In your dream scenario how does great collaboration function?
Funny you ask. I was just thinking how everyday this week my motor’s been humming inside a prime example of “dream collaboration.”  In our FUN HOME rehearsal room at Elley-Long, where the stage dimensions are humbly taped on the floor, the space is abuzz with a diverse collection of people earnestly pursuing the same hefty goal.  I love this.  Yet, it’s not simply this shared sense of industry that’s so fine, but a particular kind of approach that, for me, beats all.  Let’s call the approach “serious play.”
 
The “serious” part involves everyone taking wholehearted responsibility for their role, coming on time, working hard, and being utterly prepared.  Check!  The “play” part requires a crazy big, can-do, positive attitude and supportive environment.   “Play” requires everyone to keep play, well… in play.  And when it is… possibility opens, fear is low, creativity high, laughter happens, mistakes become opportunities, and risks are freely taken leading to, well, wow…  Pinch me.  Am I asleep?
 
What have you enjoyed most while working on this musical so far?
The nouns.  To direct, is to go on a twisty-turning adventure with people, places, and things.  So, starting with a thing, I’ve so enjoyed my deep dive into the play itself, coming to understand its construction, meanings, and Bechdel inspiration.  Because of this I know more intimately why this play is a Pulitzer Prize for Drama Finalist and Tony Award winner for Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score.
 
Places.  Working on this musical, has provided a scavenger hunt leading me to a welcome collection of meaningful places: the end of a long dark hallway at Saint Joseph’s School for a late afternoon cabaret, the kitchen’s and living rooms of new collaborators, Shy Guy Gelato at closing time, NYC Pearl Studios in a torrential rain, and previously forgotten corners of my life.
 
And, then there are the people, the most affecting noun of the adventure.  No doubt I’ll be changed by working with and learning from each of them.  An additional fun fact for me among the people, is that my Musical Director, Randal Pierce, and Sound Designer, Zach Williamson, were once my students.
 
Now that you are a week into rehearsals, what has surprised you about the process of staging FUN HOME? 
I am surprised by three things I already knew but not to the extent I know them now.  1. How much better I feel to be out of the phase of preparation solitude.  2.  How thrilling it is to give away previously conceived ideas and see them informed and transformed by oh-so-talented others.  3.  Staging FUN HOME is an incredible artistic challenge to get to have.
 
Is there anything that scares you?
Everything?
 
What do you find most challenging about directing a musical versus a play?
While music usually adds a level of complexity to the storytelling, and collaboration, and scheduling, and staging turned choreography, I find the added complexity more than balanced by the inspiration I take from this incredible ingredient -- music!  The challenge when directing non-musicals, is to find and conjure the sense of music when there is none.
           
What is your favorite moment in this musical?
 
There’s a glimmer-of-a-moment at the end of the play when Small Alison gives her Dad instructions on how to hold her up above him.  It’s a moment that could be missed in the rich musical layers of the Finalé.  But, if not missed, it is a lovely turning point, when Alison finds in a fleeting memory, and through her younger self, a key to an otherwise closed door.
 
How is the musical adaptation different from the graphic novel?
 
It’s interesting to compare and contrast these two versions of Alison Bechdel’s story: one a graphic novel and the other a musical for the stage. In doing so, there are obvious differences in the artistic forms, story telling approach, and level of detail. 
 
But what has interested me is a surprising comparison I’ve found between the 232 page graphic novel and the 75-minute play.  It’s a comparison that captures the beauty of the translation from one art form to another. Whether intentional or not, there’s an uncanny parallel between the cartoon line of the novel and the instrumental line in the soundscape of the play.   Incredibly, the instrumental line of the musical provides a landscape of atmospheres, themes, symbols, and commentary on the dialogue and lyrics, much like the cartoon lines non-verbal relationship to the captions.

Fun Home is playing October 4-29 at FlynnSpace.

Do you garden?

I aspire to gardening, but never seem to follow through. It really is a wonderful thing to do. As Frank says in the play, “it grounds me.” But you really need to be committed to it. The last two years we put in a vegetable garden. I even built a raised bed. We ended up with some decent tomatoes, a few cucumbers and maybe 2 yellow squash. Not a bumper crop, by any means. The mint thrived, however. Literally took over the whole garden. I think it’s still out there, growing, pushing up through the frost and the snow. The mint shall inherit the earth.

What would you do if you found out your neighbor had been using two feet of your property?

I would certainly take the land back. In the house we are in now the yard is the best part. And land is valuable. If I were in Tania and Pablo’s position, I would certainly try to take it back. I would try to be assertive, but do it in the right way so that animosity isn’t created. No one likes to be “at war” with their neighbors. Most of us have stories about interaction with our neighbors.It’s such a strange, forced relationship.

However, in our play, conflict is created due to the element of time. Tania and Pablo need the fence to go in right away, and want it to be in the proper place. Frank and Virginia want the new fence to stay in its original place, so that Frank can be judged in the garden competition. Everyone in the play mishandles things, tempers flare and chaos ensues.The thing is, everyone is right about what they want. So the playwright creates an unwinnable situation, forcing the characters to expose their flaws. This is her recipe for comedy.

What do you like most about directing comedies?

I love directing comedies because laughter is maybe the greatest thing a human can do. Being able to create theatre that makes a collective group laugh is a powerful feeling. I love being in the rehearsal room, trying things, failing. Then trying again and having the whole room laugh. It’s like a playground for adults.

But it is also extremely challenging. As a wise one once said, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.” As a director of comedies you have to have instinct, inspiration, constant trial and error, but in the end live theatre is an unpredictable thing. What might get uproarious laughter one night might fall flat on another night. The idea is to try to make sure each comedic moment will work every time. Comedy is such a subjective thing. The hope is you are making it funny for everyone.

Are there specific challenges to directing a comedy versus a drama?

You need to prepare actors when you are directing comedies the same way you direct a drama. We need to have complete characters, strong intentions and actions. The story needs to be fully communicated and the play needs to be staged in an interesting way. But comedy is so much about pace. We are constantly working on the timing of things. This may be in a specific comedic bit, or it may be in the way a scene moves along to a comedic payoff. For instance, you could be setting up something for a laugh later in the scene or even the show. I suppose the biggest challenge is that in dramas you work on truth, but it can be meaningful to the audience in different ways. In comedies, it’s either funny or it’s not.

What do you like most about this play?

This play constantly surprises me with the issues it brings up.Racism, ageism, classism, ethnic identity, what it means to be an American.Weighty subjects for a comedy. But the playwright, Karen Zacarias, doesn’t really offend anyone, or bang us over the head with opinions. She lightly touches on the issues, surrounds them with laughter, and hopefully leaves the audience asking questions about themselves when they leave.

But ultimately I love this play because it is hysterical.There are so many drop dead funny lines.And there is such a farcical element to this show.I have pushed the actors to be as big and bold as they can in these moments. But also truthful.The only way farce works is through deep truth.It’s a fine line, and we are tiptoeing right along it.

​Tell me a bit about yourself as a director.
I tend to be an actor's director and work very organically. Each moment in a scene has the potential to be riveting, even if it's a character doing her laundry. A play is simply a map to the performance as a whole, I feel the director’s job is to allow actors to fully embody the essence of that map, to feel the different elevations and to find a place within it that is unique. From this place, the story is told—a special place where each particular actor can fully explore all of the play's mysteries and sureties.
 
At its core, A Number is about:
Being unique. It's about how dearly we hold our identities with the conviction that we are, even with the knowledge that countless humans have come before us, somehow singular in all of time. The play challenges us investigate what truly makes us individuals, even if we are standing in the presence of a perfect genetic copy of ourselves. In a similar way, we are also allowed to see this action from the viewpoint of a parent, whose genes were the source of it all.
 
What is the most challenging aspect of directing A Number?
A Number is a stunning combination of subtle language, horrible and beautiful lies, murder, and human cloning. The challenge was to reveal to the audience how truly simple and beautiful the story is. Luckily, my team was able to take my vision and turn it into something even more audacious, fun, and moving than I could have conceived alone.
 
Are you approaching your section of A Number as mutually exclusive from the other two pieces?
No. Being the last section, it relies so heavily on everything that came before. I stressed to my artists how important it was to be familiar with the play as a whole.
 
The script for A Number does not have many stage directions, or even much punctuation; do you consider this a gift or a challenge when directing your “slice” of The Bake Off?
It has been a gift. Even more than the lack of punctuation, there is the lack of completion of voiced thoughts from each character. Many characters’ lines seem interrupted or incomplete. This marvelous conceit allows me and the artists to complete the characters' sentences in our heads— it keeps us on our toes as far as the meaning of each line. With minimal stage direction, it allows us to create all of the action based on what is occurring as opposed to being actions to make things occur. There can be more creativeness this way.
 
What makes directing this play fun?
The anticipation of seeing how three different visions will work as a whole.
 
What's your favorite line in the play?
“We've got ninety-nine per cent the same genes as any other person. We've got ninety per cent the same as a chimpanzee. We've got thirty percent the same as a lettuce. Does that cheer you up at all? I love about the lettuce. It makes me feel I belong.”

Tell me a bit about yourself as a director.
I knew I wanted to be a director when I was 13. I founded a high school video club to scratch that itch in the 80s (MTV-inspired!). I directed my first play at 19; Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians on an Air Force base in the Philippines—I was the youngest member of the entire production. I've never been to school for theater; I've learned from doing and observing. As such, I don't have a dialed-in industry vocabulary which can sometimes be challenging—my ideas of a "beat" or diagramming a script are probably not the formal definitions. I work intuitively and collaboratively. I don't know if that's the most efficient methodology, but it sure is fun and while actors may occasionally wrinkle their brows figuring me out, we seem to happily arrive at theater together.

At its core, A Number is about:
Nature. Shaped by nurture. But mostly identity, the fragile glaze that binds them. If nature is the basic clay of identity, and nurture the long slow shaping, why does simply learning where the clay came from suddenly cause a crack to appear? Does nurture get re-written: is the shaping redone? Is nature altered: does the clay fundamentally change? Science tells us that yes, trauma can actually change DNA. Epigenetics is a thing.  But we're looking more at how individual identities are bound to others, and how the reflection of one's identity in another, especially parent to child and vice versa, can be utterly foundational.

What is the most challenging aspect of directing A Number? 
I think the inspiring challenges are more in the “Bake Off” format than the script! So few rehearsals! In the script, mapping truths and lies has been an interesting puzzle.

Are you approaching your section of A Number as mutually exclusive from the other two pieces?
We read the whole script a time or two. I think we all believe that more information is better when trying to understand the story, character's histories and motivations, and what's a lie versus what's not. But we've made no efforts to map anything that might be useful beyond our section. For example, we haven't given any thought to a nature aspect of the Michael character since he doesn't appear in our section, like do all three clones echo a physical affectation we can see and how would it present specifically in Michael and how would it affect Salter? Don't care! Is the set layout going to work for later scenes, and how should later needs inform earlier scenes (normal things you discover in rehearsal). Don't care! If we had the whole show, we'd pay attention to those things, but “ain't nobody got time for that!”

The script for A Number does not have many stage directions, or even much punctuation; do you consider this a gift or a challenge when directing your “slice” of The Bake Off?
Both. The dialogue is powerfully real this way, and there's freedom to live and move in it. It's like how we really think-talk, but not how we normally perform. It is a challenge to memorize, however. Chris and Bruce have worked really hard on it! Stage directions might have made blocking slightly more efficient in our compressed process, but having none written means we can make bold choices and own them, which is perfect for The Bake Off!

What makes directing this play fun?
What powerfully moves me and makes it totally rewarding is getting to work with super talented actors like Bruce and Chris. I am lucky, humbled, and blessed to be their audience of one! One fun thing about this script for me is that it gets the science right (it bugs me when scripts get science wrong), yet the science is merely a layer under the story of relationships and identities. The science—and even the ethics of the science—do not try to own the story. It's merely what happened (what could happen? what will happen?), and while it informs the story it isn't the whole story. Some of the characters’ feelings could map onto near-parallel stories like, "I had a twin I never knew about that you drowned at childbirth" or "I just found out I was adopted from the prison orphanage, one of sextuplets" or "my dad had a secret second family." The cloning gives a wonderful new twist to explore, though, (what constitutes my uniqueness?) without just being a story about test tubes. One last fun thing was discovering all kinds of music about clones—I am now a Gary Numan fan.

What's your favorite line in the play? 
So many!!!!! I'll force myself to pick one … Bernard says, “you called them things. I think we'll find they're people.”

​Tell me a bit about yourself as a director.
Recently, I've been directing extensively with young performers … several middle schools, summer camps, and soon moving into becoming the drama director for Essex High School. As an educator, the directing goals center around skill sharing, team building, identity, and empowerment. As a director with adults, my ethos is similar, though deeply rooted in script analysis, movement generated content, play, and trust between all creative partners. As a director, I come with a vision, ask a lot of questions, remain open to discovery, and then carve out the meat with the editing knife.
 
At its core, A Number is about:
The risk inside relationship. What does it mean to be vulnerable? How do we mask who we are and what we want? What does it mean to be one's own? What does it mean to be recognized? To be a part, to be apart?
 
What is the most challenging aspect of directing A Number?
In the case of The Bake Off, it's time. We have a very short rehearsal schedule. Maintaining space for discovery while also driving decision making is the most awesome challenge! Efficient use of hours and talent while generating content with intention and clarity: what a fantastic opportunity for preparedness and urgency in the work. A lot of sparks fly, and we need to catch them quickly.
 
Are you approaching your section of A Number as mutually exclusive from the other two pieces?
In what world does mutually exclusive exist?
 
The script for A Number does not have many stage directions, or even much punctuation; do you consider this a gift or a challenge when directing your “slice” of The Bake Off?
A gift for vision and imagination. Churchill's words are coded, deliberate and rich with interpretations. Every problem is an opportunity.
 
What makes directing this play fun?
The actors who have given me their trust (and they have mine). Paul Ugalde and Andy Butterfield are some gorgeous and brutal clay to shape. We are having a good time in rehearsal, with a section of A Number that carries with it a landscape of aggression, abandonment, and discord. How does it feel to play with dialogue and action that never resolves? Full of potential, and the feeling of tilting on the edge.
 
What's your favorite line in the play?
"because if there was nobody there that would be terrifying and if you were there that might be worse but it's something I wonder"

What is I and You about? 
Caroline is a feisty teenage girl who has taken a leave of absence from high school due to a serious medical condition. At the beginning of the play, Anthony shows up in her bedroom to get her help on a school project which analyzes Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass. Caroline and Anthony’s encounter turns into a humorous and determined battle of wills. 
 
What do you like about I and You? 
The characters have a story that is spirited, combative, funny, mysterious and emotionally-charged.
 
What is most challenging/interesting about the play? 
The most interesting part of the play is how the characters surprise each other.  
 
What is your favorite part of the directing process? 
Once the staging outline is set in, I love discovering the unpredictable behavior that reveals the characters’ personalities. There is no small talk on stage because everything means something. In rehearsal we explore how the characters need each other and how they approach each moment in their roller-coaster relationship. 
 
How many aspects of the show have changed since your original plans? 
No matter how thoroughly I prepared to direct the play, everything changes once the play is cast. I have no way of knowing in advance how the actors will work together or how they will respond to the challenges that I offer. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Victoria Fearn and Jabari Matthew on this production! They are young artists who have had excellent training, and they bring to the rehearsal intelligent ideas, bold choices and imaginative verve. Even though we only started working a few days ago, they have great chemistry together!
 
What makes I and You relatable to audiences here and now? 
The story deals with The Big Questions concerning our greatest hopes and fears about life and death. Walt Whitman’s poetry is the catalyst for the characters discovering an extraordinary connection.
 
What types of conversations do you want the audience members to have on their way home from seeing this play? 
I hope they will be discussing the meaning of the relationship between Caroline and Anthony.   

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.
 
 

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.

What is Tribes about?

We are born into a specific tribe and as we mature we select our own tribes. Where we work, what we do, who we desire, even where we live. I also think that the piece is finding your autonomy within a tribe – how do you be a part of a tribe, and how do we stay true to ourselves within the tribe?

What do you like about Tribes?

I like all the moving pieces. I love that the lead in this play, and a good chunk of the play deals with a deaf man navigating through his world, navigating through his family, and navigating intimate love for the first time.

What scares you about Tribes?

Like every play I have ever directed, I am always worried, before we begin on Tuesday September 15th, about whether the cast I have chosen will get along. Will the play make sense to an audience – will their, “willing suspension of their disbelief” be honored?

What will you be trying to accomplish directorially with Tribes?

I want to be ahead of the audience. I want the play to come roaring out of the gate from the beginning – an onslaught of words and thoughts.

What kinds of conversations would you like the audience to have after experiencing this play?

I want people to ask themselves if the members of their tribe are being heard, and honored.

The Dining Room is comprised of 18 vignettes and over 50 characters played by only a handful of actors. Do you find that breaking it down into sections makes it easier or harder to direct than the entire show? 
I think it’s tougher in that there is less of an overall journey for me to help the audience through.  I have the end of the play, and endings are always hard.  Especially when you have no control over the beginning and middle of a play!  You need to wrap things up, make a statement for the whole play, but not get too sentimental with it in this case.  We keep it simple, slightly stylized.  To me the end is about coming together.  It symbolizes the family and tradition of this society.  And also celebrates the actors who as an ensemble have worked hard to make this happen. 

Are you approaching your section of The Dining Room as mutually exclusive from the other two pieces?
Yes. In fact, I am treating each vignette as if it were its own short play.  Since each one involves completely different, unrelated characters, we need to make sure the audience gets the Who, What, and When.  The actors are fleshing out their characters, finding the story arc and the “event” of the scene, and working to get what they want or need independently of the play as a whole.  

I would actually approach it the same way if I were directing the entire show.  Each vignette gives us a different glimpse of an aspect of the “WASPS.  Of  the Northeastern United States” (to quote a character).  Different generations, all sorts of different family dynamics.  By giving us this variety of people and situations, the playwright A. R. Gurney allows us to see a full picture of this socio-economic group at a particular time.  By writing this way, Gurney lets the sum of the parts create its own arc.

​​​Do you find anything to be particularly challenging about your “slice” of The Dining Room?

I’m not sure my “slice” of The Dining Room” is any more challenging than the others.  The main challenge for all of the directors is helping the actors create interesting and unique characters played by the same actors.  Also, staging each scene in a dining room (and with the audience on all sides of us) creates a challenge for inventive staging.

However, one of my favorite vignettes in the whole play is in my section, and it is also one of the most challenging.  I find it to be stylistically different than most others.  It feels big and farcical.  I wanted to go whole hog with the farce, but not have it feel like it doesn’t belong with all the other scenes.  Also, when doing farce, the challenge is to make it truthful and not go into slapstick.  When done well, it allows us to point out the absurdity of things, but not disregard them.

At its core, The Dining Room is about: How people and families can be separated, distant.  It is about how circumstance and tradition can push us apart. 

Tell us a story from your life that happened at a dining room table. 

For the life of me, I can’t think of an interesting story in a dining room!  I remember eating.  And talking a lot.  If this play were called The Living Room, or perhaps The Rumpus Room, I’d have a good one for you.