帕姆·麦金农，美国音乐学院的新艺术总监a note from playwright Edward Albee framed on a shelf在她的办公室。它部分地写着：“我们可以使这个'导演的阿尔比'更习惯吗？”
从2003年开始，该注释是在Mackinnon执导了Albee的一些新剧本之后发送的“The Play About the Baby”和“山羊，还是谁是西尔维亚？”和it was, as they say, the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
MacKinnon would go on to direct eight more Albee shows and win the 2013 Tony Award for her revival of his“Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”尽管她有着悠久的历史的引领新的plays into the world, MacKinnon has also become known as something of an Albee expert.
She says it’s her “calling card,” and that’s why, when she was programming her debut ACT season, she knew she would helm an Albee play. For her 11th Albee production, she ended up choosing “Seascape,” a winner of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize (one of three Albee won in his lifetime). The show begins performances Jan. 23 at the Geary Theater.
“I felt like I could hit the ground running with Albee because his work is in my DNA,”MacKinnon says on a winter morning in her new office.“‘Seascape,’ like other Albee plays I’ve directed, is a marriage play, and while all his plays live to some degree in ambiguity, this play also includes unambiguous hope.”
就像“弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫”一样，“海景”有两对夫妇。一个 - 查理和南希 - 新退休，在海滩上享受野餐并考虑他们的未来。另一个 - 莱斯利（Leslie）和莎拉（Sarah），是一对刚从海中爬行的蜥蜴。
The play is funny, weird and existential. MacKinnon also describes it as “deeply personal” because it’s the first Albee play she’s directed sincethe playwright died in 2016 at age 88和also because this play about transition comes when she finds her life in great transition.
“I’ve taken on this amazing job, more than 25 years into my career, and find myself leading an institution for the first time while working for an institution for the first time,” MacKinnon says. “Like the characters in the play, I sensed it was time for something new, to continue the evolution. I just turned 50, and I’m dragging my partner (actor John Procaccino) across the country from New York to join me here. It feels relevant to have Edward Albee at my side in a play about the new and the mysterious and the ‘what if’ and the trusting of what’s in your gut. All of that just feels so relevant.”
麦金农说，她很幸运能见到阿尔比，并在大约20年前指导“关于婴儿的戏剧”时就认识了他。“如果我们刚刚在聚会或咖啡上见面，而不是在工作中见面，我认为我的职业生涯会大不相同。但是我们点击了。我也是一个黄蜂，当我们不谈论这项工作时，我们谈论了我们的宠物。在这里，您可以在不谈论情绪的情况下谈论自己的情绪。”
Having now spent so much time in Albee’s world, MacKinnon says that beyond being a great writer, she also recognizes the man in every one of his characters. “Whether it’s an older man, a teenage boy or a middle-age woman, there’s an Albee-ness in them across the board. They make me feel more openhearted and smarter.”
There is another Albee play, “Occupant,” that MacKinnon would like to bring to San Francisco. It’s about Albee’s close friend, thesculptor Louise Nevelson. “It’s in an interview format, and it’s a great role for a woman,” MacKinnon says. “It’s quite an emotional piece. I’d love to do that here and perhaps partner with a museum.”
After she was hired in January 2018, MacKinnon got to work planning her first season, mostly via phone and with occasional visits. She touched down in San Francisco in July but was soon off to direct “Downstate” by Bruce Norris (“Clybourne Park”) at Steppenwolf in Chicago, then was back to really lay down roots in October. But please don’t ask her how she’s settling in to San Francisco.
“I don’t want to settle in,” she says with a laugh. “I want to figure out the rhythms of life here in the city and at ACT. I don’t think it’s my job to settle. My ambition is to punch upward, explode and provoke.”
“Seascape”:戏剧。爱德华·阿尔比（Edward Albee）。由Pam Mackinnon执导。1月23日至29日预览。1月30日开放。至2月17日。$ 15- $ 110（如更改）。美国音乐学院剧院的Geary Theatre，S.F。Geary St. 415415-749-2228。www.act-sf.org.