Going Greek - Rotation 2

Once upon a time in rotation 2, I directed The Bacchae, my first Greek tragedy. A big question I had going in was – does humor exist in Greek tragedy and if so, how does it express itself? As such, we focused on the irony at work in characters like Dionysus and integrated elements of commedia into Cadmus and Tiresius. Our process provided an opportunity for me to explore a more choreographic approach to movement, one of my goals for the summer. In exploring the physicality of our chorus, we did a lot of gesture work and element work and created elaborate movement sequences to reinforce the odes.

The Bacchae was an excellent opportunity for me to work on my skills as an adapter. We focused on the conflict between Penthius and Dionysus and the questions of gender at play in their relationship. In exploring these questions, we started with the idea of liminal space - where edges blur and bright line distinctions grow hazy. We used the imagery of night, shadow, and moonlight. Managed to fit a shadow puppet play and a moon box into the show – too much fun!

Something else I learned a great deal about in rotation 2 was how to use an assistant. This summer is my first time with the luxury of having a full time AD. Sarah Coury, our assistant for Bacchae proved invaluable, enabling me to increase my efficiency exponentially by taking notes and running a second rehearsal room when needed.

I was blessed with a tremendous cast of eager collaborators, as well as a visionary design team and a terrific crew and stage manager. They made rehearsals an absolute joy. I am so proud of the work we did together.

The final stretch

Directing two new plays in the Wedge with both playwrights present at the productions here was such a unique opportunity. New play process is always a different animal-dependent on the director/playwright collaboration, casting, the rewrite process, and production resources. It's inspiring to have seen two new plays grow so much in my brief but intensive rehearsal processes here at the Hangar, and to have worked with such brave, talented, enthusiastic collaborators. Every day brings a new possibility of deepening the work or throwing it all out and starting from scratch, and being humbled by the greater goal of serving the play in its current incarnation. The big questions arise-what do we want to experiment with in this rehearsal process that will unearth further development of this piece? What specific character arcs or events are we tracking, and are they functioning onstage differently than they function on the page? How will this cast of actors inform the future life of this text? Are there dramaturgical questions to tackle on our feet or to be tabled for the playwright to wrestle with alone? Do we want to "freeze" the script to see a polished staging on its feet, or do we want to privilege process over product, and keep the rewrites coming, even after opening? On Love in the Time of Channukah, Josh and I focused on further definining characters through focused rewrites and larger than life staging choices through choreography and montage work, so that the dna of each relationship was defined not only through the sharp, hilarious and often brutally honest language, but through every stage picture, sound cue, and lighting shift. The moments "in between" became just as expressly narrative as each plot-driven event in the script. We had a blast working on this piece with an amazing cast, in an extremely positive rehearsal room with an incredible amount of trust in each other's work throughout the process. As is always the case with comedy, so much was learned about the play after we opened and invited our audiences in. What reads? What doesn't? What did we think was funny that brought people to tears? What did we revere as serious that made audiences burst into laughter? Each night front-of-house gave the ok to pack in 20-30 standing room only folks from the waiting list and we were all thankful when the weather cooled down because 60+ bodies plus 90 degree summer heat is not exactly pleasant in the good old Wedge! The show ended up running 10 minutes longer on our closing night because of an incredibly vocal audience, and it was amazing to see how attuned the actors were to listening in the moment and truly honoring how incredibly present their audience was every step of the way, without ever sacrificing the integrity of the storytelling or the rhythms of the language as written on the page. There was a remarkable sense of liveness that was infectiously satisfying to both performers and audience members alike in the room. Needless to say, we had a really great time and were sad to strike the show and say goodbye to such a rewarding process.

My favorite part of rotation three actually had nothing to do with theater at all: It involved Channukah's cast beating the pants off of Armchair's cast in a kickball game replete with bleeding limbs, heckling, impromptu dance breaks and a random Scottish guy that showed up at the last minute and proved to be our secret weapon.

It's amazing that we are now launching into our final rotation of shows! Next up is Adventures of a Bear Called Paddington. At this point we've blocked half the play, and we go into spacing on Saturday. My how time flies! See you at kiddstuff!!

A New Day, A New Play

Rotation 3 began with the new play process that welcomed 2 pieces of new work to be developed and 2 new playwrights to town. I have to start off by saying that this company never ceases to amaze me.

I directed The Armchair Traveler by Libby Leonard. Both the playwright and the actors were unbelievably generous with their commitment to the work and the time it takes to build a new play.

Working with Libby was fabulous because we gave each other room to create and then always checked in. If there was a discrepancy, which I must say was rare we just worked together to work it out and always came back to the story. This created a huge air of trust in the room, which spread to the actors. There wasn't an ounce of ego in the room and every single person always came back to the questions of “what will tell a stronger story, what will help develop this character, and how can we do this in a different, justifiable, and powerful way.” The communication over-flowed and then once in tech the design staff was able to push this process to another level. We all collaborated, took risks, and battled through to create a visceral story.

Developing a new play is an incredible challenge and the best way to see what works or doesn't is to try things many different ways in the room before finally deciding. The best way to do this is to commit 100% to all the actions. Out of this process a new non-textual opening came about, a character change his accent, and another one her age.

This is how to do it-everything and nothing is sacred all at once. Just stay open and committed to the work. Don't be afraid to say, “I don't know” and be open to many things...but then as the director be ready to set boundaries and work within those so that storytelling is clear. Decisions have to be made but in order to get to that, things may need to be looked at from different directions-I try to trust my instincts and see things for the musicality or rhythm of the play-then pull the rug out when you least expect it.