George Walker: Clue with a screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, written by Sandy Rustin. Directed by Heinie Winters Vogl. Our guests are the director, Heidi Winters vocal. Julie Dixon plays Miss Peacock Heidi...
Heidi Winters Vogel: The version we are doing was written in 2020. In January of 2020. And then revised in March specifically for online theater because of the pandemic.
Heidi: I loved playing Clue as a kid and then it was one of my children's favorite games to play. So, I have very strong visions of what it should be like and I actually hadn't seen the movie until this opportunity to direct the play and the movie is not quite how I imagined the game. I had to do some thinking about it. Bringing a beloved game and also beloved movie to life is tricky sometimes. As it doesn't come to life the way people imagined it,. How we're approaching it is, just really telling the story.
George: Heidi, who does Julie play?
Heidi: She plays Mrs Peacock.
Julie Dixon: Well, it's been a lot of fun. I wanted to think about the character. We're being costumed in the colors. It's gorgeous, it's a Peacock blue silk dress. It is the most gorgeous color I think I've ever seen. It is just very fabulous and it has a 1950s look and I have a hat with Peacock feathers, The Peacock feathers are the most fun prop I think I've ever been given as an actor. They just sort of wave around in the breeze. Whenever you move your hand.
Both Heidi and I, Heidi doesn't know this, but both of us are right, left, dyslexic, on zoom. The right and the left become very important for the digitally composited background so we don't have any landmarks. You can't say, go to the bookshelf because there is no bookshelf, I find that the hardest part of this process, there are no landmarks. It's really difficult for me to orient myself in the space.
If you could see where I'm working, I have little stickies up all over my condo in the room where I work that go the bookshelf is here. The door is here. This person is here and in an attempt to try to orient myself by the color of the sticky notes that I stick on the wall
I have a dagger. I think the character wishes it was a bottle of whiskey instead, but she does have a dagger.
George: And Mrs Peacock wanders around from room to room. I'm curious about how you're doing the rooms, Heidi...
Heidi: I can't really give anything away, but prepare to be amazed. We have a scenic artist doing drawings of the room that will be our backgrounds. Then Chris, Berchild is doing some computer magic to put people who are all over the country into those rooms.
George: Heidi, are you finding it a little difficult to work with these different actors or have you established them all on zoom?
Heidi: We have actors in Portland, Oregon, a couple of actors in Texas, one in Tennessee, one in Virginia. I hope I'm not missing anybody. But yes, yes, it's an exciting opportunity. To work with all these people. There's challenges, but it it it's working. It's working nicely, yeah?
George: Heidi tell us a little bit about your background, director.
Heidi: I've been directing for for years, several decades. I moved to Indiana three years ago from Virginia. I worked, you know, typically on a stage in the same room with the actors. You know, after this many years of doing it, I have some ease with how that happens. At my advanced age I am learning something new, because this doing it on zoom and doing it in a virtual space. It's been an interesting challenge, but this one with everybody in different states is new and fresh to me.
You can't keep us down we're trying so hard to make this happen during COVID and I am just. I'm thrilled for the creativity that that our profession has exhibited during this time.
I'm going to be so happy to be back in the same room with actors.
