Interview: Gregg T. Daniel On Taking the Reins Of A Revamped TWILIGHT: LOS ANGELES 1992

The west coast premiere of playwright Anna Deavere Smith's expanded solo show Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 opens March 15, 2023, at the Mark Taper Forum (with previews beginning March 8th). Gregg T. Daniel directs the cast of Hugo Armstrong, Lovensky Jean-Baptiste, Lisa Reneé Pitts, Jeanne Sakata and Sabina Zúñiga Varela performing the 30-40 characters of the play that Anna originally performed all on her own. Gregg was most gracious to carve out time from rehearsals to answer a few of my queries.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Gregg!

Have you seen Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 in its original solo form with Anna Deavere Smith at the Mark Taper in L.A. or the Cort on Broadway?

I saw it off-Broadway. I already lived in L.A. but saw it at the Cort in New York.

Back then, did you consider the possibility of casting multiple actors for her solo play?

No. Anna was doing about 30 or 40 characters in the play, and seeing this one solo actress perform those many characters was just stunning to watch. She pulled all these interviews together and made it into a play. On top of that, she then played all these characters: South Korean, Latin, African American, etc., seeing the technique of how she was doing all that was remarkable. In the way that Anna introduced this play, I never considered it to be anything other than a solo piece. Doing a piece based on a live situation was bold, theatrical, and audacious. So no, I hadn't thought of it being open for five or six actors in the future; it never even crossed my mind!

What cosmic forces brought you together with the Center Theater Group production of Twilight?

Luis Alfaro, an associate artistic director at the Center Theater Group at the time and a MacArthur Genius winner, was also a fantastic playwright. He was the one that reached out to me saying, "We're going to put "Twilight: Los Angeles 1992" in this theater season, and it's been readapted for five actors. Would you be interested? I'd like to put you in contact with Anna. Perhaps Anna and you can have some conversations about it." So, it wasn't an offer. It was more like, "If you're interested, this is the date if you're available. I believed they would be interviewing a number of directors at the time for this. It was really Luis Alfaro and the folks at CTG who had seen my work in other venues and other places who thought, "Hey, what about Gregg T Daniel?" I think it's important to note that they were explicitly looking for L.A.-based people for this production. Previously, it had been done in New York At the Signature Theater and then in Massachusetts at The American Repertory Theatre, but this version hasn't been done here yet. There was an emphasis on making this an L.A.-themed production, with a L.A. design team, L.A. actors, and a L.A. director as a tribute to Gordon Davidson, who 30 years ago was the head of the Montreal Perform. He was the one that commissioned Anna to write "Twilight: Los Angeles." He's passed on now, but 30 years later, they wanted to make it a welcome-home, full-circle kind of production.

You've directed many shows in the Los Angeles Theater community. Have you worked with any other twilight cast or creatives before?

Oh, yeah. I have worked with several cast members and the design team previously. It's a small world of people who do theater from production to production. Not just one play a year, but most of the actors and designers I know, go from play to play to play. It's a small community of people who work consistently and love to do it. Doing theater out here, doing theater at all, it's a small world. I have worked with at least two or three actors out of a five-member cast before, and I've actually worked with my entire design team in the past.

For those unfamiliar with this Anna Deavere Smith classic, what would your three-line pitch of it be?

This version that we're doing is not a museum piece. You won't see the play you saw in 1992 with a solo artist. This play has been changed, adapted, opened up, and broadened in a way that almost makes it a new play. Many events have transpired between then and now in these last 30 years. Take the murders of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd, for example. There's been so much violence toward black bodies I think people will come in with a different understanding or subconsciousness when watching the play. We've been forced to change our perception of many things, including the Rodney King beating. So, it will be very different than it was in 1992 because of what we now know repeatedly happens with law enforcement and BIPOC communities. I know this isn't a three-line pitch, but that's because this is an entirely new and fresh adaptation.

Can you share some of your personal experiences during the riots of 1992?

I was here with my girlfriend, who is now my wife of 30 years. I remember going onto the roof of her apartment building and looking around. We had a view of everything and could see the black smoke coming from different areas of the city. It was a surreal feeling to look at the insurrection and the rebellion that was happening. Another impactful moment was driving down Crenshaw Blvd and seeing them bring in the National Guard. They had sandbags, and tanks were rolling down the street. You would think we were in a foreign country when you saw the soldiers in green fatigues and armaments. It was just- Wow! It was tough to believe this was happening here. Those images of chaos, lack of control, and the feeling of "What's going on?" was strong on my mind. I think it challenged everybody to believe in American cities.

What aspects of a script entice you to want to grab its directorial reins?

Every great play has some sort of question or questions that are embedded in it. For me, it's being channeled in, "What is that question? What is the question this player is asking? What is it asking us to do, think about, or consider?" And that's what gets my curiosity and interest in a material going. What are the great questions that this play is asking to consider? Is it an LGBTQ issue? Race? Class? Gender? So many things. It's finding those questions that pique my interest. In Twilight, the play doesn't answer any of these questions but instead presents specific questions to the audience. Remember, everything in this play was said by real people. There's nothing composed by a playwright. Anna put these interviews together, so I'm curious as to what those questions are to consider as a result of this work.

You're currently the artistic director of Lower Depth Theater that you co-founded with Veralyn Jones, Jason Delane Lee, and Yvonne Huff Lee in 2008. What show or accomplishment of Lower Depth are you most proud of?

We just commissioned four playwrights over the last 9 to 10 months to write a full-length play on poverty because of the cycle of the Poverty Commission Series, where we wanted to take a closer look at poverty in our nation and our world. We wanted it to be different, so we provided them with mentors and dramaturgs, and at one point, we had an in-house reading with actors. Just last weekend, we did a festival where we read the plays to the public, two plays a day. We're really proud that we, as a small theater company, could commission four playwrights and directors, actors, and dramaturgs to come in and present this festival of work.

You began your acting career in 1986 in Athol Fugard's Master Harold... and the Boys at Actor's Theatre of Louisville. What inspired you to start dabbling in directing in 2011 (Beneath Rippling Water at the Hollywood Fringe Festival)?

I became more curious than just being an actor. As an actor, your question is, "Well, what do they want? What does he want? What is preventing him from getting it? Why does he want it?" But as a director, you have to think of the entirety of it. It's also the lights, the sound, sets, the costumes, and the projections. There are so many ways to create a vision and tell the story. I became really interested in all the elements that can help and aid and assist in telling a story. Acting is great. I still love it because you're really only dealing with one aspect, your character. As a director, you're dealing with telling stories through all the elements I mentioned earlier, and that really challenged and intrigued me. I had some very kind people along the way, professional directors who, while I was working in a production, I would ask questions to, and we'd have a dialogue. I had some really lovely, very generous directors who encouraged my interest in directing until I knew, yes, I wanted to be a director too, and I segued into directing.

You have been a contributing denizen of the Los Angeles Theatre community since 1989 when you acted in Buck at the Heliotrope Theatre. What advances in opportunities for diversity have you seen since in the L.A. Theatre community? During and since the pandemic, a document was written called "We See You W.A.T (White American Theater) by luminaries of BIPOC people who are writing to primarily white institutions about being included. I think that's changing the face of theater. We're questioning things in terms of the kind of support that's really centered on white power and white privilege. The theater world was turned upside down when that letter was sent to major theaters across the United States by BIPOC artists. The letter included, "We see you, we see how you make decisions about things, we see who makes up your boardrooms." It questioned the entire power structure, the entire DNA of most white theaters, which tend to be the ones that get the grants and can afford to do a full season of plays. The letter blew things wide open. I know far more theaters are looking at EDI issues (equity, diversity, and inclusion) in ways they hadn't before. Considering the artists they hire and the material they do, now there's much more raised consciousness about, "Are we being inclusive? Are we being diverse, and are we educating our audiences about BIPOC issues?" That's the kind of energy and fervor I've never seen before.

Which gives you greater gratification: Being onstage for the curtain call applause for your own acting chops? Or being off-stage for your directed cast's standing O's?

When I act, I love being on stage. When I direct, I love being off-stage. I love both. I love being able to translate a vision of mine onto actors and them being able to find their way in, and I also love as an actor realizing a character within a play. I always say I'm a better director because I'm an actor. I'm a better actor because I'm a director. Those two go hand-in-hand, so at least for me, they see each other. So I'm very satisfied to do whatever genre I'm in, acting or directing, and the fruits that bare. I'm pleased about that, and I can do both.

How do you juggle your film and theater commitments with your professor position at USC's School of Dramatic Arts?

With a whole lot of understanding! I went to USC with the understanding that I'm a professional director and actor. I think that's one of the pluses of that program, they hire a lot of professionals to teach there as an advantage to their students, but they're also understanding and accommodating that when you're on a job you have to go. By now, I've been doing this for so long; my agents understand that when I have to book out and not consider any acting roles because I'm directing, it's something I have to do because it's important to me. Likewise, it's like, OK, I can't direct during February through April because I'm going to be doing a film, or we're going to do a television series. I just have to be very clear about my availability in both markets, so I don't mix the two and then start to disappoint people. I try to be very communicative with them because if it were up to me, I would want to do it all if I could! So, in the spirit of that, let's work together and see what we can do. It's all about setting clear expectations and boundaries.

What feelings do you hope the Mark taper audience will leave twilight with?

This far into my career as a director, I'm past the point of thinking that everyone should walk away with the same message. Suppose we can inspire people to take their own conclusions from the work they saw. Or the work touches them, and they invest time and attention into it. In that case, there isn't one uniform message I want everyone to leave with because the play itself is not asking you or providing you with answers to anything. If anything, it's to inspire or to be a catalyst for conversation, dialogue, and thought. If the audience leaves, just maybe thinking a little closer about what happened during the Rodney King time, "How is it still happening? What's the resonance to our time now with the recent brutality and murders?" Then that's enough for me. I've got them to sit down for 2 1/2 hours and maybe inspired, created conversation, and maybe even more in-depth thoughts. I'd much rather have that and have everyone have their own individual reaction than try to think of one uniform message I put out there for them to think about, that's manipulation. The art is in inspiring people to think on their own about things; that's the craft- many different looks at the same thing.

What's in the Near Future for Gregg T. Daniel?

I believe I will be directing another play sometime in March/April. I've done several productions for a company in town called the Rogue Machine. It's a play I heard a couple of years ago called Can I Touch It? It's a wonderful play by a young black woman about black hair, and I took it to their artistic director, John Flynn, and he showed a great interest in it. Regarding acting, I just finished doing Hacks on HBO, and I had a great time doing that. There's also a feature I just worked on whose name I can't mention because I'm under an NDA, but it's a great feature film that will probably be released next year, 2024. So, I can't say much about the feature, but having just finished Hacks, doing just our lead on that was a lot of fun.

Thank you again, Gregg! I look forward to experiencing your Twilight.

For tickets to the live performances of Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 through April 9, 2023; click on the button below:

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