Hamilton Turner Confesses

Posted by Nicholas Beckman in Performing Arts

Confessional, Small Craft Warnings

Directed by Hamilton Turner

When: Friday, April 11: 7 p.m. 

Saturday April 12: 7 p.m.

Sunday April 13: 2 p.m.

Where: Weckesser Studio Theater 

First time Director Hamilton Turner shares notes with his cast & crew of Tennessee Williams one act play “Confessional” Photo by Luke Montavon

Hamilton Turner, the director of the Performing Arts Department’s new student-run show: Confessional, Small Craft Warnings, discusses the upcoming play.

Jackalope Magazine: Why this play?

Hamilton Turner: What I think he (Tennessee Williams) meant in writing this show, something that a lot of people have lost is the ability to kind of be surprised by what they see and find the beauty in the world and you can’t find the beauty in the world without finding the beauty within yourself. There’s a lot of good., um moral values that I think could be taught through this but  it’s so crass and it can be construed as offensive(chuckles) but it has to be that way to get the message across.

JM: Without spoiling anything, what happens in this play?

HT: OK, so before the curtain happens; before the lights come up one character gives another character a hand job. And the character that received the hand job is the main character’s partner. I guess they were together, I don’t know if they’re technically calling themselves a relationship or whatever. Whatever they want to call it, it was a relationship. So before it even happens their relationship is kind of in discord. It’s basically their relationship falling apart and her telling every single character in the play that they’re wrong in some way and why they’re wrong and to learn from what they’ve been doing. It’s all regulars in a bar and it’s kind of like a more depressing version of  “Cheers.”

JM:What are some themes?

HT: That you need to hold on to something beautiful that you’ve experienced and if you don’t have that beautiful moment in your life then there’s really no reason to live. That’s definitely one. Another one is to be surprised by what you see – you can always be surprised by something and if you can’t be surprised by something then there’s no wonder or mysticism in life and you have to hold onto that unless you just want to go day by day doing the same old shit for no reason. Those are the two main ones.

JM: How’s the cast coming together?

HT: They’re melding. They’re building relationships. It’s weird… they have to build a relationship to fall apart in the play (laughs). You can tell from day one that they’re getting more comfortable around each other, trying new things, being lively. They’re coming together. I guess it’s a nice environment to be working in. I think I picked a great group of people. They’re fun to be around, it’s a great environment.

JM: How’s your first-time directing experience been?

HT: It’s been really interesting. I get into the audition room and the first person that I saw I had this thought like ‘why am I here,’ ‘why is it me doing this?’ ‘Do I really have to have a say in everything? ‘And by the end of that day I was like, ‘Ok I’m getting the hang of this.’ So from the first rehearsal it was kind of shaky because I didn’t know what to do, how to do it, or how to direct people at all.

From that point to now it’s been a growth process on all of our parts.

It’s weird because I’m trying to get them to understand what I want and for them to do it well but it’s been a growth process on I think all of our part because I’m learning how to do that and they’re learning how to kind of work in an environment where the director has all the answers because I don’t think a director should every time, necessarily. I think it should be a growth process and it can change from day to day- that’s just the nature of the work and if as the director you can say I’m not sure what we need here but lets try different things until something works, because what’s going on now isn’t working.

JM: What do you want people to walk away with after viewing this play?

HT: I want people to walk away with a  re-evaluation of what they have in their life and to find whats beautiful and hold onto it. Because, this is a line in the show, that if you don’t have one beautiful thing in your lifetime then it’s all a death time. (Sighs) I think that’s really important even if it’s something as simple as a sunset in Santa Fe, that’s something to hold onto because they’re beautiful every single day.