ARIZONA THEATRE COMPANY

By Beverly Medlyn

Not many plays open and close on the same night.

But that’s what happened March 13, 2020, to “The Legend of Georgia McBride,” a comedy about a beleaguered Elvis impersonator named Casey who lost his job when the bar’s owner replaced Casey’s act with a drag show to attract more customers. Ever resourceful, Casey transformed himself from “The King” to a “queen,” and the show went on!

Like Casey, Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) made a quick pivot when the coronavirus pandemic threatened its production of “Georgia McBride.”

ATC’s new leadership team had the foresight to videotape the opening/closing night performance. When COVID-19 restrictions hit, the team worked with the cast, crew and unions to put the production on an online viewing platform, Vimeo. The scramble to survive worked.

Though the pandemic has been a massive drain on revenue this year, “never let a good crisis go to waste,” observed Sean Daniels, artistic director. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Like many nonprofits, ATC had been a bit behind in developing infrastructure. The shutdown afforded an opportunity to make improvements across the organization, from technology to finance to human resources, says Geri Wright, managing director.

Wright and Daniels are both new in their roles at ATC. Wright began this year after serving five years at Act One, most recently as president and CEO, and previous service heading development efforts for the American Red Cross Grand Canyon Chapter and the Heard Museum. Daniels came on board in 2019, a move home to Arizona after an extensive career on the East Coast as artistic director and playwright.

THE SILVER LINING

Now celebrating its 54th season, ATC enjoys the state’s largest subscriber base of any performing arts organization. More than 130,000 people a year typically attend performances at the Temple of Music and Art in Tucson and the Herberger Theater Center in Phoenix.

The 2020-2021 works left those buildings to offer digital productions and workshops, a talk show, outdoor musical performances and more outreach to schools. Online offerings are mainly free or at substantially reduced cost.

ATC’s regular season of live stage performances was pushed back to early 2021, with shows to be presented throughout the spring and even into summer, when theaters are traditionally dark.

A video option will be offered to those who can’t come to the theater.

The metamorphosis has been well received.

“The silver lining is that suddenly the world can see the work that we are doing online,” says Daniels, artistic director. “We have always said the work we do is world class. So often we hear from people who see our shows, ‘This is just as good as what I saw in London or New York.’ What is great in this moment of sharing is now everyone can see we are produce world-class theatre.”

A free online production of The White Chip, written by Daniels, drew 10,000 viewers, he says.

In July, some 24,000 people watched The 24-Hour Plays, a national project pairing playwrights and actors to create monologues in 24 hours. ATC partnered with the national program, which focused for the first time on a single state, involving 28 Arizona playwrights and actors.

Hang & Focus is a new weekly podcast available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube, featuring ATC leaders interviewing people about various aspects of theater and relevant topics.

“We are connecting with younger, more diverse audiences,” Daniels says. “If you’re going to attract anybody under age 50, you have to have a great online presence, you just have to.”

The organization also hopes to connect with every school in the state, again using technology to bring actors, directors and theater experts to middle and high school students through virtual learning. “This is another way to build relationships,” Daniels said.

COMING TOGETHER AGAIN

Live performance will always be the bedrock of theater.

“We will return to stage. We will. But it will be in 2021 when it is safe to do so,” says Managing Director Wright.

A 20-plus page safety plan has been created to protect actors, staff and patrons. It includes sanitizing, air handling, face masks, barriers at the box office, traffic flow, even deep cleaning for actors’ costumes.

“It is a significant investment — hundreds of thousands of dollars — to get these safety measures in place,” Wright says. “We are working as hard as we can to be as responsible as possible to everyone involved. We will go back to stage when we feel like people will fill our theaters.”

Sustainability is one of the greatest challenges for arts organizations.

“I have read that 40 percent of nonprofit organizations will not make it through this pandemic, which is disheartening,” Wright says. “We mean not to be part of that 40 percent. I ask our patrons and donors to support us, with subscriptions and donations, to keep the theater going so we are here at this time next year.”

SEAN DANIELS artistic director profile

Sean Daniels was named artistic director of Arizona Theatre Company (ATC) in 2019. For him it was a homecoming, having grown up in Mesa. A director, playwright and educator, Daniels’ work has been nationally recognized. American Theatre magazine named him one of the “top 15 up-and-coming artists in the U.S. whose work will be transforming America’s stages for decades to come.” Prior to coming to Arizona, he served five years as artistic director of Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, Mass.

Your family tree has roots in a pioneer Arizona family—the Udalls. How are you related? And why did you want to come home?

I fell in love with theater at Arizona Theatre Company, growing up in Mesa my parents were subscribers and donors (which everyone should be) and they took me to everything. I came as a young kid to a production of “Our Town” and I was hooked. I wanted nothing more than a life in the theater.

So, when the job came up, I jumped at it. I wanted to come back and take my hometown theater to the next level — and for every 10-year-old who walks through the door to know that someday they could be the Artistic Director.

I am part of the Udall family — a chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, two mayors of Phoenix, Mo Udall, whom everyone loved — but more importantly, a family deeply invested in Arizona, and a family that always believed that this state is the soul of America.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST INVOLVEMENT WITH ATC?

I took every class ATC offered — every acting class, every movement class (shudder) and I actually starred in a production of Winnie the Pooh at the Mesa Community Center. Eventually, when I was 16, my Dad got a job to be the head counsel for the PGA of America, so we had to head to Florida, but Arizona has always been my home state.

WHAT ARE YOUR PEAK PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES?

I’ve been lucky enough to be a NYT Critic’s Pick as a director and a writer. I was the first American director sent by the O’Neill Center to the Baltic American Playwrights Conference in Hiiumaa, Estonia. I’m the only author authorized by the Jack Kerouac Society to adapt his material. But honestly, the highlight is still whenever I sneak my 2-year-old daughter into the theater and she gets to see that I’m doing what I have wanted to do since I was a kid.

WHAT HAS YOUR GREATEST CHALLENGE BEEN SO FAR AT ATC?

I started knowing that I was walking into a theater that was in a turnaround mode but was full of potential. Then COVID-19 hit, and suddenly I’m laying off staff members I don’t really know and asking donors I’ve never met for six-figure gifts. Neither experience was how I thought the year would go (understatement). But I like to believe that everything in life is preparing you for what comes next, and I’m glad that if I’m in a fight to save a theater’s life, it’s one I believe in so much. It’s what gets me up each morning.

WHAT EXCITES YOU ABOUT THE FUTURE OF ATC?

There is no reason that Arizona shouldn’t be the cultural center of our country. There is no reason that Arizona Theatre Company shouldn’t be one of the leading arts organizations in the country, if not the world. This place is full of potential, and literally millions of untapped theatergoers. It’s time for Arizona to be on the map, and I have no doubt that time is now.