Directing

Directing is the aspect of theater in which I am most professional, because it’s the least ego-driven or about me personally. I began doing it in my 20s, when I first became enthralled by the theater, but then I stopped doing it for a couple of decades, until taking it up again in Houston, where I directed a very successful production of “Godspell.” Sometimes I think I would have had a more rewarding career if I had given up playwriting and just devoted myself to directing, but later I came to understand how doing that actually helped my playwriting. 

 

“Curlew River”

“Curlew River,” composed by Benjamin Britten, is not attempting to be purely Noh in form, but only to suggest it, an imaginary fusion of English and Japanese art forms. In this scene, the Madwoman, whose son was brutally killed, is about to enter a boat which will cross the river to her son’s tomb, which the boat structure becomes. Excerpt is from the Benjamin Britten opera with a link to the full production.

 
 
“From Vassar with Love.”

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Early Work: The first thing I ever directed was “From Vassar with Love,” a musical comedy by Virginia Kays that took place and was performed at Vassar College in 1965 (see photo). In 1966 I directed “The First One Hundred Years,” a musical celebrating the Centennial of the Noble & Greenough School, where I was teaching. In the summer of 1966 I directed Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano” at Harvard’s Experimental Theater in the Loeb Drama Center (where I later taught a theater workshop). The following summer I directed “Charley’s Aunt” at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado. After graduating from Yale, I directed “Artemis,” by Jeffrey Pavek, at the Theater Company of Boston in 1969.

neXusArts: In 1999 my wife, Claudia Dumschat, and I incorporated neXus Arts, whose mission was to combine music in the classical tradition with dance, drama and poetry. I was the stage director and she the music director for various productions at the Church of the Transfiguration, where she is the Music Director. Among those productions were a staged version of Händel’s oratorio “Saul;” “Arise My Love” (with poetry and dance); Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore;” “Medieval but Modern;” a staged version of Distler’s 13 motets, “Totentanz;” and Britten’s “Company of Heaven,” with ballet, modern and Cunningham dancers.

Other productions of neXus Arts in Manhattan included Rania Ajami’s multi-media extravaganza, “The Naughty Painter,” at Dick Shea’s Place; “The Vision of Perpetua”. (an opera by Victor Kioulaphides, (for which I co-wrote the libretto with Jeremy Black) at University Settlement; and Brian Schober’s opera, Dance of the Stones (for which I also wrote the libretto) at Theatre80 St. Marks.


Schwartz Concerts: In 2004, Mrs. Arnold Schwartz founded a concert series at the church in honor of her late husband, and this replaced neXus Arts as our source of funding. Among the first Schwartz productions was a fully staged and costumed version of Händel’s oratorio, “Athalia.” I also directed what became the annual production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s beloved opera for children, “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” Of special note were rare, fully-staged and costumed productions of the medieval “Play of Daniel” and Purcell’s baroque opera “Dido and Aeneas.” I also became something of a specialist in directing the operas of Benjamin Britten, including “Noye’s Fludde” and, over three years, his Trilogy for Church Performance: “Curlew River,” “The Burning Fiery Furnace” and “The Prodigal Son.”

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