| Scott
Alan Evans is co-artistic and executive director of the Actors
Company Theater. He directed the company's current production
of Edward Bond's The Sea.
How
would you describe this production of The Sea?
Bond's
play is a fascinating exploration of life and hope revolving
around that central metaphor, the sea. The sea both gives
life and takes it away. When Bond wrote this, he had just
completed his adaptation of King Lear, so there
are a lot of Shakespearean resonances in this play. It is
influenced by The Tempest—consider the storm
in the opening scene—and there are echoes of Twelfth
Night. This production is all about movement and transformation.
What's
next for the company?
For
next season, which we are planning now, we'll be back in
residence at Theater Row with two more full productions.
But in addition to our full productions we have a salon
series in our studio space. It is a six-play series of staged
readings over the season. We have one more remaining in
this season—Dandy Dick by Arthur Wing Pinero.
Our readings are more of a hybrid of what people normally
think of—they are quite realized, often with original
music, but script-in-hand.
What theater do you see?
These
days I have so little time to see theater, and I regret
that. I do my best to know what is popular and what is around.
… I'm working on a musical, another project, and so
am very focused on seeing all the musical theater I can.
Who
or what are your influences?
I find
all kinds of theater inspirational. I particularly like
theater that is about transformation and that uses the elements
of the theatrical experience to tell the story. There's
been a recent trend of some theater trying to be more like
film or television. Theater can't compete with some of the
things that those other media can present, but theater has
other strengths. I appreciate highly theatrical things that
emphasize the actor.
Who or what are your influences?
My
main influence has been Michael Howard, with whom I studied
and who has enormously influenced how I see the role of
acting in the theater. There are a lot of really talented
directors—Jonathan Miller, Trevor Nunn. What I love
about directing is that you have to think about all of the
aspects of the theatrical experience.
I love
working with designers and discovering how to visually support
what we find in the text. I also believe music is very important
to theater, so more likely than not we'll have original
music in our productions. And at its essence, of course,
our aesthetic is all about the text and the actor.
What
do you enjoy most about directing for the Actors Company
Theater in particular?
With
the luxury of having a repertory company, we've developed
relationships with actors over the years. There are actors
I have worked with for over 10 or 12 years. By this point
we have established a common language, so in the rehearsal
process we can work deeply more quickly. What's great is
to see an actor's range and to see how the actor transforms
within a role and from one role to the next.
That's
an added treat for our audience. Part of our philosophy
is that there is no theater without the audience. The biggest
tribute is when our audience members ask us "What are
we doing next season?"
For
more information about The Actors Company Theatre, visit
its Web site at http://www.tactnyc.org/
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