Birthday Candles, by Noah Haidle, presents a unique theatrical experience; we had the opportunity to speak with the production's director, Joanie Schultz, about her interpretation of Haidle's captivating work.

What about the play excites you as a director?
Birthday Candles is the kind of theatre I love, although it manifests in different ways in different productions, it’s what I call mythic realism. The play is rooted in truth and honesty and human needs and intentions, but also with moments of something larger than life, it’s a little magical, metaphysical even. Also, there’s a sense of play in the piece, which is something I love in creating and experiencing theatre.

We see Ernestine, the main character, from ages 17 to 107 during the course of the play. What did you look for during auditions when casting this role?
I looked for a fabulous actress that would be fun to make this play with. Someone with humor and depth and a sense of play. Barbara Chisholm, who Playhouse audiences will be familiar with, is such a fantastic actress, and I know she’s going to bring all of these things out in Ernestine. The roles are challenging for the entire ensemble because we drop into different birthdays — they are different ages and in vastly different places in their lives each time we meet them. While it’s Ernestine’s life, one of the joys of this play is creating this world and how it will function with the group of people involved. I’m certain each production of Birthday Candles will be so different and unique.

Barbara Chisholm

I don't think it's a spoiler to say that a cake gets baked over the course of the show. How do you navigate actual food preparation that will need to happen live every night? What does that mean for props and what does that mean for the actors who have to make the cake?
Well, every night she makes a cake! We will have the ingredients on hand, we have a working oven on stage, and mostly, our incredible crew will need to do a lot of clean up after!

What are the aesthetic vibes of the show? How is design supporting storytelling here?
This play is full of so many big ideas, and it took a lot of work on the creative team’s part to distill them into our design. So much of it is a kind of impressionism — what makes this house what it is over 90 years? What are its essential parts? Along with that, we wanted to be able to zoom in on these moments where we drop into the family’s life, and also be able to zoom out and see the largeness of the universe. So, there are some very real things in the design without pinning it down and making it too grounded to one place and time.

The play takes place over the span of almost a century; audiences are sitting through a 90-minute show. How do you reconcile those two timelines for the actors and for the audience?
I have this friend who I was roommates with many years ago and every year on her birthday she would go through the exercise of remembering all of her previous birthdays: Who were they with? Where was she? I tried, but without having gone through this experience before, I could only remember some of them. Why did I remember them? Some are obvious because big things happened, but some are just…because. Something stuck with me. I think of the play this way. It’s not a memory, but it’s also not every single birthday. Sometimes we go through three years and see each of them quickly, sometimes we skip 21 years and then live in that moment. And that’s how time is, yes? Or at least our perception of it. Some years fly by and others last forever. I love this quality of the play; it’s a lifetime condensed in a very truthful depiction.

What do you hope audiences will take away from your production of Birthday Candles?
The play begins with the question “Have I wasted my life?” and the rest of the play seems to answer that question through the unfolding of a life that is certainly not wasted. I hope the audience reflects that back on themselves, as I have in working on it, and sees the beauty and value of each and every one of their lives. I don’t believe there’s a way to waste your life — each of our lives is valuable and rich.