JustArts: How did you choose Angels in America?

Sarah Waldron: I had gotten it recommended to me by a couple of different people that didn’t know each other at all, so I was like, maybe the universe is telling me something. And then, just when I read through it, I sort of wasn’t expecting to like it that much, because it is a very well-known play. I didn’t want to do something that was tired. When I read through it, I connected with a lot of the themes and thought it was still relevant and that it would be interesting to do. It was also kind of a challenge, definitely, which I was looking for.

JA: What has the rehearsal process been like? 

SW: I mean—intense. It’s very episodic. So, it was difficult sometimes, making sure that the cast always knew what was going on. Because, you know, they’d have their own scenes that are scattered throughout the play but then have no idea what was going on the whole rest of the time, because they’re only in specific sections. So that was definitely one thing—making [the play] cohesive as one single piece, making it flow. That was definitely something that we [focused] on a lot. I had an assistant director, her name was Margot Grubert ’17, and she was fantastic to have around and very helpful once we started crunch time, because we were able to have two rehearsals going at once. I’d be working with one pair, and she’d be working with one pair, and we’d make sure that we were ready for the stage at the same time because we did have a very short rehearsal process.

JA: Did you have any challenges as director?

SW: One of the challenges was cuts because the play itself, Angels in America, is a two-part play. And we only did the first part, and I even, like, cut that down. The original script for part one is about three hours long. It’s a three-act play. And for one, just attention span—I knew nobody had that. And also, I wanted to make it like more succinct, because I think that in the original play, the writer tries to accomplish a lot in a single sitting, and it’s not really conducive, I think, for our theater setting. So that was one thing, just deciding when and where to make those cuts and still keep the continuity and [make] sure that everyone was on the same page about the cuts. Because, you know, it’s hard when you tell someone that one of their scenes is missing. There [were] a couple times that we rewrote scenes, a couple times that scenes were overlapping when they weren’t written that way in the script. A lot of changes happened, and making sure that everyone was onboard with them was important. And it worked out! It wasn’t too much of a challenge.

JA: Was there something that the cast was most excited for?

SW: I think that they were hoping to shock the audience. They were excited for those moments, and I think that they were accomplished a couple times throughout the play. Which was good, because it was, for a lot of the actors, an incredibly emotionally taxing piece to be working on. Having the audience experience some of the emotion that was put into it was really rewarding. We were having a discussion about whether or not we should have an intermission because I’m not a fan of intermissions, and a couple of the actors were like, no, I want there to be an intermissions. I want [the audience] to have to think about it for 10 minutes before they get to see [what happens], you know. A lot of the actors were excited to throw people off and kind of make people uncomfortable, and we had a lot of parents in the audience, so I think we accomplished that. 

JA: Was there one thing you wanted the audience to take away from the show?

SW: For me, the most important question about this play is the question of identity. Which is why, I think, in some ways, this play is timeless ... The stuff about identity and struggling with your identity is a timeless question. Everyone struggles with it. So I just hope that everyone in the audience at some point was able to connect with the identity struggle of one of the characters, because there are such a wide variety of characters in this cast. They’re from all different economic and religious and racial backgrounds and sexualities and genders. I would just hope that everyone was able to connect with at least like one character and just understand their identity struggle.