CS Weekly Archive > From the Trenches > 10/9/09

Two-Hander:
Peter and Vandy's Jay DiPietro

BY JENELLE RILEY

CS Weekly's Jenelle Riley talks with writer-director Jay DiPietro about how he adapted his play into this weekend's Peter and Vandy, and how he feels about comparisons to (500) Days of Summer.

A gem of a film premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, telling the story—out of chronological order—of the ups and downs in the relationship of a pair of attractive 20somethings. It's called Peter and Vandy and it actually bears little resemblance to that other festival hit, (500) Days of Summer, even if they sound deceptively alike in description. Peter and Vandy writer-director Jay DiPietro is obviously tired of the inevitable comparison. "I didn't think they were that similar, personally," he says with a sigh. "The worst thing that can happen is somebody will enjoy the other one more. I can live with that. We're a smaller, more low-profile movie, so the more people hear about us…" he drifts off before finally saying, "If it helps the movie, all the better."

You can't blame DiPietro for being tired of the question; since the sleeper success of that other film, comparisons are inevitable when Peter and Vandy hits screens today. Though it's a romantic drama told out of order—"a love story in disorder"—the film is markedly different from the fanciful (500) Days. In addition, DiPietro's script began years ago, first as a play by the same name at The Paradise Theatre Company in 2002.

DiPietro started out as an actor and came to be mentored by Tom Noonan, the great character actor probably most recognized as the killer in Michael Mann's Manhunter, or more recently as Philip Seymour Hoffman's stalker in Synecdoche, New York. An accomplished writer-director, Noonan founded The Paradise Factory, a theatre company where he cast DiPietro in several plays. "I wrote one scene, just a man and a woman in a living room, and showed it to Tom," DiPietro recalls. "He said, 'I could watch these people all day; you should write about them.' The second he said that, I knew I wanted to write the story of this couple, but put it all out of order just so you would see all of the inconsistencies and hypocrisies." DiPietro also wanted to write it in such a way that the audience would know where they were in the relationship just based on the characters' behaviors. "It was 10 scenes, and they would never say, 'Well, it's been two years now, and you're starting to get on my nerves.' But you would know exactly where they are."

The play, which opened in September 2002, was a true labor of love for DiPietro, who wrote, directed, and played Peter. But it didn't stop there—he did everything from building the sets to making the programs. Set entirely in a living room with only two actors, the play was nominated for a 2003 Drama Desk Award and optioned by a company DiPietro refrains from naming. "I went through a good two and a half years with those people not making the movie," he notes. "Then they kind of dissolved and I got the option back and hit the ground running." The film was ultimately financed independently and landed distribution at Sundance.

Starring Jason Ritter as Peter and Jess Weixler as Vandy, the film still consists of several scenes at the beginning, middle, and end of the couple's relationship. Sometimes horrible fights break out over the way Vandy makes a sandwich. At other times, they watch their friends fighting and feel blissful and superior.

In adapting his play to the screen, DiPietro says many of the changes were obvious. "It had to be more than just two characters, and it had to get out of the living room," he says. "Then it kind of grew from there." The biggest challenge, he reveals, was trying to maintain the essence of what had been so successful on stage. "Ultimately, it had to change and evolve in some way. I had to bring in other people but still capture what the story was really about." For DiPietro, the theme of the script is that you can learn the most about people when they're not talking about what they're feeling. "You see everything that's going on with them when they're ordering Chinese food or the way they argue over a sandwich," he notes. "That's when you can really see what two people are about."

Continues DiPietro, "Things don't happen by chance in relationships. You end up in a certain place with somebody and say, 'How the hell did that happen?' But if you go back in time you can kind of see from the very beginning you're putting the pieces in place. If you went back and looked at a videotape of your first date, it would probably blow your mind. You wouldn't remember the things you asked for. Even when you're having a good time, you're laying the foundation for everything you will become."

One of the major changes involves the ending of the film. Though he didn't intend it to be, the play ended with the state of Peter and Vandy's relationship more ambiguous. "A lot of people thought they didn't end up together in the end, even though it was written that way," DiPietro muses. "I think it was really people projecting what they needed to see in the play. It was really interesting, actually. People would bend it into what they needed to see." The film's ending leaves no doubt about whether the couple ends up together.

Prior to Peter and Vandy, DiPietro had written one screenplay, but says he learned a lot about his process from Noonan. "He taught writers and I would go in as an actor to work on scenes," he reveals. "There were a lot of great exercises in the fundamentals of writing. That was the education for me." As for his process, he says, "I write every day, that's pretty much my process. I start off with an outline then I start putting some cards up, basic stuff."

DiPietro adds that he never stops at a first draft. "I keep on going back and layering the story," he notes. "Maybe in the midst of that, you'll come up against something like, 'How do I make this third act work?' or 'How do I get from point A to point B?' You can come up against those roadblocks, but if you write every day, you usually figure it out." To that end, he says he rarely encounters writer's block. "I think if you just say you're going to write every day, that's what you do," he says. "It's the tilling of the soil. The answer doesn't come to you right then, but maybe the next day. You might spend your entire day banging your head against a wall and wake up the next day and open up your notebook and write down exactly what you were trying to figure out the day before."

Another thing that helped DiPietro shape his ideas? Pitching the film over and over again. "When I was meeting cinematographers and actors and had to sit down and talk about what the movie was, so much of the film crystallized in that process," he says. "Being able to talk about your story in a clear and concise way informs the final product."

Ever since the play version of Peter and Vandy, DiPietro has focused more on writing than acting. He wrote a pilot, is developing a couple of plays, and is currently putting the finishing touches on his new script. Called Family Head, it will also play with time in telling the story of a family in present-day Manhattan, juxtaposed with their life in the 1980s at a Boca Rotan tennis club. "The stories have several parallels," DiPietro notes. "I like playing with time."



Jenelle Riley is a playwright and screenwriter in Los Angeles, and yes, she is very jealous of Jay DiPietro.



Peter and Vandy courtesy Strand Releasing

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