Deb Hansen believes people do not perform their best when they are too busy taking direction. So as a director of local theater productions, while she makes big-picture decisions, she also encourages her cast and crew to make creative choices.
Hansen, of Haymarket, has directed about 150 plays over her career, including musicals and student productions, and acted in more than 30 shows.
She never tires of it.
“I just love telling stories,” Hansen said. “I love being a performer and being able to bring a story to life, and trying to make the playwright’s story reverberate the way that they intended when they told the story. It’s always a unique experience, which is interesting to me, too.”
In 2021, Hansen was hired to teach theater at Gainesville High School when it opened. However, shortly thereafter, her parents needed care, so after producing “Clue,” she resigned to help them.
The following year, she began working at the ARTfactory in Manassas as a theater instructor and also assumed the responsibility of directing various shows for Rooftop Productions, one of the ARTfactory’s theater companies.
The position may not have been the one she was seeking, but it was right for her. She had always tried to help develop student actors, but now she could also draw upon her peers for their creative input.
And the talent pool was deep. Hansen said she was “blown away,” when she auditioned 34 people for four roles in Rooftop’s production of “Doubt: A Parable” earlier this year.
“Everybody was really good,” said Hansen. “I’ve seen a lot of community theater; sometimes it kind of has a bad reputation. I don’t really find that to be true in the Northern Virginia area. I think the quality of the actors and the crews and the directors are just phenomenal and that makes me especially want to be part of that community.”
Hansen grew up in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Ill. Her parents weren’t theater folk, but they were looking for an activity for their two daughters. The family decided to perform in their first play together, “Fiddler on the Roof.” That experience sparked in Hansen a love for theater that still burns strong.
Hansen became an educator and moved to Northern Virginia in 1995. For most of her career, 2007-21, she taught at Colonial Forge High School in Stafford, directing six or more student performances each year.
In 2012, she was one of only 15 educators nationwide selected to participate in the Juilliard Director Summer Fellowship program in New York. There she learned a valuable lesson – one she now brings to Rooftop Productions: Empower your actors.
“A lot of times young directors or first-time directors – you make the mistake of getting very picky, ‘Now, I want you to take three steps to the right.’ It’s too much instruction, and it doesn’t really allow for any growth for the people who are doing the acting,” Hansen said. “I really try to bring out and collaborate with the actors’ ideas. I really wanted my actors to feel ownership of what they are working on. A lot of times it helps me too.”
And her actors have noticed.
“I can honestly say that she is one of the best directors I've worked with in my nearly 40 years on the stage,” said Carolyn Wong, who starred in “Doubt: A Parable.”
Wong appreciated the freedom Hansen afforded her and her castmates.
“She never told you what to do, but first allowed all actors to explore, to develop their character and motivations, which in the end created very authentic and grounded portrayals, because the actor was allowed to use themselves in the creation of character,” Wong said.
Performing a Radio Show
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For a holiday show this year, Hansen decided to direct the musical “Miracle on 34th Street: A Live Musical Radio Play,” but not in the traditional manner. Rather than having the cast of 19 adults and four children just stand at microphones, Hansen plans to have them move about the intimate space.
“I just think for the sake of the audience, and for the sake of us, that it’s going to be much more entertaining to have some of the pieces acted out,” Hansen said.
Radio plays were often performed in front of a live studio audience, and she wants to mimic that experience. During the performance, crew members will hold signs, signaling the audience to react. There will be a radio announcer and a sound effects person and maybe even costume changes in view.
“All of those things will be present and visible,” Hansen said. “It’s a little bit more fun for the audience to watch.”
Karina Jimenez acted alongside Hansen in Rooftop’s 2023 production of “By the Way, Meet Vera Stark,” attended a director group led by Hansen and relied on her advice when directing a one-act play at the ARTfactory this summer.
Jimenez fully expects that Hansen’s direction will elevate the production of “Miracle.”
“If Deb is involved with a project – in any capacity – it will be great,” Jimenez said. “She’s a dedicated actor, an innovative director and a great friend. Her knowledge and ideas really add another layer to every production that I’ve been a part of with her.”
Recreating the Magic
While people know “Miracle on 34th Street" as a black-and-white Christmas classic, Hansen thinks it is unexpectedly modern.
“The mom character is a badass. She’s in charge of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” said Hansen. “A single mom in the ’40s, which was almost unheard of, so clearly, she’s been hurt, so has a pretty big chip on her shoulder.”
To shield her daughter from pain, the mother doesn’t want her to engage in make-believe. And to her, that includes Santa Claus.
Hansen said it is “a beautiful story of the community getting behind Santa, and what Santa represents,” which is, “getting behind something bigger than yourself.”
“The heart of ‘Miracle on 34th Street’ is that it is important for us to have something to believe in,” Hansen said. “It’s very sweet.”
Hansen said she grew up watching the Macy’s parade and attending had been on her bucket list. Last year she and her husband went to the parade in Manhattan.
“It was awesome,” Hansen said. “It was everything you wanted it to be.”
‘34th Street’ Details
Stacy Shaw is the contributing editor of Haymarket-Gainesville Lifestyle Magazine and publisher/owner of BristowBeat.com.
Read more from HAYMARKET GAINESVILLE LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE here.
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