Getting into Character

Director, adapter and Lookingglass Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman discusses with Lookingglass marketing intern
Jessica Wright why she became interested in The Brothers Karamazov, the production’s unique design choices,
and which Karamazov brother she is most like.

Jessica Wright- As you edited the script, were there things that, throughout the entire two-year process, you’re like, “This absolutely has to be in there,” and some parts you eventually had to cut?

Heidi Stillman- Yeah, totally. Like, one of the characters, Madame Kolkokov, has this daughter in the book, who is one of my favorite characters in literature. She’s just this crazy girl, and I love her—when I had to pick a character in literature to do in my acting class in college, that’s who I picked. And I had to kill her out of the adaptation. I had to kill her off. So there were things like that.

I knew The Grand Inquisitor stuff, and all the stuff that Ivan and Alyosha talk about, like, I felt strongly that that had to be in there, and I felt strongly that the kids needed to be in there. I mean obviously the main plot had to be there, but those were the extra things that to me, didn’t feel extra. They felt like really—like the thematic meat.

J.W.- What kind of questions or talking points would you want people to come away with?

H.S.- I really don’t know. The book is so awesome and it was so… it’s always interesting to talk about the different brothers’ points of view, as they’re so starkly different people, and they’re so starkly different types of people, and their driving force in life is so different. I mean, one is like, the body, one is the soul, and one is the mind—if you want to be really basic about it.

It’s also really interesting to find out who people relate to. When I was younger, I thought I was like Dmitri, but I’m really probably more like Alyosha—although I’m not nearly as good or as wise as Alyosha. I just learned so much from the book—as a young person, but also working on the adaptation, too.

Check out the other selections from the interview with director and Ensemble Member Heidi Stillman on the Lookingglass blog.