Interview with Playwright, Director and Theatre and Dance Alumnus, Dustin Wills
Named Artistic Director of TUTTO Theatre Company in 2008, playwright and director, Dustin Wills (BA in Theatre and Dance '06), has received impressive accolades for his work following graduation. His adaptation of Shakespeare's Cymbeline received eight Austin Critics Table Award nominations, a win for Best Direction in 2006 and The Austin Chronicle's pick as one of the "Top 10 Theatrical Treasures and Pleasures of 2006". His directorial work of Eve Tulbert's Ashes, Ashes received a spot on the Chronicle's "Top Ten" list in 2007.
Wills' most recent production with TUTTO Theatre Company, Ophelia, made three of The Austin Chronicle's annual arts "Top 10" lists including the "Top 10 Theatrical Treasures and Pleasures of 2008". Ophelia also garnered six 2009 Austin Critics Table Awards nominations and a win for Best Direction presented to Mr. Wills.
Ophelia written and directed by Dustin Wills
Photo by Daniel Brock
Q. First, congratulations on your success with the most recent production of your original work, Ophelia, with TUTTO Theatre Company. Ophelia was first presented during the 2005 University Co–op presents The Cohen New Works Festival. Can you share more about the beginnings of the work?
A. I was an English major and Theatre major and went on the Oxford program offered by the English Department where I originally started writing it. I, with some other students had started a small musical theatre company called Spotlight Musical Theatre with funding from the University Co–op as a registered student organization. We were doing these sorts of weird Vaudeville types of things where one character would create a performance and would sing a song. It was almost like working with a Greek chorus. I think out of that came the idea of a choral and episodic Ophelia. I was at Oxford studying Hamlet with my professor, Elizabeth Cullingford, who is now the chair of the English Department. A lot of our conversations dealt with feminist takes on Shakespeare and the idea of voiceless women during that period, and the gender politics going on at that time.
I submitted a draft to the Festival that was awful, but was somehow accepted.
Q. How did that the first draft of Ophelia evolve into what was presented at the Festival in 2005?
A. Suzan Zeder sat down with me, and we went through the show. She held up the first half of the script and said, "This is a mess." She held up sections 4 and 5 and said, "This is great writing. Make the first half like the second half." Which was funny because I went back and wrote scenes 1, 2 and 3 and by the time I got to the most recent production, I completely rewrote the second half.
Q. The next version of Ophelia was presented in Rome. How did that opportunity come about?
A. After I graduated I moved to Rome and I was a Vatican tour guide for a while. I was getting frustrated because I wasn't doing theatre so I found a theatre in Rome, The English Theatre of Rome and basically stalked the artistic director of this company. I knocked on her door one day and she invites me in and I told her, "I would love to direct a play for your company." I had my laptop with me and showed her Ophelia. I didn't go in there saying, "I want to direct this." But I thought maybe she had a season I could be a part of. But the way she runs her theatre, it's very Roman, very loose, no one is in a hurry. She watched the first 10 minutes of the DVD and said, "Lets do this show in November." I was given 200 Euros and theatre space at Teatro l'Arciliuto to produce this version of Ophelia.
I would go on Sundays to Porta Portese where they do a lot of second hand vending. I would grab chairs, props, and things to use for the play because the 200 Euro budget went to costumes.
Suzan Zeder e–mailed me while I was living in Rome. She said, "There's a show called Ashes, Ashes happening in the New Works Festival that I'd love for you to come back to direct." So I came back for the Festival in the spring of 2007 and directed Ashes by Eve Tulbert (MFA '07), then went back to Rome again that summer. With a group of the girls from Opehlia and some new ones, we devised a piece called The Moths or Le Falene.
We wrote the play all together, directed and put it on the stage for maybe 400 Euros. You could always see me walking down the street in Rome with like some sort of garbage I found, a mirror, a plaster head of Sophocles…. We had a lot of publicity for that one. It was very strange, all the sudden I was in all these Roman magazines.
Ophelia written and directed by Dustin Wills
Photo by Daniel Brock
Q. You entered the UT Department of Theatre and Dance with an acting focus. How did you transition into directing and the creation of new work?
A. One of the first people I encountered was Fran Dorn. I was in her acting class. She was very encouraging – it was so nice to go to her. Stacy Wolf was the first person who made me think less about acting and more about directing and theory and crafting and devising. Through Stacy I became better acquainted with Jill Dolan and took her performance art class in 2003 during the Fresh Terrain Festival. That's when I veered from acting and loving musical theatre to doing more research on the avant–garde and foreign theatre. That's when I became obsessed with Pina Bausch and that's also when I started learning about viewpoints and starting to study the outer skirts of mainstream theatre. I was finding that wholly more interesting. Through that I met a lot of the Performance as Public Practice graduate students, Rebecca Hewett (MFA '04) and Jaclyn Pryor (MFA '04) – those ladies really influenced me. That's when I started putting together Shakespeare and the avant–garde – going really far back to how it could be applied different styles of theatre, and that's back to how Ophelia started.
Q. How did the department's emphasis on the creation of new work influence you as a student?
A. I had never in my life found it crossing my mind, "I'm going to write a play." But then the New Works Festival came up and suddenly it's a deadline, and I had this thing I had been playing with and I was like, "Well I might as well submit something."
I feel that two heads are better than one and fifteen heads are better than two. And I don't agree with the idea of too many cooks in the kitchen. I think as long as you can sort of hone in and have a collaborative spirit and a "yes, and" attitude you can really develop stuff you would never be able to develop just on your own.
Q. What's next for you?
A. The show I'm working on right now is called Black Snow. It's adapted by Keith Reddin and it's based on a theatrical novel by Mikhail Bulgakov who was a writer at the Moscow Art Theatre during the Stanislavski era. I really liked it I think because this is going to be the first play I've ever directed that I didn't write or have a hand in writing or was able to work with a new writer to be able to rewrite. I cannot cut it, cannot change genders – so this feels more new to me than anything right now.
Black Snow, featuring: Gabriel Luna, Smaranda Ciceu (MFA in Acting candidate), Francisco Rodriguez (BA '05), Amy Downing, Maarouf Naboulsi, Ron Weisberg (BA '07), Verity Branco (MFA in Acting candidate), Diego Larrea–Puemape (BA '08), and Kyle Lagunas; with Scene Design by Lisa Laratta (MFA '08), Lighting Design by Megan M. Reilly (MFA '07), and Costume Design by Kim H. Ngo (BA '07), runs June 26 to July 12, at Salvage Vanguard Theater. Visit TUTTOtheatre.org for details.
Photo by Daniel Brock
