Artist Spotlight: Yury Urnov

Directors are very interesting people to talk to.  They experience all of a play, start to finish, and no one sees their face.  They have very deep connections to their shows, and there’s no way anything on stage could happen without them.  Directors always have their own mark on the shows they work on, which is always something fascinating to think about.  After seeing A Summer Day, I knew I had to talk to director Yury Urnov.

Urnov brought this play to life in the most stunning way possible, and it’s clear with his answers to my questions that he loved it more than anything.  I can’t imagine this was an easy play to direct, but Urnov took all of that on to create something incredible.  That challenge, all the perseverance and effort…it really made the show for me.  I feel like it takes an incredibly strong person to take on a project like this.  Urnov took it and ran.

The insight we get for A Summer Day from Urnov is astounding.  He clearly knows all of this play inside and out.  He knows the script, the background, the actors, every single thing that happens on stage.  We were really so lucky to have a director like this for this show, because what we saw was a one of a kind experience.  Urnov was at the helm of it all, making this show just that.  I loved being able to talk to him about that.

What was it like directing something that was both acting and literal storytelling? 

Hard, challenging, and extremely interesting! The play is built as a puzzle, as an exercise in interpretation, it demands - first from the creators, and later from the audiences – to interpret not just every scene or character, but literally every line. I think Fosse’s central message is that language can’t help us explain ourselves, our intentions, thoughts, or feelings to others, and this is what makes us so lonely. This is a very sad idea, but I agree with it. And that same idea proves the necessity of theater as an art form: theater is so much more about who, when, and why speaks than about what we say.     

On the surface, this show was simple, but it was truly anything but.  How did you balance those things out? 

I’m very glad this is how it felt to you because this is exactly what we were going for. In theater, at least for me, simple is the hardest, and I’ve been often criticized (and rightfully so) for “overdirecting”, for doing too much. So, this time, I was consciously trying to restrain myself, the designers, and actors; we were trying to do as little as possible (at least externally, formally) and to focus on meanings, clarity, and simplicity. It was actually pretty painful. For example: I don’t think we included more than 10% of the beautiful video art that Ksusha Litvak created for the piece. But again, restraint felt necessary. 

What was your process for bringing these actors together? 

The Wilma is privileged to work with a resident company of actors, the HotHouse, most of whom have been working and training together for years. This is a rare advantage in American theater – most companies don’t work this way. I think of HotHouse as the heart of the Wilma. It has accumulated layers and layers of artistic experiences – productions, methods, and techniques that these actors were exposed to over years of work. It also makes the rehearsal process

 so much more collaborative, liberating, and creative; these actors are ready to give anything a try, to go very far with their choices, but also to change, edit, and rethink on the spot. 

Was there a moment (or moments) that were especially hard to direct? 

There is a 10-minute-long monologue right in the middle of the play. Ten minutes of only one person speaking is A LOT, and Krista Apple carries it out beautifully in the production. But oh my! It took all our hearts and patience to build it, to rebuild it, and to rebuild it again. We probably spent as much time on that one as on the rest of the play (I’m exaggerating but not by much). And I don’t know whose work was harder: Krista’s, who says all the lines in that monologue, or Campbell O’Hare’s, who is on stage throughout it but never speaks. As you see, we love to challenge ourselves with impossible tasks; this is really what the Wilma is good at. 

How do you feel about this show when you watch it? 

Watching the show after it opens is always the hardest for me. You just sit there in the dark, silently pronouncing every line and motionlessly repeating every move with every actor. I sometimes leave the theater with a hoarse voice. Seriously, I do. But sometimes, when the show is going really well, and when the audience is really supportive and understanding, I forget everything and just watch it as a spectator – when that happens, I’m the happiest guy

 on the planet. 

What comes next?

I’m excitedly looking forward to directing THE SNOW QUEEN in November– Wilma’s first all-ages show, based on my favorite fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. The ambition is to build something that truly works for both younger and grown-up folks (speaking about challenges). For this reason, I chose the adaptation written by Evgeny Shwartz – a true genius of the genre. He speaks to kids as if they were grown-ups, and to adults as if they were children – it’s a very special talent of his. Please come!

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I’m so excited we’re going to keep seeing Urnov direct shows.  He really knows what he’s doing, and will definitely make any show he directs a masterpiece.  I definitely wouldn’t say that about all directors, and I’m sure most people would agree with me on that one.  A Summer Day, and the directing that created such a stunning show, feels like it’s only the beginning for me.  I can’t wait to keep seeing the worlds that Urnov creates through his directing.  He truly has a talent.