The Conversation: Candida Director David Staller

On a short list of things to thank George Bush for there is David Staller’s inspiration to produce and present the complete theatrical works of George Bernard Shaw. Staller, a bonafide Shavian (a Shaw devotee) before he began the endeavor, set out to direct a monthly public reading of the Irish writers plays at the famed Players Club in Gramercy Park in New York.

Staller, the director of Two River Theater’s production of Candida, a Shaw play, said that “when George Bush was reelected it was a very frightening time particularly for the media. Whether or not you were pro or against what the Bush Administration was for was irrelevent to me. The point is human rights were at stake.” 

Staller called the moment, “the spark” for him that sent him off “tilting windmills,” to mix literary references. The director went Quixotic and sallied forth with Shaw’s work as his shield and his intensions as his sabre.

Shaw’s plays, comedies all, were also sharp commentaries on social issues and institutions including education, marriage, religion, government, health care and class privilege. Staller, claiming he could not contribute financially, enough anyway to have any great effect on the body politic, decided to revive Shaw’s body of work instead. He hoped for what he called his “little ripple effect contribution.”

From 2006 to 2009 Staller and his company, the Gingold Theatrical Group, named for his late friend and fellow Shavian, Hermoine Gingold, presented all 65 plays.  And the work continues. The company is developing new material written by theater critics. Shaw was an accomplished critic himself.  The new works, penned by members of the press community, will employ the humorous and humanist precepts of Shaw. In addition the group will also present a new Shaw series starting in the fall, comprised of scene work instead readings of full plays. All of the work of the Gingold Theatrical Group, Staller said, will adhere to Shaw’s precept, to be an affirmation of human rights.

Of TRT’s newest production, Candida, Staller remarked that Shaw “took flack for writing it.” Shaw, a fierce supporter of women’s rights, created a love triangle story in which the power resides, uncommon for the time, in the role of the desired woman, the play’s namesake. Candida, the play and the character, challenges societal structure at a time in history when women lacked any power, certainly the power to vote or to own property. 

Staller’s admiration for the play is based, in part, on a tempered, wise resolution, that perhaps comes from journeying with Shaw all these years. It is the timelessness of the work, which was first produced in 1895, that interests him. Despite advancements in personal and collective views on the equality of all people, we are, over a hundred years since Shaw’s play first encouraged audiences to be candid about love, marriage and women’s roles, still fumbling around with the subject matter. 

“I find it thrilling,” Staller said, “that, the exploration of who we are hasn’t changed.  People are the same.”

And although Staller’s inspiration for his Shavian exploration no longer helms the “free” world, it is the unchanging nature of our governance that tempers his response to politics today. 

“What I’ve learned, in my adult age,” he said, “is that it’s always the same…whether we like the president or not…no matter what the administration.  It’s always an on-going struggle.”

Six years of tilting windmills has resulted in an understanding that politics is as per usual, and as per Shaw, it is the manner in which we govern ourselves that deserves introspection, understanding and dedication.

Paraphrasing Shaw, Staller concluded, “the government we get is no better than the government we deserve, which basically means, we are responsible.  It’s up to us to make bold choices, because the caveat, the hard part is it’s our responsibilty to take responsibility.  And I think this is what Shaw was trying to impart in all of his work.”

Performances of Candida run through April 10. The production is sponsored in part by Two River’s Education Partner, Monmouth University, and Rumson Fair Haven Bank and Trust.

For more information about David Staller and Project Shaw or to view the company’s schedule, go to: www.projectshaw.com.

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