Sally at the Helm

SCR Trustee Sally Anderson has been named Executive Chair of SCR’s 2016 Gala, “Stagestruck,” (scheduled for Saturday, September 10 at The Westin South Coast Plaza). And she’s off to a sensational start, assuming the mantle with aplomb and adding Underwriting Chair to her title.

At their kick-off luncheon meeting on March 31, Gala Committee members agreed that Sally is ideally suited to the double-whammy title and all that it entails. A retired business executive, she was managing partner of Ernst & Young’s Orange County practice, and she’ll draw on that successful career in the business world to lead the Gala’s fundraising efforts.

According to Sally, being an SCR Trustee was the perfect segue to leading the Gala. “I enjoy working with all the people associated with SCR because they’re so much fun!”



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Casting Director Joanne DeNaut

Joanne DeNaut with actor Daniel Blinkoff at the Pacific Playwrights Festival.

On Casting Director Joanne DeNaut’s desk sits a crystal obelisk—the Casting Society of America’s Artios Award for Excellence in Casting—one of many honors she has received through the years. Outside her office door hangs an equally meaningful piece: a framed photograph from South Coast Repertory’s 1978 production of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, a reminder of the moment that she was introduced to theatre in Costa Mesa.

Brooklyn-born DeNaut was an urban planning major at the University of California, Irvine, when she took a class on Women in Literature and went to see the Ibsen production at a small theatre company—SCR—on Newport Boulevard. David Emmes directed and the production values “totally surprised me. I thought ‘This is a good as New York!’” She became an SCR convert.

But life got in the way: she continued her studies at UCI, worked at a waterfront restaurant, had a 7-year-old and had no time to attend theatre. But SCR stayed on her mind. With a social ecology degree in hand and a job lined up, she realized that maybe she didn’t want to work in the city government. She wanted to do something more creative.

A newspaper ad for an SCR job caught her eye and she jumped at the chance to be an executive assistant to Founding Artistic Directors David Emmes and Martin Benson. Like many others at theatre, she grew her skills by wearing many different hats, what she describes as being “like getting my theatre master’s degree.” She worked closely with Lee Shallat, then a stage director, Conservatory director and casting director, who became somewhat of a mentor.

“She told me that casting is not something you learn, but rather a more innate ability to assess talent,” DeNaut says. "That was my entrance into the start of my career in casting." Being a casting director didn’t just “happen” for her. “It took me many years to develop my skills in the art of collaboration when working with artists and I’m still learning.”

Jenny O'Hara, Arye Gross and Marin Hinkle in Richard Greenberg's Our Mother's Brief Affair in 2008.

Mark Harelik and Paul David Story in the 2016 production of Red by John Logan.

Gregory Sims and Nancy Bell in the 2012 revival of Sight Unseen by Donald Margulies.

The cast of Cyrano de Bergerac in 2004.

DeNaut and Mark Rucker.

What does a casting director do?
There’s a misconception that a casting director chooses the actors for a play, TV or film. That doesn’t happen; I don’t choose who’s on that stage; in my role, I choose the pool of actors from which the director, playwright and artistic director will cast actors through auditions. It’s a collaboration, but ultimately the final choice is in the director’s hands.

I read the play to get a sense of the roles and then have the director tell me how he/she sees the characters. If it’s a new play, the playwright is involved in that process as well. Once I receive his/her notes, I make lists and send them off.

We do many readings each season at SCR, which is a different casting process because we do not have auditions and often there is not a director. After discussion with either the writer or director, I will I send ideas. The writer and director often are not familiar with the pool of actors in the Los Angeles area, so they rely heavily on the information I provide to them. Casting for readings is important since the playwright relies on these actors to tell their story.

What happens in an audition?
We use the description of the characters, called the ‘breakdown’, to choose the actors who come in to audition. Actors will have the script and the scenes ahead of time for what they will be reading. The director and casting team will be in the room and, if it’s a new play, the playwright will be there as well. We provide a reader for the audition, someone who will read all the other parts. Readers are important because they provide assistance to the actors in their scene, while being careful not to steal focus. Depending upon the number of roles left to cast, we will have a 4-6 hour session and then have a day of callbacks after narrowing the choices.

What are the challenges and delights in your job?
Currently, I’m focused on the Pacific Playwrights Festival and this always is an interesting time. This year, there are 25 roles and several of those are particularly challenging. Watching these plays come alive in the readings with those actors is really one of the most thrilling parts of being a casting director.

What are some personal moments that stand out for you?
Working on all the new plays has been the most rewarding, particularly getting to work with major American playwrights such as Richard Greenberg, Howard Korder, Amy Freed and Donald Margulies. There are countless others as well and many have now gone on to be successful writers in film and television.

This season, working on John Logan’s Red, Mark Harelik already was signed for the role of Mark Rothko. Mark is amazing and a favorite of mine. I had seen Paul David Story in productions at several other theatres and really admired his work. We brought him here to audition several times and he always was a contender, but not cast. It was so rewarding to have him earn the role of Ken and be so wonderful in it. The relationship between Rothko and Ken was factor in the success of that show.

The late Mark Rucker was a favorite director for me to work with—well, he was everybody’s favorite: backstage crew, designers, actors...everyone. He smart, a true visionary, a great collaborator and the kindest soul. His production of Cyrano de Bergerac was one of the highlights for me. It was a huge undertaking, with a giant cast, and he rose to the challenge by making everyone want to contribute to its success. It was wonderful.

Experience the result of DeNaut’s work in both staged readings and full productions during the 2016 Pacific Playwrights Festival. Learn more.

Literary Low Down: Pacific Playwrights Festival

Playwrights (L to R) Jen Silverman, Kemp Powers, Meg Miroshnik, Noah Haidle and Rachel Bonds

South Coast Repertory's Pacific Playwrights Festival (PPF) has been a launching pad for many plays and playwrights, including David Lindsay-Abaire's Pulitzer Prize winning Rabbit Hole, Jordan Harrison's Marjorie Prime, Lynn Nottage's Intimate Apparel, and last year's Vietgone by Qui Nguyen.

This year's festival will bring the total number of plays presented in PPF to 12​3, including many that have become mainstays of contemporary American theatre. This year's group of playwrights range from SCR newcomers Jen Silverman and Kemp Powers to returning playwrights Meg Miroshnik (The Droll), Noah Haidle (Smokefall) and Rachel Bonds (Five Mile Lake). The five playwrights in this case, took sometime to share parts of their literary lives and a glimpse into their writing spaces.

Jen Silverman
Wink

Why is this your writing space?
I like walls and corners. And alligators.

What’s the story you read in secret?
My parents love books, and our house was always full of them. Nothing felt that secret. I remember finding and reading Nabokov’s Lolita when I was 10 or 11. I told this to someone once and they were so freaked out that my parents hadn’t stopped me. But the thing my parents always got is that kids ignore the stuff they don’t have the tools to understand….which was clear to me when I reread the book years later. I was like, “Oh, this is about pedophilia? I thought this was about a road-trip!”

When did you know you wanted to be a playwright?
I stumbled into playwriting as a freshman at Brown University. Emily O’Dell was getting her MFA at the time and was responsible for teaching/corrupting the freshman. She was behind so much amazing madness, including a bizarre night of plays from which the only image I retain is a glorious bohemian creature whispering “syphilis” into a cordless mic. Needless to say, hooked for life.

What play changed your life?
Sarah Kane’s Blasted, Caryl Churchill’s Faraway, Basil Kreimendahl’s Orange Julius. At different moments and in different ways, but indelibly.

Kemp Powers
Little Black Shadows

Why is this your writing space?
I primarily write at my dining room table. Largely because the dining room is easily flooded with natural light, which is my preferred lighting method. I'm much more of a daytime than nighttime writer.

What’s the story you read in secret?
Judy Blume's Blubber.

When did you know you wanted to be a playwright?
There wasn't a single "aha" moment. I've always been a storyteller, in one form or another. I guess after spending more than 15 years as a journalist and realizing the stories I now longed to tell were not meant for that medium, I knew it was time to make a change. I'd always been a tremendous theater enthusiast, but I viewed it as the art form that "other people got to do." I started off doing storytelling, and that morphed into a one-man show, which helped me realize I had zero desire to be a performer. Then I started writing for short play and 24 hour play festivals until eventually, someone asked if I had any play ideas of my own that I wanted to write.

What plays changed your life?
A Soldier's Play. Cabaret. The Tempest. My first trip overseas in my early 20s was a spur-of-the-moment flight to London to catch a production of The Tempest at the Barbican. I still have the framed poster from that production. It's a gigantic photo of Prospero.

Meg Miroshnik
Lady Tattoo

Why is this your writing space?
I finally got unpacked from a recent move!

What’s the story you read in secret?
Besides sneaking in a little V.C. Andrews here and there, I think the most important secretive storytelling experience I've ever had was surreptitiously renting a VHS copy of Thelma and Louise. It's a great fricking movie, but I think having snuck in my first viewing has caused me to remember it even more fondly.

When did you know you wanted to be a playwright?
I did a lot of acting as a kid in Minneapolis and, when I was 17, I booked my dream job: the role of Meg in a production of Little Women. It felt like destiny! After all, I'd been named after the character. There was just one moment that I found difficult. I had to laugh at the actor playing Amy and I always found myself getting nervous before that moment, anxious that I might not be able to do it. I was so worried about staying present enough to laugh that I couldn't possibly relax and laugh. It got so bad that matinee school groups would start laughing at me trying to laugh at Amy. After that experience, I knew. I was not an actor. But I was still in love with theater and still wanted a way in. I could write and imagine a moment of pure, uninhibited laughing, but I would need to let others actually live it.

What play changed your life?
Mud by Maria Irene Fornes. I've never actually seen a production of it, but I remember pulling a copy off the library shelf and having that moment where the top of my head kind of lifted off. That play just opened up my sense of what makes a play a play. And it was the first play I remember reading in which a character told a story within a story. I am a sucker for the story within a story. I'm already three-quarters of the way toward liking something if a  character says "once upon a time."  

Noah Haidle
A Perfect Circle

Why is this your writing space?
It’s close to the refrigerator.

What’s the story you read in secret?
If I said it wouldn’t be a secret. If nothing else I hope I’m a man of some discretion.

What play changed your life and coincidentally was the moment that made you want to be a playwright?
My brother was in some murder mystery in the high school cafeteria. I can ask my Mom as to its exact title, but safe to say something along the lines of Gadzooks the Cook is Dead. Here’s a truly dime store psychological profile of my life: my brother is 4 years older than me, was a really really smart kid (PhD Organic Chemistry, Harvard). This was in a small Midwestern public school—he was special—I had every teacher he had, and they all looked at me askance, “So you’re Andrew Haidle’s little brother, huh?”  He played soccer, I played soccer, he played tennis, I played tennis, he was captain of the quizbowl team (group jeopardy for nerds), I was captain of the quizbowl team.  But when I auditioned for Gadzooks the Cook is Dead, or its equivalent, I failed so epically I’ve never tried acting again but became a playwright instead.

Rachel Bonds
Curve of Departure

Why is this your writing space?
I used to write in our apartment in Greenpoint, but that got to be too distracting. Last year I started renting a desk at Brooklyn Writers’ Space in Cobble Hill, which was life-changing. There was something about having to do the 20-minute commute every day, and the absolute quiet there, and just the empty desk with a single lamp that helped my productivity and focus enormously. Plus no one is allowed to talk to you. It’s wonderful.

What’s the story you read in secret?
I would always hide Sweet Valley High books in the pile that my mom would check out for me from the library, which was typically full of actual literature written by esteemed writers. She did not approve of Sweet Valley High. Which, now that I think about it, and look at Google images of the book covers featuring tiny, tan, blue-eyed blond girls, makes a lot of sense.

When did you know you wanted to be a playwright?
I don’t know that there was one moment when I realized the whole thought. I think I learned bit by bit, in almost imperceptible ways, over the two years after I graduated college. I was trying to be an actor, but also writing both prose and plays. At some point I noticed that the people whose successes I would feel jealous of were always writers. There was also one night, very early on in our relationship, when my husband, said to me “I think that acting is ultimately going to make you shrink, and writing is going to make you expand.” He was right. I knew he was right. After that, I slowly let my acting pursuits fall away. I didn’t miss them. And I shifted all of my focus to writing, which felt hard and terrifying, and also discouraging at times, but also right.

What play changed your life?
When I was in college, I saw this play by Forced Entertainment, I think at PS 122, that consisted of Tim Etchells sitting at a table and reading stories and showing videos people had sent to him.  It was called Instructions for Forgetting. I still think about it all the time. I would add Nature Theatre of Oklahoma’s No Dice to this list.  And more recently, An Octoroon.

Learn more and buy tickets to the Pacific Playwrights Festival

Director’s Notes: Kent Nicholson Talks About "Amadeus"

Mozart by Johann Nepomuk della Croce (1736–1819)

Amadeus Synopsis

Vienna, 1781. The city is abuzz with the arrival of young Mozart who can write an opera a week, but can’t control his exuberant giggling and notorious libido. Antonio Salieri—until now the royal court’s most lauded musician—recognizes Mozart’s genius and does everything to thwart the success of this enfant terrible. Will that include murder?

Kent Nicholson takes a moment to think about the nearly four-decade popularity of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus: “While the play is epic in scope, it’s also a very personal story,” he says. “And I also think passion, lust and lust for power resonate with audiences!” he adds, laughing. He will direct Shaffer’s play, which concludes South Coast Repertory’s 2015-16 season (May 5-June 6, 2016).

Since its 1979 London debut (with a first SCR production in 1983), Amadeus has drawn in audiences through Shaffer’s simple, yet powerful storytelling. (See the synopsis, right).

We asked Nicholson to talk more about Amadeus.

Why does the play remain popular?
One of the themes in Amadeus is transition. The late 18th century was a huge period of political transition and transformation: the American Revolution had just happened, the Austrian Empire was starting to collapse and other revolutions—including the French Revolution—were sweeping Europe. I think our world today reflects some of that transition and transformation, so I don’t think it’s an accident that this play keeps coming back.

Mozart himself stood at a time of transition in the arts, when people’s thinking began to change about art, life and what has value. He actually ushered in the Romantic era, but we don’t think of him in that way; we think of Beethoven as the first Romantic, but he was Mozart’s student.

There’s also something universal about how Antonio Salieri experiences the world in the play and his potential for mediocrity. The play talks about two choices that everyone has: to recognize the future and embrace it or recognize the future and destroy it. I think Salieri recognized the future—the transition that was coming—didn’t know what to do with it and so he tried to destroy it.

Was Mozart a rock star in his time?
He was a rock star as a child prodigy when he toured Europe, but that may have been more about the novelty of watching an eight-year-old play the keyboard. Mozart often was rejected during his lifetime and died relatively poor, at the age of 35. After his death, his wife began selling his works and when people began to rediscover his music, he became wildly popular.

Mozart is more like Vincent van Gogh or Jeff Buckley, both of whom became more famous after their deaths.

What’s the difference between the film and the play?
They tell the same story, but they don’t use the same script. Film director Milos Forman didn’t use the play script, he adapted it and used all the tools of cinema to create some spectacular visuals—like Mozart’s opera, Don Giovanni.

In the stage version, we’re much more inside Salieri’s head and that lets us use all the tools of theatre for visual storytelling with an emphasis on the words. Costume and set changes help us move through time, from Salieri as an old man to his younger self, a contemporary of Mozart. The cast is smaller—just over a dozen actors—and we have some actors playing multiple roles. Music, of course, is important and it is woven throughout the play.

What can you tell us about the creative designs for SCR’s production?
I direct a lot of musicals and what I enjoy is the pure emotional experience those bring [Editor’s note: Nicholson’s last SCR production was The Light in the Piazza]. To me, Mozart’s music is some of the most beautiful ever, so we’re being given the opportunity to shape the full experience of the play by weaving the music through it. While it’s not a musical, it functions like one, which is another reason that I wanted to direct Amadeus.

The set will have realistic elements and also things that hint back to theatre design of that era. There are about 80 costumes and they will be accurate, historical representations of the time period. They will help tell the story visually by indicating where the story is in time, taking us from the 1820s when Salieri is an old man back to the 1780s. In that 40-year-span, fashions and culture changed dramatically.

Can you tell us about the play’s humor?
I think people will be surprised by how funny, Amadeus is! This is not a farce, with comic bits and set-up pieces; the humor comes from human folly, like members of the royal court whose own sense of self-importance becomes completely ridiculous. Mozart’s childishness also is appealing, but that is part of what destroys him. I think that to make people have a profound experience, they have to laugh first.

What do you want audiences to take away?
I want people to feel that they’ve experienced something extraordinary. Amadeus is at the same time a spectacular but very human play. We don’t see those two things working together very often in theatre. That’s what theatre does very well: turns the personal into something more.

Give us three words that describe Amadeus.
Love, jealousy and murder (laughing).

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"Future Thinking" Separates Fantasy from Reality

Or does it?

On First Night of Future Thinking, after an enthusiastic standing ovation, Peter and Chiara headed to the dressing room to step out of Comic Con costumes and into Cast Party clothes—as actors Arye Gross and Virginia Vale. Along with fellow cast members Heidi Dippold, Enver Gjokaj and Jud Williford, they joined the party, hosted by Silver Trumpet Restaurant and Bar at the Avenue of the Arts Hotel.

There, touches of fantasy abounded—in the gold linens sparkling in candlelight, inspired by Chiara’s “Odyssey” costume, in the “Red Priestess” signature cocktail and even in the “dragon wings” (fantasy-inspired chicken wings) which were among the scrumptious delicacies offered in elaborate displays by the restaurant in its third consecutive season as Cast Party sponsors.

As for the accolades, they were very real.  Among them, these offered by members of Playwrights Circle, Honorary Producers of Future Thinking …

Tod and Linda White: "We loved Future Thinking!  It confronts the "happiness versus success" dilemma with an effective balance of humor and pathos. An important question is addressed with great writing and great acting.  Everyone involved with Future Thinking should be very proud."

Talya Nevo-Hacohen: “So moving to watch the characters move fluidly between reality and fantasy, from desperation to hope.” Bill Schenker: "A wonderful play using comedy to actually tell a much deeper story: people just want to be accepted for who they are.

Alan Slutzky: "The hotel room scenes with Arye Gross and Virginia Vale were brilliantly funny, sad and poignant. The ending left much to the imagination about what happened next, but I enjoy Eliza’s writing so much I would prefer she write a sequel."



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