We are nearly two weeks away from the opening of Andy Takes a Husband at Stella Adler, and what a tremendous relief it is to unburden myself of the play that caused me so much grief during its incubation and watch the characters come to life in the hands of the actors. This is the part that makes it all worth it, folks:
Oh Roman, Oh Roman, Oh Roman
Now, this is my first experience directing a piece of my own writing, and attempting any sort of neutrality of perspective as a director can be a sort of preposterous thing to ask. A writer often feels they want to communicate so much with a piece, but a director must focus on what they want to say with this production. Through rehearsals, I am reminded again and again that discovering this focus comes through a process of open collaboration. Thank goodness for my assistant directors Lauren and Manuel, and thank goodness for my amazingly open and creative cast of Stella Adler actors.
It can be a scary thing for a writer to watch characters that they’ve seen so vividly in their mind’s eye to take shape through the imagination of an Actor. The characters you felt you knew so well are transformed before your eyes into sometimes radically different, often more complex, and always more exciting people than those you’ve imagined. Finding those surprising moments in rehearsals has been absolutely exhilarating. This is what the theater really is; the script is nothing more than a blueprint for a real piece of art constructed in the rehearsal studio, and born on opening night. Two weeks away from Friday! Hope to see every one of you there the weekend of July 30th.
- j.
icbins
jraemaldonado
lbferrel
mannycbins
