One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

So we would, we would, uh, put some of the actors into situations.

Uh, if you take, for example, uh, one, one of the plays I directed was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Dale Wasserman's play, and, you know, we all- we're all familiar with it.

We all know the, the, the storyline.

We've seen some of the group therapy sessions, uh, you know, in, in, um, in, in the movie.

Mm.

And there was a little notice in there for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest auditions.

Mm.

And I said, "Well, that's weird." [laughs] You know, she said that-

It's incredible.

You can go to the Hansberry Theatre and see One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest play with a very young, super young Danny DeVito.

Yeah.

Pre-Penguin.

It's great to share ideas and to learn from each other.

And now I'm doing a, I'm, I'm doing a, a production at the end of the year, which is, uh, um, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Ho- Roger Hodgman-

Mm

... who is another almost, like another mentor, you know, because I first did Chitty Chitty Bang Bang with Roger.

Mm

... which is a production that we did, um, George, a George Gershwin production.

Um, and then I walked in the other day for the audition for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and I knew I had the job even before I started.

Why's that?

And then Later, of course, there was ART and then we had all these other newer companies.

You began directing in 1982 with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

What made you move from being an actor to wanting to become now a director and take responsibility for an entire production?

Yes, actually, I've kind of often thought about that myself.