As we anxiously await the end of another New England winter, the Brandeis theater department's performance of The Winter's Tale seems oddly appropriate. Tina Packer, nationally renowned director and actress, came to Brandeis for a limited time to direct this play. In only five weeks, she has coached her crew of graduate and undergraduate actors to capture one of Shakespeare's lesser known works. Tina Packer
Time at Brandeis: 5 weeks
Role at Brandeis: Director of the theater department's The Winter's Tale
Role outside Brandeis: Artistic director of Shakespeare & Co., a national theater company

JustFeats: When did you start working at Brandeis?
Tina Packer: January 5 we started work on The Winter's Tale. We were also preparing a bit before then, but I had bits to do with Brandeis before.

JF: What was the best show that you've directed?
TP: It's very difficult to say. I don't know that you can say "what's the best" because you can't constantly look at the past. I have no idea which is the best because I am concentrating on the one I'm doing now, so that always seems like the best.

JF: What was the funniest moment in acting that you've seen?
TP: When I was on stage for Comedy of Errors and it was the end of the play. The woman who played the Abyss dried when she was supposed to say her lines. So she fainted and everyone carried her off stage. I was left on stage with no townspeople and we needed to get back somehow, and they didn't even lower the curtain.

JF: If you could do anything but directing, what would you do?
TP: I would emphasize my acting over my directing career. But, if I hadn't been in theater, I would have liked to become a writer, but I already even do that. I might even be part of some kind of governmental agency and I could help people that way.

JF: What is your favorite book?
TP: I have always liked Jane Austen, but even with books, I feel like the one I'm reading at the moment is also very good. I like Aristotle's Children, by Richard Rosenblum-about how Jews, Christians and Muslims changed the world. Also, about Shakespeare, I like The Genius of Shakespeare, by Jonathan Bate.

JF: What is your favorite film?
TP: Casablanca.

JF: What is the best performance you have seen on stage?
TP: Ariad Menushkin's 1783. I saw it at the Roundhouse theatre and it filled the house. Also, I liked Joan Littlewood's The Hostage, which I saw in the Theatre de Nations in Paris.

JF: Who is your favorite playwright?
TP: William Shakespeare.

JF: What made you go into theater?
TP: I always liked it and it always sparked my imagination.

JF: What was your most inspirational moment?
TP: When Nelson Mandela went to jail-when I was a teenager, I followed very closely his actions and it was an incredible example of how to succeed despite every economic and social pressure. I don't know whether it was an inspirational moment, but as a life example, it was.