Behind The Scenes At Portland Stage

Rushing in where others fear to tread. Story by Elizabeth Peavey, Photos by Kevin leDuc

ORTLANDSTAGECOMPANY artistic director Greg Learning is the first to admit that his premiere season was a rocky one. "Flack?" He grins and pauses. "Yes, Itook a lot of flack." Up front, he confesses that his season could have been better balanced. Gazing at the ceiling, he ticks off last season's plays and considers them for a moment. "Maybe a little too contemporary. Maybe not enough well-known plays. I don't know. Still, Iam proud of the work we did. Ifeel each had fine production values."

It is immediately clear that Learning is undaunted by the negative feedback he has received since taking over as artistic director last year. "First of all," he states, "a lot of those negative feelings came from people _ who had already given up on us before Ieven got here. Ilove the work that's come out of this theater before I arrived-I'm not criticizing thatbut I'm different." Learning grows circumspect. "No one ever gets fed up all at once; it builds up. Iwas getting hate mail-which was very upsetting to me-until I realized that many of the people who were writing were saying they hadn't subscribed to the 1992-93 season and were never going to subscribe again. I had to wonder why, then, was Idealing with the guilt, when many of these people hadn't even seen my work?" And Learning is quick to stress that while he acknowledges he took a lot of flack, he also received a great deal of support. He is referring to the fact that not too long ago the city came up with $400,000 to payoff an accumulated PSC deficit. "That payment of debt was a show of faith for me that the community wants us here, that we're doing the right thing, going in the right direction. And that's very heartening." EAMINGPLANSTO OPENTHE Portland Stage Company's 20th season with George Bernard Shaw's "Arms and The Man." "I believe in the classics," states Learning, who will direct this production. "That's why doing the Shaw is so important to me. But Ialso think it's important to take a refocused look at the classics, drag them out of their closets kicking and screaming, dust them off, and ask, 'What do you have for us now l' Shaw wrote a play about Bulgaria and Rumania. Can we, after the Bosnian crisis, look at this play and laugh again? Shaw is, in my opinion, the biggest son-of-a-bitch who ever wrote for the theater," quips Learning. "He's so irritating, so bright. The ideas come fast and furiously. He's an actor's drearn."

The PSC will next bring back last year's production of "Holiday Memories," by Truman Capote. The reason for this repeat is more than its great success last year. "Itwasn't offered in our regular subscription season, and no one saw. it," says Learning. (Although tHi~ is not entirely true; marketing director Michael Gepner boasts that it had the greatest attendance record of any PSCproduction, including the much ballyhooed "Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grille.") Still, it is a touching and poetic reminiscence piece, which will once again be under the artful direction of Tom Prewitt. Well worth the rerun.

Learning will then offer something PSC audiences haven't seen in a while: a musical. "Three Postcards,"

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Next, Learning hopes to present Samuel Beckett's "Happy Days." He thinks this play has been givena bad rap. "It's a play few people have seen," Learning contends, "but they have 'heard' it's boring. SoIask them what it's about, and they can't tell me.That's likelisteningto a critic.It's one person's opinion. Isay. go see it yourself, and you decide." Though many may think of Beckett as an old existential grouch. Learningis excited about the comedic elements of the play. "Beckett loved vaudeville. 'Happy Days' is hysterically funny. It's about trying to keep a grip on reality while it's crumbling around you." Apropos to everything. . The next play inthe lineup is David Mamet's-fresh from Broadway"Oleanna."Attainingthis play isa significant coup for the PSC,as only 3-4 theatres in the country were granted rights to produce it. Inspired by the AnitaHill/ClarenceThomas hearings, "Oleanna" is Mamel's commentary on political correctness and sexual harassment. "It's a blowtorch of a play," says Learning. "It will press every one ofyour buttons."

Concluding the season will be a world premiere of Constance Congdon's "Losing Father's Body," a broad farce concerning a tight-lipped Wasp family. Father has died of a heart atta~ in the northern New Yorkwoods. f6s .-smuggled home body, in the which isbeing familystation wagon, is "lost" when the car is hijacked by two NativeAmericans en route to Nashville to find fame and fortune. The offices of the PSC were allabuzz the day Iwas there because a very "significant" grant had just come through that will enable the company to produce the play, which includes 11members in its cast. -when Iput together myseason, it's about trying to accomplish the pur-

poses of the institution and of the PSC's mission statement, that is, to enlighten, entertain, and educate. It comes back to being not a play factory,but an institution that creates and keeps alive the theatrical impulse. I don't want anyone ever to expect what they see on our stage. Theater, if it works well, is what makes you gasp-not in terms of spectacle or shock or terror-but in terms of 'I've never thought ofthat before or seen that before' or 'Inev~r expected that character to feelexactly what Ifelt22 days ago.' And in order to do that, you have to cover the range."

And"coveringthe range" obviously means takingchances. Perhaps there are some artistic directors who, after a poorly-received season, would dive for the old chestnuts drawer in their file cabinets and start rifling through the Neil Simons and the ShirleyJones musicals. Not Learning. "I'm not here simply to draw what I think people willbuy. I'mhere to produce theater at a high artistic level. I have to hold onto my principles in order to do that. The fine line Imust walkismeshing those principles with the wants and needs of the community. And that is not to say that my. principles are antithetical to the community's. But I must ask myself, at what point does the theater need to spark controversy? Is it ever truly effective ifit simply assuages all the time? And I honestly believe this community wants works that will tweak it a bit. Portland is a very cosmopolitan city in terms of its intellect;it's very forward-thinking. What we now need is to make connection with our community. AndIthink that is the other mistake that was made. We didn't let people know what we were all about. AllI'm asking is that the community think about us one more time." ND THE TASKOF GETTING the community to do that rethinking is largely in the hands ofPortland Stage Company's new marketing director, Michael Gepner. Gepner, who has been with the Portland Stage Company,offand on, for the last five years, has avery determined plan for making that connection with the

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Portland Stage mari«!ting director Michael Gepner in the box offICeon the eve of a new season

community. The first step in that plan is to ascertain exactly what the community thinks about the PSC,or if iteven thinks ofthe Company at all. "We have a very generous patron who is subsidizing an extensive marketing survey of the Southern Maine area to get into the community and find out how, after 20 years, we are perceived," says Gepner. "Ourfeeling is that those perceptions have seriously changed over the last 5-10 years. One of Greg's greatest priorities is talking to the community, getting as much information as possible. And that's a tough process. We've been facing some perception problems. There are many people who don't know what the PSCis or what we do, or even where we are."

The survey will draw from an "arts list," that is, a compiled list of identified arts patrons-people who attend the symphony, go to the museum, and generally make the arts scene. But there will also be a lot of random sampling: man-on-the-street interviews, focus groups, and the like."Thissurvey willgiveus the ability to see how we are perceived," asserts Gepner. "Andperception is a fairly common problem for small regional theatres. We're often viewed as elitist organizations, not for the masses. And that's a perception we want to change. We know that economics often come into play, but we offer programs that provide special ticket prices. For example, you can come to see a PSCproduction for literallya penny through the 'Pay What YouCan' program. Wealso offerrush (reduced price) tickets before performances." (Caveat emptor: these programs apply only to specific performances or to ticket availability. Still, if you can finagle it, it's.a great deal.)

The challenges facing the PSCare not just economic or perceptual, continues Gepner. "People have more entertainment choices these days. There's a lot more available in terms of the Portland theater scene than there was five, and, particularly, 10 years ago, but in terms of the structure of the institutions here, we are the biggest, we have more money, we are the only nationally recognized regional theater company north of

Boston. That gives us the ability to bring the best actors, directors and designers to Portland. Whichdoesn't necessarily make it better, it just makes it different. We're also one of the fewtheatres-there are very few leftin the country-that has the ability to develop and produce new

American plays. And that's a very important aspect ofwhat we are, and what we can do and have done. It's part of what those students from

UNHwho founded Profile Theater envisioned 20years ago, and that's what we have continued to do. ArldI think it's important that the community knows these things." roducing new plays involves taking chances," explains Gepner. "The nature of new American plays has changed dramatically over the last 20years. The first production ever done by Profile

Theater was "Hair." If you look . through our production history, there's a great deal you will recognize, but there's also lots of things nobody has ever heard of.The structure of the national theater scene as a whole has changed so much.

Regional theater is now where the new Broadway shows come from.

From a marketing standpoint, it's important for the community to know that we are going to continue to do these plays.Andwhat has been perceived, and possibly not even wrongly, that interms ofthe types of shows the PSChas produced, particularly qver the last four or so years, is that overall as a season, year by year, there has been a lackofbalance inthe materi~:' Weare convinced the patrons and' the community want very much to have this kind of theater that is connected with the national theater scene, that is developing new plays and playwrights, and that is continuing to grow. ...That's a risky business. You have those plays that have gone on to have great runs across the country and off-Broadway ...and some of them have died here on the stage at

Portland. It's all part of the gamble.

We want to do bigger shows; we're

dying to do Shakespeare, but the smallest cast show is, I think, 13 actors. Ithink what people have been seeing the last fewyears is the financial constraints. The economy in which we live, the expense of producing professional theater, has impacted the types of shows that we are able to produce. And we are takingsteps to fixthat. We are absolutelycommitted to that."

And what about the challenges of holding the mantle ,of marketing director in this dayeu:td age, when people are spending less on entertainment, when corporations are writing fewer checks, and also in a period of time when there are more entertainment options? Gepner reflects a moment. "I've been around here long enough, having been involved in both the artistic and administrative end of things-I have a background as a professional actor and a background in marketing-that I have seen that because of the changing nature of this organization and ofour audience base, we need to reach a larger market portion of the community with our message and what we're doing. The approach needs to change. The audience base has changed over the last 10years. The 25 to 40-year-old professional is the broadest section of the community that is our potential audience base. The tools we once used no longer reach the people we want to be talking to. We went for the mon~yed people when our audience base was first established, and Isuppose that image has stayed with us. But you can now buy a subscription for $65,which we feel is very affordable. Still, the first thing we need to do is get out into the community and clear up our perception problem."

And how does Gepner perceive the PSC is perceived? "That this is a stuffy place to come, someplace that appeals to the 'pipe-smoking, damp tweed set."' He laughs. "Well, that's not true, but the perception is set that we're not interested in producing entertainment. We're lumped in with other arts organizations. The product we produce is different, riskier. You go to the symphony and you know pretty much what you're going to get. When you produce theater, you're dealing with ideas and an artistic notion of what those ideas are. We are working with ideas here, and that's different, and a little bit dangerous. Because any time you deal with ideas, you're not going to be able to please everybody. And we're not looking to please everybody. Right now we are looking to get to people who may have given up on us and people who have never come to the theater before and perhaps don't know how much fun it can be. Good theater should stimulate, educate, provoke thought-people just don't want to be told that's what we're going to do to them-and that's the change in approach. We will continue to strive to do all those things, remain true to our artistic vision, but we're just not going to tell you that's what we're doing."

Thus, the Portland Stage Company embarks upon its 20th season, full steam ahead and with the hopes that Portland is willingto give it one more chance. •

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