Interview: Gaye Taylor Upchurch, Director of THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING Starring Kathleen Turner at Arena Stage

Making her directing debut at Arena Stage, Gaye Taylor Upchurch is not a stranger to theatre in Washington, DC. She directed the world premiere of Clare Lizzimore's ANIMAL at Studio Theatre. Her Hudson Valley Shakespeare production of Shakespeare's AS YOU LIKE IT will be reimagined for Folger Theater this winter. Her directing work has been seen Off-Broadway, and in regional theaters such as Old Globe and South Coast Repertory.

Upchurch's first Arena gig is also the first time she has worked with film and stage star Kathleen Turner. Directing Turner in Joan Didion's autobiographical one person play has been ah honor, according to Upchurch.

A personal look at handling grief through unconventional methods, THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING is primed to reach audiences with Didion's blend of humor and pathos. Based on Didion's best selling memoir, THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING gives the audience a glimpse of the author's year after her husband of 40 years John Gregory Dunne died of a heart attack. As Didion coped with grief, she also faced a terrible situation with their only daughter Quintana Roo Dunne, starting with pneumonia, complications leading to a coma, and, later, a complicated brain surgery and her passing at age 39. The book was published in 2005. By the time Didion adapted her book into a play, she incorporated Quintana's death into the piece.

The director sat down with Broadway World's Jeffrey Walker to talk about her vision for the production and working with Turner as the onstage version of Didion.

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Jeffrey Walker: Joan Didion is such a force among modern writers. Describe her voice, as an author.

Gaye Taylor Upchurch: She is first and foremost a journalist, and a very observational writer. She observes things, and she records them, and then she has this incredible mind that makes connections and comes up with her own theories about things, based on those observations. She's very frank; I find her to be very unflinching. This is true in her journalism and in THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING. In interviews, Joan talked about how writing about this time was to work through her own process of grief and to record how she was feeling when she went through it. Reading the book for the first time I realized there is not a lot of contemporary writing that is this frank about grief and death and the way we face it, particularly in America.

Didion really took a look at death and the grieving process in a way that was unique for its time.

In the book, she talks about how death happens offstage, meaning that death used to be much more central in people's lives - people died at home, they grieved at home, you came together to grieve. We are now used to people dying in hospitals or away from the home and the most important thing you can do when experiencing grief is to be strong, and to be tough, and get through it. This book is her examination of another side to grief that we're as a culture ignoring, which is another example of her frankness. It's her way of saying "that's not that way it is at all. You may look strong on the outside and people may think that you're getting through it but here's what's actually happening in your mind." And she is honest and brutal about what she's feeling. It's not all honoring of the dead and not all being solemn; it's being very vulnerable.

I was particularly struck by this quotation: "Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it."

That is one of my favorite lines. It's in the play. The character Joan picks up a book and reads from the book and that's the line she reads. It's as if she is saying here's the truth of what it was like for me, this may be how it will be for you. There is something about her writing here that makes it feel less lonely.

Turning her own memoir into a play and knowing that she would be sharing the story in dramatic form, do you think that helped with lessening that lonely feeling?

I think that's something theatre does really well. It allows us to say let's all get in the room together and hash out some big questions. The theatre can also make us feel like we're not the only people going through something. Turning the book into a play was a really brilliant idea.

From all accounts it also succeeds in that it is a play about facing death and going through grief that is not a downer, correct?

Joan Didion has a great sense of humor. She's very sly and wry, and knows how
to turn a phrase. I have to say I think that's one of the special things about this production, so does Kathleen Turner. She has that same dry sense of humor that is just fantastic when faced with this kind of material. It drains the material of sentimentality, so we can get to the meat of what we're talking about, a life that's being explored, and eliminate any sort of wallowing around.

Talk about the challenge or the gift of working on a solo theatre piece instead of a multi-cast production.

It's definitely been the second - Joan Didion's writing and Kathleen Turner's force of acting. It's been a real gift to sit in that room. This being a solo show certainly makes sense for this particular piece. Kathleen, as Joan, really taps on the audience, she uses us, she talks to us. The fourth wall is completely obliterated and there's some joy in that. As an audience, you feel like you've been invited over to hear a story; it's very intimate in that way. I have really been excited and honored to be in the room during the process. It's been a fantastic piece to get to explore and Kathleen is phenomenal and is really a hard worker. We had a great time discovering the piece together.
There is something about theatre. People always say when the material is really dark, you have a great time, and when it's a comedy, it can be really hard. We've been able to find a lot of humor as we worked through it.

The intimacy of Didion's personal story seems like a perfect fit for the Kogod Cradle space.

We designed the set with the intimate space in mind. When Kathleen first talked to me about directing the piece, she said she wanted the feeling of having people over for tea. The set designer, Daniel Zimmerman, and I took that idea, and created an Upper East Side Manhattan apartment with a couple elements of Joan's California life mixed in. But it's a space that can go anywhere you need it to go with Joan as she takes the audience into the hospital, an ICU, back home again. In the space, we are using the back wall, we're not hiding the theatre in any way - it's a beautiful space.

What was it about this piece that spoke to you as a director?

I think all the things we've been talking about: the text, the subject matter itself. The idea that this intimate play and subject matter could be brought to life onstage, and then you add Kathleen Turner - that confluence of actress and text are the things that got me excited. My thought was what can I do to support without getting in the way of what those two things [the play and Kathleen Turner] are because they're so great. And what can I bring in terms of how we're structuring the piece, the emotional arc of the piece. Kathleen and I have really been in synch about how we got a toehold in each scene and how to move the piece forward. We were very simpatico about it.

You mentioned Daniel Zimmerman, the scenic designer, already. What about your other collaborators?

Roc Lee is the Sound Designer. We're not going to do a ton of music but there will be a little bit of sound design, incorporating the sound of water and ocean, which hearkens back to Didion's life in California. A large portion of the book and the play talks about the ocean and water. Kathleen Geldard, who is fantastic, is the costume designer. I worked with her at Studio on ANIMAL last year. She got together the costumes and jewelry. And then the lighting designer is Jesse Belsky, who is also fantastic. He and I also worked together on ANIMAL last year.

Since it came from her book title and her play adaptation, just what is a "year of magical thinking"?

Joan realized at almost the end of that year that she had been living her life in such a way that her husband John could come back to her. She talks about how she believed that to be true even if one part of her knew it couldn't be true. But for one year she would literally make choices - like not throwing out his shoes, or doing other things - to bring him back.
Because of all the things I talked about at the beginning (Joan being a journalist, an observer, an honest writer, a pragmatic mind), the remarkable thing to hear her talk about allowing herself to have this kind of magical thinking - 'if I do this, then this will happen' - is a real departure from who she is as a person. I think it was lifesaving, I think it was scary, it was necessary. I think it was horrifying to her that she's the kind of person who prides herself on being so disciplined and honest, that she could dupe herself in this way. It's a look at what grieving can do to the mind.

The book originally recounted her grief journey after her husband's death. For the play, she included what followed, facing her daughter's fatal illness.

That's correct. As the play begins, the audience, even if they do not know Joan's story, understands pretty quickly that John died and then very little about Quintana and how that's going to go. There is a little element of suspense, grappling with the death of her husband and dealing with the illness of her daughter.

What would you say about coming to see this play to someone who has recently lost a significant other and has experienced their own grief journey?

I would say come with somebody that you love or a close friend. This show is a way of letting us know we are less alone in that experience. I wouldn't be surprised if people who've been through something similar recognize themselves in the things that Joan is saying and possibly feel some relief that their story is not totally unique in that way. I think that's comforting.

Is there anything about the play or the production that has surprised you as you worked on it?

I think that fact that it is a play about death and grief that is not a complete downer is surprising. That doesn't mean there aren't tears; I found myself getting teary in rehearsals, but in the next moment, we're laughing. There is nothing about it that is precious and sentimental and I find that really reassuring.

Any last thoughts?

The theatre can allow us to face a topic like this head on; there is some relief in going to see a play like that - that takes a subject we tend to shy away from or that feels inappropriate somehow. To sit in a theatre and have that exact subject addressed head on is satisfying.

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THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING based on Joan Didion's memoir

Starring Kathleen Turner

Directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch

In the Arlene and Robert Kogod Cradle at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St NW, WDC

Runs through November 20, 2016
Running time: One hour, 40 minutes.
Tickets at www.arenastage.org

Photo credits: Gaye Taylor Upchurch - credit: Rachael Shane;

Production Graphics, Arena Stage - credit: Montse Bernal;

Kathleen Turner in THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THINKING - credit: C. Stanley Photography