One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

I liked Samantha as an Artistic Director

I really did

Other people had problems with her

But, I mean, ask anybody in the acting company

About any of the Artistic Directors

And all you’ll hear are complaints

It’s a hard job

And Samantha did a really good job

Considering she wasn’t even from here

They imported her from New York

So she had a very New York sort of approach

To things

That I…

It was something to get used to

But I liked her

The only problem was that at that point

The Board was taking a stronger, um, hand

In what shows we were doing

So they were picking stuff like One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

And Samantha wanted to do more avante garde stuff

So there was this sort of conflict

Which can sometimes result in really interesting work

But in this case just resulted in a lot of, um, uh…

It felt like we were sort of…

Disrespecting the work

Because if the Board picked a play

Because they thought it could sell

And Sam didn’t like it

She would just direct it

And totally contradict

The meaning or message of the play

So a misogynistic play became all about feminism

And a play about patriotism became about skepticism

And something that was three acts

Got cut down to forty-five minutes

I mean, we really took some liberties there

And I…

You know, my husband’s a writer

So I have a great respect

For writers and writing

And all of that

I mean, he’s not famous or anything

He’s just a writer

I mean, not just a writer, but he’s—

He writes

And, he would come see our shows

And he’d sit there, really, sort of, offended

By what we’d done to, you know

Work that was not ours

Other people’s work

And I’d say, ‘Well, you know, art is collaborative’

And he’d say, ‘But there’s no collaboration.  You’re just changing things without permission’

And I’d say, ‘It’s theater.  What’s on the page doesn’t always translate well to the stage and—‘

God, now that I’m hearing myself say it

It sounds really stupid

So finally I said to Sam—

‘You know, why don’t we just pick shows that we like so that we don’t have to change so much about them?’

And Sam looked at me as if I was nuts and said—

‘I change them because I like them.  Because I want other people to like them as much as I do and that means tailoring them for the audience we have.  You wouldn’t just put a jacket on anybody and expect it to fit, would you?  No.  You alter it.  You adapt it.  You fix it.  Until it’s right.’

The word ‘fix’ really…

I mean, we were doing, like—

O’Neill

Williams

Miller

Stuff that doesn’t need ‘fixing’

But I…

I mean, I registered my feelings, you know?

Other people did too

But we went along with it

Because ticket sales did improve

Under Sam

Because of her, you know, tailoring, but…

But it never really sat right with me

To be honest with you

And my husband…

He stopped coming to shows

Even the ones I was in

He said he just couldn’t

He said it went against his principles

Which, believe me, I understood, but…

But it was really unfortunate, you know?

Because we did some really great stuff

And do I think that same, you know, work

Would have been as great if Sam hadn’t, you know, tailored it?

I don’t know

That’s the thing, I mean

There’s no way to answer that, right?

I just don’t know