Role:            Directed
Where:         New Mercury Theater
Playwright:   Pedro Calderón de la Barca

Postcard

I directed this time because I felt so good about it in Chicago that... frankly, I was ripping off some of the things we'd seen or known in Chicago because I was doing a new play every four weeks and we were just basically cannabalizing any idea that we had pretty quickly.  So we did Life is a Dream which I directed and didn't act in.  I was doing a play over at A Contemporary Theater at the same time, and I hired a guy that was pretty much an animal. (chuckles) He was amazing when he wasn't high...apparently.  He gave me the best reviews of the theater.  But you know we took this back to the original Spanish -(clip) I had a guy who was my assistant director on this one who did his thesis in college on the play.  He came to me and said that "a lot of the scenes were never translated, there were no English translations and they're actually good scenes that have a lot to do with the play so I want to translate those for you. And then let's go through all the translations that are available and pick scenes that we like and pick lines that we like and make our own kind of continuum of it."  And that's what we did and it was very successful.  I was very happy with the text that we ended up with and I was happy with the actor that I chose.  I thought we had a great cast and opening night was fabulous and the reviews were amazing and then I went off to act and I didn't see the run.  People said that the guy was hot and cold and sometimes horrible .  JM.com 2007

***
"New Mercury Theatre director James Marsters explains in the show's program why he is staging Pedro Calderon de la Barca's "Life Is a Dream." His note says, in part, 'We have, all of us, been wronged; we are, all of us, seeking revenge on innocence; and we, all of us, need to journey towards humility and forgiveness.'..  Marsters' style strives to foist conviction upon the preposterousness."    Joe Adcock ·  Seattle Post-Intelligencer ·  July 15, 1993

"The New Mercury Theatre, a can-do fringe troupe, fails to realize this remarkable drama the way a larger, more artistically consistent company might.  But director James Marsters deserves points for even giving it a whirl.  And we can hope his example will spur others to investigate this genre...Marsters in general keeps the action sharp."  Misha Berson  · Seattle Times ·  July 15, 1993