Q&A with director of JOB - David Ferry
Inside JOB: David Ferry on directing a play that keeps you guessing until the end
Rehearsals for JOB are officially underway, and we’ve got something special for you! We sat down with the director David Ferry to talk about everything JOB — from what drew him to direct the play, to the story behind it, the casting process, and his best advice for new directors.
1. A little birdie told us you found this play and brought it to the Coal Mine.
Yes.
2. Where did you find it?
I read a really interesting article/review by Sara Holdren at Vulture (link) where she talked about a 1926 essay by Virginia Woolf called How One Should Read a Book. In it, Woolf describes the difference between what she calls ‘actual reading’ and ‘after reading.’ Holdren goes on to talk about JOB and the ‘after seeing’ she experienced. I was immediately hooked.
I tried to find where I could buy a copy of the script. It wasn’t available. So I searched out Max’s social media presence and sent him a message via Instagram—like, “Heya, how can I get a copy of your script?” He put me in touch with his agent, who sent me a PDF copy. I read it and knew it was perfect for the Coal Mine.
3. How did this all come together?
I asked Max’s agent if the rights for Canada were available, and she said, “No, not yet” (they were about to move to Off-Broadway). “But when they are, if someone comes looking, I will let you know since you are the first to reach out.” That was super considerate of her.
I then reached out to Ted and Diana and pitched it. Diana and I subsequently read it for Ted, and then, happily, Ted went after it. One thing that was great validation of what a good company the Coal Mine is: when I mentioned to Max’s agent that I was doing a reading for that company, the agent said, “Oh, cool. We like the Coal Mine.”
4. This play is a high-intensity two-hander between Jane—a young woman working for a tech giant—and Loyd, her male therapist. What made you want to direct this show (& what do you like about it)?
Well, confession time. I first thought it might be a good piece for myself and Diana Bentley to act in, with Ted directing. But Ted was already directing a show in the 24-25 season, as was Diana—who had just done her amazing Hedda. Also, we were both a little old for the roles (well, maybe a lot old in my case).
Ted then asked me if I would consider directing it… and that also tickled my creative fancy.
The play is so wonderfully open to audience debate—whose truth should we believe? Hers? His? Both? And it is, right from the get-go, so feckin’ dramatic. Like, Max said to himself, “I want the audience sitting on the edge of their seats from lights up to lights down. No foot off the gas.”
In a way, it reminds me of Mamet’s Oleanna, which also told a tale of a very big gender/generation gap and often had audience members arguing about the play’s meaning and intention. Though I think JOB doesn’t lean toward the “one character is right and one is wrong” trap that productions of Oleanna have fallen into.
5. Let’s pull back the curtain a bit. Before rehearsals even begin, what does your preparation for this look like?
Read, read, read again. Look for multiple takes on the story and the characters.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about Max’s comment that this is a “period piece” and reading about the new world order of online mega-monolithic social media/web companies and how they have impacted (and are impacting) our lives. Max suggested the book Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener—wow.
I also did a lot of tracking through online maps of San Francisco (the play’s setting). I divided the play into about 12 blocks and started looking at them out of sequence to push myself not to think linearly.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time asking the younger creative partners in this production what the play means to them. Max said early on that he really wanted to see a Jane (Charlotte Dennis) who was actually Gen Z.
6. What was the casting process like for Jane?
Great. Challenging.
Early on, Ted and I knew we wanted a very strong 60-ish Loyd—someone who could be charming, enigmatic, and maybe a little intimidating. I had directed Diego before in his brilliant and award-winning portrayal of Satan in The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, and we were ecstatic when he was available.
We read about sixty actors for the role of Jane, and it was fascinating to see how powerfully the play and role connected with the fantastic cross-section of women who came in so prepared for their readings. It was challenging to narrow down the choice, but Charlotte knocked us out with her connection to the character—her smarts, her vulnerability, her ambiguity, and her willingness to invest and investigate.
It was also interesting that Charlotte grew up knowing Diego because of her parents (Deborah Drakeford and Oliver Dennis) and their work as actors alongside Diego.
7. This play talks a lot about the internet, the generational gap, and workplace burnout. In your opinion, what is this play really about?
Well, all those things. But also, the search for purpose in our lives. The need to feel we are making a difference. That we are helping others.
I don’t know about you, but especially since the most recent U.S. election (and the play is set against the Trump-Biden election), I feel more and more powerless to make a difference when confronted with evil, badness, hate, and prejudice.
Doing this play, for me, isn’t just an opportunity to do a great play—it also has the added incentive of maybe helping to make clearer some of the big questions we are faced with in terms of morality.
8. What have you learned from reading this play?
That the older I get, the less I know.
9. What’s the best piece of career advice you’ve ever received?
In various forms from various people who have mentored me or let me see their vision, to quote Beckett: “Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
10. What’s the best and worst job you’ve ever had?
The best? The one I have now. The one before it. The one after it.
The worst? Selling encyclopedias. I lasted one day. I could only memorize the terrible sales pitch by pretending I was Michael Caine in Alfie.
11. What's your favourite part of directing a show?
Oh, gosh. Watching the actors bring the words to life in the present as if it were life and death. Seeing how the designers do the same with image. Watching an audience member get genuinely surprised, scared, moved, amused, entertained.
Seeing the whole team—ushers, volunteers, bartenders, crew, artistic directors, actors, designers, stage managers, techs—take ownership of the play.
Seeing the play become the child, and all of us in the magic circle of theatre-making become the village that raises that child.
12. We like to pay it forward—any words of wisdom for young/new/inspiring directors?
You know more than you may think.
Find a kind of theatre you have to do, and do it passionately.
We are just a long line of theatre folk with one arm stretched out to the person who came before us and the other reaching for the one who follows.
Honour both.
