6 AMERICAN BLUES THEATER INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR KURT JOHNS Associate Producer Elyse Dolan discusses The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey with Director Kurt Johns. What excites you about this project? I’m excited to work with American Blues for the first time. I’m grateful to Wendy for giving Absolute Brightness and me this opportunity. I’m so glad to be working with Joe Foust, who seemed fated to play “Chuck”, and the creative team we’ve put together. The play itself is a parable, a detective story, and a challenge. It summons us to bear witness to a mystery, which begins with a disappearance and proceeds as the people of a small town feel their loss of a gentle and creative non-conformist spirit. I’m excited because Chicago has never seen this play before. I hope they’ll find it as funny, tragic, and healing as I did. How is directing on a solo show different than directing a show with a larger cast? Directing a solo show is really coaching a 90 minute monologue. I mean, besides the physical blocking of the show, I, as a director, need to “orchestrate” the actor’s and the audience’s journey through the story. Sometimes that “duty” is to regulate the physical and emotional energy expenditure of the actor to attune with the audience’s capacity to listen, absorb, and react. Often in a multi-actor show, the entrance of a new character will bring new information, new energy, or new focus or direction. In a solo play one actor must do that alone, especially if that actor is embodying different characters in the play to tell their parts of the story. Most importantly, I believe it is my job to help navigate the actor’s train of thought, that is what motivates each new turn in the story, new character, new information, so that the actor is always sure of their footing and consequently the audience knows which part of the story is happening at any given moment. Why is it important to tell this story now? I think with the current state of our country, good people are getting drowned out by intolerance, prejudice and bigotry. I, being a child of the 60s thought that we’d evolved toward a kinder, gentler, smarter nation. But alas, it seems that I was living in a liberal bubble and now it so often seems that the biggest voices are the most small minded. Plays like Absolute Brightness can remind us of our humanity, our community, and the need for simple kindness and acceptance. To quote Chuck DeSantis, “I figure there’ll always be shit in the shadows, but it’s better for me to try to live in the light…” What will you be working on next? My next project is a play which I co-authored with Gail Rastorfer, my writing partner, called HELLO KITTY MUST DIE. It is a world premiere transgressive darkly comedic solo play, based on the cult indie novel by Angela S. Choi. “Fiona Yu”, the main character, is a 30 year old Chinese-American lawyer who impersonates her parents, her dates, her bosses as she relates her accidental reunion with her long lost childhood friend, “Sean”. While other young men work on their cars, cook, or play video games, “Sean” kills people. HELLO KITTY MUST DIE is a deliciously twisted tale of family, murder, and arranged dating. After invited readings here and in LA, I am making trips to New York City to pitch this play to producers there. We are having a New York industry reading sponsored by Davenport Theatrical Enterprises which is coming soon. Director Kurt Johns