Story is medicine, embedded with nuggets of wisdom and healing. I lean into worlds that teeter on the edge of comedy and tragedy; a cauldron of peculiar, desperate personalities. Some isolated, bereft human being sits alone and charts a course of vengeance. They plan a day of reckoning, scheming to get their chance and stake a claim, through violence and rage. It’s not the violence that speaks to me; I’m drawn to their longing to be valued. Stories of alienation, the battle between the disenfranchised and privileged- draw me in. This alchemy & medicine inspire my work.

 

I live for the alchemy and the medicine. This is why I am a director.

 

These themes have followed me throughout many of my projects. As a descendent of Sicilian immigrants, I find resonance with characters who struggle to get ‘in’. The twisted cry of the voiceless soul is meaningful to me.

 

Theatre is Alchemy. From the first rehearsal when I gather with a group of actors, a chemical change begins. The story now has presence, takes on a life of its own and lives in the ether. Each time I enter the world of a play, I chart the obvious journey of the characters, what they do to and want from one another. Then I look for a door at the bottom of the dark psychic stairwell, and invite myself into a place where I might be afraid to go. I ask my actors to join me into that subterranean world. The journey becomes exciting for all of us. Despite whatever horrors the characters inflict upon one another, I listen underneath the text for the longing that howls inside the characters and the play, and direct from that place.

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When an audience witnesses what we’ve created, listens for the first time, there is real potential for transformation, for all of us.

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I use exploratory improvisation and physical work to discover the world of the play. The universe we create has a life and breadth even greater than the play, and larger than all the artists involved. My process is shaped in part by my years as a member of the Actors Space ensemble in New York, headed by artistic director, Alan Langdon. I also studied with Mary Overlie (Six Viewpoints) and Robert Gourp (Theatre de Complicite), both of whom have also influenced my approach.

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Percolating now

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Current collaborations: I am developing new material with the Actors Studio: Playwrights & Directors Workshop. I’m also collaborating with playwrights: Elinor T Vanderburg, C.S. Hanson, Derek Murphy & Youlim Nam. Each of them is quirky, edgy and gifted, tells risky stories of the heart and looks at things others might flinch at. I am honored to work with them.