Voices on the Art Form

Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 CRAIG ANDERSON

Craig Anderson is a director and producer whose television movies and miniseries bear the special imprint of the theater. He began his career producing and directing more than 40 plays on and off Broadway during a 15-year period, and since that time Anderson's theatrical roots have maintained a defining presence in both his choice of film projects as well as their production quality. Among his works are Hallmark Hall of Fame presentations (O Pioneers and The Piano Lesson), the miniseries True Women, and a television movie adaptation of Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native.

In September 1997 Anderson filmed The Staircase in northern New Mexico, a movie for television based on the story of the miraculous staircase that was built for the Sisters of the Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe during the 1870s. He begins a recent conversation by describing his transition from stage to screen.

I lived in New York for about 18 years and loved it, and pulled up roots at one point to come out here to try my hand at this. But I still adore the theater! In fact, I produced a play last year in New York and I'm going to direct a play this year. So I'm still hoping to cross over back and forth between the two worlds. . . . When I came out here, I wanted to stick with what I was doing. What I knew very well was character and drama, because that's what plays are all about. I always thought it was very difficult sustaining the action of four-wall setting for two hours of a play, that if I could do the same thing but open it up a little bit more, I would be able to maybe make some successful movies.

Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn't really like to do that. They really like to have this total escapist stuff. So the kind of stuff that I was doing and was interested in was not really popular out here. Now, it's very popular, luckily, because they've changed into enjoying more of a sense of drama, and more of a sense of character. The critics are sort of raking everybody over the coals if you don't have it that way!

So, my sensibilities initially are absolutely grounded in the theater, and everything I do in film is pretty much a consequence of my theater training. I'm a stickler on character with regard to script and writers; I often hire playwrights to adapt screenplays because I think they're better writers, actually. They do know how to do character a lot better, they do have a better sense of drama. . . . My projects that I do out here pretty much have to have those elements, and then we can go from there.