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While the Dean of the CalArts School of Theater, Travis Preston spent his 2017 summer directing Sam Shepard’s Pulitzer Prize-wininng play, Buried Child. The theater where Preston directed Buried Child was the Hong Kong Repertory Theater. The play offered Preston’s unique take on a classic work. Artistic Director Anthony Chan translated the play and it was performed in Cantonese with subtitles in both Chinese and English for those who needed it.

The experience of directing Buried Child was a special one for Travis Preston. Preston was already influenced by the incredible work of Shepard, but it wasn’t until he directed his play that he truly gained a sense of the depth of his vision, artistry and humanity. While the play was written in America by an American, Travis Preston learned that the story still resonated in Hong Kong.

For those who don’t know the plot of Buried Child, it unfolds in a small farmhouse in Illinois. It debuted in 1978 and won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Travis Preston explains that the play is broken down in three different acts. The first of which introduces Dodge and Halie, an elderly married couple living in an old farmhouse. As Dodge sneaks shots from a flask in the couch cushions, it becomes clear that he battles alcoholism. He and his wife discuss their deceased son who was murdered by his wife on his wedding night. They also discuss another son named Bradley, an amputee who forcefully cuts Dodge’s hair while he sleeps. Finally, as Halie leaves for church, the audience is introduced to their oldest son Tilden. Tilden is clearly mentally unstable, and the audience learns that he has a troubling past in New Mexico.

In act two, the audience is introduced to Vince and Shelly. Vince is Tilden’s son. Shelley is Vince’s girlfriend. They travel to Vince’s grandparents only to be unrecognized by every family member.  While Vince runs an errand to get his grandfather alcohol, Shelly tries to remind Tilden of his son Vince. Tilden says he looks familiar and explains that he had a son a long time ago with his mother, Haile, but the baby was killed by Dodge and buried in the backyard.

The chilling twists and turns continue in act three. Vince is restless and angry. Shelly is exhausted by the family and during her frustration throws Bradley’s wooden leg into the barren corn fields. Haile and Dodge finally recognize Vince and decide to give him ownership of the house and the land. When Vince decides to stay amongst the disfunction, Shelly leaves. Soon after, Dodge passes away and when Tilden walks in with a corpse of a baby in his hands, it’s revealed that the corn has once again bloomed in the backyard.

Travis Preston’s “Macbeth (A Modern Ecstasy)” performed at REDCAT is one of his career highlights in terms of directional quality and cast performances. Many interested in theater have a profound interest in understanding how directors feel about the work that goes into their plays and, in the interest of sharing with enthusiasts, Travis Preston CalArts director recalls the performance and the thought processes that went into making it such a success.

When inquired about his rendition, Travis Preston has said that he wished to “explore the inner landscape of Macbeth’s tortured soul”. In a stark contrast to other performances with massive effects budgets, Preston instead elected to strip down the accompaniment and set design for Macbeth. In Preston’s view, by providing only three jazz musicians as accompaniment and fostering Christopher Barreca’s minimalist set design, actor Stephen Dillane was able to work his magic and provide the critically acclaimed performance that he did with the spotlight rightfully on him.

Travis Preston CalArts esteemed director is well known amongst the theater community for his intuitive directing approach. For example, Preston believes that his job as a director is to trust the people that he is collaborating with. In his experience, creating an environment where the cast and crew are encouraged and empowered to flex their creativity is an important facet of directing expertise. This creates an artistic back and forth in which the entire cast feels as though they can be free to perform to the highest of their abilities which, as it was with the Macbeth performance, can be beyond the scope of anyone’s imagination. Travis Preston CalArts Artistic Director notes that a successful performance is the result of multiple talents working to inspire each other and, in this case; Christopher Barreca’s minimalist set design choices, Benoit Beauchamp’s impeccable use of lighting, a jazz team led by Vinny Golia, and Dillane’s pure acting endurance worked in tandem to provide the audience with a powerful performance.

A theater school’s ability to stage inspiring productions is only as good as its dean. Without the credentials, real-world experience and vision, the enthralling art that we know as “theater” can’t thrive. It’s no wonder then that the School of Theater at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) chose in 2010 Travis Preston CalArts as its dean. The honor came a little more than a decade after Preston first came to the Valencia, California-based school in 1999 as the theater school’s new directing program head. He would soon go on to earn the role of performance and artistic director for the Center for New Performance (CNP) in 2003.

According to Stage-Directions.com, Travis Preston CalArts was selected “from a strong and diverse applicant pool” but his “remarkable breadth of experience, personal artistic abilities and achievements of the highest distinction” made him a prime candidate for the role of dean. “Over the past decade at CalArts, Travis Preston enunciated and helped enact a vision of the School of Theater as actively engaged with the broadest range of collaborations, on and off campus,” CalArts’ president said at the time of Preston’s appointment.

Preston was no stranger to the higher learning environment, either, as previous roles include the Yale Repertory Theater, Center Stage in Baltimore, Columbia School of the Arts, New York University and Harvard University among other prestigious institutions. At the time of his appointment to dean, which was nearly a decade ago at this point, Travis Preston CalArts was a director with international accolades. His version of King Lear was presented in France and Fantômas: Revenge of the Image earned a world premier staging in China in 2017. The latter would be marked by sold-out showings and positive reviews.

To students who are considering studying at CalArts, the above information about Preston can serve as proof that you’ll be learning from those who’ve already accumulated plenty of accolades. Given the film, television and media industry that calls Los Angeles home – and the fact that the multidisciplinary CalArts opened in 1969 and is headquartered in L.A. – it’s no wonder that so many pupils make the move out west. Once this decision is made, classes and projects will begin to transform students of theater into young adults capable of transforming the entire field as they take on real-world roles. It’s a point of pride for Travis Preston CalArts — and any other staff and faculty member, for that matter 00 to see graduates go on and launch careers in the industry they studied during college.