Exclusive Interview: Katherine Mutschler of University of Detroit Mercy’s ‘Witch’

October 9, 2024 Brian Kitson Community Theater, LGBTQ+, Michigan 7 min read

Exclusive Interview- Katherine Mutschler of UoFDM's Witch

It’s officially spooky season in our neck of the woods, with the temperature dropping to a crisp degree and the leaves piling on the ground. In Michigan, that means it’s time to break out the jackets, head to our local cider mill, and gather our doughnuts and cider for a scary movie marathon. But if you’re looking for the perfect stage show for Halloween, the University of Detroit Mercy’s theatre department has the show for you, as they bring Jen Silverman’s Witch to life on their stage!

Ahead of the production’s debut, I sat down with one of the Witch’s cast members, Katherine Mutschler, a senior at the university. In this interview, Mutscheler discusses her role in the play, how this production has pushed her as an actor, what she’s most excited for audiences to take away from Witch, and where she sees her future in show business going. Enjoy the interview!

[Note: The highlighted excerpts below of this interview have been lightly edited for clarity. Warning for mild spoilers from Witch. You can watch/listen to the full interview above, find it in most places where podcasts are available, or read on.]

Timestamps for this interview:

00:00 – Intro
00:35 – How are the rehearsals for Witch going so far?
01:45 – About Witch, the premise for the show and Kathrine’s role in it.
03:40 – How the show has been updated/modernized from an old Jacobean story/play?
05:35 – Why tell this story now? A good story to tell for around Halloween.
07:03 – How does your character evolve over the course of the story?
08:30 – How has this production pushed you as an actor?
09:30 – What are the themes in Witch that resonate with you the most?
11:16 – Standout moments in the production
12:43 – What has been your experience with the University of Detroit Mercy’s theatre department so far?
14:32 – Do you plan to continue acting after graduation?
15:20 – What is your dream role to play?
17:17 – What do you hope audiences take away from Witch?
19:10 – Show info, and outro

Highlights from the interview with Katherine Mutschler from Witch

Brian Kitson: Can you tell us a little bit about the show, for those of us who maybe don’t know it, and then what your role is in that?

Katherine Mutschler: So essentially, the little blurb we give is, the premise is that the devil has come to this little town. It takes place somewhere in the 1600s, the devil has arrived in the town of Edmonton and is trying to get people to sell their souls to him in exchange for their greatest wish.

And so the devil is hearing from some of the townsfolk that there is a woman who might potentially be a witch in the town. Her name is Elizabeth. And so they’re, “oh, you should go talk to the witch. She’ll definitely sell you her soul.” So it kind of surrounds all of these people in town getting their wishes and what that means for their relationships with other characters, but it also primarily revolves around the devil trying to win the soul of this accused witch.

I play Elizabeth Sawyer, who is the witch, or at least the accused witch. And yeah, she’s lived a life, you know, she’s very much an outsider, cast out amongst the townspeople, they’re very much afraid of her. And so to have the devil kind of show up at her door is a very interesting dynamic for her. And very, I don’t know, it’s very weird for her to get somebody’s attention to that level where, they want something from you. So very, very fun. Kind of subverts expectations, but it’s fun.

BK: This is being described as a modern retelling of a Jacobean drama. How do you feel that the show has been updated for this production?

Katherine Mutschler: One thing we’re not doing is we’re not talking funny and old, so you’re not going to hear us going “thou art, ye old” and things that because this is based off of, I think, an old play or an old folk tale or something that. So we’re not, if you’re scared of Shakespeare talk, or if there’s people who feel, I don’t know, put off by period pieces, (this is) very much modern speech and very accessible on that level.

I would also say in terms of the stories that it’s telling, this play does have a queer storyline and a queer, love story ish kind of thing, which obviously is something you wouldn’t see much of in the 1620s when this takes place; and especially it talks a lot about gender and gender dynamics, which obviously, the patriarchy was running, was up and running in the 1620s in the 17th century. However, the way that the characters talk about it and look at it. And the way that the audience is encouraged to think about gender and power is certainly more. It’s more equipped for a modern audience to understand and be intrigued by.

BK: Why do you feel like maybe this feels like the right time to tell the story?

Katherine Mutschler: Well, first of all, we open the week before Halloween. So obviously, spooky autumn wishes and the devil, that’s just fun. However, I do think that this is a really, again, I kind of talked about it talks a lot about power and what that means, especially in a gendered way, and it talks about that in a way that, I think, is very nuanced, and we haven’t really done a lot of in our productions here. And so I think if you’re someone, especially in the past few years, if you feel kind of frustrated about, or maybe you’re gaining consciousness about the way that, gender or your identity is affected, and how people view you and your capabilities because of your identity; because I think that’s something we’ve seen arisen in the past few years, just with all the craziness that goes on in the world. I think it will help you give a name and be able to voice frustrations that you have, that you’ve always known that you’ve had. But maybe you’ve only been conscious of in the past few years because we’re trying to be much more inclusive and much more conscious about the power dynamics that we construct in our societies.

And it’s spooky, and I love spooky season, so I’m excited.

BK: What has been a standout moment for you about your time on this production?

Katherine Mutschler: There is, okay, I don’t know if this is a spoiler or not, but there is a fight scene. I won’t say how the fight scene ends, and I’m not in the fight scene, but oh, my God. We’re just so excited because we’ve never really done, at least in the four years I’ve been here, we’ve never really done, a prolonged, choreographed fight scene.

So there’s two actors involved with that, Lee and Jordan and the rest of us are just, so selfishly excited to watch them rehearse it and put it together and, the few times that, we’ve all seen it run, we’re just so excited. Yes, fight scene. So maybe not as, poignant of a memory and a standout thing for me, but I’m really excited about the fight scene, and I hope that audiences are really excited about the fight scene because it’s really cool, and we get to work with an intimacy and fight coordinator. Which, you know, is really important working in the industry, but on a college level, we don’t deal with people like that very often, so we’re very excited about the fight scene. And Lee and Jordan have been working really hard on it, and it looks cooler and cooler every time I see it. And I’m obsessed. I mean, you can’t go wrong with a fight scene. It’s so exciting. There’s plates are thrown. It’s fun. It’s very fun.