THE INTERVAL: This past year, director Tyne Rafaeli, who was featured in The Interval’s Women to Watch in 2016, has had a slightly unusual theme in her work: stories surrounding sexual assault. While some discussions surrounding sexual assault have become rather ubiquitous in American culture—from debates about rape culture and trigger warnings to episodes of Game of Thrones and think-pieces on Game of Thrones—complex conversations about the topic have been slow to appear on American stages. Earlier this year, Tyne directed the premiere of Anna Ziegler’s Actually at the Geffen Playhouse, which tackles a rape accusation on a college campus. Currently, she’s directing The Playwright’s Realm production of Michael Yates Crowley’s The Rape of The Sabine Women, By Grace B. Matthias, which deals with a community’s response to the rape of a high school girl. We recently sat down with Tyne to discuss how she went about directing two very different plays that deal with sexual assault.
2 comments:
I really loved Tyne Rafaeli's responses to these interview questions. While the task of directing multiple shows dealing with sexual assault was difficult, she never let her past experience with one show direct how she treated the next show. She responded so thoughtfully to each question and I really appreciated the research that went into each project she was apart of.
I think work like this is of the utmost importance to our field. If we are not asking difficult questions, then what is the point of what we do? And rape is one of the most difficult topics you can choose to address. If it is not done right, it can be catastrophic for the audience, the cast, the public, and theatre in general. Shows like these have a ripple effect that touches almost every bit of theatre. The idea of approaching this as a comedy was difficult for me to accept, because I feel like humor and rape should never be associated with one another, but from the sound of this interview, it seems like it was done well.
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