She Interviews Directors

Part IV: Lana Russell Lana Rosalind Russell Hometown: San Rafael, CA Current Town: Williamsburg Brooklyn Tell me about Vigils : Vigils is an insane play. And I feel like I’m a bit insane for loving it so much and for directing it. In its most basic explanation the play is about a woman (a young widow) who lost her fire fighter husband two years ago and is unable to move on with her life. The play structurally mirrors the way memories “come in no particular order”. There are strings of memories that actually happened, memories the characters try to change, happy times, sad times, and explorations of what they wish they would’ve done differently. This woman has kept her husband’s soul in a box in her home and his body in a picture frame. Without them, she fears she will die. We explore the ups and downs of their relationship, their love, losses and secrets kept from each other. Can she find a way out? Can she can choose to let go and find her way into the future?

I Interview Directors Part III: Alice Cash  Alice Cash Hometown:  San Diego, CA Current Town:  NYC Tell me about 8000M 8000M by David Greig, in its broadest sense, is about climbing Mount Lhotse, the Mountain right next to Everest.  But I think what’s really exciting about the piece, is that even though it’s specifically talking about mountaineering, the play can essentially morph into anything the viewer feels passionately about.  When I first read the play, it was about my experience in the theatre and my love of directing.  Tell me about your process and the concept for the show. (the ropes!!) It’s a play about climbing in the Himalayas, so I knew it was necessary to capture the danger of ice climbing in the Death Zone, over eight thousand meters, which Greig describes as “ Sleep is almost impossible. Time passes with aching slowness. The cold penetrates to your core. There is not enough oxygen for your metabolism to function

I Interview Directors Part II: Mason Beggs Mason Beggs Hometown: Corry, PA Current Town: Jersey City, NJ Tell me about The Handless Maiden : The Handless Maiden is a dark immersive fairy tale that composer Shayfer James and I devised for Art House Productions in Jersey City along with an amazing cast and creative team. It is based on a Grimms’ Fairy Tale called The Maiden Without Hands which we then placed within a world reminiscent to the 1930’s Dust Bowl. Over the course of a month, we devised an immersive theatre piece accompanied by  an Appalachian inspired vocal score and live prepared piano. It was a wonderful experience. Our main goal in the adaptation was to give the Maiden more agency over her life as she, in the original tale, was more or less constructed as a damsel in distress. I loved creating in this world and hope to revisit it at some point. What else are you currently busy with? I just lead a Visual Thinking module at The New School

I Interview Directors Part I: Glynis Rigsby Glynis Rigsby Hometown: Torrance, CA Current Town: Brooklyn, NY Tell me about Spreading Canvas : A dear friend of mine, Eleanor Hughes, called me up one day in the mid-90’s to tell me that she was at the Huntington Library reading plays from the Larpent Collection, an archive of almost every play submitted to the London censor between 1737 and 1824 .   She was researching material for her Phd dissertation on 18 th century British Marine Painting and had discovered a trove of plays with excerpts dramatizing naval battles. She is now the Associate Director of the Walters Museum in Baltimore and last week, she opened an exhibition at the Yale Center of British Art called “Spreading Canvas” based on that research.   I just received the catalog for it and it’s gorgeous.   As part of the opening of the exhibition, she asked Yale to bring me in to direct some of the naval excerpts so we headed up to New Haven