Integrative arts major Devony DiMattia knows what Cate Blanchett means about being “involved in all layers of the process” as a director. For her senior capstone project DiMattia had a choice between acting in a play or directing one. She chose directing, but when she lost a cast member, her mentor and associate professor of theatre arts Robin Reese supported DiMattia with an unconventional suggestion: “Set yourself up for a real big failure, do both.” Reese is a firm believer in the need to take risks in order to grow; when DiMattia asked how she would be graded, Reese says she replied, “Don’t worry about that. Just grow.”
Freshman Nik Anderson performing with Devony DiMattia in Almost, Maine.
And DiMattia did. During the fall semester she had a one-credit class, she says, that “met every 2–3 weeks to prep. We would write summaries what we were planning to do.” She had decided to direct a play, so she used that time to read plays and “figure out what would work for this campus.” Taking her audience into consideration, DiMattia moved away from the “darker, introspective, dramatic stuff” she has worked on with Reese. Instead, the play she chose, Almost, Maine, “is heartwarming. It’s not set in a realistic world, it’s magical realism.” Explaining her choice she says, “It’s important to do some [plays] that aren’t doom and gloom. It’s okay to have a piece that makes people feel good.”
With the play chosen, DiMattia turned to the job of casting, which she calls “exciting, I knew what I wanted for each of these characters.” Because the play is a series of vignettes, she knew it could “be done with as little as 4 or as many as 19 people. I wanted a big range. My goal was to get 10, I ended up with 12. I had to look around for people. Everyone ended up with two scenes.” Auditions were held at the end of the fall semester and “most were cast through those auditions.”
With spring semester, naturally, came rehearsals, but with a snag. “We lost two students before we started,” DiMattia says. That’s when she really began to “grow.” In addition to her role as director, she took on one of the now-uncast parts. “Acting is primarily what I do. The hard part was directing myself.” She had assistance from her crew, though: “The stage manager was very good; she’d write things down, she was very thoughtful.”
With such a large troupe, DiMattia had to figure out how to best manage everyone’s time. “Because of the nature of the play—they don’t interact with other scenes—rather than having the traditional rehearsal every night from 6 to 9, I had a one-hour rehearsal for each scene. That way there was no room for them to be distracted. The only down was I was in rehearsal eight hours a day. It was a struggle to do it but it allowed me more time individually.”
Brendan Jesus (junior majoring in integrative arts) and freshman Rie Ogasawara in Almost, Maine, directed by Devony DiMattia.
While Reese was not present at every rehearsal, she played a significant role for DiMattia, saying, “We texted a lot. I think an artist always needs a sounding board.” Reese’s own background—director, playwright, Equity actor, dancer—gives her a very broad base of experience to draw on when she works with her students in integrative arts: “I’m working really hard to open them to being an artist,” she says, which means “giving yourself freedom” and taking risks.
Almost, Maine had one performance on February 13 (the $100 budget DiMattia was allowed went to paying for the rights to the play—one night only). DiMattia was pleased with the outcome: “It was right before Valentine’s Day, and really cute. It went shockingly well,” she says. With a little more reflection, she adds, “It all came together at the end as it usually does.” Reese praised both the work and the director, saying it was “a really solid production. I felt she was very proud of the work and seeing the strength of her artistry.”
Does DiMattia see a future in the director’s chair? “Directing is leaving a message. I love the acting more. I don’t see myself as particularly creative. I’m good at following direction.” With those words she left the interview to head for New York and an off-Broadway show. Whatever DiMattia’s future holds, it will most assuredly be theater-centric.
—Therese Boyd, ’79