Q & A with vickie washington, director of "Responders"

vickie washington has become a huge favorite at TheatreSquared—both among staff as well as audiences! Her directing credits include some of T2’s most popular shows, like The Mountaintop; Schoolgirls; or the African Mean Girls Play; and Ain’t I a Woman. In 2022, she helped usher Joseph Scott Ford’s Responders through that year’s Arkansas New Play Festival, and returned with the show as it graduated to a full production this month on the Spring Theatre stage.

Additional directing credits include Hairy & Sherri (Salt Lake Acting Company); Seven Guitars and Fabulation (UNT); Blood Knot (Flat Rock Playhouse); What to Send Up When it Goes Down and Are you now, or have you ever been… (Stage West); The Great Lonely Roamer (Echo); Black Nativity (Bishop Arts); Mississippi Goddamn (SDCC-World Premiere); Harriet Jacobs (TCU); Passing Strange (Theatre Three); Sunset Baby and Single Black Female (Jubilee Theatre); Fences (African  American Repertory Theater).

washington is also a gifted actor, performing at the 2023 ANPF in Jonathan Norton’s I am Delivered’t. Other acting credits include POTUS (Stage West); A Raisin in the Sun (WaterTower Theatre); Dreaming Emmett (DNAWORKS); Primer for a Failed Superpower (The TEAM); Crowns (Dallas Theater Center); for colored girls…, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, and Piano Lesson (Theatre Three); A Lesson Before Dying (Jubilee Theatre); Contribution (Soul Rep); The Tempest and Macbeth (Shakespeare Dallas).

Earlier this month journalist Becca Martin Brown had a conversation about what’s going on in washington’s life these days.

Q: Is Dallas still home?

A: Yes, Dallas is still home… actually more accurately home base.  I work all over! These days, I find myself waking up and asking myself ‘where exactly am I?’

Q: Is more of your life right now acting or directing or something else?

Currently, I’m directing more than acting… I love them both.  Theatre is for me a sacred endeavor.

Q: Talk about being the director of a play in development, please. Joys? Challenges? When you finish, does it feel like you raised a child with the playwright?!

A: This analogy resonates with me quite deeply. As I mentioned above theatre is sacred to/for me and so is mothering.  I first spoke with Joe about RESPONDERS in May of 2022, and building this world, has indeed been a labor of love. The joys… many and varied.  The script is remarkable! Developing new work is so very rewarding. There is the joy of having the playwright in the room…to consult, to bounce ideas around, to get concrete info, and meaningful insight. Those are part and parcel of new play development. In working on RESPONDERS these past two years, Joe and I have developed quite a special relationship, full of laughter, respect, curiosity, and trust. When you add the care,  abundant skill, and robust generosity of TheatreSquared, you have a treasured experience. 

Q: Is working with a living playwright you know easier or harder than one you'll never meet?

A: Oooo, wow. I don’t know.  I don’t view it as easier or harder, it just has its differences. 

Q: What makes live theater matter? And does the advent of AI threaten that?

A: Hah! I just don’t think about AI, so there’s that.  Live theater matters because we are afforded the opportunity to gather and witness together story, magic, life… and when it’s done well and with deep care and rigor, we the audience get to breathe in and out together! Theater saves lives.

Q: What's next for you?

A: Going to NYC to perform in the world premiere of blood work by Kristen Adele Calhoun! Produced by the esteemed National Black Theater, performances are at Chelsea Factory.  I guess you could say I’m in my #worldpremiereseason!