This is the kind of week that avid theatre goers dream about, as two of the most honored and respected giants of the stage combine their incredible talents to bring a thriller to the stage. In spite of the last minute madness that goes with preparing for the press opening, Jessica Kubzansky took time to grant this interview and talk a little about the show. We called her at the Pasadena Playhouse where she was walking through a maze of corridors in the imposing Playhouse.

RP Thanks for taking the time to talk with me. Let me start by saying that when the show’s publicist Patty Onogan sent the press release, I did a double take asking myself – here are Theresa Rebek and Jessica Kubzansky working together on the same show? What force in the universe brought about the alignment of the stars to make this happen?

JK (laughing) I tell you, I feel the same way. I’m not quite sure how it happened but I’m very grateful.

RP This has all the makings of a wonderful event!

JK Well, let me say that I am in love with the play. I think it’s better constructed than anyone has even mentioned so far and way beyond anything I’ve ever seen. I think it’s brilliantly written.

RP Theresa Rebek is known for writing excellent stories.

JK I think she does –do you know much about the play?

RP I know that the photograph you are using in the ad is one of the scariest I’ve seen. Those eyes in the photo just rivet themselves to you.

JK What I love about the play is that there’s a great deal of humanity in it and a great deal about vicious stamp collectors. I find there’s something very funny about saying those two words in tandem – vicious and stamp collecting.

RP I know. I can’t picture it either.

JK The part that is so interesting is the stakes of people who collect stamps are really huge. I had no idea, but obviously there is a philatelic community who would know all about that. Until I started researching the story of this play I was not aware of just how profound a need stamp collecting can be.

RP Are they as avid as coin collectors?

JK I’m not that familiar with coin collectors as I am with philatelists but I do think there is something about people who collect something passionately and about rarity that breeds a kind of hunger about possessing these things.

RP Let me ask you about this play. Who approached you about directing it?

JK Sheldon did – Sheldon Epps, artistic director of the playhouse

RP And you, of course said – "Oh no – I don’t want to do that!"

JK (laughing) and I said, "are you kidding? Theresa Rebek at the Pasadena Playhouse? Hell yeah!

RP Have you ever worked with Theresa before?

JK No – I never have

RP Or with Sheldon?

JK No with Sheldon either but just to say that we in the Pasadena area have been working together with all the theatres to bring a sense of community. As Artistic Director of Boston Court I’m working with Furious Theatre in a co-production and we’ve all become really good friends and neighbors.

RP The Boston Court is a wonderful place to put up a play.

JK Yes it is, and there is a great deal of respect between all the theaters. While this is the first time I work in Sheldon’s house, there is lots of communal feeling.

RP The Pasadena has a wonderful stage, wide and deep and it’s like the dream venue for many.

JK That’s true.

RP Are you going to be able to do anything special or different that perhaps you couldn’t do in other venues?

JK Well, what’s interesting about the play is that while the stakes are huge, it’s not a huge cast. There’s only five actors in the cast, and by the way, they are a stunning group. I have a tremendous amount of admiration for all of them. It’s truly a privilege to work with such splendid actors. In terms of the stage, the space is truly a magnificent space but the play actually wants a kind of intimacy and a claustrophobia. The set designer, Tom Buderwitz, who is a genius and with whom I have worked many times in the past was able to take advantage of the height that exists at the Playhouse and created an intimate area that feels claustrophobic. One of the things we’re doing which we definitely could not do in a smaller house is working with several sets that are on a revolving stage. There’s no question that we could not do that if we were somewhere else.

RP Really/ That’s impressive.

JK Yes. The play which is almost a thrill ride with a lot of mystery about it in terms of all the pieces of a puzzle. As the set turns, we get a new idea and that was inspiring to work on. The revolving is not a new idea, many use that, but here, every time the set turns we learn a little bit more

RP I remember seeing one of the better revolving stages at the old Schubert theatre in a production of Les Miserables years ago

JK Oh yeah, that’s probably the most classic revolve in theatre.

RP So how does one approach the research for a play about stamp collecting?

JK I have a wonderful assistant director who actually did a great deal of research for me. There’s a really brilliant piece in the New York Times from the early twentieth century which talks about stamp collectors quickly losing their sense of morality.

RP Really?

JK Yes. It’s an amazing article written at the turn of the last century and certainly in the play that Theresa has given us there is some question about the morality of the characters, although everybody is operating from true human needs. And what I love about this play is that quite apart from them being stamp collectors the story is about two half-sisters whose mother has just died and there is some question in each of their minds about who the stamp album that was left in their mother’s shelf belongs to. So the play is not just about stamp collecting thugs – It really is about something more profound about what happens in fractured families after the death of a loved one. Its about who gets to own the rest of the belongings and how sometimes it has nothing to do with monetary value – it has more to do with what people feel they earned or deserve or have a right to.

Like all great plays there is something essentially human at the core about characters deeply opposing deeds.

RP Your press opening is April 3 but you have had some performances already, right?

JK Yes – we’ve had some previews,

RP One question I always have for directors – After the previews did you make any major changes?

JK You know- always, after you see a play with an audience you learn things that nobody but an audience can teach you.

RP In what way?

JK Well, you’ve been living inside the play for so long that it really requires people from the outside who don’t know anything about it to teach you what places you’ve assumed they would know too much and what places you don’t have to help them along and you can go faster and also what needs to slow down for clarity. So the audience always lets you know those things.

RP So the audience helps to set the lead?

JK Well, let me just say this about this play. I believe this is one of the best written plays ever and all the conflicts that happen, all the changes that happen to characters, the reasons that the changes happen are all completely provoked and motivated by events that happen to them on stage with the other characters. That’s thrilling – look at even the best of plays; Hamlet goes off on a Pirate ship or Maxine disappears in the Night of the Iguana and she comes back a lot more chilled than before. So what happened when she was gone? In this play when a character shows back up and has changed, you know what happened. You can see it on stage so some of the changes are about calibrating those increments and fine tuning that kind of thing.

RP You have a some heavy actors working with you – Ray Abruzzo from the former Sopranos – John Billingsley from one of my favorite Star Trek Enterprise.

JK They are a wonderful cast as is everyone else. They’re all terrific.

RP Well, you don’t get to the Pasadena Playhouse by phoning it in.

JK (laughing) That’s true, and I guarantee you nobody is phoning it in.

RP Let me ask a question about you if I may. How did you decide to become a director?

JK I started my life as a playwright. My undergraduate degree is in creative writing – play writing and I would find myself in playwriting class listening to someone’s scene and they’d and as the action took place I would say to myself – Wait – three beats before you go to the window! Things like that.

RP So you were already seeing directions

JK Then I saw a really astonishing production of "Waiting for Godot" at the American Repertory Theatre that Andrei Belgrader directed, where among others Tony Shaloub plays Pozzo. I had bought the script for Godot and I went back a second time because it was so amazing,. I was looking through the pages as the play went on and I kept asking – "where does it say that he goes around in all fours??" And that’s when I realized – "OH! Somebody else had something to do with the difference between page and stage!

RP The "aha!" moment.

JK That’s when I understood that there is another character involved in the transformation of breathing life into the animal.

RP And you said to yourself - "I want to do that!"

JK I sort of found myself doing it – sort of by accident. Then I graduated from school trying to make a living as a writer. That meant I was temping and writing consumer loan manuals and then a boy friend of mine submitted a play I had written that received a thrilling first production reviews in this tiny little company in Austin, Texas. They contacted me saying, "Why don’t you come out and direct it?"

RP So you went for it?

JK To my parents’ eternal chagrin, I chucked the only full time paying job I had ever had (with benefits) and went out to direct the play. They were horrified! But after having tried really hard to make a living as a writer, I walked in to the theatre and suddenly felt awake and alive. I thought to myself, "Right! This is where I belong – this is what I have to be doing!"

It was a very clear moment, you know?

RP Well, obviously it was the right choice.

JK Well – thank you.

RP You have this string of hits and accolades that have made you one of the most successful directors today. Let me ask you this. When I write my reviews I approach them from the point of view of a person who knows nothing about theatre and goes only once or twice a year. As a director, how would you like me to react to this play? How would you like it to hit me?

JK I want the play to hit you like a thrill ride. I want you to sit at the edge of your seat- to be gripped by it and you just can’t let it go. And I want you to understand the deep stakes as well as the machinations of the people so you just can’t stop watching. This is a story where there are no easy answers. I’m hoping that you walk out thinking about the questions that are brought out which are deep and rich.

RP Well, I look forward to seeing the production and I know that with the combination of Theresa Rebek writing and you directing it will be a very special show.

JK Thank you – I hope you enjoy it.

We chatted a few more minutes about different aspects of theatre, about future projects and future goals and it became evident that in spite of Jessica’s standing as a major director in the industry she is a very down to earth person with an easy laugh and a warm attitude.  

Theresa Rebeck's MAURITIUS at Pasadena Playhouse 39 S. El Molino Avenue in Pasadena.

 Reservations at: (626) 356-7529

or tickets on-line at

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