Actor, writer, director, and producer Amanda Baschnagel is amazing. Well, at least that's the talk around town. Born on Long Island, New York and raised in Las Vegas, Nevada, she directed her first play at 17 years old. Now a second year MFA Performance and Pedagogy student, she's directing for the second time at Texas Tech.
As a young actor, Baschnagel felt strongly that the style of training she received excluded her: “I wasn't ‘whatever' enough to excel in the traditional style of the Stanislavski method of training. What I love about directing is being able to create work, and methods of creating that work, that can be for the younger version of me who needed a different kind of space.”
The best thing to her about directing? “I get to work with a lot of really cool people.”
She also loves working with ensembles of all non-male actors: “There is something really freeing about this experience… being in a marginalized community or a minority community that like… it's only you. There's a freedom there.”
Those spaces allow her more room for creative collaboration: “As a director, I help create the space for people to feel that freeness.” She was directing Blue Hands by Julia Anderson for Frontier Fest last year when she applied to direct this season's production of The Wolves by Sarah DeLappe. Neither show has male roles.
According to Bashnagel, the job of a director is to get the best work from “your collaborators” and to “captain the ship to get us all headed in a singular direction.” It appears that she is doing her job.
“She's great at getting us in an ensemble mindset,” says The Wolves cast member Maddie Hiatt. “And I feel a good deal of respect for her, but I don't feel like anyone is better than anyone else in the room. Makes for kind of a level playing field.”
Bashnagel feels lucky to be directing The Wolves, a one act full-length play about a high school soccer team: “I have the best team members: designer, actors, stage management. It's been very easy as a director because they all are doing a really good job.”
In her process for this show, Baschnagel has created new methodology to which the cast is responding enthusiastically. “Working with Amanda is so easy,” says Hiatt, “because she asks questions that are thoughtful and direct. I don't feel like she's telling you what to do. Not that it matters. But it does matter.”
The second year of graduate school has been a contemplative one for Baschnagel. She has been “…questioning all the things I thought I knew about myself.” She doesknow that being a good director is all about being a communicator, one who is clear and specific.
She likes that about herself, and so does her cast. “She is absolutely phenomenal,” says Emma B. Leighton. “She has a very clear and caring vision for the show and it's an honor to work with a new generation of directors that is so caring.”
Baschnagel says that immersive experiences, stories about community, and non-romantic love inspire her as a director. “And I love weirdo movement stuff,” she adds. “Any chance that I'm like, ‘Okay, great. We all get to be trees for a second.' My dream!”
As humble as she is talented, Baschnagel thinks that, as a director, she could be a better listener. She considers herself impatient and credits that to her youth: “I feel a lot of pressure to fix things quickly. I'm sure if I let things be they would fix themselves.”
Two of Baschnagel's many favorite directors are Tina Landau and Melia Bensussen. Baschnagel finds Landau's collaborate method of working exciting. She is inspired how Bensussen directs from a “place of kindness.”
Clearly, Baschnagel shares traits with both directors. “She's really, really great,” says The Wolves cast member Krystyna Gray. “She makes the workspace a welcoming place. She has a great energy which causes all of us to have a great energy.”
Previously the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Campfire Theatre Festival in Idaho before it closed in 2021due to the pandemic, Baschnagel balances her many talents by prioritizing the opportunities that become available to her. She also makes the opportunities she wants become available.
Baschnagel would love to direct The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl one day. She finds it a good play whose characters are pitted against one another in complicated relationships where love is always the core. That kind of playwriting speaks to her: “It's a magically theatrical show. You get to make a big mess. I've always wanted to do that show.”
Baschnagel is grateful for her place at SoTD and the support and opportunities she has been given here. Her undergraduate experience was the free formed experience she needed at the time, but she came to this program for more formalized training: “I wanted to be able to say that I'm this kind of artist. I can do these techniques. Stock up my toolbelt in a way.”
Baschnagel ultimately intends to become a professor. For now, however, many TTU actors are grateful that she is directing. “I love her,” says The Wolves cast member Danitza Rojas. “She makes it so easy. She's one of those directors who you know you're going to see in the professional world one day and be thrilled to work with again.”
The Wolves plays in The CH Foundation The Legacy of Christine DeVitt Black Box Theatre February 2-4 and 8-11. Baschnagel will then direct a devised piece for Frontier Fest in April. Next summer, she travels to the Eugene O'Neil Theatre Center on a National Directing Fellowship from KCACTF.