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Creating Franklin
Encore exclusive interview with director of new play
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“It has been an ensemble collaborative effort,” director Larry Singer explained only minutes after ending Franklin’s final dress rehearsal. Singer, who started his career as, ironically enough, a puppeteer, currently teaches MFA students at Columbia University as well in his own studio and while he “enjoys the steady diet of teaching,” Singer found himself completely at home in the director’s chair, “It’s fun to direct something every now and then.” More than directing however, Singer holds affection for the production of Franklin in particular. “I have never enjoyed myself so much in a production, probably because I knew everyone. It has been rewarding working with them. In fact, I think they’ve spoiled me a little bit. I’m sure I won’t enjoy myself as much next time. Nobody had anything to prove to anybody. We all went into this with confidence in each other, so it has been a delight.”
Perhaps some of this delight may also have to do with the organic classroom birthing of the play itself. Originally brought into the Larry Singer Studios by playwright Josh Billig, Franklin went from being a classroom exercise that was work shopped by fellow actors, into a full-length script in which Billig adapted many of his characters to his real life classmates. In fact Singer jokes, “There’s little parts that I can tell he is quoting something I said to him at one point, and it makes me grin, it’s fantastic.”
The play evolving and transforming within the classroom setting, as well as Singer’s year long, and in some instances decade long, friendships with many of the cast members is what makes Franklin different from other stage productions. The familial atmosphere provided for an already established rhythm and solid connections/relationships, allowing for the best possible performance from each member of the Franklin family that is possible, “We speak the same language and that made things so much simpler.”
The original play, which will run from May 20 until June 5 at the Arclight Theatre, follows the tale of Franklin, a man who has recently been fired and finds himself returning home, forced to face issues that his now extinct career had previously allowed him to avoid. Whether consciously or not, playwright Josh Billig couldn’t have picked a more appropriate time to dramatize a story that is all too familiar to most. However, aside from the idea of job stability and career reflection and rebirth, Singer describes the play as being, “about the fear of being oneself. The two main characters, Franklin and his sister, have experienced the trauma of losing their parent and the play begins with neither of them dealing with it very well. Franklin describes that he “puts a layer of ice in his soul so he doesn’t have to feel anything.”
Singer’s ultimate message that he hopes to deliver with Franklin is humanity. “The world would be much better off if people allowed themselves to experience pain and be as human as they are and I’m hoping that comes through in the performances.”
For more information, please visit www.franklintheplay.com.