Gain! (Fall 2018)
Gain! was an experiment in staging. Rehearsing for a site-based context (a gym!) presented many challenges and opportunities. It required the intense work of ‘forgetting’: forgetting lighting, soundscape, and set design. We had to switch locations, so the play changed shape constantly during rehearsal. Gain! had to be like water - ready to fit whichever container we poured it in. The process was also an experiment in collaboration. I was very open to input from the actors on how their characters owned/were owned by the space. Improvised blocking and ad libbing were necessary whenever audience interaction was involved. The actors lifted real weights, so their safety was dependent on their improvisational self-awareness. I think Gain! was the best realization of my leadership method (primarily, to ensure everyone feels equally responsible for the project) thus far.
Under A Foreign Flag (Late Summer 2016)
Under A Foreign Flag ran for two multiple-performance days on Governors Island, as part of the WWI Centennial Celebration. It was then brought by the group who commissioned it - WWI reenactment troupe The Ebony Doughboys - to Charlottesville, Virginia for a one-time Veteran’s Day performance. I directed the one man show for the gazebo in which it was performed on Governors Island. It was sort of presentational, sort of immersive, sort of in the round, sort of proscenium, sort of interactive… So much depended on the moods of whichever audience members happened to attend! This fluidity was central in preparing me to direct Gain! two years later.
Life on the Moon (Spring 2015)
Life on the Moon, by Anna Tatelman, was the first new play I directed. It came with all the joys and challenges of working alongside a playwright on a living script. The play is a family drama set around Christmas time, focusing on the relationship between brother (returning from war) and younger sister (with autism). I quested to find family naturalism without losing theatricality, and to be specific and discrete in assembling the pieces of the story. I succeeded in some ways, and failed in others. My central mistake was letting scenes wallow: I received criticism from audience members for the slowness of the show. They were right, and since then I have made rhythm, momentum, and inertia central concepts of my directing practice.
Charlotte’s Web (Spring 2014)
In some ways, Charlotte’s Web--the first play I ever directed - was the most challenging to date. Not only did I have no practical directing experience when I began, but my cast was comprised of 35 middle schoolers: including many first time actors! Beyond dealing with the ancient venue, beyond juggling set design and blocking strategies, beyond that fascinating work of world-building, there was a deeper challenge: how, as the leader, might I include those who lash out with disrespectful behavior? Those who don’t feel like they are responsible for the work they are doing, and for the greater work of the play that we are doing? These questions were the first spark of what became a fascination with the multivalence of responsibility in the realms of theater-making and leadership psychology.