breaking bread

For years people have told me that I should have a theatre company or they assumed that I already had one. It was an intriguing idea to me but honestly the amount of work that I knew would be involved scared me away from the idea. Cut to early 2011. I am having breakfast at Sara Beth’s on Central Park South with my friend Jen Waldman. We’ve known each other for years but hadn’t spent a significant amount of time together. Shortly before the meeting Jen asked me to teach a master class for her studio. The Jen Waldman Studio is this amazing place for actors to stretch and grow, and because Jen has such a positive encouraging spirit, her students rightfully adore her. At the end of the class that I taught, we made a date to sit down and catch up, and that’s how we ended up at Sara Beth’s. We talked about the theatre. We talked about the fact that there was something missing for each of us. We missed the energy of our first years in New York when we just did work because we wanted to do it. We didn’t ask anyone’s permission back then. We just did it. So the idea of starting a company came up and 90 minutes later we had a name and two seasons planned. 

In our mission statement one of the things we say is that we are dedicated to producing the “unproduceable.” Our inaugural production will be Picnic At Hanging Rock by Daniel Zaitchik. I’ve known Daniel as an actor ever since he starred in the world premiere production that I directed of The Burnt Boys by Mariana Elder, Chris Miller and Nathan Tysen up at Barrington Stage Company. I’ve always been fascinated by the movie of Picnic At Hanging Rock, and I always thought it’d make a beautiful musical, though I knew it would have to be a very ambitious and unconventional one in order to tell that tale. One night that summer up at BSC we were out all out at a bar and I overheard Daniel mention the title Picnic At Hanging Rock, and when I asked him what he talking about, he said that he was writing a musical based on the novel. Well I immediately said, “When you’re looking for a director, remember me.” Thankfully he did! After a developmental reading at Lincoln Center and then a summer up at the O’neill Musical Theatre Conference, I was determined to get the show produced. It’s a tricky landscape out there at the moment in theatre land. In this economic climate it seems as if theatre’s are even less inclined to take a chance on a “risky” show especially regionally. Picnic is a big show: 15 women and 3 men, so I get the risk factor though I didn’t see the “it’s unproduceable” label at all. Needless to say it was disconcerting to see this beautiful show not getting a home. Catalyst #1 for starting a company.

I am a director. I am also a writer. Regionally people see me as both. In NYC? The director label tips the scales in that direction (so to speak). I love both and would never give up one for the other, and both inform the other. Writing makes me a better director and directing makes me a better writer. About a year and a half ago a friend and I were at a diner and he was expressing the need to do a piece about loss. I told him I had an old one act quirky little comedy that I had written and directed down at Expanded Arts Inc over a decade ago that might just fit the bill. We did a very informal reading of it, and I was reminded of how much I liked those characters. Now there were 9 of them, in a 54 minute one act LOL, and even I will admit that a play like that is difficult to produce. After the reading I thought I might turn it into a screenplay. Before jumping into that task I decided to “write them out” as characters, to find out more about them. Well, that turned into a three act play. Nine people in a play these days is still pretty darn risky. I know that I’m encouraged to keep cast sizes at 4. I also immediately saw the play done environmentally—the play has a certain intimacy about it, and I wanted the audience to feel like they were in the same room as the characters. A quirky little three act comedy set environmentally with 9 actors--- catalyst #2 for starting a company.

Cattalyist #3 was Jen Waldman. First of all I completely believe in her artistically and she is incredibly energizing. It’s easy to get excited about projects she’s interested in because she is so excited by them. We have a second season planned – and just to dissuade anyone from thinking that the company is just an opportunity for me to produce projects I’m involved with, I have not written either of the second season pieces, and I’m definitely not directing the first show of the second season, and the second piece will be jointly directed by Jen, Wendy, Steve, and myself. It’s an exciting venture, and it would never have happened if not for that breakfast with Jen. I know I couldn’t have done it alone. She gave me the energy and the passion to dive off the cliff.