Here): Del Shores Video Interview - Wounded, by Jiggs Burgess

Jiggs Burgess

More on Jiggs Burgess:

Jiggs Burgess was the inaugural winner of the 2022 Del Shores Foundation Writers Search for The Red Suitcase and in 2023, P3 Theatre Company produced the World Premiere. Jiggs was a finalist in the Eugene O’Neill play writing competition.

Wounded won four awards at the 2023 Hollywood Fringe festival and the Overall Excellence Award at the International Fringe Encore Theater Series. Other works include The Girl In The White Pinafore, The Book of Dog and Anna Mae.