directing
rabbit hole
director
by David Lindsay-Abaire
Voodoo Theatre Company
Salt Lake City, UT
Concept:
My mantra in the room was “no smooth edges,” which was part of a note by the playwright at the beginning of the text: “Rabbit Hole is not a tidy play. Resist smoothing out its edges” – David Lindsay-Abaire
People are rough, grief is rough, community is rough and it would have been untruthful to give the actors and the audience an easy out by playing only grief. That thought piggybacks onto the second and other most important thing in my process – it’s fucking funny! I didn’t for a second want any of the humor or light moments to get sucked into a vacuum of grief. Even when we’re broken, we silly humans find a way to laugh.
"You're not in a better place than I am, you're just in a different place. And that sucks that we can't be there for each other right now, but that's just the way it is."
dog
director
By Francesca Pazniokas
Theatre Alatulya
Venue: The Drayton Arms (UK)
Concept:
Francesca’s text ultimately drew me in with the power of language. This isn’t an unfamiliar story – in fact, it’s far too familiar. I love dark, experimental work, but it was vital that we didn’t overdo it in terms of production. For this story to hit home, it had to be simple and familiar to the audience. I wanted the audience to think “...okay, this might not be great, but it’s not awful either, what’s the catch?” and then get absolutely fucked by what they’d been bearing witness to without even recognizing.
“Maybe she pretends, maybe she wants to keep you, maybe you’ve never done anything to her so she thinks you’ve never done anything to anyone…”
given. formed. found.
director
Devised by: Megan Brewer, Morgan Lee, He Zhang
London, UK
Concept:
This was a piece developed and performed by three directors who lost their cast to covid restrictions.
We started from a common yet uncommon ground of the meaning of food – across cultures, across moments in time, the bringing together and tearing apart. The program reflects different snapshots of food in folklore, food in culture, food as unification, food as destruction. We were interested in exploring the movement from one “course” to another through time, space, and culture, through life and death.
“The world begins at a kitchen table. No matter what, we must eat to live.”
blue
director
Created and devised by Morgan Lee
Concept:
Blue was a site-specific movement piece that came from a room in a beautiful Georgian dower house that whispered of the past. The stories that built up and spilled out – or did they leave kicking and screaming? Whispers of a ghost, creaking shutters – what is the truth of the room?
the wolf’s eyelash
director
Adapted from and inspired by Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ Women Who Run With the Wolves
Devised by the company
Concept:
Estés’ book is a sort of scripture for me – something I return to again and again. The story about a young woman who – against all advice – goes into the woods and meets a wolf, who gives her a great and generous gift, stood out to me as more than a story, something that needed to be created physically. With the use of music and movement, we created a story of not one woman, but of all women – women who are told “No,” who dare anyway, and who ultimately create something better.
“Go out in the woods, go out. If you don’t go out in the woods, nothing will ever happen and your life will never begin.”
the rock from the sky
director
“I like to close my eyes and imagine into the future. Come. Close your eyes and do it with me.”
Adapted from The Rock from the Sky
By: Jon Klassen
Concept:
In this movement-based piece, a mysterious rock falls from the sky. In a series of vignettes, we see two creatures (human? animal?) exist in and around the rock. Is it their imagination? Is it comedy gold, or does the rock bring otherworldly terrors? My goal with this piece was to create something the whole family could enjoy, and to give actors a challenge to develop other-than-human physicality in storytelling.
you can’t take it with you
director
By: George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart
Yorkshire Playhouse, Nebraska
Concept:
This production came to me last minute, as the original director backed out. It might seem like an obvious answer, but family was the most important thing. The Vanderhof-Sycamore-Carmichael clan had their own lives, their own interests, plenty of tiffs, even more weirdness, but the core of who they were came back to being a big family in a big house that just really loved each other at the end of the day. Family was its own character with its own story, and the walls of the interior of the home were covered with mementos each actor individually contributed on behalf of their character, each adding something to the history of their shared home.
“Remember, all we ask is to just go along and be happy in our own sort of way.”
Big, big sky
assistant director
By Tom Wells
Director: Tessa Walker
Hampstead Theatre, UK
World Premiere
‘This poignant, uplifting play is just what we need right now’ The Arts Desk
‘This is a beautifully wistful play, full of charm and kindness by the bucketload’ WhatsOnStage
‘A bittersweet, elegantly crafted story that entices with warmth, humour, emotional truths and universal themes’ The Stage
“And then just, this place. The sand and, and the sea, waves crashing, ships passing, wind blowing foam along the beach… and like I know it’s on the edge of things but. Mostly, it does feel a bit sort of magic. Just does.”
thE THreepenny opera
assistant director
By: Bertold Brecht & Kurt Weill
New adaptation by Simon Stephens
Director: Michael Oakley
East 15 Acting School, UK
"This is a bit more bloody like it . . . Top playwright Simon Stephens's filth-encrusted adaptation largely succeeds in having and eating its grubby cake; aesthetically it conjures up a grimy, crime-infested East End in a manner both nostalgic and condemnatory" – Time Out London
