The Drama League Fall Directors Project

Back from Boston and Finally Posting!

2010-02-12T13:49:00.000-05:00

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

Final thoughts ...

2010-01-21T14:42:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone,
It’s hard to write a “wrap-up” blog entry since I still feel very much in the midst of my Drama League activities. My main assisting assignment on The Addams Family is about to enter phase II. Our out-of-town tryout in Chicago closed successfully after record-breaking ticket sales and overall positive reviews. The producers have made some highly publicized changes, including bringing on renowned director Jerry Zaks as Creative Consultant. I am continuing on the show (as is Associate Director and DP alumna Heidi Marshall). We will begin Broadway rehearsals in early February, with previews set for March 8 and an April 8 opening night.
In the meantime, I have been the “Drama League Artistic Fellow” at Primary Stages, working with Artistic Director (and DP advisory board member) Andrew Leynse and Associate Artistic Director Michelle Bossy on various season planning and programming activities. I have also been a sort of “part-time” assistant director on the Primary Stages production of Lucinda Coxon’s Happy Now?, directed by Liz Diamond, which will run January 26 – March 6 at 59E59 (tickets here.)
I am also busy with two other projects – my first opera, at Metropolis Opera Project, a new translation of Cesar Cui’s Feast in Time of Plague, which will run next weekend (Jan 29-31 at 8pm). Tickets are only $10 and available here. I am thoroughly enjoying working with these unbelievable singers and musicians and excited to be taking on a new form. Not only is this my first opera project, it is a direct result of my Drama League fellowship – I met Metropolis Opera Project’s founding director Zachary James because he is playing Lurch in The Addams Family!
I am also directing a new play by Matthew-Lee Erlbach called Sex of the Baby, which will be presented by NYU Tisch as part of the 3rd-year MFA students’ “Free Play” series. Performances will be in the first week of March – details soon. Fellow fellow Mike Donahue also is directing a “Free Play” so we will once again be directing alongside each other.
(Interestingly, both the opera project and the NYU project were already cast before I came on board. Very unusual to be working with actors that someone else chose. Fortunately, in both cases that someone else had great taste so I’m not complaining. But it’s another reminder that flexibility is the key to a happy freelance career.)

Although I can choose to deny it a little longer (and keep “Drama League fellow” in my email signature) I suppose I will have to accept that I am now an alumnus of the program. The applications for next year are due in a few weeks, and the whole cycle will begin again. I’ve already gotten a few emails from future applicants asking how the program has impacted my life… Well, I hope the best is yet to come in terms of career impact, but the personal impact was significant. It was a great boost after a few years in New York – the “seal of approval” from a major career development program with a terrific national reputation. Plus, the fellowship components themselves – the Retreat, the Wonder Week, and of course, DirectorFest, were all both creatively stimulating and a lot of fun.

Also, I promise I will post some of the gorgeous production photos of Bekah Brunstetter’s Roberta Laughs (my contribution to DirectorFest) as soon as I can.

Best to all,
David

December

2010-01-04T01:24:00.005-05:00

December was a whirlwind, in every sense. I felt as though I was constantly trying to wring 40 hours out of a 24-hour day.

I left Cambridge a few nights into previews of BEST OF BOTH WORLDS to come back to New York to move into my new apartment, have a few last production/design meetings, an almost immediately go into rehearsal for THE LOVER.

Working on Pinter's THE LOVER was a labor of love -- intense labor and intense love. There are A LOT of words in the piece, and the two main actors were required to bring the emotional journey of a marriage rocked off its foundation fully to life in the span of a compact one-act, while handling multiple dialects, a period piece, and a dense text. As insane as this all was, I never regretted choosing the piece, because I really loved it, and because the cast was completely dedicated to it and to each other.

There was one major bump in the road, when we realized the play was running several minutes too long. The designers and cast and I made some tough decisions about how to shorten the piece. In the end, we felt the piece was the stronger for it, even though the decisions to "kill our storytelling babies" (such as not having the actress change clothes on stage in stylized real time, but rather off-stage with a dresser) were agonizing at the time.

I learned so many lessons from working on DirectorFest. First, of course, to never underestimate the running time of a show. But it was also the first time in a LONG time I had worked with a full design team. Communicating effectively with them stretched a muscle that I simply wasn't used to using. Clearly and thoroughly articulating an idea early in the process is crucial. I learned really quickly that the designers could've used more information from me sooner, and I'm excited to put what I learned into practice on my next production. It struck me recently how few opportunities there are for directors to really direct -- not a reading or a workshop or even fringe show, but to manage a full production team, which is really a huge part of a director's job. I would have to say that the opportunity to do so is one of the greatest things the Drama League gave me.

In the end, I was proud of the production. The actors seemed to have real ownership of the work we had done, and the designers created a sleek and rich 1963 world. And I do think that the story I set out to tell was told. Most importantly, I forged relationships that I know will endure for a long time -- people with whom I can't WAIT to work again.

Beyond the production, DirectorFest meant tons of events! Brunches, drinks, meetings, hosting my Dad who was in from out of town -- lots of hand shaking, lots of follow-up e-mails, and finally...lots of opportunities to contemplate "What next." The last official days of our fellowship, we were lucky to spend some really good time together - Ed, Mike, David, and I, and even got to have a beautiful farewell dinner with Roger. I am amazed how close we've become in these several months, really. During the craziest moments of DirectorFest, I would bump into Mike, or David, or Ed in the hallway, and just fall into their arms for a big, understanding hug. (I think I got the best hugs since I'm the girl.)

We're now scattered geographically once again. David and I are still in New York. Ed is in Oregon for the next few months. Mike is in Cambridge directing a play, though I did get to see him last week. But we are all eagerly awaiting the next time that we're all going to be in the same city -- there's NO doubt we'll meet up to eat some really good food and instantly fall back into our rhythm.

(posted by Laura)

The Red Umbrella

2009-12-17T08:57:00.004-05:00

The Red Umbrella has come and gone. This has definitely been one of the most exhausting and exhilarating three weeks I have ever experienced! The day after the Thanksgiving break, we launched into our an all company production meeting for the four DirectorFest productions, then six half days of rehearsal, a day to dry-tech the show, then two days of tech, dress and suddenly we were all on stage. We sold out every showing - apparently, this is the highest attendance that the event has ever had! - and met a ton of people in the very crowded lobby of the June Havoc Theatre at The Abingdon, and are now in the midst of e-mailing everyone who came to capitalize on the visibility of the event, thereby starting a conversation with various theatre professionals in New York that we hope will take us to the next level. Thank you, Drama League!

(posted by Ed)

Cast for The Red Umbrella

2009-12-07T08:23:00.006-05:00

Jason Williamson’s The Red Umbrella is directed by Ed Iskandar and features Milena Govich (“Law & Order,” “Rescue Me”) as Angela.

Boy meets girl on a beach and falls in love, only to discover that she is Death. She promises him that he will find her again, but only when he sees a Red Umbrella. What follows is a bittersweet fairy-tale about the consequences of knowing your fate, the risks you must take to transcend it, and the losses you face if you fail. Part love story, part theatrical elegy and part celebration of life, this is the fable of a modern-day Everyman who undergoes an extraordinary emotional awakening as he searches for the one thing that can complete him.

Director Ed Iskandar has previously collaborated with playwright Jason Williamson on the first stagings of Ether Steeds, Goat Song for Asa Jacobs and BoyGirlBoyGirl. As Joint Artistic Director of Stanford Summer Theater, he produced festivals on Pinter, Friel and the Restoration, also directing The Collection, Translations, and Don Juan. He has staged over seventy productions regionally and at university, including Miss Julie, Lulu, Othello, The Taming of the Shrew and Hamlet. In 2010, he will be in his second season as Resident Directing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Currently, he is developing a play with Pulitzer finalist Amy Freed.

Along with Ms. Govich, The Red Umbrella also stars Jonathan C. Kaplan as Peter and Paloma Guzman as Death.

DirectorFest 2009 runs from Thursday, December 10 through Sunday, December 13, 2009 at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex in midtown Manhattan (312 West 36th Street). Performances are Thursday, December 10 at 7 p.m.; Friday, December 11 at 8 p.m.; Saturday, December 12 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.; and Sunday, December 13 at 3 p.m.

DirectorFest 2009 offers an exciting glimpse into the future of American theatre by presenting four one-act productions helmed by four of the nation’s most talented young directors.

Tickets for DirectorFest 2009 are $18 each and are available by calling SmartTix.com at 212-868-4444. Each performance consists of all four one-acts presented in succession.

(posted by Ed)

Book Now for DirectorFest!

2009-12-07T08:19:00.004-05:00

Rehearsals have now been underway for a week on the four DirectorFest productions. Get your tickets now while there are still some available (details in the e-flyer below).

(posted by Ed)

Pa'Tina Miller: Live in the Delfont Room

2009-11-21T15:55:00.001-05:00

Pa’Tina Miller is the unquestionable darling of the West End. Her quick rise to stardom from humble beginnings has been an irresistible story to the London press. Her face literally dominates London’s cultural topography, because every Sister Act advertisement carries her image. Cameron Mackintosh’s Live in the Delfont Room series is a high-profile platform on the West End scene for newly-minted stars to make an “I Am” statement, introducing to the world the full story behind their choice to become an artist and showing off what they are and what they can do outside of the trappings of the role that made them famous. The great British stage actress Hannah Waddingham – excellent in the role of Desiree in Trevor Nunn’s revival of A Little Night Music, which will be portrayed in New York by Catherine Zeta-Jones – was another featured artist in this series on my last trip to London in July.

I first worked with Pa’Tina when she was an acting student at Carnegie Mellon. Even then, she had a few close calls with superstardom, making it to a final round tussle with Jennifer Hudson for the role of Effie in the Dreamgirls film. I directed her in BoyGirlBoyGirl, a play of Jason’s, and in Homemade Fusion, a song cycle created by two other frequent collaborators and friends, Chris Dimond and Michael Kooman. In the latter project, Pa’Tina created Random Black Girl, a song that was created to allow her to show off every vocal pyrotechnic in her considerable singer’s arsenal. The song was posted on YouTube, and quickly went viral amongst musical theatre fans online. The song cycle eventually made it to New York in a production I directed at The Zipper Factory (featuring Broadway stars Marty Thomas and Natalie Venetia-Belcon), for which Pa’Tina created another song, this time a duet with friend and classmate Anderson Davis.

In the two years since she has graduated from school, Pa’Tina has slowly but surely built an impressive resume of credits. She originated a role in Romantic Poetry, the John Patrick Shanley & Henry Krieger musical, was prominently featured as Dionne in Diane Paulus’s spectacular revival of Hair in the Park, did a stint on All My Children, and eventually won the role of Sister Deloris van Cartier in the West End production of Sister Act the Musical. It is already the kind of career that many actors dream of, but throughout the entire process, Pa’Tina has stayed grounded and thankful for the opportunities and doors that have opened for her. When I visited her in London in July, I found an actress determined to preserve her ability to perform and give the audience every cent they’ve paid for. She entered a state of vocal rest in between shows, went straight home when her obligations were done, and attended to the health of her physical and vocal instruments. I had found the experience of watching a dear friend play the starring role in a West End production utterly exhilarating, but watching her take such care to maintain her productivity and potential was deeply moving.

(Pa'Tina's gruelling 8 time a week schedule has also given her legs to die for!)

The dramatic concept behind Pa’Tina’s cabaret was to take a journey through all the influences that shaped her as a musician and a performer. The set list was diverse, and musical director James Sampliner arranged each song to showcase a different style of music in order to put Pa’Tina’s signature upon some well-known songs.

The highlights for me were a funk cover of Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know, a jazz ballad version of Grandma’s Hands and a sensational gospel song, Thank You, that had the crowd on its feet. In between the songs, she followed the American tradition of telling her life story in a series of concise intimate confessionals.

(Above, Billy and the Black-Ups)

The Delfont Room was packed to the rafters (well beyond the legal limit, but who’s counting), and the audience ranged from acclaimed stage actor Jonathan Pryce to Scarlett Strallen, recently seen on Broadway as Mary Poppins (below), to the entire nun ensemble of Sister Act the Musical.

Industry hawks and fans alike enjoyed a unique one-woman show that heralded the emergence of a true sensation. We celebrated the overwhelming success of the venture well into the morning.

I was quite touched by Pa’Tina’s vulnerability throughout this process. Despite (or because of) the amount of industry attention that has been rightly lavished upon her performance in Sister Act, she negotiated the rehearsal process with some trepidation and insecurity. She second-guessed herself as an actress and a musician, despite her overwhelming natural gifts. I remember being puzzled as to why the process proved so difficult for her, given the fact that she is already the star of a West End show.

I realize now that of course, when the focus is you, and only you, the prospect of appearing on stage and sharing yourself with the crowd assembled can feel like allowing the masses to gaze at your naked body! I certainly feel some of my own trepidation at the upcoming rehearsal process for The Red Umbrella. It sunk in only this week that this will be a huge calling card for me in New York, that I must not skimp on getting in contact with everyone in the industry that I want to know about my work, and that I must not second-guess my instincts in the rehearsal room. Easier said than done, but I will have the example of my dear friend Pa’Tina to hold myself against. Her perseverance, preparation and grace under pressure will stay with me throughout the weeks to come. Thank you for letting me share this incredible journey with you, Pa’Tina. Til the next one.

(posted by Ed)

Complicit with Complicite

2009-11-20T11:50:00.004-05:00

The last time I was in London (this past July), I was lucky enough to get a day seat at Sean Matthias’s production of Waiting for Godot, starring Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart and Simon Callow. I was surprised and somewhat wary to discover another Beckett play was on the West End boards, but the combination of the artists and the work was irresistible: a Theatre de Complicite and National Theatre production of Endgame, starring Simon McBurney (who also directed) and Mark Rylance.

I had loved McBurney’s production of All My Sons on Broadway last season (Katie Holmes and all), and have admired Rylance for many years for in diverse performances ranging from Cleopatra, Hamlet, the Duke in Measure for Measure, Boeing Boeing and most recently, the protagonist of Jez Butterworth’s astonishing new play Jerusalem at the Royal Court (soon transferring to the West End, after Endgame finishes its run). I am accompanied once again by Billy Porter, and also by Ioli Andreadi and Rachel Grunwald, two colleagues from the Lincoln Center Directors Lab.

Ioli (left) is a PhD candidate in Fire Rituals in Performance at King’s College, London, with whom I am going to collaborate on a project based on the Prometheus myth.

Rachel (above) is a London director whose production of a new J. T. Rogers’s play will soon be touring the U.S. as part of "The Great Game," plays about Afghanistan (originally produced at The Tricycle Theatre).

The production carried the all-immersive nature that is the trademark of Complicite's work. The aesthetic evoked opera (the set did not feel dissimilar to Duke Bluebeard’s Castle), and the lights and sound were used almost continuously to engage and construct the audience’s experience of the play throughout the evening. The actual staging was very simple – Mark Rylance’s chair-bound Hamm stayed mainly center stage while Simon McBurney’s Clov shuffled around him and Nagg and Nell popped up and down from the infamous Beckett trash cans, down stage left.

The focus therefore was purely on the spoken text. I aspire in my own work to ensure that every moment in a production is active – that is, that every line of text is spoken to make someone do something. For me, action defines the event. What McBurney was able to accomplish in rendering inactivity active was quite staggering. The opaque, impenetrable text seemed natural and effortless, and the production concisely communicated the metaphorical subtext of the play (that we are all in inescapable rooms of our own making with people in our periphery gradually disappearing as we move inexorably toward death). Rylance and McBurney were also able to capture a deeply emotional relationship between Hamm and Clov, so that the final moments in which Hamm descends into a physical and spiritual nothingness while Clov looks on silently are incredibly moving.

Rylance has been criticized by quite a few of London’s big critics for a self-indulgent performance. Having seen him in previous productions, I could certainly identify certain vocal, physical and technical tricks that he used, but it did make sense within the context of the production, which reads Hamm as self-obsessed and selfish. It will be interesting indeed to see how the essence of his character translates into the kind of universal interpretive articulation of great actors like Dame Judi Dench, Sir Ian McKellen and Kevin Spacey (amongst others), all of whom essentially play variations of themselves in all the characters they tackle. With his recent Tony win for Boeing-Boeing and the upcoming West End (and perhaps, Broadway) transfer of Jerusalem, Rylance is poised to achieve the kind of mainstream profile as Great Actor of His Generation that will test the elasticity and universality of his essential character.

Above, I am flanked by Ioli Andreadi and Rachel Grunwald.

(posted by Ed)

He is What He Is

2009-11-19T11:41:00.003-05:00

I went to see La Cage aux Folles today for the first time, again accompanied by my new comrade-in-arms, Billy Porter. Billy is at a huge transitional cross-roads in his own career. Having flared brightly in the theatre and the recording industries in the eighties and nineties, he is now pursuing a career as a maker of theatre as well as a performer. He looks at work both as someone who might eventually direct the piece, as well as someone who might play a suitable role within it, which gives our conversations a really specific focus. The role of the ageing diva Albin is of course one of the great theatrical vehicles of musical theatre, and one which Billy has developed a great desire to portray.

The critical buzz on the Menier Chocolate Factory production of La Cage aux Folles is that it is a stripped down version focused on establishing a more emotionally credible relationship between the central couple (Albin and Georges) in order to focus on the people behind the drag masks, rather than on the drag spectacle itself. The current Albin is John Barrowman, who is hugely loved in England as the star of Torchwood and is himself a queer artist who is publicly open about his sexuality, but has successfully carved a “straight” leading man image and appeal. He was sensational in the role, capturing the drag queen who revels in dramatics, the “second wife” who struggles to conquer insecurity in her role as mother, the ageing artist who fears that change means extinction and the inner strength that drives him to understand and assert that “I Am What I Am,” in the musical’s signature song.

I must admit to a skeptical attitude toward musicals. The mythical moment when a character has run out of words and simply MUST burst into song has remained just that for me – mythical. The transition between scene to song and back again remains an elusive, strange suspension of disbelief that I maintain and resent. Recently, however, in the spirit of this production of La Cage aux Folles, productions have begun to treat musicals as plays with music. Sam Mendes of course is the most easily identifiable figure in this tradition, given his dramaturgical approach to Cabaret, but the Menier Chocolate Factory seems to be hiring directors who work in the same way, such as Sam Buntrock, whose immaculate production of Sunday in the Park with George was recently seen in New York, and Trevor Nunn, whose production of A Little Night Music is currently in rehearsals (featuring Carnegie Mellon alumnus Hunter Herdlicka as Heinrich). This production's approach to La Cage aux Folles certainly allowed us to re-evaluate a text that is now seen as inherently camp and fluffy and see that without textual modification, the book contains the possibility of great depth and sincerity. The final and most stunning reveal of the musical is of course the appearance of Albin at the end of the play in plainclothes – the drag queen that we have watched throughout the play and seen try and fail to impersonate a “straight man” comes out in a plain button-down white shirt with rolled up sleeves and a pair of black slacks, walking and talking without a trace of affectation or performance.

Albin still manages to surprise, and I was rather surprised that seeing a representation of a gay man on stage who can embrace the full spectrum of who he is and can also simply be a man achieved such an emotional effect. This was of course, immediately trumped by another, even more emotional moment: Albin and Georges come toward each other and simply, sincerely, unfussily kiss one another – an expression of love so understated and so universal and yet still so foreign and shocking. I am anxious indeed to see the American reception to this production in its upcoming Broadway transfer, and anticipate with unusual eagerness directing a production of the future starring the great Billy Porter, who embraces more than anyone I know being what he is.

(posted by Ed)

Triple Billying

2009-11-18T11:15:00.003-05:00

A London triple-bill today with Billy. First up, Our Class at the National Theatre, followed by Bartok’s rarely produced opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and a contemporary dance interpretation of Stavinsky’s Rite of Spring, both at the English National Opera. One of the great pleasures of assisting great artists is the one-on-one time that we end up spending with them. Getting to watch a day of theatre with someone also means a day filled with conversations reacting to the pieces, examining the work going on in our own current rehearsal room, and also examining the particularities of each experience in context of who we are as artists and creators. It’s a form of connection that feels like a privilege – the relationship we are building feels like it is being informed and filled by mutual experiences in rehearsal, in performance and in life, and we are constantly aware of each other and responding to all the new information we are consciously and subconsciously sending. It is a more intense way to get to know someone new than the norm; we are exposing ourselves to each other for long hours on a daily basis. I think this is why relationships forged in the rehearsal room are so long-lasting. The process of making theatre is as revealing about the very relationships we look to document and examine on stage.

Above, Pa'Tina and Billy, in a quite moment in rehearsal.

(posted by Ed)

First Bill: Our Class

2009-11-18T11:00:00.002-05:00

From the plays I have seen on this London trip and my previous one (this past July), the National Theatre has three main strands of focus in its programming. There are rigorous investigations of classic plays such as Phedre and All’s Well That Ends Well, premieres of new English plays such as The Habit of Art (see the previous post) and The History Boys, adaptations of foreign-language plays such as the play we were at this afternoon, Our Class. There is an astonishing range of cultures and experiences on display – not only through the material itself, but also through the overlapping ensembles that have been assembled to make theatre happen. Three theatres running multiple productions in repertory: at the National, it really does begin to feel like All the World’s a Stage.

Our Class is a grueling three hour examination of a group of people linked by circumstance as they grow from kids in class, to teenagers who undergo rites of passage, young adults who become aware of the social and political changes happening around them, men and women who mark each other with love and tragedy, parents who give everything to their children, widows and widowers who find second lease in life, grandparents who start to withdraw from the families they have built and lost, and lonely souls who confront the final transition into the great beyond.

The unique sociohistorical lens of 20th-century Poland as a setting means of course that the play is a ruthless inquiry into the effects of the Soviet invasion, then the Nazi “liberation,” then the Holocaust, and then the aftermath of war on a common group of people. These are class mates who support, betray, save, murder, manipulate, rape, protect and destroy each other, and at the end of the play, are left to silently confront what it is the world has made them do to one another as they sit on the chairs that signify their graves in a final tableau recalling the great last act of Our Town. The natural dramaturgical subtext is nature versus nurture: are we who we are made, or are we what we’ve made of ourselves? For this particular author, the one experience that eludes the entire group of people is that of self-knowledge and therefore, self-determination. We see that we are creatures who are blindly reacting to personal, political and karmic stimuli, that our choices are dictated by life and by necessity, that our actions are inherently reactions, and all that is left in the end is the silence of reflection. The overbearing pressure of lived experience was embodied in a stunning scenographic moment, in which a large and previously immobile steel roof hanging over the playing space is slowly lowered onto the actors beneath them. This is a daring and devastating new play, and one that I hope will find its way across the Atlantic to us.

(posted by Ed)

Second Bill: Duke Bluebeard's Castle

2009-11-18T10:59:00.000-05:00

Bartok’s only opera – Duke Bluebeard’s Castle – is an unsettling, strange one-act work. Bluebeard’s new wife Judith journeys into his castle, insisting on opening each and every one of the seven locked doors she discovers inside. At each entrance, she discovers a treasure, and blood. As the treasures grow greater and the blood starts to flow, we prepare for the inevitable worst: the dead bodies of the previous wives that must surely be behind the final door. We are in for a surprise: the wives behind the final door are very much alive, and ready to do Bluebeard’s bidding. In a stunning reveal, Bluebeard sings that their blood is what keeps the castle alive. One takes a step back and realizes that the mythic frame is an elaborate metaphor. The unrelenting tyrannical patriarch bleeds dry everything he touches, transforming love into empty, hollow corpses. The coup de grace of this production by Daniel Kramer is the reveal behind the fifth door, in which Bluebeard sings of the riches and wealth of his kingdom. As he sings about gold and treasure, he reveals a vast cabinet dormitory of children. This of course makes blatant the hidden subtext of the work. It felt somewhat manipulative and jarring at the time, but some time after seeing the performance, I realize that it is what allowed me to understand the construct of the story. I am reminded that creating an exact experience for an audience is the highest form of our craft.

(posted by Ed)

Third Bill: Rite of Spring

2009-11-18T10:58:00.000-05:00

The opera was paired with a modern dance interpretation of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Getting to hear this symphonic masterpiece performed by a full orchestra is a treat in and of itself, but seeing it spill all over the stage through bodies and movement invited fullest engagement with the music. The action as I read it was simple: an old woman, embodying winter, wanes in power as three young girls of spring take over the action of the stage. They invoke the excitement of a large, somnambulant group of men, who transform from workers into savage beasts in unison and compete with each other to have their way.

The elderly are cast aside, the weak are destroyed and the most virile are left standing; but the old woman returns, and with her re-appearance, the men retire into a deep sleep. The dance was really quite ravishing. Human gestures and animal movements combined to create a contemporary dance vocabulary of dynamic impact.

(posted by Ed)

Post-Bill

2009-11-18T10:56:00.001-05:00

I was deeply struck today by how extraordinary theatrical moments are usually non-textual. I suppose they are textual in the way that a director or theatre maker is translating an idea taken from a text or a score into visual form, but the deepest moments usually happen without speaking or singing. In Our Class, the image of a steel roof slowly and inexorably falling was unbelievably moving.

The reveal of the children in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle was unexpected and redirected the focus of the story quite radically. The opening image of the Rite of Spring communicated the metaphor of winter with an old woman smoking a cigarette while snowflakes cascade upon her (and only her). I have been thinking about this a great deal in my own work. We spend so much time trying to wrestle the text into a comprehensible shape, and yet, the moments that offer the audience a way in are likely to be non-textual. I am determined that I will address this in the rehearsal process for The Red Umbrella. I will find a way to get the story across clearly, but also to fully explore the potential in the piece for non-naturalistic and non-textual story-telling through scenery, movement, sound and lights.

(posted by Ed)

Our Habit of Art

2009-11-17T19:01:00.007-05:00

Alan Bennett’s new play The Habit of Art is currently in previews at the Royal National Theatre in London (above), and is already sold out through March 2010. An extension has already been announced! This, despite the last minute withdrawal of Michael Gambon, who was cast in the lead role of the poet W. H. Auden and dropped out because of poor health. The replacement actor is Bennett regular Richard Griffiths!

This of course reunites playwright and actor with director Nicholas Hytner, who is also the current Artistic Director of the National and, on the night I was there, dutifully taking notes during the preview.

Also appearing in the play is the inimitable Frances de la Tour, completing the reunion of the core artists behind The History Boys.

On the evidence of the crowd’s full-hearted applause and the first wave of critical acclaim, they are poised for a repeat of that play’s worldwide success.

The Habit of Art is a great valentine to the theatre. Other recent plays in this genre include Jeff Whitty’s The Further Adventures of Hedda Gabler and Bill Cain’s Equivocation, both of which were premiered by Bill Rauch, who I will be assisting on a production of Hamlet in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s 75th-anniversary season next year.

As the audience enters, a lone figure paces between a corner table and what looks like a ramshackle set within a set. The play begins with the arrival of several actors and a stage manager, immediately establishing that we are assembled to watch a play within a play. All the familiar archetypes are present: the ageing diva actor, the easily threatened playwright, the new boy, a child actor and his stage mother, and of course the long-suffering stage manager. The conceit of the play is that we are to watch a run-through without a director in attendance. Insecurities surface, egos flare and walkouts ensue, but of course the great power of theatre to hold its community together toward a common purpose prevails, and at the end, we are left with the devastating image of Ms. de la Tour’s stage manager, alone in the rehearsal room long after the rest of the company has disappeared.

The genius of Alan Bennett’s play lies in the invisible divide he draws between artifice and reality. Even as the play maintains that nothing is remotely real about the situation that we are observing – going so far as the insert ridiculous interludes of objects that talk to the poet while he is alone on stage – we find ourselves suddenly observing moments of profound truth and honesty. Some of this is due to the skill of a first rate ensemble of stage actors, but the real credit goes to the playwright for asking an audience to watch the credible illusion of a reality that maintains it is not reality (the rehearsal room), which then becomes an even further removed fiction (the play-within-a-play), shuttles furiously back and forth, and somehow reaches a level that sublimes all the fiction into universal observations about what it is to be human.

The question one comes to at the end of the night is whether or not the rehearsal room really is universally acceptable as a microcosm of the world at large. I of course regularly fall in love with plays that are living proof that the life I have chosen for myself is worth living, and brings worth to others. But can a play like this – endlessly filled with backstage double entendres, in-jokes and witty wordplay – actually connect to a tourist teenager who happened to decide on a whim to see what the RNT is all about? Time, and the inevitable Broadway transfer (check out the NY Times advance review), will tell.

Above, Alan Bennett

(posted by Ed)

En Route

2009-11-17T10:51:00.005-05:00

(my typical Tuesday morning view, from the window of Bolt Bus -- also, the speed with which life is moving right now!!)

Hey Everybody! I'm writing from the Bolt Bus -- thank goodness for its wireless internet! I've been frequeting this bus a lot; going back and forth from American Repertory Theatre in Boston to NYC, where I've had design meetings, casting, and have hunted for, applied for, and now moved into a new apartment (what's up, Battery Park City!), all on my one day off a week!

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS is going full speed ahead, and we start tech tonight. I haven't worked on a new musical for a long time, and have never been involved this closely with one of this size. The rewriting process is rigorous and intense; a change in the show affects not only the book and libretto (which I have been charged with updating), but the score, vocal arrangements, band, and rotating volunteer choir of 30 people the show will feature each night. Diane, Randy, and Diedre, the authors, make edits swiftly and smartly, and it is a real challenge to keep up with them! The end result of working this way though, it seems to me, is that the show is getting stronger and stronger each day. The show is based on THE WINTERS TALE, and it's amazing to see how as I get deeper and deeper in to the musical, the themes and very powerful story of the original play become more fully illuminated for me. The story of one man's redemption is brought onto the stage with the force of a full gospel choir, and the cathartic climax of some exquisite music -- so that, we hope, the audience will really feel Ezekiel's (Leontes') transformative and magical experience of getting a second chance at happiness.

[Side note: my 99 cent Complete Works of Shakespeare iphone app has come in handy more than I can say, as has my new tiny netbook computer, which I can balance on one hand while flipping through multiple drafts of the script with the other. Two tools I'll never AD without from now on!)

And while I'm heading into tech for BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, I'm getting ready to direct Pinter's THE LOVER for DirectorFest. Casting was a wonderful experience, and one that taught me a lot. Having never worked with a casting director before, except for readings(I was paired with the brilliant Stephanie Klapper for DirectorFest), I didn't know what to expect. I found that in the auditions, I had to be on my toes as much as the actors. After all, they were auditioning me, too -- if offered the role, they would need to decide whether they would trust me to collaborate with them on a very challenging play. I also found that the auditions taught me a ton about the play itself. It was the first time I had heard actors speak any of the text, and each person came in with a different approach to piece, which was immensely helpful. Managing my time in the room was tricky, as was making decisions about callbacks on the spot, and I have the sense that I'll get better at both with practice.

I've also been meeting with our fabulous designers; I have artistic crushes on all of them. I'm extremely grateful to the Drama League for giving me the chance to work at this level -- with professional designers and stage managers, a top-notch casting director, and an insanely talented cast. I just keep thinking -- when and how else would I be able to work at this level? Even if I spent half a year fundraising and self-producing (which is what I've done for most of my projects up to this point), I don't think I could pull together the resources to do something like this.

SO I have 12 days left in Boston, and two weeks until DirectorFest starts rehearsals. After that...well I must admit it's scary to think about the unknown, open-ended freelance existence. I have several leads on money-making gigs back in NYC (everything from tutoring to focus groups), and have a few projects that I'm looking forward to jumping in to. But exactly what this new chapter of my life will look like, or how exactly I'm going to pay the rent, is something I'm not able to predict. I do know that if I ever have a shot at making it work, it's right now, and with the support of the Drama League and its network of friends and alumni, most of whom who went through a similar transition at one point or another.

Alright, I'm siging off for now. David, Ed, and Mike, I miss you guys!!

(posted by Laura)

4 days away from opening 6.5 hours of theatre!

2009-11-17T00:32:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone – apologies for my absence from the blog, it’s been non-stop since I got to Chapel Hill at the beginning of October (I’ve now lived in NC longer than I’ve lived in NYC!), but I’ve finally got a few hours to write a little bit about my experience here so far – and it’s been a wonderful one!

I’ve been at Playmaker’s Rep in Chapel Hill NC for the past six weeks assisting on a production of NICHOLAS NICKLEBY – the epic piece, by David Edgar, is a 6.5 hour version of the 9 hour production David did with RSC – it’s split into two parts, has 25 actors, over 650 costume pieces, and is being co-directed by the fantastic Joe Haj (who’s also the artistic director of playmakers) and the equally fantastic Tom Quaintance.

When I first talked to Tom and Joe over the summer about the possibility of working on this with them, they made it very clear to me that they were to be true co-directors – neither of them would function as the primary or lead director, and they wouldn’t be dividing the piece (ie one person taking the two-handers while the other does all the big crowd scenes). And I have to say, now that we’re a week away from our marathon opening, the process has been truly co-directed – from our first rehearsal in the room, the relationship between the two of them has been incredibly fluid, the actors seem to honestly have two directors in the room they can go to with questions – and both Tom and Joe, as planned, have taken their own pass more or less through every scene of the play (in fact many of the scenes have only ever been rehearsed by both of them simultaneously, as they both bounce back and for between what’s happening in the foreground, and what’s in the background).

Joe and Tom were upfront about saying this production of Nicholas Nickleby wouldn’t look like Joe’s production – or like Tom’s production – but that hopefully their combined efforts would make for a better production than the one either of them could have directed on their own. Joe and Tom are certainly different directors, and they see different things / have different ideas and aesthetics – but as they say, and it’s proven to be true, they fundamentally agree on what good acting is. And with that as a base-line, it’s been a remarkably smooth process working for the two of them (I’m the only AD, so I work for both of them – and yes, that means a lot of running back and forth between directors and rehearsal rooms, and it means I sit between them, taking notes for both of them at the same time, which has certainly been a challenge!).

People have asked if I’ve felt like I’ve been torn between them / put in the middle ever – but both Tom and Joe have been incredibly conscious not only with me, but with the entire team, of avoiding contradictory notes and always checking in with one another to ensure that they continue to remain on the same page. (Joe’s mentioned that he’s done more prep on this, not only because of the size, but because he’s co-directing, than on almost any other production he’s ever directed). They also both really trust each other (they’ve been good friends and collaborators for many years) – and – something else, which I think is key – they both continue to learn from one another – and enjoy doing so – which has been remarkable to be with in the room.

The production is split into two parts, both of which are being simultaneously produced – the first week, we read through the play (it took two days), did table work, rewrites (more on that in a sec), and explored some staging ideas – the second week, we staged and ran all of part one (~ 140 pages) – the third week we staged and ran all of part two (~ 170 pages) – the third and fourth week we did work thru’s and run thru’s of both parts – we’ve just done a week of tech and previews for Part One – and then sat Part One down for the current week while we’re teching and previewing Part II!. (Both parts open this Saturday, back-to-back, in an all-day marathon event!).

Playmaker’s is on the UNC campus (the whole town of Chapel Hill, even the fire trucks, are UNC blue!), and also home to a graduate training program – and the 25 actors in NN come almost entirely from the Playmakers Company (there are grad/undergrad faculty in the production, local community actors, all of the 11 current grad school students, a few undergrads, and two out of town actors, including the lovely Justin Adams, who’s playing Nic).

One of the things that makes this production an especially mammoth undertaking is that Playmakers is a relatively small company – I’m the only AD, we only have two stage managers on the show (no asm’s and no pa’s, even when running rehearsals in two rooms simultaneously), the sound-designer/composer is also the sound engineer and entire sound crew, there’s only one ME – and backstage, the crew is more or less entirely made up of undergrad students (we have things like quick changes for 10 actors who all have roughly 30 seconds to make a full change, including wigs, with only 1 professional wardrobe person and four undergrads) – so the production has truly been a test for the entire community, forcing the theatre to really stretch and challenge itself. (And indeed, that’s one of the reasons Joe chose to program NN in the season).

As assistant director, my responsibilities have changed throughout the process - from note-taking to auditioning understudies, from filling in and running a rehearsal or two to helping assign (and reassign) all of the massive amounts of character-less narration in the play, from trying to cast crowd scenes based on who’s available (and who might already have appropriate clothes from other looks etc.) to communicating with other departments the various changes being made in the room (especially because there are so few of us), from trying to figure out how we stage 170 pages in a week with as little overlap between rooms as possible (ie trying to limit how often we’re calling the same actor to be in both rooms simultaneously) to filling in for the undergrad actors when they can’t be in rehearsal because of class! All along, Joe and Tom have been incredibly generous with me, really opening up their process to me – they’ve been very active in asking for my thoughts / what I’m seeing, and they listen – and they seem to actively avoid ever asking me for things like coffee / food runs (which actually really threw me when I first started working for them!).

I’ve only assisted a few times – but from the experiences I’ve had, I sort of believe that assisting and directing are two completely different things – I’ve realized that when I assist, I stop looking at work in the same way I would if I was directing it – it isn’t in my body in the same way as if I were making it. So when I’ve really been asked to make something as an assistant in the past, it’s actually been incredibly difficult – I have trouble giving myself permission to work from my impulses the way I can when it’s mine. However, I also get bored pretty easily – so I hate being in a room and not having anything to do – this process has been sort of the perfect balance – I’ve definitely been used, and kept busy, and in the ways I feel I can best, as AD, contribute to the process. And I’ve been able to meet a fantastic company who’s mission, and way of working, I really respect and enjoy – and I’ve gotten to see people working to put up big epic piece, which is definitely a passion of mine.

Here’s a sort of rough breakdown of the process / timeline up ‘til now:

WEEK ONE:
The first day I got in, having driven from NYC by way of lunch with Veronica Vorel (our sound designer for DirectorFest and a close friend of mine from YSD) in D.C.! I went straight to Joe’s house for drinks with Joe, Tom and David Edgar, to talk about the play and the plan for the first week. After that, I drove to the “actor house”, where I’ve been living since I got here – it’s a beautiful five bedroom house a fifteen minute walk from the theatre (a walk that takes me through the vine-ceilinged pathways of the campus arboretum), and a block off of Franklin Street, the main drag through Chapel Hill. For the first month, I was sharing the house with Justin, the actor playing Nic – now we’re also living with Tyler Micoleau and Annie Wiegand, our fantastic lighting designer and his lovely assistant. It’s wonderful – every morning I sit on the sun porch typing notes, drinking the free organic coffee we get from the theatre (Playmaker’s has a partnership with a great coffee roasting place, so we get free coffee every week), and watching the deer (there seem to be five deer who live in the neighborhood, and like to graze on our driveway).

The first week we split up the read through of the play over two afternoons, and then during afternoons for the rest of the week, we tabled through the show with the entire company and David Edgar. At night, we’d do exploratory staging work on some of the more challenging sections of the show, so Joe and Tom could get a chance to work options for different theatrical vocabularies with the actors on their feet – figuring out how to handle some of the massive sequences of narration in the play, some of the larger group scenes, what it meant to put some of the different worlds in the play on its feet. The combination of work on our feet and intensive table work seemed to be great (for David Edgar as well as the rest of us, for when he developed the show with RSC they never really as a company did that kind of really rigorous table work on the show b/c they were developing the material throughout the process). There definitely seemed to be a great balance between careful specific work and freeing exploration as early as day one, which I think allowed for a rehearsal process throughout that has remained incredibly calm and relaxed (especially given the scale of the project). (That first week, we also lost a few of our actors, including our Ralph and Kate Nickleby, because they were still in performances for the first PRC production of the season, OPUS – the first of many many scheduling challenges to come!).

The other big thing that first week, was having David Edgar in the room with us – and realizing how engaged he was with the material, decades late, and how invested he was in continuing to work on it – that week, we ended up working on several rewrites that he himself proposed – and it’s amazing to me that he was so generous with us / our production, was still so invested. Two of the biggest rewrites came about because we were doing a 6.5 hour version of what was originally a 9 hour play – so, essentially the second and third 3 hour plays had been cut together to make 1 three hour play. Part I and II in the 6.5 hour version are definitely very different plays – the first is much lighter, flashier – the second is much darker. One of the rewrites was to take an already existing scene and flesh it out as more of a party (for Nic, when he leaves the theatrical company he joins toward the end of part I), to create a bigger scene early on in Part II. And one of the others was to rework several scenes into something more streamlined, to accommodate the new two-part structure, eliminate some particularly rough costume changes, and streamline the plot. Both were great changes – (wow, what an opportunity to have David Edgar in the room with us! I still can’t believe it).

WEEKS TWO and THREE:
We staged ~140 pages in the first week – and ~170 pages the second week. (Or, roughly 40 pages a day for two weeks).

We were working more or less in two rooms simultaneously (sometimes having to stage things w/out all of the actors because they were called in both rooms). And then, for the last hour of every day, we’d all come back together to the bigger rehearsal room to run the sequence of scenes that had been staged that day. Figuring out the rehearsal schedule every day for those first few weeks was sometimes close to (a very exciting kind of) madness – trying to figure out what could be rehearsed against what, and what scenes could be rehearsed without which actors, so that everything could be accomplished – and trying to work off of breakdowns of scenes/actors that were constantly changing as narration was assigned and reassigned, as characters were taken out of scenes to accommodate quick changes, as others were added to beef up crowd scenes – and taking into account class schedules of the undergrads (I’ve done my fair share of standing in for missing actors over the past few weeks!) – and to accommodate fittings (our third week of rehearsals, there were 24 hours of fittings that had to be schedule into rehearsal time – there’s no ability to hold fittings before rehearsals since more or less everyone in the show and shop is in class until we go into rehearsals…). It sometimes felt close to chaos, trying to work off of paper work that couldn’t keep up with the amount of work being created each day b/c there were only two stage managers and myself running between the three rooms and noting everything – but – somehow – we did it – and on schedule – and with the exception of maybe one day during the staging of part II, we never actually seemed to be going so quickly that we couldn’t all keep up (the cast for this show was spectacularly prepared coming in, and everyone in the room, on both sides of the table, was able to work at more or less the same pace).

Also that week, I auditioned undergrads for potential understudies – now we’re fully understudied, and all 25 actors in the show are covered! Fingers crossed no one ever has to go on – it would be a massive undertaking for anyone to have to suddenly step in to the show! (Though we have some remarkably dedicated understudies!).

TECH FOR PART ONE:
Part one, which is actually the shorter play, received about five extra hours of tech than part two will… We began tech a week ago from last Friday night, had back-to-back 10 out of 12’s last Saturday and Sunday, had a few more hours of tech last Tuesday afternoon, an invited dress Tuesday night, and then Wednesday night we went into previews! We continued to have tech during the afternoons while in previews, but because the show is primarily crewed by undergrads, we have afternoon tech’s without full wardrobe crews etc. – so things like quick changes have to be figured out and perfected before we actually get into previews, because once we’re in previews we no longer actually have tech time with the wardrobe crew – and there are a LOT of EXTREMELY tight quick changes (actors exiting from one side of the building and returning from the opposite side, on a different level, seconds later, having made a full change of clothes and hair). It was very very fast – but we made it. And by the second preview, the company was really able to take full ownership over the piece. My favorite note from Joe and Tom was in response to the first preview, in preparation for the second: they told the cast that basically we were still working to size up to the room – but it wasn’t a question of volume – it wasn’t about reaching the back wall – it was about bringing the back wall closer. It was a great note – and sitting in the house for the second preview, I could really feel that shift in energy from the company.

TECH FOR PART TWO:
Well, Friday night we had our third preview for part one – and Saturday we started teching an entirely new 3 hour full length play with it’s own set of locations, characters and quick changes! Part Two is the longer play – and there’s less tech time. We’ll finish teching through Part II tomorrow (which includes some of the most difficult technical moments in the show, like the hanging of Ralph, and some of the most brutal quick changes in the 6.5 hours piece) – and then we’ll have our dress rehearsal tomorrow night! We’ve got afternoon tech / evening previews for Part Two on Wednesday and Thursday – Friday we’ll do a light run of Part One in the afternoon as a brush up, have our third preview of Part Two that night (which means I’ll have notes from two directors on 6.5 hours of theatre to type up and organize Friday night – YIKES!) – and then Saturday we open both parts back-to-back! I’ve two friends coming to see it (one of whom is Drama League summer alum Kate Pines!) – then we drive back to NYC the next day, by way of FULL CIRCLE at Woolly Mammoth, which Veronica Vorel sound designed… and then Monday and Tuesday I have auditions and callbacks for COUPLING!!! (This has been my first experience working with a casting director - I’m working with Cindi Rush and her wonderful assistant, Michele – and it’s been a great experience, feeling so taken care of in the casting process, and having to be responsible for articulating what you’re looking for, but not for necessarily knowing where/how to find it).

NN has certainly been a once-in-a-lifetime wild ride – and a major part of what’s made the experience invaluable is the community. The Playmaker’s family has been incredibly welcoming – I already had some friends here coming in (Sarah Pickett, the resident sound designer/composer at the theatre this year, who’s designing NN, is a close friend and collaborator from YSD – and the managing director of the theatre, Hannah Grannemann, was also a classmate of mine at Yale) – but really the entire community, from the staff to grad/undergrad students and faculty have been incredibly warm, open, and generous – and I’ve really felt welcomed as a part of the community, from dinners out and in, bar nights, and birthday celebrations to the spectacularly designed Playmakers annual ball and actors in NN helping me out with readings of my piece for DirectorFest!

Perhaps the most challenging part of this experience has been trying to balance the considerable amount of work for NN with my other projects (while here, I’ve been working on five productions I’m directing between December and late April). I’m not sure I’ve figured out the answer – and I’m certainly thankful to have the work – but if I assist again, I’ll have to continue to work on figuring out that balance.

Of course, no blog posting would be complete without a little bit on the food – and Chapel Hill is certainly a great place for food. On the Sunday nights of our ten out of twelves, community volunteers cook dinner for everyone at the theatre – the first week, they did a shepherd’s pie cook-off (the one with cheese on top won by a landslide, though there was also a pretty great one with lamb) – and yesterday, we had (my first) North Carolina BBQ (which is vinegar-based, I learned – I also had my first hush puppy). I’ve also learned that the State Fair (which was on while I was here, though I unfortunately didn’t have time to go) is a mecca of fried food (fried caramel-apples, for instance – they also do chocolate-covered bacon); I’ve been to Time Out, the 24-hour Southern fast food place for chicken-biscuits, mac’n cheese and fried okra – I’ve had the frozen mint juleps from Crooks Corner – the (bacon) cheese fries from Lindas (the local bar everyone at PRC goes to – they even stay open late on Sunday nights when we have ten out of twelves) – the birthday cake shot from Top of the Hill (I had my 27th birthday here – and Sarah Berk, one of the lovely undergrads in our show, bought me the shot, which she assured me is a birthday tradition in Chapel Hill, albeit for your 21st birthday…) – the big thing left on my list: the chicken-biscuit from the biscuit kitchen – I’m going on my last morning here, on the way out (so I can’t be tempted to go back again). I’ve learned there’s a war between flakey and fluffy biscuits – I haven’t yet sampled enough to weigh in – but perhaps after the biscuit kitchen this sunday, I’ll be able to ;)

So – that’s the news on this, my last day off in Chapel Hill – more to come soon on COUPLING HEURISTIC once I’m back in NYC! And if you haven’t already, get your tix to DirectorFest!!!

Performances are at the Abingdon Theatre Arts Complex at 312 W. 36th Street, on the following days / times:

Thursday Dec. 10th @ 7pm
Friday Dec. 11th @ 8pm
Saturday Dec. 12th @ 2pm / 8pm
Sunday Dec. 13th @ 3pm

For industry reservations, call: 212-252-2103
For general tix: www.smarttix.com, or 212-868-4444

Hope to see everyone there!

Cheers,
Mike

(And if you’re interested in reading more about NN, Playmakers has been keeping a FANTASTIC blog since last spring – you can see pics from dress rehearsals, videos of Joe Haj and the designers talking about the production, notes (and sketches etc.) from staff, designers, dramaturgs and actors during all stages of the process – it’s GREAT – so check it out!)

http://playmakersrep.blogspot.com/

Rehearsing for Pa'Tina's Cabaret

2009-11-13T21:35:00.000-05:00

Rehearsals are now in full swing for Pa’Tina Miller: Live in Concert. James Sampliner (below, conferring with Pa'Tina), Billy’s regular musical director, arrives from the U.S. in the morning and heads straight to rehearsal, double-fisting cans of Red Bull.

Billy is an outstanding musician, and a passionate, larger-than-life personality in the rehearsal room. He knows every lyric and every melodic part of every song on the set list, including each individual melodic line for the three back-up singers. This is the equivalent of coming into rehearsal on a straight play with every line memorized.

He coaches Pa'Tina through her solos, and immediately launches into teaching "the Black-Ups" their parts. I notice immediately that he is incredibly nuanced with his use of the back-up singers. This has the effect of really heightening specific moments in specific songs. There is a clear dramatic journey being built.

Landy, Asya and Kerry are all in the nun ensemble of Sister Act the Musical, so they are all rehearsing for the cabaret in their free time while running the show in the evening. Since Pa’Tina will be taking a week off the show, this means that Landy (on the left) will also be appearing on stage in the lead role while rushing back and forth to rehearsals to sing back-up for the cabaret. On the day of the show itself, she will have sung Sister Deloris for two shows before singing the cabaret!

I am just in awe of how energetic and passionate they are. Brits are known for being reserved and self-deprecating (a generalization, I know, but this was quite true of what I experienced during my own schooling here!), but the love and admiration that these girls have for Pa’Tina is immediately obvious. They - along with Billy and James - are totally in this to make Pa’Tina’s debut cabaret the very best experience and quality it can be.

By the end of the day, the leading lady is exhilarated, exhausted and excited. And I am alliterating!

(posted by Ed)

Puccini, Puccini: On Minghella's Butterfly & Goold's Turandot

2009-11-13T20:05:00.001-05:00

Tonight, I scored a front-row ticket to see Rupert Goold’s brand-new production of Turandot for the English National Opera. I was a classical musician before I became a director, but watching opera has never been easy for me. My director’s brain gets frustrated that story is not the primary force. But recently, things started to click for me. I figured out that the aria is an inherently inactive device, that it is not a device that furthers the narrative, but allows the singer to examine the feeling and the moment that moves them to sing, and I think this allowed me to be a more patient and less combative audience. I’ve been able to tune into a more meditative space while watching opera, allowing myself to enjoy the always stunning visuals, the sheer opulence of a full chorus and a live orchestra, and the directorial ingenuity / folly on display.

I had a real epiphany watching Anthony Minghella’s production of Puccini’s other masterpiece, Madama Butterfly (which also originated at the ENO), at the Met a couple of years ago. That production was the best designed and conceptualized work of art I have thus far experienced. Each gorgeous visual sequence gave way to something even more breathtaking, and also somehow appeared utterly effortless, as if each scene was a natural extension of the music itself. Below, some photographs of the production.

The final scene of Butterfly’s death (the final two pictures are taken from this scene) was a thing of indescribable profundity and beauty. I will never forget it. This production is in the current repertory at the Met, and I urge you to go to experience it! With the phenomenal $20 general rush tickets (for wonderful orchestra seats!) available, it’s also one of the cheapest nights out available in New York!

So, it is with high expectations that I went to Turandot. Goold (soon to be represented on Broadway by his production of Lucy Prebble's new play Enron) has become one of the most sought after directors in the U.K. following his breakthrough production of Macbeth which played at BAM before transferring to Broadway last season. I admired that production greatly, chiefly for its ability to maintain the dramaturgical focus on Patrick Stewart’s Macbeth. I have seen many productions that have skewed toward Lady Macbeth, but this is a character whose primary action (to urge Macbeth to kill Duncan) is over quite soon, and who is then severed from the main action of the play. Goold’s first opera was quite a different Turandot than any other. His main goal seems to have been to provide an ending to Puccini's unfinished opera. He inserted the frame of an author writing the story of the play for the first time. The author sits in a Chinese restaurant bustling with characters from every walk of life and gradually transforms them all into characters in the myth of Turandot. The serving ladies become dominatrices, a homeless drunk who stumbles in transforms into the Emperor, and Turandot is represented by an ice sculpture until her entrance late in the second act. The first two acts take place in the front of the restaurant, and the last act, in which the Nameless Stranger waits to see whether or not Turandot can discover his name and insodoing claim the right to execute him, takes us backstage, into the kitchen of the restaurant. Below, some pictures from the production.

The kitchen seems to figure strongly in Goold’s dramaturgical imagination. Those of you who caught his Macbeth will remember that the primary setting for the entire play was a basement kitchen that transformed from a domestic setting into the outdoors through projected images on the shiny white tiles. It seems to be a place where violent actions literally reach boiling point and explode. In Turandot, the violence that seems to be inevitable is sublimed by the exquisite Nessun Dorma into a love of absolute tenderness. This happens at the cost of the author’s own life. In Goold’s production, the author is killed in place of the Nameless Stranger, and it is only that sacrifice that allows the love story to reach its climax. The final tableau puts the author on the sacrificial altar of the stove while the rest of the company celebrate the union between our protagonist and his love. Goold discusses his choices with Turandot in a remarkably candid essay published in The Guardian. At times baffling and contradictory, Goold’s work clearly revels in ambitious concepts, intense dramaturgical inquiry and dynamic visual gestures. I look forward to his next productions with eagerness, primarily because I now know that they will be actively engaged dialogues with the source material.

(posted by Ed)

Life is Indeed a Dream

2009-11-11T19:26:00.003-05:00

I love going to plays in London. Audiences seem very much more engaged, frequently coming with copies of the play text and ready to engage each other in conversation about the production during the leisurely 20-minute intermissions at the theatre bars. Most houses allow patrons to take their intermission drinks back to their seats in plastic cups, which provides a natural progression into a rowdy finale. The plays that are making an impact are the topic of every dinner conversation around town, and every evening, you can see long lines outside the half-price ticket booth and the theatre box-offices, testament to London’s enduring love affair with the theatre. The first show that I determine to see on this trip is the Donmar Warehouse production of Life is a Dream, Calderon’s existentialist 17th-century Spanish drama about a prince (Dominic West, of The Wire fame) who is imprisoned by his father after a dire prophecy that the prince will become a barbaric, uncouth ruler.

Wrestling with the idea of fate as predestined versus self-determined, Calderon’s play retains the epic scope and language of great classical theatre but feels totally accessible and relevant. Jonathan Munby’s elegant, muscular production is a hot ticket indeed. The shows at the Donmar consistently sell out its entire run (the last time I was in London, I managed to catch a gorgeous production of A Doll’s House, with a surprisingly fiery and poignant Gillian Anderson in the starring role, and Michael Grandage’s Hamlet, currently on Broadway, both of which were totally sold out), and this was no exception, despite the weighty play. Classical theatre still sells! I got in at the last minute with the help of a generous lady who had bought too many tickets, and was just ravished by the production. The flawless speaking and acting aside, the production really embraced the use of music and movement to help tell the story and to give the audience a textured journey that engages all their senses. As has become typical in English productions, the transitions are fully seized upon as opportunities to extend the storytelling, rather than being dismissed as perfunctory joins to get from one scene to the next. This is an aesthetic that I am aiming to engage with in my own work.

(posted by Ed)

In London with Billy and Pa'Tina

2009-11-10T18:36:00.002-05:00

A last minute gig materialized for me to assist on a production in London, which is where I am writing from now. Fast-rising superstar Pa’Tina Miller, currently playing the starring role in the West End production of Sister Act the Musical, is a dear friend and was recently commissioned to create a one-woman cabaret. Pa’Tina was prominently featured as Dionne in Diane Paulus’s hit production of Hair in the Park (prior to its Broadway transfer), singing the iconic solos Aquarius and White Boys, and starred in John Patrick Shanley and Henry Krieger’s musical Romantic Poetry.

In London, she is one of the few leading ladies (and the only person of color) carrying a West End show on her very young shoulders, and the Sister Act marketing campaign really seized on her emergence, trumpeting on billboards, buses and talk shows that a Star has indeed been born. The ecstatic reviews and her truly star-making performances have led to an invitation to appear in Cameron Mackintosh’s high profile Live in the Delfont Room series.

Above, director Billy Porter next to a street-side advertisement of Pa'Tina's upcoming cabaret.

Without balking, Pa’Tina arranges to take a week’s vacation off from Sister Act, hires legendary singer-songwriter-director Billy Porter to direct the show and calls me up for some Assistant Director support, and before you know it, the three of us are sitting down to dinner at Momo’s hashing out the details of a sensational one-woman cabaret. Pa’Tina and Billy have created a set list that shows off the rich variety of her musical influences, ranging from jazz and blues to gospel and R & B to hip-hop and rap to classic musical theater. They previously collaborated on a gorgeous production called Being Alive (a melding of Sondheim standards and Shakespearean soliloquies through the lens of African-American music) that I was lucky enough to catch in its second production at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. It is now up to them to get three back-up singers (the “Black-Ups,” as Billy affectionately calls them) up to speed, arrange the songs for a dynamic band under the direction of regular Billy collaborator James Sampliner (currently also Musical Director of the West End production of Legally Blonde), get all the songs up on their feet and figure out the intimate interlinking confessionals that are the thread of the legendary cabarets. All this while Pa’Tina is finishing out the week performing in Sister Act! It’s going to be a wild, wild ride indeed.

Above, Pa'Tina and I on a swing at Sketch on Conduit Street, one of London's popular late-night hangout spots, minutes away from the Palladium Theatre (the home of Sister Act the Musical).

Above, the legendary Billy Porter with Pa'Tina Miller at Momo's, where we enjoyed a delicious Moroccan feast while discussing her upcoming cabaret!

(posted by Ed)

Final Casting, and La Damnation de Faust

2009-11-09T04:50:00.001-05:00

Today is the day I finalize casting choices for The Red Umbrella, and I dutifully send them in to Dani Super and Roger Danforth. That sentence is a great deal more concise than my own process of final selection. The old cliche that different casting choices will dictate different plays has never felt more real, and it was a relief to me that I could rely on my old partner-in-crime Jason Williamson to help me make the decisions. An example of how differently the play could go - one Peter at the callback had the perfect look; another had perfect timing; another had unexpected depth. Of course we understand that the work we see in an audition is a small window into what an actor could develop over a period of time, but I was already anticipating a fast and furious 6-day rehearsal process and made the final choices according to who I thought had the same instinctive responses to the script in terms of timing of textual delivery, stakes of big moments of characters and a sense of both the vulnerability and the awkward comedy that masks it, a trademark of Jason's characterizations.

I then meet fellow Fellow Laura Savia at a Drama League board meeting in order to share our experiences in the program thus far, and to thank everyone on the board for making this incredible journey possible. Both of us stated without hyperbole that our lives are in the process of being changed right now, and we are both sincerely grateful for the board's efforts to keep the fellowship program going in this challenging time.

After a check-in with Roger, I meet up with DP alum and fellow Carnegie Mellon director Kate Pines to go see Robert Lepage's production of La Damnation de Faust at the Met. We're both nursing love affairs with the opera, and we were not disappointed. We had loved Lepage's Lipsynch (I saw it three times during it's run at the Sydney Festival this past January, and Kate caught it recently at BAM), and were thrilled to be taken on another epic journey at the Met.

Above, Kate Pines and I at the newly unveiled fountain in Lincoln Plaza, after seeing La Damnation de Faust.

Whew! A week stuffed full of activity. Stay tuned for the official casting announcement for The Red Umbrella, and updates from a trip I am making to London!

(posted by Ed)

Two Trilogies

2009-11-08T04:47:00.001-05:00

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)

Catching Up on the Pier, Dramaturging and Fela!

2009-11-07T04:41:00.002-05:00

Today is Saturday. I spent the afternoon catching up with yet another friend from school, Dan Amboyer. We end up hanging out at a pier on the river for several hours. Dan is in a period of great transition, and is in the process of signing with a new agent. It is always astonishing to me just how difficult it is to forge a career for oneself in the acting business, especially in New York. The two of us have admired each other's work tremendously, and we're committed to finding an avenue to work together.

Above, Dan Amboyer at the pier.

Then to a meeting with Greg VanHorn, my dramaturg, at my favorite 9th Ave. restaurant, Rice and Beans. Greg and I have worked together for several years now. We got to know each other through a production of Miss Julie at Carnegie Mellon, and have been inseparable ever since. He knows my taste and my aesthetic thoroughly, and is an invaluable partner in planning and in production. I value his opinion, and we trade our notes about the current draft of the play, as well as the various design ideas that are in motion. We start plotting the actor packet for the rehearsal process. Below, some production photographs on our Miss Julie, featuring the wonderful Kara Lindsay (currently in the starring role in A Little House on the Prairie, the Musical) as Julie and the astonishing Rich Dreher as John.

Then, off to Fela! with Michael Finkle, the movement director for the play. Michael is another colleague from Carnegie Mellon and a talented director in his own right. He will be helping me create a series of non-naturalistic physical sequences in the transition scenes of the play. I'm interested in incorporated movement and music into the production to engage the audience emotionally. We talk about various ideas and possibilities long into the night.

(posted by Ed)

A Celebrity, and Callbacks

2009-11-06T04:33:00.000-05:00

Today is Friday. The chief activity today has been a long day of callbacks. Dani is again running things for the day, but I am joined by my friend the playwright, Jason Williamson. He is eager to hear the text and to meet the actors we're interested in. At the top of the day, we have our first celebrity meeting with an accomplished Broadway and television actress who had expressed an interest in the play. The actress in question came in immaculately prepared. She had clearly spent a great deal of time with the play already, and engaged us immediately in a structural and character analysis of the play. We talked fairly informally, and it became obvious that this was a mutual meeting of minds. It was an incredible little moment for both Jason and myself, and we are very excited to see how this relationship will develop. Then on to callbacks, in which we saw actors in groups of three reading various sides from the play together. The differences in interpretation from actor to actor were great fun to observe. The process of hearing the scenes over and over again really helped open up the world of the play for us both. No play for me tonight - I realized I had spent the entire day watching my own play in motion, and I had no desire to prolong that engagement in the evening! Back to Astoria for a restorative evening with friends.

(posted by Ed)

Meeting Jason, Julia and Herb

2009-11-05T04:13:00.001-05:00

Today is Thursday. I wake up thinking hard about the wonderful actors I had seen the day before, and where and how they might fit in the play. I realize of course that what I had been auditioning for the day before was a sense of an actor whose first instinct with the material aligned with mine. With a 6-day rehearsal period, there will be very little excess time, and we need to start from the same page. I love meeting and getting to know new actors - on some primal level, the most exciting thing about making theatre to me is the chance to collide with a group of people extremely intensely. Most theatre makers can attest that the bonds forged in the fire of the rehearsal room last forever - time and circumstance does very little to dull the connections that we make. I think we recognize ourselves in each other, and when we see a colleague walk down the street from a project we've done ten years ago, it is like no time has passed and we pick up where we've left off.

The first meeting of the day is with Jason Quinn, stage manager. Jason has a resume that is longer than my arm. We share a late lunch together at Vynl on 9th Ave., most of which I spent laughing at his various stories from the theatre trenches. He has a great sense of humor, and we seemed to get along - I am looking forward to working with him. Then, a face-to-face meeting with Julia Noulin-Merat, scenic designer, in her studio on 10th Ave. Julia and I have traded many an e-mail and phone conversation in the past month, so it was great to sit down with her and talk through the play. We worked through the story scene by scene, considering all scenic and prop elements and effects we wanted to use. Despite the low budget for the production, we're coming up with some great scenic ideas which will help create the fairy-tale world of the play and give the audience a little visual bang for their buck. The chief scenic design concept is a moving back wall which will embody Peter's mind. The journey the audience will be privy to is his attempt to wrestle memory and imagination into a cohesive whole. Props and items that figure in his consciousness will appear and disappear from drawers in the wall. Julia and I are at work trying to define what the visual aesthetic of the wall should be. One idea is to create a series of alternating cabinets. Another is to use the idea of waves, which to me is a closer representation of memory. By chance, Jason Williamson (the playwright) and I were walking down the road and walked past the below wall in the lobby of a 10th Ave. apartment building:

Clearly, it's come to the moment in the process when every part of my daily experience is beginning to inform decisions I have to make about the play! I love this moment - everything feels alive and full of possibility. The mythical blank canvas is beginning to fill itself, and I can begin to shape and manipulate the colors and shapes that are appearing.

Then, I meet up with ex-DL board member Herb Blodgett to watch Doug Hughes' production of Oleanna, which we discussed at length over dinner at Sardi's afterwards. A thought-provoking and compelling production, featuring a very controlled and surprisingly sympathetic performance from Julia Stiles. Something I love about Doug Hughes' work is that he fully uses every transition to further the telling of the story. He and scenic designer Neil Patel have come up with an extremely simple and powerful visual metaphor for this play - metallic blinds automatically close in on the protagonists of the play at the beginning and end of each scene, immediately conveying a sense of imprisonment and entrapment.

(posted by Ed)

First Audition Session, and Quartett at BAM

2009-11-04T04:02:00.000-05:00

Today is Wednesday, and the first day of casting. I am oddly nervous. I did not sleep the night before, which I initially blamed on the deadly combination of cocktails and jet-lag. But I know deep down that the time had come to start translating the play in my head into something accessible and real. Dani Super (casting director) had already booked a day full of auditions, and I was able to see a variety of actors for each of the roles in the play (Peter, Angela and Death). She provides a great range of looks and ages for the roles, and also knows the background of each actor intimately - a great resource for me as I try to figure out the essence of each character. Hearing the text aloud is a real defining moment in the play's journey. By the end of the day, I have figured out certain acting habits that come out of specific training programs! We peg our favorites, and set up callbacks for later in the week. I determine to call people back in companies of three (one choice per character in the play) so that I can see how a full cast might interact with the material.

Tonight’s play outing had been planned for some time. The moment BAM released their Next Wave schedule for the fall, I snapped up tickets to Robert Wilson’s production of Quartett. This is a figure that had been discussed in almost every class in grad school, and it is one of my ambitions to have seen at least one live production of every director that has this kind of universal impact. I invited my three best friends from grad school to come to the Wilson experience with me (Kathleen Amshoff, my fellow director; Jason Williamson, the playwright with whom I’ve worked almost exclusively for five years, and Chris Dimond, another incredible playwright on the verge of breaking through).

It was a pretty extraordinary evening - unlike anything any of us had experienced before, and it provoked a lively discussion afterwards. What ended up on stage was almost exactly what we had studied and discussed in class, although the variable was the experience of watching it all unfold live, rather than having the comfort of flipping through pictures at one’s own pace. The production was able to completely create its own sense of time and space, and kept deliberately jarring the audience with unorthodox interludes (our favorite being the half-naked old man who insisted on doing some kind of clown jig during the major scene changes). 90 minutes of stage time felt like an eternity of provocation and contemplation. Watching each other watch the show was as much a part of the experience as the show itself, particularly during Isabelle Huppert’s show-opening four-minute monologue, delivered rapidly and in monotone - a novel solution indeed! We discuss the production and each other at Scopello's, a lovely Italian restaurant two blocks up from the Harvey that has become our BAM retreat. It is always so good to be with old friends. The process of finding out what has happened to one another is so very reassuring – proof positive that we are not at all alone in forging these paths ahead, and we do have people who understand and support our journeys.

From left: Jason Williamson (writer of The Red Umbrella), myself, Chris Dimond and Kathleen Amshoff post-Quartett at Scopello's

(posted by Ed)

On Costuming and Vibrators

2009-11-03T15:47:00.000-05:00

With "Midsummer" open, I spent a week in New York in pre-production meetings and casting for The Red Umbrella (the short play I am directing as part DirectorFest). After a late Monday night arrival, I meet with Whitney Locher (costume designer) the following afternoon. We broke the play down into a distinct set of looks for every character, talked about progression of color and came to an agreement on key costume moments in the story. We're using a very specific color design to make the actors pop from Julia Noulin-Merat’s set, which will embody the world as Peter sees it through a sterile, insular box of monochromatic white. To achieve the maximum amount of changes and to take up the least amount of stage time, we’ve decided on multiple layers for every character for the actors to manipulate into different looks by taking off or modifying the different items. The key color element of the play is of course the Red Umbrella. This will be the only red item in the play, and it will be the most saturated of all the colors we include. The appearance of Red will be a visual keystone that will tie together all the other colors on stage into a unified painting.

Research images for two possible looks for Death:

I try to see a play a day whenever I am in New York, and I combine this with socializing and catching up with friends old and new. On this night, I had made a date with Barrett Davis and Allison Byrnes, two wonderful actors and dear friends, to watch Les Waters' stunning production of the new Sarah Ruhl play, In The Next Room (or, The Vibrator Play). We had a sense that this was going to be a production we would want to talk about after seeing it. Without a doubt, this is the play that everyone will be talking about this season! A must-see, especially for the rhapsodic final wordless scene, which had the three of us literally breathless, swooning and tearing up at the same time. I took a directing class with Les as an undergrad at Stanford, and he remains a seminal influence and inspiration. I have been deeply affected by the brilliant, passionate, image-drenched productions of new plays he has found over the years – Doris to Darlene: A Cautionary Valentine, Eurydice, Fetes de la Nuit and The Pillowman to name a few – and I look eagerly forward to what seems to be the golden summer of his vibrant career.

Above (from left): Barrett Davis, currently appearing in Mary Poppins, and Allison Byrnes, who is based in Los Angeles.
(posted by Ed)

The countdown begins!

2009-11-03T12:33:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,
Greetings again from ADDAMS FAMILY tech here in Chicago.
It has been TWO months since our first official NYC rehearsal, and still FIVE months before our April opening on Broadway, but we are about to hit a major milestone -- our first public performances!
Today is Tuesday, and our first audience (an invited dress) is Thursday night! By Sunday night, we will have had the invited dress and four previews, which means that we will have played to almost 10,000 people (the Ford Center/Oriental Theatre seats over 2200, and we are selling well). Someone, please check my math.
My time in Chicago has continued to be exciting and illuminating. Like the other fellows, I am in the theatre for long hours every day (usually 12-hour days, even if the cast is only called for 8 of them) and my responsibilities vary constantly. With two directors plus an associate director (former Drama League fellow Heidi Marshall), new script and score pages coming constantly, rehearsal needs, tech and actor notes, creative and investor meetings, press appearances, and more ... there is always something to do.
We have been in costume, hair, and makeup since last week, and the design work is stunning. (For a sneak preview -- pick up a December issue of Vanity Fair, which ran a photo of our Family Portrait. Or, you can follow this link to see the same photo on Playbill: http://www.playbill.com/playblog/?p=2363).
A few days ago, we had our sitzprobe (the first rehearsal with cast and orchestra, usually in a rehearsal studio rather than onstage -- Generally the first time the cast hears all the orchestrations) last week. It was a terrific moment for everyone, particularly our composer/lyricist Andrew Lippa, who is making his official Broadway debut with this production. I can only imagine what it must feel like to hear Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth (and the rest of the talented cast) singing your songs with a full orchestra under them.
The buzz in Chicago has been very positive, and our team is eager to open to this audience first. (Many comparisons have been made to Nathan Lane's last big musical hit -- The Producers -- which also opened in Chicago.)
I am particularly excited about watching director/designers Julian Crouch and Phelim McDermott go through this experience. I am learning constantly.

Wish us luck as we undergo the next phase of this long process -- out-of-town previews!
best,
David

It's a Hit!

2009-11-01T20:43:00.009-05:00

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" has opened, and audience reception has been wild and rapturous. The play has survived 400+ years of theatrical experimentation, so perhaps it is not a huge surprise that it should once again work its charms on an audience. However, Kevin Moriarty's production of the play is so completely engaged in giving the audience a fully immersive, environmental experience, that they have been delighted and startled by a "Midsummer" they have never encountered before.

There is some formidable directorial artillery on display. First of all, the play is staged on all three levels and on all three sides of the new Wyly Theatre in its thrust configuration, eliminating any separation between performer and audience. For instance, Helena takes refuge inside the audience stalls when Hermia declares war on her in the woods. The fairy world is also realized in a way that uniquely engages with the theatrical space. Moriarty was inspired by the artist Keith Haring in implementing the metaphor of chalking as fairy magic in the world of the play. As soon as they enter the story, fairies run around the entirety of the theatre chalking icons and tags, their equivalent of releasing spells of mischief and love around the house.

A sample icon (this one belongs to Puck, the mischief-maker of Love):

By the end of intermission, the entire theatre has been transformed into a gorgeous tapestry of chalk graffiti, living embodiment of the audience's engagement with the play.

This is a sample of the fairies' chalking - here presented on practice paper:

This is what the theatre looked like, post-intermission, when the brunt of the chalking (with audience help) takes place:

This yellow drop is revealed after four acts of monochromatic marbled black, symbolizing the impact of Love in a tyrannous court:

Moriarty plays his strongest suit at the end of the play, when the lovers' wedding night transforms into a full-on wedding celebration and the cast invites the entire audience up onto the stage to bless and celebrate their new home with them while they execute a full-on sung-through and choreographed top 40 hit parade. As the theatre shakes with dancing and delight, the audience also experiences a series of stunning reveals: first, the yellow painted drop flies out, revealing the entire backstage of the theatre, readied for a disco party; then, a stream of balloons releases from the roof while beach balls appear from the corners and join in the celebration; then, a curtain of bubbles descends upon the assembled crowd, and as they look up, the window shades of the theatre lift up and reveal the city of Dallas through glass walls.

The party from outside:

The party from inside:

The critical reception has been rapturous. The leading Dallas papers and blogs have embraced the show, commenting in particular on the immersive nature of the production, and on the connection that young theatregoers are finding through their experience of the show. You can bet Dallas audiences will be lining up for the rest of DTC's offerings in the upcoming season, their 51st, and the 1st in their new home. Here's to the next 50 years!

(posted by Ed)

Cambridge, MA

2009-10-31T15:02:00.003-04:00

I am just wrapping up my second week in Cabridge, assistant directing BEST OF BOTH WORLDS at the American Repertory Theater. Is has been a whilrwhind! I find that assistant directing always takes over my life more than I expect, but this show is especially that way.

BEST OF BOTH WORLDS is a new gospel and R&B musical based on Shakespeare's THE WINTERS TALE. The music is by Diedre Murray and the book and lyrics are by Randy Weiner and Diane Paulus, who is directing. The musical has a cast of nine including a child actor, a four-piece band, a big car on stage 20+ songs that -- along with the book, choreography, and staging -- are constantly evolving, so there is a lot of work for everyone involved.

The cast is made up of some AMAZING performers, many of whom are Broadway or opera veterans. Hearing them sing this music every day is thrilling. One song, sung by Jeannette Bayardelle, makes me cry every time I hear it-- to the point that it's hard for me to write down the blocking!

My duties in rehearsal encompass a lot of different tasks. In general, I try to anticipate Diane's needs, to offer creative ideas when she invites them, and to help stage management stay on top of organizing and tracking rewrites, new music, schedules, and all the other paperwork and details in the rehearsal room.

Heres a "day in the life" for me right now.

8am Check e-mail for rewrites that come from the authors overnight, and forward to stage management to start making a plan with them on how to implement the changes.

9am Walk to the rehearsal space in Harvard Square. It is a beautiful 20-minute walk among elegrant old brick homes with a canopy of red and yellow leaves overhead(see the photo above). It is truly the perfect change of scene from NYC, where I have been for the past five years.

9:30-11 Prep for the day alongside stage management or attend some kind of design/production meeting -- such as visiting the car in the scene shop to find out what kind of flexibility it has for staging.

11-2 Rehearsal. During music reherasal, I double-check the lyrics in the book against the lyrics in the score. This is also when I accomplish a lot of paperwork and script updates with stage management. It's also the time when I sometimes run scenes with the actors who are not needed for music reheearsal for a particular song.

During staging, I sit near Diane and the choreographer. I write down blocking, take notes down for Diane, and sometimes jump up to walk someone's role or whisper a quick message in the music director's ear. Diane is an incredible leader. She works very collaboratively, but make decisions quickly and effectively. She moves fast and demands great focus and creativity from the actors. Keeping up with her is an exciting challenge, and getting to occasionally be another set of hands or ears for her is a treat.

2-3 Lunch. Which means more organizational work with stage management, pow-wowing with our choreographer, composer, and/or music director, running errands to the theater, and hopefully, eating something!

3-7 More rehearsal.

7-8 Some days, pow-wow with Diane and dramaturg about possible script changes. And every day, meet with stage management to compare notes about changes and help plan the schedule for the next day.

9-11 Eat dinner and review notes on staging / update out-of-town members of the creative team about progress/changes/questions from rehearsal.

These are full days!

It can be exhausting, but now that I've in settled into Cambridge and am getting to know everybody, it's easy to stay energized, because I am genuinely excited about this show and am eager to see it put in front of audiences here. Diane's enthusiasm and seemingly boundless energy is also infectious; you almost can't help being passionate about the work we're doing as soon as you walk in the door at A.R.T.

So all's well on my front. Happy Halloween, everyone! I hope to write more soon.

(posted by Laura)

It's Opening Night!

2009-10-30T16:37:00.005-04:00

Today, the new Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in the AT&T Performing Arts Center will officially be unveiled. The preview period for Kevin Moriarty's inaugural production of A Midsummer Night's Dream has been fairly epic. Preview audiences have been test subjects for both the play, and the building itself. While it is fairly simple to gauge whether or not a moment is clear and engaging via the audience response, figuring out the nooks and crannies of the building has proved far more tricky. Last night, we had a patron get locked into an elevator chamber for the duration of the play! The first clue that we had that anything was wrong was 911 showing up in the theatre lobby! But the entire company is absolutely engaged in the frantic drive over the finish line: light cues are being polished, special effects tweaked, and acting notes addressed. Tonight, the company will face the Dallas glitterati (audiences here sure know how to dress for the occasion), and tomorrow, the verdict will be delivered!

In the meantime, here are snapshots of the exterior of the brand new theatre, the first thing that audiences will see as they arrive.

Warmest congratulations to the DTC company of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on arriving at this moment.

(posted by Ed)

Dallas in Magic Hour

2009-10-29T14:24:00.005-04:00

The City of Dallas is going through a very visible process of progress and development. Somewhat unusually for the times we are in, it is chock full of ambitious construction projects and new additions to its richly textured cityscape. I found myself in a reflective mood yesterday, going into one of our final previews and anticipating the biggest theatrical opening night in Dallas history tomorrow, and so I took a long walk during my dinner break. I found myself confronted by a city of changing colors during a vibrant sunset. It quite an emotional experience, which I realized was because it is also the magic hour of the production process, in which everyone is journeying toward the final destination of the play. Everyone connected to the production process is profoundly affected by a sense of endings, and new beginnings, and the vulnerability that this brings on often gives rise to hidden layers still buried under the surface of the text. It is a pregnant moment, full of possibility and expectation. It is how I will remember the city of Dallas.

(posted by Ed)

Looking to Thanksgiving

2009-10-28T12:28:00.008-04:00

We're in the midst of previews for "A Midsummer Night's Dream," and I find myself looking forward to a little holiday. Thanksgiving is my favorite U.S. tradition. We have nothing like it in Indonesia, or in the U.K., the two countries in which I grew up. The theatre to me is like the Thanksgiving table - it provides an event around which friends and family (and strangers) can congregate and share in a basic, fundamental human activity. For me, making a feast and making a play are two not so different things. My directing mentor in grad school watched me cook dinner for him and told me that he had diagnosed everything he needed to understand about my directing from my cooking technique. I was not entirely sure what he meant at the time, but the comment stuck in my head and I can now see a clear relationship between how I cook and how I direct! I love to use the freshest produce from the farmer's markets, and love to explore how an unexpected combination of meats might interact with one another. I have my stock ingredients that go into everything - garlic, ginger, organic soy, truffle oil, palm sugar, organic chicken stock, cilantro, chives and habanero chilli peppers - but I tend to mix, blend and cook them into the meal in a different way each time. I cook to taste, and never with a recipe. The food is a form of Asian fusion soul food - a reflection of all the different cultures I've been exposed to. Recently, I've become very interested in cooking each individual component separately, and finally mixing them all into the final dish by hand. It makes the contribution of each different element very distinct, but still cohesively blends together. That philosophical transition is clearly reflected in how I am approaching the different elements of the design process for The Red Umbrella! I am excited to see how my exposure to the culinary pleasures of Dallas will influence my theatrical aesthetic!

Some dishes I've encountered and loved during my time in Dallas:

(posted by Ed)

hitting the press

2009-10-23T10:35:00.002-04:00

Greetings from Addams Family tech in Chicago.

We had a major meet-the-press event yesterday at the Oriental. Here is one of the articles that came out of it (including a cool feature showing different incarnations of the Addams Family through the decades).

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/weiss/1838279,CST-FTR-Addams22.article#

Also in Addams Family news, sadly, Vic Mizzy, the original composer of the Addams Family theme (buh-buh-buh-bumb, snap-snap) passed away at 93.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-vic-mizzy20-2009oct20,0,1713293.story

-david

First Day of Tech

2009-10-19T16:56:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow is our first day of tech in a brand new theatre in a newly opened building. And this is what it looks like:

(posted by Ed)

Thoughts on Chicago...

2009-10-16T18:41:00.001-04:00

Why being in Chicago with the Addams Family is so special...

Chicago is my hometown. I lived in this area until I was 18, and then again in my early twenties as a freelance director. Now I am back, as a Drama League fellow on the Addams Family, which is currently in tech at the Oriental Theatre (and I do mean "currently": I am sitting in the theatre right now.) Being back here "on assignment" is wonderfully weird. I am here for the first time, and I am coming home. I have been keeping a mental list of these surprises and contradictions:

... From my fabulous 29th Floor company-provided studio apartment, I can see the RR Donnelly building and the Merchandise Mart, places I temped as a starving artist in Chicago ...

... Adams Street in downtown Chicago, named for our 2nd and 6th Presidents and the street on which my father has worked for 15 years, now seems to be missing a second "D".

... I left Chicago to be a Luce Scholar in Vietnam ... so is it a coincidence that I am back to work on a project in the ORIENTAL Theatre?

I'll keep thinking of more. In the meantime, I just feel grateful to be here, excited for the cast to arrive this weekend, and looking forward to the next few weeks working on my first pre-Bway musical.

More updates to come.

David

All About The Red Umbrella

2009-10-10T00:02:00.006-04:00

Pre-production is officially in full swing on DirectorFest. I am directing The Red Umbrella, a short play written by my long-time collaborator and friend, Jason Williamson. This marks our tenth collaboration; we've worked together on a range of material from his original plays to reshapings of classic text to new adaptations of foreign plays. We enjoy working together because we share the fundamental philosophy that the stage should be a place for stories that have to be told theatrically. For us, this means heightened language, theatrical spectacle, and stories that don't confine themselves to the kitchen sink and reach beyond the stars. What we both embrace in our work is the inherent artifice of theatrical representation. We do not seek to duplicate "reality." Anne Bogart compares truth with the sun; in order to really look at it, one must look slightly to the side. That is what we hope to do in any project we realize.

The greatest pleasure out of working together so closely and so often is that we've developed a very close relationship. We've spent so many nights dreaming together that any opportunity to create a new piece is simply another chance to push each other to a place we've never been to. As Jason is fond of saying, the history of great collaborations in the theatre is the history of great friendship.

Above, Jason and I on New Year's Eve at a beach in North Carolina, right after an impromptu countdown midnight swim!

The Red Umbrella is a love story between an Everyman and Death, who he meets on the beach as a young boy. Death prophesies that he will see a red umbrella at the moment of his dying. He journeys through life on a quest for the red umbrella that may reunite him with his beloved. The play is a whimsical, sad, funny fairy-tale; I hope to capture both the absurdity of the picture of the world it paints as well as the profound truths it contains in telling the story of a mortal man who reconciles himself to both fate and mortality. In the preliminary design conversations, I've asked designers not to consider any part of this world literally. I would like to find a way to create a visual language for the play that is rooted in poetic metaphor, without deviating so far away from a recognizable reality that the characters become ungrounded.

Below, some pictures of productions that Jason and I have worked on together:

Above, Agnes the preacher's wife is haunted by the Hawk in our adaptation of Ibsen's Brand.

Above is a Sea God comes ashore to romance a mute nymph in Jason's play Ether Steeds.

Below, our most recent collaboration, an original adaptation of Schiller's Don Carlos. This scene sees Crown Prince Carlos importune his father King Philip for leadership of Spain's army.

(posted by Ed)

Wining and Dining

2009-10-09T22:48:00.003-04:00

In non rehearsal room news, I have been enjoying exploring the culinary delights of Dallas. Remarkably untouched by the recession, Dallas is overflowing with a plethora of restaurants, bars, delis and markets. DTC Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty takes pains to encourage a communal culture around him, which means we have been taken on a culinary tour of the city over the meals that the artistic team has shared. I am a big believer that community is one of the precious gifts of the theatremaking process, so discovering this tradition has been one of the more joyous aspects of this assistantship. Sitting down to break bread together means that you continuously foster and affirm a sense of family, and it determines that everyone starts and ends their days on the same page. Thank goodness the guest artist apartments at DTC has a fully-equipped gym (and a fully-equipped gym staff ...).

Below, three prize-winning dishes from different eateries around town, ranging from the fancy schmancy to the downright hearty:

Smoked veal in a red wine reduction, served with potato two ways: custard filled potato pastry, and a hearty chive mash.

Spinach salad with smoked chicken, French blue cheese, caramelized onions, sweet pear slices, candied pecan nuts and a completely intoxicating maple vinaigrette. I ate one at the restaurant, and ordered one to take home!

Grilled meatloaf, served with fresh kernel corn and baked squash with onions and garlic, and a pitch-perfect heirloom tomato sauce. This is the dish I'll dream of late at night after I've left Dallas!

(posted by Ed)

Back to Acting

2009-10-08T22:36:00.002-04:00

A moment of intense deja vu today! With a Dallas-centric cast of professionals and students, rehearsal conflicts have been a fact of life in the "Midsummer" process, although they have not been a burden thanks to the heroic efforts of stage manager extraordinaire Melissa Daroff. But, it does mean that I am falling frequently prey to that ultimate assistant director hazard: substituting for the missing actor in rehearsal and then catching them up afterwards with what they've missed. So far, I have essayed the parts of Duke Theseus, Amazon Hippolyta, wronged mother Egeus, knavish Puck and lover Lysander. But most often, I've been playing the spunky Hermia, which is a role I once played (as part of an all-male company I belonged to in my teens)! The lines and memories have been coming back in a flood, and I am once again reminded that you can never know what might come in useful at a later date!

Above, myself as Hermia, with Associate Artist Lee Trull's Lysander.

(posted by Ed)

In the midst of "Midsummer"

2009-10-08T22:28:00.001-04:00

We're about half-way through "Midsummer," and have completed the initial draft of the play. All entrances and exits have been determined, and main playing spaces defined. The company cannot move into their new theatre (see pics from previous posts!) until tech, so we are simulating a multi-level groundplan in a one-level rehearsal room.

Try miming this without the ledge, or the pipe to hold onto!

Director Kevin Moriarty is making a conscious effort toward utilizing the entirety of the stage, backstage and the house in an effort to consecrate the whole building through this inaugural production, so there is a lot of humorous miming of going up and down ladders and sitting on top of each other going on in rehearsal!

Above, three actors seem to be occupying the same corner of the rehearsal room. In reality, they are on three different levels of the theatre. Tech is going to be fun!

Kevin has smartly chosen not to have any doubling, which means that he can be staging the Lovers while the voice and text coach prepares the Royals and the choreographer works with the Fairies and I review the Mechanicals. Four rooms on the go all the time!

(posted by Ed)

DirectorFest Line-Up Announced!

2009-10-01T13:24:00.007-04:00

Mark Dec. 10 - 13 in your calendars now! DirectorFest is coming, and it will feature (not necessarily in this order!):

"The Lover" by Harold Pinter

directed by Laura Savia

"Roberta Laughs" by Bekah Brunstetter (premiere)

directed by David F. Chapman

"The Coupling Heuristic" by Lauren Feldman (premiere)

directed by Mike Donahue

"The Red Umbrella" by Jason Williamson (premiere)

directed by Ed Iskandar

See you there!

(posted by Ed)

DirectorFest Designer Announcement!

2009-09-29T08:27:00.004-04:00

Just a quick announcement: we have our set designer for DirectorFest, the wonderful Julia Noulin-Mérat! Julia is a fantastic designer of theatre, opera and television, and has actually worked with The Drama League before! (She's designed for the summer fellowship at the Hangar, the summer that Kate Pines (pictured below in one of Ed's posts) was there!). If you'd like to find out a little bit more about Julia's work, check out her wonderful website. We're all very excited to collaborate with her! (Stay tuned for the rest of the DirectorFest design team to be announced!).

Also this week, we've found out who our casting directors will be - this is one of the opportunities presented by DirectorFest that I'm most excited about, for I've never before cast a show with a casting director - I'll be working with Cindi Rush (we each work with a different person), and I can't wait to start working with her!

Sunday I drive to PlayMakers in North Carolina - and rehearsals begin a week from today - so more on NICHOLAS NICKLEBY soon!

Cheers,
Mike

Inside Dallas Theater Center's new Home

2009-09-28T17:12:00.008-04:00

What distinguishes the new Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, soon to be the permanent home of the Dallas Theater Center, is the philosophy of complete adaptability. The configuration of the theatre in relation to its audience can be determined on a play by play basis, and the change can be executed within four hours. Balcony levels can shift or disappear into a ceiling storage area, per the needs of the production. Voms can be installed, or eradicated. An orchestra pit can be magically created under the lip of the proscenium, if so needed. It is going to radically alter the DTC's approach to scheduling its seasons, allowing designers and directors to manipulate the space to create the relationship they want between the text and the audience. For more information on the architectural philosophy, check out the project website. For now, a sneak preview inside the new home of the Dallas Theater Center:

Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty (center) schedules for the week ahead with Production Stage Manager Melissa Daroff (left) and Music Director Lindy Cabe (right) while cast members check out the model on the floor of the brand new Wyly Theatre.

Above, the view the actors have of the three-tiered house from the stage in its thrust configuration.

Here, we can see some of the incredible adaptability of the space. The thrust stage can disappear completely, creating space for additional seating. On the ground level, we can see an exciting depth and height of stage to use.

The sun sets on the new Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. The walls of the building are made of windows, which can be shuttered totally for performances in the building.

Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty confers with a construction worker on the thrust stage.

(posted by Ed)

Play Practice

2009-09-28T15:31:00.002-04:00

Some pictures from the first day of rehearsal (or "play practice," which is how the company refers to it!) on Kevin Moriarty's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Above, Puck tries to mount Oberon, while Hippolyta and Theseus practice a quick turn around their throne. In the distant left, a game of hackysack, and in the distant right, Helena runs some of her lines.

Above, Lysander (on the floor) and Demetrius find themselves in fisticuffs over Hermia.

Egeus (here interpreted as a mother, over the traditional portrait as father), claims her right over her daughter's choice of husband while Lysander looks on.

(posted by Ed)

Looking Ahead: DirectorFest

2009-09-28T14:28:00.004-04:00

The Fall Directors Fellowship will culminate in DirectorFest in December. Drama League will produce an Equity showcase for the four fellows through an evening of one-acts. Each director will choose their own one-act, which will have its own union stage manager, and a cast of up to four actors. However, we will all share the same team of designers, who will design for each individual show, as well as attempt to come up with a vision for the whole evening. For all of us, this is a unique opportunity. Acting showcases are commonplace; all around the country, conservatories produce an evening in which their actors and actresses show off their chops in a program of monologues and two-person scenes (sometimes in ensemble pieces). Agents, casting directors, personal managers and producers attend, and out of that platform, these emerging artists finagle their entry into the industry. DirectorFest will provide the four fall fellows one of the only directing platforms of this nature. It will be an evening in which we can present a flavor of what we can do to interested industry professionals. We hope that something will emerge out of this presentation, or out of the various relationships that we are forging in our assistantships, which will lead us to the next thing and then to the thing after that, in the time-honored tradition of building a career in the arts.

Choosing a one-act which will give us the right vehicle to showcase what we can do with actors, with design, and with an industry audience is a predictably hectic race. This is what my station at the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library looked like after a day of reading published one-acts:

There are two other avenues open to us in one-act selection. We can either work on a new play with an established collaborator, or find an unpublished or underproduced one-act in the vaults of an emerging playwright. Three out of four plays have been approved by the artistic producer for the evening (Roger Danforth), so stay tuned for the program for this year's DirectorFest, coming soon!

(posted by Ed)

2009-09-23T10:59:00.003-04:00

Last week I got to sit in on a portion of the New York auditions for BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, which will be my second assistantship. I will be assisting Diane Paulus, a DL alumna who is in her first season as Artistic Director at the American Repertory Theater in Boston. The auditions were amazing. The show is an R&B/Gospel musical adaptation of Shakespeare's THE WINTERS TALE, so the auditioners came in with and R&B or Gospel song. The voices I heard blew me away. One of the roles is for a young boy, and the child actors/singers who came in were adorable and astounding.

It was also great to meet Diane for the first time. She was so welcoming to me, and struck me as an inspired leader and a great listener. It was really helpful to hear her describe what she was looking for in some of the roles; that started to give me a sense of her point of view on the production, and her priorities in how we tell this story.

I also got to meet casting director Stephen Kopel, and the authors: Randy Weiner, who wrote the book & lyrics, and Deirdre Murray, who composed the music. It seems like an incredible team.

I head to Boston in about 3 weeks, and can't wait to get started.

(posted by Laura)

Sneak preview of DTC's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

2009-09-22T18:28:00.003-04:00

Below is a picture of the final look for DTC's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," directed by Artistic Director Kevin Moriarty. This will be the first production in the so-brand-spanking-new-it-might-topple-on-us Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, a flexible formation space which will be in three-quarter thrust for "Midsummer."

(posted by Ed)

Midsummer in Mid-Fall

2009-09-21T17:18:00.010-04:00

Work has officially begun. I am putting in some hours at the artistic office working under Kevin wearing his Artistic Director hat. We have half a week to finish pre-production arrangements on "Midsummer" before the beginning of rehearsals. The "Midsummer" company will unite members of the Dallas Theater Center resident acting company with local Equity actors, MFA acting students from Southern Methodist University and talented members of a local performing arts high school. One of Kevin's goals in his second year as Artistic Director is to stimulate a Dallas-centric community of artists within his company, and this production will be a very important first step in creating that space.

In my own pre-production preparation, I am in the process of comparing the production script (edited by Kevin) with a facsimile of the unedited First Folio 1623 text. I have a hard copy of the facsimile in front of me, and I am crossing out the lines that Kevin has cut in pencil as well as writing in word changes and additions. This gives me a visual representation of what Kevin has chosen to prioritize. The goal is to identify every change that he has made to the script. These changes are evidence of his point-of-view on the script, proof of what he believes is important, and what he thinks is superfluous. This is a critical first step in engaging with the version of the story he wants to tell in the production. For every Assistant Director, the number one goal is to figure out what story the Director wants to tell, so that we can help with how he wants to tell it.

Some cuts are relatively simple:

You can see that an entire chunk of dialogue between Lysander and Hermia have been cut in an effort to expedite the exposition that the audience is certain to be familiar with. See if you can spot the extremely famous line that Lysander will no longer say in the production!

Other edits are more complex, such as this one:

What looks like a relatively simple tweak has eliminated an entire character. This happens to be the only mention of Philostrate, a gentleman-in-waiting who is sometimes doubled with Puck (as Theseus is sometimes doubled with Oberon and Hippolyta with Titania). Kevin's production does not involve any doubling, and so this relatively minor character has no real function. Out he goes!

I am also sleuthing around for the various pre-production materials that exist. Typically, the Director has been working with his associates and his designers for months before the Assistant Director arrives. While assisting is still a universally agreed-upon method of apprenticeship in the professional theatre, it is also a role that still makes a lot of directors uncomfortable, and some times more of a hindrance than a help if the relationship between mentor and mentee sours. I am studying ground plans and set sketches, looking at the costumes currently being worked on in the shop and listening to an iPod playlist that Kevin has put together for the show, all in an effort to get on the same page. One of Kevin's trademarks is the use of contemporary pop music in classical productions - the juxtaposition of the here and now with the then, which immediately and concisely contextualizes our attitudes with theirs. Which means that I am entirely un-hip in comparison, and am doing some frenetic catching up with my pop culture know-how before I make some embarrassing reference to Miley Lavigne transition music!

(posted by Ed)

Dallas, Texas!

2009-09-20T16:54:00.000-04:00

After a predictably frenzied exit from New York on Sunday, I got on an airplane and found myself greeted by a blazing late summer afternoon in Dallas, Texas soon after. The furnace was soon forgotten in the air-conditioned luxury of the Dallas Theater Center guest artist apartments, a half hour's ride from the Dallas / Fort Worth airport but a mere fifteen minutes' walk from the DTC offices and rehearsal rooms.

I have come to Dallas during a moment of real change. I will be assisting Artistic Director (and DP Alum) Kevin Moriarty on "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which will be the inaugural production in the new state-of-the-art Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. Construction is still furiously underway, and the creative company expects to move into the building right before "Midsummer" tech. So, it appears we'll be teching a new production as well as a new building!

I am remiss in mentioning only the air condition in the guest artist apartments. As these pictures will show, I am being pampered to an inch of my life. Hard wood floors, high ceilings, leather sofa, full kitchen, in-room dish washer and laundry and dryer, two walk-in closets, ensuite bathroom, and every amenity you could possibly want. Of course I posted my glee on Facebook, which got an immediate response from producer Stephanie Ybarra (currently a part of Drama League's New Directors / New Works program) --- apparently, this is a real upgrade from the time she was a staff member at the theatre! It's pretty clear that Kevin and his team at DTC care a great deal about the comfort of the artists who come to work with them. Here's to a great journey forward.

(posted by Ed)

Life after August: Osage County

2009-09-15T21:01:00.014-04:00

So, it's intermission at the final dress rehearsal of Superior Donuts, Tracy Letts's follow-up to August: Osage County. David and I are profusely thankful to board member Bonnie Comley, one of the producers of the show, for the ultra exclusive tickets. It appears that half of Broadway is watching the play (the entire cast of Mary Poppins is beside us, and In the Heights is downstairs!). The line before the show stretched to the avenue corner. Getting to see a show still in the process of finding itself is a real gift ... You get to see the problems being worked out right in front of you. Lights are literally being adjusted, sound cues are being fiddled with and most intriguingly, the actors are playing to an audience for the first time and factoring in this oh-so-important partner into the rhythm of the scene. From the response of the first-time audience at this final dress, Mr. Letts has another crowd-pleasing hit on his hands!

(posted by Ed)

One Degree of Separation

2009-09-15T04:04:00.013-04:00

The Fall Fellows attended a meet and greet with the new Drama League board at their first meeting of the year. They took a really personal interest in all of us doing various aspects of the program. One of the huge boons of such a gathering was actually getting to know each other -- two '09 Summer Fellows were in attendance, as well as the current New Directors / New Works producer-director team. One of the things we quickly discovered was that we were all one degree of separation away from one another (a degree that has now evaporated!). So-and-so's friend was at Williamstown this summer with so-and-so's ex roommate who used to be so-and-so's collaborator in grad school, now united by Drama League! Below, some photographic evidence of the One Degree of Separation factor in play.

Summer Fellows Jesse Geiger and Sherry meet El Hoyo director Jerry Ruiz and producer Steph Ybarra at a convenient pub-next-door. Fall Fellow Ed also enjoyed the meeting --- behind the camera! Jesse and Ed discover that they will be Resident Directing Fellows together at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2010, which is also where Jerry and Steph are headed in a week to do the second leg workshop of El Hoyo.

Fall Fellow Ed with actress Sheri Graubert at Stump Sprouts (they worked together on a monologue from King John) ... Sheri also happens to be a DP Summer Playwright alum. Her one-act play was produced at The Hangar this past summer directed by none other than DP Summer Alum Jesse (see above picture!).

Current Fall Fellows Mike and Ed meet in Williamstown (Mike was part of the directing corps, and Ed was enjoying a fun visit), with DL Summer Playwright Alum Chris Dimond, who went to grad school with Ed, Kate and Dan.

DP Fall Alum Dan Rigazzi at Williamstown where he directed a fellowship project written by Chris Dimond (see picture above) hanging out with DP Summer Alum Kate Pines, who previously directed a Chris Dimond play during her residency at The Hangar and then went to school with Dan, Chris and Ed.

Fall Fellows Ed and Laura hang out at the Stump Sprouts retreat. Laura had previously done a residency at Williamstown with Kate, who then went to school with Ed, Dan and Chris, completing the One Degree of Separation cycle!

(posted by Ed)

The Fab Four at Bar Americain

2009-09-14T03:07:00.001-04:00

(from left to right) Ed Iskandar, Mike Donahue, Laura Savia and David Chapman enjoying dinner together at Bar Americain ... and receive signed Bobby Flay cook books!

(posted by Ed)

yes, yes

2009-09-10T10:13:00.001-04:00

Just a quick note to add on to Mike's wonderful post:

The dinner party at Ed's place was fantastic. I think it's the first time the four of us have been alone together without any appointments or assignments. And it was easy to see what a great boon resource these friendships are going to be during the next chapter of our careers, and beyond! I was able to bring up a particular stumbling block I've been hitting in my rehearsal process lately, and I had three amazing listeners who actually knew first-hand what I was talking about and could answer me thoroughly, personally, and with no BS or judgment. That, for a director, is really rare and priceless. And the e-mail flurry continues -- sending scripts, casting ideas, and ticket discounts back and forth, as though we've known and worked together for years -- I love it!

(posted by Laura)

Dinner at Ed's

2009-09-10T03:29:00.002-04:00

From left to right: David Chapman, Laura Savia, Ed Iskandar and Mike Donahue

A little story behind this picture: David was brave enough to fiddle with the camera settings for an auto-picture, but it took a few tries before we got the posing and the framing and the photographing just right ...

(posted by Ed)

Enjoying Each Other

2009-09-10T02:24:00.001-04:00

Mike Donahue and Laura Savia enjoying Happy Hour at Bar Americain!

(posted by Ed)

Moving with Wonder, Tractors, Great Food & NN!

2009-09-10T01:14:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone –

Mike here – it’s been about a week since we got back from the retreat, and we’re in the thick of our fall fellowship! So much has happened already, and the rest is in full swing – David and Laura have done a great job detailing much of what we’ve been doing, so I’ll just fill in a few things along the way –

For me, Drama League has been my way to move to New York – I went straight from college to grad school, and since graduating from Yale in 2008, I’ve been living on a Fulbright in Berlin, seeing over 130 productions, observing rehearsals at all of the major state theatres, and developing my own work. After a summer at Williamstown, I finally moved to NYC the day before we began Wonder Week! (Well, technically I just a week ago moved into my apartment in Carrol Gardens, where we’re still painting and building dining room tables out of floor boards from barns being dismantled in upstate New York – for the first week of Drama League, Ed and I were roomies at the Pod on East 51st, living in bunk beds with our own flat screen TV’s!).

Wonder Week was jam packed with meetings and shows, and as someone who’s been away from New York ‘til now, one of the most important parts of the fall fellowship – a few highlights were meeting with the SDC, and with agent Val Day – coming out of grad school, I had a lot of questions about working with agents & our union, when to get an agent / when to join the union etc., and it was great to have an opportunity to speak with people who could really advise us. Also: being introduced to New Dramatists – what an amazing place! Though I’ve just moved into my new apartment, I can’t wait to *actually* move into the library at New Dramatists to start reading plays! During Wonder Week we also saw some really exciting productions, met with Drama League alums, directors / producers / artistic directors, and (another highlight) sat in on a put-in rehearsal for BILLY ELLIOT!

After Wonder Week we piled into our cars and drove to the Berkshires (to a farm, Stump Sprouts!) for our retreat. With a great group of actors, director Davis McCallum, and playwright David Adjmi, we pitched Arthur Miller plays (mine: ALL MY SONS, which Davis is actually directing later this year at PlayMakers), directed monologues (I worked on two from AS YOU LIKE IT, one of which we staged in a bathroom, with an Orlando who was forced by his brother to de-clog a toilet with his bare hands following a raucous party the night before) – and we staged two scenes from David Adjmi’s MARIE ANTOINETTE (for sure, the highlight of the retreat!).

The site of my Drama League scene!

I think Stump Sprouts allowed us to do a kind of work we could not have accomplished had we just been in the city for a few days, working in a studio, living in our separate homes, and constantly plagued by cell phones and internet – there’s something about living and eating together, away from all the distractions, with just each other and the work, that creates a kind of ensemble, trust, focus and sheer willingness to take risks that is just invaluable – not to mention the opportunity to stage David’s wonderful writing on top of tractors and running through fields in the middle of the night! As a director who’s especially interested in creating “events”, in working with environment, in constantly exploring, and in playing with the relationship between audience and actor, the chance to really stage scenes moving across landscapes and in and out of buildings was thrilling. (Thanks in no small part to David’s incredible generosity, and all of the invaluable feedback from David, Davis & Roger!). In short, the retreat was an opportunity to work in a safe space the likes of which I haven’t had since grad school – and it was a much-needed chance to see the work of my fellow fellows!! All three – most. talented. All three very different, but clear, strong and exciting work! It’d be great to have even more time to play together, but I’m thankful for the time we did have and look forward to sharing our work with one another again this December!

Indeed, Drama League has given me a community of directors in New York who are all at similar places in their careers, but with vastly different interests, perspectives, and paths. Directing can sometimes be isolating, and it can be hard to find a community of other directors who are willing to really talk through things – and in Drama League, I’ve found three directors whose opinions and insights I value and trust – not to mention three people who are great to hang out with! (I think it was our first night of Wonder Week, when our board member Harry Neyens and his partner Jim Kilpatric most generously hosted us for dinner at Bobby Flay’s restaurant that we realized our similar love of food – and knew that we would all be fast (and foodie) friends!).

And so last night we had our first of what I hope will be many dinner parties. I had just finished auditions for a new show by Erica Lipez I’m putting up in the city later this month and was in the midst of casting decisions, and in addition to the fantastic food (Ed made a delicious chicken sausage & lamb curry, and an amazing gluten-free fresh blueberry bread pudding!), it was great to have a group of directors with whom I could discuss pros and cons of various casting dilemmas.

And – last night, the first major round of paper work for NICHOLAS NICKLEBY arrived in my inbox, so it’s time to really start up on my fall assistantship at full! I’ll be headed to PlayMakers in North Carolina for more or less all of October and November to assist Joe Haj and Tom Quittance on a 6.5 hour adaptation of NN – the script’s about 400 pages long, the novel nearly 800, we’ve a cast of 25, and we’ll have at least two if not three rehearsal rooms running simultaneously (Joe & Tom will be co-directing the ENTIRE show) – so it’ll be big! And I can’t wait – I had a wonderful conversation with Joe and Tom over the summer about the show, and the way they want to work on it – they’re both very process-oriented, which I love, and I already know this will be a great, once-in-a-lifetime kind of experience! Right now, I’m about to start going through the script with the complete casting breakdown to figure out who can possibly understudy what…!

Otherwise, we’re just a few short days away from selecting our one acts for DirectorFest (more on this to come for sure, but basically, we each direct a 20 to 30 minute piece with 3 actors – we each work with a casting director, we’ve a team of designers, and Drama League rents out an off-Broadway theatre for us!). I’ve got a few scripts I’m looking at, very different from one another, with different sets of challenges – but I’m excited about them all (just had a reading of one last week)!

Off to Boston tomorrow to audition/cast a show I’m doing this winter with the A.R.T. Institute / Harvard, and I’m taking my NICHOLAS NICKLEBY script, novel and paper work, and my DirectorFest scripts, all in hand – so – more soon!

Cheers,
Mike

Mike and Davis at the Retreat

2009-09-09T03:36:00.002-04:00

From left to right: Mike Donahue and Davis McCallum (Mentor Director)

(posted by Ed)

Getting Started

2009-09-06T15:42:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone - Laura here.

I couldn't agree more with everything David has said. These experiences have blown my mind, and I have been continually struck by what a singular opportunity this fellowship is. Where else can you become part of a small "ensemble" of directors, work with actors of such a high caliber, be welcomed into the theatre community by such an established and generous community of alumni, staff, and board members, and be challenged to do the best work you possibly can??

The staff and board were gave us such a warm welcome throughout our Wonder Week and retreat. And I must second David's comment that being cut off from New York for four days was just about the best thing that could've happened to us.
So my schedule is slightly different from the other Fab 3 this year, in that I already completed one of my two assistantships. I had the incredible opportunity to serve as the assistant director on TWELFTH NIGHT for the Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park, directed by Daniel Sullivan and featuring a cast of some of my all-time favorite performers.

The best thing that came out of this assistantship was a rekindled love of Shakespeare. I hadn't worked on Shakespeare since college, and never as in depth as in this process. I got to watch this outstanding cast, each of whom came from a very different theatrical background, come together to deliver a smooth, buoyant, ensemble-driven production. Watching Dan, who has directed a lot of Shakespeare (and two other TWELFTH NIGHTs), Barry Edelstein from The Public, who literally wrote the book on performing Shakespeare, and the inimitable vocal coach Liz Smith gently guide this cast through the process was amazing. The work on the text was in depth, so that the cast had a real ownership of the words. But there was also room to play and discover live, spontaneous moments in rehearsal. There is a lot of music in the script for TWELFTH NIGHT, and our production took full advantage of that. The band Hem composed gorgeous music, which I never tired of hearing -- of course having it sung by Raul Esparza, Anne Hathaway, David Pittu, and Audra MacDonald didn't hurt.

This was a huge show with a cast of 26, a stage management team of half a dozen, and a house of 1800 seats -- definitely the largest production I've ever worked on. For me, it meant that there was always something to do, which isn't always the case for an assistant director. I had daily pow-wows with stage management to update them on text, props, costumes, or music, changes. I took down blocking, attended production meetings, and kept track of details pertaining to everything from marketing to the set design. By the time we moved into tech (or as I like to call it, Monsoon Season) at the Delacorte, I had a good handle on all the elements of the show, and was able to make myself useful.

I got to watch this show go from casting to rehearsal to tech and finally to being received by packed audiences every night. And now, it seems that I've got Shakespeare back in my life to stay. Both monologues I was given to direct at the retreat were by the Bard (one from TWELTFH NIGHT, in fact). I'm currently directing an Opera/Theatre event called "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," for the Old Vic New Voices Network, and my second Drama League assistantship will be assisting Diane Paulus at the A.R.T. in Boston on a gospel and R&B adaptation of THE WINTERS TALE called BEST OF BOTH WORLDS!

So my Drama League experience is off to a tremendous start. And my new pals Mike, Ed, and David are rocking my world. Our shared loves of theatre, travel, and most importantly FOOD have made us fast friends. It's strange to be without them after our two intense weeks together -- but we already have multiple dinner parties planned.

Next up: picking my Directorfest piece! Too bad Shakespeare didn't write any one-acts....

(posted by Laura)

[photo: the retreat company at Stump Sprouts]

Laura and Stafford at the Retreat

2009-09-06T03:38:00.001-04:00

From left to right: Laura Savia and the dishy Stafford Clark-Price (Actor)

(posted by Ed)

Puppet visit!

2009-09-02T21:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was sort of a first day for me with The Addams Family. I met with Heidi Marshall, the Associate Director (and, yes, a DL alumna), and we went to visit Basil Twist’s underground workshop/lair where all the puppets for the show are being constructed. I can’t describe in detail anything they were building, but suffice it to say, it’s amazing stuff and I am so excited to see how it will be incorporated into the show.

Our first day of official rehearsal is next week, but I got a taste of the show when I participated in a mini-workshop in June. It’ll be unlike anything I’ve worked on before – in style and scale.

More to come!

(posted by David)

Trademark David

2009-09-02T03:45:00.001-04:00

The Fabulous David Chapman

(posted by Ed)

Reflections on Wonder Week and the Retreat

2009-08-30T21:38:00.000-04:00

Now that we are back in NYC, I have had a chance to reflect on the last two weeks and prepare for the Addams Family fun to start next week. It’s hard to believe it went by so fast. After having submitted an application so long ago and finally being notified in May, all of a sudden Wonder Week and the Retreat were over before we knew it.

Everyone we met with was so generous with their time and excited to meet the “new batch” of Drama League directors. It helps a lot that so many distinguished people have come through this program – the field clearly has respect for it. People were also very honest with us, about both the challenges and the opportunities of professional directing.

So ... now I guess it's up to us. We will all ship out in the next few weeks to our various assignments (well, I will only ship out to a rehearsal studio on 42nd St...) and then come back together in December for DirectorFest.

(posted by David)

3 Out of 4

2009-08-28T10:21:00.002-04:00

From left to right: David Chapman, Mike Donahue and Laura Savia

(posted by Ed)

Directing Retreat - Final Day

2009-08-27T21:34:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been an unforgettable few days. The beauty of our surroundings, the generosity of the actors, the hospitality of Lloyd and Suzanne, and the support and guidance of Davis McCollum (our mentor director), David Adjmi (our playwright-in-res) and Roger have given the four of us immense room to experiment and grow. I have never been in a directing class or lab where I wasn't directing either other directors or acting students. the fact that we got to work with 8 professional actors who came out here purely to support our work was a gift. And, although it sometimes made us all a little panicky, being cut off from New York was essential. I can’t remember the last time I haven’t checked email or voicemail for 4 days (thank goodness for the vacation auto-responder).

Some parts of the week were certainly challenging -- we had to direct monologues and scenes in a very short amount of time, some actors had only been "cast" at the 11th hour and hadn't even read the play... plus our work was competing for our attention with the amazing surroundings, the food, and hanging out with the actors and other folks up there. (“I COULD work on my Arthur Miller pitch … or I could take a walk through the woods …”) But the supportive attitude of the group made me always feel like I could try anything.

We used every square inch of space at Stump Sprouts in our pursuit of the perfect environment for each scene. I directed Megan's Sam Shepard monologue in the basement of the farmhouse, surrounded by discarded logs and bits of insulation and under dense cobwebs -- one of the more unpleasant places I have been, but perfect for the scorched-earth setting in Cowboy Mouth. I also directed Susan in Daniel MacIvor's See Bob Run in a gravel pit by the main road -- an evocative choice since it is the actual setting of the play, and gave us the chance to creep up on the character and discover her mid-thought. Both Megan and Susan really trusted the experimentation, and we made some interesting discoveries in a few short hours.

For our scenes (we each did two from Adjmi's Marie Antoinette), the four of us went even further. It was fun, after spending a week getting to hear each other's "spiel" multiple times, to finally see each other's work. We set scenes in windows, on the roof, around the tractor, in a portable puppet theatre, running through fields, in a sauna ... We managed to create some compelling moments of theatricality with zero rehearsal, budget, or equipment except what we could get Lloyd to scrounge up from the toolshed. Some memorable moments -- Laura's final scene, lit by car headlights and performed partly on the roof of the shed, with the lights cutting out just as the guillotine dropped over Marie's head ... Ed's brilliant use of the stairwell landing in the barn as a multi-leveled performance space for Marie and her sheep/wolf persecutor ... and Mike's beautifully meta-theatrical staging of Marie's "hameau" fantasyland, in which the audience was the costumed (and scented) characters and Marie and Lamballe watched us from within a screened-in porch. My own finest moment, I must admit, may have been the sheep puppet I constructed, rigged, and operated using only a Coleman cooler, a plastic flower pot, and fishing line. It got exit applause.

(posted by David)

New Friends at the Retreat

2009-08-25T10:34:00.003-04:00

Ed Iskandar with mentor director Davis McCallum at Stump Sprouts. Ed had met Davis before -- Ed was an intern at Signature Theatre Company, where Davis was directing Chuck Mee's play Queens Blvd (the musical).

Playwright David Adjmi with actress Susan Louise O'Connor at Stump Sprouts.

(posted by Ed)

Wonder Week - Day 4

2009-08-24T21:26:00.000-04:00

Wonder Week was exactly what Roger said it would be -- a chance to meet more people in five days than you normally would be able to in five years. It was inspiring, occasionally intimidating, and always exhausting. We also got to know each other a lot better as a group (the "Fab Four" as Roger refers to us) and we saw a ton of theatre.

We met with a casting director, an agent, four different artistic directors, a literary manager, an SDC union rep, a program director at New Dramatists, a Broadway producer, and probably a few more which I can't remember. We had dinner with the design team of Lifetime Burning directed by DL alumna Pam McKinnon and then went to see the show at Primary Stages. I loved this, because I was able to look out for design elements in the show that otherwise I might have missed (such as the brand of shoe a character was wearing, or the angle of the window frame), and know the "back story" of how those choices were made. Another great session was with Jon Marans and DL alumnus Jonathan Silverstein, the playwright/director team of The Temperamentals at The Barrow Group, which we also saw. Jon and Jonathan were very open about their collaboration, which obviously paid off in the creation of a really fluid and clear production.

The week also gave me a chance to get to know Mike, Laura, and Ed better. It's remarkable to me that we were all picked by the same panel for this fellowship, and yet we are all so different. We have different backgrounds, different kinds of work we are drawn to, and different goals for our careers. But the collegial, non-competitive atmosphere of the fellowship has helped us become something pretty rare -- an ensemble of directors, a group I know I can turn to for support and advice. I can't wait for DirectorFest so we can actually share work with one another. (There are times when four directors doing something together can be exactly what you would think it would be... Try sending four directors into Staples to choose one packet of Thank You cards ... it almost came to blows.)

We also saw a ton of theatre, including many shows I have wanted to see for a while. It seemed like every show we saw was directed by a DL director. In addition to the two shows mentioned above, we saw Toxic Avenger and Click Clack Moo (both directed by DL alumnus John Rando and associated by DL alumnus -- from last year! -- Wes Grantom), In the Heights, Next to Normal, The Bacchae, Shrek, The Pied Pipers of the Lower East Side (at PS122), One of the highlights for me was watching the put-in rehearsal at Billy Elliot (the resident director BT McNicholl) is, you guessed it, a DL alumnus). I was especially fascinated because I am about to start working on what could be (knock on wood) a long-running show, and I am fascinated by how you maintain the original piece but give new actors a chance to explore for themselves. I was surprised to learn how committed the Billy Elliot director was to giving each new actor a chance to find his own performance, rather than just rehash what the last guy did.

Despite occasionally feeling like contestants in Next Top Model (in a good way), Wonder Week was a lot of fun and a great look (a "look-see"?) into the world of professional theatre in NYC. Up next ... our Berkshires retreat!

(posted by David)

A Night Not Soon Forgotten

2009-08-20T10:12:00.001-04:00

(posted by Ed)

Here we go!

2009-08-18T21:17:00.000-04:00

Day 1 -- August 18, 09

And we're off! Wonder Week, and our Fall Fellowships, officially began yesterday. However, it feels like it's been building up for awhile, starting with the Drama League Awards Luncheon in May and tickets to several shows last week, including Mary Stuart on Broadway followed by a lovely dinner at Sardi's with Board Member Herb Blodgett. Already I feel honored to be a part of this family – exactly what I was looking for in New York.

Yesterday afternoon the four of us (Ed, Mike, Laura, and myself) convened at the Drama League office to meet the staff and talk a bit about the next few months. The Drama League staff was lovely and welcoming, deeply supportive of this project and excited for our fellowships. We practiced our "spiels" and told favorite vacation stories. (I learned that Laura has an island full of relations in Italy, Mike was deep-sea night diving at age 12, and Ed can recite a very special interpretation of "Oh Captain, My Captain." Compared to that, my obsession with visiting every panoramic painting in the world seemed completely dull.)

We then discussed how Wonder Week worked ("career speed dating" as Laura put it), and what we should expect. It's truly amazing the caliber of people on the agenda for the week, plus a bunch of shows I am excited to see. We also chatted about next week's directing retreat, our assistantships (everyone has really great assignments this year -- I will be working on The Addams Family musical in Chicago and on Broadway), and DirectorFest in December, during which each of us will direct a 30-minute piece on an Off-Broadway contract.

From the DL office we trekked uptown to a welcome dinner at Bobby Flay's restaurant hosted by board member Harry Neyens and his partner Jim Kilpatric, as well as special guest and DL alumnus Alex Timbers. The food and conversation were both amazing, topped off with a surprise gift -- a signed Bobby Flay cookbook! (Very useful the next time I have a dozen deep-sea scallops and some fresh-roasted ancho chile powder). The book will fit nicely in my DL tote bag (as soon as I get one...)

(posted by David)

Wonderweek Begins!

2009-08-17T18:01:00.000-04:00

Welcome our Fall Directors, David F. Chapman, Mike Donahue, Ed Syvanus Iskandar, and Laura Savia we look forward to an exciting and eventful Autumn.

Here We Go, Here We Go, Here We Go ...

2009-08-17T10:08:00.002-04:00

Roger Danforth (Artistic Director) knows the secret way to Paradise ...

(posted by Ed)