Interview: RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN Director Lauren Shouse

Saturday night marks the opening of RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN at Nashville Repertory Theatre. This Pulitzer Prize nominated play written by Gina Gionfriddo marks the opening of Nashville Repertory's 2015-2016 season. Director Lauren Shouse took some time out of her busy tech week to answer a few questions for us about this production of RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN.

BWW Nashville: Welcome back to Nashville Repertory Theatre. You've got a history with Nashville Repertory Theatre, including Artistic Associate and New Works Lab director. What made you decide to return?

Lauren Shouse: It feels like a homecoming in returning to Nashville Rep. René Copeland has really supported my early directing career so when she invited me back to direct this juicy play, I jumped at the chance to return to a theatre that is an artistic home. This Nashville community is really special and it has been such a thrill to work with old friends and make new ones in this process.

BWW Nashville: Having just completed your MFA in Directing from Northwestern, you already have a hefty resume of shows you've work on. Do you have a preference between musicals and straight plays when looking at projects to work on?

Lauren Shouse: I just love telling a really good story. While my focus has been on straight plays recently, I love working on musicals and theatrical adaptations as well. I hope to do more of this work in the future.

BWW Nashville: RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. What things about this show do you feel brought this honor?

Lauren Shouse: Gina Gionfriddo's writing is so smart, witty and engaging. In the rehearsal process, we found we could just trust her words in building a scene. The play continues to surprise me. I learn something new from it everyday. For me, that is the mark of a truly engaging piece of theatre.

BWW Nashville: Can you share a little bit about RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN with our readers?

Lauren Shouse: The story follows Catherine, a successful feminist author who gave up her college boyfriend to pursue a career and has not yet married. Gwen, her grad school roommate, married Catherine's ex-boyfriend and had the family and children. When personal circumstances throw these old college friends back together, Catherine comes face to face with all the choices she didn't make.

BWW Nashville: Do you feel like this show is more comedy or drama?

Lauren Shouse: It is certainly a good mix of both. The play's dialogue is smart and deliciously funny. Catherine teaches a summer school class that will have the audience engaging with feminist ideas from Betty Friedan to Phyllis Schlafly. The stimulating classroom arguments have two 40-year-old women engaging with perspectives from a 21-year-old and a 70-year-old. Gionfriddo provokes discussion about how multiple generations of women have regarded each other's choices and think they can do better. She claims that "women take pride in avoiding their mothers' disappointments only to disappoint themselves in new ways that will make the generation below them cringe." There are a lot of provocative ideas bouncing around in this play and that is where a lot of the humor comes in.

BWW Nashville: What type of conversations do you hope that RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN bring to the audiences?

Lauren Shouse: RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN really engages the question of what it means for a woman to have it all. With recent books like Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In, this question is a hot topic right now. Today there is a new expectation that a woman should have a successful career and be a mother to be fulfilled. There can be a lot of judgment when a woman makes a different choice. This play provokes a lot of questions about how a woman should behave in relationships, motherhood, and careers. I think this play will stimulate a lot of burning conversation about our individual choices.

BWW Nashville: What were some of the things the first things that you did when approaching this production of RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN?

Lauren Shouse: Well, I had my own private Women's Studies course. I honestly had never read Betty Friedan's The Feminist Mystique and I certainly hadn't read Phyllis Schlafly. So it was truly eye opening to dig into these rich dialogues about women's choice. I got really fired up and I wanted to talk so I had drinks with my grad school friends to discuss what it means for a woman to have it all. This play is particularly prescient for me as I am pursuing a directing career, about to get married and thinking about having a kid. This conversation hits really close to home for me right now.

BWW Nashville: Are there specific things you hope an audience sees in this production that you feel might normally be overlooked?

Lauren Shouse: While this play engages with a lot of strong feminist ideas, the women ultimately make some really messy choices in relationship to a guy. I think audiences will relate to this quote from Gina Gionfriddo that says, "You can be an incredibly evolved and smart and liberated feminist and still go to pieces over a boy." This play reminds me that I'm not the only one who has made some mistakes when it comes to love.

BWW Nashville: For those who come into this show with no background knowledge of the show, what can you tell them to expect in five words or less?

Lauren Shouse: Hilarious, intellectual sparring... and martinis.

RAPTURE, BLISTER, BURN plays in the Johnson Theater at Tennessee Performing Arts Center opening September 5th and playing through September 19th. You can purchase tickets for the show by calling the TPAC box office at 615-782-4040 or by visiting their website.