Jessica Hanna
JESSICA HANNA is a Los Angeles based Director & Producer, a member of The Kilroys, and an activist artists group working for gender parity in the American Theatre. She is Producing Artistic Director of Outside In Theatre, a new non-profit theatre company working at the intersection of Theatre and Digital, based in Highland Park, CA. She began training with The SITI Co. in 2002 and performed with the company in 2010 & 2013 at The Getty Villa. As of 2020, she is currently the Chair of The SITI Co.’s Board. She was an Artist in Residence at Thymele Arts in 2019. Jessica Co-Founded Bootleg Theater, serving as Producing & Managing Director for 12 years. During her tenure at Bootleg she oversaw all theatrical productions and worked with hundreds of Los Angeles artists, including new solo performances by Roger Guenveur Smith including his tour de force, RODNEY KING, a version of which can be seen on Netflix directed by Spike Lee. She helped create and execute the Hope On Stage playwriting prize in collaboration with Cornell and Notre Dame Universities, which included a cash prize for the winning play as well as two fully funded productions at The Hangar Theatre in Ithaca, NY and at Bootleg Theater. She created the Solo Queens Festival that has featured 15 women solo performers in 2 years. Her focus has been on new work development.
LOTTIE PLACHETT TOOK A HATCHET directed by Jessica Hanna & written by Justin Elizabeth Sayre plays at the LGBT Center in Los Angeles through Oct 30
As a director, what's your first step in the rehearsal process? How do you work with a new text or piece? Is it different every time, or do you follow a certain approach?
If it's a new play, the first step is to sit down with the playwright and listen to what they envisioned when they wrote it, why they wrote it, where it came from inside them. Then the next steps would be gathering the designers (if I'm allowed to choose, that's not always the case) who I think will vibe with the play and the images that the conversations with the playwright have put in my head. Then casting. All of these artists will be collaborating, so in addition to extraordinary talent, I'm also looking for artists with unique perspectives who are strong in their articulation of their ideas and excited to play with others. We all have to be flexible in our visions to come up with something that will be far greater than any one person's ideas. When we finally get to the room for rehearsal, I like to start with room agreements that apply to the whole team. Ideally, designers are coming into the rehearsal room early on to watch and also give their thoughts on where or how the story is being told. In terms of plans for rehearsals, I always try to make one but am also ready to scrap it because maybe there's more questions in a specific scene or the actor needs more time before getting into a scene or whatever. I want to be responsive to what's needed in the room. Yet we also have a limited amount of time. I often ask Stage Managers to be adamant about time in the room and how much we have of it, because I have a tendency to lose track of it. The other thing I try to have in all my rehearsal processes, no matter how short, is some physical ensemble work time. Giving actors a chance to find their characters in their body outside of the scene work. I have a background in Spolin improv and Viewpoints work, both of which are very keen on physical awareness. Giving the actor space to discover through their body is essential to making a play. It's easy to get super focused on the script when building a new play, so I try to give some time to make sure we're not just engaging our brains.
Did you always know you wanted to pursue theater and directing? What were you like as a child and teenager? Did you have any muses, dreams or obsessions that helped shape you as a creative?
I always wanted to pursue theater, directing came later in my artistic life. I went on stage with my Mom in a Gilbert & Sullivan musical when I was 4 and then by myself in Show Boat when I was 7 at the local summer stock, The Hangar Theatre, in my hometown: Ithaca, NY, and I was hooked from then on. I think I was a pretty gregarious kid, did a lot of other activities: played the flute for 5 years, was on the swim team all through high school. But it was always the theatre I was doing that really got me excited. I did musicals with local community theaters and worked offstage & on at the Hangar every summer. I had a voice & acting teacher who introduced me to a lot of shows. I watched Bob Moss work at the Hangar, both as a director and also as the Artistic Director - how he welcomed audiences and built seasons with interesting plays & actors fresh from New York City - would turn out to be very formative once I co-founded Bootleg Theater and spent 12 years programming and welcoming audiences & artists. I think about what I learned at the Hangar often. Especially now that I am co-founding another space & company from scratch: Outside In Theatre.
There are tons of artists that I'm inspired by. I love to go see theatre almost as much as I love to make it. One of the privileges of getting older is getting to watch artists' work evolve over their lives. Early in her career Lisa Peterson was directing at The Hangar way back when I was there, so I've been able to watch her work for almost my whole life, and she makes extraordinary plays. Another artist I've enjoyed watching and had the pleasure of working with is Roger Guenveur Smith. Having first seen Roger in movies - Do The Right Thing came out while I was in High School and made a deep impression - so I was thrilled to get to produce his new theatrical solo work at Bootleg Theatre. Watching him create was a huge learning experience. He is an incredible researcher, who researches extensively on whatever subject or theme he is working on. Then he pulls out threads from that pile of researched knowledge and weaves them together to make a picture of humanity. One more inspiration is Emma Rice, Founder and Artistic Director of Wise Children in the UK. I've seen two of her plays so far and every time I am blown away by the many layers of action/storytelling happening at once. Her shows feel to me to be on the brink of chaos, there is so much happening at once on stage, but somehow she keeps it all functioning and supporting the overall story. Amazing and inspiring.
How did you first discover Lottie Plachett Took A Hatchet, and what was the development process like? How did you bring Lottie to life? Did anything unexpected happen in rehearsal?
I got to meet Justin Elizabeth Sayre (JES) in 2014 when they came out to Los Angeles to write for TV. We hit it off as friends and I produced some nights of their cabaret/variety show, The Meeting: Of The International Order of Sodomites. Their genius was immediately apparent. First as a performer - they would sing songs, do sketches and be an all around charming host with insightful and delightfully pointed thoughts about the world and where we were headed. Then I got to read some of JES' plays - each one different, all outstanding, covering all kinds of genres and styles. Their writing can be lyrical & poetic and also wonderfully crude or campy - their range is extraordinary. When they found a home for their camp episodic play, Ravenswood Manor, at Celebration Theatre in 2019, they asked me and Tom DeTrinis to co-direct it and the three of us had so much fun working on that show together that we're always looking for more. Tom DeTrinis is a brilliant Actor, Director & Producer and getting to work and know him over the last 4 years has been an absolute delight. Tom organized some online readings of JES' work during the lockdown and Lottie Plachett was one of them. Tom has produced & directed shows that have gone to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, and I had produced a show over there, so as things were still not totally certain for live performance in the US, we all decided that Lottie would be a great show to take to the Festival. So we put together a fantastic cast and did a weekend in April of 2022 at the Caverna Club in the basement of Casita del Campo in Silverlake - RIP since the Club got shut down in the fall of 2022. None of us were sure how the show would be received - were audiences (who were just being allowed back inside theatres in LA) ready to laugh at a queer retelling of the Lizzie Borden ax murder story. The answer was a resounding YES!! It really was amazing to listen to the laughter of the audience in that first week of shows. It was clear that folks could really use a laugh and the more taboo and ridiculous the comedy the better. JES kept crafting the script - when they say they are making a joke pass, they are not kidding, it always gets funnier which seems impossible. We took the show to the Assembly Roxy Upstairs venue at Edinburgh Fringe and it was a hit! We got some great reviews - like calling it a "comedy masterclass" - and had a great month over there.
I remember discovering the Lizzie Borden story (the basis for the Lottie Plachett character) about a woman accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother in New England in the 1800s. There are so many tropes, stereotypes, and possible manipulation when it comes to stories like this. Why do you think we are drawn to unusual and ambiguous stories of women and extreme violence?
Well, the Lizzie Borden story is a big obsession for America because it was one of the first murder trials that everyone across the nation paid attention to. Which was not an easy feat in the 1880s. Folks were waiting for the news of the trial every day via newspapers and word of mouth. I think the fact that Lizzie and her family were wealthy and folks were taken with the idea that even seemingly “high born” families could have such a bloody crime happen to them. As to why it is intriguing as a feminist story has to do with Lizzie being raised to be obedient and pious and that she was sheltered for most of her life without any say in the decision making about her life. In our play we make a point of bringing up the ridiculous notions about women and immigrants that were common in the 1880s…and are unfortunately pretty much the same now. There really was a theory based on the actual medical science of the time that unmarried childfree women could have a “wandering womb” because they hadn’t had children and that wandering womb would make them do crazy irrational things, like murder your parents. Seriously, this was what real doctors thought. Nowadays at least most medical doctors don’t think that way.
With an unlimited budget, what would be your dream project as a director? What's a play, adaptation or piece that you'd really love to direct one day?
Since I tend to make new plays, I would say I would like an unlimited budget to workshop and produce a first production, then move it to a larger house for a longer run and then set it off on tour all over the world!
I’m currently working on a devised piece that looks at Clytemnestra & Helen of Troy, who were sisters raised in Sparta before they married and got caught up in the epic tragedy we know them for. Developing this piece is a dream and it will have its first showings for the public at the Getty Villa in November 2024.
Are there any other upcoming shows, events or productions you're looking forward to seeing soon? Anything we should check out?
The Latino Theatre Co. is co-producing a number of shows at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in DTLA and I recommend all of them. LTC is a great supporter & creator of new work and they manage the LATC beautifully. The whole season that Lottie Plachett Took A Hatchet is part of at the Los Angeles LGBT Center is fantastic, with Coeurage Ensemble up next with a new play, Frozen Fluid, and then a co-production with Playwrights Arena on another new play, Three. Keep an eye on what is happening at Rogue Machine on Melrose and Theatre of NOTE on Cahuenga in Hollywood or IAMA Theatre at Atwater Village Theatre, all of them do consistently good & interesting plays. Go see Los Angeles Theatre wherever, we need participation and support!!