Spotlight on John Trethart - Director for From Cradle to Stage 2012

What is your role on this production? I am directing two of the readings that are going up on the Sunday following the regular run of the One Acts. The readings are Mary! and Magpies. As the director it is my job to help bring forth the play from words on a page to actors on a stage. In particular as a reading their is minimal blocking so the focus is on the words and bringing the characters forth. Also, directing involves working with the designers to portray the images the script invokes. This last one can be a challenge because for any written work there could be multiple ways of interpreting it.

What is your background in theatre? I have been an actor and involved in theater since 1989, I have a few Fringe shows under my belt and was recently in Walterdale's production of Love of the Nightingale. I studied theater in California for two years where I earned a degree in theater arts and won the department award of Student of the Year for my outstanding devotion to the craft. Beyond that I have learned from every show I've done since I started on the stage. I have only recently got my hand into directing shows and I am hoping to spread my knowledge and skills further into the theater community.

What is the biggest challenge with working on a New Work? The most exciting thing? The biggest challenge of a new work is their is no one who has come before you to compare your interpretation to. This is also the most exciting thing. As the first to work with a new work you are paving the path for all shows that follow it and you are giving the director the first look at their play as a living thing. One of the challenges I personally faced with working with one the new works was that it was incomplete and I had to sit down with the writer to hear how it ended to pass it on to my actors so they could get the over all arc of the play. Yet, I am glad to still be bringing to life the first act of her work with full gusto as if it was a complete play.

* photo by Douglas Dollars-Stewart from Poetry Unbound - John Trethart and Gabby Bernard.