CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, November 06, 2013

Lisa Kron Juggles Two Shows at Public Theater

NYTimes.com: It was dinner break at the Public Theater for the cast and crew of the new musical “Fun Home.” They had spent the late afternoon fine-tuning small bits — some new underscoring here, a less-than-crystal-clear snippet of French there. And with just three hours before that night’s preview performance, the time had come to relax.

2 comments:

beccathestoll said...

From this article and my own experiences juggling multiple projects at once within this building, I have a lot of respect for Lisa Kron's ability to do double-duty like this, and I find her resolve and work ethic very impressive. I imagine it must be especially hard to go between acting and writing because both processes demand so much of a person emotionally. I stage managed a play by Ms. Kron a few years ago, and I can imagine how much energy and passion she must have to put into her writing, because the words are so full of meaning. I commend her ability to do that and also do that as an actress. I'd be curious to know if she finds it similarly challenging to work on one show where she is writing and acting, or if it is a completely different experience.

Jess Bergson said...

I am extremely impressed by Ms. Kron's ability to juggle two shows at the Public in such vastly different ways. Like Becca said, writing a show and acting in a show require such different skill sets. While Ms. Kron expresses how this challenge has been exhilarating for her, it must also be exhausting beyond belief. When Ms. Kron looks back on this experience in a few years, I wonder if she will think that she spread herself too thin. From what the folks at the Public have said about her work ethic, it seems that she is handling her "juggling act" extremely well. I also was intrigued by the way the Public's management had to carefully schedule Ms. Kron's time. It is interesting how they scheduled her time by prioritizing hour by hour. The times when it is crucial for a playwright to be in the room differ from the times when it is crucial for the actors to be in the room. With that said, I am sure both productions had to make compromises in this situation.