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We caught up with Scott Schwartz in the middle of a hectic week of rehearsals in preparation for the opening of the play “Matter of Honor” at the Pasadena Playhouse on Friday August 31, 2007. Scott is one of the younger directors who is making a name for himself in theatre. With an impressive string of productions to his credit including the much acclaimed "tic . . tic. . . . Boom" (reviewed here by Travis Michael Holder and Cynthia Citron), his new project at the Pasadena Playhouse has the earmarks of a play that will make a powerful impact not just on the audience, but on the theatre community as a whole.


As he came to the phone he said they were just finishing rehearsal for the day and we asked how things were going.

SS – It’s going very very well actually –

RP – That’s good to hear. I know that you have done quite a few plays before. It must be quite a stretch between doing Tic – Tic – Boom and Matter of Honor. They are totally different in concept.

SS - Oh they are! Actually that’s one of the things I love about what I do in general. I love to try new things and this play in particular presents that opportunity. I like to stretch myself in different ways and this is quite a serious, dramatic play with quite a lot of philosophical content, whereas Tic Tic Boom is a musical.

RP - So tell me – how does one prepare to direct something as serious as this?

SS – A lot of research – because it is a period piece set mostly in the 1890’s at West Point . I took a tour and spoke to a historian there. Also, I’ve actually been working on this play with the writer Michael Chepiga for about two years. We have done a number of readings of it and have developed it together, so I’ve had a lot of time to sort of get into the spirit of this show. But specifically for the production there was a lot of research.

RP – Have you directed anything at the Pasadena Playhouse before?

SS – I directed a musical here a long - long time ago, but it’s been a long time since I’ve been back. This is great to be back, and there’s such a wonderful energy at the Playhouse right now; it feels very exciting and upbeat and the Playhouse is doing really well right now so it’s a wonderful time to be here.

RP – I can imagine. I know that you also directed Godspell some time back –

SS – I did a tour of Godspell awhile back – that’s true.

RP – And you are somewhat familiar with the man who created that show, aren’t you?

SS – Oh yeah, somewhat. (laughing)

RP – Many times when a son or a daughter of a famous person follows their path they try to be different – to prove they can make it on their own, to create their own individuality.

SS – Well, definitely, that’s been very important to me.

RP – I’d like to ask you this. Are there any things or qualities that you would like to have that are similar to your famous father, Stephen Schwartz.

SS – Well, I think that one of the things my father is best at is story telling. He’s a great story teller and has a wonderful sense of dramatic structure, both in musicals and in plays. He doesn’t do plays but he’s excellent in that area and I hope that I have learned from him and can be a good story teller and help advice my writers in story telling. But as you said, it has been very important to me to build my own career and so I actually work with my father and his projects very rarely and very selectively. In truth, I want to be my own man, to have my own life and career. I feel quite happy in knowing that I think that has happened. People in the industry know me independently from my father, but I don’t work on his jobs very much by choice of course.

RP – The buzz around town is that you are the director of the moment – you’re the “hot guy in town”

SS – Well, that’s very sweet – I’m glad to hear that, of course.

RP – Matter of Honor opens Friday, so what do you have planned after that?

SS – Well, there’s a one woman show – a play. I actually don’t know if I’m at liberty to discuss who’s starring in it, but it is a major TV star, and that’s going to premiere at the Alliance Theatre in Georgia in October. That’s the immediate next project after this and then I’m going to be doing a production of Othello at the Alley Theatre in Houston in the winter.

RP – Sounds like you’re going to be busy in the next few months. Let me ask you this . . . you grew up around music all you life, with your father composing. How did it happen that you gravitated from music – let’s say from being a composer or musician to being a director?

SS – Well, that’s an interesting question. I never really wanted to compose or write music, or even be a writer. I have one play that I’ve written which I tick around every once in awhile. It’s going to be done at the Rubicon (in Ventura ) with me directing in the Spring – It’s called “My Antonia”, based on the novel by Willa Cather. But primarily I’m a director. I think it’s just where my heart and hopefully my skills have led me. I played the piano when I was young, but I don’t play any more and I really enjoy the visual side of story telling – you know, being a director.

RP – Did you have a lot to say in this production (Matter of Honor) about the set design or the ancillary things?

SS – I’m very happy with the set design! We have an incredible design team, Robert Brill who did the set is a brilliant designer. Donald Holder who did the lights is amazing – both award winning designers and the sound design is by Mark Bennett who did the sound for Coast of Utopia . I’m very excited with the physical production. It’s quite grand, but also minimal in its own way because we wanted to focus on the characters and the story and make it move as efficiently as possible. It’s very cinematic in that there are lots and lots of short scenes in different locations. One of my jobs, I felt, was to figure out how to make the show really flow and move.

RP – As the director, you had a lot to say with the casting -?

SS – Oh yes! I came out for auditions. The writer and I and the folks at the Pasadena Playhouse collective we cast the show, and I was there making the decisions – so yes, I was directly involved.

RP – And what particular thing, if you will, led you to select the man who plays the role of Whittaker (Cedric Sanders). How did you happen to decide on that particular actor for that specific role?

SS – Ah yes, that’s a very important role. Actually, I have to confess that Cedric is a young African American actor that I’ve worked with before on a workshop of a musical called “The Me Nobody Knows”, in New York . They were trying to do a revival for a little while, which ultimately did not happen. I met Cedric Sanders through that and then he actually played Whittaker in a couple of readings in New York . Later he conveniently decided to move out here this past summer, so he was in LA and available, and he’s really quite brilliant in the role. I’m very excited to be part of introducing LA audiences to his work.

RP - Were there other parts in the show that in your opinion were equally powerful?


SS – I do think that all the roles in the show are powerful and all the parts in the show are important. I’m a strong believer in the idea that “there are no small parts” Hopefully when you come to see it you’ll see that all the actors are featured very prominently. I’m very happy with all of them.


RP – And there are no women in the cast.


SS – There are no women in this cast. I’ve actually never done a play where there no women before, so when we were getting started I was thinking – “Wow is this going to feel really different? Is it going to be like tons of testosterone bouncing around the room?” And quite to the contrary it was a lovely environment. The cast is wonderful and supportive, very focused and centered and so I have to say it wasn’t better or worse than working on a show that has a male and female cast – but I was wondering going in.


RP – I imaging Sheldon Epps was sort of omnipresent somewhere in the shadows?


SS – Yeah – he was. He’s been working on some projects of his own – they were putting up Blues in The Night in San Francisco in the early part of our process but he’s been back and has been very useful to me during the previews and has had some very helpful feedback on the show. He’s a wonderful artistic director and a wonderful man and I really valued his input and support.


RP – I’ve spoken to others who have done show at the Pasadena Playhouse and they all mention the great support and help they get from Sheldon. It’s like having an in-house guru.


SS - I felt supported – I felt when I needed him he was there and also that the did let me do my work and I never felt he was looking over my shoulder. For me he’s the ideal artistic director . . . he’s there just as much as you need him, so it’s been great working there.

RP - You wrote “my Antonia “ your only play so far.

SS – Yes – It’s pronounced Antonía, but it’s spelled A-n-t-o-n-i-a and it’s an adaptation of a novel, so a great deal of the text is directly from the Cather work. That’s the one play in which I did work as a writer.

RP – And you want to talk a little about the big musical Seven Brides for Seven Brothers?

SS – That’s a big old musical indeed! That’s about as different from Matter of Honor as you can get! It’s a very light, big dance show. I just did that in the spring of this past year, so it has been quite a leap to go to Matter of Honor

RP – A couple of our writers reviewed Tic Tic Boom and Travis Holder said that you were deserving on any award they could throw at you for that,

SS – That’s very kind –

RP – I did see Bat Boy The Musical – and that was about as far out as one can get.

SS – Oh Yeah! I loved Bat Boy – it was so much fun to work on because it’s so far out.

RP – Yes, it’s very strange. You’re so versatile, going from a piece like Bat Boy to Seven Brides to Matter of Honor.

SS – Well, I try to keep stretching myself artistically and it’s always fun. It’s great for me to move from style to style and from genre to genre with different shows.

RP – Let me just throw this at you – this is kind of a “what if” question. If you were not involved in directing and theatre, what could you see yourself doing instead?

SS - I actually have an answer for that!

RP – You do? I’m surprised!

SS – Oh yeah. I always thought that if for whatever reason I wanted to move away from show business into something else if working in the theatre didn’t work out for me – I’d be a psychologist.

RP – Really?

SS – Yes. I actually was a psychology major at Harvard. That’s always been interesting to me as well, so yes, I’d be a psychologist.

RP – Let me take a guess and say that I believe there’s a little bit of that in being a director.

SS – I think that’s definitely true.

RP – Because you have to deal with different personalities and egos and temperaments, and I would imagine that during the rough parts it takes a little more than being a director to get people to work together,

SS – There’s definitely an element of psychology to directing and even in analyzing the characters. Sort of talking with the actors about the underlying motivations of these characters.. Definitely psychology does come in handy in situations like that.

RP – Are you known as a tough director? A real hard taskmaster?

SS – I don’t think so. I hope that people would say that I’m supportive but firm. I’m a big believer in the theory of mutual respect in directing. I feel that if I give respect and space to people to do their work I feel that they will do the same to me, and ultimately they will be more receptive to what I’m looking to achieve. In this business, and I’m sure also in any other business, but in theatre or an artistic field especially, the artists should respect each other with respect and support and that’s the best way to get the best work.

RP – Your play opens this weekend and for the next five or six weeks people will be coming to it. As a director, what would you like them to take away with them after the performance?

SS – I think at the heart of this particular play there is a central, very philosophical question and that is – what is honor? – what is morality? and what responsibility do we all as individuals and human beings have in our life . Are we responsible to ourselves – to a larger organization or to other human beings? It’s an exploration of those issues, and I hope that people will be asking those questions and drawing their own conclusions. I’m certainly not going to prescribe how people should be thinking or feeling as they leave the theatre, but I’d like them to be thinking about their own lives and beliefs about morality and moral relativism. I think those issues are at the center of this play.

RP – One final shot, if I may. In the real story, Whittaker was accused of inflicting the wounds on himself and staging the beating. As a director and a human being, a hundred plus years later, do you believe him?

SS – I – I’m not going to answer that question (laughing). It’s one of the great secrets of the show left to the audience to decide. I don’t want to publicly tell anyone what I think, but I have my own theories – but I’m not going to tell anyone.

RP – I thought you might have your own ideas on it, and I sort of knew you wouldn’t tell me, but I figured, what the heck.

SS – It’s worth a shot, right?

RP – I know that you are busy and have to back to work, but thank you so much for the time and you’ll be the cover article before the opening of the show.

SS – Thank you very much – and I’ll make a point of checking out your website.

RP – Thanks, and good luck.

One thing was very evident in our conversation with Scott. He is a person who is anxious to move on and to continue exploring new avenues. His voice has an excitement that is contagious and his tone has a self assuredness that quickly lets you know who is in charge. It's no wonder that his successes keep coming. When ones vision is as clear and keen as Scott's the only result has to be a successful closure of whatever project is being completed. " A Matter of Honor" is a project that is meant to expose a long hidden injustice and Scott's direction will undoubtedly not only expose the injustice - it will hold a mirror to the audience and maybe there will be some who see a little of themselves in it. The production opens August 31, 2007 at the Pasadena Playhouse located at 39 El Molino Street, Pasadena CA. Reservations at: (626) 356-7529