The High Cost of Rent
Coral Drouyn talks to Director Paul Watson on the eve of the opening of the CenterStage Geelong production of RENT at GPAC.
The names Rent and Paul Watson have become closely linked over the last three years and this is Paul’s 3rd outing as multi award winning Director with the show that has set all of Victoria talking.
Paul is an accomplished professional performer, a great singer and musician, last seen on a Mainstage in Jersey Boys, but directing is his other passion and he was very excited about this latest production when he spoke to me just hours ago.
“All three productions have been completely different,” Paul says. “If I’m going to re-visit a show then I have to find something extra, something like a thread I can tease out, something new for me and the audience. Yes it does make extra work, but why would anyone want to copy something they’ve already done before?”
I hesitate to comment that many productions do just that, but instead I ask him what is new about this one, and if it’s true that this will be his last direction of Rent and possibly his last Community Theatre production.
“Well….never say never,” Paul chuckles, “but yes, I think this is my swansong with Rent. I’m trying an experiment on playing three sides, making more commentary on social topics rather than historical and also trying to then shut down the commentary when required to focus on book. I’m hopefully creating a look which is 3D filmic as well as theatrical….and I’m making the blocking count as part of the subtextual storytelling.
“I've used a technique I was taught by Des McAnuff. I worked with him on Jersey Boys and spent several nights in a bar with him drinking scotch and chatting about directing. He taught me about contemporary filmic blocking, playing all points of the compass. Because this rent is in a three-sided theatre and because our narrative is a film-maker, I'm playing North South East West and using camera blocking. It's so interesting. Complicated. Lots of work regarding sight-lines. Who requires the dominant position, when and how to flip that in the blocking etc. It's been fun but hard work.
“The cast is greener than previous productions but they are working really hard, and I’m excited by how much they are giving to me. I’m very excited. But the trick, as always, is balancing what people know and love about the show, with something more experimental…so I hope people won’t be disappointed.”
That’s not likely given Watson’s commitment to his work. He never settles for anything less than excellence. This time round he has the added bonus of choreographer Venessa Paech. Venessa was one of the people involved in the original workshops of the show with writer/composer Jonathan Larson. Back in the 1990s. Larson, as all Music Theatre lovers know, died in 1996, just before the Off Broadway try-outs of Rent.
“The fact that Venessa knew Larson, worked with him, understands what his vision was, has been an amazing gift to me this time round. She’s provided so many insights that I couldn’t have heard any other way.
I had to let Paul go to dress rehearsal, but hearing how excited he is has enthused me make that drive from Frankston to Geelong. The season is selling out fast, so book now. It promises to be very special.
RENT plays at GPAC, Geelong, from June 27 to July 12, 2014.
Bookings: http://www.gpac.org.au/event/291/Rent
Images: RENT Technical Rehearsal and Paul Watson.
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