Famous director visits campus

Renowned theater director Andre Gregory screened his successful film My Dinner with Andre Tuesday night in the MainStreet Cinema, and his other film, 1994's Vanya on 42nd Street, at 7 p.m. Wednesday night. Gregory, born in Paris and now living in New York, also made himself available for a question and answer session Tuesday and Wednesday evening.

My Dinner with Andre follows the dinner conversation between two old friends, Gregory and Wallace Shawn. Gregory and Shawn wrote the screenplay together and played the characters they based on themselves in the films. Their conversation traces what each man has been doing since they last saw each other and then moves into deeper topics, namely, the meaning of life. This film has become a classic and professors show it in film schools.

Vanya on 42nd Street follows a group of actors and their director as they rehearse Anton Chekhov's play Uncle Vanya.

Gregory also conducted two classes with Drama Department students Wednesday, one about acting and the other about directing.

Gregory said his success in films is completely by accident.

"My real vocation has been theatre director, and then, Wally [Shawn] and I got the idea for My Dinner with Andre," said Gregory. The surprising success of this film allowed Gregory to act in about a dozen other films, most recently Celebrity and Goodbye Lover.

Gregory's collaboration with Shawn and director Louis Malle on My Dinner with Andre continued with Vanya on 42nd Street, which Gregory adapted from Chekhov's play.

Although Gregory's accidental foray into filmmaking has met with success, he said his real passion is working with actors. Gregory said he enjoys live theater because one is "faced with the complexity and ambiguity of a real human being in front of you."

Instead of using the traditional method of directing, where the director decides the creative direction and statement of the play, Gregory said he uses ensemble directing where all the actors and the director work together to determine the finished product. Gregory prefers this method because "eight heads are better than one."

Gregory said he also prefers the ensemble method because he loves community and people.

He described this method of rehearsal as "pure meditation" and said, "The actors and I are like family." He also said that since he often sets no opening day, but rather waits until the play is mature, there is no pressure and the play becomes more like a painting or a piece of sculpture.

Gregory said he likes the improvisational nature of theater, but he fears its audience will get smaller and smaller in the future.

"I'm pessimistic about theater because corporate capitalism has made everything so expensive," he said. "My hunch is that theater will become more like poetry, a more esoteric form of art."

Gregory cited the fact that several generations have mostly experienced only television and film, not theater, as evidence for his prediction.

Gregory's political views are not much more optimistic. However, he did offer a solution to the participants in the question and answer session.

"Capitalist fascism is there because of us," Gregory said. "Each of us could be more present, more tender, more vulnerable."

Gregory said that if we each do this, the world would become a better place.

He also had some advice for young artists. "People tell us to be practical," he said. He described art and life as requiring different kinds of practicality.

"When it comes to art, the most practical thing is to do the thing you most passionately want to do," Gregory said. "Follow your hearts and it will be practical."