I had the pleasure of seeing two Richard Tatum productions, The Girl Who Would be King by Jan O’Connor and Group when it premiered in early 2011. After King I decided to see anything and everything he directed. Tatum clearly has a mastery over a play’s story and his own craft.
It also always seems that his ensemble are having a blast and will do whatever it takes because they trust him. That energy emanates from the stage, and Group was no exception.
Please read, enjoy and make room in your summer schedule to attend both of these shows!
“our need to connect”
1. Please give a short description of ANTON/GROUP from a Director’s Perspective. What were the images or themes that drive/drove your process?
The Insidious Impact of Anton is a snappy new comedy about a sassy, snarky woman who meets a mysterious stranger, and in falling for him becomes a better person…and hates it…with a supernatural twist! This is a play about the need for change, while discovering the importance of being true to oneself in the process. Having gone through a number of re-inventions, myself, over the years, this idea really spoke to me. The play also comments on the shallowness of American society in a very shrewd way, I think, and in doing so asks some big questions about the Order of Things, which creates this wonderful perspective about people and how we perceive our place in that order. All of which just fires me up as a creative
Group, on the other hand, is exciting to me for its unflinching honesty about how much people need each other to survive (despite our ability to be our own worst enemies). Because it’s so funny and so sad, and Adam and Josh’s music captures that so brilliantly, I think. I created the original show artwork — the faces in the word GROUP — and if you look at the image…to me THAT’s what it’s about: we’re so close, but not seeing each other.
Both plays, though, are really about our need to connect. So that’s been a major part of my thinking.
2. How did you prepare for a new piece versus other pieces, and how do you prepare for a remount?
They’re both new pieces, of course. But to me even approaching plays that are old friends (say, “Good”) I want and need to look at them like they’re new pieces. I don’t want to put on plays that someone has already seen — figuratively speaking. I want to find what’s going to spark that audience walking in the door; whether that’s coming up with a fun new concept for the play that will really connect or make the audience see it in a new light, or just finding the rock-bottom truth that *everyone* can relate to. Hopefully both. So, it was particularly interesting with Group to come back to a play I had recently directed with the same cast, even! Because my instinct still is to NOT just do it as close to the same as possible, even though I felt that that had been successful. As a result, I started to see all these wonderful new things about the piece! New dynamics to the characters and their relationships. Made me fall in love with it all over again.
3. What was the biggest challenge in directing these pieces and how will you overcome them (if you think you will)?
Well, I’m just now getting into Anton but I think the biggest issue with it will be making sure the rapid-fire, film-like quality of the script — requiring a certain broad theatricality of staging — doesn’t overshadow the story itself or the very sweet, funny, hard truths about people at its core. In other words, I need to make sure it ain’t just style-over-substance. But for Group the biggest issue is simply seeing if I can grab that lightning-in-a-bottle feeling we all had when we opened. I think I need to put that away and simply focus on making it the best I can with the hard time-frame with which we’re working (read: cast schedules) and let the lightning take care of itself.
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?
LA directors have a number of challenges. For one thing, they face this idea that everyone (it seems) thinks he/she can direct. (Perhaps that’s actually the biggest problem for actors!) But as a result, I think really good directors aren’t seen as vital as I truly believe they are. And there are so few advocates for stage directors in LA – we really have to stand up for ourselves and make a lot of noise. Even then, what do we have to prove ourselves? Reviews, of course, but then you’re at the mercy of the dice-roll of who gets assigned to your show (assuming they come at all). Video? Hard to really get that rush of energy you feel in a live stage play on a video, even a well-shot one…and then isn’t that about a well-directed VIDEO and not a PLAY? Word of mouth? Sure, but that’s hard to take with you. Of course, the size of the community here doesn’t help. But I think that’s changing — I feel like the theatre folk of LA are starting to band together in a way they haven’t before, making it feel less like we’re all lost in the wilderness.
I think I got to where I am (wherever the hell that is) through a lot of bold choices, a lot of kindness (both on my part and from others toward me) and a lot of luck. I would love to keep doing bigger and bigger projects both in LA and outside of it. I really feel that LA theatre has a TON to offer the rest of the country — a vibrance that American Theatre really could use now. I would love to be a part of that movement.
For more information on Group at the Hollywood Fringe Festival
For more information on The Insidious Impact of Anton, by David Hilder
