During the past 8 weeks I had the distinct pleasure of talking to 13 directors - people I variously admired and perhaps had met at various openings around town, but with whom I'd never had the chance to discuss a project.
Some conversations were briefer than others - after all A New Theory of Vision is a real project with a real production date which means some brilliantly talented directors had real and not-so-brilliant schedule conflicts.
In some cases also - two specifically, the directors actually read the script and told me that the project wasn't right for the kind of work they liked to do. Which was an interesting response.Do you find that directors are more comfortable turning down work due to creative or stylistic conflict than actors? When I feel more secure in my work myself, someday, might be moved to then ask a director what specifically they didn't like (although one did proffer an explanation, which only led to more questions in my mind, but since they'd turned the project down, didn't want to waste their time).
In most cases however the directors said yes enthusiastically (a massive relief, referring to aforementioned insecurities) and then I had the weird problem of trying to find a fit amongst a group of incredibly brilliant and talented people, in each case trying to tell them they weren't the only person I was talking to (not wanting to waste their time - OOB directing is a tough enough job) but also wanting to have a good strong sense of how they'd attack the material. Attack is the principal word.
In the end, Cat Parker turned out to have a great affinity for the material, and was also generally delightful to work with. I mean, all the directors I chatted with were friendly and cool, but Cat had a specific and southern warmth and charm to her as well besides being brilliant).
One thing I did learn. Directors who work the NYC downtown theatre scene are universally intelligent and sharp. These are definitely people you want to hang out with.
No comments:
Post a Comment