What is Dancing Lessons about?
Dancing Lessons is a comedic play about an unlikely friendship/romance between a dancer and a scientist with high-functioning autism.
 
What do you like about Dancing Lessons?
It is VERY FUNNY and accomplishes a lot in a short time. By the end of 90 minutes you are laughing, crying, and might even have a deeper appreciation for people on the autism spectrum—I know I did after I read it.
 
What do you think is most challenging/interesting/exciting about the play?
The romance in the play evolves rapidly so getting that to work in a way that rings true given the huge differences between these people is a challenge. I also want each character’s journey to feel authentic. I want audiences to empathize with each character and root for them to connect. Figuring out all of those details is the fun part of directing, though.
 
What is your favorite part of the directing process?
Working with the designers and actors. I love the collaborative process. I like hearing all of the varying ideas that come from different people reading the same play. It is exciting to find unique ways to tell a story onstage while doing justice to the author’s original intent. I also love it when actors try new things in rehearsal and surprise me. It keeps me on my toes and challenges me to think about an approach to a line or a moment in a way I had not before. That’s when the work gets really interesting.
 
Have many aspects of the show changed from your original plans?
In terms of design, nothing has changed. We did end up having to replace our lead actor a week before rehearsals began, which was unfortunate. The original actor cast had a family emergency and he reluctantly had to bow out of the show. We were all sad about it. Then Andrew Butterfield very graciously stepped up to play the part of ‘Ever’ and has been doing an incredible job of breathing life into a character he has come to know in a short time. The play is going to be different than I originally imagined, but I am very pleasantly surprised at how wonderfully this pairing fits the play too.
 
What makes Dancing Lessons relatable to audiences here and now?
It is a classic love story. Opposites attract and they each become better people because their connection challenges their preconceived notions of ‘self’. I personally love that the playwright took the time to create layers of dysfunction within each character and also their own mechanisms to deal with them. In rehearsal we’ve been talking about how each character ‘stims’ to cope with their anxieties but only one of the ways they do it is considered ‘unusual.’ Funnily enough, the unusual coping mechanism is actually the healthier way of dealing with things. I also love that these characters are broken but not because they have a broken leg and autism. They are just struggling to better themselves and we catch them both in a moment of difficult transition; these kinds of moments are universally relatable.
 
What types of conversations do you want audience members to have on their way home from seeing this play?
I want to have conversations that help unpack preconceptions about people on the Autism spectrum. I know I have preconceptions and have been learning a lot through the process of working on this play.
 
 

 ehearsals are underway for our production of Dancing Lessons. While the cast and the production team are hard at work, we would like to share a portion of an interview between the playwright (Mark St. Germain) and Charles Giuliano (TotalTheater.com).

CHARLES GIULIANO: We attended a reading of Dancing Lessons last fall at Barrington Stage Company. What has happened since then?
MARK ST. GERMAIN: There have been two more readings and work between all of them. With the first reading, I was pleased by the reception.
 
CG: What kind of work?
MSG: From the first reading, I was very surprised by the response being as positive as it was. I already saw problems and needed to fix them. Mostly, that meant dealing with the dancer. Her story didn’t match his as far as interest and what happened to her. After a lot of thought, I ended up using parts of a friend’s life. That was more interesting to me. You end up stealing from everybody. The dancer’s story before was based on dancers’ stories from people that I interviewed. I don’t know about dancing. This time, it is about a relationship she had with her father. When I read about it and talked about it, I thought “this was really interesting.” So I did more work on her. Ironically, the actress we had playing it almost matches to a T her own background. The current actress, Paige Davis, I didn’t know her background other than that she has done a bunch of Broadway musicals as a dancer. There’s a TV show she is well known for, especially among young people, called “Trading Spaces.” You can’t walk down the street without people recognizing her. I didn’t know that when we cast her. I had no idea. There was a lot of work on her. Just trying to make the play a little deeper in parts. What I learned progressively about autism I tried to incorporate.
 
CG: Where did the idea come from?
MSG: There’s a man, Jim Houghton, who runs the Signature Theater [in NYC]. We were at a conference which he attended with his family. He has a son who is autistic. When I met the son, he was about five years old. He was non-communicative. He would sit at the table and not talk to anybody. He would just kind of curl unto himself.
About a year and a half ago I was walking down the street and met Jim and his son. The son is now about 17-years-old. He was so incredibly friendly and open. We had a nice conversation, and as we got into it, he said, “Your birthday is September 9, 1954. I remember at the table we talked about this, this and this.” I was stunned. I knew this was something that some but not all autistics have. I was amazed by the transformation. Jim and his wife had put a lot of time into getting him the right schooling to draw him out. That fascinated me. It kicked off the idea for the play.
 
CG: How about the fact that he’s a university professor who is about to receive an award? Hence the need for dancing lessons.
MSG: I knew he had to be high functioning in order to make the play work. People like Temple Grandin.
[Mary Temple Grandin, born August 29, 1947, is an American doctor of animal science, a professor at Colorado State University, a best-selling author, an autistic activist, and a consultant to the livestock industry on animal behavior.]
She’s very famous. She was also very withdrawn as a kid. To calm her down, she designed this box. She would get in, and the idea of being held tightly calmed her. That led to work with animals especially in slaughter houses. She tried to design humane ways in which animals were killed. There was an HBO movie about her which was very good. It won a bunch of awards. She’s fascinating.

There’s a man around here, Mike McManmon, who runs a program. A fascinating guy; I talked with him a bunch of times. What I learned about him got fed into it. [Michael McManmon speaker, writer, artist and psychologist founded the College Internship Program – a post-secondary program serving students with Asperger’s Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and learning differences. The Berkshire Visual & Performing Arts Center at the CIP campus in Lee, MA is a model program integrating community and student life with the Good Purpose Gallery, Spectrum Playhouse, and Joyous Studios all existing to support the mission.] There are some people who say, “this isn’t like any autistic person I know.” As Mike has impressed on us, everybody is different. There’s no one profile that fits everybody. Neurotypicals is the term given to people like us without autism.
 
CG: (laughing) But you’re crazy.
MSG: Oh, I am. But in a different way than you are.
 
CG: Who is to say that we’re normal, whatever that means?
MSG: Yes, it’s silly. There is no normal. But there’s no normal with autistics.
 
CG: There are group characteristics. Behavior patterns for identifying people with forms of autism.
MSG: There are some things. There are people who are high achievers. They are able to integrate themselves into society.

Check out the rest of the interview here.

How does the set reflect the lives of the Ogden-Porter family?
In a play like this, it is important not to limit how the audience perceives the characters. Gregory Ramos, the director, and I wanted the audience to look at the space, art work, photographs and books as a part of this family's life as a group not individuals. Where have they been? What is their taste/style? The style is very eclectic and that is deliberate. We wanted to show how their individual personalities have melded to become their statement family.

Did any aspect of the set change from your original plans?
Many things shifted in the process but the final product is very close to my original idea after speaking with the director.

What is your favorite piece of the Mothers and Sons set, and why?
That's a tough one. I don't think I have a favorite piece because it's how it all works together and how it developed over time. The painting over the fireplace is on loan from a gallery in Middlebury and the large poster in the hall is from my husband's office. The chairs and ottoman were purchased but the sofa is from the theatre department. It's not how anything in particular affects the audience, it's how the combination of colors, textures and scale speaks to the characters.

What questions did you ask yourself early on when designing a set?
Because I lived in New York City for about 10 years, I had a strong idea of how this room might work. The biggest question we all had to ask ourselves was where are the windows. The windows had to overlook Central Park but where did it make the most sense for Bud when he talks about Spiderman. When you put a window in a room it impacts the entire use of the space. It's like putting a sofa or bed in a room. Once that happens, it impacts where everything else will go.

How do you know at the end if the design is successful?
When the actors feel as though the space gives their characters "a home" then we have a successful design. The set is as much a character of the show as the actors with lines. The set must ease the audience into the play, compliment the playwright's intent and allow the actors to move freely and with comfort. Like their character, the actor must own the space they are working in. For characters like Katharine, it needs to make a statement not to her liking.

What is Mothers and Sons about?
Mothers and Sons is the continuation of a story Terrence McNally first began telling in 1988 with his short play Andre's Mother. In that play, the title character Katharine, confused, angered, and grieving can't even utter a word at her son Andre's memorial in Central Park. Twenty years later, in Mothers and Sons, Katherine shows up at the home of Andre's boyfriend Cal and finds him healthy and successful with a family. From there, she and Cal try to navigate their way through the conversation she couldn't have two decades earlier. 
 
In a lot of ways this is a play about progress; personal, societal, and cultural. Mothers and Sons uniquely captures the essence of a reshaped world from the perspectives of the four different generations, and shows the long struggle that it sometimes takes for certain cultural paradigms to shift. 
 
What role do you play and how does s/he fit into the story?
I play Will Ogden. I'm the younger husband of Cal, who used to date Katharine's son Andre. The play takes place in our apartment. After an afternoon in the park, I return home with our son Bud to find our unexpected house guest. 
 
What are your character’s strengths and weaknesses?
I'm still making discoveries about this, but I do think that Will's strengths are also his biggest weaknesses. He's a great family man—he loves his husband and his son—they're all he's ever wanted. The problem for him is that since he's so good at the domestic side of this relationship he has a hard time turning that off. It's what keeps him from asking unwanted company to leave so he can get on with the family plans they have. His sensitivity is tricky that way—it's what makes him happy, but it's also what makes him hurt. 
 
What do you find challenging about playing your character?
When I first said yes to this part, I thought I was going to have a much harder time with playing Will. I was fascinated by him and I loved his point of view, but there are moments when he handles things very differently from how Justin would. I was afraid I might judge his point of view. Fortunately, I'm working with three great actors and Gregory is a very intuitive and gentle director. They all have my complete trust and I have no problem being vulnerable and exploring. So as we work, I'm finding some of the similar archetypal material underneath the differences between Will and I, that hopefully will bring truth to my actions.
 
What do you think is challenging/exciting/interesting about Mothers and Sons?
I'm still intrigued by the fact that we're painting such an extensive portrait of the past several decades of gay life in America. I first read Andre's Mother in the late nineties, before Vermont had even passed the Civil Union law. I couldn't have imagined performing it's sequel, as an adult, in an America with federal marriage equality. I am just about the exact age as my character—and have lived through the same years he has, and the play talks about those years extensively. It's very close to my own life in that way. It's the difference between comprehending and knowing. Through research, imagination and sensory exploration, I can comprehend what it would be like to be, Cliff in Cabaret for instance—I can gather the essence of his world. But Will's world I know. Completely. His world is the same as mine, so that's rare and kind of exciting. 
 
What is your favorite line in the play?
This is always a difficult question. There's a powerful speech I give at the end of the play that I personally respond quite strongly to. McNally has given my character some very touching words. If I had to pick one specific line though, it's one of Bud's. He's talking about his extended family, and asks if Katherine wants to be his grandmother. She says that he doesn't know her well enough, and his reply is “I didn't know any of them before either. Family's just grow.” I sort of love that … the idea that family is who you decide to include, not just what you are born into. One of the wisest statements in the play and it comes from the 8 year old. 
 
What do you like about Mothers and Sons?
Mothers and Sons is actually edgier than I originally gave it credit for. I love that. I think in my first few rounds with it, I got a little swept away with its poetry. Here you have this character whose disapproval of her gay son is a huge obstacle—t's been twenty years and she's still struggling with it—and McNally drops her into this epicenter of gay metropolitan domestic bliss. The tension of that premise is tremendous, no matter how polite everyone is.  It's quite satisfying for everyone to have the chance to say their piece.