What is Mothers and Sons about?
I think it’s a play about a lot of things: family, personal grief, and change. Are we able to change? How do we change from generation to generation? How do we mourn?
 
What role do you play and how does s/he fit into the story?
I play Cal. He is a gay man, a family man, a husband to Will, and father to Bud. He was in a relationship with Andre who died of AIDS 20 years ago and is now being visited by Andre’s mother Katharine Gerard, who he has not spoken to since Andre’s memorial.
 
What are your character’s strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths: He’s a nice man.  
Weaknesses: Too Nice…
 
What do you find challenging about playing your character?
The challenge is always to be present and to let the play live every time you step on stage. My challenge with this character is that Cal is walking a fine line in this play. He wants reconciliation but he also wants to avenge Andre’s death.
 
What do you think is challenging/exciting/interesting about Mothers and Sons?
This play sounds heavy and at times it is, but there are also some incredibly funny human moments. I think the challenge is finding that balance and allowing these characters their flaws.
 
What is your favorite line in the play?
Bud: ‘Families just grow.”
 
What do you like about Mothers and Sons?
I am so grateful to be a part of this important play. Terrence McNally shows us how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go. 

What is Mothers and Sons about?
It's about this man named Andre and how he died and his mom who drops in for a visit. Then the whole play unfolds from there.
 
What role do you play and how does s/he fit into the story?
I play Bud. He is the son of Andre's lover and another man. His role is to be cute onstage and not just have grown-ups arguing, because that would be boring.
 
What are your character’s strengths and weaknesses?
My character's strength is asking questions. His weakness is getting out of the tub.
 
What do you find challenging about playing your character?
He asks a lot of questions and it is hard not to make my voice go up really, really high. It's also hard to play an only child, because I am definitely not an only child.
 
What do you think is challenging/exciting/interesting about Mothers and Sons?
I feel like I know more about AIDS, but it makes me feel kind of sad. It's a sad play at the beginning, but it's a happy play at the end.
 
What is your favorite line in the play?
I like the line, "Buddy Bud Bud", because I like the way it sounds. It's fun to say.
 
What do you like about Mothers and Sons?
That I'm in it, and the other actors.

Thank you to everyone who submitted photos to the Mothers and Sons photo competition! Your families are all beautiful and we enjoyed seeing what Family meant to you. The winning photo and the top submissions will be displayed at the FlynnSpace during each showing of Mothers and Sons from January 27–February 14. We asked for people to submit a photo that shows what family looks like to them for the chance to win two free tickets to Mothers and Sons. Without further ado, I am pleased to announce that the winner is Elliot Burg for his photo of his wife August and their son Asher at the piano in their home.

There were a number of other strong contenders, and a sample are featured at the bottom of this blog. It was a pleasure to have organized this competition and look forward to having the privilege of displaying submissions during the show. Keep an eye out for competitions in the future. We'll be seeing you at the theatre!

What is Mothers and Sons about?
Mothers and Sons is about how the AIDS crisis has affected the people in the cast. In such a short span of time, we went from a full blown AIDS epidemic (which coalesced the gay community) to now having won the right to be legally married and having children. 

What role do you play and how does s/he fit into the story?
Katharine, the mother in Mothers and Sons, lost her son to AIDS twenty years ago. She comes to New York to return her son's diary to Cal, who was her son's lover. Cal is now married to Will and they have a son Bud. Katharine had been living in Dallas and caring for her husband who had lung cancer. 

What are your character’s strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths and weaknesses? Katharine hates everything! She is a very multidimensional character. Katherine is just coming out from being someone's Mother and someone's wife and is now finding out how to be herself. 

What do you find challenging about playing your character?
For me the hardest part of playing Katharine is finding her prejudices, which are so contrary to what I believe. Going to neutral before being able to embrace the characters differences is a constant discovery process.
 
What do you think is challenging/exciting/interesting about Mothers and Sons?
Terrance McNally is a very astute observer of human nature. He captures so much and is very judicious and economic in what the character says. Being able to trust that economy is what the actor must move toward. That is, of itself, a whole process.
 
What is your favorite line in the play?
Choosing one line would be like asking a mother of many children to name which one is her favorite. Each one has their admirable qualities. 

What do you like about Mothers and Sons?
Catastrophe forces change, sometimes without enough time for natural transitions to ease us through. Changes are coming more and more quickly and we must adapt, learn and change or we will be left behind. The value of love and care and family is truly what will allow for us to transition.

What is MOTHERS AND SONS about?
 
This is a tough one because the show on the surface seems simple, but it's actually very complex. On the level of story, MOTHERS AND SONS is about Katharine entering the lives of Cal, Will, and Bud unexpectedly on an evening just before the Christmas holiday. Katharine is the mother of Andre, Cal's partner in the 1980s, who passed away. We learn that the last time Katharine had seen Cal was at Andre's memorial 20 years ago. Now she shows up unexpectedly to learn that Cal is now married to Will and they are raising a son named Bud. On the thematic level (and there are a number of themes), the play is about facing our past choices and coming to terms with how those choices bear upon the lives we live in the present. It's also about what it means to be a family today. I’d also say the play makes an accurate statement about a generation of gay men who were sadly lost to aids in the 1980s and 1990s and the possibility that that era and those individuals will be forgotten.
 
What do you like about MOTHERS AND SONS?
 
On a structural level I love that the play is so compact. Ninety minutes of pure drama with no intermission! No set changes and no transitions. The action takes place in perpetual present time. Terrence McNally, the playwright, is just so good at crafting a story that unfolds before our eyes while we're spending an hour and a half with these four people. I love the characters in the play. I feel I know them all very well. I’ve personally had or have people just like them in my own life. I lived in New York at the same time that the crucial backstory of MOTHERS AND SONS happened. I am of the same generation as Cal. Of all the plays I’ve directed, I have a very intimate connection to this one.
 
What scares you about MOTHERS AND SONS?
 
The emotions involved in the story for me on a personal level. It will be a real challenge to do the technical work and not become overwhelmed with the emotional content. We have an amazing cast and even in the audition process I was profoundly moved. I’m really looking forward to making the play happen with this cast. I’m always a little scared going into the process of bringing life to a play because like everyone involved, I just want to do the most excellent work possible and continue to grow as a theater maker.
 
What will you be trying to accomplish directorially with MOTHERS AND SONS?
 
We really want the audience to feel the intimacy of this story. The FlynnSpace is perfect for this play. It will be as if we are in the living room of the apartment on the upper west side of Manhattan where Cal, Will, and Bud live.
 
What kinds of conversations would you like the audience to have after experiencing this play?
 
Oh boy, where to start? I hope that the audience can reflect upon the idea of acceptance. Accepting our past and our present—being able to live with our choices and then make amends for the past choices we made that might not have been the best. I hope also that audiences will reflect on gratitude. One of the many moving aspects of the play is that the character Cal has experienced great loss in his life and yet now he finds himself in a loving relationship with a great husband, and together they're raising a healthy, happy son. Like many good dramas, their lives are affected by an intrusion. In the play that comes in the form of Katharine. She symbolizes a dying social perception that being gay is wrong, or unacceptable, or something to be kept quiet. She was unaccepting of her son. She now has to come to terms with how society has changed and she also has to confront the reality of the happy, healthy family life that, sadly, her son was never to have. The play reminds us that all we have is the present moment and the people that love and support us. The story reminds us that the present moment is fleeting. It's a small play with huge emotions and profound ideas.