Arts Professional Story: Sara Kerastas, Director's Lab Chicago

Putting heads together at Director's Lab Chicago 2007

In the world of modern theatre, what defines a piece as ‘a classic’? What characterizes its longevity? Its universality? What does it mean, then, to re-stage a ‘classic’?

Such were the questions thrown in the air by this year’s Directors Lab Chicago, aptly themed “Re-Envisioning the Classics.” Now in its third year, the lab gathered twenty-seven local, national and international directors to “consider, challenge, and engage in both the traditional and contemporary aspects of their craft” this past August.

In the weeklong event hosted at the Chicago Cultural Center, the diverse collection of directors was sectioned into six groups with which to collaborate and re-envision a key scene from one of three ‘classics’ pre-chosen by the Lab.

The week’s efforts then culminated in a festival performance of the works produced— two interpretations per classic. In choosing the three plays for the participants to re-envision, co-founders and artistic directors, Elizabeth Margolius and Karin Shook, presented the question to the directors themselves in their applications. Out of their insights as well as debate amongst the Lab’s planning committee, many of them Director’s Lab veterans themselves, the ‘classics’ emerged. The chosen pieces ranged from The Bacchae, a Greek tragedy by Euripides to The Chairs by Eugene Ionesco, a staple from the theatre of the absurd.

What happened when this group of directors, each with differing backgrounds and perspectives, were brought together to re-envision this trio of classics? “A whole lot of talking,” laughs planning committee member Daren Leonard, Artistic Director of Healthworks. Outside the rehearsal rooms, the directors participated in numerous workshops and discussions with central figures in Chicago theatre (directors, writers, casting directors, designers, actors). The schedule also consisted of group outings such as observing a day of rehearsal for Barbara Gaines’ Cymbeline with The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre.

Inside the rehearsal rooms, the groups were given eight hours and eight hours only to develop their pieces. This time limit served as the sole restriction to the re-envisioning process. It was meant to keep directors from frantic rehearsals outside of the Lab schedule as well as to discourage competition – something distinctly counter-intuitive to the intentions of the Lab. By extension, the organizers highly opposed any-preconceived notions of professional work-opportunities for the week, another element with potential to taint the artistic endeavors of the lab. Ultimately, the value and challenge of the experience was meant for the re-envisioning process instead of the final product. Such is the nature of a director’s work.

The Process

As the first days progressed, it became quite evident to much of the planning committee that the directors would talk for days if left up to their own devises. Usually when ideas or directions are debated in a time-limited rehearsal space, a productive solution is to ‘get it on its feet’ and propel the discussion forward to action. Without separate actors to perform and experiment with, the directors were left to rehearse with only the members of their group, fellow directors.

Arriving on a unified, collective vision proved to be an entirely new challenge. Despite the pre-assigned role of one ‘lead collaborator’ per scene, everyone negotiated the role dynamics in such conditions uniquely. For certain groups, this translated into an emphasis on discussion and intellectual planning, for others it meant a performance-based mode of working right from the get-go. Interestingly enough, the varying pieces seemed to lend themselves to (or dictate) differing modes of re-envisioning. The segmented structure of the scene from Ionesco, for instance, conduced to divvying up the artistic control evenly amongst each of the group members.

One of the groups working with The Chairs assigned different directors to the four separate sections of their scene. Though working together with a unified objective and vision, each participant was able to direct each of the others for their particular segment. With this structure in place, the four sections extended a wide range of ideas and possibilities – one layered two additional languages into the text while another used highly stylized elements of clown.

Another team wrestling with The Chairs also divided up the directing responsibilities, but pushed in a more meta-structural vane. In the festival, this group performed the piece ‘as interpreted’ from four separate perspectives, each with a distinct element of self-awareness. These included the tongue and cheek humor of a director screaming ‘I hate The Chairs!!’ during a mock-rehearsal of the play as well as an interpretation of The Chairs from the view of the chairs, all in line with the absurdist nature of the piece.


The Festival

When the week’s work came to fruition, the festival presented a range of perspectives and focuses newly learned in the lab and born from each director’s particular background. This resulted in a wide showcase of style, technique and interpretative ‘re-envisioning.’ One of the pieces used a distinctly Meisner-influenced pared down repetitive text within the context of a competitive game. They constructed the scene as a boxing ring with a bell set in the center of the action. Every time a character won a point of leverage, he/she would ring the bell, validating a small ‘win’ in the battle between the two main characters. Another group emphasized performance by using heavy mime in their re-envisioning: two of the characters in this four-person scene were invisible. This convention intensified the broiling love-hate dynamic fueling the two leads, as there were no other characters to diffuse their interaction.

In contrast, the two Bacchae performances came to life from a much more cerebral rehearsal process. Though similar in intention, their end results differed greatly. The first group to perform acted out their scene with playfully over-the-top drama and spectacle. They distributed wine among the audience members while their Southern chorus leader buoyantly encouraged audience participation. The second Bacchae group exercised production-oriented creativity and reached for more topical connections. They constructed Dionysus’s arrest and trial as if it were held before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Once his arrest took place, the stage went to black. Pre-planted audience members then held up their cellphones to light the stage in protest. Dionysus and the chorus were empowered by pre-recorded text on hand-held devices.

To finish the festival, Dionysus led the audience members out of the theatre to the tune of ‘Amazing Grace.’ Equally dramatic and spectacular, the two Greek tragedy re-envisionings came to life in distinctive interesting ways.

The Lab

In addition to the precious rehearsal time and festival preparation dispersed throughout the week, the twenty-seven directors participated in a rich milieu of organized events and activities. Leslie Bauxbaum Danzig of 500 Clown, Charlie Newell of Court Theatre, and David Catlin of Lookingglass each led directing workshops specifically relating to their style of theatre and/or recent Chicago work. An intimate presentation by local projection designer John Boesche proved to be another highlight for most of the directors— a fact that underscores the import in the director-designer relationship.

For a more performance-oriented perspective, Chicago actor Jeremy Sher hosted a Suzuki method workshop. The Lab also held discussions with Tanya Palmer, literary manager at The Goodman as well as Chicago casting directors Erica Daniels and Jane Alderman. In addition, the organizers made a point to build in time for facilitated group discussion and technique sharing among the directors. Surprisingly enough, these discussions proved to be the most useful, as many of the hour-long sessions ended with an unquenchable thirst for more talk. Amid weeklong access to and experiences with prominent Chicago theatre figures, the directors’ most sought-after resource proved to be one another. They could not get enough time to share their experiences, pool resources, debate opinions and incite intimate group conversation with one another.

The value of such an opportunity is ultimately why the Lab exists in the first place. The nature of a stage director’s work can dictate a vacuum-like work environment; stage directors move from project to project and work with the theatre artists necessary for collaborative productions, but often lack such connections amongst fellow directors. By offering such an original and useful environment to them, DirectorsLabChicago intimately connects these directors.

As the rehearsals, workshops, festival and general dynamic of this year’s Lab progressed, a thematic anima seemed to arise, weaving in and out of the multiple events; it was one of self-definition. Through the many facets of this process the ‘director’s role’ was called upon, discussed, questioned and identified. On some level, whether unspoken or overt, each director had to ask ‘what is it that we do?’ What profit is to come from gathering twenty-seven directors to work under an intense and original set of circumstances, if not to refine, inspire, affirm (or even unaffirm) their positions as artists? Such was the life behind this year’s Director’s Lab Chicago.

The theme for DirectorsLabChicago 2008 is “The Power of Myth and Ritual,” which will be explored through workshops and panels led by guest speakers and Lab participants. The lab will take place from July 28th-August 3rd, 2008 at the Chicago Cultural Center in Chicago, IL. Applications are now being accepted for this year’s lab, please visit www.directorslabchicago.com to download an application or to learn more about the lab.

Sara Kerastas is a director, writer and performer on the planning committee with DirectorsLabChicago. She has worked across Canada with Pi Theatre and The Havanna in Vancouver, F4L Productions in Halifax and Theatre Ste. Catherine in Montreal. In Chicago, she associate produces, artistic contributes to and directs for The Callback with Strawdog Theatre Co. Sara is currently directing in Serendipity Theatre Collective’s annual 2nd Story Festival; and working with About Face Theatre on H.I.V. History in Voices this coming summer and directing in the Night Caps II festival with Lincoln Square Theatre. Sara is a co-founding director of Dos Almas Theatre in Montreal, where she received her Bachelor of Arts from McGill University.