Working: How a Playwright and a Director Harmonize to Make Great Theater

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4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to playwright Aleshea Harris and director Whitney White, whose new play On Sugarland is currently in preview performances at the New York Theatre Workshop. In the interview, Aleshea and Whitney explain the crucial relationship between playwrights and directors and discuss the ways they work together, solve problems, and ultimately put on the best production possible. After the interview, co-host June Thomas asks Isaac about his experience working as a director and collaborating with writers. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Aleshea and Whitney explain how COVID protocols have affected their rehearsal process. Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to [email protected] or give us a call at (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Big Mood, Little Mood—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Working. Sign up now at slate.com/workingplus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think the key to being able to direct is, are you connecting in a tangible way that you
0:11.9	can communicate and translate in space and time to the work?
0:16.5	Be honest with yourself when you're approaching texts about what you understand and what
0:22.5	you don't understand, because if you lie, then five weeks later you're going to be in
0:28.0	trouble.
0:30.0	Welcome back to Working, I'm your host, June Thomas.
0:33.5	And I am your other host, Isaac Butler.
0:35.9	Isaac, I want to know whose voice we just heard, but first, congratulations!
0:41.9	Your book was officially published earlier this week.
0:44.7	The method, how the 20th century learned to act, is now available in stores.
0:51.1	And since this is a show about the creative process, I'm curious.
0:56.4	Do you feel like the stage that you're at now, which I guess could be described as doing
1:02.2	publicity for the book, is calling for new and different creative tools and techniques?
1:08.6	Yes, I think that's definitely true.
1:11.5	The bringing the horse to market phase calls for some new ways of thinking about creativity.
1:17.6	Like a lot of other writers, I can get a little hung up on like, oh, I've got a market
1:21.4	this thing, got a self-promote.
1:22.9	So, you know, it's sort of shameful, am I bragging, you know, what am I doing?
1:28.1	But I do think the more that you can think of it as a creative process and a creative
1:31.6	process of letting people know who might be interested in this material, that this thing
1:35.6	exists, the better.
1:37.6	And I say that as much to myself as to the listeners, because that's something I am still
	...

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