Lyric Arts sat down with veteran director Scott Ford and asked him all about his experience thus far with the thrilling production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Read on!
LA: Tell us a little bit about why this particular script interested you.
SF: There are interesting characters, complex relationship dynamics, a tightly structured plot, and memorable language. What director wouldn’t want to dig into one of the most revered and best-known of all American dramas? Tennessee Williams raises a great many compelling questions that not every production (or audience) answers in the same way.
LA: For those that are unfamiliar with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof can you tell us about the show?
SF: People unfamiliar with the play probably would first want to know what the story is about. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is about a family attempting to navigate the impending death of its wealthy and unpleasant patriarch, Big Daddy. It takes place on the evening of his 65th birthday. All of the action occurs in the bedroom shared by his son, Brick, and Brick’s beautiful charismatic wife, Maggie. At the outset of the play, Big Daddy’s children learn that he is terminally ill while he remains in the dark, believing he suffers from only a minor health condition. As the truth becomes more apparent to some, a question arises. Which of Big Daddy’s two sons is a more worthy heir to his fortune? Family members jockey to curry favor as the arguments swirl around their drinking habits, sex lives, honesty, greed, loyalty and love.
LA: This show is a huge artistic step for a community theater to take on, why should people come out and see the show?
SF: Lyric Arts should be applauded for selecting this play. It is an ambitious undertaking. Most community theaters don’t reach beyond popular musicals and comedies. While Lyric Arts, of course, does those sorts of shows very well, they are also see the value in offering to their audience substantial and significant dramatic works. It is a compliment to that audience to assume that they see theatre as more than just an occasional amusing diversion. Not that there is anything wrong with an amusing diversion!
My perception from talking to folks since starting this project is that many people have heard of this play, but haven’t seen it. Many others may have seen only the 1958 movie starring Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor – a version that Tennessee Williams felt was a bit watered down, lacking some of the raw visceral power of his stage version. Audiences have been bowled over by stage productions of this play for more than 50 years. So, people should come out and see this show for two reasons: to develop a deeper appreciation for a cultural icon and to support a bold and laudable choice made by Lyric Arts.
LA: Why is Cat on a Hot Tin Roof considered to be a great work of drama?
SF: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a great play partly because everyone in the audience experiences the universal desires at the heart of the story – love, power and the desire for wealth. It is a great play partly because it is filled with characters whose flaws are like those of people you know. Its greatness also lies, in part, in the language. Williams was known for writing in a southern style that was lyrical and poetic while retaining a resonant ring of truth. At the same time, there is nothing extraneous about the writing. It is compactly woven with multiple levels of meaning. We are regularly struck by the brilliance of the writing as we continue to unpack those layers of meaning in rehearsals.
LA: Talk about the influence that Tennessee Williams’ has had on theater and playwrights.
SF: Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller are commonly regarded as the greatest American dramatists. Only groundbreaking plays win Pulitzer Prizes. Tennessee Williams won two of them (for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and A Streetcar Named Desire). Both of those plays benefitted from his collaboration with his favorite director, Elia Kazan. Kazan is best known for championing “method acting” on stage and in film. His coaching of actors in Williams’ plays and movies represented part of a sea change in American acting style. That style continues to have a profound impact on actor training and performance today. Kazan’s approach was to develop the character from the inside, focusing on psychology before external characteristics. The nuanced, conflicted and richly drawn characters in a Tennessee Williams script provided fertile ground for that sort of deep analysis. Every playwright of note today is familiar with, and influenced on some level by, the writing of Tennessee Williams.
LA: What do you feel are the themes that stand out in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?
SF: I’ll leave it to the audience to decide which themes stand out, because it will vary from one audience member to another. Williams clearly had some points to make, and we promise that you will have plenty to discuss at the end of the show!
LA: Has Cat on a Hot Tin Roof challenged you? If so, in what ways different from other show you have directed?
SF: Every play presents unique challenges. One of the interesting elements of this play is that Williams wrote it to occur in real time. Most plays, of course, make substantial jumps forward in time from one scene to another. The entire action of this play covers only a few hours of this family’s experience. So, a big challenge is structuring the pace of how the evening evolves so that the audience becomes immersed in the conflict and feels a rising sense of tension and anticipation about what will happen next.
Of course that task is made easier by the fact that Tennessee Williams knew what the heck he was doing. Often, with other plays, the rehearsal process unearths weaknesses in the script and then our challenge becomes to compensate for flaws in the writing. The opposite is true with this production. Every rehearsal leads us to discover more of Williams’ genius. So our challenges are to not miss the subtle truths and to showcase that great writing without messing it up!
LA: Comment on the characters and cast members.
SF: One of the ideas we have talked about in rehearsals is that there is something to admire and something to abhor in each of the central characters. There is no traditional dramatic hero and no traditional dramatic villain, though there are plenty of heroic and/or villainous moments. There is nothing simplistic or two-dimensional about these characters. They are compelling because they evolve in surprising, but understandable, ways over the course of the evening. These are the sorts of roles that actors love to play. This cast is tackling the project with great success. I am routinely impressed with their insights and talents, and I can’t wait for the audience to see their work!
