Latest directing project: The Moonlight Room by Tristine Skyler, produced by SpeakEasy Stage Co.
A jewel of a play, that I have been lucky enough to direct for SpeakEasy. A hospital waiting room, late at night. Two teenagers have brought their friend, who OD'd on special K. They wait for news about him, they wait for the parents to find out, they wait.
One of the challenges was casting the two main teenage roles. With young characters, the two desired qualities of believable youth and professional experience are often mutually exclusive. There are two ways to go: find an older, professionally experienced actor who has the chops to play the role, but physically looks very young. The other is to find a young actor with enough raw talent to make up for lack of professional experience. For this project we did both. the role of Sal was played by Tracee Chimo, an actor who grew up in the suburbs outside of Boston, but now persues a professional acting career in New York. Tracee can pass for a teenage girl in appearance, and her considerable acting ability gives her the full range of teenage girl idiom and characterization to make the role work. The role of Josh, the other teen, was played by Ian Michaels, a young local actor who just graduated from Lexington High school.
The setting is sparse. I had a talented team of designers who worked like crazy to create an environment and then stay out of the way of the action: Jenna McFarland, Seth Reiser, Jenna Rossi-Camus, Gabe Wood.
Running January 28 to February 19th in the BCA Plaza Theatre
Here's a photo of the cast after the run-through when Tristine came up from NY to see what we were doing to her play.
Back row: David Krinitt, Me, Tracee Chimo, Tristine Skyler, Ian Michaels, Cheryl McMahon
Front row: David Jackson, Leah Zaguroli, Cole Genuardi
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