Encore: Amy Glazer
by Karen McKevitt
Director Amy Glazer is a champion of new plays. She directs the American premiere of Rebecca Gilman's The Sweetest Swing in Baseball, continuing in February at the Magic Theatre. She also heads the new works series at Marin Theatre Company and directs all around the Bay Area.
What attracts you to Rebecca Gilman's work?
I love the people that inhabit her stories. Her characters are always idiosyncratic but real, true. The first play I did of hers was a staged reading of The American in Me. I noticed her phone number on the script and dialed it on my way to the rehearsal. She answered. Immediately I felt as if I knew her. We had a connection. Like an old friend I hadn't spoken to in years, we laughed a lot, and listening to her speak helped me hear her characters. That year I directed the world premiere for Magic's 2000 season. After working on that show, I started to understand her rhythms, how her punctuation (where she puts her periods and commas) informed her characters, how her characters rarely meant "literally" what they said. After that I directed Spinning into Butter and Blue Surge. Sweetest Swing is my fourth play of hers. We were sitting around the table going scene by scene the other day?the relationship is so intuitive that I can say to her, "It's this, right?" And usually she'll say, "Yeah." I feel confident when I direct her work, because I hear her characters in my head, and intuitively I understand them. Sitting at the table the other day, it's as good as it gets for me. It's sublime.
How are you approaching this play?
Very simply, in a very minimalist way. Rebecca's work doesn't want a lot of bells and whistles. I have one bench, two folding chairs and a table that I might get rid of. It's kind of scary because I don't have many secondary activities for the characters to do, no kitchen sink to go make a cup of coffee. But my feeling is that the focus wants to be on the dynamic between her characters and not the coffee. Let's hope I'm right. This play is personal for me because it's about an artist facing her work. It's hard to explain ourselves, our compulsions and passions, how distracted we can become by other people's opinions and how that can make us question our own authenticity or distract us from our original impulses. How much we risk every time we publicly show our work. In that way, this play is the most personal I've directed.
What do you hope to accomplish with the new works series at Marin Theatre Company?
It's an exciting time because I've been able to bring in writers that I've had long relationships with as well as writers who are new to me. I'm hoping to add to the ecology of new works. I believe the Bay Area is becoming a hub for new play development. My hope is to bring in people who are interesting to the Bay Area theatre community, and that artists, writers and other artistic directors will come and hear their work. I love doing new works because I love giving playwrights the chance to actually experience what's in their head. If two out of the four plays in the season could have a life beyond this, I'd feel really successful.
You also direct films?
I'm comfortable in the grammar of theatre--that's my first language--but I've always been interested in film. I come from a family that was steeped in it. My uncle produced The Producers, and I was often on the set with my brother--we were actually thrown off the set once because we were swinging from the rafters and kicked Dick Shawn, and he didn't like that at all. And Mel Brooks and Zero Mostel used to play with us. One of the nice things about being a college professor at San Jose State is that I've found a way to have it become an artistic home and have teaching help me grow by allowing me to explore new ways to tell the story. When I directed Drifting Elegant at the Magic, I thought it would make an interesting film. The university encouraged me to direct a feature and was able to raise money for the project. Stephen Belber is going to play the lead. When I finish Sweetest Swing I'll start prepping for that, and hopefully we'll shoot in May and June in San Jose.
What keeps you in the Bay Area?
We live in the Oakland hills, and I love to hike with my miniature Dachshund. I love living in a blue state and an even bluer community. I love all the new theatre that's happening, and after all these years you do build up a community that matters to you--actors, playwrights and directors. It's also a nice place to raise a child. I'm able to do my art without sacrificing my family. It's sitting in the Northside at the Magic with the doors open and sailboats going by, and having Rebecca at my side and actors I respect and being able to explore and go to places that aren't always safe. That's when time stops for me.
