By SHARON EBERSON
The controlled chaos of 10 Out of 12 piles on challenges that could make a director wild with worry. So why is Andrew William Smith smiling?
Smith sees purpose in every cue perpetrated by playwright Anne Washburn (the postapocalyptic Mr. Burns). The title, 10 Out of 12, refers to the hours Actors’ Equity Association allows for one day in the technical process of building a show — in this case, the show is within the show about who does what: performers, stage manager, designer, etc. The twist: The audience is privy to everything all at once. Wearing headsets, patrons can hear what is happening in the stage manager’s booth, behind the scenes, as well as in every area of the auditorium.
in Quantum Theatre’s 10 Out of 12. (Image: Jason Cohn)
The production, at the Mellon Institute in Oakland, doesn’t present some of the site-specific challenges of, say, having to build both stands and a stage. But that doesn’t mean Quantum’s crack team of builders isn’t hard at work, creating Tony Ferreri’s scenic design. The surround sound-and-site set includes an elevated booth, with an archway to pass through, for two stage managers: the character and 10 Out of 12’s stage manager.
Director Smith’s smile widened as he talked about keeping a doc with notes about lighting cues, recorded and live voices, a cast of 14 …
A frequent Quantum collaborator, Smith said he thrives amid the problem-solving that goes along with a show that requires intricate technical timing, along with relationships among theater artists.
“It’s also about putting together the show — the dynamics within that, and just the joyful, bizarre experience of what goes on,” said Smith, who uses the word “joy” often to describe the experience of putting on this particular show. “We are constantly laughing like mad, because everything that’s happening in this play is happening to us in real life as we’re doing it. It’s a constant meta experience that just has to make you giggle.”
He is sitting outside the Art Deco auditorium as he speaks, a few feet away from noisy construction work, although his first impulse was to sit in the space within the artfully wood-paneled walls and soak in the sounds of creation.
Karla Boos, Quantum Theatre’s founder and artistic director, notes that last time her company touched down at Mellon Institute, it was 2006, for The Voluptuous Tango — a comic opera with Lenora Nemetz as Isadora Duncan — by Dominic Muldowney.
Comedy is front and center, out front and behind the scenes, of 10 of 12, including the fictional show, a new, 1930s-style experimental play, with period costumes.
That is what most attracted Karla Boos, when Smith sent her a list of possible plays for her final season as Artistic Director of the company she founded in 1990.
Boos was “very excited to do a next project” with Smith, after the Howard Barker play Scenes From an Execution.
“[10 Out of 12] sort of a love letter to the theater, the people who make theater, and that feels right as I get close to the end,” Boos said. “I also will say, my personal favorite thing about the play, is the play that they’re making really resonates with me. It is so the kind of play that I would make. There are other plays about the making a play, but this one is such an ambitious and insane piece of work that they’re working on, that I love it, especially for that.”
Smith, an associate professor of acting at Carnegie Mellon, is Co-Artistic Director of Project Y Theatre Company in New York City.
He saw 10 Out of 12 when it debuted at NYC’s Soho Rep in 2015, where in its initial description, it said, “You’ll watch the director struggle to contain the uncontainable.” The director in the show is played by Tim McGeever, among a local cast including fellow PG Performer of the Year Melessie Clark, Jamie Agnello, Mark August, Connor McCanlus, Shammen McCune, Corey Rieger, José Peréz IV, and more. Smith hinted that some of the voices heard on the headsets may sound familiar to theater-goers.
The play resonated with Smith, the unheard director behind the scenes, who said recent plays he has directed have been “narrative driven, character driven; they follow a very clear plot line.”
10 Out of 12 offered the opportunity “to expand my thinking, my experience, style, genre. I think I needed to do something different. I didn’t know it would come in the form of an ensemble, very deeply textured, and technologically complicated piece. But I think it does fit me because I sort of thrived in those kinds of projects.”
An audience that has never seen the inner workings of what it takes to put on a show can learn something, too.
“Anne Washburn does a lot of the work for us here. We’re taking people on a journey, a window into a world, and it is a different world,” Smith said. “Just like plays can be, it is a world that has its own rules,” Smith said, adding that the script is very clear about those rules: “How do I listen to everything? Where is everything coming from? What is coming through my ear versus happening in the space? She drops it in, piece by piece by piece by piece, and it begins to get more layered, more textured.”
Over the course of the play, complications continue to arise, sometimes frustrating, sometimes maddening, often, not that different from the real thing. And the audience sees and hears it all happening.
If the thought of the experience seems daunting, Smith counters, “I think it’s my job as a director to be an innocent audience member, sitting in those seats for the very first time, trying to figure out what the heck is going on. And so it starts to be about focus and attention. ‘What is the focus of this moment? And how does that then hand off to the next moment?’ So it may bounce back and forth between what’s happening in front of you and then your ear set, but hopefully with the right understanding of message delivery and timing, hopefully that can be clear.”
“Leaning in” to the play’s complexities can be a trap, Smith said, “so it’s our job to maybe take the complex and make it simple. There’s accessibility, there’s appeal, there’s humor, there’s heart, there’s high entertainment value. These are things that are important to theater and this play has it, and I think it’s more accessible despite it being adventurous in a technological sense.”
Smith was smiling as he said, “At the core of this is a joyful spirit. So we tend to default to laughter at the end of the day.”
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Quantum Theatre’s production of 10 Out of 12 is at the Mellon Institute, 4400 Fifth Ave. at Bellefield Street, Oakland, entrance on Bellefield side (with sign at the door), one floor below street level. April 3 – 26, 2026, Wednesday – Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. (no show on Easter Sunday, April 5). Tickets: https://www.quantumtheatre.com/10-12/.
Categories: Feature Stories, Our Posts, Show Previews
The idea of capturing chaos in a structured way sounds interesting. How did the actors respond to the unpredictable moments?