Vivien On The Rocks
The Studio Theatre, Theatre Row 410 West 42nd Street · Tickets on sale through Sep 8
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Adriana Jones
August 17, 2013
What is your job on this show?
Actor/Writer/Co-Producer.
What is your show about?
Vivien Merchant is tired of being a footnote in various obituaries of Harold Pinter, so she is back from the dead to tell her story on her own terms in this vividly imagined solo show.
What type of theater do you like most to work on?
I love to work on theater that challenges me and pushes me to go somewhere new. This can mean a variety of things; it could be that I play someone profoundly different from myself and have to own and discover their world, it could be that the play deals with heightened language and circumstances like in Greek work, or maybe the process demands that I work in a new or unfamiliar style. I just like to be on my toes. Working on new plays, especially with living playwrights, is also really rewarding because I like being able to have a dialogue with the writer while I'm working. And then there are plays like this one, where I get to perform my own work. That's an exhilarating experience, because it guarantees that I'm passionate about the story and that the work comes from a very honest place.
How did you meet your fellow artists/collaborators on this show?
The first collaborator I met was my director Daniel Roberts and it was completely by chance. I happened to attend a birthday party for my friend who was taking part in the Lincoln Center Director's Lab two summers ago, and he was there. We hit it off immediately and became good friends, so when it was time to find a director for the first incarnation of this show, he came to mind. We had a wonderful time working together, so it made sense for us to collaborate again. My co-producer, Andrew Dahreddine, is a friend from an apprenticeship I did with Commonwealth Shakespeare Company in Boston, and he put me in touch with the rest of my production team. It's turned out to be a wonderful and cohesive group of people to work with, and I feel very lucky to have them on board.
Which character from a Shakespeare play would like your show the best: King Lear, Puck, Rosalind, or Lady Macbeth -- and why?
I definitely think Lady Macbeth would be a fan. Not to spoil anything, but she does make an appearance of sorts in the show, so she might appreciate that. She and Vivien also have certain character traits in common, and have some shared experiences as wives and mothers that they could probably bond over; I can absolutely see those two having a grand time over tea or a drink somewhere. Plus, in some ways, this is a very empowering show for women, and I think Lady M would be on board with that.
How important is diversity to you in the theater you see/make?
I'd say it's pretty important to me. One of my favorite things about live theater is its ability to create cultural conversations, and I think it's important that those conversations aren't consistently centered around the same types of people from the same general social milieu. That mode of production deprives others from having a voice in our conversation as a theatrical community. Part of this can be solved by removing barriers to participation and creating safe, inclusive spaces for artists to develop and perform work of diverse and varied perspectives. It's one of the things I love about the festival community in New York and about the solo performance community; I think both of these communities encourage people to create their own work and opportunities, and celebrate a wide variety of perspectives.
