Two Trilogies

Today, a double-bill of the first parts of trilogies. I go to see Tarrell McCraney's Brother/Sister plays at the Public with my friend Jenny Tibbels-Jordan (who I got to know during the Lincoln Center Directors Lab this past summer). We ran into another Lab alum, Garrett Ayers, while there, and had a great time talking together about this wonderful new play and the astonishingly theatrical direction.


Above on the right is my friend Jenny Tibbels-Jordan, Co-Artistic Director of the hot new NYC company Ruffled Feathers, next to another LCT Directors Lab alum. Jenny and I are in talks to develop a new play for her company for the 2010-11 season, to be written by Jason Williamson.


Above is LCT Directors Lab alum Garrett Ayers, with me. Garrett is currently assisting on a production of The Trojan Women at NYU's Experimental Wing.

We then meet up with Heather Alicia Simms, another Lab alum who is starring in the production. I end up walking around NYUville with Heather on various errands. Heather has just gotten married (congratulations to that lucky, lucky man), and checked in on her registry at Crate and Barrel, and then rushed to Chipotle to get her guacamole fix before getting back to the theatre for her evening performance.


Above, the wonderful Heather Alicia Simms, currently appearing in The Brother/Sister Plays at the Public Theater. She is nothing short of sensational in her roles in the plays. Anyone who is able to catch the shows is in for a real theatrical treat.

I then head off to Signature Theatre Company's production of the first three plays in the epic Horton Foote 9-play cycle, The Orphans Home Trilogy. This was alumni night, a special performance for all past employees of Signature, and always a great time to see old friends and make new acquaintances. I had managed to see a wonderful production of The Trip to Bountiful, starring the incomparable Lois Smith, at Chicago's Goodman Theatre (in a production that originated at STC), and have developed a real interest in Foote's work. It achieves both the epic scope and the precision that I identify great playwriting with, and I am just thrilled that New York will be able to see such a great deal of Horton Foote during his legacy season at STC. Michael Wilson's production was gorgeous, elegant, sophisticated - NYC is in for a Horton Foote feast this year, with six more plays joining the repertory. I cannot wait to see the rest - and then perhaps, an encore of the nine plays in one sitting during an STC marathon day in 2010!


Above, the 2009 Lincoln Center Directors Lab, on the first day. An incredible, enriching three-weeks of fellow directors who guide each other through their various paths, experiences and experiments in creating a career in the theatre and living a life in the arts.

(posted by Ed)