L'illusion Comique
nytheatre.com q&a preview by Kevin P. Joyce
October 12, 2012
What is your job on this show?
Director.
When did you know you wanted to work in the theater, and why?
I knew I wanted to be a part of the theatre when I was very young. When I was about six or seven, I saw my father's Complete Works of Shakespeare on a shelf in his study and I asked him who Shakespeare was, to which he replied "he wrote plays" to which I replied "are they funny?". For the next couple of years he would read passages from some of the plays to me and I would subsequently act them out on my swing set. It was all downhill from there.
Why do you do theater (as opposed to film, or TV, or something not in the entertainment field)?
I do theatre because of its sense of community. No matter who you are, where you come from, what you do etc. it is possible for anyone and everyone to sit in a dark auditorium and be equally enthralled by the same story that is being enacted in front of them. We become the third party and are included in all of the jokes, we root for the same heroes, we laugh and fall in love all together.
In your own words, what do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
L'illusion Comique is a 1636 play in verse by the brilliant Pierre Corneille. It is a play about a desperate father who is seeking his son and turns to a voodoo priestess for help. It is a story about Fathers and Sons, about Love and Jealousy, about Reality and Illusion.
Which “S” word best describes your show: SMOOTH, SEXY, SMART, SURPRISING?
Surprising. You never know what will happen next.
Can theater bring about societal change? Why or why not?
Theatre can bring about societal change. It does everyday. Any time two or more people are present one person become the audience and the other the performer. If that is true, wasn't the Occupy Wall Street movement theatre? The Stonewall Riots? "I have a dream" is just as beautiful and affecting as "to be or not to be".
