One of the jobs of a director is to ask questions. One of the jobs of the director is to stand in for the audience until they get there.
Alison Pill is the unsung hero of 'Three Tall Women' to me. She's extraordinary in this part, and she makes it look easy. I'm just in awe of her.
The way I feel about rehearsals is that the best idea wins.
I'm tenacious. I work hard. I like people that I collaborate with to work as hard as I am.
I become involved with things that speak to me and move me and make me laugh and frighten me.
Theater isn't there to provide answers. Only possibilities. I just ask the questions. But I believe hope comes from the fact that there is a potential for redemption. At the core, that's what matters in the theater I'm attracted to. Do we dare to hope? Do we allow ourselves to hope?
My preference is for people who come to rehearsal and get into the ring. I like a muscular actor who's playful.
One of my favorite experiences was '9 to 5,' for one reason: Dolly Parton. I learned what it means to really work hard and do it with a sense of humor about yourself. Every day was joyful.
In 'The Humans,' there's a gay character, and the fact that she's gay is probably the least interesting thing about her.
I was probably the only 10-year-old who adored Sandy Dennis.
I was always rather outspoken. I worried about what people thought of me but there really wasn't room for a lot of self-doubt.
I'm comfortable with bad news. I feel confident in my ability to solve the problem if I know that there's a problem.
But there is a process that happens when you're making something, be it a musical or a new play. That process takes time, and mistakes will be made along the way, and you will go down and hit dead ends. But it is so public now. Any yahoo with a computer can start a firestorm.
I like to hire the kind of people that I would want to be on stage with.
I know there are different kinds of actors, but I tend to have less effective relationships with actors who have a very private process - who really need to do lots of internal work, so that I become merely a witness until they're ready to share.
If I hadn't gone into the theater, I would be a painter.
I understood that I was not the best director in the world nor the worst director in the world. I realized that there is a very mysterious element to what works and what doesn't work in the theater. And it's good to know that from the beginning.
I think, as written, 'Assassins' simply acknowledges the very human need to be acknowledged. As director, I've got to put aside any particular biases or prejudices that, as a moral human being, this is not an appropriate or acceptable way to get what you want.
I think good actors - good, collaborative actors who see themselves as leaders in a given production - can and should offer ideas that have nothing to do with wanting to direct themselves.
I think actors are brave souls that have to use parts of themselves that I'm just not comfortable doing anymore.
