Director Blog - Where We Are

Today we have something extra special for you, blogfriends. Student Arts Collective's Producing Artistic Director and the incredibly talented Director of our upcoming staging of Angels in America, Susan Kramer. Sue has taken time out of her busy schedule to write a special note to key us into where both she and the play are, now less than a month until opening night. Read on for her beautiful words.

_________________________________________

And here we are. Back. Our blog is alive, breathing, full of color again. It was time.

And so, now? Now, in our 15th Season, we bravely mount Tony Kushner's ANGELS IN AMERICA.

I have wanted to contribute to this blog since we resuscitated, jump started it... but I seemed to hit the wall. Writers' block.

Until I saw the images here, on this blog, taken during our ANGELS IN AMERICA Designer Run.

And I was left completely, unabashedly... breathless. Breathless.

Suddenly I am no longer speechless. My voice unleashed, inside this blogplace.

Wondering about--and asking you, too--to imagine this collection of actors, this collection of artists, who entered the process from all corners, all walked in imagining this experience would be like none other.

I'm still thrown back to our auditions, callbacks, the choosing of artists. Somehow, it seems, we all ran feverishly toward this text, this play, at this time.

But now, four weeks until opening night, after living with the text for months, we know. Something has changed. The Earth has shifted. And without noticing--until now--somehow this production dances and rests and breathes into something more huge than we've ever, ever known. ANGELS IN AMERICA.

All of us have been swept away by a much greater journey than any one of us knew... or dreamed of. Into the past, the history, these lives... so much research, so much reaching out... to learn about everything inside Kushner's text! Layers upon layers of questions bring even more magic; the NEW questioning. Not just WHAT, HOW it was in 1985... but WHY?! And inside the NOW. Why NOW???

This journey, with these artists... no doors will be left unopened. We stand collectively with cleavers held high, ripping, tearing away at all doors and passages previously nailed shut, barred, slamming... hacking away! Reaching INSIDE THE TRUTH!!! Only then can we fly inside, roll around in it, dance in it, scream, cry, hold it close, hold each other close... and sing inside it all!!! And only THEN? Tell YOU the truth.

The artists in the powerful images posted here... the eyes, the hands, the faces... we are clearly preparing for this, our message. And within this heart, I can see now, we are exactly where we should be. Right now. If these images are taken from a Designer Run... imagine, JUST IMAGINE what another 3 weeks will bring!

That kind of magic is unspeakable. Immeasurable. And this very journey could only be explored with the open hearts and souls belonging to this cast and the artists, our designers.

Within my next post, I will write about the many, many beautiful folks who have helped pave they way, deeper inside the core of this project, across America... from Baltimore, New York, Boston, Chicago, New Mexico, to L.A. That will be my next post... THAT journey!!!

But for now... This is about giving it a name... and I will ask you to please, in this time, in this place, help me honor the artists who are living inside this production of ANGELS IN AMERICA. It is with absolute pride I work beside each of them. What a privilege and honor. A gift.