Interview with the Director of “We Only Come Out At Night,” Domenico Leona

After the opening of We Only Come Out At Night we checked in with Director Domenico Leona  to ask about the show.

Question 1: Why did you want to direct this show?
Horror is difficult to do on stage, and I feel like my hopes as a director have always been to dive into the deepest pool I can and see if I can swim. This show was definitely a deep pool, but beyond the scares, laughs, and B-Horror aesthetic of the play, I mostly found myself interested in it because it kept surprising me. Relationships are deeper than they appear, characters you think are part of a trope or stereotype blossom into full, real people when you least expect them to, and I set the pages down not knowing who I was supposed to root for or condemn in the end. Finding a way to bring that dynamism to life, to make it kinetic, was the driving force behind me deciding to direct the play.

Question 2: How would you describe your vision for this production?
I’ve mentioned how much of the play is an ode to B-Horror movies of the 80’s, and definitely wanted to approach that from a place of respect without leaning towards reverence. The play is set in modern times and beneath the aesthetic is all about friendship, morality, and how much we’re willing to sacrifice of the latter to keep the former alive. I had a vision of something scary and funny, even silly at times, but underneath that had to be an understanding that each of these characters are real people dealing with real fear and turmoil. In serving the campy comedy you expect from a show like this but supplementing it with care that each character avoids becoming a cliche, this wonderful thing can happen where you as an audience member don’t realize just how much you care about these characters until you see them in danger. And in recognizing that care, you take on their fear as your own. I feel like all great horror does this, and reaching for that in this production was of incredible importance to all of us on set.

Question 3: How was the rehearsal process for this show? What was exciting? What was challenging?
Because horror media has often been associated with grueling creation processes i.e., The Shining, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, or The Exorcist, I believe it’s easy to assume that to make something horrifying or intense, the process has to match that horror and intensity. I disagree with this assumption. We had so much fun playing with blood and violence and getting to really go big in a way most plays don’t give us the opportunity to. Veda Salinas, who plays Elizabeth in the show and has to face a lot of that blood and violence, approached the most intimate and difficult scenes of this play with a sort of giddy excitement you probably see most often in kindergarteners during recess. She is an absolute revelation, and the bar she and the rest of the team set just enabled all of us to feel so comfortable in the storm of the show, and that comfort and playfulness, in my opinion, led to most of the best moments in the play. To fully answer your question (while maybe cheating a little) I’d say facing those very challenges was the most exciting part of rehearsals. Those little diamonds you pull from the rough, so to speak.

Question 4: What has been your favorite moment?
Getting to work on a show with emerging talent while being in the same room working with actors and artists I’ve admired for years. Veda, Dillon Vidaurri and Willie Morris are fresh on the scene here in Houston, and watching each of them grow in real time, discovering things as actors they maybe didn’t know they were capable of beforehand was so rewarding, even as a spectator. Matthew Martinez, on the other hand, is an actor I’ve wanted to work with for a long time, and I spent about 90% of rehearsals laughing at him. He is brilliant and has an unbelievable ability to get his finger on the pulse of a character. Jared Guidry is a man I’ve worked with on 3 plays this year, and he still manages to blow me away each time we share a room. He is mystical and frankly the only thing that rivals his talent is how amazing a person he is. I feel as though we are practically family now. A big shoutout to Robby Matlock too, one of Houston’s best actors who did intimacy coordination for us and contributed to that comfort I mentioned earlier.

Question 5: What were you most excited about seeing at the show yourself? What about for your audience?
There’s a quote from a great film director, Bi Gan, who says that making a movie is like building a house, with a key difference. In architecture, the project is complete when the house is complete; in film, the “house” is complete only when the person steps inside. We invest all these resources into making a piece of art, a “house,” so to speak, but for us it’s not truly real until an audience is there to inhabit it. We’ve built this play, this house, in such a way that I still find myself frightened by its darker corners and startled by its flickering lights. My heart still pounds, and I still laugh out loud watching it. Seeing an audience experience that for the first time, and shoot to their feet when the final bow is taken after a shocking finale is a reward and an excitement you can’t be thankful enough for.