Directors Notes
When resident member Tom Jones first approached me regarding Guest Directing for Lakeland Players LTD, I was not familiar with the group. I asked Tom, what if we could visit the theater? I have a weakness for theaters. The structure, the history, the spaces themselves, and the people who inhabit them. These places, after all, are my second home from time to time. I have spent a number of years treading their boards. Sometimes even bleeding to them, literally. I also have a deep respect for the people who keep these theaters alive. The artist, the supporters, and most of all the patrons for they are the heart that has kept theater alive. There is a certain magic made for them if they are open to receiving it. It is magically made at the price of blood sweat, tears some laughter and is only recouped by giving to a live audience and a love for what you do.
I am no stranger to the process. My first full directorial effort was made with an all-female cast for Arthur Kopit’s Chamber Music. I and my cast did quite well. I have been equally educated and inspired by men and women throughout my life in the theater. I have worked for and with both and have benefited greatly and equally from these experiences. I consider myself an actors director as I am first and foremost an actor, but to aspire to be a good actor I realized I needed to understand all aspects of production, if not at least respect them. To truly respect, I need to experience, so I did a Mike Rowe of sorts and proceeded to get my hands as production dirty as possible. A key element of success in this and a simple one was to learn to listen. In a vocation built on a lot of talking, it is something we sometimes forget to do. I guess I could tell, yes if you Google my name, I am that fool that shows up at the top of the page, but that is not why I am here. I’ll tell you about my real-life steel magnolia. I am sure you have one or two of your own.
I appeared in a film with a beautiful young actress, a regular cast member for a popular soap opera out of New York City. She was venturing away from television to broaden her horizon. She knew I had stage experience and was also crossing into film myself. We became quick friends as we both took our work and not ourselves seriously, we connected immediately and shared the biggest laugh over a flat tire. We stayed in touch and reconnected at various film screenings and industry conventions. We talked more about our lives than our work. How can you honestly express life if you don’t have one?
As time passed we were off working on different projects and our conversations were few. More time passed and then out of the blue, she reached out to me for help. It was a simple message, but one that I had to read many times to really have it sink in. She had been battling cancer for some time and was running out of funds. The insurance was no longer covering her fight for her life. I sent her what funds I could without question as well as supported and promoted her fundraising campaign. Eventually, she tried to rely on the media that was once there for her in New York, and they did come thru for her, but it was not in time. She moved her star permanently to the skies leaving the concerns of the day and this world behind her. It seemed too quick, so fast yet I know she fought a long and hard battle. She did so with a smile and grace that my weak heart could never manage. And that is, after all, what Steel Magnolias do. They bend but they never break. Her name is Robyn Griggs and she is the reason why I am writing these words to you. She would never want anyone to mourn her time here. She would want you to have a wonderful experience tonight. To trust a fool attempting to direct this writer's personal work on this stage for you. She would want you to laugh, cry, maybe do both at the same time and laugh again. She would want you to have this experience now and would tell you it is very real at this moment. That you won't get it anywhere else and carry it with you when you go. Each one of these women in this story onstage tonight is a Steel Magnolia in their own right. Of course, you don’t have to take them too seriously, just as long as you take them and what they have to give. Because after all, that’s why we are here. Right now, all we have to lose or give is this moment.
