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• Whitney Hutchinson

Whitney Hutchinson is a junior in speech communication at the University of Illinois who is planning to continue on with law school. She is the director of Illini Union Board's spring musical Grease, and has also been the assistant director for two other IUB productions - spring 2005's Guys and Dolls and fall 2005's A Night on Broadway. Hutchinson also directed plays during high school. Along with working in the theater, Whitney is a member of the university concert choir and a member of U of I's mock trial team. Whitney has also been elected president of Mock Trial for next year.

The IUB production of Grease which Whitney is directing will be playing at Assembly Hall on April 7 at 7:30 and April 8 at 2:00 and 7:30. Tickets are $15, $13 or $11 depending on the section. You can purchase tickets at Ticket Central in the Union or at the Assembly Hall box office (www.uofiassemblyhall.com).

How was your experience directing Grease?

It was outstanding. I was really lucky that I got to work with such an amazing group of people. When it comes to the staff, those that are working with creative decisions, and the cast that we're

working with, we pulled an outstanding group of people. It's been a great experience putting together such a huge production but also getting to know everyone and getting the community within this group working too.

Are you planning to continue directing?

It's just a hobby, we'll see where it takes me. I'm applying for law school next year. So we'll just see what happens. I would definitely love to be able to continue doing theater and law at the same time, I don't know how I'm going to do it. I would love to be able to keep this hobby, keep it going.

What musical or play would you love to direct?

Wow, probably Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim. I grew up with the music. I just fell in love with it. I think it's a hilarious show. It's great for kids, cause it's all about fairy tales and stuff like that but there's just so many undertones and so much humor that's really dark and hilarious. Yeah, definitely I would pick that show.

What did you do as an assistant director?

It kind of depends on the director. The director I worked with was great, his name was Chris Owens. He let me take on a lot of the co-positions. Basically, when you're an assistant, the main vision comes from the director and you're just there to help him make that vision a reality. Help them figure out blocking, help them if they need to step out of rehearsal or work with a separate group. It was really nice.

Do other artistic influences come in through your directing?

For this show, we definitely did a lot of historical research. Cause so much of the music, like everyone knows music from Grease, but a lot of it's based off of actual songs of the time period. But I did a lot of looking into different movies for different characters to kind of help direct and guide the actors and actresses. Everything from a character on Dawson's Creek to someone actually playing Sandra Dee in Beyond the Sea, a whole wide variety of things, we pulled from everywhere.

What do you want the audience to get out of the show?

I want them to have fun. It's a very well-known show, it's campy and cheesy. But it's really high energy and there's so much music and so much going on. And it's about a time that everyone's experienced - high school and figuring out friendships and relationships and figuring out one's sexuality. I definitely want everyone to have fun and just be able to laugh and relate to it. It takes place in 1959, but the themes in the play are prevalent in society today.

What was the best and hardest part of directing?

I'd say the hardest part is definitely the casting process without a doubt because it's a grueling process. For our staff it was three days of open auditions and two days of call backs, so a five day process and it's all at night and you're still doing classes at the same time. You're trying to get everyone on the same page as to what they want. I'd have to say the best part is just seeing, while basically the whole thing is coming together, that people are enjoying themselves at the same time. I'm able to see the personalities of everyone in the cast and staff shine through in their work and that's really great.