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| Janis Webb photo by Tippi Hart |
Every director has that hidden stash of plays or musicals that they hope one day they can bring to life. That dream finally came true for Janis Webb who has gotten to direct The Lion in Winter which will plays at the Mesa Encore Theatre February 1st-17th.
“I have loved this play since I saw it when I was a senior in high school,” smiled Janis. “My parents used to take us to this community theatre and they took me to see this play and I just thought it was the greatest play in the world. I’ve had it on the back-burner for all these years and every once in a while I’d pull it off the shelf and reread it.”
She finally got the opportunity to direct this play by submitting it to the theatre.
“The way that the Mesa Encore Theatre does their Black Box season,” explained Janis, “is they ask directors to submit a play. It is one of the few theatres that do that and it is awesome. You can submit up to three and I submitted three. I was lucky enough that they picked one!”
Especially the ‘one’ that she has always wanted to direct.
The Lion in Winter is a play written by James Goldman in 1966 based on historical figures from 1183. At the time of its release, it was not as appreciated as it is now, Janis thinks it might be because of the strange combination of time period and language.
“People weren’t excited about it,” explained Janis. “They were shocked at the anachronistic language, we had this very specific time frame but the words and thoughts of people that are very modern. Very brilliant I think. It is British but very American language. It’s a very 'before its time' kind of play, I think if it had been written now people would go ‘oh yeah that's great we love it’, but in the 60s it was kind of ‘this is weird’.”
A quite unique play; written in the 60s, based in the late 1100s, actors dressed in medieval attire but talking modern.
“I would describe it as a fiction from history,” Janis stated. “They are historical characters, it is King Henry and Eleanor of Aquitaine and their sons. The history around them is accurate but the setting and the scene is completely made up, it is a made-up Christmas. People have described it as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf meets The Godfather. Because it's all this infighting and bickering between siblings and husband and wife.”
“It is the people that color the set,” said Janis. “I wanted the people to stand out and just be really brilliant, so the costumes are lovely.”
Janis had 42 people audition for this production. 21 of them were women all auditioning for the role of Eleanor of Aquitaine.
“I am quite a proponent of productions that have a strong woman role,” stated Janis. “Eleanor of Aquitaine, who is the lead, is the strongest, most brilliant, intelligent, most amazing women parts that have ever been written.”
According to Janis, everything has been coming along smoothly and she has been so happy directing it.
“I get giddy about the whole thing. Every single one of these actors has grown tremendously. And this is the story of a dysfunctional family at Christmas time. Who can’t relate to that?”
Family drama is something that just about everyone can relate to and with Mesa Encore Theatre’s Blackbox production of The Lion in Winter, who knows what else you will walk away with?
“You know I would love to say that people would learn a valuable lesson,” laughed Janis. “But the characters don't learn a valuable lesson in this show. So what I really would like is for them to understand more about how families haven't changed since 1183 to now. We still fight over the same things. I think there are life lessons to be learned from this play but what I really want people to do is just to come and enjoy two hours of fabulous theatrical performance.”
CLICK HERE for more information on this production, which runs February 1st to February 17
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