Tina Landau is an award-winning writer, director, teacher and Steppenwolf ensemble member. Currently she directed Tracy Lett's newest play, since his Pulitzer and Tony Award wins with August: Osage County. It's called Superior Donuts and you don't want to miss it.
Tina Landau: I wasn't supposed to originally direct. Amy Morton was.
Amy Matheny: Amy is still on Broadway, being a mega-star in August: Osage Country, and she was mentioned more than anyone at the Tony Awards.
TL: I know. Wasn't that great?
AM: If [ you ] had a drinking game where you drank every time 'Amy Morton' was said, you'd be drunk by the end.
TL: I just walk around going 'Amy Morton Amy Morton Amy Morton.' I came on to this play very late. I got a call from [ Steppenwolf Artistic Director ] Martha Lavey, and she said we're in a bit of a bind. We have this play and Amy's just decided to stay in New York. I had other commitments. I said if I like the play, I want to do it because it's family here. Steppenwolf doesn't do this often where they say, 'We need to ask you to do something for the theater,' and I love this place so much, I would do anything for this place and these people. So I read the play and, fortunately, I really liked it. But it's been a whirlwind. I had no preparation time. Tracy was going through the Pulitzer, the Tonys, and we looked at each other on the first day of rehearsal and said, 'Let's just wing it. Let's just see what happens.' And I have to say, that feeling has never quite gone away. You would think, maybe now with what he's been through, we would feel a lot of pressure, ( but ) it's really the opposite. We're kind of just all here saying, we're going to do the best we can do with this play that is new, has never been seen for an audience before, we did not do a substantial amount of work shopping. On the first night, an audience came, they laughed and leapt to their feet. They followed the story, and I just said a gigantic 'phew', mostly because I was just relieved that I hadn't ruined it.
AM: Tell me the story of Superior Donuts.
TL: It takes place in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. And you know, streets like Wilson, Sheridan [ and ] Broadway ... [ are ] the main streets referenced in the play. It takes place in the doughnut shop owned by a Polish-American, Arthur, who we discover is sort of holed up in his own existence and doesn't really interact with the world in any proactive way. And into his shop one day comes this kid, Franco, who is played by John Hill. By the way, Arthur is played by Michael McKeon. He's really great.
AM: Audiences will remember him from Laverne and Shirley and many films ( Best in Show, Spinal Tap ) .
TL: I had never watched Laverne and Shirley. I had a very conflicted relationship with television. I went through most of my life not watching it, and I'm an addict now.
Anyway, this kid comes into the shop, and wants to turn it and Arthur's life around. It's the story really of their relationship, and Arthur's transformation.
AM: Interesting that Tracy Letts with August and Bug … he likes these insular characters. What do you find compelling about Tracy's writing?
TL: It's not theatrical. Tracy said he had hoped we would work together. He had always assumed it would be as an actor, with me directing. He said he never thought I would want to direct one of his plays. I said I never though you would ask me to direct one of your plays. And I really thought, 'Can I direct a play that takes place in a completely naturalistic room? Do I know how to have actors pick up props?' I do love Tracy's writing. I have grown to be not only an admirer of his, but I hope a real friend. I'm so grateful for this opportunity, because I had an impression of Tracy. I thought he was kind of snarky, dark and a little twisted. Then I saw August, and I thought he actually has a big heart. What I find compelling about Tracy's writing is, not only is it complex, but he has this uncanny ability to tap into audience sensibility. He's like a great populist master. It's really fun to be a part of writing that leaps off the page and into a theater in this kind of chemical fashion.
AM: It's very rare that I get to talk to lesbians ... gay women in theater.
TL: OK. ... I was like, what's the end of that sentence, because it can't be true.
AM: No, I talk to lesbians all the time, but lesbians in theater. I met my girlfriend Kelli in this theater [ Steppenwolf ] . She e-mailed a friend of hers in Chicago, and said, 'You know, I met somebody while I was here in town at Steppenwolf and I guess she's a big lesbian about town, and I'm staying for a while.' He e-mailed her back and said,' Who did you meet? Tina Landau? Amy Matheny?' I was … so proud that I was one of the only two people he mentioned!
TL: [ Laughs. ] Absolutely. It's probably just because it was Steppenwolf.
AM: Has being queer affected you as a writer [ or ] as a director? Do you feel a part of a gay theatrical aesthetic?
TL: Well, I've just recently in the last several years been aware of what a male gay mafia there is in New York theater, which for some reason I was oblivious to.
AM: Do they like you?
TL: They like me, but … professionally, it's a closed system. So it doesn't matter that I'm a lesbian because I'm not a gay man. So that excludes a lot of us. The thing that's really interesting is that I have found my way into so many plays and experiences by my general experience of being an 'outsider.' I look through most of drama, and I find something I can tap into easily that is about some sort of experience of isolation or segregation. I've been very aware of [ that ] as a woman, as a lesbian, and as a Jew. It definitely feeds my work, my experience of being in the world has greatly informed how I read and express things in the theater completely. Completely.
AM: All you have to bring to it is who you are.
TL: I just feel so blessed to have grown up in the time I did. I think back to when I was in college, and the difference between then and now. How I would only say 'it' then. I would say, [ to ] someone I had a crush on, do you want to talk about 'it?' I remember when I didn't have the words. How grateful I am to have this kind of interview without blinking an eye. For myself.
AM: You have a new musical called Beauty that you're working on. What's it about?
TL: It's a riff on Sleeping Beauty. … I wrote a play version that was done at La Jolla Playhouse in like 2002. I'm currently working with [ Grey Gardens lyricist ] Michael Korie, and I'm giving you a big scoop here, but Regina Spektor is writing the music. I love working with her. I'm a big fan of her music, so I'm very excited.
AM: She's on tour with True Colors and Ms. Cyndi Lauper.
TL: Exactly. I just flew in last Monday to meet with her, and she'd just gotten back from Philly.
AM: What is it about musicals? You've done many [ including ] a Broadway revival of Bells Are Ringing and Ballad of Little Joe here. You don't strike me as a musical person.
TL: I grew up in New York going to Broadway shows. My parents, my family was into film, but I went to see Broadway shows since I was a little kid. I play piano.
AM: What was your first musical you saw?
TL: I went from when I was so young, that I can't recall.
AM: I saw 42nd Street on Broadway. I was 10 maybe, and I'd never seen anything so magnificent in my life. [ There were ] all these tap-dancing people and the story of the chorus girl who becomes the star.
TL: Exactly, so that's what hooked you. I saw Hair when it first opened. I remember Jesus Christ Superstar, Dreamgirls and A Chorus Line.
AM: My parents were horrified when they took me to see A Chorus Line, because I wouldn't stop singing Dance Ten Looks Three ( Tits and Ass ) and I was like 11.
TL: When I was at Yale undergrad, I always felt like this artistic schizophrenia, where I was doing this avant-garde, postmodern theater—very serious—and then directing The Music Man and Guys and Dolls. I remember saying I was in some kind of Broadway closet and I wouldn't admit it for a long time. I feel like most of my adult life has been some synthesis of those two great loves of mine. I said to Tracy just the other day with Superior Donuts; I'm really approaching it musically. I feel rhythm and tempo and codas. It's just how I experience time.
AM: For me it's all about rhythm with language, that's why I liked Shakespeare, which you'll also be doing [ at Steppenwolf with ] The Tempest.
TL: Very, very excited and very scared.
AM: With Mr. Frank Galati. That's going to be genius.
TL: No. It's going to be scary.
AM: Who are some artists that you would love to work with that you haven't? Writers?
TL: Jeanette Winterson. Neil Gaiman. He wrote the Sandman series of graphic novels.
AM: Composers or musicians?
TL: Well, that list goes on endlessly. John Zorn. He's a New York composer who is very wild and experimental and brilliant. I'd actually like to work with Patricia Barber.
AM: We'll hang out at the Green Mill when you come back.
TL: I've actually never been there. You know what? I really want to do that. ... She's here, she's in the city. I have this theater. I love music. It seems like someone I should collaborate with.
AM: Actors?
TL: Amy Morton Amy Morton Amy Morton!
AM: You worked with Amy, haven't you?
TL: A lot.
AM: I first met you when you and Amy Morton came to see Xena Live. [ Laughs ] What's funny is there had been a mention about our show ( in some paper ) that said, Xena Live! starring Elizabeth Laidlaw, Alexandra Billings and Amy Morton. We laughed so hard.
TL: That's so funny. You could be compared to worse. That was one of the best shows I've ever seen. I still think about it. Really, there is a slew of actors in this ensemble that I want to work with. Until I've worked with everyone here at Steppenwolf, I won't be complete.
AM: So you don't dream about the Oscar-winning actor?
TL: No, I really don't. [ There's ] nothing like homegrown Chicago—for a girl from New York.
For the full interview, listen to show 222 at www.WindyCityQueercast.com . Superior Donuts is playing now through Aug. 24 at the Steppenwolf Theater. Visit www.Steppenwolf.org .
