Maple and Vine, a new play by Jordan Harrison directed by Drama League Directors Project alumna Anne Kauffman, is currently running through December 23 at Playwrights Horizons. The play revolves around a couple seeking escape from their 21st century lives. After meeting a charismatic man from a community of 1950s reenactors, they forsake cell phones and sushi for cigarettes and Tupperware parties. The Drama League reached out to Kauffman to find out more about this intriguing new play and the creative collaboration that facilitated its development:
Drama League (DL): Maple and Vine started out as a series of interviews. Could you explain what that process was like?
Anne Kauffman (AK): I was interested in what makes people ‘escape the modern world’ after a conversation with an Hasidic Jew who had had an arranged marriage and seemed pretty content. He also spoke about the internet being very limited in their community. I started to wonder what made people, living in the age of information, choose to limit their access to technology, information, modern conveniences, choice etc. I also remembered something my mother had said to my four sisters and me. She said, “I feel sorry for you girls. You have so many choices these days. When I was growing up, I knew I was going to get married and become a housewife. How do you deal with the limitlessness of your world?”
So, I took a group of Civilians actors and we interviewed cloistered nuns, earth-shippers, the Amish, members of the 12 Tribe cult, mormons, Civil War re-enactors, people from the Mars Society, etc. After gathering hundreds of interviews, I approached Jordan Harrison with them, discussed the root impulse for the project and asked that he take the interviews as source material, but, unlike other Civilians projects, make a whole new play from them, rather than a collage of interviews. He made a first attempt that was too close to the interviews themselves, we chucked it and he started over with the premise of a 50′s re-enactment society which was thrilling to me.
DL: What elements of this play compelled you to direct it?
AK: The investigation of contemporary folks longing for a ‘simpler time’ has been on my mind for a long time. So this is subject matter that’s very close to my heart.
DL: Maple and Vine premiered earlier this season as part of the Humana Festival at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Has your vision for the play transformed in preparation for the New York opening?
AK: We learned so so much down in Louisville. I learned how the tone of the play works and how fragile it is. Now, we have new cast members and designers, and of course, with those new elements the play is changing and growing and being shaped very differently. So, I’m not sure if my vision has changed as much as the elements at play within the making of this production, if that makes sense.
DL: Can you describe your experience as a director working alongside playwright Jordan Harrison? How involved was he in the developmental process of this production?
AK: Jordan is a very hands-on playwright, and that’s mostly a great thing. My involvement in the development of the piece was unusual since I brought the source material to him, so we’ve collaborated extremely closely. And we’re both very involved with how the new additions of cast and designers affect the execution of this New York production. In addition, Jordan is an incredibly visual writer. He has very specific physical demands in all of his plays. So he has to be very involved in design, because sometimes language has to change to accommodate the complexities of the design that he wants, and certainly, the way that design functions for him, he needs to be able to contribute to how it evolves.
DL: As a Drama League alumna, what is one thing you’ve learned or gained that has helped you in your professional career?
AK: The idea that collaboration is crucial but very tricky and that we need to continue to learn and understand what that process is, our role within it, and how best to facilitate it throughout our careers.
2012 or 2013 Masters Tournament Golf Getaway!
Best of NYC Vacation Package
The Metropolitan Opera’s MACBETH
