Speaking of good email (I was, I think!), here's a good one from Katy for a day when I have nothing interesting to say other than the fact that I worked for eleven and a half hours yesterday.

"I love to read about your experiences directing, since it's something I'll probably never do, so it's just fascinating.

No need to answer this email directly -- use it to inspire a journal entry if you want -- but I'm curious about what goes on in the director's head... (and I'm hoping you like interview-type questions even when you're not being interviewed for a nationally-published magazine, but only out of my own curiosity).

Anyway.

* What's the strangest play you've ever directed?
* What's the most famous play you've ever directed?
* What do you like most about directing?
* What do you hate most about directing?
* Do you make set design, and costuming decisions as well as seeking to inspire the actors? (I assume you've got to have some input into set design because otherwise how would you block the scenes?)"

"What's the strangest play you've ever directed?"

Wow, I've directed some doozies. There was the astoundingly bad Bargain Basement, which was only the second show that I ever directed. Four people speaking in blank verse and making no sense, and the only good thing about it was that it was short and everyone got naked. Someone once said that it was the worst show ever at Love Creek, but I demurred, saying that I personally had directed worse shows, like Caterpillar Waltz, which made just as little sense but was five times as long and everyone kept their clothes on!

Caterpillar Waltz was appalling, really. two actresses talking in circles, and one of the actresses couldn't learn her lines, so it really went in circles. You know, one of those scripts where the same lines kept coming up over and over again, each time leading to a different continuation, but she kept going backwards. In fact, I ended up having to be backstage so that if they got stuck, they could wander casually over stage left and I'd whisper a line that would cut them to a part where they could move on.

There were three performances, and each time they would get more and more of the script in. "How was it tonight?" they'd say, "There were lines that I haven't heard in weeks!" I'd answer. Closing night, though, they really were doing the script in order, and I was watching the book, marveling at how they weren't skipping or repeating or anything, until, about two pages from the end, they cut back to the beginning. And I thought I would have a stroke, because they just kept going! It was like they were trying to kill the audience, doing this awful, numbing play over and over again, world without end.

So I was standing there, trying to will one of them to come over stage left and I'd cut them to the end, but it took about five minutes before they realized that they were caught in a spiral of bad play, and Julie wandered within earshot, I threw her the line, and it was curtain call in about thirty seconds.

No experience will ever be so bad--it's all been easy since then, at least, comparatively!

And yes, I realize that the question was "strangest", not "worst", but they were the same in my case.

Do you know, I've got to go! More directing talk soon, I promise!

Speaking of bad plays...

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Last Updated Fri 4 February 09:12:09 2000