This week, JustArts sat down with Brian Dorfman '16 and Phill Skokos '15, who directed the Brandeis Theater Ensemble's production of 1959 Pink Thunderbird this weekend.

JustArts: Would you guys tell us a bit about your time with Brandeis Ensemble Theater and how you first got involved?

Phill Skokos: We really wanted to put a show on-at first it was Harvey, written by Mary Chase. But then we decided to go a bit unorthodox, and we found this play called Lone Star / Laundry & Bourbon. Lone Star I found in a used book sale and it was cool because it was a really funny play, and no one really knew it, but it had an edge to it.
Lone Star is about three Texans who, after the Vietnam war, they go to a bar, they have some fun, they cruise a bit.

Brian Dorfman: In our minds, or at least my mind, it's all about how everyone in west Texas was affected by Vietnam in the post-war era. We wanted specifically for this [show] to not have the main stage, and BET loves to accommodate, because they love putting on side shows.

Phill Skokos: It was fortunate that we found BET to support this production, and I think BET is really happy for the show.

JA: Can you talk a bit more about how 1959 Pink Thunderbird was selected to be performed? You said you found it in a used book?

PS: That's more or less how I collect a lot of plays. I'm not a Theater major... but I've been doing theater for the past 16 years. It's like doing a career in theater, except not being paid. So I like to update my knowledge with plays.

BD: Over the summer, we proposed to BET this side show proposal-we kept a minimum budget, we kept it all very simple, very standard. We wanted three male actors, three female actors. And we got accepted, and it was a really cool moment.

JA: What challenges have you encountered in bringing the play to the stage?

PS: We had to go through three actors, more or less, because they had a lot of conflicts during the rehearsal process. And eventually we found our main Cletus. We were really happy to have Steven Kline '14.

BD: After we found our perfect cast, one of the biggest challenges we ran into was making certain lines-the jokes within them-really come out. I think one of the biggest challenges was on the Ray Charles line, where they have a small call back to it [later in the show].

PS: And then there are things that keep coming up in both acts. Like, again with Cletus, his inexperience with women, and Roy, with his 1959 Thunderbird-there are a lot of motifs that get carried back and forth through the play.

BD: And a lot of how we overcame it came from the actors, honestly. They really gave us the-"well what if I just do this?" Like Page Smith '17, playing Hattie, when she covered her eyes [to act out] Ray Charles, and it helped a lot.

JA: Do you guys have a favorite moment in the play?

BD: I love all of it, I hate to say it.

PS: [In Lone Star] when Cletus comes in and talks to Ray and he's like "Guys, I messed up. I kind of broke the Thunderbird." That was really fun to keep rehearsing because there's so much urgency within that scene, and urgency really makes a play keep going. And as for Laundry & Bourbon, the parts when Amy Lee comes on, because Amy Lee is such a character.

- Rachel Hughes