Both Your Houses
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Michael Hardart
September 18, 2012
What is your job on this show?
Director.
When did you know you wanted to work in the theater, and why?
I started working in theater later on in life, after a few other careers. I caught myself smiling on the subway on my way to my first early Sunday morning rehearsal. Let me just say, I couldn't imagine being happy about going to any other job at 8am on a Sunday. That was when I figured this was the life for me.
Complete this sentence: My show is the only one opening in NYC this fall that...?
refers to the federal income tax bureau as "web-footed, ass-faced water-drinking, ossified descendants of a bad smell," and US Congressmen as a "blistering, blasphemous batch" of crooks. Maxwell Anderson has a wonderful way with words and take unflinching aim at our US government.
Do you think the audience will talk about your show for 5 minutes, an hour, or way into the wee hours of the night?
I think this show could rattle around people's heads for days and lead to more than a few heated discussions. Anderson spares nobody in this scathing satire. Not conservatives, not liberals and certainly not the voting (or non-voting) populace. The play is a feast for thought.
Which famous New Jerseyite would like your show the best: Snooki, Bruce Springsteen, Thomas Edison?
Snooki wouldn't have the slightest idea what was going on, Bruce Springsteen would be fascinated by the contemporary political and philosophical questions brought up in a play written 80 years ago and Thomas Edison would just be pleased that his invention was being put to such wonderful use by our lighting designer, Chris Weston.
Can theater bring about societal change? Why or why not?
Inasmuch as theater can bring about change in an individual audience member, it can bring about societal change. It may be slow and incremental, but I do believe it is possible. I think most of us tend to go to a play and look for the ideas that confirm our long held beliefs, and disregard those that are contrary. But every once in a long while, a contrary idea finds it's way through a chink in our intellectual armor, and that's when real change can occur.
