Joseph Haj Makes the Case for Co-Directing

PlayMakers' own Joseph Haj recently published an article in American Theatre discussing co-directing. Over the past few years, Joseph has co-directed a number of PlayMakers productions, including: Nicholas Nickleby with Tom Quaintance,  Henry IV, Parts I and II and Henry V with Mike Donahue, and The Tempest and Metamorphoses with Dominique Serrand, during last year's Rep.

PlayMakers'  "Henry V," co-directed by Joseph Haj and Mike Donahue. (Photo by Jon Gardiner)

To read Joe's article, visit American Theatre's website.


Make sure to see 2014/15 Season's repertory performances of Into the Woods and A Midsummer Night's Dream at PlayMakers November 1 - December 7. For tickets, call 919.962.PLAY (7529) or visit our website.

Coming Soon: Stephen Sondheim's Assassins

By Mike Donahue, director of Assassins

“In America, our dreams not only can come true, but should come true. And if they don’t, something or someone is to blame.” – John Weidman, librettist, Assassins

In the opening number of Assassins, a carnival proprietor invites eight people onto the stage to take their turn in the carnival’s shooting gallery. Hit the target, get the prize of your dreams. Only the guns he sells them—at a remarkably low price—are real. And the targets are US Presidents.

There have been over twenty attempts to assassinate sitting and former presidents; four of them have been successful. If you’re like me, when I first encountered this show, you know relatively little about most of them. John Wilkes Booth and Lee Harvey Oswald have entered the zeitgeist, but most of the others have been forgotten, dismissed as footnotes, or live on only as trivia.     

Assassins is a dark musical comedy about a disparate group of misfits, all of whom have attempted to assassinate a president. Not exactly standard musical fare. So why spend an entire evening with these people? Why risk getting to know them, their stories, their vulnerabilities, their reasons for doing it? Surely they were crazy, dangerous, fringe, outsiders…right?  

I grew up in St. Louis, living with my mom and grandparents in a house that had secret passageways and hidden rooms, where at age eight I would direct productions of A Christmas Carol and The Lion King starring my cousins and using my humidifier as a fog machine. I was lucky: my family was always supportive of my dream to be a director (and still is; my mother will visit me in Chapel Hill, eager to see the show and go back to Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen).

Throughout childhood, I was always told by my family and in school: you are special and you can be anything you want to be if you set your mind to it. It was a vital part of the American Dream. As I started to work on the show last summer, I suddenly realized I wasn’t as far away from the characters in Assassins as I had assumed. We shared a common understanding of what it meant to be an American.

For Sondheim and Weidman, these people aren’t outsiders, to be dismissed as crazy or unhinged. They are infinitely human, in all of their differing motivations and vulnerabilities.  And they are infinitely American, united by a shared sense of entitlement: they all buy into the idea that we as Americans have (as the opening number states) “a right to be happy” and “a right to our dreams.” So, when we’re not happy, when we don’t achieve those dreams…what then?  

Assassins is outlandish, irreverent and immensely entertaining. It also holds up a mirror to one of the very foundations of our national identity. At one moment in the show, one of the assassins slyly notes that “when you have a gun – everybody pays attention.” If we do it right, there will be a surprising and vital reason for you to pay attention – and, we will definitely share some laughs along the way.    

I hope you’ll join us in April to spend some time with our Assassins!

"Before we’ve even moved into the theatre" by Cody Nickell

Cody Nickell

by actor Cody Nickell

Cody Nickell plays Hotspur in Henry IV and Fluellen in Henry V.

     I write this blog post as the cast of The Making Of A King: Henry IV and Henry V gets ready to have its last rehearsal in the rehearsal space before moving into the theatre to start tech rehearsals. So far, it has been a fast and furious process, unlike anything I have ever been a part of.  The scope of the story that Joe Haj and Mike Donahue have set out to tell is breath taking and I have had an absolute blast watching my fellow cast mates and all the people involved wrestle this monster text down to the ground and build it back up into an exciting, moving, funny and surprising ride.

     The chance to see these plays done in conjunction with each other is such a rarity and to get to be a part of their creation here at PlayMakers means so much to me.  I saw my first production of a Shakespeare play right here at PlayMakers almost twenty years ago as a high school student in Chapel Hill (Twelfth Night).  I was absolutely amazed by the production and everyone involved (some of whom I am getting to work with on this show), and it went a long way in inspiring me to pursue theatre and acting as a career.  To get to come back home and explore the amazing words of Shakespeare on this stage with this group of people is thrilling to me.

     So in these plays, I am playing Hotspur in Henry IV and Fluellen in Henry V, and I have to say I couldn’t be happier about it.  Hotspur is an incredibly fun and complex character to play and one that I have always wanted to tackle.  I get a pretty great sword fight.  Grown boys playing with swords.  Always fun.  And it is one of my wife’s favorite characters in Shakespeare, and it certainly never hurts to impress your wife. 

     Some of the other highlights of this rehearsal process so far have been working with a composer in the room (an incredible Marc Lewis, creating an entire soundscape by himself), jumping from working with one director to the other, watching this incredible company of actors delve deeper and deeper into their characters, and when I’m not acting, I am having so much fun being an audience member (the tavern scenes in Henry IV are especially fun to watch with Mike Winters as Falstaff and Shawn Fagan as Hal leading their wacky band of brothers in all sorts of shenanigans).  The chance to see the characters develop over the course of these plays is amazing, especially the journey that Shawn is creating with Hal and Henry. It is a special thing to behold.

     And all this has happened before we’ve even moved into the theatre.  These next few weeks should be crazy and busy and exhausting but full of amazing new discoveries along the way to opening night.

"Moving Day" by Joseph Haj

Joseph Haj

by director Joseph Haj

Today is the day we move from the rehearsal room to the theatre to begin tech for Henry IV and Henry V.  We’re there for a long time.  We tech from 1-11 today (Friday), and from noon to midnight on Saturday and Sunday, and then we have a day off on Monday before we go back in on Tuesday for another week of tech before previews.

The PlayMakers team is incredible.  The admin staff goes to great lengths to protect my time when I’m in rehearsals, and that means additional work for them to shoulder.  The shops are working around the clock to get the scenery, costumes, lights, props and everything ready to go.  Our two stage managers, among the best in the business, are ready to guide us through tech.  Co-director Mike Donahue and I think we are exactly where we need to be in the process.

And the twenty-four member acting company?  Incredible. Generous, collaborative, smart, wildly talented, and on the cusp of something very special with these plays.

Many years ago, I was an actor in Genet’s The Screens at the Guthrie theatre in Minneapolis, and the lighting designer was Jennifer Tipton. I never knew that lights could be such a huge part of the storytelling. Jennifer is one of the most admired and in-demand lighting designers in the world, and it has been a long-held dream of mine to work with her on a project. I’m thrilled that it turned out to be this epic journey of The Making of a King.

Wish us luck! We’re on our way!


The Making of a King: Henry IV and Henry V begins performances on January 28. Click here to learn more and to buy tickets.

36 Hours, 25 Actors, 100+ Crew - It's Tech! Part 1

Previews begin Wednesday and that means - Tech! Also known in the theatre world as Hell Week and with good reason. Tech refers to the stage of rehearsal when the company moves into the actual theatre for the first time. This is first time anyone has acted on the finished (almost) set; light cues are developed now that the actors on stage and sound cues are run in real time. This is a grueling process - painfully slow - sometimes even going line by line, while the tech crew and the designers add all of their cues. Around here, Tech usually starts the Friday before previews and runs through Sunday night. All total, the NicNic cast and crew were in the building for upwards of 36 hours over the weekend. 

Another PlayMakers tradition is Sundown Supper. This is a dinner provided for the cast and crew by volunteers and PRC administrative staff. It always takes place on the Sunday of tech, because let's face it - everybody's too tired to go scrounge up dinner in the short break that they get. Because there are two parts to NicNic, there are two Tech weekends and two Sundown Suppers. The first, which took place on Sunday, had an English theme. A Shepherd's Pie cook-off to be exact. Below you'll see pictures from both the dinner and Sunday's tech. 

These are our Sundown Supper volunteers. These guys not only cook, they serve the cast & crew and help with set-up & breakdown. Our Suppers wouldn't be possible without them!

Co-directors Joe Haj & Tom Quaintance and assistant director Mike Donahue work out some staging logistics while the actors are still on dinner break. 

If you've been following the blog at all, you've seen McKay Coble's set develop from a rough sketch to finished sketch to model. Here's the real thing! It always amazes me how much it looks like the model! 

Even after 30 hours of rehearsal in two and a half days, actors' spirits seem to be high. Above we see Jeff Meanza relaxing with his iPod as he waits for the evening session to begin. 

Flor De Liz Perez and Jeffrey Blair Cornell

David Adamson and Matthew Murphy

Tom Q. is often on stage during this Tech process, to talk to actors, designers and stage managers about what's going on. 

Costume designer Jan Chambers takes advantage of a break in the action to make some adjustments to Jeff Cornell's costume. 

Joe H. discusses a transition with actors Jimmy Kieffer and Lenore Field. 

Check back tomorrow for more pictures from tech! Coming later in the week, a new post from Rachel Pollock!