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A Walk Through Clybourne Park
An Interview With Pam Mackinnon
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Clybourne Park, Bruce Norris’ tale of suburbia, had its world premiere at Playwrights Horizons this past weekend. Spanning 40 years, it tells the story of a neighborhood threatened by change and the people who call it their home. This small masterpiece raises many questions: How far would you go to preserve your home? What is the meaning of gentrification? Do the scars of past ideals really run that deep? I knew I needed to ask the director, Pam MacKinnon, her take on the production.
What was your director’s concept?
Clybourne Park is a new play, and I direct a lot of new plays, so it’s not about my concept. It’s very much about elucidating the writer’s intent and what the writer wants to say. It’s very much about bringing Bruce (Norris’) play to light.
What is your favorite scene in the play? Is there any scene you feel that is particularly powerful?
That’s a little tricky because both acts are in living time. We’ve had six different performances and six different audiences, and we continue to rehearse in the afternoon. What’s great about this play and all of Bruce’s plays is that it’s one thing to be in the rehearsal hall, but with the audience you realize that Bruce writes these amazing plays where the audience really is another character. The tones of some of the scenes with laughter or where you can just feel the tension in the house are really dependant on being in front of the audience. I find the rolling laughter and shock in the joke section in Act II really delightful. You can’t be a part of that in a rehearsal hall. It’s fun.
What was your biggest challenge in directing two completely different time periods in Act I and Act II?
It’s a great company of actors, but the language is very different and the staging demands are very different, which is kind of a delight. In Act I you have people entering and reforming their allegiances and it…it’s structured as a tragedy. In Act II it’s a much more fragmented, scattered play world. You can at times think that you’re almost voyeuristically watching an aimless conversation. It’s tricky to make sure that that “seemingly effortless” or “aimless conversation” before they turn a corner to talk about something substantial has a forward momentum. That’s been really interesting to continue to tweak. Also, Act I does take place in the late ’50s and is structured as a tragedy, but it unfolds very slowly. For the first third of the act you get the feeling that things are okay. You don’t really know what’s around the corner.
Were there any facets of the 1950’s or today that inspired you? Did you use anything as an archetype?
Bruce doesn’t set the play anywhere, but a stepping-off point for him was Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun. She set that play in a fictitious neighborhood in Chicago. For our set, we used very specific research, such as a two-story bungalow just north of the Chicago Loop. We also went back to Raisin in the Sun to get a flavor of Lorraine Hansberry’s tone. That was an initial thing that I did. The only crossover character in this play is the sole white character in Hansberry’s play, Karl Lindner. That was Bruce’s stepping-off point. It is based on Raisin, but Raisin itself is fiction, so Bruce has already taken further liberties. He had to start with something real in order to make it universal.
Are there any more works in the pipeline for you after Clybourne Park?
I’m directing Othello at Shakespeare Santa Cruz. I’m also directing (Edward) Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? that will start at Steppenwolf and then hop to Arena Stage.
Clybourne Park runs through March 7, 2010. For tickets and more information, visit www.playwrightshorizons.org or call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200.