This was my first time working on a Cherylene Lee play.  “Arthur & Leila” is a two-hander about two older siblings who have come to a crucial point in their long family relationship.  A terrific play, simple but deep.

This was also my first time working with a playwright like Cherylene.  She was so smart about her play, very detailed, protective about her play, but not closed off, and a fine, careful, writer.  She made me really work, with a playwright, for the first time. 

 She surprised me with a lot of no’s to my suggestions but showed me why, which showed me the clarity of her thinking and the subtlety of her writing.  She made me consider everything I thought of more carefully before talking with her about it.  And she made me see her play the way she saw it.  This is not to say that I didn’t do this with other playwrights I worked with, but she showed me that maybe I didn’t know as much as I might think I did, and that there might be other ways than the way I thought was the right way.  But I think this was because the quality of her work was such that it could bear up under more scrutiny than a lot of the plays I worked on.  And this play didn’t have much fat on it, lean and tight, made the way she wanted it.  And that’s the way it played, I’m happy to say. 

 Working with Cherylene on this play, our first of several collaborations, showed me that I still had a ways to go as a director, but at the same time showed me I could do good work with someone as accomplished as she was.  Mahalo, Cherylene.