If you looked at the program for Silverthorne Theater’s Sanctuary City, which opened June 11, you could be forgiven for thinking at first glance that it’s a UMass Theater production. Many of the names in the cast and creative team, as well as the behind-the-scenes folks, are connected to the department as alumni, current students, faculty, and staff.
This small but vibrant professional theater company was co-founded in 2014 by the late Lucinda Kidder, an alumna of our graduate MFA program, and it has become a keystone of the Western Massachusetts theater culture. Since the beginning, the folks running the company have been intimately acquainted with the benefits of a UMass Theater education. Hiring theater artists and technicians who speak a common artistic language makes sense, and for those newer to the field, working with the company provides an atmosphere that is both challenging and supportive as they take their first professional steps.
We reached out to some of team involved in Sanctuary City to ask them some questions about the production and the connection to UMass Theater.
Here are responses from current MFA costume design student Hanh Rioux, who is on costumes for this show, and from Rose Schwietz Malla, who just graduated from our directing program.
We’ll be sharing others as the production proceeds.
Hanh Rioux, MFA candidate in costume design, Sanctuary City's costume designer
Question: What’s your role on this show? Is this your first time working with Silverthorne? If you’ve worked with them in the past, was it in a similar or different role?
Rioux: I’m the Costume Designer, and I also designed The Comeuppance for Silverthorne last summer.
Question: What excites you most about this production?
Rioux: I am most excited about working on a show that is “my kind of theater.” I love designing shows that are flashy, historical, or fantastical, but my favorite shows to watch are like Sanctuary City: intimate, contemporary, and deeply personal.
Question: So many folks working on this production are current or past UMass Theater folks. Does having that common background make a difference in the way you approach the process?
Rioux: It’s always nice to work with a director you already know. This is my third show with Rose, so I already know how she communicates and her collaboration style. Because we have a shared background in UMass theater, I feel that there is a mutual understanding and camaraderie.
Question: And from the other side: how is working on a show in the community different than working in an academic setting?
Rioux: Because collegiate theater is focused on developing skills and learning about the process, you usually have one role at a time. In the professional world, I get to wear many hats at once. At Silverthorne, I am the designer, costume shop manager, stitcher, craftsperson, and whatever else comes up. It’s fun to be on a team where we are all supporting each other to get a show up, and we’re not just staying in our own creative lanes.
Question: What are three words you’d say to a potential audience member to pique their interest in the show?
Rioux: You’ll probably cry.
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Rose Schwietz Malla, directing MFA alumna, director of Sanctuary City
Question: What’s your role on this show? Is this your first time working with Silverthorne? If you’ve worked with them in the past, was it in a similar or different role?
Schwietz Malla: This is my third season with Silverthorne. I've been a production manager, intimacy choreographer, and assistant director. I directed a staged reading, and this is my first time directing a full production.
Question: What excites you most about this production?
Schwietz Malla: The storytelling is unusual and surprising, shocking even. The way that we learn about the characters, and the way that we fall in love with them through a series of broken up fragmented memories, is a really exciting theatrical experience. What the actors are doing is stunning, but also the design, it just fully takes you into this little world that these two people share.
Even though it’s set in early 2000’s, it could very easily be happening today. It's about two undocumented young people living in America and trying to figure out how to lead a full life and not have to hide all the time, and as we know that is the experience of many, many people today. My husband is an immigrant and we’re very fortunate that we’ve been able to get the Green Card and go through all of this in a relatively easy way, but that’s not true for a lot of our community. We have a lot of friends who are in various states of the immigration process and it’s very stressful and frightening for people. It's been an honor to work on this piece that will speak to so many people’s experiences at this very point in time.
Question: So many folks working on this production are current or past UMass Theater folks. Does having that common background make a difference in the way you approach the process?
Schwietz Malla: We definitely have a shared language. Caleb (Koval) who’s one of the actors in the production, is a UMass alum and so I know the courses he’s taken. That means we have shared acting training, and that has definitely shaped our rehearsal process. We have that shared theater language, which is really fun. Willow (Cohen) is our production manager and she’s amazing. She has a different role at UMass (as the department's managing director). She and I have never worked together in a creative setting like this, so it’s been really fun to make plans together and figure out how to navigate a very different theater space compared to UMass, but we already have a shared history and a strong relationship.
Question: How is working on a show in the community?
Schwietz Malla: The process has just been so excellent, so incredibly smooth. It's been an amazing team of designers, production folks, and cast. I feel really fortunate to be able to work on a piece in such a supportive way.
To be able to come together with the community for a play that’s about community and about two young people finding and making community in each other in a world that’s pretty hostile to them has just been a really excellent experience.
Photos courtesy of Silverthorne Theater. Top photo, Rose Schwietz Malla views a scene during rehearsal for Sanctuary City. Lower photo, Rose Schwietz Malla speaks with actors during rehearsal.