I was doing some research on sparrows not long ago, and, among other qualities, was fascinated to find out what makes their biology unique: they have a bone in their tongue. I love that. If I could find a metaphor to represent the lithe strength of Danny’s words, it would have to be that; he is just as much teeth as poetry. The first time I saw his work at Ars Nova last winter, I turned to the friend next to me and asked, “who is this kid? I want to meet him.” And I did, that night. It was artistic love at first sight.
When Danny and Lila called me last spring, I was more than ecstatic to say yes to direct Sparrow in the Fringe. When reading the original four one-acts from whence Sparrow came, I knew Danny was right in his impulse to create one large piece of daring theater, also known as a full-length play. And a full-length is exactly that, full.
Each of the one-acts alone stood beautifully, but they all undoubtedly shared the human experience, desire, and struggle with family, in our case an American family, on the verge of deterioration. They all contained a drive toward the more minute and seemingly insignificant human interactions as their locus, for the purpose of expanding into the infinite out of the most diminutive.
This concept, which Danny builds and expands through his talent for the rhythmic construction of dialogue, is something our craft teaches us for as long as we are artists. My process as a director begins at the table with our cast, sharing the script in a round-table read. We ask questions, small at first, investigating the technical and ‘seemingly’ insignificant details of the world we will create together, soon to be 3-dimensional. When we first arrive on our feet a few days later, we don’t begin with the script in hand or with a ground plan. How can you start making concrete decisions in a reality and character you have not yet explored? Particularly with Danny’s writing, where there’s as much bite as music, it would be easy to let the play simply stand as what’s on the page, and have a lovely production. But there is much more there than that, and to reach Danny’s ideas at their most beautifully abstract moments, you have to start in the natural, you have to build out of the human. This takes time and intense collaboration on the part of the playwright, director, actors, and creative team, and I am happy to say we are fortunate enough to have this time.
We were able to spend time on improvisational work, exploring character and the circumstances surrounding the events of the play, and also the complexity of structure and dialogue that intersect in Danny’s latest draft, the remainder of which we will begin work on today. It’s an ongoing process—one that is constantly a challenge, and constantly a thrill.
The kind of work ethic of our ensemble has is essential for this kind of risk-taking new work, and I’m very proud of our cast, and the amount of focus and bravery they enter the theater with each day. It’s amazing to think we open two weeks from tomorrow! Looking at them and the rest of our team—our amazing stage manager Ellen, her assistant Alyssa, and all of our designers and producers—I’ve no doubt we will be ready to share this play with you. It’s chalk full of our devotion and bold creativity.