Devon de Mayo

Director, You Can’t Take It With You

You Can’t Take it With You is about the family you choose. That’s what makes a play written seventy-nine years ago still feel fresh and funny today. The Sycamores and the people they collect are quirky. To the outside world, they are bizarre, out of place. But under this roof, they are a family. They encourage and support each other without judgement or expectation.  This is why the Sycamores feel so modern. For so many of us, the family we choose is just as important as the family we were given.

Recently, NPR reported that You Can’t Take it With You is one of only two plays that has never left the annual list of “Top 10 most produced plays in US high schools” in the past 50 years.  This play is how many people discover theater.  In part, that is because the themes continue to resonate with contemporary audiences, but it is also because plays just aren’t made like this anymore.  It is an unabashedly funny and beautiful and sprawling ensemble piece that four generations can enjoy together. And sadly, there are still too few plays with so many great roles for women.  This play is also a classic because you not only want to watch it, you want to be in it.

For an ensemble this large, we were shocked to discover on the first day of rehearsal that none of us had ever worked on a production of You Can’t Take it With You. To make this play, we are forming our own quirky, not-so-little family. Just like the Sycamores. So, we are creating our Sycamore household brand new together. This requires both hard work and a lot of generosity and love and fun. You Can’t Take it With You gives some good advice for us through Kolenkhov, who says “Art is only achieved through perspiration.” That is true of all theater, but particularly true of this play since it requires timing, physical agility, generosity, and persistence. Kolenkhov would be pleased by what the play demands of its ensemble. In contrast, Grandpa, the head of the Sycamore clan asks of hard work, “Where does the fun come in?” The mark of any good chosen family is lots of laughter.

So. We laugh. We work. We sweat. Then we laugh again. And hopefully, you will, too.