Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Thank you so much for joining us today. Joe, how you doing?
[00:00:02] Speaker B: I am well. Thank you for having me today.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: We are so excited to talk about the Glass Menagerie. And I actually knew pretty much nothing about this. I started researching the show, so I'm even more excited to see it.
So if there's anybody like me who maybe isn't familiar with the show, can you kind of give us a little bit about it?
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Yeah. It is the. It tells the story of a family. Their last name is Wingfield. They live in a cramped apartment in St. Louis.
And the son, the adult son, Tom, really wants to get out of there and live his life, but he has been forced into the role of provider for the family. Really. His sister Laura has.
It's an unnamed physical ailment with her legs. They.
They call her crippled in the play, which the mother, Amanda rails against that term being used, but they never really say what. What it is really. But she has a slight physical defect. And the whole crux of the story is Amanda is very driven to do better for her children. And so she devises a plan to get a gentleman caller into the house to hopefully provide for Laura's future.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:01:29] Speaker B: Place over a few months in St. Louis. It premiered in 1944. It's the play that put Tennessee Williams on the map.
It's beautifully written. It's just gorgeous language and, yeah, it rightfully has become a classic in the American theater.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: It sounds like it kind of puts family dysfunction front and center.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Especially, you know, a novel idea for the 40s, so.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: Absolutely. So what drew you to this dewaning direct this project?
[00:01:59] Speaker B: Well, they. It was offered to me, so. Okay, first off, great.
So I rarely turned on a job, but I have never done any Tennessee Williams in my whole career. I've never directed, nor have I been in. So this is my first Tennessee Williams and I've always wanted to. So it just was kismet when the University of Detroit Mercy reached out and. And it all worked out. So.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: And he's done, if I remember correctly, again, pulling from the research, like he did A Streetcar Named Desire, A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Like there's a lot of these classic plays. Yeah, he's written.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah.
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Classics all in their own right.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: I also read that this is also described as like a memory play, which it is.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Yes, 100%. So I really drew a lot from that. Tom has a lot of. Not a lot, but a few monologues in the play that he directly addresses the audience and he sets up the very beginning, that it's a memory play. And in memory, it's not realistic and it's, you know, dimly lit. And so I drew a lot of how I approach the show from. From that, really. So from his monologue about being a memory play.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: So does that kind of make him, like, almost like an unreliable narrator? Like, it's not quite. It's, like, maybe exaggerated or.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: I guess you could look at it like that because you are. You are getting his version of the story. So you just have to sort of either assume that he's telling you how it happened, or you could also make the choice that he's not. But he does, at the outset, tell you that he is the narrator of the play and also a character in it. So, yeah, also, you know, a different style to spring on audiences in the mid-40s. I can't believe reading this play. I can't believe that it was written in the 40s. It feels so contemporary to me.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: I was going to say, because it's not very often that you see. I mean, I can't think of a single play that I've seen where, like, you're both on the outside and on the inside and kind of bouncing back and forth.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And. Yes. So I think coupled with that. And then also, he, like Tennessee Williams, really wanted, first and foremost to be a poet. So a lot of the language in the play is just really very beautiful language, but not sounding poetic. You know what I mean? It's just very. He's, I mean, a very good writer. And so I think a lot of that also this sort of almost magical realism, if you will, just made audiences sit up and take notice of this new talent.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: When you have such, like, a fantastic source material to work from, how do you approach that as a director? Do you go in just thinking, like, it's gonna be a straight. Like you're gonna do it just like that, or do you feel like you go in there and you kind of play with it a little bit?
[00:04:48] Speaker B: I mean, look, Brian, I'm gonna be honest with you. I rarely like to do things straightforward. Um, so. But also, I don't go out of my way just to mix things up. Just to mix things up. But I knew. I mean, this play's been done, you know, a jillion and one times over the years. So I wanted to find something that spoke to me and that was interesting to me. But also being true to the play. So I.
Using. How I just said, using Tom's monologue at the beginning is how I sort of found My way into the show and what I wanted to do with it.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:05:29] Speaker B: Also, it was a chance watching of the movie Dogville, which I don't recommend, but it also really informed. That was the springboard for if you get a chance to come see the show, you'll get an idea of what I'm talking about. I don't want to give anything away.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: No, no, no. We're teasing people here. No, I was going to say I'm very excited to see kind of, you know, as I was again researching this kind of looking things up, I was like, I wonder what, you know, what your approach was going to be. Because I've seen quite a few shows at the Ringwald. I've seen you in quite a few shows at the Ringwald. And you are a very, you know, you're very funny and you have, you know, you like to have humor and you like to laugh and you. You approach these, you know, Applause was a great one where it was just a very unique theat theater approach. And so I'm. I was thinking, how are you? How's he going to approach this? Indifferent. Because I knew there was going to be like a. Your spin on it.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's interesting. I felt.
I was going to say I felt a responsibility that's, I think, too strong of a word. But having not had really any direction contact with a Tennessee Williams play, I was one. I have been wondering through the rehearsal process if some people might feel this is an irreverent approach or.
I try to. I think that there are very funny moments in the play which make me laugh, and we lean into those moments. And I have wondered if that's not how it should be done. You know what I mean? Like, if people will be like, this play is not supposed to be funny. But, yeah, it's just. It's interesting. Like, I. This was the one. Tennessee Williams, famous Tennessee Williams, that I really knew the least before getting into the rehearsal process. Like, I knew it, I had read it, but I'd never had any, like, Streetcar, I know, like, for the back of my hand.
So, yeah, it's just. It's been an interesting rehearsal process and trying to just forget the inner critic and the inner, like, you know, what might people say about this? And just do. Do it how I feel, put my stamp on it.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: And that has to be, you know, exciting for the playoffs too, because, you know, this is like the. This is the third time they're putting on. They probably want something a little different. They want a different take on it.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: I hope so.
Um, so far, they've not been to a rehearsal. Well, no, that's not true. They came to that. We had a designer run a couple of weeks ago. Um, but yeah, it's. It's. It's different.
So I guess this week I'll see when they start showing up.
Yeah.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Now, is this your first time working with, like, a collegiate theater?
[00:08:26] Speaker B: I directed the Rocky Horror show at Wayne State last fall of 23. Now time flies. My second dies. I can't believe it's almost. Yeah, year and a half ago. So, yeah, this is my second time.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: Is there a different approach that you have to directing, let's say a collegiate theater compared to something like at the Ringwald?
[00:08:47] Speaker B: Yes. I feel a bigger sense of mentoring and coaching when I'm working with, like, with the college students. And I. I have enjoyed every single minute of both of these experiences. I love working with the youths, and they're just. They're great. I mean, all. Everyone that I have worked with like this. The Glass Menagerie is a total cast of four, and we have three students and one guest artist who was a professional Detroit actor who was playing the role of the mother. And conversely, when I did Rocky horror, it was 23, all students. So it was a much bigger circus to tame than this one is in a lot of ways. But, yeah, so it's. But, yeah, I totally enjoy working with young actors. And I really love. The thing I really love about University of Detroit Mercy is that this guest artist program that they have because their theater department is known for being intimate, let's say.
And so by them bringing in guest artists, it really allows that also that guest artists to mentor the young people. And I think it's a great program, so I hope they keep it up.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: That, I mean, for a cast of four that mean, like, that's really. That. That's super intimate.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's crazy to think that we're doing a play with like, you know, four people, plus me, stage manager. So we have, like, sometimes just six people in the room.
So.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: But yeah, it probably leads to, you know, like, a lot more like you're able to fine tune or maybe also you feel like you're even nitpicking yourself almost, because there's not. There's less people that have to, like, like you said, wrangle almost.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Yep, yep, yep, yep. And it's also nice because it really gives you time to really dig into the play when there are so few people involved and really find those moments. And this semester, one of my actors has a class on Tuesday night. So without them there, it also kind of negates having the other person there because so many of their scenes are together. So that leaves me just with two of them, too, that can work on Tuesday. So those have been really great in terms of doing a lot of really great work in the rehearsal time that we have. So that's been really nice.
[00:11:17] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:11:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: So what themes of this show do you feel, like, resonate with you the most?
[00:11:24] Speaker B: I feel like we all. Well, maybe I'm overspeaking, but I feel like there's that sense of growing up where we just want to bust out and be on our own.
I mean, certainly this play, we don't have the experience of, like, growing up during the depression. And perhaps maybe being the breadwinner for the family might not be something that we are all attuned to. But I think the general feeling of wanting to break out on your own and do your own thing and not have to feel like you are being guided into a career by your family.
And also, like in the case of Laura, I feel like that sense of othering, like, she. She does it to herself. She feels like her. Her physical ailment is such that she has chosen to separate herself from most everybody in her life. And so I think there's a sense of. Even if we don't have some sort of physical ailment that I think we all probably go through at some point in our life, we find something that we think is just hideous to the outside world, and.
And they think it's nothing, you know.
[00:12:41] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: So I think those are the big things, the big themes.
Yeah. For me to take away from, I.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Think that you're absolutely right about that, about both of them, but specifically that second one, as a. You know, as a psychologist during the day, like, I see that from so many people of this feeling, like feeling other or feeling different or feeling separated from everybody else or separating ourselves. So that seems like a very universal message.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, too, like, the. Because Tennessee Williams was a gay man writing this play, that I think it's inherent in it anyway, just in the writing, this sense of queerness and that. I mean, he. He came out very late in life. He was in his late 20s when he really accepted the fact. And it wasn't even accepting it, really. It was at the time. It just wasn't even an option, you know, to be gay. But I feel like that sort of sense of. That sense of otherness also just pervades the. The text that he.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: It's a little extra level of beauty to that.
[00:13:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: So how do you feel like the Glass Menagerie has challenged you as a director?
[00:13:48] Speaker B: Oh, boy.
I think it has reminded me to trust in my ideas and to really allow myself to slow down and. Because I'm not working with the people with whom I usually work, to really be aware of communicating with the actors and really being able to share my experiences. And, you know, I work with a lot of the same people at the Ringwald, and so we've developed this sort of shorthand over the years, so it's just working outside of that environment. It just reminds me to really fully explain and to share. I mean, I'm a. I'm a communal director anyway, but just really to take the time and, you know, just make sure that we're. Everyone's on the same page. Sorry, that was very random.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: No, it's great. And it just. It just, you know, compared to last time I spoke with you, you were in the middle of, like, the. Of applause and you were like, next time I do a show, it's going to be slower. Like, I'm slow down. So to hear that you're actually taking time to slow down is great.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: That is. That's funny. Yes.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: What are you hoping audiences take away from the Glass Menagerie?
[00:15:13] Speaker B: I hope that.
I hope that they will just see the beauty of the play, really. I had breakfast with a friend this morning, and she was saying something about another production of the Glass Menagerie, but I don't really feel like it gets produced all that often. And so I hope that people will see it as an opportunity, first of all, to see the play at all. And then once they do, just to really just sort of luxuriate in the richness of the language and the story and the performances like these. These four people are just doing really great work. And the design. The designers we did at Q2Q last night and like, it just, like, I've had my ups and downs this week, especially in terms of, like, oh, my ideas are terrible, but last night was great. And so, like, I left there thinking, like, my ideas are stupendous. So. But, yeah, the design team has just been really great, too.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Well, absolutely. You should be thinking that you've always done impressive work so well.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Thank you. From your lips to God's ears.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Just to take a step away from the show a little bit, one of my final questions for you is, what's coming up next for you as a director or an actor? Because I'm always excited to See you on stage.
[00:16:32] Speaker B: Oh, well, you're sweet.
I'm going right into rehearsal. When this opens at the Ringwald, we're doing a play called Ha.
Appropriate by Mike Bartlett. It's a British play, and that opens in March, so I will be directing that.
[00:16:55] Speaker A: Are you starring in it, too?
[00:16:57] Speaker B: I am not. No. I don't. Well, no, that's not true. The summer show I will be in at the Ringworld.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: But to be announced at a later date.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: Well, we're waiting. And plus there's the Silver Foxes coming up, too, which is.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Yes, we just had to postpone that. So that's opening in October now.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
Final question then for you is that is there anything particular about this production that stands out compared to maybe some other shows you've directed?
[00:17:26] Speaker B: I will tell you, it's always a treat to direct elsewhere for a number of reasons, but when I am a guest somewhere, it's so nice to just direct and not have to worry about ticket sales or costumes or money or any of that. It's like a working vacation, so that's great. And just being allowed to work with the students. And I just love being in a new environment, seeing how they do things and how their. What their process is, and I just. I love it all. I take it all in. So it's just been. It's just been a great process.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for your time, Joe. It's always a pleasure talking to you.
[00:18:11] Speaker B: And right back at you. Thanks for the opportunity.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Of course. The Glass menagerie runs for six performances at U of D. Mercy between February 7th and the 16th, so get your tickets now.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
