Directing

“Politics have become such an unpleasant and dispiriting subject; there’s a lot to praise in a play where the feeling is fast, witty, incisive, informative, thought-provoking and — dare I say it — fun.” – Andrew Alexander, ArtsAtlanta June 6, 2018

Dissent is as American as it gets, and it’s time the political parties get on board with healthy female discourse. What we really need is the unwavering confidence of an incredibly intelligent pageant queen to lead us through a fantastical revolution. The story moves through the confinement of reality and the abandonment of acceptability. While we spare no prisoners, the reexamination of history and politics allows us to take a hard look at ourselves – where we came from, where we are, and where the possibility for change exists. Heightened realism meets historic pageantry meets contemporary metatheatricality. Raucously embracing the stereotype of The Liberal, The Conservative, and The Pageant Queen, we can blow up the symbol of America with ether trips, dance parties, symbolic flags, and rhetorical anthems all while redefining what we want this country to be and who we want to lead.

“Entertainment, Glamour, Beauty Myth, The Seen and Not Heard, The Distraction, and The Visual Overwhelm that is stripping us of our own rational analysis until we beat it back with the Fresh Feminist Revolution that is coming down like a Tidal Wave of SELF LOVE, MY FELLOW AMERICANS.” (23)

Dissent is as American as it gets. The Founding Fathers (and their wives) were on board with this idea. And, I like to think, with so many “Compromises” of our early nation (seriously, Google “Compromise of” and see how many pop up between 1780-1880), that the founders understood that the responsibility of governing was reliant on the give-and-take that seems so lost today. We’re still wrestling with the repercussions of these early compromises, but we can wrestle, analyze, and overcome — that’s something inherent in our structures. Lauren Gunderson imagines that the unpredictability of nation-building isn’t lost, but it is something that must be embraced in order to move forward.

I often say that Artistic Directors know what they are going to get when they ask me to direct a show: the predictability of total unpredictability. I love getting handed a script that someone thinks will be “right up my ally.” It’s often true, because I love brilliant scripts that say something about the time in which we are living. You might ask, “don’t all scripts do that?” And maybe they do, but maybe there are scripts for different times in our collective lives. Scripts that speak to each person who walks through the door on their own terms at this particular moment, without bashing us over the head with the message. The Taming does that.

Who better to lead a fantastical revolution than an incredibly intelligent pageant queen with unwavering confidence? What the political parties really need is to get on board with healthy female discourse – conversation and passion that is recognized, honored, and embraced. Women make compromises every day, and we know how to navigate a room.

The story of The Taming moves through the confinement of reality and the abandonment of acceptability. While we spare no prisoners, the reexamination of history and politics allows us to take a hard look at ourselves – where we came from, where we are, and where the possibility for change exists. Heightened realism meets historic pageantry meets contemporary metatheatricality.

Raucously embracing the stereotype of The Liberal, The Conservative, and The Pageant Queen, we can reimagine the symbol of America with dance parties, symbolic flags, and rhetorical anthems all while redefining what we want this country to be and who we want to lead. How’s that for unpredictable? Lean in…

We don’t often get to sit in a collective space and participate in the telling of a story, much less a story about a topic that people don’t often talk about in “mixed company.” Growing up in the South - I'm one of those odd third-generation Floridians who has managed to call five different southern states “home” in my lifetime — mental health wasn’t something we talked about. Much less how family members of people living with depression might be affected by it.

What we did talk about all the time are the stories that make life worth living. The dance parties in the living room to our favorite songs. The smell of the salt-water flats early in the morning as the sun comes up. The sound of laughter that comes after someone falls down (and isn’t hurt). All are items on my list of Every Brilliant Thing - an exercise that I started in preparation for rehearsals. Because in a world that is intent on moving forward at a crushing pace, having time to reflect on what makes life “brilliant” is a luxury worth indulging in.

I encourage you to indulge a little during the show with Matt. Take the opportunity to participate, to ride along on this journey in a way that will allow you to embrace the improvisational, impulsive, and interactive nature of the story. And, in so doing, perhaps you will have time to reflect on what aspects of your life are brilliant. Or if you or someone you love is in a place where that is hard to see right now, perhaps this story will remind you that “Things get better. They might not always get brilliant. But they get better.” And by partnering with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Lowcountry to tell this story, it is a reminder that access to help and hope are closer than you think.

“Why is it that something as complicated and dramatic as a heart transplant has been seen as simply a miracle when so few things in life, if any, are so clear cut?” -Amy Silverstein

The production will focus on the dichotomy of joy and grief in the story of reconciliation after a heart transplant. A family dealing with unexpected loss and a woman dealing with unexpected life cross paths, through a heart, to find solace in each other. “The play is loaded with questions, answers, dilemmas and paradoxes – the stuff of humanity” (Warren Gerd, wearegreenbay.com). We must move quickly and easily from graveside to hospital to apartment to cafe to suburban home as we see moments play out simultaneously, side by side, and from the past as the pieces weave together like roots of a tree. Each character is as truthful and honest as a heartbeat, and they truly need one another to make it to the next phase of their journey. With each moment, they fight hard to keep Jack’s heart going and root a new family. “Despair most certainly can coexist with joy. Anger with hope. Sadness with gratitude. Tears with cheers” (Amy Silverstein, Sick Girl).

"Why is it that something as complicated and dramatic as a heart transplant has been seen as simply a miracle when so few things in life, if any, are so clear cut?” — Amy Silverstein, Sick Girl

Often touted as a “miracle of modern medicine,” transplants turn tragedy into second chance. On our second day of rehearsal, the company of The Tin Woman was visited by representatives from Donate Life SC, our show sponsor, to share their perspective on organ donation and transplantation. First, the facts: Only 54% of South Carolinians who have a driver’s license are registered donors. 1 person’s death has the potential to save up to 8 lives through organ donation, and up to 75 lives can be improved if tissue can be included in the donation. There are roughly 1,000 people in South Carolina waiting on a transplant — nationally, 21 people a day die waiting for that gift.

Now, the anecdotes: talking with Mark and Kimberly, I was struck by how difficult the subject matter of this conversation is. All those facts and figures don’t do justice to the immense pain that a donor family is going through at the time the decision is made. And they must make a decision within hours of a loved one's brain death. Sometimes, the only comfort they feel is knowing that they have saved someone else’s life. And recipients go through years of battle with their failing organ, months of exhaustive mental and physical tests to ensure their suitability as a recipient, sometimes staying in the ICU for long stretches, waiting for the call that may or may not work out. But once the transplant finally happens, within hours recipients report that they begin to feel better.

But there is a cost for both parties. And that is where we begin the story of The Tin Woman. A grieving family is left to pick up the pieces when a loved one becomes a donor — rarely is this planned for beyond a stamp on the driver's license, and the toll is taken suddenly and unexpectedly. This recipient has been ripped from near death - having spent years fighting with her troubled organ and having made her peace with the approaching end - only to be given a second life. While one side feels the effects of a huge loss, the other side struggles to live up to the aftermath of such a costly gift. Together, these parties — Hank, Alice, Sammy, and Joy - must decide how to proceed with their healing process. As playwright Sean Grennan told me, “Without family and tribe, we die; with it we live.”

If you are here on the night of a talk back with our representatives from Donate Life SC, I hope you will take the time to stay. If not, please visit their website (www.donatelifesc.org) and consider giving the gift of life because “Despair most certainly can coexist with joy. Anger with hope. Sadness with gratitude. Tears with cheers” (Sick Girl).