No time for egos: Playwright and director unveil ‘Sticky Traps’ at Kansas City Repertory Theatre

Listening to a conversation between Nathan Louis Jackson and Kyle Hatley is a little like stepping into a whirlwind.

Right away you’re sucked into a twisting funnel of opinions, revelations, insights, incomplete thoughts and unfinished sentences, all of it punctuated by bursts of laughter and the occasional well-timed F-bomb. None of which is particularly surprising.

Jackson, 36, and Hatley, 34, are theater artists with energy to burn and have made names for themselves in recent years as if there were not a minute to waste.

Jackson was once an actor but now is known almost exclusively as a playwright, in both Kansas City and in New York City. Hatley has demonstrated equal skill as an actor and director. As if that’s not enough, he also happens to write plays.

Together they have formed a formidable team. They first worked together in 2010, when Hatley staged Jackson’s “Broke-ology” for Kansas City Repertory Theatre. That play and that production were a revelation for local audiences.

Jackson’s family drama about a working-class African-American widower and his two adult sons in Kansas City, Kan., was a heartfelt depiction of a community that few, if any, Rep theatergoers knew much about.

They teamed up again in 2014 for a Rep production of Jackson’s “When I Come to Die,” a prison drama that raised profound questions about mortality and spirituality. That production reflected growth and maturity in both artists.

“When I Come To Die” and “Broke-ology” had been staged in New York before the Rep mounted them.

Now, however, Hatley is directing Jackson’s newest play, “Sticky Traps,” a family drama with topical themes and is, again, set in the state of Kansas.

The world premiere began previews this weekend. In it audiences will encounter the story of a woman’s effort to protect her gay son’s honor in the face of protests from a group that bears more than a passing similarity to the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka.

Jackson is about to start his third year as the Rep’s in-house dramatist as part of the Mellon Foundation’s Resident Playwright Program. Hatley was the Rep’s associate artistic director before relocating to Chicago last year but continues his association with the company with the title of resident director.

For Jackson, Kansas City is home and he would like to stay here once his residency expires. His nonplaywriting opportunities, including writing for the TV series “Resurrection,” can be done from anywhere.

For Hatley, a native of Memphis, Kansas City remains an artistic home where he experienced his most significant growth as a director and actor. (He’ll be seen this summer in the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival production of “King Lear.”)

Recently the two sat for an interview in a rehearsal studio in the James C. Olson Performing Arts Center, where the Rep, UMKC Theatre and the university’s conservatory share space.

That’s where they’ve been working on “Sticky Traps,” which began previews this weekend and runs through May 24 at Copaken Stage. The cast includes Joshua Boone, Dawn-Lyen Gardner and Blair Sams, all of whom are based in New York, and Mark Robbins, who in February delivered a riveting performance as Roy Cohn in the Rep’s production of “Angels in America.”

Nathan, you’ve worked with other directors, but what unique quality does Kyle bring to a production of one of your plays?

Nathan: Passion, a lot of passion. I don’t know if he just stayed away from idiots, but he hasn’t been tainted. With a lot of folks I find … it takes effort to drum up that passion. With Kyle it’s always there. You always want to work with someone who’s just as excited as you to work on your piece.

This is not just another job to them or a stepping-stone to something else. And you get that sometimes. That would be the biggest thing. That, and you want to watch someone direct and say, ‘Oh, good, I can’t do that.’

That’s how I look at almost all art when I go to the museum and see those paintings and I say, ‘There’s no frickin’ way I could have done that.’ To me that’s what’s impressive because I can’t fathom how someone’s mind works like that.

Have you ever directed?

Nathan: When there are people like Kyle in the world, what show am I gonna direct better than Kyle? (When it comes to) making pictures on stage, oh my God, it would look like a convoluted mess.

I know other playwrights who, in their stage directions, you can tell they know what they’re talking about. I just put the most basic stage directions in. Now the script has a bunch of stage directions, but half of them came from (rehearsing) in here. Some of that stuff, it takes a really keen and trained eye to do that. Kyle has that. I don’t.

Kyle, as a playwright, what do you recall about your reaction when you discovered Nathan’s work by reading “Broke-ology”?

Kyle: I had a very emotional reaction to “Broke-ology.” It was crystal clear in terms of what these characters sounded like, how they moved, what was pushing and pulling them into and away from each other.

It was clear but while also posing really big questions about what it means to be in a family, what it means to be developing your own life that may sometimes push your family away — these complicated questions that didn’t necessarily need an answer.

I don’t know how to explain it. It had a universal but unique appeal in that it felt like it could be any family, but it was also so specific about this family in Kansas City, Kan.

Even though it had a specific family in mind and a specific location, it could reach almost any family. And I think that’s really hard to find in any play. It might be one of my favorite plays by Nathan because it was the first one. But then again, I loved “When I Come to Die.” And I love “Sticky Traps.” I don’t know if I can rank them. You love them differently and specifically.

As a director it’s easy to be passionate about Nathan’s work because I have such an emotional reaction to the way he tells stories and the way he sees people.

How often do you butt heads?

Nathan: It’s terrible, but we haven’t. Maybe something’s wrong with that but we really haven’t butted heads. I do think sometimes we may see things differently, but after trying it a couple of different ways, the clear way always …

Kyle: It reveals itself.

Nathan: Yeah.

Kyle: There are times when we have differing opinions but my responsibility is to listen to Nathan. Even if I disagree with his opinion, there’s something in it that will inevitably show itself. So in those situations I hope I’m wrong. You know what I mean?

Nathan: When it comes to the words — hey, man, we can talk a little but then (you have to) say what was put on the page.… When it comes to the way the show looks or the picture Kyle’s trying to create or the feeling he’s trying to create onstage, I’ve written the words and he’s basing it on what I wrote. So I just have to pull my hands back and let the man work.

Kyle’s not a fool and neither am I so if one of us has an honest opinion and a well-thought-out critique and says, “This is just not working,” the other one’s probably gonna say, “Oh, you’re probably right!”

Kyle: We don’t have time for head-butting, really.

Nathan: We don’t have time for that. We gotta go, man.

Kyle: In this particular situation, we’ve been with “Sticky Traps” 41/2 years, workshopping it, through readings, on and off, as Nathan has taken it away, worked on it, sat on it.… I’ve seen all the different angles so far.

I’ve seen his brain work over a long period of time. It’s the best way to ever start a new work if you’ve spent that much time with it beforehand. So we’ve developed a shorthand with it.

And I’ve been around for the backstory in a lot of ways, and for the birth of some of the characters or the changes in some of the characters. I’ve been given a lot of access that has given me a well-rounded point of view into the play.

Nathan: Which doesn’t happen all the time. You were in it very early and you’ve seen a lot of different versions of the script. A lot of different versions.… There were some versions where I was like, “Maybe I should just throw this thing away.”

Nathan, you used to be an actor. How does that experience influence the way you write characters and dialogue?

Nathan: I think the acting comes in when you’re creating these characters. There’s a thousand different ways to look at it. One is just the basic form: You have your good guys, your bad guys, your protagonist, your climax, your denouement. You can basically look at this play in your classic form or you can read this play as an actor.

What you want to do is finish the play and look at each character and say, “If I’m an actor I’m going to fight my damnedest to play this role. I’ve got to play this role.” And that’s how you want to look at it.

If I feel like an actor has to play the role, the audience has to watch them. The audience has to accept it. The character has to be so good that people will be drawn into it. The actors are your first line of defense.

This story was originally published April 25, 2015 at 7:00 AM with the headline "No time for egos: Playwright and director unveil ‘Sticky Traps’ at Kansas City Repertory Theatre."