An Interview with Summer Musical Theatre Workshop director, Rob Heller

From Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Newsletter, New York University, Tisch School of the Arts Summer 2011

Taking a new musical from a staged reading to a workshop production is no easy feat. As a piece develops from “behind the music stands” to a staged show (including costumes, lighting, basic set pieces, choreography, off-book actors, and often monumental re-writes), it takes a director with special knack for new material to make the transition a smooth one. Luckily for the GMTWP, NYU alumni Rob Heller was one of the two talented directors to work on this summer’s shows.

Jenny Stafford: How did you get involved with the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program?

Rob Heller: In the summer of 2008 I directed a production of Bill Finn's In Trousers as my final thesis project for my Undergraduate Degree in Directing at Playwrights Horizons Theater School (NYU Tisch). After the show I was approached by Ryan Mekenian (a director two years ahead of me in the same program). He said he really enjoyed the work I had done and asked if I was interested in working with new musicals. He wanted to expand the summer program (which for the past two years had put up one new thesis project from GMTWP) to showcase two workshops and asked if I would like to direct one. Of course my answer was "Yes!" and he swept me over to 2nd avenue to meet with Sarah Schlesinger. That summer (for the first time) the program mounted 2 workshop productions. Ryan directed a larger scale production of Cheer Wars and I put up a smaller workshop of Lightning Man. The collaboration was fruitful and it was the start of a series of great collaborations with the program.

JS: What did you direct this summer?

RH: This summer I directed both Hatter by Becca Anderson and Brandon James Gwinn and Rainbow Valley by Felice Kuan and Dimitri Landrain.

JS: What development did the pieces go through during the rehearsal process? How do you collaborate with the writers?

RH: Collaboration with writers is very different from writer to writer and piece to piece. For Hatter the writers had not really touched the piece since their thesis reading a year ago, and got a great opportunity to rewrite and tweak the piece in the Berkshires before I got to work with them. They were looking to strengthen the piece in support of a final song and moment that felt clear and evocative. The song defined who these characters needed to become. So, we started there and worked backwards, in a sense. We revamped a couple of sequences and added some new songs, but for the most part the workshop dealt with structural questions and clarity in intention. Through the course of the project we tweaked or revamped almost every sequence in one way or another. For Rainbow Valley the process is very different. We are in the midst of rehearsals now and there is still much of the second act to be written. For this piece they are adapting a book, so the challenge is to respect the source material but to alter it for the demands of the theater. We are experimenting with structure and the order of songs and scenes as well as trying to infuse a more emotional journey and heighten the stakes in service of the source material. In both cases I ask questions and help the writers create theater that is clear and evocative. I encourage writers to constructively fight with me. I identify those moments that aren't working, and challenge the writers to discover better choices. I think I am a constructive and motivating director, supporting and goading the writers and actors to discover and express their astounding ideas about the world in a clear, interesting way.

JS: What is it like working with the NYU undergrad actors?

RH: NYU undergrad actors are a joy to work with. I spent the last 10 months in Philadelphia and it became abundantly clear to me that the crop of actors coming through NYU are insanely talented, devoted to their craft and open to all sorts of processes. This year we collaborated with the New Studio on Broadway and auditioned all of their students and cast many of those available. They have just finished their freshman year, but they have been crucial to the success of these summer workshops. It has also been incredible to see the way some of the older actors from other studios we cast have mentored the younger actors from the New Studio on Broadway. Overall, the undergraduate actors are tremendous talents with huge hearts and a desire to bring new works to life.

JS: What excites you as a director about working on these off-book workshops, as opposed to staged readings?

RH: These workshops are exciting mostly because of the amount of time and commitment the creative team and actors can provide the writers. The readings at NYU are a great tool to hear what you have written but don't offer a chance for collaborators to try several different approaches and for the writers to have enough time to revise. These workshops have produced new songs, scenes, dance sequences, and staging ideas that have spurred changes in the writing. The workshops also offer the chance for writers to see actors memorize their piece and take the next step to make physical choices and live in a space with the material. For me, it also offers me chances to both collaborate with the writers, but also collaborate in a more significant way with the actors. In a workshop if a bit isn't working, we often have time to experiment and see if the actors and I can solve the problem before we identify it as a writing issue. The workshops are a safe place to try almost ANYTHING and that is a rare environment for theatrical work.