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I directed The Glass Menagerie in High School, and played Tom. My mother came to see it and cried at the end. After that triumph, and at 6’4” tall, I gave up acting, and took the next 29 years off from directing.
In 2012, Bostin Christopher, who had surprisingly never played the role, shared his love for Lennie in Of Mice and Men. I wanted to produce it at Perseverance, but was uncomfortable bringing a guest director on to the project because I am so fond of the play: I had designed a production in Sacramento, and read a lot of Steinbeck’s writing after learning that he was connected to my writer-Grandfather. I had a lot of opinions about the production I wanted. Several directors I know well gave this advice: having a lot of opinions based in studying the text of a production is a great place to start directing from. Surround yourself with a good team and success is achievable.
Since, I’ve looked for other scripts that I had a point of view about and could build a group of collaborators around. It is very rewarding it to spend lots of time working with skilled actors. At this time, I am reading as many scripts as I can… and thinking about them a lot.
