Quick Chats: Sarah Day on The Year of Magical Thinking

Welcome to our Quick Chats series, where we take a peek backstage and ask questions that are almost completely related to the show. Today, we're chatting with Sarah Day, who plays Joan in The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. Based on the memoir of the same name, this one-woman show explores grief and how we experience it. When her husband unexpectedly dies during a quiet night at home, Joan's analytical and logical mind can't quite cope. She frantically looks for a solution, and finds it in 'magical thinking'-if she can follow certain rules, get her daughter Quintana out of the hospital, and make all the right preparations, she just might be able to bring her husband back. This emotional journey opens a conversation between Joan and the viewers about how each of us copes with the most difficult issues of life and death. Now, let's turn to Sarah for her take. APT: What's the hardest (or best) part of doing a one-woman show? S: The hardest part of doing a one person show is that you really are there-all alone. One of the fun parts of being an actor is RE-acting to your fellow actors. That is something you don't get to do with a one person show. But with this play Brenda DeVita, the wonderful director of this piece, has asked me to be conversing with the audience. So, when you see the show-I'm actually talking to you. That can be very exciting. APT: The character you portray is a writer. Are you? S: I am not a writer. APT: Do you have a favorite quote from the show or the book that inspired it? S: My favorite quote from the book is: "Life changes in the instant. The ordinary instant." APT: Joan talks about swimming at her beach house. Would you live on the beach? S: I would love to live on the ocean-someday-maybe I shall. APT: What's another book that you would like to see adapted for the stage? S: Oh, there are just too many to mention. But one of the very best adaptors of books into plays is our very own Jim DeVita. So, whatever he's working on next, is what I'd like to see. The Year of Magical Thinking runs through October 4 in the Touchstone Theatre. For more information or to buy tickets, please visit http://americanplayers.org/plays/the-year-of-magical-thinking or call the Box Office at 608-588-2361. Photo: Zane Williams