Tom
How many shows have you directed in Chicago?

Nic
Six or seven, something like that.  The first one was Dumb Waiter and it was at Strawdog during one of their Crossing Boundaries series.

Tom
When was that?

Nic
Shit – Ninety… [laughs] 95?  96?

Tom
So that makes how many shows at Strawdog?  Are those all Strawdog shows?

Nic
No.

Tom
Oh, obviously not.

Nic
No, there’s that one you and I met on, Tom.

Tom
That’s true.

Julie
Which was?

Nic
Friday in America, that was a Titan Production show, and that’s a whole other page in the diary.  Dumb Waiter, Interrogating the Nude, Waltz Invention, Owners, Measure for Measure, Howard Bowl and now Green Bird.

Tom
And after directing Howard Bowl you decided to take some time off.  You headed for sunnier climes-

Nic
Oh, it’s like that.

Tom
Yeah-

Nic
Um, I-

Tom
Oh, I wasn’t going to ask you why.

Nic
[laughs] Yeah?

Tom
So, why did you do that?

Nic
[laughs] It just seemed like the thing to do – I had had Measure for Measure rolling around in my gut for so long, twelve years, and it had been one of my cornerstone theatrical ideas, and after having a chance to do that and rolling around in the fucking insanity that was Howard Bowl, I just felt creatively done, I didn’t feel like I had anything much to say at the moment – and at the same time I got offered this really great job out in Phoenix that would help me redefine my lifestyle in a more healthy fashion.

[To bartender] Right on, man…

Tom
At this point in the interview the cheese sticks arrive.

So it was really a matter of creative exhaustion?  Were there any aspects to theatre that you were growing tired of, or-

Nic
Well, I mean, it was hard - it wasn’t as much the theatre… The ironic thing is that Measure for Measure and Howard Bowl were the two most successful shows that I did in Chicago, critically and popularly as they say, and I felt like I had reached the top of my game.  I felt like I was functioning really well, I was thinking clearly, and that I was executing all of the ideas that I could wrangle from whatever group of maniacs was surrounding me at the time.  I feel I was really suited to be wrangling those ideas but I was exhausted, so this chance to slide into an easier life came along.

I went to Phoenix and after spending a year and a half there, with only one full time job, it feels like I was on vacation the whole time.  I didn’t have any worries I was dealing with.  I slept for the first six months and after that I started learning how to cook again, and just got my shit together and figured out some stuff I wanted to do.  I knew that Strawdog was always going to be a really important place to me.

Tom
So…

Nic
Hold on, are you sure you don’t want any cheese sticks?

Tom
No.

Nic
Julie, cheese sticks?

Julie
No, thank you.  But thanks for offering.

Nic
All right.

Tom
So do you think that the time you took off, working a regular full time job, resting your brain, affected the process of doing Green Bird, or affected your thinking about Green Bird?

Nic
Well, yeah, it made me a complete nightmare to deal with.  Since I’ve known I was doing this for a while and I was sitting in Arizona it was really all that was on my mind.

Tom
You mean it made you a nightmare to deal with in Arizona?

Nic
Actually, no, for the design staff back in Chicago ‘cause these are all people that are functioning in the scene, they’ve got three or four shows that they’re working on before Green Bird, but since I’m sitting in Arizona, and all I’ve got is Green Bird and I’m sitting stewing in my little house and I’m blasting all these people and getting upset that they’re not being as aggressive with thinking about the project as I was.  But it did give me a chance to – I really started to lay out the game plan for how to deal with this insane, really insane undertaking, seriously, I mean, what a way to start back up.  It’s some sort of bizarre hubris, I think – like I have to feel like I’m in over my head in order to feel satisfied.  I have to feel like I did something damn near impossible in order to feel the pride that I like to feel after I finish a show.

Tom
Do you think this show is the biggest challenge you’ve had?

Nic
Unquestionably.  I feel like it would have been something I could have taken easily and in stride when I had the momentum coming out of Measure for Measure and Howard Bowl, but taking some time off and as they say about everyone that takes their little retirement and comes back: there’s a chance I might have lost a step.  You know what I’m saying?  But, the hope is that it’s compensated for by a clearer mental faculty.