“Maybe there was something about wanting to create a world that’s different than the world I experience every day,” says Daniel Fish about why he became a director. “But it’s also making something with other people. That’s really what it’s about.”
With his revival of Oklahoma!, he simultaneously creates a world different from the chaotic New York City of his daily life and one similar in social-sexual politics and gray areas to the one we live in.
Although when Fish first approached the Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein work, he didn’t necessarily plan for his vision to be such a departure from classic productions—but the text demanded it of him. “Like a lot of people I thought I knew the show, and then when I started to work on it I discovered there was more there than I previously knew,” he told Playbill on opening night.
Where did Fish learn to look closely and re-examine? In the video above, he lists four productions that were impactful for him, the way he looks at theatre, and his work.
Videography and video editing by Roberto Araujo.
