In Friday's issue of 7 I have an interview with Nancy Miller, director of "Rebecca" at the 2nd Space Theatre. Here's a continuation of the interview:

Did Daphne du Maurier adapt the play after Hitchcock made the movie from her novel?

The play was first produced in London (with Margaret Rutherford as Mrs. Danvers!) the same year the movie was released, so it would seem she was at work on it pre-film.

Is the play any bolder than the movie in terms of -- how to put this -- Mrs. Danvers' obsession for the first Mrs. DeWinter? Or does it handle it just as obliquely?

The obsession is extraordinary, of course. Within that context, we worked for variety of tone, a range of ways the obsession expresses itself. I think that's different from the Judtih Anderson/Hitchcock approach, which is a bit single-minded in its intensity.

Were your younger cast members familiar with the movie, or did you have to give them a crash course?

When I work with any play that has a film or TV version, I don't usually want the actors to be influenced by other performances. I always assume the playwright has given us a complete world with all the information we need to give it life, and we work with the text to find that reality. If, once we're launched, the actors want to watch Max Reinhardt's dreadful A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM or one of the many versions of JANE EYRE or THE WOMEN, that's fine with me.

Since the play is really more like the book than the movie, I didn't see that as a source for the actors. I know several of my cast members read the book of REBECCA, and that's fine with me. With literature, it's a little different. Think of it as book-to-play being one step, whereas book-to-film is often a giant leap, and filtered through the director's distinctive vision. It's as they say - film is not the writer's medium, it's the director's, and liberties are often taken - good and bad. I can name movies I think are better than their theatrical source.

Talk a little about the production design of the show.

Very important. REBECCA is much about atmosphere, about ideas and words and
things that lurk in corners, just out of sight. David Pierce's set is taller
than we usually go in The 2nd Space to give the feel of a space that Mrs. de
Winter can't quite see or feel human-sized in. Ginger Lewis-Reed's 1930s
costumes will be key to pulling us into another world and time. I also worked hard
to find music that would be atmospheric - not the melodramatic stings of a
film mystery, maybe more insinuating. And we use quotes from the novel along
with the music as bridges between the scenes to create a certain mood.

What is the biggest challenge putting on this show?

Finding the balance between the heightened emotion and tension in this kind of story and the reality of people that I'm always interested in when I do a play.