On the day I spoke with Actors Theatre of Louisville Associate Artistic
Director Sean Daniels about their new production of A Christmas
Story,
he and the design staff had just completed a review of the model set
that will allow them to recreate Jean Shepard’s childhood memories
on the stage of the Pamela Brown Auditorium next month. Daniels has built
an impressive resume on which he has expanded dramatically since arriving
in Louisville two and one-half years ago. He started a theatre company
in Atlanta called Dad’s Garage Theatre Company that he ran for
ten years before leaving for California Shakespeare Theatre in Berkeley.
Daniels was the resident director and associate artistic director there
for three years before Marc Masterson lured him to Kentucky.
SCOTT: What are some of the shows you have directed
since coming to Actors?
SEAN: My first show here was Hedwig and the Angry
Inch.
Since then, I have directed 43 Plays for 43 Presidents; Rock & Roll:
The Reunion Tour; The Santaland Diaries; the last two seasons of A
Christmas Carol; Brink, which was part of last year’s Humana Festival of New
American Plays; and All Hail Hurricane Gordo, part of the 2007 Humana Festival.
They keep me busy.
SCOTT: It sounds like it. Do you have any family here?
SEAN: My wife works for the Berkeley Repertory Theatre,
so we go back and forth between Kentucky and California. We’re like
second class jet-setters – instead of New York to L.A., it’s
the Louisville to Oakland route.
SCOTT: That’s pretty common for directors these
days, isn’t it? Nobody seems to stay in one place all the time.
SEAN: No, but it is nice to be in a place like Actors
Theatre with a resident design team that lives here. I think people are
under the assumption at times that we import everyone.
SCOTT: These sketches for the set are very reminiscent
of the 1983 classic.
SEAN: People will come in with a pre- existing relationship
to this movie, so they’re not really interested in seeing a French
existentialist version of A Christmas Story. The audience will want to
see the film they know and remember, and they will laugh at the moments
they enjoy – just with a large group of people. This will be the
perfect venue for people to come and enjoy the theatrical version of this
familiar story.
SCOTT: I graduated from college in 1983. I’ve watched
A Christmas Story every year since. In fact, it’s the first Christmas
movie my wife and I watch to start the season.
SEAN: I think half the designers working on this show
could recite the entire movie to you. Even at our design meetings as we
begin to work through which moments are going to be included, people begin
to giggle as they’re talking about it – because they remember.
One of the fun moments we have is the lamppost that comes out from the
side on a “slip stage.” The walls at the back of the stage
open up and these things keep sliding out with new story elements on them – whether
it’s the car, the desk, or Flick, stuck to the pole, sliding away
as he screams.
SCOTT: How are you going to achieve that effect? Are you
going to do it the way they did it in the film?
SEAN: You mean will we really stick a child’s tongue
to the lamppost?
SCOTT: No, no! In the movie they ran a vacuum hose up
through the pole so that when Scott Schwartz pulled back, you could actually
see his tongue stretch.
SEAN: Wow! I didn’t know that. You need to be working
on the show with us!
SCOTT: Tell me more about this set.
SEAN: Well, in addition to the slip stages, the center
stage piece rotates so that when we go to Santa’s village, it will
turn. And, through the magic of sound and other effects, the Bumpus hounds
will be all the way around. No matter where they enter, those dogs will
always be ready to attack. We don’t actually have dogs in the show,
but you will see a lot of people reacting to the dogs – falling or
diving onto stage. There’s a fun moment where we will use the walls
at the back of the set to give the impression that Dad is being mobbed
by a smelly bunch of mangy hound dogs who seem to ignore everyone else.
SCOTT: In the film, Jean Shepard does narrate a little
bit but, for the most part, Peter Billingsly carries most of the action
as Ralphie. How much pressure is there on your young actor?
SEAN: The script is a little different in that there is
a narrator: it’s Ralphie grown up who is talking to his kids about
his favorite Christmas. The script – very wisely – doesn’t
ask a 13-year-old boy to carry the whole thing. It puts most of the weight
on the shoulders of our older actor. That said, Ralphie has to have a lot
of heart; he has to be someone you identify with. When he goes insane and
beats up the bully at the end, you really have to believe that he’s
been pushed over the edge.
SCOTT: How did you find Ralphie?
SEAN: We searched all over town. We went to five different
locations and had this “American Idol” three-stage search that
culminated at the Kentucky State Fair. You can see it online at actorstheatre.org.
When he wins, he is so sweet.
SCOTT: Are there scenes from the movie that haven’t
been included in the stage version?
SEAN: They don’t go to the Chinese restaurant at
the end, which is sad for many of us who love that scene, but I think that
is pretty much it. The script-writers were very aware that we want to see
these moments come through: You want to see Ralphie shoot his glasses off,
you want to see Santa kick him down the slide, but at the same time, it’s
more than just watching a movie on stage. It’s about family, it’s
about nostalgia and it’s about making the best of situations. I think
that’s why we all love the movie so much, so the play does well to
exploit those same themes. Comedy is incredibly hard; so to watch them
pull off the timing live on stage – even when you know what moments
are coming – that kind of craft has its own satisfaction for an audience.
SCOTT: We sometimes hear sets described as one of the
characters and it sounds as though that will absolutely be the case in
A Christmas Story.
SEAN: Scott Bradley, our set designer, will be playing
a major role. Theatre magic tricks are fun for us because theatre is intrinsically
not cinematic, so there is real craft involved when we make it seem like
it is. This two-story house on stage that rotates, with slip stages on
either side, is a great challenge for any production team, especially in
today’s economy! Everyone’s doing shows with two actors, a
chair, a table and dramatic lighting. There is so much heart in this large
stage.
SCOTT: Your sound designer will be having a lot of fun
as well. I understand there is a sound track to this show?
SEAN: There is – with tons of music and voice-overs,
including a radio announcer.
SCOTT: There are some great costumes as well. I can’t
wait to see the bunny costume. Who is doing costumes?
SEAN: Resident Costume Designer Lorraine Venberg. All
of our resident designers are doing this show, with the exception of Scott
Bradley. He is from New York and is known for his big, colorful sets. Scott
will be coming back in the spring to create two Humana Festival shows for
us. We have a really great costume shop and they are able to build almost
anything we need. They make magic down there.
SCOTT: I think it is safe to say that Actors Theatre has
one of the best production teams in the country.
SEAN: Definitely. That’s why it’s fun
to take on a large show like this one. These people are going to meet and
exceed
any expectations that I, or the
audience, may set.
Please note that A Christmas Story will
run in early November and precedes A Christmas Carol, which takes
the stage in December. Following his second elaborate Christmas show of
the season, Daniels will move on to direct a stage adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime
and Punishment in January
2010. For scheduling information and tickets, call 502.584.1205 or go to
actorstheatre.org.