Interview: Larry Eisenberg Directs Not ONLY A PLAY, But All That It Encompasses

Up next for Theatre 40's current season, Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play opening March 23, 2023. Larry Eisenberg directs the cast of Todd Andrew Ball, Peter Bussian, Fox Carney, Joe Clabby, Cheryl David, Mouchette van Helsdingen and Jeffrey Winner. Larry was most gracious in carving out time to give serious thoughts to answering my queries.

Thank you for taking the time for this interview, Larry!

What elements of this Terrence McNally classic attracted you to direct it?

First of all, the fact that it was written three different times over a period of thirty years. And each version was completely different. I was intrigued by the fact that the man stayed with it all those years and was never quite satisfied. I had the opportunity to chat with him briefly when it opened in New York in 2014 and he said that he never really felt that he had finished it and that it was the way he wanted. For myself also, as I've aged, I'm struck by the fact that in the ultimately the value of any project becomes the collaboration, the relationships with the people and particularly with the people in your life who you have known for many years rather than the success or failure of any particular project. I think this really is the heart of the play. The two main characters have known each other throughout their careers and in the end that means more to them than the success of Peter's Broadway production or Jimmy's television series.

Had you seen any productions of It's Only a Play before?

Yes, I saw the Broadway production in 2014 and another local production in Los Angeles just before the pandemic began. It's a very funny play and has a good heart. I've been friends with F. Murray Abraham who played Ira Drew in the Broadway production for many years and talked with him quite frequently while he was in rehearsal and then during the run. Murray has had a long relationship with Terrence McNally and has probably appeared in more McNally productions than any other actor. He was in high spirits the entire time working on this, so I think vicariously I absorbed a very positive attitude towards the play. Last year I put up a quick one-rehearsal reading at Theatre Forty for David Stafford and the response was so positive he immediately acquired the rights and put it into his upcoming season.

Would you give me your three-line pitch for this play?

An inside look at the insanity of putting on a Broadway production. It's ONLY A PLAY but you'll come to love these people as much as they love each other.

Have you previously worked with any of It's Only a Play's cast or creatives?

I've worked with most of these people; some more than others. David Stafford and I go back almost 50 years to the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Company at the Anson Ford Theatre. We reconnected probably 15 years ago and have had several happy collaborations over the years. Jeff Rack is designing the set and we recently did a Theatre Forty production that Jeff directed called Death With Benefits. That show was great fun and included Cheryl David who is playing Virginia Noyes, the actress "star" in It's Only a Play. And the two leads, Fox Carney and Todd Andrew Ball who are playing Peter the playwright and his best friend James Wicker, are both members of the Group Rep at the Lonny Chapman Theatre where I was co-artistic director for ten years. So yes, I've worked extensively with a number of my collaborators and this is absolutely appropriate for this play which is all about a group of theatre professionals who have a long shared history and learn during the play that their history is really so much more important than the success or failure of their current production.

This is not your first time working with Theatre 40. I recently saw you acting in Theatre 40's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? What is it about Theatre 40 that enticed you to return to its stage?

In two words, David Stafford. He is the heart of this company and the renewal of my friendship with David brought me here to act a couple times and also to direct. This show is my third directing for them and every time it's been a great pleasure.

What gives you greater gratification: soaking up the audience applause at your own curtain call? Or standing in the wings watching your directed cast get their deserved props?

That's difficult to answer. I find acting much easier and much more natural for me. I actually spent many years exclusively as an actor before I went back to School at CalArts to get my MFA in Directing. I think today, I consider myself more a director. For ten years I was one of two co-artistic directors at the Group Rep and I think that was when the transition solidified for me. My mission became supporting others in their artistic endeavors rather than furthering my own. It became exciting to find a play or find a performer and give them a platform. I started feeling that we were expressing more than what was simply in my heart but in the hearts of others, our audience as well. They say one of the great things about live theatre is that we are all in one room with one heartbeat, experiencing what is happening for "the first and ONLY time EVERY time." That is part of what I feel part of when I'm directing and because that expression is so much larger than ONLY me, I find that more and more satisfying the more I do it.

Of course, you give up control when you're directing so maybe that is a downside.

You started your career as an actor. When did you decide you wanted to direct?

Actually, a couple of the first professional jobs I had was as a director; almost accidentally. I had graduated from college and was acting with a small community theatre in Baltimore, Maryland when someone asked me if I wanted to direct a production of William Gillette's original The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. I figured "why not?" and put the production up very simply and very easily. It turned out there was a group in Baltimore called "The Six Napoleons" that was an obsessive Sherlock Holmes society who got behind the production early in the run and almost without any effort the show because a HUGE HIT! I couldn't believe it. It ran for six months. I made a lot of money and then started getting all sorts of offers to direct productions at different levels in different cities. I directed a couple shows at Johns Hopkins University. I directed an anti-Vietnam play about the Catholic priest Berrigan brothers that toured colleges all over the east coast and I was hired to direct a rock musical called Can't Stop Now that replaced Oh Calcutta! at the Anderson Theatre on Second Avenue in New York City.

It was a great deal of success for no apparent reason in a very short time but then the rock musical turned into a huge flop, and I managed to acquire perspective on my chosen career and gradually healed my wounds by focusing more and more on my acting.

It was Lonny Chapman at the Group Rep who encouraged me to take up my hand at writing and directing again. He supported my efforts by giving me a production of an original play called Nautilus that I wrote and directed in the early 1990's and that was eventually turned into a film called "Fish Don't Blink" starring Lea Thompson and Dee Wallace Stone. After Lonny passed in 2007, I transitioned more forcefully into directing and theatre management in order to keep his theatre and his legacy alive.

What do you look for before committing to direct a project?

I look for what is going on in my life at any particular point in time and finding stories that express life lessons similar to what I am personally experiencing. I recently opened a play version of Harold and Maude which was a great counterculture cult film from 1971. I had been looking at several projects that the Group Rep was planning and honestly was not particularly interested in Harold and Maude. The show seemed too cinematic and not physically suited for the stage at the Lonny Chapman Theatre. But quite coincidentally at about the same time I read a newspaper op-ed that was particularly intriguing. It proposed that empathy was the highest form of human intelligence because it allowed an individual to identify with other people and could serve as a pathway to personal joy. That started me thinking about the character of Harold and how it was only after allowing Maude into his life and becoming interested in her and learning what made her tick that he was finally able to let go of his own obsessive self-centered fears and depressions and finally start to experience joy. In It's Only a Play, there is a similar dynamic. James is obsessed with his TV show that is in danger of being cancelled and Peter is obsessed with his play on Broadway that is facing harsh criticism. It is only when they stop focusing on their own egos and start appreciating the years of friendship and collaboration they have experienced with each other that they are able to become joyous once again and move on with their personal and creative lives.

Do you find it challenging to keep your director's hat off when you're engaged in an acting assignment?

I have no difficulty leaving my director's hat in the audience and offstage. I actually am very good at taking direction. I know the director really wants me to succeed and I'm willing to hear any advice and try anything to help me give a better performance. I also know that the comments that are helpful will stick and inform my performance and the ones that are useless or irrelevant will be forgotten and left in the wings. I had a great experience with Cate Caplan who directed me in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and also with Jeff Rack who directed Death With Benefits. As a director I've learned that the appropriate response when you get a note from a director is "Thank you." That knowledge makes working with other directors pretty easy.

Is there an acting role you would love to take on?

Yes. A couple. Willie Loman is a role I've always dreamed of playing and one I think would be a very good fit. I've probably seen 20 productions of Death of a Salesman in my lifetime; at all levels and of all qualities and every single time when I'm sitting in the audience getting ready for the start of another production, I always say to myself, "Damn, what's wrong with you Larry Eisenberg? You are about to sit through three hours of a play you've seen dozens of times. Why the hell are you here?" And then, within five minutes, I'm caught up in the drama and the three hours just fly by and it doesn't matter if it's a good production, a mediocre production or whatever, the writing and the story are just so compelling and satisfying. I also did Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape about 20 years ago and fell in love with the character and with the play. Now that I have so many more years to look back on, I'm compelled to take a second stab at Krapp, which is also a wonderful and satisfying role for an actor.

Is there a play you would love to take the directorial reins on?

No, not right now. I'm coming off a huge and intense period of one project after another. There is nothing currently on my plate as a director. It's been a very full, satisfying and rigorous year for me so right now I'm looking forward to sitting back and doing very little.

What's in the near future for Larry Eisenberg?

After It's Only a Play I'm planning to put my cat Maxine in my car and take a road trip. I'd like to spend a month or so just traveling slowly back east and revisiting some of the places I lived in over the years. Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Baltimore, New York, Pennsylvania; visit places and people that have been part of my life for so very many years.

Thank you again, Larry! I look forward to your Play.

Thank you. Hope to see you at Theatre Forty!

For tickets to the live performances of It's Only a Play through April 23, 2023; click on the button below:

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