I met Armina while we both worked at The Fountain Theatre. As many from the Fountain family, we’ve stayed in touch and often entered each other’s lives again at exactly the right moment (at least from my perspective)! I also always feel a special private affinity towards anyone who directs “A Caucasian Chalk Circle,” a strange little bias of mine.
Armina is a wonderful creative soul, and if you have the chance to meet or work with her, your life will feel a little more enriched.
” I am constantly reminded
I am part of a whole”
1. Please give a short description of THE CAR PLAYS process from a Director’s 
Perspective. What are the images or themes driving your process?
Perspective. What are the images or themes driving your process?The process is unique. I was forwarded several plays and asked to read through them. This was just days before auditions began. I read through the plays and once I had finished there was no doubt about which play spoke to me. We Wait is a ten-minute tragi-comedy about two dogs abandoned by their owners in a car at an airport parking lot. Duncan and Walter are victims of a recession that hit their owners so hard that Mommy and Daddy could no longer care for them. I found this idea of abandonment to be a reflection of the domino effect that followed the crash of Wall Street in 2007 & 2008. It was not a rare thing to hear that owners abandoned their pets together with their overpriced homes. All actions have a trickle down effect. And that’s what we see in We Wait.
2. How did you prepare for directing in a festival, and such a unique situation, than a typical show?
Directing for theatre festivals is a extraordinary experience. In 2008, I directed Pushkin at Boldino at the Philly Fringe. The experience was remarkable – being a part of this huge, living, breathing performing arts organism. So when Kim (from Moving Arts) contacted me about directing one of the plays for The Car Plays at LA Radar, I was thrilled. What is unique about this experience is that I am constantly reminded that I am a part of whole, therefore, ideas like unity and reciprocity are an imperative part of the process. It’s not just what is best for my show, but what is best for The Car Plays as a whole.
3. What is the biggest challenge in directing this piece and how do you think you’ll overcome it ?
Scene from The Caucasian Chalk Circle at Tomlinson Theatre in Philadelphia - 2009 Picture includes ensemble, together with Noah Drew (bottom left), Krista Bushinski (center) and Catalina Medina as Grushs (sitting right).
Undoubtedly, the biggest challenge with my piece is the portrayal of talking dogs by humans. The key is to portray the true and very powerful emotions that man’s best friend experiences without commenting on it. Dealing with the news of abandonment is what I want to concentrate on. I am not one to go for cheap laughs by having my actors make silly presentations of dog behavior. No. What I want is to show how some feelings and emotions are universal in the entire animal kingdom (which includes us). We all want for company, friendship and love.
4. What is the biggest challenge to directors in Los Angeles? How have you found your way here and where do you hope to go?
The biggest obstacle that directors face in Los Angeles is not getting paid for directing. This problem is not limited to directors. The exploitation of the 99 Seat Plan has gotten out of control in Los Angeles. Add to this the problems that arise out of using the current non-profit status by almost every troupe in town, you get a theatre scene that full of small theatres that either don’t last long or are scraping by, which in turn requires that artists (directors, actors, etc.) donate their time, regardless of their experience and education. It is imperative that we (theatre community) take a long and hard look at where we are and where we are heading, which at the moment doesn’t sound anywhere promising. Other big cities function without the 99 Seat Plan; this weeds out mediocrity, decreases the number of theatres and provides an arena of professionalism (both artistically and financially).
I found myself in Los Angeles when I was still a teenager after a tour of Northern California with the Arlekin Theatre from Moscow. And although I left to Philadelphia for three years to get my MFA in Directing, I consider Los Angeles to be my home.
I am a storyteller. That is what I love to do. Directing allows me to tell stories of all kinds and this is the driving force within me. It is my intention to continue telling stories and hopefully getting paid for it on the way.
BIO Armina LaManna is a director and writer. Her career in the theatre began when Armina was admitted into a Musical Theatre Academy in the former USSR at the age of six. At the academy Armina performed in Gluck’s Orpheus and Eurydice, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Debussy’s The Nutckracker, among others. In the U.S., her directing credits include The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Pushkin at Boldino (which she also wrote), The Zoo Story, Hello Out There, A Lie of the Mind in Philadelphia; also Three Simple Words for PYPF. In Los Angeles Armina directed The Maids (Eclectic Theatre Company) Little Armenia (FountainTheatre), An Ideal Husband, A Marriage Proposal, Silenced and Heart in the Ground. Other credits: P.L.A.Y., Middle Passage, Circumference of a Squirrel at the Mark Taper Forum’s New Work Festival. Stage managing credits: The InterAct Theatre (Phila), the Colony Theatre, the Fountain Theatre, Groundlings 30th Anniversary at the Henry Fonda Theatre, The Los Angeles Repertory Co., The Interact Theatre (LA), the Grove Theatre Center, the Great American Playwriting Series, the Pasadena Shakespeare Co. Armina wrote Pushkin at Boldino, which held its premier at the Philly Fringe in 2008 and was part of On the Radar Series at The Chance Theatre this year. She translated Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard, Strindberg’s The Ghost Sonata; also Gogol’s The Government Inspector for The Lantern Theatre. Armina was an invited teacher at the Arlekin Theatre Academy in October of 2008 and participated in the 2009 Director’s Lab West. Ms. LaManna holds an M.F.A. in Directing from Temple University, where she also taught for three years.
1 comment
Barbara Fulchino says:
June 4, 2011 at 9:13 am (UTC -0.5)
It sounds like you two have a lot in common.