John RandoI had the pleasure of talking with John Rando, the director of A Flea in Her Ear which is soon to open at the Wiliamstown Theatre Festival. The interview is located here, In Berkshire Fine Arts and covers a lot of territory. French farce is a fascinating subject, and the focus on the production he is mounting limited the amount of personal information I could include.
Rando's life is as interesting as his work. John had a secret love of the theater - and if anyone needed to be a chameleon about his real career goal in order to keep parents paying the tuition bills - he's your guy.
"I had this little secret dream in my heart that I had to keep hidden from my parents. I wanted to become a theatre director, certainly not one of the easiest or most sought after professions. So, to reassure my folks that I wasn’t frittering away my education and at the same time to keep my dream alive, I pretended, like many of you now, that I was heading for law school.
Every time my parents came to see me acting in another play, I had them believe it was all just pre-law training. You know, I have to learn how to speak well… for the courtroom...and stuff. " John Rando
This address to the graduating students at the University of Texas is a masterpiece, and I think it illuminates the life path of a gifted theatre artisan whom we are lucky to have in the Berkshires this summer.
Rando's Full Honors Speech
John Rando is the Tony Award winning director of the Broadway musical, Urinetown, for which he also received the Outer Critics Circle Award for best director.
His upcoming production of A Flea in Her Ear, with new translation by David Ives, is not to be missed. It is going to be laugh-until-you-sides-hurt funny.
Performances are from July 30-August10Tickets for A Flea in Her Ear are available from the Williamstown Theatre Festival.
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