This semester you’re directing “WASP” by Steve Martin; how did this come about?
In order to direct a show through STA (Student Theatre Association), you must require a list of fulfillments from their given Director’s Application. The process includes picking three plays you would be interested in directing, analyzing them, what your vision of them would entail, which is your top preference, etc etc etc. There is also a ‘mock directing’ process so they can view how well you work with others, and an interview with the board.
Did you choose this play? If so why?
WASP was my first choice. I am obsessed with Steve Martin (in a healthy way…)’s life; he is an exceptionally eclectic man. Everything he does he does well…and he does EVERYTHiNG. Banjo/bluegrass musician, novelist, playwright, actor, stand-up comic…i enjoy his writing most. I think all of his plays express important messages that reach out universally and speak loudly about the kind of societal pressures we face in our lives today.
When will the performance go onstage?
It went up February 24th-26th.
With out wanting to give the whole story away would you mind telling what the basis of the story is in WASP?
(you’re awesome haha) It’s about alienation. How when people are told to follow specific roles/lives, they lose themselves. They never truly find what they want and end up by living a life of seclusion from each other and essentially themselves. The 1950’s is a great archetypal example of what the picture-perfect nuclear family is suppose to look like. It shows how when people struggle to fit themselves into this unrealistic plastic-perfect mold, they crumble. They have titles that they are expected to live up to and if they do not they become vulnerable and their worlds shatter. In order to keep up such distinct, sheltered roles they must separate themselves from anything that could make them seem vulnerable; emotion, differences, true desires. fears, etc. The worse the life is the greater you must mask yourself into seeming happy and cheerful. When you cannot escape physically you must escape through imagination, and that is what these people must do. The American Dream is the American Nightmare. All of these people are essentially living behind a mask (of who they are ‘suppose to be’) and have an incredibly immense yearning and longing for something more, beneath it.).
Now I believe this is your first time directing is this true? If not how was your first directing experience?
This is my first time directing. My former experience is from the Directing I class I took last semester with Jack Shea, various acting classes, and some personal research (Bloom’s ‘Thinking Like A Director’). I’m currently enrolled in his Directing II class this Spring semester.
How do you feel about this directing experience?
It was a wonderful learning experience and I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to work with such a beautiful, motivated cast.
Would you say your experience as an actress has helped you prepare to direct? If yes than how so?
Yes. You have to be willing to be completely vulnerable and make mistakes in order to perfect any piece of art. Acting teaches you to do that.
Learning things first from the perspective of the actor also helps you to understand the medium as a whole. It’s fun to be able to create an individual world for EVERY character (as opposed to just yours) and then incorporate it into the universe of the play that you create and that those actors help you create.
Other than the obvious of being behind the scenes and not acting is there anything else that’s majorly different with directing than acting? More or less stressful? More or less time consuming?
Haha a lot more work…well….maybe not A LOT just a DIFFERENT type of work. You have to work around all of your actors’ schedules, you have to be willing to share the space you work in with other directors…it pretty much involves a lot more in the sense of organizational skills. As a director, you are also responsible for EVERYTHiNG that gets put on the stage. You say ‘Yes’ to everything and then it all becomes your responsibility, so you have an incredible duty to everyone involved AND the artwork to give your hardest performance each day and be extremely willing to try new things/create changes/be adaptable, etc. etc. That’s not to say acting isn’t hard work, it’s extremely difficult work…but like anything, if you want to do a Great Job you have to work your absolute hardest and keep a positive attitude always.
