Directors Speak About THE GLORY OF LIVING
By: Don Grigware Oct. 17, 2009
The Glory of Living is a co-production between Athena Theatre and El Centro Theatre running October 9th thru November 21st at the El Centro Theatre in Hollywood Directed by Alice Ensor & Joe Koonce
Q: What drew you to The Glory of Living?
Alice: Rebecca Gilman - seriously, her writing is so incisive, and her characters so complex and fascinating - after months of holding readings of various plays, this piece was the one that haunted me. The fact that I could not stop thinking about it - or how it was actually so analogous to far too many of today's actual news headlines, made me want to explore it, and its characters further.
Joe: After seeing a reading of it I found the gritty, humanly flawed characters really hit a chord in me. No one is "just" evil, or "just" wonderful - and that human ability to have both live side by side within one person is an amazing thing.
Q: I hear this play is based on true events, how much of that inspired your direction?
Alice: To be honest, I didn't look at any of the accounts of the actual events the play was based on until we were about ¾ of the way through the rehearsal process. I think Ms. Gilman used the facts of the real life story as a jumping off point. I didn't want to "recreate" the real life individuals, but rather delve into the possibilities of what motivates individuals to behave as these characters do. What was more fascinating to me was comparing Glory to say the Jaycee Dugard- Phillip Garrido case that exploded in the news while we were in rehearsal. I found myself looking at Lisa and comparing her to Phillip Garrido's wife - what made that woman stay with Garrido knowing what he was doing. Where does nature vs. nurture fit into the evolution of an individual's morals and their own self image. Those were the true event questions that inspired me more than the actual accounts of the exploits of "Lady Sundown and NightRider".
Joe: It wasn't a part of my process at all - I tried to base the work solely on Ms. Gilman's script, and the rehearsal process with our particular actors.
Q: As a Co-Director how much of the process is eased or hindered?
Alice: I think that overall having a partner on this project really eased the process as a whole. Joe and I have the same respect for theatre. We share an ideology of what we think theatre can do, and how we want to affect an audience. Now that doesn't mean that there weren't many heated discussions at home on how to proceed on certain things... but when we were in the theatre with our incredibly talented group of actors - we were almost always on the same page and that was huge help to the process.
Joe: Because Alice and I have worked together for so many years, we had very similar ideas about how to handle the material - it was great to have someone to bounce ideas off of whose opinion you really trusted.
Q: What do you think the story is really about?
Alice: I actually believe that "Glory" is a love story. A very warped and twisted version of love, but a love story none-the-less. Each of these characters is incredibly human - they each seek to be loved, to show love, to understand love - and that driving need for, or inability to attain what they seek, creates behavior. Some of it we can identify with, and some of it is completely foreign to us, but we can't deny that it's out there, and that someone right now, is possibly feeling exactly that way. We can either explore it and discuss it, in which case we shine a light on darker corners of humanity - or we can ignore it, and potentially fall victim to it. If our production generates a spark of debate on any of it - I feel that we've done our job.
Joe: It's the audiences place to take what they want from it - it's my place to hopefully start the conversation about these characters, and their similarities and differences to each audience member.
Athena Theatre & El Centro Theatre presents THE GLORY OF LIVING by Rebecca Gilman, directed by Alice Ensor and Joe Koonce. The award-winning, "viscerally powerful" (The Guardian) early play by the author of Spinning Into Butter and Boy Gets Girl. Set in the rural Deep South, Rebecca Gilman's The Glory of Living received critical acclaim rare for a new American play when it had its British premiere in 1999, garnering the Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright. Having opened in New York in the fall of 2001, this work focuses on fifteen-year-old Lisa, the daughter of a prostitute, and Clint, the car thief she runs away with to escape the misery of life with her mother. But the happier times that sullenly childlike Lisa yearns for never materialize, as Clint orders her to procure young runaways for him. Rebecca Gilman has created a riveting, unsentimental portrait of a young woman whose most striking quality is not her capacity for evil but the depth of her emptiness, in an environment as harsh and unyielding as the contours of her life.
Starring: Brett Aune*, Mark Deliman, Jules Hartley, Kate Huffman, Therese McLaughlin, Michael Mims, Chuck Raucci*, Carolyn Stotes, Victoria Truscott, Jeorge Watson*
General Admission $15, Ovation Award Eligible Reservations: 323-230-7261
Plenty of street parking: *Member of Actors' Equity Association. The Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States.
This performance is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
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