Back from Boston and Finally Posting!

Hi Everyone – Here’s a belated final(ish?) blog entry – after the whirlwind experience of Directorfest, I headed to the A.R.T. to direct an early Tennessee Williams play (Stairs to the Roof) as part of Diane’s second half of the season, her “America: Boom, Bust and Baseball” festival. Our production was only maybe the fifth time the play’s been produced, and was the first time the A.R.T. had produced Williams ever. The production was also the first official collaboration between the A.R.T. Institute and Harvard College / The Office for the Arts at Harvard, so I was working with actors from both the Institute and the College, and had a wonderful team of assistants from the College (plus some fantastic designer collaborators I was able to bring along from YSD and WTF!). We had four weeks of rehearsal, which felt like a huge luxury after the breakneck pace of rehearsals for both NN at Playmakers and our own Directorfest pieces! We were also working in a space the A.R.T. had never produced in, and in an unconventional configuration at that (seating the audience on the stage, building the theatre out into the house, and then moving the audience to another space for the last 20 minutes, where they watched much of the final action unfold outside in a courtyard through windows). It was a challenging piece to work on – the script is very young, and very messy, but it has a fantastic heart and sense of hope / imagination / play. All in all it was a fantastic experience, and a successful production! For a review, check this out: http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2010/2/9/donahue-stairs-agassiz-institute/
It was also an incredible time to be at the A.R.T., with Diane’s first full season underway – in addition to being able to see Donkey Show again, I was able to see Janos work with the first years on a crazy adaptation of Alice in Wonderland – the spectacular ERS Gatz (which I had been waiting years to see!) – and the life-changing Sleep No More, this crazy phenomenal piece by Punch Drunk that took place in an old schoolhouse in Brookline in forty fully installed rooms that you ran throughout (while wearing masks) following the actors. The piece was about an hour long, but played 2.5 times per night, so you could follow different performers throughout the building, catching different storylines and discovering how they lined up – the entire event was just amazing. Now I’m back in NYC – I moved here in August, but have only actually lived here for about 7 weeks. I’m finally looking at being here for a while now, and it’s quite exciting – I’m currently in rehearsals for a new play called The Precarious Stool, which will be a part of the Third Year’s FREEPLAY FESTIVAL at NYU. After that, I’m headed back to Boston to stage The Animals, an electropop concert event at the A.R.T.’s Club Oberon – and I’m directing Chuck Mee’s Big Love with The Studio NYC at The Wild Project in April/May. After that, I’ll be prepping for a big opera I’m doing spring of 2011, and looking for the next round of projects! Dramaleague was a fantastic experience – and though I’m sad it’s over, I’m very much looking forward to what the next phase has to offer! -Mike