One of the Abilene Shakespeare Festival's more challenging plays also was an entertaining night at the theater.
For the Abilene Shakespeare Festival, Adam Hester, the artistic director, brought in a special guess director for the 2007 season. He asked artistic director, Shauna Kanter, of the Voice Theatre in New York to come down to our small west Texas town and direct the political comedy, Measure for Measure. The Jewish, free-spirit, brilliant voice specialist agreed and she stayed in Texas with us for six weeks. She was eccentric, vibrant, tough, and honest. She was hard on a lot of us, but for good reasons – for growth. It was exciting to work with her because by this time, I had worked with all the faculty on their shows and this was certainly a change of pace and a lesson in working with directors of all kinds.
Originally, freshman, Katie Hahn, was slated to be Shauna’s stage manager, but the technical director had a few misgivings. He thought that since Katie had never stage managed before and Shauna, coming from New York, would expect to have someone experienced to work with. So they asked me to step in and moved Katie to ASM. I was happy to help, and honored to be asked. I was nervous about my friendship with Katie, but she understood the dilemma and certainly didn’t want to start her first show not knowing what to do. I told them that if I stayed I needed to get paid, and they complied, thank goodness. But that meant I had to work a full day, so I did. I worked in the mornings on the set as a carpenter from 8am to 11am and then went to rehearsals from 1pm to 5pm. It was a long day, but worth it for what I learned that summer.
Yes it’s true. Shauna made me cry. After rehearsal one day she torn into me without mercy. I guess I was used to working with a certain “ACU style” and I needed to get rid of all of that and work a new way. Shauna’s way. I am grateful for this because I learned that I don’t bring in a style that the director follows, I bring myself, learn the director, and the mold myself into their style and fully support them. I wasn’t doing that because I didn’t realize it. One day after rehearsal I learned the error of my ways. Shauna told me I wasn’t supporting her and I wasn’t serving the play (even though I thought I was.) And that if I wanted to do this on Broadway I’d better think again. Needless to say I was pretty upset and completely broke down. But I learned that if that is what Shauna wanted me to do, then I’ll do it. I shut my mouth, always listened, always wrote her notes down, and never pushed her. I anticipated her needs as best I could and played by her rules. Which I understand now is the way to support the director fully. We ended up working well together and actually having a good time. She told me at the end of the run that I improved greatly and that maybe I did have a chance in this business after all and offered to see her in New York whenever I came. Who knows what she would have done to Katie…
One of the Abilene Shakespeare Festival's more challenging plays also was an entertaining night at the theater.