the best way I can possibly do what I was setting out to do, which was to make every member of the

audience feel like they were sitting next to me watching it happen 10 feet away was live singing.

Hello, and welcome back to the director's cut, brought to you by the Director's Guild of America.

Today's episode takes us behind the scenes of director Stephen Shiboski's new musical drama, Dear Evan Hansen.

An adaptation of the award-winning Broadway musical, the film presents the story of a high school

senior with social anxiety disorder, who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance

after the suicide of a fellow classmate. In addition to Dear Evan Hansen,

Mr. Shabowski's other directorial credits

include the feature films,

Wonder,

the perks of being a wallflower,

and the four corners of nowhere.

Following a recent screening of the film

at the DGA Theater in New York,

Mr. Shabowski spoke with fellow director Peter Hedges

about filming Dear Evan Hansen.

Listen on for their spoiler-filled conversation.

Wow. I know you started to shoot this about a year ago at this time, right?

I feel like it was almost a late day. It was the third week of September. I think there's 21st.

So this, you managed to make this movie in COVID, which is astonishing.

Yeah, it was entirely, you know, it was funny because we, we were going in the June of 2020.

So we had locations picked.

...