Interview: John Patterson of INCIDENT AT VICHY at Theatre Southwest

Broadway World writer Brett Cullum got to talk recently with director John Patterson, who is opening INCIDENT AT VICHY for Theatre Southwest. The show opens on September 12th and plays through September 27th. It is a script written by Arthur Miller (a lesser-known one) and is set in Nazi-occupied France. A group of detainees, predominantly Jewish men, await racial examination by German officers. The prisoners grapple with fear, denial, and the possibility of escape, embodying themes of guilt, fear, human nature, and complicity as they confront the grim reality of their circumstances. This production is produced in collaboration with The Holocaust Museum, and it promises to be an exciting production at Theatre Southwest’s new space! 

Brett Cullum: So, first up, am I reading this right? You've got 21 men in this show.

John Patterson: That's correct, all crammed into a very small space. It is every bit as much like herding cats as you can imagine. But, it really plays well for the look and the feel for what Arthur Miller intended, which was that there was no forethought given to where these men were going to be stored or detained or held, so they're essentially crammed into a disused storage room in a warehouse or a factory, certainly anything else other than a nice waiting room. It's supposed to feel claustrophobic.

Brett Cullum: This is a one-act, though. I mean, it's a 90-minute, you're out. No intermission! Plow right into the story and go full steam ahead. I like it when it's what I call a one-and-done.

John Patterson: And that's the way Arthur Miller intended it to be performed, with no intermission. Arthur built such a great crescendo that there's no stepping off the train, as, if you will, anywhere where you lose momentum by taking a break. So we just push right through the 90 minutes. Just one act, and you're out of the theater. It's actually really nice, because it moves.

Brett Cullum: So what made you want to do this show? I mean, it's, you know, what was the inspiration for John to take on Incident at Vichy?

John Patterson: I read this when I was in some intro to lit class, my freshman or sophomore year in college. Amidst the big pile of scripts that we went through, this particular one stuck out in my mind at that time. And after all these years, it's 30-plus years, I'm still thinking about it. So when it popped up from our Play Reading Commission, or committee, that this was the play that they wanted to put up this year. I dove on it. I was like, “Guys, I have to have this. I've been thinking about this play, and this room that these guys are in, for 30 years. It's part of a larger story that I want to tell as a director, and this just ties in so nicely with everything that is currently taking place in our nation today. The parallels are are so plain that it could have been written yesterday, it could have been written five minutes ago, and the dialogue would still be true. I just went back and re-read it, and I had to tell this story.

Anytime you can take a true measure of people under pressure and under enormous strain to see what they're made of, I mean, that's the root of good storytelling. So this has all of those elements. You have drama, you have suspense, there's even just… if you look for it, there's even a moment or two in there of chuckle. You get the whole gambit, and it leaves you asking questions on the drive home. And a couple of them are slow burns, where three days later, you sit up and go, what… why did Arthur Miller… why did he say that?

Brett Cullum: Well, tell me about your collaboration with the Holocaust Museum. How did that come about, and what are your parameters of that?

John Patterson: It started off with a relationship that we have at Theater Southwest with one of our actors, patrons, supporters, donors, whose name I don't have permission to… to disclose. I probably should have asked him before the interview. But in any event, he's also an employee of the Holocaust Museum. We sat down and had lunch, and I just pitched the story to him, and I said, “Out of curiosity, would the Holocaust Museum have any interest in having a partnership or a collaboration with this?” And he was like, “Oh my god, this is amazing!” And he went back, and he read the script, and he carried it into his team, and that led to a meeting with their leadership team. We simply proposed that this is what we would imagine a collaboration to look like. What do you think? And the only thing they said is, “God, we wish you had come to us with this 9 months ago! What a fantastic thing, what a great story. We are looking for opportunities like this.” So, out of that came this amazing partnership where we've had access to all of their literature, to their educators, to all of their resources. We are going to be performing an add-on performance on their performance space on October 5th, a final matinee outside of the theater in their space. We're very excited about that. This is the first actual full-length drama that they've put up on that stage, so we're very excited to step into that slot for them. And we're hoping that this will build a longer collaboration with them for shows in the future.

Brett Cullum: No, perfect, perfect partner for this, absolutely. Well, let's talk a little bit about Theatre Southwest, too, while I've got you. You recently moved! So, tell me about the new space, where's it located?

John Patterson: We are at the corner of Hillcroft and West Park, right, right on that, right in the corner spot across from the CWTV station. And that came about after 27 years in the former space. It had been a wonderful home for us for many, many years. But, due to less interest from the landlord than we had had in times past. And neighborhoods move on after a period of time. It became clear to us that it was time for us to relocate. We launched a capital campaign, set a budget, and then looked for a space, and it all came together very quickly. We went to our membership and asked for the lift, and were overwhelmed by the response, such that we began this in October of last year, and in April of this year, we were fully functioning again in the new space. A lot of work for a lot of people.

Brett Cullum: I was a big fan of the old space, and I remember, but the only thing is, I'm gonna ask you, do you have more parking this time?

John Patterson: We have fantastic parking. The parking is well-appointed, well-lit, and very, trip-free, shall we say. We have ample parking in front and in the back of the facility, and also, I'll put a plug in for our neighbor. We have an excellent restaurant that's right in the same facility with us, Sammy's Lebanese. They have been very kind to us since we moved in, and their food is fantastic. So if you get out this way, get here early and swing by there. They'll do you right.

Brett Cullum: Yeah, don't tempt me with food, John. I'll be there. I like a good meal before I go see the play, and if I can walk from it, all the better. The show runs through September 27th, so Theater Southwest. Remind me again of the address

John Patterson: 3939 Hillcroft, Suite 160.

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