Director Jason Richards Arts Education Director Rachel Kuhnle sat down with Festival Theatre Executive Artistic Director Jason Richard to discuss the first full production of the 2018 season, Lone Star Spirits, directed by Richards and including Rachel Kuhnle, Josiah Laubenstein, Erika Kuhn, Jon Peterson and Rod Kleiss in the cast. This interview has been edited for clarity.
FESTIVAL THEATRE: So first of all, you've now been the Executive Artistic Director for about 8 months now - how would you describe your experience so far in one word?
JASON RICHARDS: (Laughs.) One word? If it's just one word... I think the best word that really encapsulates [my time here] is "adventurous." To me, that's positive. If you say "busy," that can be like...is that good or bad. But adventurous encapsulates busy but also "fun" and "see-what's-next."
FT: Nice. So you have worked as an actor, a director, playwright, teacher, administrator... Which do you sort of see yourself as first? Can you speak a little to your director philosophy?
JR: Originally I saw myself as an actor, but now I really do consider myself a theatre artist - sort of encompassing all those things. My directing journey started in undergrad when I got a degree in Directing and Design from Baylor University in Waco Texas. I did [a] directing [degree] over acting really just because I connected with those teachers better. The first thing I ever directed was a ten minute play that I'd written, it was an assignment in my directing class. Next I directed one third of the David Mamet play The Water Engine - I got to direct the final third, which I thought was pretty cool. Some years later, I directed the full show. As a director, I want to ask questions... more than make statements. Sometimes I ask a question trying to lead an actor to a certain point, but other times I ask a question that I don't know the answer to. The director creates a world that all these characters can exist in, you have designers who design the set, and lights and props and costume and all that creates a world that was started in the playwrights mind. I've really enjoyed this cast, it's been a collaborative effort. I like that as a director, that we are all telling this story together. We all have to bring our ideas to the table to get the most of the story and I feel like we've done that. It takes courage to collaborate.
FT: Your first full production as a director at Festival Theatre is set in Texas, where you are from. Was that intentional?
JR: No, it wasn't! (Laughs.)This play was already in place when I got here, the powers-at-be had already selected this play. It was a weird coincidence, it turned out to be a strength. I think I know this part of the country, I know these characters well. I grew up with them. I connect with Marley's complicated relationship with her past, her hometown, her former friends. The Jess and Marley friendship... When I was in high school, I had a lot of friends. Since then, about three of those were life long friends. Even though today we don't have a lot in common because our lives diverted, at any moment I can call them and say "do this" and they would do it. If my friend called and said "I needed a kidney," I'd give him a kidney. ... I also really like that personally some of my items have made it onto the stage, because I'm from Texas. A pair of boots, a belt buckle, the refrigerator magnets...
FT: So Josh Tobiessen is not a native Texan, if fact he only lived in the state a few years. As an Texan yourself, is there anything he got totally right, anything he got totally wrong?
JR: To his credit, he has created universal characters that are very relatable to anyone no matter where they are. But as a Texan... I grew up with all of those people. When I read the play, I knew who those characters were. That being said... Texas is BIG, Texas is almost five states in one. Where I grew up in East Texas and where these characters are from in West Texas... [Geographically] it's as if I grew up in Minneapolis, and these characters grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska - Texas is that big - like we'd be 600 miles apart. But something he really did get right is how important football is, that [in the play] this Spartan football team won the championship and how it shaped a certain time period in this town, and the young men's lives. How people don't want that time to fade. When I lived in Kilgore, TX, in 2001, they won the championship. There was a huge billboard erected and that billboard stayed up for years - is probably still up today. So that's, what, seventeen years?
FT: So there's nothing about being a Texan he got wrong? It's all flawless?
JR: Well...if you're going to twist my arm. I guess there is one thing... ONE thing... At the end of act one, Marley says her dad Walter "lost his car," but it would have been a truck. Walt would have NEVER had a car. No male from Texas would have a car. Or not most men. But a man like Walt? Never.
FT: (Laughs.) That's amazing! Okay, one more question. So what do you hope audiences take away from the show?
JR: I hope they have fun, cause it's a comedy. I hope they laugh and enjoy themselves. I hope they can see themselves in the characters and laugh at themselves. [Having an] opportunity to come together and laugh is important and healing.
Lone Star Spirits opens Friday, April 13 at 7:30 pm at the Franklin Square Black Box. Get tickets online or by calling the Festival Theatre Box Office at 715.483.3387.
FESTIVAL THEATRE: So first of all, you've now been the Executive Artistic Director for about 8 months now - how would you describe your experience so far in one word?
JASON RICHARDS: (Laughs.) One word? If it's just one word... I think the best word that really encapsulates [my time here] is "adventurous." To me, that's positive. If you say "busy," that can be like...is that good or bad. But adventurous encapsulates busy but also "fun" and "see-what's-next."
FT: Nice. So you have worked as an actor, a director, playwright, teacher, administrator... Which do you sort of see yourself as first? Can you speak a little to your director philosophy?
JR: Originally I saw myself as an actor, but now I really do consider myself a theatre artist - sort of encompassing all those things. My directing journey started in undergrad when I got a degree in Directing and Design from Baylor University in Waco Texas. I did [a] directing [degree] over acting really just because I connected with those teachers better. The first thing I ever directed was a ten minute play that I'd written, it was an assignment in my directing class. Next I directed one third of the David Mamet play The Water Engine - I got to direct the final third, which I thought was pretty cool. Some years later, I directed the full show. As a director, I want to ask questions... more than make statements. Sometimes I ask a question trying to lead an actor to a certain point, but other times I ask a question that I don't know the answer to. The director creates a world that all these characters can exist in, you have designers who design the set, and lights and props and costume and all that creates a world that was started in the playwrights mind. I've really enjoyed this cast, it's been a collaborative effort. I like that as a director, that we are all telling this story together. We all have to bring our ideas to the table to get the most of the story and I feel like we've done that. It takes courage to collaborate.
FT: Your first full production as a director at Festival Theatre is set in Texas, where you are from. Was that intentional?
JR: No, it wasn't! (Laughs.)This play was already in place when I got here, the powers-at-be had already selected this play. It was a weird coincidence, it turned out to be a strength. I think I know this part of the country, I know these characters well. I grew up with them. I connect with Marley's complicated relationship with her past, her hometown, her former friends. The Jess and Marley friendship... When I was in high school, I had a lot of friends. Since then, about three of those were life long friends. Even though today we don't have a lot in common because our lives diverted, at any moment I can call them and say "do this" and they would do it. If my friend called and said "I needed a kidney," I'd give him a kidney. ... I also really like that personally some of my items have made it onto the stage, because I'm from Texas. A pair of boots, a belt buckle, the refrigerator magnets...
FT: So Josh Tobiessen is not a native Texan, if fact he only lived in the state a few years. As an Texan yourself, is there anything he got totally right, anything he got totally wrong?
JR: To his credit, he has created universal characters that are very relatable to anyone no matter where they are. But as a Texan... I grew up with all of those people. When I read the play, I knew who those characters were. That being said... Texas is BIG, Texas is almost five states in one. Where I grew up in East Texas and where these characters are from in West Texas... [Geographically] it's as if I grew up in Minneapolis, and these characters grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska - Texas is that big - like we'd be 600 miles apart. But something he really did get right is how important football is, that [in the play] this Spartan football team won the championship and how it shaped a certain time period in this town, and the young men's lives. How people don't want that time to fade. When I lived in Kilgore, TX, in 2001, they won the championship. There was a huge billboard erected and that billboard stayed up for years - is probably still up today. So that's, what, seventeen years?
FT: So there's nothing about being a Texan he got wrong? It's all flawless?
JR: Well...if you're going to twist my arm. I guess there is one thing... ONE thing... At the end of act one, Marley says her dad Walter "lost his car," but it would have been a truck. Walt would have NEVER had a car. No male from Texas would have a car. Or not most men. But a man like Walt? Never.
FT: (Laughs.) That's amazing! Okay, one more question. So what do you hope audiences take away from the show?
JR: I hope they have fun, cause it's a comedy. I hope they laugh and enjoy themselves. I hope they can see themselves in the characters and laugh at themselves. [Having an] opportunity to come together and laugh is important and healing.
Lone Star Spirits opens Friday, April 13 at 7:30 pm at the Franklin Square Black Box. Get tickets online or by calling the Festival Theatre Box Office at 715.483.3387.
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