OC Register the “fascinating” theatrical techniques employed by Director-Choreographer, Kari Hayter for Violet
Eric Marchese from the Orange County Register interviewed Artistic Director, Oanh Nguyen and Violet‘s director, Kari Hayter on the journey this production has taken from it’s original 1998 script to the newest version in 2014 and its newest creative spin at Chance Theater.
Read Article Buy Tickets“Hayter said she and her creative team sought, and have achieved, ‘an artistic, abstract, non-literal approach’ to the story”
“The title character is on more than just a simple physical trek from point A to point B: ‘It’s an emotional, spiritual and metaphorical journey too’ – so, Hayter asserts, the story ‘doesn’t need a real literal visual aesthetic.’”
“The original Broadway production, Nguyen said, kept the design elements ‘spare. Kari’s staging is very different while staying true to idea of keeping the focus on the journey of these characters.'”
“Rather than being ‘a blockbuster commercial musical that everyone has heard about,’ Hayter said ‘Violet’ “feels a lot more like a play with music,’ placing it very much in line with past Chance Theater productions of fairly obscure theatrical properties that have something of import to say to audiences.”
“Nguyen said that when it first appeared more than 20 years ago, ‘Violet’ was, in both its story and the theatricality behind that story, ‘maybe a little ahead of its time. The subject of a woman in search of her agency and empowerment is a story more for our times. It’s more important now than when it was first done,’ he said. ‘In some ways, we kind of caught up to it.'”
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