Che’Rae Adams is a good friend, and amazing
collaborator as Director & Dramaturg. Remounting Karen Anzoategui’s solo show SER at the Hollywood Fringe Festival interests me and so I invited her to be profiled as a Working Director.
You can also read about my personal experience in her workshop at the LA Writer’s Center here, in which I confirm that everyone who told me Che’Rae is an awesome teacher was right!
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CMJ: Please give a short description of SER from a Director’s Perspective. What were the images or themes that drove your process?
SER at its core is about Karen’s love of Soccer, her struggle with her parents’ tumultuous “match” they call marriage, and how she is kicked back and forth between growing up in L.A. and Buenos Aires.
Images that took us through the process and that actually showed up in the end result as well are the flags of each nation. We use them as literal representations of her journey, but also as symbols of her inner journey, navigating through her 
family life, sense of home, and sexuality.
Some of the themes that we played with in the writing and in the rehearsal process were her perceptions of her family. She has a sort of distorted view so we exaggerated each of the characters as far as we could go with them. For example her father was away from home so much that she imagined that he was James Brown so that is how she portrays him. She does a great JB impression! Accordingly, her younger brother is quiet by nature so she plays him as Harpo Marx, horn and all.
CMJ: How did you prepare for a solo show versus with more than one person? How is the rehearsal process different?
When it comes to solo work, It always helps to work with actors who have experience with stand-up comedy (as Karen does) because she inherently understands that her relationship is with the audience instead of with the other actors in a more traditional play. In a solo show the performer has to “cast the audience”, in other words, they have to decide who they are talking to and why. Again, not something an actor in a traditional show has to worry about.
The most important prep for any production is the script development process and with solo shows it is just as imperative. My rehearsal process is the same, except that I have to teach the performer a few things that I wouldn’t normally teach in a more traditional rehearsal process. For example, how to adjust the blocking and body language so that it is clear that she is having a conversation with more than one character. I also watch out for simple things like making sure the scenes are written in first person so that the action is always current. I teach these kind of things in my Solo Show Bootcamp which I hold weekly in Silver Lake.
CMJ: What was the biggest challenge in directing this piece and how did you overcome it (if you think you did)?
The biggest challenge was to get Karen to think like the actor in rehearsal and not like the writer. I can always tell when she makes the transition-when something isn’t working for her in the script, all of a sudden her eyes glaze over and I’ve lost her. Getting her to trust that I will let her know if something dramaturgically isn’t working so she doesn’t have to worry about it has been a struggle. She can instinctively tell where the script isn’t working and when that happens I lose her as the actor for a while which can be frustrating.
The way I deal with it is to stop and fix the script so she can move forward and let it go. Even though I hate to stop my rehearsal process with Karen the actor, Karen the writer must be satisfied in order for me to get Karen the actor back.
CMJ: What is the biggest challenge to directors in Los Angeles? How have you found your way here and where do you hope to go?
I think finding good material is always a challenge. I started nurturing and supporting local writers many years ago. Earning their trust has enabled me to direct primarily new work for over two decades. My goal is to establish The LA Writers Center as an artistic home for writers to develop their work as well as eventually get their plays produced.
