Meet the Director: Stephanie C. Cunningham (KEEP)

Stephanie C. Cunningham received her MFA in Directing from The New School for Drama. As a director, her work focuses on text with heightened language, the re-imagining of classical texts, and the development of new work. As an educator and director of youth programs, she promotes theatre education that can extend beyond production to become an accessible art form and tool for change in a community. She is based in New York City. www.stephanieccunningham.com

You are directing the world-premiere production of Keep, which we are co-producing with Mastodon Theatre Company. What drew you to want to direct this particular play?

This play drew me in hard and fast for a few reasons. When I first read it, I was fascinated and could not imagine the challenges and emotional taxation on the victims and the families of someone with a hoarding disorder. Since researching the condition and interviewing hoarders, my empathy for people with this condition has exploded. The second thing that attracted me was the poetry of Francesca Pazniokas' text, especially toward the end. It is beautiful and so rhythmic. It actually got stuck in my head at one point, worse than a Spice Girl’s song. Third: the characters - these women - are just human. Their gender is not the reason for their existence in a work of art, and that always makes this feminist director a very happy camper. 

How are rehearsals going? Can you tell us a little bit about how you’ve chosen to approach the process? Has it been similar or different to other pieces you have recently worked upon?

Rehearsals for this piece have been quite a challenge in a great way. The space of Naomi’s home is such an important character, and so hard to get a sense of when in an almost blank rehearsal room. Trying to understand the space - and how all of the women interact with it differently - has been an act of imagination gymnastics for the cast and myself to this point, but it has been really fun. My instincts as a director tend towards simplifying action and streamlining storytelling. In this production, those things are not one and the same. The more interactions these characters have with the space, the clearer their stories become. For instance, we had our first rehearsal with pizza yesterday, and let me tell you…that was a wonderful mess that was clarifying for everyone, I think. 

In addition to being the director for this production, you are Wide Eyed’s Associate Artistic Director and recently received your MFA in Directing from The New School. When did you know that you wanted to be a director? How did you get started? 

I wanted to be an actor first but...I was real bad. I couldn’t keep my thoughts on one place or intention. I was thinking about everything; the lights, stage movement, the scene I had just left, what was coming up next. I did not have the skill to stay present and truthful in the moment. 

Luckily, I had some wonderful teachers who not only told me I was a bad actor, but that I might be a good director. When I got home from my classical actor training in London, I dove right into directing, starting with community theatre and teaching high school drama. From there, it was just moving to bigger places - Boston and New York - and finding people that I knew I wanted to make theatre with. 

Where are you drawing some of your creative energy currently? 

If you had asked me this yesterday, I probably would have given a different answer. Right now, I am totally obsessed with the Roman republic and how it mirrors the formation of our own government. My husband is an English teacher, and his students are currently working on Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. He and I have been talking a great deal about the Roman understanding of power and how that may or may not relate to the current hearts and minds of the American people. It’s hard not to sense the tension this year with elections and looking at what people perceive as “greatness.” Also, iced tea. I get a lot of energy from that stuff. 

We’d love for our audience to get to know your work a little more. Could you tell us a little bit about your last project? 

The last full production I directed was Sam Byron’s Butcher (coincidentally, a finalist year before last in our Wide Eyed WINKS staged reading series) at Stella Adler Studios. It was a beast. We had this giant Greek tragedy of a play in this tiny room. It was gory and raw and intense all the way through. It was a wonderful process, and was very fruitful for me in terms of working a naturalistic style that I had not been exercising recently. It also made it so I couldn’t eat meat for a little while... 

Are you working on any additional projects at the moment? Is it something you can tell us about? 

Once Keep is up and running, I’m set to direct a production of Buyer and Cellar in California with The Mendocino Theatre Company this summer, and will be working on a few development readings and workshops here in the city. It will also be finals time at The New School soon, which means you will most likely find me in my living room trying to shoo my cats off of assignments I need to grade. 

Keep begins previews at The Barrow Group Theatre on April 7 and runs through April 30. Get your tickets here.

The Digi-show: A night of digi-shorts by Duane Ferguson, 5/19 @ 8pm ($5)

Duane Chivon Ferguson is an actor, writer, director, producer, editor, shooter, singer and poet. He was born in Harlem, New York and raised in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. He first developed his creativity performing in plays at his alma mater, Herbert H. Lehman College of the City University of New York. He also performed on various stages in New York and did repertory work with The Positive Youth Troupe and The Citykids Foundation. On camera, Duane has hosted various episodes of magazine shows and has appeared in numerous independent shorts. He is currently a member of Wide Eyed Productions in NYC. His life is all about the chase....whether it be after the dream, the fantastic, or the joy of being surrounded by his friends and family. He dedicates all of his efforts to his lovely daughter, Soul.


"Even the Score" (2006) 
Starring Richard LaRochelle, Leslie Shim, Chris Cole, Skid Maher and Nedra McClyde 
What would you do if your partner is unfaithful? Would you forgive and forget ... or would you move on? What if your partner offers you the opportunity to sleep with someone else to "make up" for their infidelity? "Even the Score" tells the story of a young couple that is face with that very scenario and the choices that ultimately seal the fate of the relationship. Official selection for the Los Angeles DV Film Festival, The Brooklyn IndieHouse and The New York Short Film Festival. 


"El Día de Las Flores" (2011) 
Starring Amaurys Rodriguez and Jessica Courtemanche 
A poem about love and getting over it. Official selection for the CortoCircuito Short Film Festival. 


"For The Leaping Tongues of Fire Womyn" (2011) 
Starring Carmen Mojica and Amuarys Rodriguez 
This poem, written by Carmen Mojica, explores the threshold where womynhood is tested to it's absolute limit. This video is a co-production between These Waters Run Deep and BabaSoul, Ent? 


"I Am: Keep Your Hood Up" (2012) 
A short video piece made in response to all the acts of profiling that have lead to the untimely deaths of any and all members of the global race. Dedicated to Trayvon Martin.

A Girl Wrote It: Brian Hanscom, Director

Brian Hanscom is a Maine-born theatre artist and is the Producing Director for Stone Sloop Productions (whose inaugural production, tenderpits, ran at The Theatre Under St. Marks in September 2011). New York credits: Hablo, Diablo (92 St. Y); Cowboy Mouth (Michael Chekhov Theatre Company). Regional credits: Mischief Makers (The Contemporary Stage Company); Almost, Maine (The Arundel Barn Playhouse); 365 Days, 24 Hour Festival (Trustus Theatre). Brian was the Associate Director on Little Rock at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and the Assistant Director for Don Marguiles’ Shipwrecked! (Primary Stages), Chasing Manet with Tina Howe, and the world premiere of Walter Mosely’s Fall of Heaven (Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park). He has also served as a teaching artist at Bentley College.  Other credits: Of Mice and Men, A Midsummer Nights Dream (The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), Hamlet (The National Theater Conservatory), and Red Herring (The Lewiston Public Theatre). His collaboration as the dramaturg and assistant director with P3/East on the new play Flight premiered at the Connelly Theatre in New York. 

• For our production of A Girl Wrote It, you are directing Bekah Brunstetter’s Yes. Can you tell us a little bit about what your process with this piece has been like?

I read the play and thought to myself: I may have had the exact conversation that is at the heart of the play... And maybe more than once... So, I knew the people in the play and then we just went about trying to get these two people, seemingly at odds at first, to find their common ground.

• When did you know that you wanted to be involved in the theatre? How did you get started? What inspired you to direct? 

I guess theater was something I always had a great love for and directing married all of it's best parts together so it became a natural path. 

• Who or what do you consider to have been your biggest creative influences to date? Why?

Seeing amazing plays and every mentor, director and actor who has been willing to talk about and think out loud about what they do and how they approach theater. And of course, the great Darren Nichols whose visual daring is an inspiration to artists everywhere. 

• What kind of writing do you find that you are most drawn to as a director? 

Any writing that speaks uniquely and eloquently about the messy little creatures that we are. That takes a lot of different forms in the shapes of stories, but I like to see people grow and change. That may be just a long way of saying that I like what I like and that's interesting people. 

• Are you working on any additional projects at the moment? Care to share with us? 

I'm gathering the stories of police officers and their families from all over Maine (which is where I'm from originally) and they will become part of a stage production over the next year.

A Girl Wrote It: Tim Butterfield, Director

Tim Butterfield, Artistic Director of Wide Eyed Productions, holds a BA in Theater from Brooklyn College and an MFA in Directing form The New School for Drama. Tim has studied with wide array of artists that include Doug Hughes, Jo Bonney, Kate Loewald, Lou Jacobs, Elinor Renfield, Bob LuPone, Casey Biggs, Austin Pendleton and Arthur Storch. Tim’s work has been seen Off-Broadway, Off-off Broadway and Regionally. Wide Eyed is the third company for which he has served as Artistic Director. Recent directing projects include the short films Underneath and Lesbianism, as well as This is My Gun, Don Juan Comes Back from the War, and Residue for the stage. Tim works as a writing coach and script-doctor. He teaches playwriting, directing and stage combat. Tim also has worked with Yale School of Drama faculty over the last few years in curriculum development. http://www.timbutterfield.net/

• For our production of A Girl Wrote It, you are directing Laura Maria Censabella’s Posing. Can you tell us a little bit about what your process with this piece has been like?

My process with this piece has been quite involved. Laura had sent me four pieces to consider for AGWI. They all were so good and poignant that I seriously considered just doing an evening of her short plays. When I realized that idea was not as realistic as I would have liked it to be, I still could not shake Posing and Stones Fall, Birds Fly. The juxtaposition of people who believed they were worth very little versus a man who knew he could fly fascinated me and I knew they had to be on the same stage. I entrusted Stones Fall, Birds Fly to the absurdly capable Sherri Eden Barber and was able to focus on Posing. We found our Elaine and Pete in Dana and Nate, and we went into the rehearsal room to begin wrestling with the piece. I say wrestle because it is not an easy piece to direct or act. Laura has written two characters that have made some very questionable decisions in their lives, and are about to make more, but she was able to do so without judging them. For those of us who don’t live in despair, like Pete and Elaine do, it can be hard to understand the motivations in such a dark world. Laura has shown us a love story of two physically and emotionally damaged individuals and done so in way that we cheer for those we typically wouldn’t do so for. Nate and Dana have been fearless in their pursuit of these characters. They have also been incredibly trusting and supportive of each other which, I believe, is what has allowed them to go to the deepest parts of these characters. It has been inspiring for me to watch. It is a great example of what can be achieved when people give themselves fully to their work. Laura has worked with us closely on this piece which has been wonderful. It’s always such a blessing to have the playwright in the room and the four us developed a very strong working relationship which I would love to repeat in the future.

• When did you know that you wanted to be involved in the theatre? How did you get started? What inspired you to direct?

When I was nine years old, I was the shortest boy in school and had injured my ankle, forcing me to use crutches for a few days. As the holidays neared and the school started to put together a production of A Christmas Carol; guess who was cast as Tiny Tim? I had seen plays before, but this was my first involvement in a production. For the next decade, I worked in every capacity in the theater. I like knowing a little something about everything, and I discovered I could do every job. Trouble was, I didn’t enjoy any of those jobs very much. In my early twenties, I began directing on a regular basis and I discovered that when I was directing, when I was in the rehearsal room, I was more of the person I wanted to be than at any other time in my life. I was at my best personally and artistically. That’s when I knew what was right for me.

• Who or what do you consider to have been your biggest creative influences to date? Why?

My mother; she’s always been everything I could hope for in a mom. Ann Tully and Lynda Goldsen were amazing influences in my teens. They were the Speech and Theater teachers in my high school, at a time when I was quite a f&*k up. They always knew that I was more than I would allow myself to believe and they didn’t take any sh*t from me at a time when I got away with a lot. They also taught me the joys of a well-placed curse word. Doug Hughes has had a huge impact on me in the last few years. I was fortunate to train with him during my graduate studies. He is a person you just want to be around and who inspires confidence in everyone around him. It’s not just a knack he has; it’s something he works at as a person and a director. He has taught me to always try to extract the negative from life, to see the best in others, and to try to help them achieve their best. Gordon Rogoff has been a mentor and friend for the last several years. He’s the kind of person that makes you feel like you’re getting smarter when you’re just standing next to him. He has such a wealth of knowledge and a sage-like understanding of this industry. Above all, my wife. She is the reason I always strive to be a better man. She is my everything.

• You are currently serving as Wide Eyed’s Artistic Director. What upcoming projects for the company are you excited about? Where would you like to see the company in five years?

I have been working very closely with our Apprentice Playwrights Program over the last several months and it is something I am very excited about and proud of. They will be having staged readings of their plays in front of an industry invited audience at 6pm, May 16-19. They are not to be missed.

There are some exciting things in the works for next seasons, but I can’t announce anything yet. In five years I believe the company should be the Off-Broadway company to watch. With the caliber of talent in the company and the work that is being produced, there’s no excuse for that not to be the case.

• Are you working on any additional projects outside of the company at the moment? Care to share with us?

I’m in post-production for a film I directed that company members Jake Paque and Trevor Dallier produced. Jake and Trevor are the featured actors in the piece, along with company member Lisa Mamazza and AGWI cast member Ali Scaramella. If you look real close, you can also see a mussy-haired Michael Komala tossed in to the fray.

I’m in pre-production for a project with company member Duane Ferguson. I’m really excited to finally work with Duane. I also work as a freelance writing coach and script-doctor. I usually have at least five scripts at a time that I am working on or coaching someone on. I guess what I’m saying is I never sleep. Ever.

A Girl Wrote It: Kristin Skye Hoffmann, Director

Kristin Skye Hoffmann holds a Bachelor's Degree in Performing Arts with a double Major in Acting and Directing and a Minor in Media Studies. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Wide Eyed Productions (2007-11.) Her most recent directing projects include Euripides’ The Trojan Women, Lisa Ferber’s The Return of Toodles von Flooz, Brian Watkins’ My Daughter Keeps Our Hammer, Dale Wasserman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, and Euripides' The Medea for Wide Eyed Productions. Other New York credits include: Derek Ahonen’s The You Knows Know as part of Endtimes Productions’ Vignettes for the Apocalypse, A Midsummer Night's Dream for Jackson Rep, the award-winning production of Plays for the Sunni Triangle (Winner Best Comedy), In Sheep's Clothing (S.O.A.F. Best Director and Best Play Nominee), and The Accommodation by Paul Cohen. Favorite acting credits include: Mrs. Slater in A Devil Inside, Amy in First Base Coach, Lizzy in Noah's Arkansas, and many, many more! Currently she is a Directing MFA Candidate at The New School for Drama. Kristin is a part-time acting coach and full-time artist and lover of life. 

• For our production of A Girl Wrote It, you are directing three monologues: JudithGoudsmit’s Being Late featuring Liz White; Erin Singleton’s Bologna Sandwiches featuring Amy Lee Pearsall; and Liz Magee’s Jeans featuring Carly Knight. Can you tell us a little bit about what your process with these pieces has been like? 

Absolutely! All three of these pieces are very different, so it makes sense that three very different actors were chosen to perform them. 

The moment I read Being Late, I thought of Liz White. I have known and worked with Liz since we met at our freshman orientation for undergrad in 2000. The quirky sensibility and moment-to-moment focus shifts are right up her alley. When she read it, she instantly loved it. Tim Butterfield and I also thought it was a great opener for the evening which sort of bridged last year’s monologues from A Girl Wrote It (all of which Liz performed and I directed) with this new incarnation. Any audience members from last year will recognize her in this immediately. Because Liz and I are so familiar with each other, our work sessions are always quick, efficient and TONS of fun. She knows what makes me laugh and is always receptive to my ideas. Frequently I find myself just helping her flesh out the bits she’s come up with on her own. I really think our audience will enjoy it. 

Carly Knight and I really worked well together, which was exciting since we had only worked together on the directing side of the table prior to this (she was my Assistant Director on Wide Eyed’s production of The Trojan Women last year.) When I first read Liz Magee’s script, I was reminded of Carly’s natural voice -- meaning dry, sharp, quick and somehow vulnerable at the same time. We broke the piece down into sections, and attacked it bit by bit. Carly and I worked hard to honor Ms. Magee’s ideas about what this piece was trying to say. I believe we were successful. 

If there is one actress I would be thrilled to direct in anything, it is Amy Lee Pearsall. She has tackled some pretty serious roles with me in the past (Medea, Nurse Ratched, Titania, and some original roles as well), and she has never let me down. Bologna Sandwiches is no different. Amy Lee brought in her own ideas as she was in the process of memorizing and we discussed who this person really was. We delved deeply into the text trying to bring out the real human who we might observe at “the yogurt shop” and thought about what would drive her. That’s what’s great about working with an actor you know so well; the shorthand is already there -- you can just dive right into the good stuff!  

• When did you know that you wanted to be involved in the theatre? How did you get started? What inspired you to direct? 

I think an easier question would be “When did you learn to speak about wanting to be in theatre?” In other words, I can’t remember a time when I did not want to perform or tell stories. As a child, my like-minded friends and I would choreograph dances to the songs of the “Disney Afternoon” cartoon line-up and perform them for our parents. We acted out scenes from our favorite movies (can you say THE GOONIES?) and cast each other in our own original works. This love of theatre carried me all the way to university. It was pretty difficult for my mother to argue with me when I said I wanted to major in Performing Arts. There was no way for her to say, “Remember when you were interested in that other thing?” because there wasn’t “that other thing.” It was always theatre. 

It was at the University of Northern Colorado that I discovered directing. All acting majors were required to take an Intro to Directing class where we would direct Theatre Minors in a scene. I chose McNally’s Frankie and Johnny at the Clare de Lune and just had THE BEST TIME. I had never found anything that I enjoyed doing more than acting but directing tied that race up pretty quick. I loved helping the actors find the truth in the text and the position of director really suited my personality…which, for lack of a better term is rather bossy. From those presentations, a select few were invited to join the Directing program to double major. Eventually, I became one of those select few and the rest is history. 

• Who or what do you consider to have been your biggest creative influences to date? Why? 

This is always a difficult question for me to answer, because I feel so influenced by so many people and artists. I believe I am extremely lucky to have had (and currently have) such amazing teachers throughout my life who have all influenced me in their own ways but probably the people who influence my work most are the members of Wide Eyed Productions. The things that excite them excite me. I have never met more passionate, talented artists and I feel endlessly blessed by their enthusiasm confidence in me. I love hearing what they want to work on, which stories they want to tell and I’m always so thrilled to assist them in making that work a reality. The smartest thing I ever did was learn how to surround myself with smart, creative and dedicated artists. They are a bottomless well of inspiration. 

• You are one of the founders of Wide Eyed Productions and served as the Artistic Director for four seasons. What compelled you to found the company? Where would you like to see the company in five years? 

This is a such a long story that I will try to “nutshell it” for you. When I moved to New York, I was planning on being an actor but the universe had a directing path planned out for me. Directing opportunity after directing opportunity kept falling into my lap and soon it was all I was doing. As this was going on, I was quickly developing a very talented acting pool with artists who, for whatever reason, wanted to continue to work with me. The one thing they all had in common was that they had a serious desire to do work they were proud of doing. They were tired of working endlessly on indie plays that they were embarrassed to invite their friends and colleagues to attend. At the same time, a large crop UNC alumni were pouring into the city, among them Sky Seals and Liz White. 

I was hired to direct Euripides’ The Medea for Hudson Shakespeare based out of New Jersey. Because I’m not foolish, I stocked the cast with my favorite actors and together, with the help of a pretty hefty (and timely) heartbreak in my personal life, we created a show that was possibly the most personal and beautiful piece I have ever worked on. The group truly taught me the meaning of “ensemble.” Sadly, we only received 4 performances and the cast agreed that we needed to restage this thing! Liz and Sky, who were both members of the cast, and I decided that we should make The Medea our inaugural performance for the theatre company that we all knew was just waiting to happen. We went back into rehearsal and, with the help of a lot of wonderful people, we did. Making this company happen is easily the best and most difficult thing I have ever done. In 5 years, I would love to see us with our own theatre space and working as a self-sustaining, reputable theatre company. It’s a big goal but not impossible for a group like this. 

• Are you working on any additional projects at the moment? Care to share with us? 

Me? Nah… Oh, wait, YES!  Right now, I’m earning my MFA in Directing at The New School for Drama. They keep us pretty busy over there. Currently, I’m directing my first musical titled Le Pond by Dan Kitrosser, which also happened to be a devised piece that the writer, cast and myself created together. For another one of my classes, I’m directing a slightly adapted version of David Ives’ Venus in Fur with a stellar cast of student actors including Aurea Tomeski and Jeffrey Adams, which I’m really loving. It’s so wonderful to sink my teeth into such involved work with talented and brave actors like these. I’m also lucky enough to be directing a play titled Take My Job as part of Writopia’s creative writing lab for kids ages 8-18. It will be going up at 59E59 in May, and I encourage everyone to attend. It is really amazing what these kids are doing! 

Last but not least, I’m directing a staged reading of a new play by playwright Sam Byron which will be going up as part of the Dark Nights series with Wide Eyed on May 6 at 6pm. It’s a really creepy and exciting look at a post-apocalyptic world and what the human mind can do when left in solitude for too long. It features one of Wide Eyed’s favorite company members, Neil Fennell, and a few NSD students as well! I hope people will come out and give us some feedback since it is still in the early stages of development. So…if you don’t see me around it is because I’m in rehearsal…right where I want to be.