An interview with Virgin director, Jaime Roberts (Play #6)

I stopped in earlier for a brief moment to see what Jaime is doing with show number #6 (Thunder and Lightening). They were tucked into a room where Theatre off Jackson stores their liquor. Bottles line the walls and two actors are intesley making quick choices as their director sits on a couch smiling and laughing barely able to look down at her script. it's a good start.

She pulled actors who are instinctual and have great timing so it’s been a blast so far. A fear with comedy is you can’t teach someone comedy and right off she knew she was ok. It’s now all about the details and surprises and making them real characters. Making broad cliches usually isn’t funny and doesn’t make for good theatre, even in 14/48! Kudo’s to the steering committee for picking actors who know how to be true and consistent and can go all those places.

The actors are Brandon Simmons and Phillip Endecott. We almost had an automatic casting. We cast it on the first read, they both immediately gravitated towards the roles. There was no question really. They both have incredible instinct. Brandon was great at finding places to switch pace or emotions on a dime. Phillip, besides being brilliant all around is fantastic at finding physical quirks.

In terms of being a director...

As a directing you are constantly looking at the big picture as well as finding the details. Keeping track of the entire product. As an actor you are microcosimed in on one level. And as the director you have a ton of things to be thinking of - it’s a nice juggling act.