Interview: Michael John LaChiusa Talks Arc Stages' SEE WHAT I WANNA SEE, What Inspires Him to Create & More

Michael John LaChiusa's See What I Wanna See, a musical based on three short stories by the Japanese writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa, originally premiered Off-Broadway in 2005. Nominated for nine Drama Desk Awards, this compelling musical about lust, greed, murder, faith, and redemption sheds light on truth and perspective.

Pleasantville theater company Arc Stages will be presenting LaChiusa's See What I Wanna See for their professional company, the Next Stage. See What I Wanna See will be directed by Ann-Ngaire Martin, with Musical Direction by Marcus Baker. Starring: Becca Ayers, Joe Chisholm, Cooper Grodin, Trevor Martin, and Allie Seibold.

Performances will take place Friday, February 4 at 8pm; Saturday, February 5 at 8pm; Friday, February 11 at 8pm; Saturday, February 12 at 8pm; Sunday, February 13 at 2pm; Friday, February 18 at 8pm; and Saturday, February 19 at 8pm.

To purchase tickets, please visit www.arcstages.org or call 914-747-6206.

BroadwayWorld spoke with the composer of See What I Wanna See, Michael John LaChiusa about the Arc Stages production, what inspired him to create this musical, how the musical resonates differently today than when it originally premiered, and more!

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See What I Wanna See is being presented at Arc Stages in Pleasantville, New York. When did you first learn about this production, and what are your thoughts typically when you hear that theaters are producing your incredible show?

Well, Adam Cohen, who's the Artistic Director of Arc Stages, had contacted me. I had met Adam here in New York when he'd done a version of Hello Again here, several years back. He contacted me and asked me, would I mind if he produced the show there. And I said, "Absolutely, Adam." He's very talented, and he always rounds up great talent around him. And it's a difficult show, but I know he's always up for the challenge. It's only five characters, but it's a lot of work, and I knew that he would be able to pull it off. So, I said, "Absolutely, go for it. You're brave, do it!"

It's always a delight when people contact me and ask about the show, or ask questions about the shows. Because a lot of the shows that I write are more for the Olympian in the actor, you know? And it's tough one, you have to have a good cast, and good company of people, good designers, and good music people involved in it. So, it's always wonderful to get in touch with people that are doing the show. It's always a delight.

With that being said, what are you most looking forward to with the Arc Stages production, specifically now that you've talked to the team?

They shot me a lovely video of rehearsal, and already I can tell you the voices are spectacular. Absolutely spectacular, I was like, "Woah, this is really beautiful singing going on here." So, that's a great blessing. To have that score sung well is always a delight and a pleasure to hear. And the cast looks wonderful. It's very exciting to see that. Even in rehearsal they sounded just spectacular, and I was quite moved by it.

The show is based on three short stories by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, "In a Grove," "The Dragon," and "Kesa and Morito". When did you first discover these short stories, and what about them inspired you to create a musical from the material?

Are you familiar with the Kurosawa movie called Rashamon? Wonderful, wonderful film. One of the first of its kind. I was always in love with the story of that, how a particular incident that happens is told through many different angles, and not one of them is necessarily the truth. That's a fascinating idea in and of itself, and that was created by the short story writer Akutagawa. That always fascinated me. And I thought, "What would that be like to do a musical of that? To have a specific incident happen, but to be told through different versions of it? What can one do musically with that, and what kind of threads could you weave through that?" And that really intrigued me. I knew it would have to be coupled with something, because the story itself is maybe, at the most, fifty minutes long. So, I read some more short stories by Akutagawa. Actually, when I was in Japan, I got a book there, I found The Dragon, and I found Kesa and Morito, another short story. And I took all three and made a musical out of it, if you will.

Not everybody reads and sees things and thinks "How can I turn it into a musical?" So, I think it's pretty fascinating that your mind went there.

It's a strange mind that I have, very distressing to a lot of people. But, I love a challenge. What's going to keep my imagination intact, and excited, and open to possibilities of ways that our theater world can tell stories? There are so many different ways to tell stories, and to explore the many different ways, whether it be score-wise, or libretto-wise, or even lyric-wise, and to experiment always. And try to, not reinvent the wheel, but try to push one's one boundaries. And that's always something that keeps the mind going and keeps the heart in it as well.

Absolutely. And how work is perceived changes throughout the years, how do you feel that See What I Wanna See resonates differently now than it did when it first premiered?

Well, I think even when I was writing it and putting it together thematically, I don't purposely do polemic, I have one foot here, and one foot in tomorrow, and one foot in the past, it's riding that fine line. And just noting certain things that were happening in our country... because See What I Wanna See, although it is based on Japanese source material, literature, it's set in America, its essentially American versions of these original stories. At the time I was writing, particularly The Dragon, I was looking at our country and just going, "Wow, people are having many different versions of what they believe is the truth." And it's fascinating because we have that right now, the divide is even more prominent than when See What I Wanna See first premiered, as we observe when we watch the news or when we look on social media. The divide is quite great about what is truth. And that's what See What I Wanna See probes. It's right there in the title, I see what I want to see. That's one thing that might be more relatable than it had been when it first premiered because it's just so obvious now, I think. The struggle with what is truth.

I couldn't agree more. And like you spoke about, the inspiration for your work stems from a lot of interesting sources. Has any work recently inspired you to begin creating something new? Have you read anything, seen anything...

Oh yeah, there's nothing else to do, my dear, so there really isn't much to do except to write, and to write, and to write, to stay creative at every single moment. So, yes, I've got like, three or four different projects in the works at various stages. Some things were postponed unfortunately because of Covid, and had to reschedule, so there is a backlog of work that needs to be done first. I just did a wonderful workshop of a piece based on a book called American Eclipse. It's a wonderful nonfiction book, based on the solar eclipse of 1887. And it was a huge cast, it had about twenty five people, and it really was a lot of fun to do. I did that right before Thanksgiving in New York. So, going from a five person show like See What I Wanna See to a twenty-five person show was like, "Woah, that's a lot of people!" But it's a lot of fun too, to write both something that's intimate and chamber like See What I Wanna See, which is a chamber musical if you will, and something more epic like American Eclipse. It's fun to work in both scales.

Variety is the spice of life.

Yes, it is! It's also fun to play with different skills because the demand is different for a show that has five people in it, versus a show that has twenty five people in it. How you maneuver, and how things work plot wise, it involves a whole new set of skills. And it keeps me on my toes, I'll tell you that much!

What would you like to say to audiences who are making a return to the theatre?

Don't take it for granted, enjoy it, embrace it. There is nothing better than live theater as everybody knows. Everybody's saying, "It might spell the end for live theater..." It will not spell the end for live theater. We're always going to need to gather in a place together, live, without commercials. We're always going to need that, we need that as a species, we need to be together in communion, in the dark, suspending our belief. We'll always need that. So if you have a chance to go back to the theater, do so, go in with an open heart, and don't take it for granted anymore. This is indeed a gift that anybody is able to put on a show live, and that you're able to go to one is even better. We cant do theater without our audiences, that's the final part of the collaboration, is the audiences. And we need our audiences back in the theater. And the theaters I know are taking great precautions for the safety of audiences and for the safety of the actors and people who work behind the scenes. I think we're going to be okay, we'll get over this, this will pass over.