Q. What are you reading?

A. "One Minute to Midnight" by Michael Dobbs, about the Cuban missile crisis. It's a really great book, and a very interesting look at Kennedy, Khrushchev and all the things that led up to the crisis, and how these men pulled back from nuclear disaster. And in the airport coming back from the Mainland, I picked up a book called "The Perfumed Sleeve" by Laura Joh Rowland, a historical detective novel about 17th-century Japan. It's a paperback and a really easy read, with very beautiful and vivid detail about feudal Japan.

Q. It's Rowland's detailed portrait that you like most?

A. Certainly, and I think she has clearly done her research as it relates to custom and dress. She paints really vivid pictures of street scenes, and I really enjoyed the historical detail. I really like historical snapshots that really drill into the past not only to get at the look of things but also how people lived in that time.

Q. What stands out about Dobbs' book?

A. How young they all were. John Kennedy was in his mid-40s and Bobby Kennedy was in his mid-30s, and here they were trying to negotiate a real crisis that would impact the entire world. It's an interesting character study.

Q. Are any details or character insights seeping into your productions?

A. When I'm directing, I take from all experience, including my personal life experience. And there's something very Greek tragedy about "One Minute to Midnight." These people are larger than life, and so I guess there is something that I pull from all of those. They're studies of people and their motivations, and that informs how I direct — no question about that.