Moisés Kaufman
Marcus Gardley
Questioning and embracing Stephen Foster’s music: An interview with Director Moisés Kaufman and Book Writer Marcus Gardley BY SARAH ROSE LEONARD
While Marcus Gardley and Moisés Kaufman—
two heavyweights in the theatre world—are masters of their craft, mounting a musical adds even more complications to an already complex art form. When writing the book for a musical you have to reveal character, move plot forward, and let the emotional high points be captured in the existing (and usually changing) music, all in support of a singular artistic vision. It’s like writing a haiku with room for someone to burst into song. And the director’s job is to make that haiku, song, and dance work together to tell a clear, compelling story. Here, Literary Manager Sarah Rose Leonard interviews Marcus and Moisés about their experience stepping into these multifaceted roles and how they make a historic moment resonate for contemporary times.
The musical’s title changed during its development process. How did you find the new one? Marcus Gardley: The original title was Hard Times, which is a song in the musical. And we didn’t want people to think of the musical as a hard time! I believe it was our lyricist, Nathan Tysen, who came up with Paradise Square because it was the name of an actual park in the Five Points neighborhood at the time. Marcus, the book went through many iterations before you came on board. How did you go about making it your own? MG: Many of the characters were already there in previous drafts, so one of my tasks coming in was to make them my own. I really got a sense of the period through the drafts, and filled that in with my own research. Bill T. Jones and Jason 2 0 1 8–1 9 · I S S U E 3 · T H E B E R K E L E Y R E P M AG A Z I N E · 1 5
