Interview by: Leah Geisler, Co-Editor-in-Chief
This is the first installment of our Spring Lab Interview Series. We will be interviewing the directors of all four labs this spring quarter to celebrate their work and learn about their artistic processes. Stay tuned for more coming soon!
Genevieve Swanson (she/her) is a BFA4 Theatre Arts major with a concentration in Directing. Her credits include Overpass (Director), Aviary (Director and Choreographer), The Rover (Asst. Director and Choreographer), and Dance Nation (Asst. Director and Asst. Choreographer). She has also written a number of plays including Harder Said Than Done and Innocent (Wrights of Spring). Most recently, she served as an editing intern for the International Centre for Women Playwrights.
Leah Geisler [LG]: Okay, I just want to talk to you a little bit about this lovely lab that you're directing, and hear about what this process has been like for you so far. I'd love it if you could just start by talking a little bit about what this play means to you. So, what is Clearing about?
Genevieve Swanson [GS]: Clearing by Beth Hyland is about these five women who work at an athleisure store called LaLaLea, which is obviously a spoof of Lululemon. As I dug more into the text I realized it's about this main character really trying to find belonging, and she ends up finding community, but it's a cultish community. It is the result of capitalism toward women specifically. The play explores a lot of themes, like toxic positivity, body shaming, toxic self-help culture, which a lot of people I think have gone through and been exposed to during the pandemic and been expected to buy things in order to feel better. That is not a way to foster true community or friendship. That is a scary thing that you learn by the end of the play.
LG: That is so exciting. It seems like a lot of these themes are really relevant to the world that we're living in right now. Things that people are going through. Next, I'd love to hear a little bit about what it's been like directing this show.
GS: Yeah, I got really lucky with my cast. With labs, we don't get a lot of resources. The process involves asking whoever is free. Each of my actors are bringing a really specific perspective on each of the characters that I didn't see before. We've started doing a lot more character work because this play has so much surrealism, and it is a satire. A lot of the characters become this 2D version of an actual person, or become the performance that they're putting on in order to fit into this LaLaLea cult. We’re asking a lot of questions about these characters, like: What is it like when they actually get home? What was their life like before they started doing this performance? Where does their performance have cracks? How can we add dimension to their insecurities while still keeping it in the realm of surrealism?
LG: I can definitely see the juxtaposition of this surrealist world, but also emphasizing that this is a store that these characters work in, live in. I'd love to hear a little bit more about your process as a director. Correct me if I'm wrong, but you have a trauma-informed practice, right?
GS: Yeah, I did that more so for Overpass when I was doing that prototype last quarter because it dealt really heavily with suicide. However, I still use a lot of those practices, specifically checking in and checking out in every rehearsal. Basic things asking for accessibility needs, physical contact needs. I mean, I still mess up, I'm still learning how to do it. I ask the actors and my stage managers to check me as well. I think also in this play there's a lot of complicated rules around relationships when it comes to race that aren't necessarily explicit in the text, but are inherent in the way that this play is cast. That's something that we talk a lot about in the room. We have open conversations and do our best to understand everyone's positionality, like me as a white director. Where's my position in that? So that's another thing we are thinking about: How do we really take account of ourselves as people and these characters? How will trauma be in relationship with that?
LG: I love how you're creating a really conscious practice of making sure that people are feeling like they can do this work confidently and know that there's a support system in place.
GS: I originally heard about this play, because my friend who goes to Boston University saw it done there and told me: “Oh, my gosh, I saw this play. It was really cool.” I was talking with her about how I was going to be directing a show in my senior year. So she told me to read it. I emailed Beth and asked if I could read her play. Turns out Beth Hyland is a Chicago playwright! Funny how that connected back. I was really interested in how it felt very specific to now. Growing up, I did musical theatre and dance. Lululemon was always this status symbol of socioeconomic status that I didn't have and that was ridiculous. And of course, the body image issues of that were reinforced by this. I also am really interested in anti-capitalism and critiques of capitalism. I have an economics minor. I always say, it's just because I want to know my enemy. [laughs] This play touched me in those ways, and also the way that the main friendship that is followed in this play falls apart in the end because of these systems that are made to put women against each other, which is really tragic. I felt like this is a story that was worth telling, and that it would connect to the TTS audience since those are the main people that are going to see this play.
LG: My last question is, what do you want people to take away from seeing this production?
GS: I don't want it to feel like people are being told to go home and do this kind of thing, but to take away the uncanniness. I see certain tropes and see these characters do things and think: “Oh, that's so bad. How could you ever do that?” Then I realize: “Oh, I do that, I feed into that system.” It’s a reflection of how we all perpetuate these systems. How can we try to find genuine connections with other people and also realize that there are people in our lives who aren't worth trying to have those genuine connections with? Whatever you want to take from it, you can take from it. There's not necessarily one thing, but those are the general aspects that I think the TTS audience specifically could connect with.
LG: Yeah, holding space for complexity, since there's so much grey area in this play. Being comfortable living in that. That's all I have for you! Thank you so much for talking to me about this play.
Clearing by Beth Hyland, directed by Genevieve Swanson, will have performances 05/19 - 05/22 at 7:30 PM in Room 323. To reserve a ticket, email the Box Office at theatreboxoffice@depaul.edu.
Cast includes Gigi Austin, Caroline Lucas, Paige Mesina, Madeline Meyer, and Faramade Oladapo. Stage management by Josie Moore, lighting design by Maday Favela, sound design by Dwight Bellisimo, and dramaturgy by Liz Bazzoli.
Love what you're reading? Subscribe to our newsletter!