ANDY DRACHENBERG: What is the story of your path to directing ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’
PAM MACKINNON: I’ve known Edward now for twelve years and Woolf is the ninth production of six plays of his that I’ve directed (different productions of the same play but different casts, different theatres…) This is the biggie. This is the one that I knew for my own artistic needs that I would direct, the play that people see as Edward’s masterwork. The Arena Stage in DC was putting together a festival celebrating their new building, and the Artistic Director (Molly Smith) looked to me to direct Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. That was the first time someone asked me to direct this play, and very spur of the moment I mentioned Amy Morton’s name – she struck me as a very exciting actor who would go at Martha from a different angle than I’d ever seen; she interested me. Word got out to the Artistic Director of Steppenwolf Theatre (Martha Lavey) that I had said Amy Morton’s name, and she called me up and said “Very interesting! And, as you know, Amy is a Steppenwolf actor… could this become a Steppenwolf production?” Eventually, through a series of phone calls, we agreed it would start at Steppenwolf with company members Amy Morton and Tracy Letts and we would audition Chicago actors. When we begain in DC, Jeffrey Richards came down to see it and at the first intermission he said “I have to produce this on Broadway, it’s so fantastic!” That’s the genesis of why we’re sitting at Sardis right now!
AD: As a director, do you find yourself gravitating towards continuous work with playwrights such as Albee?
PM: Well he’s so great! I was very lucky twelve years ago when I directed what was then a very new play for him – The Baby. It was right after it had been done off Broadway, so he took an interest and showed up at my rehearsal halls. The following year, my name must have been on some list of directors at Houston’s Alley Theatre when Edward gave them the rights to do an even newer play of his: The Goat. It’s a brilliant play so how would I say no to that? All of a sudden, based on my history with Edward and “right place, right time,” he said “Let’s go with her.” That really solidified our working relationship. Soon after, he gave me a brand new play of his! It’s very much a working relationship that’s grown into a friendship. There’s only a few writers that I’ve worked with several times, and it’s a fantastic treat as a director to have an “in” with the playwright as you’re seeing the underlying themes in a piece.
AD: Working with Albee’s plays so frequently, have you found recurring elements that a first-time director might not catch?
PM: His people, even if they’re in dire situations, are able to see the absurdity of the direness. I think there’s a big sense of humor, there’s a big sense that laughs matter, and you don’t want to deny the audience the pleasure of that, even if you know you’re taking them down a dark and gloomy path. The story will unfold in a certain way and people are behaving, given the circumstances and given what has just happened to them, in the moment. I think that’s something that was really important and something we strove for with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
AD: Do you have a favorite moment of the directing process from Woolf?
PM: In a weird way, it would have to be putting the show up in Chicago the first go around and coming back a few weeks later. While they were running in Chicago, I did another light American fare (Death of a Salesman in San Diego), and I came back and saw the penultimate show in Chicago. They had grown so much! We opened really strong in Chicago, but seven weeks later we closed reeeeeeally strong – they were just going for it. I was an audience member, but I was also a parent. As a director, you go away. Sometimes you get to come back and see a show that has swung a little bit. It was really great that everyone was really up to the challenge of running the show and getting alive with it while I was in San Diego.
AD: Aside from leaving (like a parent), another element in directing is of course the medium you’re working in. Do you think there is a difference in approaching directing for film versus for stage?
PM: Well, there’s also a difference in how you approach each play. Every writer is different. Some writers have an agenda, like Shaw. Edward doesn’t do that. There’s something very improvisational about his writing. I remember Amy Morton in rehearsal saying “This isn’t like a play, this is like scripted improv! I just can’t find my character’s perspective because it keeps shifting.” Some of that is because there are so many games within games within games in the longterm marriage of this couple. As soon as you get traction in one thing, the whole game shifts and you have to jump on board with what your partner has decided is the next level. There is something great about a group of people with that task at hand over the course of 8 weeks and seeing where it takes us.
AD: Getting back to the show, what is your favorite part of working on Woolf?
PM: There are a few. I like the boulevard comedy moments as much as the audience does, so I like it when the shotgun goes off. Watching that huge moment of cathartic release, it’s the moment when all four characters are laughing – it’s very gratifying to have that moment. There’s something very American in that, something very vaudeville about that, which is an American genre. Another favorite, having seen it quite a lot now, is the song “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” Knowing now where that song goes in the course of the evening, I feel so deliciously badly for Martha when she goes over to George in the early moments of the play to cheer him up singing that little cocktail party bullshit “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”… It’s the one thing that George maybe thinks will comfort her in the end. That journey of Martha going from “Hey! Hey! Hey! What do you think of this, what do you think of this, wasn’t that funny, wasn’t that hilarious?” to it being the only thing that George is going to give her – there’s something great about that
AD: You must have an immense satisfaction and pride in the work everyone has done.
PM: I’m so proud of my actors, of what I poured into this, of my designers, and Jeffrey for coming down to DC and seeing something that only got better! My two Broadway moments thus far have been shows that feel like we already knocked them out of the park the first go around, and then we got to do them again. Going back to rehearsals for both Clybourne Park and Woolf as different people who have been working since the first run and getting to reattach ourselves and reinvestigate (but more than just replicate) in a strong, muscular way, it was like we get a second chance to do something we already know and love.
PAM MACKINNON (Director) received Tony and Lortel nominations and an Obie Award for direction of Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park(Playwrights Horizons, Taper, Broadway). Recent credits include: Horton Foote’s Harrison, TX (Primary Stages); David Bar Katz’s Atmosphere of Memory (Labyrinth); Itamar Moses’ Completeness(Playwrights Horizons, SCR) and The Four of Us (MTC, Old Globe) and Bach at Leipzig(NYTW); David Weiner’s Extraordinary Chambers (Geffen); Rachel Axler’s Smudge (WPP); Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman (Old Globe); Bruce Norris’ The Unmentionables(Woolly Mammoth). She is a frequent interpreter of the plays of Edward Albee, having directed At Home at the Zoo (formerly Peter and Jerry, Second Stage, Hartford); Occupant (Signature); A Delicate Balance (Arena); The Goat, or Who Is Sylvia? (Alley, Vienna); The Play About the Baby(Philadelphia, Goodman); Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Steppenwolf, Arena) She is an alumna of the Lincoln Center Directors’ Lab and the Drama League and board chair of the downtown theater company Clubbed Thumb, Inc. committed to new American plays.