Dave McCracken
Fever
A nytheatre voices cyber-interview
Dave McCracken is a producer, director, actor, and playwright. His theatre company, DJM Productions has been in existence over twenty years. Recently he opened a theatre space in midtown called The Dionysus Theater's L'il Peach.
Pictured: Dave McCracken
Your new play Fever will soon be opening. Can you give us a short synopsis of the play and, also, why you used a work by Sophocles as its basis?
Fever, in a word, is about rejection. The most bitter and harshest form of rejection. Fever is about the struggle between good and evil for the souls of mankind. Set on a scorching desert landscape and under a relentless sun, two great warriors and mortal enemies, Atrox and Bonitas, have momentarily retired to their corners. Atrox enlists a handsome young soldier to his cause, the seduction and capture of Bonitas. www.CatchTheFever.info
I have always admired the Greek stage classics and have read them since grade school. I was mystified to learn that Sophocles wrote over 120 plays but only seven exist today. Gosh, I wish I could get my hands on the others! All of the Greek classics are so sweeping and dramatic, they demand attention and still address many of the struggles and hopes and desires that we experience today on a deeply emotional level. The play Fever is loosely based on Philoctetes which hasn't gotten its fair shake to date for what it has to say to contemporary audiences, in my opinion. I am proud and profoundly honored to have been able to work with this majestic material while developing Fever for DJM Productions.
You are also the producer and director of this work. How do you manage so many differing jobs at one time and why do you choose to direct your own work?
Well, I consider myself a producer first. I love producing plays and theatrical events. This is after three decades of acting and doing musical theater and cabarets all over New England. The thing that I love best about producing is seeing it in my head one night and then having it appear on stage weeks or months later. There is no greater satisfaction than that.
Fever had other directors in its development, one being the stunningly talented Doug Spagnola, but I felt that I needed to shepherd this current production to the stage myself. Many directors work at DJM Productions, but I wanted the opportunity to be immersed in this play since this is the world premiere of the play, and I had so much that I wanted to do with it on its journey to the stage.
There is little time to do anything else when you produce and direct a piece. There are times I feel that I'll turn to dust from the grind of the business end of theater but working with this truly amazing cast every night on this challenging play rejuvenates me every time I walk into the Dionysus' L'il Peach and throw the light switches on. I feel like I'm ten years old again every night with this cast and play.
You are founder of DJM Productions. Would you care to tell us about this production company and why you founded it?
DJM Productions is a versatile theatrical production company and is twenty-four years old. We do everything from intense dramas to bawdy, sexual farces to musical theater to cabaret. Quality has always been our top priority at DJM Productions. To be honest, I started DJM Productions to put me on stage. Since settling down in New York City and becoming Equity over two decades ago, I found that I needed to manufacture my own opportunities in addition to trying to find them on the audition circuits. After a short period of time, I was too busy with DJM to do anything else. It started with different bands and cabaret acts in some of the top cabarets in the city and grew from there. It is a wanting child, though, and takes all of my time and resources to manage and get it by day to day. I don't know if I could do it all without the unfailing support of my life-partner Randy O'Neill. I'm getting real old, real fast. ;)
You are also a member of The Glines, an award winning production company. Could you tell us why and how you became associated with this company?
I am indescribably proud to be a member of The Glines and to count the Tony-award winning producer John Glines as one of my dearest friends. About ten years ago I answered an online ad looking for stagehand help for The Glines' production of AN EVENING WITH QUENTIN CRISP. I was about a week past the deadline and emailed of my interest in working with The Glines in the future. Within minutes John emailed back and said it is never too late and to get down to the Intar Theater and help now! John and I spent the next few days hanging posters around town and didn't pass a bar we didn't like or want to put a poster in. We became immediate friends, and he quickly became my producing mentor. John's platinum sense of quality and ethics in this rough business was incandescent to me. He was on the verge of retirement in Bangkok at the time so I began maintaining and managing this legendary gay theatrical production company as I also ran DJM Productions. The Glines is still quite active today and joins DJM Productions on many projects that fit The Glines' company mission of positive images of the gay lifestyle and experience. The Board of The Glines, which also includes Steve Carpenter, has quite a responsibility to the company's past to keep it rich and proactive. Both companies are residents of The Dionysus Theatre Complex and L'il Peach theater on 36th Street and 8th Avenue in the theatrically hot Fashion District. Although John considers himself retired, he is still at work as a playwright and is constantly tinkering and updating his impressive collection of plays he has authored. Everyone is too busy!
Back to your play, what do you hope audiences will take from the production and do you have future plans for Fever?
The chief thing that I want from all of our productions is that the audience have a wonderful, rich and rewarding evening in the theater. Fever is an uplifting drama that will be laced to your heart-strings. It is too draining for the actors to do more than once a day which is why there are no matinees. If anything, I hope that the audience will leave the theater with my shared sense and trust in the belief that mankind will always do the right thing when confronted with strife and rejoice in the energy flow that we are all a part of ... and must protect.
The future of Fever lays in the hands of the wonderful audience members who trust us with their time and attention each night and gives us the opportunity to tell them this wonderfully enthralling story.
What does the near future hold for you and DJM Productions?
In addition to Fever, we have a dirty little new musical comedy opening this Fall called Peep Show Male. After that is a new working of the Scottish play called Macbeth In The Other Room directed by Karen Case Cook and a new comedy after that which I wrote called Myth. We are very busy down here on 36th Street! Watch the web page for all the news. www.DJMProductions.com Thank you!
May 20, 2008