INTERVIEW: Director Jack Serio stages love story set amidst WWII
Photo: This Beautiful Future stars Justin Mark and Francesca Carpanini. Photo courtesy of Emilio Madrid / Provided by Everyman Agency with permission.
The time period is World War II. The two people on stage find themselves on opposite ends of the conflict: Elodie is a French 17-year-old in hiding, and Otto is a 15-year-old German soldier. In another context, they might have been friends or acquaintances, but in this bloody war, they are enemies. Amidst the turmoil of the raging war, the teenagers take refuge in a secluded place and start to learn about each other, falling in love during their one night of seclusion from the outside world.
This story is the dramatic narrative behind This Beautiful Future, a play by Rita Kalnejais and directed by Jack Serio. The show, which first premiered five years ago in London, runs through Jan. 30 at Theaterlab in Manhattan, with COVID-19 protocols in place. The four-person cast consists of Austin Pendleton, Francesca Carpanini, Justin Mark and Angelina Fiordellisi.
Serio recently exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox about the production, which serves as the play’s U.S. premiere. As a director, he is known for his work on The Dark Outside at Theater for the New City and happy & grateful at Ars Nova. He was the founding artistic director of The Boston Teen Acting Troupe in the city where he grew up. He is currently gearing up to be the assistant director of the forthcoming Broadway production of Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning Between Riverside and Crazy. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What attracted you to working on this project? What do you like about the play?
I was so immediately enamored with Rita’s play when I first read it. I couldn’t put it down. I think I most admire its unwillingness to be boxed in. It’s genre-defying. It’s a staggering, explosive love story and also a thorny study of morality and mortality. Love and violence sit side by side with each other. Joy and heartbreak. It refuses to judge its characters, which feels increasingly like a rare thing in contemporary art production. The play doesn’t tell you how to feel, rather it dares an audience to sit with messy, human contradictions, and I think we need more of that. I think it is in that moral ambiguity that we are most able to recognize ourselves.
How has it been working with Francesca and Justin?
Working with Francesca and Justin has been such an incredible joy. I really feel as though we’ve made this play together, as equals. We started rehearsing and meeting about the script almost a year ago over Zoom in the throes of the pandemic, long before we ever knew if we would ever realize it in a production. That long gestation period has resulted in performances that feel so authentic and lived in and two actors that rightfully feel like that have a sense of ownership of their roles. I grin watching them every night.
Although it’s set in the past, what do you think the play says about the current moment?
So much. The play takes its themes of political extremism very seriously. It asks us to reckon the humanity of people who believe in morally reprehensible things, an often uncomfortable act. However, it is my fervent belief that that kind of reckoning is an imperative part of progress. The pandemic seems to have only amplified our polarization, left us both more scared and more certain in our beliefs. This Beautiful Future tries to disarm some of that certainty and encourages us to look for love and hope amidst the rubble.
How has the uptick in COVID cases impacted the show?
The recent Omicron surge has made this such a tremendously difficult rehearsal process, but it has also been incredibly galvanizing. While the surge has made us have to adjust to regular testing, Zoom rehearsals, last-minute casting changes, we’ve been fortunate to have kept everyone safe and healthy. Moreover, we are tremendously honored to be the first theater in NYC to require booster shots for all audience members. In addition to requiring N95 or KN95 masks and working in a space with newly updated air filtration, we are also limiting capacity. At its core, the play is about wonder and joy existing during times of violence and loss. It feels more important than ever to be presenting this play and presenting it with industry leading safety measures.
What do you hope is the ultimate takeaway for the audience members as they leave the theater?
I hope audiences leave Theaterlab feeling alive, feeling renewed and feeling hopeful. In the wake of tremendous isolation and loss, I hope they feel more connected. I have so missed being [in] a room full of people sharing in a communal experience. So much theater takes for granted the significance of an audience — it’s as if it could be happening with or without them. I hope our audience feels tended to and centrally apart of the story we are telling from the very beginning. I hope they fall in love. I hope they meet someone new. I hope they call their ex. I hope they smile at someone on the train. I hope they walk away with the belief that things can still [be] good. Even if just for one night, miracles can still exist.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
This Beautiful Future, directed by Jack Serio, plays through Jan. 30 at Theaterlab in Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
