One of the coolest parts of these interviews is quite simply the people I get to know. A fan of Theatre Unleashed since the 2010 Hollywood Fringe Festival, reading about Joshua Morrison and his process now encourages me to get off my home-office butt and go see this show.
CMJ: Please give a short description of this play from a Director’s 
Perspective. What were the images or themes that drove your process?
JM: For me, Fiction by Steven Dietz is about relationships, specifically romantic relationships, and what, in the end, we can make of them, Because the fact is we tend to get sucked into them, like a cheesy book of fiction. We want to know what happens next. We want to know the story. And the story, at least for this particular play, goes like this:
Linda and Michael Waterman are both novelists. They’ve been married 20+ 
years and, career-wise, they both ended up in places they didn’t necessarily intend upon when they first picked up the pen. But the status of their relationship, their marriage, isn’t called into question until Linda is unexpectedly diagnosed with a deadly brain tumor. She then asks of Michael her dying wish: for him to read her diaries after she passes, and in anticipated exchange, to be able to read his journals. Michael unwillingly agrees, and it isn’t long until Linda finds the first clues of infidelity. What commences is a shared journey into the texts of their respective pasts. What’s true and what’s just writers doing what they do best…well…that gets tricky.
As it was for me, being a first-time stage director. In college I studied film and writing, so I was used to thinking in visuals. And that’s really what guided my first reading of Fiction. The initial image I had was pretty much provided by Dietz: that of a couple sitting at a café, engaged in conversation. But for some reason, I saw this image in silhouette. And as I studied the play, I began to realize why: a shadow is amorphous…you can paint your own emotions and stories upon a shadow…and of course, a shadow can be misleading (as Dietz so beautifully points out in a monologue towards the end of the play).
CMJ: . Have you worked with T.U. before? How did you prepare for this process?
JM: I have worked with T.U. many times. I started with them over two years ago and haven’t stopped. It really is a unique, devoted, and most of all, kind group of people. Until now, my station in the group has been mainly as an actor, but I’ve also written lots of short plays for them, directed videos, helped produce a late-night show, and performed stand-up comedy.
Really the only thing I hadn’t done with T.U. was direct. Not because they didn’t want me to, necessarily, but because I didn’t think of myself as a director. I still don’t. And that, actually, is what I believe allows me to be a good one. Because I’m afraid I’ll suck.
If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have prepared nearly as much as I did. Reading-wise, I 
picked up Mamet’s True and False for a second time, and felt like I understood it a whole lot better. I was also given Frank Hauser and Russell Reich’s Notes on Directing:130 Lessons in Leadership from the Director’s Chair by my colleague and friend Jacob Smith, director of T.U.’s Birthday Boys. The latter book really provided me with a great template of what to expect from the process, while the former encouraged me to be bold and specific in my choices. Looking back, these two texts pair up quite well, each one tempering and challenging the other.
Outside the realm of theatre, I went back and re-read a couple of what I felt to be pertinent shorter works by some of my favorite writers of fiction: Jonathan Lethem’s essay “The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism”; Jonathan Franzen’s dense and fierce argument for the importance of the novel, “Why Bother?”; and Jorge Luis Borges’s “Pierre Menard, Author of Quixote.” If anybody hasn’t read any of these three works, I suggest they do so immediately, and then come see the play, because they were certainly all in the back of my mind while directing.
CMJ: What was the biggest challenge in directing this piece and how will you overcome it (if you think you will)?
JM: The biggest challenge in directing was—and I suppose will always be—trust. Trust in my actors, trust in my theatre company, trust in my stage manager and assistant director, and most of all, trust in myself. I knew from the start this was going to be my main hurdle. I have a writer’s mind, I think, in that I really do try to consider every possibility. And while this attribute may seem helpful, it often leads to second-guessing or worse, cynicism.
So my struggle was that of a balancing act. I had to at once ‘stick to my guns’ on seemingly bizarre decisions, while at the same time, making sure to listen and consider others’ opinions. On my best days, I believe I achieved this balance, and what may have, at first, seemed like a hopeless barrage of possibilities was really just one.
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?
JM: Oh, boy. That’s a big question. I can talk and write about myself all day, but expanding it to all directors in Los Angeles immediately makes me feel small. And that’s because I am…we are. Los Angeles, theatre-wise, is no different from any other place, except that we have this monolith of the film industry breathing over our heads. I think the more we come to terms with the fact that theatre and film—though related in many ways—are two different products, sold separately, the better off we’ll be.
As far as myself and other directors are concerned, I would hope that we try and not settle, that we don’t just throw something up on stage for the heck of it. I’ve seen and been a part of too many productions that seem to give in to the cliché that Los Angeles has bad theatre. And the result is the devaluing of theatre in general. But if we just work on pieces we love—and try not to wallow in the traps of money, time, pride, and laziness—we have our argument to be doing what we’re doing already.
So yeah, come and see Fiction. It’s my first go as director, and my best work for now. Hopefully, though, I’ve got more up my sleeve.
Read my other interviews with Theatre Unleashed
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Joshua Morrison originally hales from the suburban outskirts of Baltimore, Maryland, but has had a California license plate on the tail of his overused car for the two years now. With a double-degree in film and writing from Emerson College, Joshua is surprised himself at his burgeoning acting career. His credits include the award-winning short-film, No Wind, No Waves; the Judd Apatow vehicle, Funny People; an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live; and most recently, Metamorphose, the latest incarnation of the Theatre Unleshed ‘Gallery Series.’ It might just be the titanium metal plate in his head, but he feels magnetized to the acting world, and couldn’t be more thrilled to be a part of Theatre Unleashed.
