Lenore DeKoven

Director, Educator, Author
New York, New York USA

What play or production changed your life?
The Eternal Road, a monumental historical morality play, written by Franz Werfel, directed by the famous Austrian director, Max Reinhardt, with music by Kurt Weill.

As a very small child I often accompanied my mother when she went to see a play my father (Roger DeKoven) was appearing in or went to meet him backstage after the matinee to go to dinner. This epic production was the very first one I remember visiting and it was particularly significant because one of the members of a huge and impressive cast of men and women was a small, nice looking boy of about eight or nine. The play was a Biblical spectacle with an impressive set of risers and shifting drops, together with odd, colorful costumes and haunting music. The storyline held little interest for me, but what did impress me was the boy. How clever he seemed. How much fun he seemed to be having!

Backstage, while waiting for my father to change, I was allowed to play on the steps of the risers on stage and I actually remember trying to duplicate the moves of the boy who in my eyes was so lucky to be able to do this every night and have such a good time. The stage seemed huge to my small body and surely a better playground than any I had ever visited. The combination of light, color and sound had created a magical world that I wanted to make my home. So this is where Daddy went when he wasn’t home with us. I was told that the boy’s father was also an actor in the play and I made a secret promise to myself that I was going to figure out a way to go to the magical world every night with my father. Dad brought me to the boy’s dressing room so I could meet him. It was awkward. I was very shy and didn’t know what to say, but I found out that his name was Sidney Lumet.

Lenore DeKoven has produced and directed on both coasts in theatre, film and TV and has been on the film and theatre faculties of UCLA, NYU and Columbia University. She has had two books published: Changing Direction: A Practical Approach to Directing Actors in Film and Theatre, and Twilight Man. Artistic Director: Our Workshop East.

Caridad Svich

Playwright, Translator, Songwriter, Editor
South Gate, California USA

Where do you look for inspiration?
Politics, poetry, music, film, literature and human experience

What’s your favorite book / movie / line from a play / pop culture guilty pleasure / cocktail?
Too many favorites but among them in random order are the films – Terence Malick’s Days of Heaven, Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine, Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, Allison Anders’ Gas Food Lodging, Jane Campion’s Bright Star, and Sidney Lumet’s Dog Day Afternoon.

What play or production changed your life?
Bruce Springsteen in concert with the E Street Band.

Is there anything you still dream of doing?
Recording a CD of music, writing a novel, making a film, setting up a writers institute

I feel most like myself when I ….
am walking through a park in the beauty of spring

What is your best escape?
London.

What’s the one thing nobody knows about you?
I love Hello Kitty.

Caridad Svich is alumna playwright of New Dramatists, founder of NoPassport theatre alliance and press, Drama Editor of Asymptote literary journal, associate editor of Contemporary Theatre Review (Routledge/UK) and contributing editor of TheatreForum. She is recipient of the 2011 ATCA Primus Prize, and the 2009 Lee Reynolds Award from LPTW. Visit her at http//www.caridadsvich.com