Director finds welcome home in Helms

You may not be able to go home again, but Melissa Crespo certainly doesn’t have any problem going back to her alma mater.
“It was a little surreal at first,” Crespo said when she stepped inside the building that houses the University of Virginia’s Culbreth and Helms theaters. “I remember being in the building as a student.”
Crespo, who graduated from UVa in 2005, was invited back to direct the opening play of 2008-2009 drama season.
“It’s definitely a dream come true,” she said, “because I am able to direct and be in the drama department and I don’t have to go to class.
“That’s really great. It’s exactly what I wanted to do when I was in school. Now I’m doing it, and I’m getting paid for it.”
Crespo will be on hand when her cast stages Neil LaBute’s “Some Girl(s)” in the Helms Theatre on Thursday night. But then the Cavalier grad will be headed back to New York City.
“I have been down here for about four weeks now; unfortunately I leave the day after we open,” she said. “That’s what usually happens. Once the play opens, the director is done. I would have loved to stay longer, but my flight is booked and I am out of here [next] Friday.”
She’s headed back to Second Stage Theater, where she will be serving as an assistant director for a second year.
“It has been a really great ride since I have left school,” Crespo said. “I have been working consistently, and UVa was a great beginning for that.”
After graduation, she went to work at the Arena Stage in Washington. As a fellow, she got to be assistant director for all of that season’s shows.
“It was, like, seven shows,” she said. “Then I got another fellowship in New York City at Second Stage Theater; it’s an Off-Broadway theater. In the midst of all that, I have also been freelancing and directing at various theaters, which led me to my third year out of school, this past year, to freelance all over. And that allowed me to get work and do theater in a lot of different places.
“Kind of like now, I’m traveling and going to a place for a certain amount of time.”
UVa, she said, allowed her to concentrate on directing.
“It got me two job offers right out of school,” said Crespo, who transferred to the Charlottesville university from Ithaca College.
“I had been acting all my life, which is a great basis for any director,” she said. “But directing sort of found me.
“It was right when I transferred to UVa. … I was able to direct every semester in the student lab series.  It was such a wonderful experience, because it is such a rare opportunity to be able to have so much directing time. It was really great.”
It was also great to come back again.
“It was an honor to be invited back,” she said.
So when she got a phone call in March, Crespo penciled in Charlottesville on her calendar.
“UVa has a play selection committee, and I believe it is composed of both students and faculty,” Crespo said. “They selected the play and then contacted me and asked me if I would like to do it.
“It actually worked out really well. My schedule was open.”
Crespo came down in April to search for a lead actor and four actresses to tell the story of a soon-to-be married former Lothario. More than 100 auditioned.
“The play surrounds this one guy,” Crespo said. “He’s a 33-year-old fiction writer. And he is about to get married.
“He is basically the guy who could never commit, but is finally committing. And he decides before he gets married he has to visit his ex-girlfriends and make amends.”
Daniel Cackley stars as the Guy.
“LaBute didn’t give him a real name because he is sort of an Everyman,” Crespo said.
An Everyman on a mission.
“It’s a proverbial do-over,” the director said. “He decides he didn’t treat the [women] very well so he goes to meet up with them. This takes place in four hotel rooms in different states where his exes live.
“It’s four meetings with four very different women that gives a great overview of who this guy is, how confused he is and how much he doesn’t know what he wants.”
She said it also shows his pattern of breaking up with women and leaving them hanging.
“It’s a great glimpse into the male psyche,” she said. “But it’s also about relationships and how people treat each other and how difficult love can be.”
You also get a glimpse at the women.
“The women have chosen to show up,” she said. “The women didn’t have to come.”
LaBute is famous for provoking thoughts. Among his films are “In the Company of Men” and Samuel L. Jackson’s new “Lakeview Terrace.”
“It’s about what draws people together,” Crespo said. “It’s a really interesting play in terms of something that everyone can relate to. It’s about love and relationships and heartache. Something we have all experienced.”
So as Crespo’s experience here is drawing to an end, we have the chance to begin enjoying her local handiwork as she heads back to New York to get “Mr. and Mrs. Fitch” ready for a February debut.
“This has been wonderful,” Crespo said. “I really loved my time at UVa, and I am having a great time now.”
“Some Girl(s)” opens at 8 Thursday and will continue Sept. 26, 27, 30 and Oct. 1-4.
The cost is $14, $12 for seniors and UVa faculty and staff. Students pay $8.
Dial 924-3376 for tickets.