Interview by: Joan Starkey, Staff Writer
This is the fourth installment in The Grappler’s Lab Interview Series. This year The Grappler has committed to interviewing every director of a Lab to showcase their exciting work and hear about their creative processes. Stay tuned for more interviews coming soon!
Claire Hayes (she/her) is a Chicago-based director, dramaturg, playwright, and performing artist. She is a 2022 graduate of The Theatre School at DePaul University with a BFA in Theatre Arts, Directing and minors in Business Management and Administration. During university, she worked on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (AD), Dance Nation (AD), Benjamin & Alex Practice Celibacy (Director), and a staged reading of Pieces that Remain (Director). In her current role as a House Manager for The Harris Theatre for Music and Dance, Claire is responsible for staff and audience services. Claire has also developed her awareness for disability in the arts by working closely with the group “Spectrum Shakespeare” on a year-long virtual production of Macbeth for individuals with autism. She looks forward to continuing her disability training by studying ASL and working with the Phamaly Theatre company this summer.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Claire Hayes, the director of the upcoming lab Swear on My Mother’s Grave. The newly devised play centers Mary Shelley, the legendary author of Frankenstein and early pioneer of science fiction. Hayes’ work intrigued me because, as a lover of literature myself, I’m always fascinated to see how directors draw inspiration from a text to create something in an entirely new medium, but what Claire is doing takes this a step further. In drawing from Mary Shelley’s personal life and other writings, Claire and her company elevate the stories of both Shelley and her monster in hopes of a more compassionate remembering. In this interview, we discuss her devising process, ensemble well-being, and her work with designers.
Joan Starkey [JS]: What is your elevator pitch for this lab?
Claire Hayes [CH]: We all know the story of Frankenstein— or at least we think we do. The story that we are telling is the story of Mary Shelley herself and her emotional turmoil. We’re really unveiling the woman behind the science fiction genre. The whole point of our show is that we're honoring Mary Shelley, giving her a voice, and taking away the stereotypes that Hollywood has put on to her work.
JS: What inspired you to begin creating this show?
CH: My uncle is a huge fan of classic horror and in middle school, he started showing me all of the classic monster movies. It was our way of bonding, our time. I noticed that a lot of the movies were beautiful artistically, but the ways that they were treating women and minority groups— anyone other than their main protagonist— was so disrespectful! I had this conundrum: How can I love, honor, and appreciate these classics, but give them a more modern twist and perspective that speaks to the time and my artistic values?
JS: What has your devising process been like?
CH: It has been the most crazy, turnaround, up-and-down adventure of my life! I would plan our goals for the day and then we'd get into the room and everything would change, and it would be what we needed as a group. I strongly believe that everyone's voice has value, so I would pitch an idea to the group and then we would mold and craft scenes together. An interesting thing that I didn't realize would happen was we got very physical very fast. Our group loves to be thinking on our feet, so usually we would stage a scene and then go back and write the words and vocabulary that we wanted to insert. Often, we would look to the text of Frankenstein and some of Mary Shelley's writings and poems for inspiration.
JS: What is that company dynamic like?
CH: Very bold! Very strong. I think the first week we bonded over the ideas that we were sharing, but now we’re bonding over who we are as creators and it's really comfortable. A big thing that I've noticed in this process is whenever we do checkouts, for the most part, everyone says that they leave feeling better than when they came in. I think that's a huge part of my process: we should have joy in the theatre that we do! It should not be a burdensome project in the sense that "we have to create this art and the show must come first!” I think, thankfully, we've had the pandemic to give us time to reflect on our needs and limits as creators and as people.
JS: How does this production reflect your personal directorial aesthetic?
CH: I always love to hear what other people are thinking. I don't always think I have the strongest voice in the room, especially when it comes to other people's lived experiences or their relation to the text. Everyone has their version of Frankenstein that they know and love— and I think we’ve also realized we all have that vision of who Mary Shelley is. Covering that has been super fun. Because this is a new play, something I hope to continue on with, getting the designers’ artistic lens and viewpoint of the worldbuilding that we are creating has been so, so much fun. I've learned so much from them. Overall, I've just gotten the opportunity to learn so much from the people I work with.
JS: Who are your designers?
CH: We have Maday Favela, our wonderful lighting designer, and Oskar Westbridge who is our sound designer. We've had design meetings weekly and we've been sending them photos and videos from rehearsal because sometimes with the pandemic or scheduling they haven't been able to be in the room with us. So it's interesting that we're all able to create this work in our own processes too, from afar. They've been bringing in samples of their work throughout the week and they've done a really great job of adapting to the needs of the show. Especially because sometimes we have a vision, and then we get in the room, and that vision changes. When I’ll say some string of words and they’re able to interpret it, it’s super comforting. They’re super inspiring. Working with designers has been something that I have not had the chance to do in the way I get to do now. Really exploring a world and building it from scratch with them has been super fun.
JS: What have you learned throughout this process?
CH: So much! I have learned to be flexible. I have learned to read the room and to sense that sometimes you need to get x, y, and z done and other people need to get a, b, and c done for their own creative well-being and that's more fruitful for the process as a whole. I've learned to reconnect with the people-centric mindset of theatre. Because we didn't have a script and our deadlines were a little bit more flexible, we were able to meet the needs of our cast, and from there truly build something that we could all call our own. I've learned that sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction. Most of our choices are directly from interactions or moments of Mary Shelley's life that we have made more dramatic. I've learned that time can be your best friend or your worst enemy, but knowing that sometimes the time crunch can push us to be our most ingenious selves. I've learned a lot about this process and about the cornerstone of representation and how crucial that can be with historical works. In our process of discovery, we've learned a lot about gender, sexuality, feminism, gore, and brutality.
JS: What are you hoping for audiences to take away from this production?
CH: I'm hoping that audiences leave with more questions. I hope that they're cracking open Wikipedia or listening to some of our podcasts and applying their own experiences and curiosities. I hope people connect to the timelessness of this story and find personal connections.
JS: Any further comments?
CH: Please check trigger warnings. The show is very theatrically graphic.
JS: Good to know. Thank you so much for your time! I’m really looking forward to this production.
CH: Me too!
Swear on My Mother’s Grave, a new devised work directed by Claire Hayes, will have performances March 3 through March 5 at 7:30 PM and March 6 at 2:00 PM in TTS Room 418. The show is double-billed with Witch Way, directed by Kenz Mangan. Tickets can be acquired at the TTS box office.
The show features the talents of Sierra Reynolds, Paige Mesina, Gena Treyvus, Iona McGregor, and Kacey Lindeman. This production is assistant directed by Molly Sharfstein, stage managed by Esme Burrows, sound designed by Oskar Westbridge, and lighting designed by Maday Favela. There are moments representing miscarriage, suicide, death, grief, and sexually explicit themes.
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