A Conversation with Julie Hamberg

Since relocating from New York City six months ago, Julie Hamberg says she’s been thrilled to discover that New Orleans “really is a theater town.” Formerly the associate director of New York’s Vital Theatre, Hamberg, a Michigan native, now is managing director of Southern Rep Theatre, hired into that position by her former colleague, Artistic Director Aimée Hayes. Hamberg recently directed “Dying City,” by Christopher Shinn, at Southern Rep.

What prompted you to pull up stakes in New York and come south?

When Aimee became artistic director at Southern Rep, she called and said, “Would you like to come down and help out.” At first
I was hesitant. But the more I thought about it, I was interested. For me, it’s all about doing new work, and that’s what Southern Rep is doing. It’s just thrilling to be working with Aimee here and to take on a whole new town. This is a great opportunity.

“Dying City” is a pretty intense play. Did you approach it any differently than others you have directed?

What was different was, I usually am doing brand new works and I’m working with the playwright. That wasn’t the case this time. In one sense that‘s really freeing, but it’s different for me because I was not around for the development of the script. One of the theatrical elements of the piece is that the male actor plays two different roles, twin brothers. The female character really plays two roles as well, before and after the death of her husband. Part of the challenge was to find how the characters are different and how they change, to find what their journeys are in the piece and how to make that clear. It is great fun because Christopher Shinn is heavily into
psychoanalysis, and you can go a lot of different ways with what he’s giving you.

How do you decide which direction to go in that situation?

I’m absolutely into making collaborative theater. I know what I believe, but I am not the kind of director that would impose something on an actor and say, “This is the way it is, make it happen.” I think we have to develop it together. It takes much longer and is kind of painful,
but I believe that’s how you get the deepest, most intriguing and richest theater. Auteur directors can make interesting work on stage, but far more unexpected things can happen if everybody is collaborative.

Did you see “Dying City” before you directed it?

Yes, sadly. One of the reasons I love to do new work is I’ve never seen it before. But I happened to see “Dying City” in New York. I enjoyed it very much, however, I found it a very cool production, as in not emotional. I wanted to be moved by it and was not. I still had those images in my head and reactions from that production. But with new actors, we can start again. We come to it with our own life experiences and our own philosophies.

How do you bring those experiences to bear on a production?

In the first rehearsal, we — the actors along with the set, costume and lighting designers — sit around fairly casually and read the script. Then I ask people what their reactions were to the play. It’s really wonderful for me to hear people’s reactions about a script before they hear my reactions. I can hear what the audience might think before I put my spin on it, which is good because one of my roles is to
be a stand-in for the audience.
The next rehearsal period we call table work. The actors and I, and the stage manager, go through the text, and we discuss what we think this or that means, what’s happening in this moment. We work all the way through the text that way.
Finally, we get up on our feet and actually start blocking the scenes.

What’s your impression of New Orleans, theater-wise?

There are absolutely good actors here to work with. The best thing that I have seen is the collaborative spirit. Everybody is really interested in pulling together and assisting each other. My impression is that this is a very vibrant place and it’s going to continue to be healthy in that way — which is good. My husband is a playwright, and I think we are proving that you CAN do theater and eat. •
 

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