Jeff Liu

By APA Staff

A UCLA alumni -- a MFA recipient to be more specific -- Jeff Liu is an artist who loves what he does. You can tell by the glimmer in his eye and the excitement in his face when he speaks about his projects. He was the co-writer of the recent film Charlotte Sometimes, which was nominated for two IFP Spirit Awards. But directing seems to be his passion, and as resident director at Lodestone, he has helmed such projects as Texas, Murderobilia, and Terminus Americana. Also an actor, he'll be seen in Lodestone's next production Asiatik Nation, as well as the short film Harlequin, directed by Lodestone artistic director/co-founder Philip W. Chung.  -- Ada Tseng

APA: Can you start by introducing yourself?

Jeff Liu: My name is Jeff Liu, I'm the resident director of Lodestone, and I'm the director of this play Solve for X.

APA: How did you get involved in the project?

JL: Well, let's see. Judy and I have been working together for years and years. We actually did the very first Lodestone play together, called Texas, in 1999. It also starred Roger Fan. And, speaking for myself, we love working together, and when the opportunity came to do this play...I love this play, I think it's Judy's most mature, passionate work, and I had the opportunity to go on a workshop for this play all the way out in Cleveland. So when Lodestone decided to produce it, I said that I would direct this play.

APA: How did you go about casting the roles?

JL: Again, one of the advantages of being part of this company is that I'm familiar with a lot of these people's work, and I've seen them mature over the years. And, so you get a hunch..."if he does this, he can bring this to it." Or, "these people would have this kind of chemistry." All of the young characters in the play, I've all worked with before. They're all part of the company. The one person we had to go outside for is the father, who's played by Kelvin Han Yee. So, once you had an image of who would play the son, you think, "Ok, who would make sort of a good daddy figure here? Who would be like a bull, which is a reference in the play. And the funny thing about Kelvin is that he did one of the the first Asian-American films that was filmed in China, called A Great Wall. It was probably about 20 years ago. And he played a Americanized ping-pong playing guy who goes and challenges the Mainland guys to ping pong. I was probably about 15 or 16 at the time, and I saw that movie, starring Kelvin Han Yee, this ping-pong playing Asian-American guy, and now, 20 years later, we end up working together. Kelvin had also worked with Judy earlier, up north, and when we were brainstorming, his name came up. So it all worked out.

APA: The thing about the play is that there's so much music involved, there's things happening in the forefront at the same time, things happening in the background. How did that all come together?

JL: Well, pretty much what you saw is exactly how it was written, and obviously this isn't a piece of realism. It jumps in time, and a lot of times, Judy is playing with this Greek chorus idea. It's a little based on Phadrea, and in Greek plays, there's often a chorus commenting on the action. So for me, as the director, that was one of the big challenges. How will we make this clear? People are going to appear here, and they're going to be commenting on the action down there. One thing is, I had to work with the set designer to create a space that would really allow for these fluid transitions, and allow different scenes and characters to co-exist, side by side. If you see the set, that's the way we ended up designing it. That's why we have these pillar things, where people can stand and comment. And we have the rock down here, so it would all sort of meld into one psychological reality. Because really everything is about Hannah's inner life. So, in a way, it's all over the place, but in a way, it's all in her mind. And then all of the characters revolve around it. So, once we have the right design, we could create the space for it.

APA: Was it challenging, because the scenes are also not chronologically in order?

JL: Oh, very, very. I think one of the biggest goals I had in mind was...you know, I love this story, but if I screw this up, it's not going to be clear. I think clarity was the thing I really wanted to achieve, to ask myself, "If I was an audience member, is everything clear, what's going on. Do we understand that this was a flashback and this happened here?" And, so I worked really, really hard to make it clear. To the actors as well [laughs] 'cause sometimes the actors would come up to me and say, "Wait, did this happen first, or did this happen first?" It's not even obvious to them, working on the characters. But we had plenty of rehearsal -- six weeks -- so we didn't have to rush it. And Judy was always available. So she really helped us. So, once the actors have their journeys all down, it's much easier.

APA: Yeah, it's kind of cool 'cause it all comes together like a puzzle.

JL: Yes, exactly. And then we realize at the end, why she saved that beach scene till the very end, right, because otherwise, it's just be too sad. [laughs]

APA: Can you talk about the dynamic on set and working with each of the actors?

JL: You know, it was really fun. Like I said, I wasn't dealing with strangers. I was dealing with people I had worked with. And I wanted them to do the best work they had ever done. And that's the great thing about the company: each one, we reach higher. I'm really proud of all of them. I think it's a huge role for a lead for a female actress. And Elaine, I knew it was right, because even the first time she read the play, she just fell in love with it. And I thought, I know I can go on this journey with her. Roger's reaction was more like -- he read it and he was terrified. He was like, "Oh this is going to be so tough, and I'm going to lose so much sleep over it." [laughs] But I also knew that that would make him really right for it. That he would invest heart, body, soul, into this role. And I felt that way about all of them. Let's see, I don't think there were any big fights, conflicts. People got stressed out sometimes, and people go, "No, you can't trim that scene!" All of that's normal, but I think we came out of it an even tighter company than before.

APA: You were a co-writer for Charlotte Sometimes, right?

JL: Yea, that's right.

APA: Since you have a writing background, does that help you with directing?

JL: Sure, sure. As an actor as well, and a writer, and for us, as Asian-American artists, there's so relatively few opportunities, that I find that even doing something that you're even good at just a little bit, sort of helps. It all factors into each other. Working with Eric Byler, we used so many different techniques. It wasn't just writing separately, we improv-ed stuff, we would re-write each other's stuff. And I think it makes you very sensitive to the process of a writer. Especially if you're working with a writer who's still alive, who's sitting there watching you do stuff to their work. But at Lodestone, since we do mainly new plays anyway, I'm very used to working with writers, and I really love having them there so we can ask questions and bounce off ideas. So yeah, I would say that helps.

APA: So what do you have coming up?

JL: Well, let's see. Last year, in honor of the election, we created a show called Aziatik Nation, which was all about the Asian-American take on national politics. So, not about issues that are just about Asians, but rather like the war on Iraq, same-sex marriages, Republican vs. Democrat. What is the Asian-American take on it? So we did that last November, so that was fun, 'cause some of the play couldn't even be written until we found out the outcome of the election -- so it was like this mad rush to get it ready. But now we're taking it on tour, and we've been invited to USC and Loyola Marymount, and hopefully other colleges, so we'll be performing that April 18th at USC and 19th at LMU, and those are free, so hopefully people will come see it.

We also made our first short film, which is this almost NC-17-rated horror film. That will be playing at the VC Film Fest, I believe, on May 4th. It's called Harlequin, and our really twisted and talented writer-directer Philip Chung created that. And I'm in that, and I helped produce it as well. And then, after Aziatik Nation, we're working on another piece which tackles religion and fundamentalism. So it's like biting off these big themes, and it's great. It's great to tackle stuff that you think really matters, in an artistic way. So that will probably be for next year. And then in the meantime, I'd like to make some more short films.

APA: What do you think is the main difference between working in the theater and directing film?

JL: I think the beautiful thing about theater is that, right before you open that week or two, we call it "tech," and that's when you're going in and dealing with lights and costumes and all that stuff. And that's usually considered the hellish period of theater. Up till then, it's really you, the text, the writer, the actors, and I feel like theater is very organic that way. You work together on the story, on the characters, all the time. In some ways, I think film is "tech" the whole time. You're always worried about the lighting etc...It just means that you have to be so well-prepared at all times, and in a lot of ways, the artistic stuff is all done before that. There isn't as much time to sit in rehearsal and work with the actors. A lot of it is about, "Oh we've got to get this shot, we're running out of light!"

But the incredible thing about film is how it comes together, like by magic almost, in the editing process. There's nothing quite like the experience of seeing the movie, and then it looks so easy. [smiles] And then, also of course, it's forever. Theater, you close on April 24th, and people will hopefully have great memories of it, but it's gone. Theater is kind of ephemeral by its nature. So it's a little sad, but I also think there's nothing like watching the performers 10 or 20 feet away, you know? They're doing it just for you. I love both. I want to continue doing both.

APA: In theater, after all the preparation put into it, when you watch the performances, is it still different every day?

JL: Oh, I would say that you never want it to be identical each day, because it becomes dead. And especially for actors, if they've got to say the same thing every day. I think each audience is totally different. They laugh at different places, they're moved by different things. I think ideally since each audience is different, each performance is different, because actors need the audience. They play off them, and that makes them adjust day to day and find new things. I've seen them grow, even in these three weeks. 'Cause opening night is so stressful. I'm sitting there, like, "I don't even know if it's good anymore!" [laughs] but then you come back and you watch it, and it's like, "Oh I still like this," and then you see actors trying different things. Like, I'll do this with this moment or I'll make this a little more about my feelings about him, or more funny, or more about sex. And I see them doing that, and it's great. They grow into it. I really hope that each show is a slightly different show and a better show on the last weekend than the first. Otherwise, it'd be boring to watch it over and over again.