Audio Feature: Moisés Kaufman Interviewed by his Assistant Directors

On a break during busy technical rehearsals for 33 Variations in the Kreeger Theater, Vijay Mathew, Jessie Gallogly (First Assistant Director) and Colleen Mylott (Script Coordinator) found some time with Moisés Kaufman to ask him questions about his directing and writing.

Download moises-interview.mp3

Here’s an index of the interview questions:
0:45 - Vijay asks: How is your directing different when you’re not directing your own play?

1:40 - Jessie asks: What are the advantages and disadvantages of working with your company of actors and working with a new group of actors?

3:08 - Colleen asks: How has 'moment work' evolved through the years?

5:02 - Vijay asks: Does your process determine what the final structure or form of the play will be?

5:50 - Vijay asks: Can your plays be rightfully produced and interpreted by other directors?

Comments

[Rose Julian]

I would like to ask Moises to imagine 33 Variations ending at the point Gertie begins her tentative minuet. It is a beautiful moment, "Beethoven" and the keeper of his work. I felt that the whole cast doing the minuet at the end added nothing and stole a potentially very powerful ending from an extraordinarily well crafted script.

[David Dower]

Thank you for writing with your idea, Rose. It is interesting how many different opinions there are about what the final image of this play should be. Often there is only one possible way to end a play satisfactorily. Here, people are all over the map. I think it is partly the fact that this is such a complex and engrossing weave of stories that people get to the end wanting a range of final images. Being that it is a new play, and Arena's audiences are the first to engage it, I know that Moises is listening closely to anyone who takes the time to offer their own experience.