Into the Heart of an Indy Theatre Director

“Beautiful Thing” performed at Nicu’s Spoon was an amazing representation of the troubles of teendom. The hard work that the actors put in was rewarded with cheers from the audience.

One unnoticed key piece to the puzzle that isn’t around to see the cheers is the Director Michelle Kuchuk, who put in just as much work in addition to her vision to bring this play to life.

“Theater is always changing and the actors will always become more nuanced as the performances continue.  When the play is going on, I’m either watching or running lights, but most of the time I’m away from the theater.  The director has to turn the production over to its stage manager when the run begins,” says Kuckuk.

The similarity of this visual creation to reality is striking. The topic is one that touches home for many people. It shows the struggles of young boys and more importantly friendship, love and understanding. The change from straight to gay is not a sudden occurrence and is displayed through the eyes of Kuchuk as a gradual self discovery process.

In “Beautiful Thing,” Jamie, the lead character, played by Trip Langley goes through phases between being straight and unsure of who he is to being sure he is gay and being unable to outright admit it to his friends and family.

Kuchuk says, “Coming out to parents, and coming out to society is definitely not a non issue and there’s a fear that goes along with that. I think after watching this it will be the audience that comes out, with a lot of hope.”

Being a theatre director isn’t solely a job but a relationship with the actors that is built through rehearsals, dry runs and practice. Some actors have love hate relationships with their blocking boss. Kuchuk however, has never had a problem with any under her. She gives them the utmost respect while allowing free range of creativity to her actors. She allows them to grow into their roles much the same way Jamie does.

“I love laughing and so I like to think I’m clever and crack everyone up from time to time, but in all seriousness, I think it’s important to have a mix of humor and efficiency at the beginning, but then as the cast and crew becomes more comfortable and becomes closer with each other, it’s good to replace the initial business-like attitude with understanding and create an atmosphere that the actors can feel nurtured in,” says Kuchuk. “Once the play opened, my actors were joking that I had completely lost my calm and collected attitude because only then could I finally relax.”

Nicu’s Spoon or just “The Spoon” to company members and returning spectators is definitely not your typical theatre. The story behind the name “Nicu’s Spoon” is related to a young diseased boy, who got the bottom half of life. With no family to care for the AIDS infected little boy he had but only one friend and his favorite spoon. The courage from that young man still lives at 38 W38th st. in Manhattan on the top floor.

The interesting set up and the friendly personalities of the company members and it’s help are easy going and friendly. The smiles are abundant and though it may not be the most luxurious top floor in the city, it feels exotic nonetheless.

“Nicu’s Spoon is dedicated to putting out socially reflective theater that challenges stereotypes and challenges its audience to embrace an idea that they might not know about, care about, or have an opinion about. What I like about the company, however, is that we don’t try to always find plays that scream any particular message down our audiences’ throats– many of the productions I’ve seen and been involved in have asked the audience to come up with their own opinion based on what they’ve seen.  I think that is a good message in itself, to challenge us to think for ourselves,” says Kuchuk about the Spoon and the message that they convey.

Kuchuk’s relationship with the Spoon and its counterparts and actors begins to grow as this is her second feature since becoming a fully fledged member in June 2009. Her relationships haven’t been the only thing growing. She has branched out and learned to be easy going and fit perfectly into her environment, while simultaneously putting forth extreme effort to create the two plays that she was involved in.

The work that goes into a play isn’t just remembering lines and places, but also dedication to the message of the story. The director is the person who puts everything in perspective and formulates a plan for delivering the performance in an enhanced and effective way. It’s a bold position and is far from an easy assignment.

Kuchuk says that, “a lot of what inspired me to direct was the freedom that you can give to the actors in the creation of their characters.  The director must know every single thing about the play and then some before rehearsals begin, and then must have a clear idea of his or her vision for the production.  Without that preparedness, a production is shapeless.  I spent about two months with the script before rehearsals even began; I had to learn and discover these characters separately and as a unit.  When the actors came in with their own take and talent, I could work with them to get to the point of my own understanding without taking their own personality out of it completely. We all worked together to create these characters, and I personally love that even though these characters are different than the actors portraying them, they have made them their own and found that they have many similarities after all.”

As similarities go, the actors under Kuchuk support their director and haven’t had issues in any part of the making of “Beautiful Thing.” This is because it was worked on as a team, and not simply based on the perspective of the Director. The actors love her, and the audience loves the show.

Rebecca Lee Lerman who plays Leah the troubled and pesky girl next door on Kuchuk says, “Michelle Kuchuk is the best kind of director. She lets the actors play and come to their own realizations about the story and their character. She is also a very down to earth and approachable person, which makes her very easy to work with.”