FARCE THE HOUSE
AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNIE TIPPE AND ANDREW BOYCE BY DAVID MENDIZÁBAL
Berkeley Rep’s Associate Artistic Director David Mendizábal sat down with POTUS director Annie Tippe and scenic designer Andrew Boyce to discuss their collaborative process bringing 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the Roda Theatre. DAVID MENDIZÁBAL: Selina Fillinger’s
POTUS calls for a world of heightened physical comedy. How did you approach the play’s needs and the spirit of satire? ANNIE TIPPE: Selina said to me, “My
intention for this play is that it could be done with four chairs and a couple of doorframes.” So, Andrew and I have tried to explore the most creative way to traverse all the locations of the White House in this play and honor Selina’s offering that simplicity 10 | THE BERKELE Y REP MAGA ZINE
and clarity allow more space for the humor and the wit to live and breathe. We were interested in how we can both lift the most potent comedic elements as well as the harriedness of people coming in and out of different doors.
places. That sense that people are coming and going and could be around any corner.
ANDREW BOYCE: We’ ve
comprehensively about the multitude of perspectives that are going to be engaging with something that has as much baggage as the iconography of this place, institution, and symbol. There is an incredible amount of documentation about the W hite
been on such a journey of wrestling with how to move from place to place within the world. I feel like we’ve maintained, in all the different iterations of the design, that kind of speed and fluidity moving back and forth between the various
Andrew, what’s it like designing the White House? AB: It’s tricky to honor and think