SDC Journal Summer 2012

JOURNAL SUMMER 2012

PAM MACKINNON + DAN SULLIVAN

HOLDING THE VISION

SHELDON EPPS + PHYLICIA RASHĀD

ROB MARSHALL

A FRESH SPIN ON THE OLD RAZZLE DAZZLE PLUS

IT’S A STROMAN THING

ORIGINS OF THE REMARKABLE + CONTROVERSIAL SCOTTSBORO BOYS

WHY I CAST THAT ACTOR FROM THE ARCHIVES

WORKING WITH A DANCE ARRANGER THE ZELDA FICHANDLER AWARD SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

MATHEW WARCHUS + 2012 Observer RYAN EMMONS

SDC EXECUTIVE BOARD

Karen Azenberg PRESIDENT

Larry Carpenter EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT

Leigh Silverman VICE PRESIDENT

Oz Scott SECRETARY

Ethan McSweeny TREASURER

2012 Gielg

ATTEND

ud Fellow ELYZABETH GORMAN + MICHA EL KAHN

One-on-One Conversations with

renowned theatre artists and other special events throughout the year

APPLY

To our numerous paid Fellowships nationwide and to the 2012-2013

Observership Program

offering 25 paid opportunities to emerging Directors and Choreographers

CELEBRATE A winning Director or Choreographer by attending this year’s

Zelda Fichandler Award ceremony which

grants $5,000 to an artist transforming the arts landscape in the West. More details

to come.

FOR DETAILS ON THESE AND OTHER SDCF PROGRAMS, PLEASE VISIT

SDCFoundation.org

HONORARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Pamela Berlin Melvin Bernhardt Julianne Boyd Danny Daniels Marshall W. Mason Ted Pappas Gene Saks COUNSEL

Ronald H. Shectman

MEMBERS OF BOARD

Julie Arenal Rob Ashford Walter Bobbie Joe Calarco Marcia Milgrom Dodge Sheldon Epps Michael John Garcés Wendy C. Goldberg Richard Hamburger Linda Hartzell Doug Hughes Moisés Kaufman Mark Lamos Sue Lawless Paul Lazarus Rick Lombardo Tom Moore Amy Morton Robert Moss Sharon Ott Lisa Peterson Lonny Price John Rando Susan H. Schulman Seret Scott Chay Yew

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Laura Penn

SDC JOURNAL

Published by SDC Summer 2012 | Volume 1 | No. 1

ART DIRECTOR

Elizabeth Miller EDITOR

Gretchen M. Michelfeld CONTRIBUTORS Randy Anderson SDC BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVE

Stephanie Coen ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, TWO RIVER THEATER

Larry Carpenter DIRECTOR

Edie Cowan DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER

Kristy Cummings SDC BUSINESS REPRESENTATIVE

Timothy Douglas DIRECTOR

Sheldon Epps DIRECTOR

Ellen Rusconi SDCF PRODUCING DIRECTOR

Seret Scott DIRECTOR

Ted Sod DIRECTOR

SDC JOURNAL is published quarterly by Stage Directors and Choreographers Society located at 1501 Broadway, STE 1701, NYC 10036. SDC JOURNAL is a registered trademark of SDC. SUBSCRIPTIONS Call 212.391.1070 or visit www.SDCweb.org.

Annual SDC Membership dues include a $5 allocation for a 1-year subscription to SDC JOURNAL. Non-Members may purchase an annual subscription for $24 (domestic), $48 (foreign); single copies cost $7 each (domestic), $14 (foreign).

POSTMASTER Send address changes to SDC JOURNAL, SDC, 1501 Broadway, STE 1701, NY, NY 10036.

PRINTED BY Bayard Printing Group

Union bug here

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SUMMER

CONTENTS

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Summer 2012

Volume 1 | No. 1

FEATURES

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COVER

Pam MacKinnon + Dan Sullivan

A conversation on career paths, production process, and advice to aspiring directors.

BY TED

SOD

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It’s a Stroman Thing

Susan Stroman, director of The Scottsboro Boys, discusses the journey of directing this acclaimed + controversial production

BY TIMOTHY

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DOUGLAS

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TRANSITIONS

Holding the Vision

SHELDON EPPS INTERVIEWS PHYLICIA RASHĀD

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The Craft of Capture

LARRY CARPENTER INTERVIEWS

BARTLETT SHER + GARY HALVERSON

Rob Marshall | A FRESH SPIN ON THE OLD RAZZLE DAZZLE

Theatre and film director Rob Marshall describes his trajectory from stage to screen and back to the stage.

BY STEPHANIE

COEN

SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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SDC FOUNDATION | THE ZELDA FICHANDLER AWARD

And We Came

Excerpts from the 2011 Award presentation in Washington D.C.

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

Welcome

BY KAREN

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AZENBERG

FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

BY LAURA

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PENN

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Why I Cast That Actor Dámaso Rodriguez on casting Sharon Lawrence in Orson’s Shadow

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IN RESIDENCE

Ruben Santiago-Hudson @ Signature Theatre Company

PHOTO

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If You Do One Thing This Summer, What Will It Be? Our Members Respond BACKSTAGE

With IATSE Wardrobe Mistress Pat White

IN YOUR WORDS

Two Questions for Director Paul Weidner CURATED BY SERET SCOTT

COVER

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OUR MEMBERS IN PRINT

Mary Robinson Cynthia Nixon introduces Director + Teacher Mary B. Robinson’s new book about directing

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

Working With A Dance Arranger CURATED BY EDIE COWAN

| Pam MacKinnon + Dan Sullivan CJ Maldonado

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AROUND THE COUNTRY

SDC Regional Reports

Northeast

BY BOB MOSS

Southeast

BY SHARON OTT

Central

BY MARK CLEMENTS

Northwest

BY LINDA HARTZELL

Southwest

BY ART MANKE

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THE SOCIETY PAGES IN PICTURES

George C. Wolfe, 2011 “Mr. Abbott” Award Recipient SDC’s Bob Fosse

| A young Zelda Fichandler standing in front of Arena’s first home, the converted Hippodrome movie theatre, the week before the theatre’s opening on August 16, 1950. COURTESY Arena Stage | ABOVE RIGHT | Sharon Lawrence in Orson’s Shadow directed by Dámaso Rodriguez PHOTO Craig Schwartz ABOVE LEFT

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PREVIOUS | 1 Bartlett Sher in 2006 at an early rehearsal for Il Barbiere di Siviglia PHOTO Beatriz Schiller/ Metropolitan Opera | 2 Micheal McElroy + Phylicia Rashād in the 2002 production of Blue directed by Sheldon Epps at The Pasadena Playhouse | 3 Rob Marshall PHOTO David James | 4 Dan Sullivan + Pam MacKinnon outside The Walter Kerr Theatre PHOTO CJ Maldonado | 5 Susan Stroman rehearsing The Scottsboro Boys; FROM LEFT TO RIGHT Colman Domingo, Joshua Henry PHOTO © Paul Kolnik

| SUMMER 2012

FROM THE PRESIDENT

WELCOME

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to our inaugural issue of the SDC Journal. In these pages we seek to share with our Membership and the wider theatrical community the art and craft of professional directors and choreographers.

Some of you may remember, The Journal, published semi-annually by the SDC Foundation; it was a beloved publication that had at its center transcriptions of Foundation programs such as One-on-One conversations and panel discussions.

In 2009 we began a relationship with the American Theatre Wing and created Masters of the Stage, an online podcast series featuring more than three decades of exceptional conversations with many of theatre’s most seminal directors and choreographers.

This online library has allowed us to distribute these invaluable programs more broadly and widely. As such, The Journal in its old form was less current, less in keeping with today’s trends and needs.

The new Journal—now called SDC Journal—is designed to give voice to an empowered collective of directors and choreographers working in all jurisdictions and venues across the country, encouraging Member advocacy and highlighting Member achievement. We hope you will find the new SDC Journal provocative and forward-thinking, as over time we will explore the full breadth of these two enigmatic crafts, examining various styles and approaches of creating theatre both in the past and present, and always with an eye to the future.

KAREN AZENBERG has been a Member since 1989

In this issue you have the opportunity to eavesdrop on a conversation between Tony Award-winner Dan Sullivan and Clybourne Park’s Tony-nominated (at press time) Pam MacKinnon.

Director/Choreographer Susan Stroman shares with director Timothy Douglas the origins of her remarkable, and at times controversial, Scottsboro Boys. Executive Board Member Larry Carpenter meets up with DGA director Gary Halverson and the immeasurably talented Bart Sher to talk about their collaboration at the Metropolitan Opera in that company’s wildly successful broadcast series. In addition you will hear from the exceptionally talented Rob Marshall about his career arc, while Sheldon Epps speaks with Phylicia Rashād about her new venture into directing. Additionally, each issue will feature an In Your Words section where we hope you will participate in the conversations and questions posed there.

I am thrilled that you are now reading our first issue, and I hope you will keep reading—whether you are an SDC Member, a member of a peer union or guild, or working in our industry or the entertainment industry at large. We welcome you to be a part of this ongoing and necessary conversation about our craft.

Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Judge Saul Streit, Presiding Justice of the New York Supreme Court (seated), signs the incorporation documents witnessed by orginal Members.

Agnes de Mille, Ezra Stone, Shepard Traube, Hanya Holm + legal counsel Erwin Feldman.

LEFT TO RIGHT

PHOTO

SDC Archives

When I first arrived at SDC in the spring of 2008, it was on the eve of the Union’s historic 50th birthday. The Executive Board eagerly charged me with using that opportunity to not simply celebrate the moment, but to help deepen the understanding within our own constituents, as well as the larger community, about the work of Directors and Choreographers in the 21st century. It was a tall order, but I was excited for the challenge.

In April of 1959, Director Shepard Traube and other founding Members of SDC, including Agnes de Mille, Ezra Stone, and Hanya Holm, united to create the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers (today referred to as SDC).

Their commitment to the establishment of this independent labor union to represent Directors and Choreographers is well known, and that tale of the founding and establishing of the Union was beautifully told in our 50th Anniversary issue of the former Journal.

Today SDC represents over 2,500 professional directors and choreographers working across the country. They are masters of Shakespeare, new work, and musical theatre. Our Members can be committed to revivals or to devised work; they work freelance and run companies. They are members of ensembles, and they teach the next generations.

Their work can be impossible to touch one day or stunning in its boldness the next. SDC Members live in every state in the country and in communities from Los Angeles to Anchorage, from Atlanta to Portland, and of course, on the island of Manhattan.

Equally as important to the Founders as basic employment protections was that SDC be the community for directors and choreographers. With great forethought, it seems the Founders intuitively understood how broad and diverse the Membership would become, and why that need for community would become more important over time.

In the founding credo of SDC’s By-Laws, it is stated that the broad purpose of SDC is to: • elevate the standards of the art of stage direction and choreography; • develop communication among the director and choreographer craft persons; • establish means for the dissemination and exchange of ideas of directorial and choreographic interest to the profession; • aid in the development and training of directors and choreographers; • increase in the professional and public esteem of these arts and to develop all conditions that will encourage them.

We have rededicated ourselves to those principles, and we acknowledge that if we are to succeed, it will be incumbent upon us to take the lead.

And so you have the first issue of the SDC Journal. We hope it will be all we have stated and more.

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IN YOUR WORDS Two Questions Why I Cast That Actor In Residence Backstage We Asked Our Members...

Our Members In Print

TWO QUESTIONS CURATED BY SERET

SCOTT

for PAUL WEIDNER

When did you know you were a director? What did the moment look like? Feel like?

In my very first professional directing job, there was a change in the schedule and I suddenly found myself thrown into staging a scene I hadn’t prepared for at all: Act I, Scene I of Tartuffe.

I hadn’t yet filled the margins of my script with hundreds of intricate blocking notes and stage directions, diagrams and pictures, plans as to where everybody should be when this happens or that happens—which meant that at a very early point in my directing career, I was winging it.

So I said to the actors, well, here’s the situation of the scene, here’s the ground plan, let’s just take the plunge. Immediately I found myself sailing along with them into the gist of the scene, all of us working fast together on our feet—or maybe more accurately playing fast together on our feet. If something came by I didn’t know, I said so—but I also got lucky and said, “What about trying this?”

The scene flew by.

We did rehearse that scene again, of course, and we did make changes to that original attack. But from that first rehearsal on, the cast and I were collaborators— discovering the play together from quite different points of view, but collaborators nonetheless.

8 CONTRIBUTE

If you wish to contribute to IN YOUR WORDS, if you would like to respond to any of the articles, opinions or views expressed in SDC Journal, or if you have an idea for an article, please e-mail Letters@SDCweb.org. Include your full name, city + state.

We regret that we are unable to respond to every letter.

SERET SCOTT since 1989 | PAUL WEIDNER since 1984

That first rehearsal made me realize, OK, that’s the way to direct—or at least, that’s the way for me to direct—and it was liberating, exhilarating, and scary.

If a mentor of yours were to see your work, where would they find themselves?

I’d studied acting with Michael Howard, the best mentor/teacher I’ve ever had.

“Let it happen” was a mantra of his. Without goofing off or being a careless guide, uninformed, or unobserving, I think I let that cast—and that production of Tartuffe— happen.

For twelve years PAUL WEIDNER was the Producing Director of the Hartford Stage Company (CT); his stage work has also been seen in New York, on Broadway and OffBroadway, and in WNET’s Theater-in-America series. He has guest-directed in major regional theatres including Arena Stage, Asolo Rep, Denver Center Theatre, Trinity Rep, Williamstown Festival, and Seattle Rep, as well as abroad in Haiti, Estonia, and New Zealand. From 1992 to 2002 Paul served on SDC’s Executive Board, acting as Secretary from 1996-2002.

SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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WHY I CAST THAT ACTOR

DÁMASO RODRIGUEZ explains casting

Sharon Lawrence as Vivien Leigh in Orson’s Shadow by Austin Pendleton at the Pasadena Playhouse in January 2008.

Austin Pendleton’s funny and touching play centers around the real-life 1960 collaboration between Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles on a production of Ionesco’s Rhinoceros at London’s Royal Court Theatre. Aside from the obvious challenge of casting two theatre and film titans, Pendleton adds a late-career Vivien Leigh in two small but hugely important scenes, manifesting symptoms of what we would now call bipolar disorder. The role of Leigh is one that Orson Welles himself might have called a “star part,” one which though the other characters speak about for much of the play, she appears just minutes before the Act I curtain. We needed someone who could play an icon and plausibly manipulate Welles and Olivier, two known masters of manipulation, in about ten crucial minutes of each act. We needed (if not a dead ringer for Leigh) someone who the audience wouldn’t waste time considering differences— therefore a still-very-beautiful 40-something actor with a petite frame and fine features like Leigh. Finally, we needed an actor with the technique to embody enough physical qualities of the Leigh we know from her screen presence such as her voice, manner, and movement, while having the emotional access to the extremely complex “Leigh” whom Pendleton had created.

PHOTO

Craig Schwartz

The casting process took place outside the audition room. Casting Director Michael Donovan put out the breakdown and an impressive list of well-known stage and screen talent submitted themselves for the roles. Sharon Lawrence caught our attention. She was acclaimed for both stage and screen roles, but her extensive theatre chops stood out—a prerequisite for anyone working at the Pasadena Playhouse. The 650-seat, 90-year-old proscenium space is beautiful, but challenging—actors not only need the vocal power, but that intangible stage actor’s gift of expanding the performance to the space. I liked that she had a background as a dancer, and therefore would be able to study Leigh and carry herself the way Leigh did. Austin Pendleton had worked with her years before and was very supportive of the idea. As the role would not be cast via audition, but rather as an “offeronly” contingent upon a successful meeting, I began my research looking at video from Lawrence’s extensive television work, reading reviews of her other theatre productions, and even more importantly (I find in these cases) looking at talk-show interviews—anything where the actor is not in character. We set up a meeting and found ourselves on the same page immediately. I was excited that she was most fascinated not with playing the movie icon, but rather with Leigh’s struggles with mental illness.

Sharon is extremely intelligent and beautiful. This meeting did indeed begin our collaboration. Casting is based on instinct and a kind of a gamble no matter what the process. In the end, she exceeded any expectations I could have had. Audiences were mesmerized by her work and her performance was remembered on numerous best-ofthe-year lists and won her a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.

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AUSTIN PENDLETON since 1972 | DÁMASO RODRIGUEZ since 2007

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IN RESIDENCE

Ruben Santiago-Hudson @ Signature TheatrE COMPANY

It is extremely important to me to belong somewhere, to know that there is a group of people that believes in me, that will allow me to be an artist.

I need a place where I can take chances and not be afraid to make mistakes.

SDC Member Ruben Santiago-Hudson is a director, playwright, and actor. He recently directed My Children! My Africa! at Signature Theatre Company in New York City, an organization with which he has had a long-standing artistic relationship. He describes his role there as both a creative participant and ambassador. “If I have ideas, projects I am interested in working on, or a way in which to further the Signature’s agenda of honoring a particular playwright, I bring them to Artistic Director Jim Houghton. I also encourage other artists to submit their work to Signature and act as a spokesperson in their fundraising process, particularly for the $25 ticket initiative,” Santiago-Hudson says. “It is extremely important to me to belong somewhere, to know that there is a group of people that believes in me, that will allow me to be an artist. I need a place where I can take chances and not be afraid to make mistakes.”

Santiago-Hudson deeply respects the accessibility for both artists and audience members alike at Signature, which he credits to Artistic Director Jim Houghton.

“With Jim, it is about creating a place where artists and writers feel safe to explore their work. He does not dictate art, he encourages it. Furthermore, Jim is not only concerned that the artists are being served but also the theatre-goers. No matter your ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, somewhere, somehow, if you hang with the Signature, you will relate to something on their stage. Jim Houghton makes sure of it.” This is strongly reflected in Signature’s $25 ticket initiative. “What does that ticket price say?” SantiagoHudson says, “You’re invited.”

Signature devotes an entire season to the work of one playwright. Some would question whether this focus on playwrights is challenging for a director, but for Santiago-Hudson, serving the playwright’s vision comes naturally. “As a trained actor, I was taught that the script is your source. As a director I feel the same way. I do not have to make an adjustment to honor a playwright—it is part of my DNA. My role is to figure out how to tell the story in the most profound, truthful, and impactful way; how to affect the audience by entertaining and enlightening them without imposing on what the playwright is saying.”

Santiago-Hudson welcomes the opportunity to have the playwright in the room, as had been the case with playwright Athol Fugard on My Children! My Africa! Trust is the key to this dynamic, as is an open dialogue. “Many times in the process I look over to the playwright and ask, ‘How do you feel about that? What did you mean by that? Is this clear?’ The playwright is a wonderful resource to me. I also enjoy when the playwright steps away from the process but then returns and says, ‘Ah!’ because he or she had never envisioned a certain part as I directed it.”

In addition to Signature’s creative process, its accessibility, and Santiago-Hudson’s sincere admiration of Jim Houghton, the work itself is a prime reason for his continued relationship with the organization. “I am very interested in humanity and telling our stories so other people can see the clarity and integrity of who we are,” Santiago-Hudson says.

“In the time I have on this earth, I want to do work that is going to change human beings and bring us closer.”

His role at Signature allows him to do just that.

THE ACTORS FUND FOR EVERYONE IN ENTERTAINMENT The Actors Fund is a nationwide human services organization that helps all professionals in performing arts and entertainment. The Fund is a safety net, providing programs and services for those who are in need, crisis, or transition. Their broad spectrum of programs include comprehensive social services, health services, supportive and affordable housing, employment and training services, and skilled nursing and assisted-living care.

In 2010, The Fund completed a campaign that raised $10.1 million to strengthen their programs and their ability to respond quickly to evolving social and emergency financial needs.

The SDC Executive Board rose to the challenge with a gift of $50,000 over five years. In April, a gathering of SDC Members visited The Lillian Booth Actors Home of The Actors Fund in Englewood, New Jersey, to dedicate the Nursing Station in honor of Directors and Choreographers past, present, and future. SDC Members are encouraged to access programs of The Actors Fund—it really is a Fund for everyone.

President KAREN AZENBERG, Member DAVID HILDER, Executive Director LAURA PENN, Member/past Board Member EDIE COWAN + Executive Board Members LISA PETERSON, and SERET SCOTT.

FROM LEFT TO RIGHT

Visit www.actorsfund.org to learn more about the myriad services The Actors Fund provides for all performing artists across the country.

EDIE COWAN since 1982 | DAVID HILDER since 2008 | LISA PETERSON since 1992 | RUBEN SANTIAGO-HUDSON since 2006

SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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Give us a few seconds, and we can change the world

BACKSTAGE with LOCAL 764 PRESIDENT

PATRICIA WHITE Tell us about the history of Local 764.

The Theatrical Wardrobe Attendants in New York City first organized in 1919 as a federal union affiliated with the AFL. In 1942, we became part of the IATSE, as Local 764.

In 1982, the word “attendants” was dropped from the name and the Local was issued a new charter as “Theatrical Wardrobe Union, Local 764 of the I.A.T.S.E.” The Local currently has over 1,200 members working in all aspects of costume and wardrobe work in the New York City area in virtually every major live entertainment venue in the city, as well as on television shows and motion pictures shooting within a 50-mile radius of Columbus Circle.

How did you get involved in union leadership? How has your leadership experience changed your perception of the theatrical industry?

I got involved in the normal way, I think. I worked on Broadway and attended Local 764 meetings. I was asked to serve on a contract committee for a Broadway negotiation, and by the time that contract was ratified, I was hooked on unionism! I had a chance to see firsthand how important smart union leaders and united, informed union workers are.

The unions are really what make a middle-class life even possible for most of the people who work in the entertainment industry.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about SDC. What should our Members know about the way we’re perceived by the Wardrobe Union?

Years ago, I worked on a show that Mike Nichols directed called Social Security and by the second day of tech, he knew the first names of everybody on all of the crews. I can tell you, all of us noticed and appreciated it. And of course, wardrobe workers love it when we have time in tech to practice the changes and work on the clothes before you cut costumes or decide that a change is impossible. We have a saying in Wardrobe: “Give us a few seconds, and we can change the world.”

How has the culture of Broadway changed since you first started your career?

There have been big changes to technology that affect all aspects of production. For wardrobe workers, as shows become more cinematic, there’s a demand for quicker costume changes. And as producers have reduced the number of performers they employ, ensemble members have had to double up and play character roles, and more wardrobe workers are needed, which is great for us. However, there is also an increasing pressure to do more with less. There’s a tension between the increasing demands placed on us and the continued focus on keeping running costs as low as possible. Wardrobe workers are endlessly adaptive and inventive. We are the department of yes!

If you could give SDC Members one piece of advice, what would it be?

We are all workers and artists. Take care of yourself and try to do your best to look after the other people who are creating the show with you.

PATRICIA WHITE is the President of Theatrical Wardrobe Union, Local 764 of the IATSE, and she has been an IA member since 1985. She is proud to be a wardrobe worker and has worked for many years as a dresser on Broadway and also in the wardrobe departments of television soap operas. Since 2004 she has also served as an International Representative for the IATSE International.

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WE ASKED OUR MEMBERS AROUND THE COUNTRY: If you do one thing this summer, what will it be?

I will try to squeeze out a vacation, most preferably to a place where my phone doesn’t work.

TONY TACCONE since 1997 If I do one thing this summer I will get out of the dark theatre and play outside.

KIMBERLY SENIOR since 2010 Learn how to sell myself as a wifi hotspot.

OANH NGUYEN since 2008 I’m going to Uganda to direct a production of Just Me, You, and the Silence—a stunning and painfully funny satire by Judith Adong about the anti-homosexuality bill there.

PATRICIA MCGREGOR Swim. As much as I can.

The ideas that come to me when I am swimming are my biggest surprise.

WALTER BOBBIE since 1993 I’m very excited to be directing and choreographing a new production of The Music Man for Glimmerglass Opera Festival. The large cast is led by Dwayne Croft and Elizabeth Futral with full orchestra and no amplification!

And since it’s all happening near Cooperstown, NY, my family and I will make a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame while we’re there.

MARCIA MILGROM DODGE since 1979 After three months of grueling work at La Scala in Milan, I will certainly spend time in a hammock.

MARTHA CLARKE since 2002 I am also a playwright and will be actively re-creating for the contemporary stage this summer a dramatization based on a Japanese Folk Tale (circa: 750 AD).

ERNEST ABUBA since 2010 NEXT ISSUE: If you do one thing this fall, what will it be? Respond via e-mail by August 15 for a chance to have your answer published.

SDC Journal@SDCweb.org

MIKE NICHOLS since 1963

OUR MEMBERS IN PRINT

MARY B. ROBINSON Directing Plays, Directing People: A Collaborative Art Cynthia Nixon writes in the foreword of a new book on directing,

by Mary B. Robinson: “You feel like a fly on the wall as she finds her script, collaborates with her designers, casts her actors, confers with her playwright, runs the laboratory that is her rehearsal room, and at last leads her company into the theater through tech, right up to opening night and beyond.” Ms. Nixon, having worked with Mary several times over the past 25 years, goes on to say, “What a thrill to discover that my friend who is such a gifted director turns out to be a thoroughly engaging writer as well.”

“I found Mary articulating things that I knew deep down about what we theater people are up to but didn’t know that I knew until she

Nixon believes Mary has done just that. “You have a treat waiting for you,” the actress promises. “It’s a book a director should keep permanently on the shelf to return to when he’s stuck or when she needs to be inspired...I gained many new insights about how a director does her work but just as often I found Mary articulating things that I knew deep down about what we theater people are up to but didn’t know that I knew until she said them.”

MARY B. ROBINSON, an award-winning director whose career in both professional and university theatre spans many decades, shares her own experience and adds perspective from a number of actors, playwrights, designers, and stage managers with whom she has collaborated over the years. Cynthia and Mary have collaborated on three plays: Lemon Sky and Moonchildren at Second Stage, and String Fever at Ensemble Studio Theatre.

Directing Plays, Directing People: A Collaborative Art is published

by Smith & Kraus, and was released in May 2012.

PHOTO

Hubert Schriebl

said them.” - CYNTHIA NIXON

When Mary first began teaching directing in the late 1990s, she found it difficult to articulate exactly what a director does. She remembers her students having the common misconception that the director should have all the answers on day one, and she wanted to convey to them how important collaboration and discovery are to the whole rehearsal process. Mary began writing this book for her students, but soon realized that she wanted to reach a wider audience as well. “At SDC meetings we often talked about how difficult it is to convey to lay people, and sometimes even theatre people, what it is that a director does. I began to feel that maybe I could provide a service to the field if I wrote a book that was personal, anecdotal, and very accessible.”

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MARY B. ROBINSON since 1984

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“It’s about art not recognized in its time, which I find very interesting…that something could be just crucified and then hailed as a masterpiece.”

BY TIMOTHY

DOUGLAS

IT’S A

STROMAN THING

“It’s about art not recognized in its time, which I find very interesting…that something could be just crucified and then hailed as a masterpiece.”

Susan Stroman could justifiably be speaking about some of her own projects, but instead the theatrical visionary and five-time Tony Award-winning director and choreographer behind Contact, Thou Shalt Not, and The Producers is referring to the excoriation received

by Edgar Degas in response to his “Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen.”

That famous statue is now the inspiration for a new project Stroman is developing with collaborators Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.

“We’ve created a whole story about that girl and how hard it was for women at that time in the dark underbelly of the Paris Opera ballet.

It’s about a little girl trying to survive. [Degas] was really in between classical and modernism and he took a pure classical statue and put a tutu on it, and put hair on it, and the critics went crazy. But really he was one of the first to head into modern art by doing that to a classical piece. I find that story fascinating, and it allows me to put classical ballet into a musical-theatre piece which is usually not done.

It allows me to do something new.”

Considering the sheer diversity of topics tackled by this intensely intelligent and deeply compassionate artist, “doing something new” seems the norm for Susan Stroman. By providing an inspired context for each theatrical world she constructs, she manages to balance the integrity of her heart-centered creativity with the ugly blows that so often accompany the defining moments along life’s journey. From the trials of white girls in Paris striving for common decency (framed by the pristine artistry of classical ballet), to the painful and hyper-real 12

SDC JOURNAL

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trials of nine black boys in America fighting for their very lives within a shameful and unjust Jim Crow South (framed by the perpetually controversial minstrel show), Stroman offers unflinching and intricate insights by revealing extraordinary aspects of ordinary lives.

I recently visited with Susan at her studio to discuss the staging process of John Kander and Fred Ebb’s The Scottsboro Boys. I particularly wanted to delve into aspects of the prickly challenges that lie in wait for a white female theatre director serving as the “way-shower” for nine powerful and gifted black male actors in their exploration of what is undeniably one of the most violent, unjust, perversely intimate, and harrowing chapters in America’s racist history. As if the bar were not set high enough, Stroman, with Kander and Ebb, discovered through the development process that the ideal theatrical form for giving this story its full sway would be the racially incendiary “minstrel show.”

The navigation of such minefields would be daunting enough for any accomplished director, but it becomes especially loaded with the added task of having to cross a perceived racial divide when entering the rehearsal room each day.

I was keenly interested in hearing the particulars of how it was possible for Stroman to navigate the impossibly complicated details of black-American culture and the journey of its much-maligned men. I don’t just mean the facts of the story—for the resultant production makes clear that Stroman’s depth of research and empathy was inexhaustible—but the ineffable authenticity that traditionally comes from one who has “lived the life.” How was it possible for this all-American girl from Delaware to harness the

TIMOTHY DOUGLAS since 1997 | SUSAN STROMAN since 1987

nuanced intensity of the Scottsboro Boys’ journey without being consumed in the crucible of its harsh realities along the way?

Throughout our dialogue, Stroman revealed herself to be a consummate theatre artist whose humanistic and creative worldview are confidently layered throughout her being and her work. She sets into motion a distillation of “given circumstances” to their pure essences, which in turn inspires genuine transformation on the stage. This whole, illuminating, and alchemical process is no respecter of politics, race, class, bias, or limitation of any kind, and knows only how to—quite literally—get at the heart of the matter.

T | How did the musical The Scottsboro Boys come into being?

S | Sometimes a musical comes out of pure collaboration. I had done an Off-Broadway production of Flora the Red Menace with John Kander and Fred Ebb that lead to the creation of The World Goes Round and the Broadway show Steel Pier. Along the way, we became very good friends. To have that kind of freedom and joy and that kind of close collaboration is rare. We’d sit around Fred Ebb’s kitchen table—which is a very famous kitchen table that should be in the Smithsonian because of all the shows that were written there: Cabaret, Chicago, everything—and we’d talk about what we wanted to do next. We had decided we wanted to do something real and truthful that was different from anything we’d done before. We had been looking at the ten greatest trials in America when we came across the Scottsboro Boys.

We had all heard about the Scottsboro Boys, though we didn’t know it as well as John Kander. When he was a boy, he’d read about the Scottsboro Boys, and he [particularly] remembers the moment when they weren’t in the newspaper anymore. There were nine boys from the ages of 13 to 19, and because of one lie these lives were destroyed. And it couldn’t have been more about truth or about what was real and about what was wrong. That was the story we were looking for. As we did the research, we realized they were always referred to as “the Scottsboro Boys.” You knew every name of the jury, you knew the girls’ names, you knew [the name of] the judge, you knew the names of everyone involved, but they were only referred to as “the Scottsboro Boys.” Already they had been put into a theatrical frame.

T | What aspect of the historical trial and its outcome particularly stood out for you?

S | Their trial changed history. You could say it was the beginning of the civil rights

movement in the sense that Rosa Parks met her husband, Raymond, marching for the Scottsboro Boys in 1931. Finding that piece of research made us think: what if the show started with a woman you didn’t know, and as she’s thinking back on her life, she remembers the Scottsboro Boys and they sort of come alive in her mind? Also, when Haywood Patterson first went to jail, he couldn’t read or write. But while he was there, he actually learned how to write and wrote a book. It’s called Scottsboro Boy. Patterson was offered parole, but only on the condition that he admitted he was guilty.

He wouldn’t do it. He died in jail because he refused to lie. This brought us back to “What is truth, and what does it mean to tell truth?” We knew this was a story that would resonate with today’s audience as much as it did with us.

T | Was there ever a time when you doubted if the production would be realized?

S | [When] Fred Ebb died I thought the piece would go on the shelf and be forgotten. We all went on to other projects. About threeand-a-half years ago, John Kander said, “Can we look at this again?” And I said, “Of course.” I’d forgotten how much had already been written before Fred died, so we went back to it. John Kander finished the lyrics to the new music that was written. We got a cast together and had a very casual read around a table. We learned a lot from that, and we went away, wrote some more, and then Doug Aibel [Artistic Director at the Vineyard Theatre] gave us a reading—a big reading—and that went very well, and Doug decided to produce it [at the Vineyard Theatre].

T | What compelled you to enter the minstrel show arena in the face of its historically controversial form?

S | The Scottsboro Boys’ trials were referred to by the press as “a minstrel show in the courtroom.” Several times. That is where the idea first sprung. The [minstrel format] allowed us to create songs that were indicative of the period. It has the device of The Interlocutor (the host or straight man) and the two End-men (comics). This allowed us to move the plot forward while keeping it entertaining. The Scottsboro Boys’ story was filled with different characters: the two white girls who accused them of the crime; Sam Liebowitz, the Jewish lawyer from New York; white judges, white guards, white sheriffs, etc. It was exciting to us that this ensemble of [African-American] players would be able to play characters that they would not normally be asked to portray. We realized that an American art form that was racially charged would actually help us tell our story and make the individual [Scottsboro] boys come to life.

T | How did you do that?

What if the show started with a woman, and as she’s thinking back on her life, she remembers the Scottsboro Boys and they come alive in her mind?

S | To begin with, historically, it was typical for the minstrel players to gather an audience from the streets and pull them into the theatre. We do this by coming down the aisles in the beginning to a beautiful melody that Kander wrote called “Minstrel March.” It evokes the period and has a very uplifting sound. The Interlocutor says to the boys, “Gentlemen, be seated,” and they happily do so. By the middle of the show, you have “Southern Days,” our version of “My Old Kentucky Home” where the boys change the lyrics on the Interlocutor—a first sign of not doing what they are told to do. As the show carries on, they refuse to be seated and even walk away from the Interlocutor.

Another example would be “Electric Chair.”

Tap dancing was a typical dance found in minstrel shows. I read that to scare the boys, SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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the prison guards would put the boys in cells near the electric chair. The boys could hear the chair go off when they electrocuted someone. They would have terrible nightmares. The dance is the youngest boy’s nightmare about being put in the chair. The fast tapping adds to the tension, exemplifies the boy’s plight, and is very much an aspect of the art form.

T | When the challenges grew deeper, what kept discouragement at bay?

S | You never know if something is going to work. You immerse yourself in the storytelling and the craft and hope for the best. And what helped keep us going was the idea of bringing those nine boys to the forefront of people’s minds again.

It felt right to me, to Kander and Ebb, and to David Thompson [book writer], to keep going forward and keep exploring.

T | At what point, if ever, did you ask yourself about your ability to shepherd the authentic voices of these black men?

S | Well, all the time! All I could do is create a venue for these actors. And it’s their contribution that makes the show come to life, because it’s their own personal history, and the history of their families—all of it— that they bring to this story. That was the biggest thing of all to bring to the table, because that is the element that makes the show explode.

T | That makes perfect sense, but let me be more specific with my query by confessing that I do sometimes question the validity of a white director’s perspective on an inherently black tale.

S | I didn’t know how this process would go, because there’s a feeling that maybe a white

I could not teach these actors or give these actors what they needed to do The Scottsboro Boys.

I could only give them a venue, a path, a plan, and then they came up with the goods. person cannot do this story. That’s not what I felt, but I knew that others were ready to say that.

T | I would love for you take me deeper into the process, to help me understand how you were able to gauge for yourself the authenticity of the cultural specificity coming through these African-American actors?

S | What they brought to their characters is something I could never give them or teach them. But I knew that when we started this, I knew it had to be that way. There was no way I was going to say, “You have to say it this way!”

I could not teach these actors, or give these actors, what they needed to do The Scottsboro Boys. I could only give them a venue, a path, a plan, and then they came up with the goods. I gave [them] what the truth was about those boys, the real history, which was very little, hardly anything for some of them. We immersed ourselves in the research and the history of it. And I

asked them to write their own histories as those boys in the form of personal letters.

And several times during rehearsal we’d stop everything, and we’d sit down, and we’d read those letters out loud. We did it again right before the first preview, and we did it again before opening.

T | Can you shed some light on how you worked to balance the pathos inspired by those letters with such a highly theatrical and controversial treatment in storytelling?

S | I think with this show, when we realized how to do it, it’s like a true appropriation of art, in a way. You see the actors overtake the minstrel form and flip it on its head, play white characters, and then they grab hold of the set and make it move. They change the whole set around, and take charge of the entire story. I have to say I’ve never done a show where a group of actors were so invested. It knocked my breath out. At the end I’m exhausted—watching it is so amazing to me. They were very respectful of me in this position, as I was of them, and if ever something felt uncomfortable I would change it up. I was ready for anything.

T | What has hindsight clarified for you?

S | I don’t think I’ve ever felt so alive. The piece would upset me. The piece would make me happy. The piece would make me nervous. The piece would make me very happy when people got it. Every emotion was tingling with this piece, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that. The intensity of the bonding of the actors, the loaded message of the show, and that investment in telling the story—I would love to think that it will happen again in my lifetime, but I don’t think it will. w TITLE PAGE Cast of The Scottsboro Boys at Vineyard Theatre PRIOR Sharon Washington PHOTOS Carol Rosegg

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A FRESH SPIN ON THE OLD RAZZLE DAZZLE

PHOTO

BY

Rose Eichenbaum

Rob Marshall STEPHANIE COEN

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In March, Rob Marshall was fêted by Roundabout Theatre Company with a musical tribute at the company’s annual Spring Gala. The program of songs and speeches, titled From Screen to Stage, celebrated the former-Broadway-dancer-turned-choreographer-turneddirector/choreographer-turned-film-director—a man with a series of multiple, sometimes overlapping, hyphenates, who has been honored with six Tony Award nominations, and whose films, collectively, have earned 23 Oscar nominations, winning nine, including Best Picture for his debut film, Chicago.

In the hands of host Martin Short, star of Marshall’s 1998 Broadway revival of Little Me, the program was less a tribute than a genial, occasionally barbed roast—especially when Short’s alter-ego, Jiminy Glick, brought Marshall on stage and skewered him, to hilarious effect, during a mock this-is-your-life interview. For a time, it seemed that most of the performers were mainly honoring the implicit contract of entertaining at a non-profit fundraiser: deliver the goods, with a kiss or a wave to the honoree. Christine Baranski slinked her way through “After You Get What You Want You Don’t Want It.” Boyd Gaines did a swinging version of “Something’s Gotta Give.” Kelli O’Hara brought her crystalline soprano to “Moon River.”

As the evening went on, however, something else became clear: actors really, really love Rob Marshall. They put themselves on video, sent letters, or came to the gala to speak personally from the stage—a starry roster of talent that included Alan Cumming, Chita Rivera, Daniel Day-Lewis, Sophia Loren, and Richard Gere, who called the making of Chicago “probably the greatest time I’ve ever had as an actor.” No less a screen-andstage luminary than Julie Andrews presented Marshall with the Jason Robards Award for Excellence in Theatre.

Actors love Rob Marshall for his talent, which is considerable, and for his charm, which is abundant. And they love him because he makes them feel good about themselves.

Marshall brings craft, skill, and imagination to his work—and he treats every star like an actor and every actor like a star. “I love actors and I think they know that,” he says. “I know how fragile it is to be an actor, how exposing it is. I want to make them feel like they can accomplish anything, to give them great courage and make them less fearful. I want them to feel unconditional love so they can do their best work. That’s really what I try to bring to the work, always. In a way, it’s the most important thing to me.”

The day after the Roundabout Gala, Marshall spent nearly an hour with me talking about his life and career in the bar at the Carlyle Hotel. An easy conversationalist, Marshall is obviously serious about what he does, but what comes through most clearly is the sense that he has limitless, genuine enthusiasm for his work and his collaborators—a portrait of the artist as cheerleader, not task-master.

Director/choreographers in the American theatre tend to come up through the ranks; virtually every one of them starts as a dancer, and then becomes a dance captain and assistant choreographer. It’s a profession in which each new generation literally follows in the footsteps of the masters who came before them.

Reflecting on his trajectory—from dancer to choreographer to director, from stage to television to film—Rob Marshall notes

Looking back, I feel like I didn’t jump any steps.

I built my way.

“The director/choreographers in the generation prior to my time on Broadway were tough,” Marshall says. “Perhaps it had something to do with coming from ballet, which was a much tougher discipline and doesn’t involve collaboration. But musical theatre is the purest form of collaboration you can find. My great mentor was Graciela Daniele, who taught me about the fun of the work, and the play of the work. She assisted Bob Fosse, and, of course, he was so influenced by Jack Cole, even George Balanchine. I feel like there is a lineage that was passed to me, and I have great respect for that.”

“It’s like a necklace; we are all attached, and we pass on the torch,” Graciela Daniele says, speaking ebulliently of Marshall over the phone from her home in New York. Marshall has appeared on Broadway as a dancer in four productions. Daniele—the Argentinian-born director/choreographer, herself a protégé of Michael Bennett—choreographed the first three of them: Zorba, Marshall’s Broadway debut, produced in 1983; The Rink in 1984, for which he was dance captain; and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, in 1985, by which time he was both dance captain and Daniele’s assistant.

“He was an actor/dancer, which is what I loved,” Daniele remembers, speaking joyfully of Marshall. “He had character in addition to technique, personality—on stage and off— and such a sense of humor. I had so much fun with him. And he had something else that I loved: a mind. When a director/choreographer works with dancers and actors, we 16 12

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GRACIELA DANIELE since 1976 | ROB MARSHALL since 1988

CLOCKWISE Renée Zellweger in Chicago Fergie and dancers rehearsing “Be Italian” in Nine Penelope Cruz on set for Nine | PHOTOS David James

I love actors and I think they know that.

I know how fragile it is to be an actor, how exposing...I want to make them feel like they can accomplish anything. don’t have all the answers; we have an idea, and they bring us the answer. But not all of them do that. Robby always had this incredible creativity in him. He has the ability to tell a story in a very clear and human and emotional way. Another thing that I noticed in him immediately is his ability to deal with actors with a sense of humanity. That’s what a leader needs, and he has it.

I’ve seen him through the years and he has grown—he’s a master now—but he has not changed. My Rob is still there. I adore him and respect his work so much. I saw in him the future.”

To understand the future, one must always look to the past. For Marshall, that’s Pittsburgh, where he grew up with two sisters.

Maura, his twin, now runs an interior architecture and design firm; their younger sibling, Kathleen Marshall, is a Broadway director and three-time Tony-winning choreographer. Marshall’s parents, who met in college when they did a show together—and who saw Mary Martin in The Sound of Music on their honeymoon— were both educators who loved musicals and immersed their three offspring in the arts.

“I would rush home from school, and I wouldn’t listen to pop music, I would listen to musicals. That was my world. And it was the world of our house,” Marshall remembers. “We went every week to the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera”—the historic professional company that stages classic musicals—“and that was incredibly influential for us. And we were so lucky to be exposed not only to great theatre but to the movie musicals and the

KATHLEEN MARSHALL since 1994

variety shows that were on television at that time. To watch that dance! That’s what I wanted to do, although I didn’t start taking dance lessons until later.

“We sang, too, at the top of our lungs.” Marshall grins broadly.

“We would do shows for my parents, who were incredible sports.

We had an opening, we each had a solo, then we had a company number, then we each had a solo, and the finale. Just like that.

Isn’t that crazy? I can remember it clearly: ‘Another Op’nin’, Another Show’ was the opening. I had a ballad and an up-tempo: ‘If Ever I Would Leave You’ and ‘All I Need Is the Girl.’ ‘Hello, Dolly!’ was our middle big-production number, and we ended with ‘There’s No Business Like Show Business.’ We loved it.”

The three Marshall kids didn’t sing and dance only in their living room. In the summer of 1973, when Marshall was 12, they were all performing in The Sound of Music at the Civic Light Opera.

There, they also watched rehearsals of one of the theatre’s upcoming shows. If there’s ever a case study written on how one family produces two award-winning director/choreographers, DNA is sure to be considered—so is unconditional love and an environment that fosters arts attendance and participation. But not to be underestimated would be the impact of going into a rehearsal room and watching dancers at work on West Side Story.

“Can you imagine? And that was it,” Marshall says. “When we saw what that could be—that just was it. We were ravenous.”

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At 16, Marshall was taking dance lessons. He went to Carnegie Mellon University, which had one of the country’s only musical theatre programs, but took a year off when Michael Bennett cast him, at 19, in his first professional job: playing Al in the international tour of A Chorus Line. Then it was back to school, and from there to Broadway and the three shows with Graciela Daniele.

If Marshall seemed to be on the way to becoming a leading Broadway dancer, that course was derailed when he was injured four months into his run as Munkustrap, the narrator in Cats, and a new course was set.

After recuperating, Marshall got his first job as a choreographer for a production of The Rink at the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Florida. “I thought I would go back to performing, but I started directing and choreographing right away. I didn’t expect I’d be doing it at the age I started, when I was 27. The first time I ever directed, ever, I was choreographing a production of Camelot starring Stacy Keach for Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera. There was going to be a little tour, and the director pulled out, and they asked me if I would direct it. So I was directing a great actor, a real actor, and I thought, wow, I’d better get it together. He was so generous to me—he made me feel like I could do it.”

Originally directed by Mendes at London’s Donmar Warehouse in 1993, Cabaret was reconceived in New York to be performed in a former nightclub, with the audience enveloped in the performance space. The production—which moved during its first season to Studio 54, and ran for more than five years with a remarkably long list of actors in the leading roles—won numerous awards, including the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical, and garnered Marshall Tony nominations for directing and choreography.

I would listen to musicals.

That was my world.

And it was the world of our house.

Marshall continued to work in regional theatres and summer stock and made his return to Broadway in 1993, creating “additional choreography” for Kander and Ebb’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, starring Chita Rivera and directed by Harold Prince. Asked about his experience working with Marshall, Prince replied via email: “I had been hearing about Rob Marshall from Kander and Ebb because of a production of The Rink which they loved. I did not, however, get to work with him until Kiss of the Spider Woman, where he did dazzling work—and quickly. As far as I’m concerned, the best number in the show was ‘Where You Are,’ which had Chita in white tie and tails and the prisoners, still in their prison garb, backing her up. It was a brilliant illusion, a melding of traditional musical staging with a fresh, abstract theatricality. Rob is infinitely creative and his work has true authentic energy, none of that crazy ‘Let’s hop till we drop.’”

Spider Woman brought Marshall his first Tony nomination (shared with Vincent Paterson) for Best Choreography and more work: a show-stopping number in She Loves Me, which ran on Broadway and in London; revivals of Damn Yankees, Company, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum; and working with Julie Andrews on Victor/Victoria, his first original Broadway musical as the sole choreographer. In 1996, Marshall started choreographing for television with Mrs. Santa Claus, an original musical that Jerry Herman wrote for Angela Lansbury. Of working with director Terry Hughes, Marshall says, “I learned what film was and how you could cut.”

As Marshall reflects on his trajectory—from dancer to choreographer to director, from stage to television to film—he notes that, “Looking back, I feel like I didn’t jump any steps. I built my way.” If a career is built choice by choice, there are also turning points along the way; for Marshall, one of those came in 1998, when he made his co-directorial debut on Broadway working with British director Sam Mendes on Roundabout’s Broadway revival of Cabaret, another Kander and Ebb show, which Marshall also choreographed.

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“I knew how great the piece was,” Marshall says, “but I had no idea our production would be embraced and received the way that it was. Codirecting is a very odd thing to do, but Sam asked me to come on board and work with him at a time when I was ready to direct, and he wanted to have that collaboration with me, because he was coming to New York for the first time. We were both working to stretch ourselves, and we both knew this was a chance to re-invent something that was done so brilliantly on stage by Hal Prince and so brilliantly on film

by Bob Fosse. We knew we had a very different approach, and that gave us the freedom to try something unique and daring.

“Sam had come up with the wonderful concept of placing it in a club and making it an environmental production, but it wasn’t about spectacle—it was literally about the great work of the artists, the writers and the actors. It was all about the acting. That’s why I go to the theatre. The reason I go to the theatre—and to film—is to be dazzled by the performances.”

Dazzling might be the perfect word to describe Marshall’s debut film as a director/ choreographer: Chicago, a stunningly inventive, breathtakingly re-imagined film version of Marshall’s favorite musical. Salon critic Stephanie Zacharek wrote that “Chicago has almost single-handedly resurrected the tradition of the movie musical…Chicago is sophisticated, brash, sardonic, [and] completely joyful in its execution. It gives anyone who ever loved movie musicals, and lamented their demise, something to live for.” Other critics waxed equally rhapsodic.

So did moviegoers. And so did the Academy: Chicago received 13 Oscar nominations, including one for Best Director, and won six, including Best Picture.

How Marshall came to direct Chicago is a great Hollywood story on its own. “Miramax was looking for a young director to direct the film of Rent,” Marshall says. “I had done Annie”—a successful television movie that was his screen directing debut in 1999—“and Cabaret was playing on Broadway, so I think it was those things that got me through the door for a meeting.

But I had read a version of a screenplay for Chicago that I thought was so off, and I said to Meryl Poster, who was a vice president under Harvey Weinstein, ‘Before we start talking about Rent, can I just talk about Chicago? I really feel like this version has gone off in the wrong direction, and I’ll tell you why.’”

The screenplay that Marshall read, he says, was an attempt to turn Chicago into a book musical where people sing to each other. He pitched the high-concept idea of going back and forth between two different worlds—a vaudeville world living simultaneously within the real world—with all of the musical numbers taking place in the imagination of Roxie Hart (played by the unlikely, but ultimately disarming, Renée Zellweger).

SAM MENDES since 1998 | VINCENT PATERSON since 1992 | HAROLD PRINCE since 1963

IN REMEMBERANCE

CHICAGO has almost single-handedly resurrected the tradition of the movie musical...It gives anyone who ever loved movie musicals, and lamented their demise, something to live for.

MAY 1, 2011-MAY 15, 2012 Ed Burgess

CHOREOGRAPHER Member since 2003

Gilbert Cates

DIRECTOR Since 1972

Liviu I. Ciulei

DIRECTOR Since 1979

Virginia Freeman

CHOREOGRAPHER Since 1980

William E. Gile

DIRECTOR Since 1975

Ulu Grosbard DIRECTOR Since 1964

STEPHANIE ZACHAREK, Salon Critic

Richard Harden

DIRECTOR Since 1979

“I can clearly remember his take on it. It was so distinct,” Poster says during a telephone interview from her office in New York.

“We never got to Rent. He talked about starting the movie going through Roxie’s eyes; he jumped up on the couch and did a little bit of the dance. Chicago was a prestigious project, and we’d been speaking to much bigger names than Rob, but he sold me immediately, the moment I heard him talk about it. I don’t think that’s ever happened before.”

Created in collaboration with the writer Bill Condon, Chicago is a marvel of filmmaking that came directly out of Marshall’s experience directing and choreographing for the theatre. “Chicago felt like a hybrid of theatre and film,” he says. “We rehearsed like a stage piece. I could have put it on the road. It felt like I was at home.”

Marshall has made three more feature films, each wildly different from the one before: Memoirs of a Geisha, an adaptation of the stage musical Nine, and Pirates of the Caribbean: Stranger Tides, the most recent film in that franchise.

Working in film has afforded Marshall many opportunities, not least the chance to work professionally with John DeLuca, his partner of 29 years. A former dancer, DeLuca has been a secondunit director, choreographer, and/or producer on each of Marshall’s films. “I always love talking about John,” Marshall says. “His amazing eye, his work with actors, his sense of structure—he is a brilliant visionary. I always feel like I get so much of the praise because I’m a director, but he’s a huge part of everything I do.”

Today, Marshall is thinking about coming back to the theatre. “It’s really important to me. It’s been too long,” he says emphatically.

Right now, though, he has two new films in development. One is a new version of Dashiell Hammett’s’ The Thin Man, which he is working on with the actor Johnny Depp and which will be set in the 1930s. The other is a project that’s been ten years in the making: a film version of Into the Woods, James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim’s gorgeous, darkly evocative fairy-tale musical.

The day after the Roundabout gala, Marshall comes to our interview after spending three hours working on the project with Lapine, who directed the original Broadway production and is writing the film adaptation. “Movies are a director’s medium in the JOHN DELUCA since 1995 | JAMES LAPINE since 1988

Edward Hastings

DIRECTOR Since 1973

Danya Krupska-Thurston

DIR/CHOR Since 1959

Arthur Laurents DIRECTOR Since 1963

Theodore D. Mann DIRECTOR Since 1988

James C. Merrill DIR/CHOR Since 1999

Roland Petit DIR/CHOR Since 1980

David Pressman DIRECTOR Since 1987

Philip Rose DIRECTOR Since 1967

Tony Stevens DIR/CHOR Since 1973

Beatrice Terry DIRECTOR Since 2004

David F. Wheeler DIRECTOR Since 1970

Kelli Wicke Davis DIR/CHOR Since 2002

Jiri Zizka DIRECTOR Since 1989

“Praising

what is lost makes the remembrance dear” SHAKESPEARE

way that the stage is more a writer’s medium,” Lapine emails.

“It’s been a great pleasure working on the screenplay of Woods with Rob, because he is expert at both stage and film directing. He knows this show very well, and, of course, he understands that what works on stage does not necessarily work on film. Rob thinks musically as well as visually, and working with him as a writer is a dream collaboration. He knows how he wants to tell a story, and where dialogue and song can hold the screen, and where visual storytelling can be more exciting than words.”

“James and I love working together,” Marshall says, “and the opportunity to work with a Stephen Sondheim score is a total dream come true.” As Marshall talks about Into the Woods, it feels more and more like a kind of summation of his own journey. “I love what it says about family, and about ‘happily ever after’ and what that is and how you make it for yourself.”

Stephanie Coen is the Associate Artistic Director at Two River Theater in Red Bank, NJ.

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TRANSITIONS

Holding the Vision PHYLICIA RASHĀD + SHELDON EPPS ON DIRECTING

“All dancers should think

of becoming choreographers, and all actors should think of becoming directors, and all choreographers should think of becoming directors, and all directors should think of becoming producers.”

GEOFFREY HOLDER

Micheal McElroy + Phylicia Rashād in Blue

Houston native Phylicia Rashād became the first African-American actress to win the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play for her role in the 2004 revival of A Raisin in the Sun. Best known for her

portrayal of Clair Huxtable on NBC’s long-running The Cosby Show, Rashād has worked extensively on stage as well as television. Her Broadway acting credits include: August: Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Gem of the Ocean, Blue, Jelly’s Last Jam, Into the Woods, Dreamgirls, The Wiz, and Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death.

In 2007, Rashād made her directorial debut with the Seattle Repertory Theatre’s production of August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean.

PHOTO

Recently, SDC Executive Board Member and award-winning director, Sheldon Epps, spoke with Rashād about her transition from actress to director, and the joys and challenges inherent within that journey.

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SHELDON EPPS since 1981 | PHYLICIA RASHĀD since 2012

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S | I’m here with my respected colleague and friend, Phylicia Rashād, and we’re going to chat today about your entry into the world of directing.

P | Right.

S | You’re back acting again, right now, aren’t you? You’re in Atlanta filming Steel Magnolias, right?

P | Yes. S | How’s it going?

P | Well, it’s going very well.

S | I’m going to start with this: given the fact that you obviously have a hugely and deservedly busy career as an actress and stay pretty much with your hands full in that area, what were the impulses that led you toward directing and was it, in fact, something that you’d always wanted to do?

P | Well, I can answer both questions by saying this happened by invitation. Both times! I had not considered directing.

The first invitation came from Constanza Romero.

S | August Wilson’s wife.

P | That’s correct, and the second invitation came from Wren Brown at the Ebony Repertory Theatre for A Raisin in the Sun. And both were invitations to direct plays that I had performed in.

S | Which is interesting, in and of itself, actually.

P | Very interesting. And I was taken aback, quite frankly, to have been invited to either or both!

S | So the first was Gem of the Ocean, right, and that was at the Seattle Rep? P | Yes. S | So what made you say “yes” after you were taken aback?

P | Well, I had to think about that for a minute, [laughs] because I have a certain feeling for that play. I think it’s one of the best works ever written; certainly one of the best works I’ve ever performed in. And that was a lot to cut one’s teeth on!

S | Sure, it’s a very complicated play. Very rich and complicated play.

P | Very rich, very rich play. But Constanza said that she was certain that I could do this. And not only could I do it—but that GEOFFREY HOLDER since 1975

I was the one to do it. She expressed a certain belief in me, she said, that August held for me as an artist and as a person.

And I talked it over with my manager and he thought it was a good idea and then I remembered an understudy rehearsal from the original Broadway production of The Wiz. I understudied the role of Glinda, the good witch of the South. And Director/Choreographer Geoffrey Holder conducted our first understudy rehearsal.

And in one of our rehearsals he started it like this, he said: “All dancers should think of becoming choreographers, and all actors should think of becoming directors, and all choreographers should think of becoming directors, and all directors should think of becoming producers.”

What he was saying was that we, at some point in our careers, have to open the vessel of our minds to fuller consideration of what our artistic explorations can and should and will be. We have to think about it.

S | That’s a great challenge and inspiration for all artists to think about—moving beyond the specifics of whatever craft it is they’re practicing to other things. I often think that actors would have more compassion for directors if they had to do it for a week or so.

P | I think you’re right!

S | You know, I saw an interview with Jerome Robbins shortly before he died, and he was asked the question, “Do you think you could’ve been as great a choreographer as you’ve become if you hadn’t been a dancer?” And he just started laughing.

And the interviewer said, “Why are you laughing?” And he said, “Well, how would you know what to say?” [Laughs] I thought that was a great answer. How would you know the language? How would you know the terminology, the language, all of that that gets you what you want? Those of us who have acted at some point in our careers, or have been trained as actors, have a leg up in terms of knowing the language and in terms of knowing specifically what you say and don’t say to help an actor. Do you agree?

P | Oh, yes, I agree.

S | Tell me, with Gem and with A Raisin in the Sun, do you think there are specific challenges about directing plays that you’ve had a history of acting in? And in those two cases you’d acted in both of those plays for a long time. Are there specific challenges in getting your actor/character knowledge out of the way that comes into it? Or is it useful?

Is it more useful because you’ve done the play?

P | I didn’t find it troublesome at all that I’d performed those plays before. I felt that I had an insight into the plays, the written works, but also into characters’ development. That I think I might not have understood them the way that I did. Let me say this—I know this is true—especially for A Raisin in the Sun. I performed A Raisin in the Sun three times. I was Ruth twice.

S | Oh, I didn’t know that.

P | In college, at Howard University, and for the 25th Anniversary performance at the McBurney Y—that was the same year that I was cast as Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show. As a matter of fact, I was performing in that play at the time I was cast. But I didn’t understand the play the way I came to understand it. And I didn’t come to understand it quite the way that I do until I directed it.

S | So you’d actually been with that play for years before you’d walked into the rehearsal room as the director of it.

“

We, at some point in our careers, have to open the vessel of our minds to fuller consideration of what our artistic explorations can and should and will be. We have to think about it.”

P | I knew it. It was kind of in there. But I’ll tell you something, when I received the call asking me to perform the role of Lena, I asked: “Why are we doing this again?” I did! Because I didn’t understand the play.

Even though I’d performed it twice, I didn’t understand it.

S | So what is it about directing that helped you understand it more?

P | Well, when I entered into the process as a director, the first thing I told the actors was I don’t want to know about drama. I don’t want to know nothing about it. [Laughs] S | I like that!

P | I did. I said any actor worth his or her salt can fall out! But that’s not what’s going to make this interesting. What makes it interesting to me is the truth of human behavior. So that was a very fresh approach.

Actually, the performances at Ebony Rep, some people thought we had changed the text; but we hadn’t changed a word.

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S | Oh really? Just because they were hearing it in a different way than they’d ever heard it before? Experiencing it differently…

P | Experiencing it differently, yes. And we didn’t go out of our way to do anything different, we just went more into—we went deeper into the truth of human behavior and relationships—and the time. Time was very important. People were different in the 1950s than they are today. People just were.

Interestingly enough I found a parallel, a connection, between Gem of the Ocean and A Raisin in the Sun. S | In what way?

P | A Raisin in the Sun takes place in 1959 and Lena is designated to be 55 years old.

That means she’s born in 1904—that’s the year Gem of the Ocean takes place. And because I had performed in and directed Gem of the Ocean and was actually asked to write the forward to Gem of the Ocean in the TCG publication of the entire canon, I was very sensitive to that time.

S | I think you’re so right, though, that one of the things we’re called on as directors to become is historians, and to study the period. I also asked you to direct a play here—a play where studying the specifics of the economics and the fiscal realities of the period was so important to the issues in the play.

P | Well, it’s so important to do. Because it informs behavior. And for me, this is what is exciting. I made such a great discovery in directing Gem of the Ocean, I discovered what directing means for me.

S | What does it mean for you?

P | It’s holding a vision and galvanizing it so that all the creative energies move in a line with that vision. Allowing space and room for everyone to be creative.

S | Well, having directed you, in Blue, Charles Randolph-Wright’s play, I was always so impressed with your generosity in the rehearsal room and your willingness to “go with the flow,” I would say. And sort of willingness to be mutable about whatever direction it was that I, or anybody else in the rehearsal room, might have wanted to go that day just to see what was there and allow ourselves the pleasure of discovering that we were on the wrong path so we could get back on the right one. So I’m sure that is something that you bring to your approach as an “actor’s director” as well.

P | It’s fun, isn’t it, Sheldon?

S | It is fun! It’s fun to go into a room with a 22

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bunch of people that you admire and with material that you admire. It’s a pretty good job, huh? From your work as an actress, or historically—I know that you trained at Howard and have gone back to Howard to teach—can you point to particular influences in your life or lessons that have taught you, that you’ve used as a director? Present company excepted. Or included. [Laughs] P | Present company included! [Laughs] I’ve learned from every director I’ve worked with.

S | Well, yes, you do learn something from everybody.

P | Well, from some of them you learn what not to do!

S | That’s very true.

P | But I can say, in all honesty, I haven’t had a lot of that.

S | Oh, that’s good!

P | I’m so fortunate in my career. I’ve been so fortunate in my work to work with bright, intelligent, talented, developed, and committed people—committed artists.

I’ve really been very fortunate in this way.

And even without understanding that I was learning from them, I was. I learned, first of all, that preparation is mandatory. I learned that it is important to be in control without being controlling. Preparation gives you that.

You have to be prepared. You have to know what you’re after.

S | Well, that’s part of holding the vision that you talked about before.

P | Holding that vision, you know. And how does that vision arise? You’ve got to give yourself space and room. And you move into the text.

S | You talked before about the fact that you were fortunate enough to work with a lot of really good directors—you mentioned Geoffrey Holder, and I know that you’ve worked with Michael Bennett, Kenny Leon, others— P | Gilbert Moses.

S | Gilbert Moses, a wonderful director. Was there something about the fact that you had those really good experiences with directors that made the craft of directing and the possibility of directing interesting to you when the opportunity came about?

Did you feel a particular respect for what you felt to be the craft of directing as you’d experienced it from the other side, as an actress?

P | The acting experience is nothing like sitting on the other side of that table. It comes back to your earlier observation that people would be a little bit kinder, they’d be a little bit more gentle! [Laughs] I had no idea…and I’ll say this: what precipitated all of this in terms of a work experience was coproducing, with my sister, The Old Settler, for KCET television. All of a sudden I had moved from a position where I was concerned and was focused on the development of a single character to an attention to detail of every aspect of production. That’s a very broad vision as you know. It’s a much broader place to be. And that somehow I felt differently as an actress while I was being an executive producer. It was the strangest feeling…I know how I’ll explain it: I felt doubly invested in what I was doing. And that changed me; that changed the way I worked from that point on. Because I understood that, as much as I imagined or thought that I had accomplished by way of investing myself as an actor, there was more that could be done. And that came from an awareness of production values—from a fuller awareness of production values—of what goes into the complete work, the big picture. It’s really difficult for—and I haven’t had this problem a lot—but it’s really difficult for some actors to accept what a director says. Because they become very attached to their idea, and they’re not looking at it. They’re just in it, and they become very attached to their idea, but they’re not looking at what they’re doing.

S | That’s funny that you should use that particular phrase. Because I always find, inevitably in the rehearsal process, usually about the third week of rehearsal, I find that one of the general notes that I always give is: it’s time for everyone to stop playing their idea of what the scene should be and just be in the scene.

P | Oooh! I love that one!

S | [Laughs] A lot of shoulders go up, you know, a lot of umbrage in the room. But I think it’s true. You see people—and often with the best intentions—you see people thinking and holding onto those things which may have no correlation to what is actually going on with the other actors or what the playwright intended.

P | Or what the playwright intended most of all, yes. In terms of directing and what was a key to directing for me—one of the greatest experiences and influences for me was working with August Wilson in the room. It was the first time I had ever worked with a playwright of that magnitude in the room.

And you see, the way he worked—he would come in and watch the rehearsal. And his eyes would close, and it would look like he KENNY LEON since 1988

was asleep, and then he’d get up, and he’d leave, and he’d come back the next day, and that scene would be rewritten. Because he was sitting there listening. He wouldn’t, as a rule, he wouldn’t say things to anybody but the director.

S | He wouldn’t speak to the actors?

P | Not as a rule. But he did give me one observation, and I appreciated it greatly.

And it had to do with a simple and subtle movement that I was doing, the way I was sitting in the chair. He said it was too modern. I thought: “Oh my God…Intention!”

And with just that one little thing that he said to me, early on in rehearsal, I began to not study so much just the lines to learn as he had written them but to move deeper into the lines to discern his intention.

Because the thing about Gem of the Ocean: that intention is so subtle and so powerful and it is there and it is magic and when you touch that intention and you allow that intention to inform your work—whether you are designing, acting, or directing, or stage managing—it is the most incredible experience.

S | I love the phrase that you use: “when you touch that intention it’s magical…” That’s great. Having just seen your A Raisin in the Sun I must say it was quite masterful. I thought it was quite a wonderful production.

And your work with the actors, in particular, was just brilliant.

P | I can’t tell you what that means, coming from you.

S | Well, I mean it sincerely. So you’re just waiting for some smart artistic director like me to call you and say “Would you like to do this, then?”

P | Yes. S | You’ve gone back regularly to teach at Howard, haven’t you?

P | Yes, I have.

S | It’s, I think, inevitable whenever we’re directing we’re always teaching as well—no matter what the experience level of the actor is you become something of a teacher. Even if it’s only to remind people of things like “touch the intention.” [Laughs] P | Right, it’s true. It’s true. One of the actors in A Raisin in the Sun asked me that, he said: “What is that line between directing and teaching?” I said I don’t know—it’s very fine!

[Laughs] S | Good answer. Do you ever see yourself declaring yourself a director and not acting

anymore, or do you always hope to balance the two?

P | Oh what a question, Sheldon. What a question! Oh, I don’t know!

S | That’s a fine answer! [Laughs]

{ad space}

P | [Laughs] I enjoy acting. I suppose if there came a time when I felt that the roles that I was being offered no longer were of interest to me because there was nothing— there was no challenge in them. And by challenge I don’t mean it has to be great and momentous; sometimes simplicity is very challenging. But if I came to a place where I felt that I was being offered roles because, oh, they needed a mother and people identified me that way— S | Or if you were being asked just to repeat things that you felt that you’ve done before.

P | Yes. I think I should take up watercolors and pie making and directing. [Laughs] S | Well, Phylicia, this conversation has reminded me of the joy of being in the rehearsal room with you. And whether it’s another time with me directing you or with you here at Pasadena Playhouse as the director I hope we have that joy again soon.

P | You know, I would love it. I enjoyed collaborating with you.

S | We have a good collaboration, don’t we?

P | We do. And it’s filled with sidebars and fun. And things that we don’t have to say that other people don’t understand!

[Laughs] S | Well that’s when directing is best—when you don’t really have to say very much.

When you’re so keyed into another person, as we have been together, that the raise of an eyebrow will tell you everything! [Laughs] P | I remember your eyebrows, believe me!

[Both laugh]

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S | I will choose to take that as a compliment.

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P | Oh, please do. You would send me reeling! It was all I could do to keep a straight face!

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S | We had a good time together.

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Perhaps no other American director is as respected as DANIEL SULLIVAN. When you think of his contribution to Broadway, you think of the myriad and varied successes that have marked his enviable career.

Rising swiftly is PAM MACKINNON, who assisted Sullivan early in her burgeoning career.

SDC brought these two artists together with Member TED SOD to discuss their backgrounds, education, and their individual takes on process and production, including advice to aspiring directors.

PAM MACKINNON + DAN SULLIVAN Q+A INTERVIEW BY

TED SOD 24

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CJ Maldanado PHOTO PAM MACKINNON since 2001 | TED SOD since 2003 | DANIEL SULLIVAN since 1971

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T | I would like to start with some biographical information: where you were born, where you were educated, and how, and when, you decided to become a director.

D | Born in Wray, Colorado, out on the prairie. Went to San Francisco State. Graduated in English and Drama. Drama was just by chance, as I did a lot of shows there and started taking classes. My real interest was in the English department.

T | Did you start directing right away?

D | I directed the annual campus musical revue known as Kampus Kapers at San Francisco State with music by Paul Gemignani. It is a double record set, if you are interested.

T | Is that where you met Herbert Blau and Jules Irving?

D | They were both at San Francisco State. Blau was in the English department, and Irving was in Drama. It was Irving who brought me into the San Francisco Actor’s Workshop in ’62. So I was going to school and was in the Actor’s Workshop at the same time.

T | And you came to Lincoln Center with them?

D | Yes, in ’65.

T | Did you direct or act in New York?

D | I was acting, and because it was a company and we got a weekly salary, Jules didn’t know what to do with me. He knew he had to do something, because I was making $125 a week. Pete Gurney had written a play titled Scenes from American Life, and the director was fired after the first two weeks. So Jules said, “You think you know what you’re doing—why don’t you go down there and direct that play?” So I went down and directed the play.

T | What made him think you could direct?

D | I was arrogant and very opinionated about things. But I had also directed their Theatre in the Schools program for a couple of years. I guess I showed a certain facility. He felt that I could do it.

T | Pam, will you tell us about yourself?

P | I was born in Evanston, Illinois. My dad was pursuing a Ph.D. at Northwestern. Shortly after my birth, we moved to Toronto. My parents were Canadian, and my dad was offered a job in Canada, and they decided to go back. At nine, we moved to suburban Buffalo.

So I have dual citizenship. In junior high and high school I acted a lot and also played the viola, and I directed a short play by Thornton Wilder, Pullman Car Hiawatha. In college I took a step away from theatre. I started to study political science and economics; I really loved it and had great professors. Continued in that and got a double major and then went into a Ph.D. program for political science in San Diego. This was right after undergrad, so no break. I was in Madrid doing some research and couldn’t get myself to the union archives.

I sent postcards out to friends telling them I wanted to direct. It was pre-email.

T | So are you a doctor of political science?

P | No. I dropped out, went back to San Diego, and came clean with my advisor. I moved to my childhood town of Toronto. Did some very small directing and Equity apprentice stage managing on big shows like a Canadian musical, Napoleon, and a subbing stint on Hal Prince’s Showboat. I then assisted Des McAnuff for a second time on Tommy and put Tommy up in Germany and ONLY then felt ready to move to New York, thinking I’d direct Broadway musicals. That was 17 years ago.

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T | Were there any teachers who influenced you? Anyone who made an impression on you in terms of your craft and what you do now?

D | Ellis Rabb was extremely important for me, because he loved actors so much. And he was so delighted by what he saw, and the delight just sort of drew out performances. That was the first time I thought: you don’t have to always be the expert, but collaborate and find an equal place with actors. I left behind a lot of that sense of the need to be in charge. That was just Ellis’s way. He was an actor, and he loved other actors.

T | He directed you at Lincoln Center, correct?

D | Yes, he directed Streetcar with Rosemary Harris which I was in, and he directed me in The Merchant of Venice.

T | Did you have someone like that, Pam? P | I got to assist Dan three times and had amazing experiences. Using the time given is something I learned from Dan. I learned even if there is panic going on in the back of your brain, you are still in charge. I learned that at the end of the day it is going to be better than where we started.

I was privy to his collaborative, conversational room.

D | It was really clear with Pam, from the very first show that we did together, that she loved actors. Being my assistant isn’t a big job in terms of hands-on stuff. Pam’s first response was to hang out with the actors.

You don’t find that very often.

Assistants don’t always feel that freedom to actually get to know the actors. Her comfort level with actors was very impressive.

T | Both of you are directing new plays on Broadway this season. Dan is directing David Auburn’s The Columnist, and Pam, you’re directing Bruce Norris’s Clybourne Park. Tell me what you have learned about working with playwrights on new work.

D | I don’t know about you, Pam, but I don’t feel that I learned that much beyond what one brings into the room. It is something that is instinctive.

When I direct, I don’t say to actors things that I wouldn’t have said to myself as an actor.

With a writer, I think it is the same thing. You want writers to discover how to fix something.

You always know the writer is going to come up with a much better solution than you could ever come up with. But you always have to flag it. I know in my head when something isn’t working. You have to be able to say, “I don’t know what it is, but this doesn’t work—what do you think?” You also have to know when it isn’t fixed, and you have to keep at it until whatever is wrong makes sense. You never say, “Well, I don’t like it, but that’s what it is.” That’s not an answer. You keep finding ways to think about it that are going to change it.

T | Was it an easy process with The Columnist?

D | There’s a section that we worked on a couple of times that David is coming in tomorrow to look at. I just can’t figure out how to do it. If he helps me figure out how to do it, that’s one thing. If he thinks, oh, you are right, I have to go back and fix that, that’s another way as well. It is always just everyone working on the same thing.

T | How important have readings or the developmental process been with this play?

D | I don’t like readings that much. Theatres like them and producers like them. To me, if you feel it lives on the page, then it lives. Sometimes you do readings to talk actors into doing plays.

P | Or it’s a sneaky way to audition. With readings, I have learned a lot just hearing a play. It’s like, oh, wow, the tone was different than I expected. Sometimes the musicality of multiple voices marching through the play, if it is well cast, is a great learning experience.

DES MCANUFF since 1985

D | Workshops really only make sense if the piece is unfinished. You think, okay, let’s get together and figure out what the problems are. The workshop period won’t solve those problems, but it could expose the problems and then you still have to fix the text. I always figure if you have to do a workshop then it doesn’t work. For me, if I am excited by something on the page then I would just like to go forward.

T | Do you want to talk about Clybourne Park and working with Bruce?

P | Bruce doesn’t offer up a play until it is very far along. I have worked with other writers who say, “Here is Act 1. Act 2 isn’t quite ready, but let’s read it!” Bruce keeps stuff to himself for a longer time than other writers I know. He and Edward Albee come to the table with: this is my play. That’s not to say that stuff doesn’t change in rehearsal and he doesn’t respond or let a play breathe. He cuts and edits throughout, even through previews.

T | Let’s talk about casting. Dan, you once said that casting is always a gamble. Do you still believe that?

D | It is always a gamble. Sometimes the people are fundamentally not suited either to you or to the role. The only real mistakes I have made in casting are when I have thought, Oh, yeah, sure.

I haven’t seen them on stage but they will fit.

That isn’t good.

P | You don’t want to be with a crazy person.

D | A nice crazy person is OK. P | Don’t know about that. And mean is no good, although that is usually associated with fear.

P | Sometimes they’ll jog my memory. They offer a list of actors, and it is a great springboard for conversation.

T | When do you invite the playwright into your casting process?

D | Right from the top.

P | I do that as well.

T | Have you ever had to convince a playwright about an actor?

D | I think the only time I had to do that was with my good friend Donald Margulies for Dinner with Friends. He was insisting on an actor, and I was saying, “I am not going there,” and we were two days away from the first rehearsal. It was one of those him-or-me things. I just knew I couldn’t make it work, and it wasn’t a ploy. There have been certain struggles to convince, but I can’t remember one where it got down to the wire the time like that.

Using given is something I learned from Dan. I learned even if there is panic going on in the back of your brain, you are still in charge.

I learned that at the end of the day it is going to be better than where we started.

– PAM

T | Was there a particular quality that you were looking for when casting actors in The Columnist and Clybourne Park?

D | The play spans a good deal of time. I didn’t know if we needed younger actors to play older or vice versa. That was a struggle for me. John Lithgow is doing the title role because John called me, having read the play, and said, “I have to do this play.” In the conversation with him on the phone, I heard the voice of the character and thought, John is perfect. So John cast himself in the play. There’s no one approach to casting.

P | Bruce and I had a lot of discussions about specific people. The character of Bev, the wife, can be read as either ditzy or as a scold.

Neither of those is going to buy you your first-act catharsis. So you need to find someone who can scold, but slantingly. Christina Kirk is someone I have worked with in the downtown scene, and we go back 15 years, and Bruce has seen her in a lot of downtown stuff.

Once we talked about her playing Bev, we were saying, “How can it not be Christina? Christina has to be available!”

D | One of the big challenges in The Columnist is that the daughter goes from age 14 to 24 and you think, how the hell do you do that?

So we cast Grace Gummer and I thought today, aren’t we lucky that the whole cast is tall except for Grace? They are really tall people, and Grace comes on and gets away with the 14-year-old, because she is smaller. And also because she is very talented.

T | How much do you depend on casting directors?

D | Very much so.

T | Is there a particular time you ask actors to be off book?

P | Some actors get off book pretty early and others will reluctantly put it down in the wings as you are marching through tech. I think it is part of my job to assure the entire company that both are okay—that the slow person is just as valid as the quick person.

D | I have asked an actor to just pick up their book and to carry it. I say, “Let’s just all read here,“ and it is a matter of trying to slow the process down. Usually if they come in with their lines there is some anxiety about line learning. The unfortunate thing is that they will have made up their minds about certain things and you don’t want that. You want the discoveries to happen mutually and to happen with contact with one another and not contact with their own brains.

T | I sense both of you put a lot of stock in ensemble acting. Can you give us some clues as to how you build your ensembles?

P | I do think on occasion it is important to go out and socialize.

Once in a while it should happen. Sometimes it is an actor that takes that on. If I sense that the company isn’t doing that themselves, then I will be that person. I think stuff can form if you sometimes meet up outside the confines of the rehearsal room.

D | I don’t do that. I am about spending time at the table so everyone is on the same page about the play. I feel the relationships start to form at the table and you don’t get up from the table until you can sense in the actor’s body the need to do something. So a lot of table work would be my answer for that. I am not a very social person. I go out but not usually with people I work with. The older I get the more I don’t hang out.

T | Talk about your process with designers. I get a sense that design is really vital to the type of plays you both direct. Are there designers you enjoy working with?

P | I have some favorite designers.

T | Because you have a shorthand?

P | I guess we have a shorthand, and there is a known sensibility.

I am doing some short plays by Horton Foote in the summer at Primary Stages, and it is an evening of three plays, and it is a puzzle.

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The set designer has to be on a very small budget, in a very small space, and be very creative. And to make it a coherent whole, I went with a set designer that I first worked with when she was a graduate student at the University of Washington, Marion Williams. Last season we reconnected on a production of Death of a Salesman at the Old Globe at their tiny in-the-round theatre. Talk about a puzzle. I knew she would be up for these plays. On Death of a Salesman, I told her I needed a staircase and I needed a fridge in the kitchen. That’s a pain in the butt for an in-the-round design. How small can that fridge be?

I gave her some restrictions. I like working with designers where I am allowed to free-flow ideas and not feel, oh, this is a stupid thing to request at the first meeting! I love being able to talk to a literate person who can go deep with theme and tone and character, as well as being able to say, “I need a fridge.”

D | That’s really the only chance you get to talk about all those things.

Designers work in the same inspirational way as directors and take those ideas that can be disassociated and pull it all together.

P | Right, and it is very exciting to me.

D | You can’t say to an actor, “This may have nothing to do with what you are going to do, but let me talk about this.” But you can with a designer.

P | Right, sharing that is free form.

T | Do you like to meet with all the designers at one time or do you meet one on one? Or does it depend on the project?

D | One on one for a while. It is basically the set designer for a long time before everyone else is pulled in. You cast a designer as you would an actor. You feel the fit is right, and you don’t have to explain it, even to yourself, as to why that person seems right for that play.

The danger for all of us is that we are looking for a comfort level, and that doesn’t allow us to go in new directions. Often I will love a design I saw in someone else’s production. Well, who is that person? And that is something that needs to happen more. It happens less for me as I grow older, because I have so many people that I love to work with. I have to have a very good reason to work with someone new.

P | Quite often, of the four or so designers I am working with, one will be new.

D | Yes. P | That’s my comfort zone. The five of us then learn quickly how to speak to each other, because I already have a relationship with three of the designers.

D | I have to say that I don’t like forced marriages. I always think about who the lighting designer and the set designer are going to be, because it has to be a good relationship. Sometimes the set designer will say, “Oh, I had trouble with that lighting designer, but okay.” And sometimes they’ll say, “I can’t do it.”

P | I have worked with some designers who are less verbal and more visual. That doesn’t quite fit with me. I need someone who is willing to really talk it out and be very comfortable with that. Maybe it is something I should get over.

T | How important is the stage manager?

P | Hugely important.

T | And how do you decide who the right person is?

D | I like someone who has a real connection to the material and 28

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words. The only stage managers that I have worked with once and never again are people who just seem like they aren’t connected. They may be good at what they do, but it is all technical, and there isn’t heart in it. That is something I look for. The stage manager is the person you spend all your time with, so there has to be something that feels right about it all; it has to be someone who is very easy to be in the room with.

P | I like a stage manager who has a free and easy laugh.

D | Discretion is also good.

Someone you can really trust.

There are so many things in rehearsals that are very private, so for you to know you are protected is great.

T | Can we talk about the preview period? In New York, unlike regional theatres, you have a luxurious preview period.

P | Luxurious and abusive are both the same. I learn a lot sitting in a house with an audience. Most playwrights learn a lot from the audience.

We’ll know if it isn’t working and go back in rehearsal and figure it out.

D | Sometimes people are leaving and your goal is to get people to stay. We can find out if they like it later.

T | Isn’t the preview rehearsal time budgeted on Broadway a bonus?

D | For The Columnist there are only seven or eight actual work days, which is about 35 hours, not even that. You actually have about 30 hours or so during previews to fix a new play.

T | Is there an ideal amount of time that you would like?

P | It’s so project specific.

T | Let’s talk about reviews.

There are a lot of actors who refuse to read them. How do you respond to criticism?

P | My favorite review of all time: “Relentlessly over-directed

by Pam MacKinnon.” I don’t even know what that means.

D | We are all interested as it is our livelihood. Orson Welles said, “All actors believe every bad thing that was ever said about them.” Most artists, directors included, can keep a firewall between criticism and their own work, but it is still a spur in the back of your head and is always there. But that is for any artist, I think.

T | Have you found a difference working with commercial producers as opposed to nonprofit?

P | This is my first time in the commercial world. Clybourne Park started at Playwrights Horizons and a year-and-a-half later it was at the Mark Taper.

The commercial people got involved and attached. My first boss was a not-for-profit theatre in a way, but with the intent of moving it to Broadway. I have never done a purely commercial thing. I don’t know what these previews will be like.

D | I find that you still get notes whether you are working commercially or in nonprofit situations. If things are going really badly, and there is a sense of desperation, then it is much worse in the commercial arena.

For people who put their money into the play, it is a life-or-death type of deal. Basically, you just do your work, and you also have to know when you are getting really stupid notes and when you are getting notes that are helpful. Your own filter will activate.

T | Do you have good relationships with your agents?

Do you feel that your agent has gotten you work?

D | I wouldn’t say that the reason that I have an agent is to get me work. I don’t call him asking what’s going on, why am I not working? I’m sure that day will come.

P | I have a really good relationship with my agent. It is my first agent. We met 10 - 12 years ago, so we have come up together. When my agent was

a junior agent at William Morris, I was assisting Dan on Dinner with Friends and about to work on the tour. The word to me was: you need an agent because producers will get you if you don’t have one.

A very important—in retrospect—thing my agent did was to set up a lunch with Edward Albee before I started directing a play of his. I was then on his radar, and he came to my rehearsals.

of four you can put on a play. I am also a firm believer of saying, “Yes.” And New York isn’t the be all and end all. There is a ton of interesting theatre being done around the country: Chicago, D.C., Southern California...

T | You have done your share of Shakespeare, Dan, and you have too, Pam.

P | I assisted McAnuff on Much Ado About Nothing and on Tommy and then, when he took over, for High Society. I assisted Anne Bogart on The Women. And Dan on Dinner with Friends. What I learned was you have to be true to yourself and be in your own skin. These are three very different people who get the job done but are true to themselves.

P | I have only done one Shakespeare. I directed Othello.

T | I am wondering if it requires a different skill set from your point of view?

T | Was assisting important to you?

T | Are you comfortable talking about being a woman who is P | We get pigeonholed just like actors. For a while I was directing on Broadway? It is a rare thing isn’t it? wondering, will I ever direct a play without a sofa? Marco Barricelli P | Yes, it is, unfortunately. I think it is changing and the generation at Shakespeare Santa Cruz called me up and said, “I want you to ahead of me had to have really sharp elbows to come out to direct Othello.” Othello, with some A lot of young allow me to have some opportunities. I sit down with exceptions, is a series of two-hander scenes. producers, and sometimes that’s the first thing they It has a very contemporary structure to it, so directors feel that they start to talk about, and it makes me feel a little itchy. it wasn’t a big leap. It was a great experience, and I would leap at the chance to do more have to be in tight D | When they talk about what?

Shakespeare.

T | When I interviewed you at Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Dan, you did say that table work was paramount in Shakespeare.

D | That’s right. Two weeks at the table going carefully through the text and building relationships, just as with any contemporary play. It takes a long time to be able to stand up and move.

T | You have directed Shakespeare very well using American actors. What are you looking for?

control. If the director feels that their obligation is to show that they are the smartest people in the room, they are ultimately going to fail.

D | I am looking for actors who can work with the language, so that it feels that they are inventing it. That’s important. It’s all about the connection between the characters in the play. The same things that we find most rich in contemporary work are necessary in Shakespeare.

T | What advice would you give to someone who would like to direct?

D | I find that a lot of young directors feel that they have to be in tight control and I think that’s not right. If the directors feel that their obligation is to show that they are the smartest people in the room, they are ultimately going to fail. The fact that you build a community within a room is very important. It takes a lot of trust. You have to always test your ideas and I love it when you are in rehearsal and the actors are doing the same thing.

P | It’s a collaborative art form, which at times is tricky, because you do need a few people to climb on board. But you don’t need many people to climb on board. When I came to New York, I self-produced, and the people that I met in San Diego started to self-produce as well, and that became a very important company, Clubbed Thumb. And they are still a very important part of my life and a very important part of the New York and national scene. I directed seven of their first ten plays. I went from self-producing to being produced. I came to New York truly thinking I will do Broadway musicals but that wasn’t what we were doing downtown.

I never worked with a playwright in the room before coming to New York. It is about finding your community. If you have a community MARIA AIKEN since 2003 | ANNE BOGART since 1990 | EMILY MANN since 1980 | EMMA RICE since 2010 ANNA SHAPIRO since 2001 | LEIGH SILVERMAN since 2001 | JULIE TAYMOR since 1996

– DAN

P | They might say something like, “I really want to work with women.” Or, “I am really interested in women directors.” And I say, “Okay, great. Do you want to work with me?”

T | It does feel like maybe things are opening up. Leigh Silverman, Anna Shapiro, Emma Rice, Maria Aiken, and the game-changers like Anne Bogart…

P | And Emily Mann, Julie Taymor, or Graciela Daniele. The generation before me tended to wear at least two hats: director AND....Amazing. I am fortunate to work now.

T | Dan was an Artistic Director for 17 years at Seattle Rep and an associate before that. Is that something you think about being, Pam? P | Sure, I think about it. It would have to be the right place.

T | Do you miss running a regional theatre, Dan? D | No. T | But didn’t you learn a lot running a theatre?

D | I guess, but I always felt that it is the same job as directing a play.

Not a big difference.

T | But you have to deal with a Board…

D | Yes, and that’s irritating. And thinking with a long view. You’re working on one season and planning another.

P | But that is what excites me. As a freelancer, I feel promiscuous going from bed to bed every few weeks, wondering who the audience is.

D | After two decades as an Artistic Director, promiscuity sounded really good to me. w

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The

Craft

of

Capture

LARRY CARPENTER INTERVIEWS BARTLETT SHER + GARY HALVERSON

The future is here. People are now watching theatrical productions on any device that receives a signal, and you can even watch it in a movie theatre as it’s happening. The National Theatre Live (NT Live), the Metropolitan Opera, and Broadway shows are finding their way into Cineplexes around the country. As the phenomenon of watching captured stage shows becomes increasingly popular, we are exploring the unique relationship between the stage director and the director of the capture. How do these two distinctly different artists collaborate to create what might be considered a new art form?

On an early spring evening in the lounge of a Santa Monica hotel, Tony-winning stage director BARTLETT SHER and Emmy-winning television director GARY HALVERSON sat down with Emmy winner and Tony-nominee LARRY CARPENTER to discuss their experiences working with one another at the Met, focusing on this unique process and shedding light on how it all comes together.

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L | SDC is interested in understanding more about the process of capturing live theatre, because it’s happening more and more. In 2011 alone there were eight productions in Broadway and LORT theatres that were captured in one way or another, and there are three or four big production companies that are trying to take this further. I think it is really important that SDC Members try to understand the process and what they get to participate in and what they don’t get to participate in. I suppose, the first thing to ask is: how do you guys do it? How do you sit down and talk to each other and enter a space that allows you to collaborate on this?

G | It starts with Bart and the production.

He builds it—as opposed to a movie or a TV show that I would direct—and there is a sharing involved. He makes a great piece of theatre for an audience at the Met and then I film it. We have to make this very clear right from the start, because there are so many opera crazies out there who think otherwise: nothing at the Met is EVER staged for the camera. But what is important is the complex process we go through to capture what opera directors make for the stage and then to make them immediate for audiences in a movie theatre.

B | My staging method tends to have a lot of movement. There are two ways of seeing: the way I see it is for the 3,800 audience members at the Met, and then there is the way of seeing when Gary enters the process.

Your capacity for perception, and how long you can sit in one place, is totally different based on those two different audiences. For example, there is a meditative internalizing quality of taking the music that is beautiful that happens when you sit in the theatre.

Then there is what is going to happen when you watch it on TV. They are totally separate.

The rhythm that goes into the composition of the piece over the course of an evening from the balconies is different from the rhythm that is going to be required when we get to dealing with TV. L | Gary, you are clearly deeply involved with music.

G | I am a musician and have studied camera.

L | Do you respond musically to the piece before you see Bart’s work?

G | Well, sometimes I will listen to the music and I will learn it—to get the big story beats of it—before I even look at what Bart is doing. Bart and I will talk before I see it. He will say, “Look, there are certain things that aren’t going to make sense, but that is going to make sense,” (Gary points off in the distance) and we give ourselves LARRY CARPENTER since 1981 | BARTLETT SHER since 1996

a CliffsNotes version of what the other is going to do. I already have a sense of what the piece might need rhythmically in terms of the cutting. Do we have to stay out wider or is it really dramatic? And do we really want to shoot anybody and everybody in here? With comedy we shoot a little wider and looser. Nothing is funny in here. (Gary frames a close-up around his face.)

B | The overall process is: we talk. He will drop in sometimes before tech and before it opens to look at it. But we shouldn’t talk too much. I want to see what he might see that I don’t see. So I shouldn’t say too much before the scratch tape.

OPPOSITE

Bart Sher in 2006 at an early rehearsal for Il Barbiere di Siviglia Beatriz Schiller Metropolitan Opera

PHOTO

BELOW

Gary Halverson in 2010 at the HD transmission for Das Rheingold PHOTO Marty Sohl Metropolitan Opera

L | So you do make a scratch tape?

G | Yes, there are two scratch tapes, really.

There is a lighting scratch tape where we use three or four cameras, and I use that to write my script. Usually it is on a dress rehearsal.

I can make a good camera script from four angles. Then we come into the performance with, like, 12 cameras.

L | So we go from three to 12 cameras?

G | Yes, by this time, I have a camera script that is fairly detailed, in terms of where everyone is going to be.

L | So you have a shooting script?

G | Yes, and I will spend a week beforehand marking that script. Bart’s work is exceptionally more complicated than any other director I have worked with.

He talks a lot about movement. He takes that movement and puts rhythm to it that matches the music. A lot of directors in the opera don’t do that at all, and the singers don’t always cooperate anyway, so they just stand and sing.

B | My base script is really thorough in terms of the music and what I do.

L | Do you stage the score itself and is it in your book?

B | No, but I know the score well, and I go over it differently. The score is the center of everything we do in opera. When we first worked together, Gary was moving between shots much too much and this had an impact on the experience of the opera.

G | The first opera we did together was The Barber of Seville.

B | My first broadcast ever was Light in the Piazza with Kirk Browning, the American television director and producer, who was the old master.

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TOP

A scene from Act II of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia PHOTO Ken Howard Metropolitan Opera BELOW LEFT

Peter Mattei (standing) as Figaro + John Del Carlo as Dr. Bartolo in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia PHOTO Ken Howard Metropolitan Opera BELOW RIGHT

Joyce DiDonato as Isolier + Diana Damrau as Countess Adèle in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory PHOTO Marty Sohl Metropolitan Opera

G | Kirk was my teacher. I was his assistant.

B | Kirk was wonderful. He and I learned a lot from each other. He wasn’t used to that much movement from performers, either, but he recognized the opportunities, and his head opened up to it all. But we did have to go through it carefully. That’s when I first began to understand how to talk about this work. That’s when I realized I could never do what he does. It requires an on-thespot, experienced, intuitive, and precise instrument of calling camera shots live, and that isn’t easily learnable. I don’t see that as learnable to me, anyway, and so that is a boundary. That is a boundary that should be observed between the director of a stage event and the director of the filmed event.

G | Yes, I agree.

B | So after you’ve provided enough information through the scratch tape, there’s the part where we sit though it and go piece by piece and beat by beat. To understand the story I am telling, you need to watch that with them. I always have an issue with the TV people which I learned from Kirk; I have found that they are too close, and they cut too fast. But it depends on the piece, too.

There was a piece where I did too much.

G | It was probably Barber.

B | Yes, I had a script that was hard, and it was my first production at the Met and my second capture. All this was new, and Gary comes in to film. We had two leads, the 32

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Barber and the Count, who were both very improvisational, and this was perfect for the comedy and encouraged, but it was also very hard for Gary.

G | I said to Bart, “Well, are they going to do this?” And Bart goes, “No…I don’t know…

We’ll see what happens.” It was at that moment, after I freaked out, that I made a zone for some of these areas where we always had a cameraman. Then I sat back, looked at the cameras, and I felt it happen.

There is a lot of script, and someone will be there singing away, and my script isn’t reflecting what she’s doing, and she’s going for it. I will go off my script in a second and

be like a piano and play with her. I don’t even know what is happening, because I go into this place.

L | You are in the “zone” then?

G | Right.

B | This is only possible because his preparation is unbelievably meticulous.

L | But you two have the same instinct and same rhythm?

G | Yes, but my rhythm is set for the camera to be there, to catch the action, or then you can’t cut.

B | It’s about setting it up, and once he’s learned it, it’s release and go. But the question is how he gets there.

L | Let’s talk about schedule. How long are you actually in the production process on a live shoot?

G | On a live shoot, only one week. That’s not including prep time. I am in New York for one week.

L | And that is when the 12 cameras come in?

G | Yes. Monday is my script meeting.

Tuesday I see Bart’s production for the first or second time. I have already shot the scratch tape. It is never that precise, but the week is more precise. Tuesday there is a lot of performance in the theatre, and we put all 12 cameras into position, and I do my first script.

B | I will sit in the truck for that.

G | Right behind me.

B | But I don’t talk.

G | Well, we talk sometimes, and I yell to him, “Bart, what do you think of that?”

B | He is great, because he encourages me even when he wants to kill himself—or me.

G | He is wonderful that way, and we are pretty good with each other. What happens after that is Peter Gelb [General Manager at the Metropolitan Opera], Bart, and I sit down in the conference room for a long time.

B | Peter is extremely smart about this work.

He has spent his whole life doing it, and so he has his own deep intelligence about it all.

G | So we go through it beat by beat and tell the story. And I will say, “Bart, are we okay here?” And he says, “Okay.” They are very long, these operas, so you can’t fool around in these meetings. You have to jump things and keep moving on. There is a lot of that very fast movement in our talking.

Take Le Comte Ory, for example, which is the third one we did together. It went to the scene in the bed, a very beautiful candlelight scene. It slows down. So we have to have a conversation about what the overall shape of the music is that is setting that up. I am getting clearer on all of that now. I close it down in one and then open it up into an open space. This scene allows the actors to fall in love, and it is all beautiful. I set all that up knowing that he will follow that but also knowing that the audience needs that.

B | I will remind him of where those moments are, and then it is bam, bam, and it opens up, and it is quiet, and then back and then on. So there is a kind of conscious and subconscious interaction with, basically, the music driving the tempo and where we are.

L | So the conversation is about the music and tone and rhythm? It is not about you saying, “That shot is wrong?”

B | Oh no, not at all.

G | No, no, no.

B | I don’t really care about the shot, because I trust Gary. Sometimes there is a shot, and Peter Gelb will say something like, “I love that low camera going like that,” and he will do it for a while, and then all three of us will say, “Well, that doesn’t really work.”

He had an idea in Barber with the cameras on the side that went up and down. They worked great.

G | For me, being a TV director, I have to take my training, which is a box this big, and sit back and realize I am now doing a movie.

But I’m not doing a movie, I’m doing live TV, but I have to understand the larger scale of this. So the first week we did a capture, we went to a movie theatre and played it back there to see what it would look like. It is such a different experience. One of the things about the cinema as opposed to TV, and this is relevant to these two units, is the theatre. When you watch a theatre piece, you need to see it all, which is too wide on TV; the people are this big in the TV. (Gary holds his fingers an inch apart.) They’re tiny.

In the movie theatre it’s the opposite. In the movie theatre I don’t have to drive so hard to get close and can sit on a wide shot longer.

L | And how are you looking at it?

B | Which is a real thing for him, a real growth for him.

G | Sometimes we are looking at it for speed and where the shots are. Usually there isn’t a big issue with that. In most operas, it starts with the fact that—if I have done my analysis of the music—I am going to have some big payoff movements at the end.

G | Right, I could never really do that for TV. It’s too small. But you go to the movie theatre, and you go, “Oh my God!” So what I did in the truck—it’s all computerized and the wall isn’t monitored—I just made the biggest screen I could make on the

computer, so I could feel what it would be like in the theatre.

L | Get the size of it in the theatre, sure.

B | The biggest growth of his was his ability to move back. Which Kirk Browning, frankly, to his credit, wasn’t capable of. You had to really push him. That is the change in how these things get perceived. It wasn’t easy for him to do that, and we had a lot of struggles over that. From an acting point of view you are too close. You can’t just capture the person that is having the moment. You also need to see the person who is receiving the moment so you will get what’s actually going on. So it took a lot to get the right time to move back. It isn’t that it shouldn’t be close but also trusting that you can be back.

G | And that it will still play.

L | That’s fantastic. Can we do day three?

B | The third day I go through a process of reminding the actors to help Gary be in the right place in small ways. It is very, very important that people don’t think at the Met that we are staging it for the camera.

That is not what the Met does. The great energy and art of this comes from a director capturing a stage event on film.

L | Are you using more light?

G | Sometimes, and sometimes the color is the problem. It’s not always light levels anymore; that’s the old TV. Now HD is so sophisticated. We can shoot whatever is on that stage. It is really about the person mixing the color.

L | Mixing the color on the video?

G | So what happens, this is what is so weird about it, is that on video you can make a face red, but lighting can do the same thing.

For a while that was confusing.

L | So, being in that process, who leads? Is it theatre lighting?

G | No, it’s a conversation, because sometimes the theatre lighting can’t be changed, and we can do it with the video.

Sometimes the video can’t be changed, because there isn’t enough, so we have to do it in the theatre.

L | So at this point you have gone back and are working on the final script?

G | At this point I have only seen it once, and I am going to shoot it live. I have seen it once, and I have to show my cameramen, and they have to learn 900 shots. Or a total SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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G | Yeah, and it is all written out.

B | Usually I know them well enough to say, “He’s confused, and he is going over there now,” because I will know the blocking better than he does, so I can jump in without having to worry about it.

L | Is it numbered shots?

L | And then you know how to get it?

G | Yes, and there’s not enough time or hours in the day.

G | Yeah, if I know something is flipflopped, then I just flip it in my brain.

L | You have an associate director to your left?

L | Right, okay, good. So that is day four of the lighting. Day five is…?

G | Yes, and a score reader.

G | More cameramen and making sure all the shots are down. Checking the lighting more. Then Saturday morning we have one more meeting with the cameramen. Bart comes and sees how bloodshot my eyes are and asks if I have slept at all. Then we go off. It is scary as hell.

of, like, 2,000 shots, so it isn’t small.

r e g a n a lM Genera ET ta T h e M

Pe t e r G e lb

We understand you just sold your ten millionth ticket to an HD Broadcast.

Did you ever imagine that would happen when you began this initiative?

We began this initiative hoping for success, since opera needed a significant shot in the arm. However, it has become much more successful than we imagined at the start.

Opera fans are known worldwide for their devotion and for serial viewing. Do you think legit theatre can build an audience for HD Broadcast in the way the Met has?

Although we have a solid core audience of opera fans, attendance varies according to title, with a swing of as much as 200,000 people between a lesser known opera and a more popular one. I think attendance for plays and musicals will also vary according to popularity of title and cast.

How do you as a producer support a meaningful collaboration between the stage director and the HD director?

By helping to ensure that the stage director’s staging is honored by the HD director’s camera script. The close working relationship between Bart and Gary is unusual. More often, the stage director and the HD director have little or no contact, since the stage director is focused entirely on opening his or her production up until opening night, after which they usually depart for their next engagement.

Meanwhile, the HD director will be observing final rehearsals and then rolling up his or her sleeves for the HD work that takes place in the following weeks, since we always wait until later performances for the live HD transmission. My job, and the job of the assistant stage directors, is to help make sure that story points and the intention of the original staging are honored in the HD transmission, while at the same time supporting the HD director’s efforts to make sure that lighting, makeup, costumes, etc, work well on camera—sometimes with minor adjustments.

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L | No, and you have 12 guys?

L | A different person?

G | Yes. L | And what does the score reader do for you?

G | He just keeps my place. I am a musician and have to watch the 12 monitors. Also, when I start improvising and going off of my area, he brings me back to where I need to be when I need to be there.

L | And are there producers behind you during this?

G | Yeah. Peter Gelb sits right behind me, and Bart is on the left where I can see him.

L | Is there a moment in the broadcast where Peter will say something to you?

G | Yes. Sometimes Peter will lean over and say things to me. He is so respectful to me and is very cautious to do that, because most directors can’t handle that. But I invite it. I like a lot of chatter, and I like people telling me what they want and like.

B | I will be saying, “Take three,” or, if I see something is missing, I will say, “Catch that,” or, “You missed it,” or even, “Great, you got it.” But by that point we have been through it enough, and we know where we are heading. Mostly, I am cheerleading him, but also keeping an eye on where we’re going. It’s quite a ride.

L | Yes, it is, sure.

G | And remember, too, the singers don’t always go the same place every time with these productions. So in the TV script if the singer takes off and goes this way, and I have planned for them to go that way, then I would be shooting the back of their head with the camera. Sometimes it is happening where the singers will get confused and flip places. I don’t know if I am wrong or they are wrong.

B | Yeah, it is scary.

G | But it is also a lot of fun.

B | It is a magical thing, watching the director of the capture calling out the shots, watching it happen live and feeling the energy of it. It’s the kind of thing I love, and it really is an art to capture a live theatrical experience.

L | Have you ever done a taped broadcast?

Or is it always live?

G | We do other broadcasts, and they go out on DVD. L | So when you are shooting this with all 12 cameras, are they going to tapes for edit?

G | Yes, but very little. The feeling is that what just happened is what happened. For example, in Barber, at one point in the top of the second act, Diego lost his wig, and it flew all over, and I tried to catch it.

B | And we did and edited that in.

G | That was fun.

B | That’s live TV. w

REGIONAL REPORTS | QUARTERLY SNAPSHOTS FROM AROUND THE COUNTRY In each issue of SDC Journal, the Regional Representatives of the Executive Board will share opinions and profiles, news and events from their perspective or that of Members they represent. Nominated to serve by a committee of peers living and working in their respective region, they have been elected to the Board by the full Membership to serve the whole, but with particular attention paid to the issues and needs of Members working in the regions. We look forward to these reports, and overtime, telling the tale of the national scene—highlighting successes while bringing forward lesser known artists and activities that contribute to the great breadth and depth of work across the country.

NORTHEAST

Pennsylvania | New Jersey | New York State Connecticut | Rhode Island | Massachusetts Vermont | New Hampshire | Maine NE | Members = 261 Associates = 90 (Does not include NYC)

BOB MOSS, SDC’s Northeast Regional Rep, joined the Board in 2011, eager to network with other Directors and Choreographers in the Northeast and to gain a better understanding of the needs and desires of the many vibrantly creative communities from Pennsylvania to Maine. For this issue he reached out to the greater artistic community of Syracuse.

Below is his report.

Upstate Avocation

BY BOB

MOSS

Live theatre abounds in Central New York.

Perhaps there is something in the water here that encourages large numbers of people to create theatre experiences and encourages even larger groups to attend. Over a century ago, the Shubert brothers began their entrepreneurship in downtown Syracuse.

Now, the city alone boasts of over fourteen companies that produce regularly.

Appleseed, Baldwinsville Theatre Guild, Covey Theatre Company, Encore, Gifford Family Theatre, Not Another Theater Company, Onondaga Hill Players, Paul Robeson, Rarely Done Productions, Red House, Salt City II, Talent Company, Theatre First, and Wits End are just some of the enticing company names. There are also Syracuse Stage (the LORT company) and Famous Artists, who bring in touring Broadway shows. In the immediate environs there are the Merry-Go-Round Playhouse and the Auburn Public Theater (both in nearby Auburn), Cortland Repertory in Cortland, and in Ithaca, the Kitchen Theatre Company, and the Hangar.

In March, I invited a group of Syracuse-area Directors to discuss the Northeast theatre scene (and to encourage them to consider SDC Membership as many of them have not yet joined). It was the first time they had all been in one room at the same time, though they all knew each other individually, and the conversation was lively, hopeful, smart, occasionally whiny, and always enthusiastic.

The following “script” contains samples of the inspired dialogue from our meeting. It is to be read quickly, with all the lines overlapping and interrupting.

Enter 16 Directors. They speak rapidly, DIRECTOR 1 | We’re not avocational and we’re not community. Those have negative connotations. This is work we have to do.

If you need a word to describe us, it would be “local.”

D2 | We’re incredibly invested in what we do.

We want to bring our art to our friends.

D3 | There are so many people in this town who want to make theatre. Such a large talent pool. And such astounding support from our audiences.

D4 | There are great high school programs every year. It’s a big scene. And most of us have day jobs in the high schools.

D5 | There is a pursuit of craft in our theatres, people want to grow as artists.

D6 | The Civic Center space was built for the community to use, and now it’s priced us out of the market.

D7 | The availability of good spaces very often decides the choice of the work we do.

D8 | We all have to find new ways of reaching our audiences. The Post Standard (local paper) doesn’t have space for us, and with Joan [Joan Vadeboncoeur, the local theatre columnist at the paper who recently passed away] gone, a lot of our work goes unnoticed.

D9 | Does our audience want to see new or unknown shows?

Overlapping shouts of “Yes! No!,” i.e., chaos.

Then out of the chaos: D10 | I think our community IS moving progressively forward; they are more accepting of risk, getting us off the beaten path.

D 11 | We need our companies to pull together, to share marketing possibilities at least.

The Directors begin to speak titles of their plays for next season. The result is a joyous cacophony.

ALL | Falsettos, The Glass Menagerie, Debbie Does Dallas, Hound of the Baskervilles, Inherit the Wind, Rocky Horror, La Cage, Avenue Q, King Lear, Streisand Duets in the Key of Me.

JOHN DILLON since 1974 | BOB MOSS since 1982 | SHARON OTT since 1980

The gathering breaks up, the Directors hugging. They promise to get together again soon. They promise to see one another’s shows. If there’s time.

End of scene.

Special Thanks to the participating artists: Laura Austin, Frank Fiumano, David Cotter, Sara Weiler, Katie Lemos Brown, Sarah Blumer, Garrett Heater, Michael Penny, Moe Harrington, Dustin Czarny, Jodi Bova-Mele, David R. Witanowski, Shannon Tompkins, Shawn Forster, Kate Huddleston, and C.J. Young.

SOUTHEAST

Arkansas | Alabama | Delaware | Georgia Florida | Louisiana | Maryland | Mississippi North Carolina | South Carolina | Tennessee Virginia | Washington, DC | West Virginia SE | Members = 162 Associates = 87 SHARON OTT, SDC’s Southeast Regional Rep, has been a member of the Board since 2002 and has represented the SE since 2010. Living and working in Savannah, Georgia, she has worked ceaselessly to promote the needs of Directors and Choreographers working in the Southeast, hosting regional meetings and working to understand the regionally specific joys and challenges of working in this dynamic part of the country. Shakespeare in the SE is her topic of choice for this first addition of SDC Journal.

SE Regional Shakespeare Report w/Geoffrey Sherman

BY SHARON

OTT

Coming to the Southeast after living for 22 years on the West Coast, with many years of knowledge of the seasons at the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Idaho Shakespeare Festival, one of my real joys has been getting to know the many terrific Shakespeare festivals in the Southeast. Last summer I had the pleasure of working for Richard Garner at Georgia Shakespeare Festival, in a rotating rep with my former boss from the Milwaukee Rep, John Dillon. John was directing an adaptation of Antony and Cleopatra by another former Milwaukee Rep colleague, Amlin Gray. The three of us realized we hadn’t shared a rehearsal hall for at least 21 years!

Georgia Shakes has emerged from a difficult economic time in an even stronger economic position, with a new Managing Director, SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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multi-year funding for their free Shakespeare in Piedmont Park, and a strong upcoming season. The regional “heavy-hitter,” Michael Kahn’s Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, is producing beautiful productions in their sparkling new theatre, and Alabama Shakespeare, under the artistic direction of Geoffrey Sherman has also emerged from the recession with renewed strength and vigor. The following are Sherman’s responses to several questions about Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

I took over here at ASF in June 2005, so I am fast approaching the end of my seventh year.

Over my first three or four years we were able to increase our total audience by almost 40%.

Our SchoolFest audience also grew from just over 20,000 to just under 60,000 students over the same period. Of course, the Great Recession put a dent in those figures, but we feel confident that we will regain those audiences over the next couple of seasons.

Now, the increase in numbers of young people was not accidental. We operate year round, and our classical repertory season had been constructed to attract a traveling audience in the early summer months. Since it is my fervent belief that live theatre is the magic potion that will cure many, if not all, educational and sociological ills, particularly when taken at an early age, I chose to bring forward the classical part of our season to maximize our chances of serving more children of school age. We have also increased our touring to reach students for whom distance and cost make it impossible for them to make it to Montgomery.

However, we are not just a “Shakespeare Festival.” Our Southern Writers Project commissions have gone from strength to strength: from Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder’s Gee’s Bend, to Pearl Cleage’s The Nacirema Society, to this season’s extraordinarily beautiful and moving In The Book Of,

by John Walch.

Mark Clements, who was asked to write about the some of the discoveries he has made as he establishes himself as the Artistic Director of Milwaukee Repertory Theater.

Taking Risks @ Milwaukee Rep

BY MARK

CLEMENTS

In October of 2009, I was named Artistic Director of Milwaukee Repertory Theater inheriting a wonderful, downtown, threetheatre facility, a veteran Resident Acting Company, and a loyal, but declining, subscriber base. I also inherited a theatre debilitated and disheartened by several years of sizeable deficits due to income shortfalls.

Just prior to my arrival, The Rep had cut $2 million from its operating budget by compressing a 14-show season and reducing staff, benefits, and actor weeks in light of the recession. I knew we needed to reverse the declining audience numbers and to infuse excitement and buzz among the staff and the community; I also knew I had a relatively short period of time in which to plan my first season and make a clear, bold, artistic statement.

The Rep had a track record of producing small musicals and revues in its 118-seat Stackner Cabaret, but never in the 720-seat Quadracci Powerhouse, the thrust venue where most of its subscription base was concentrated. It seemed the logical place to debut a new vision for the company by producing a major musical; however, it was neither a practical nor a safe choice. With no orchestra pit or the audio technology required to mix, balance, and support sound in the space, the Powerhouse was not designed to accommodate musicals.

We would need to invest a large chunk of cash—well over $100,000, in addition to added personnel costs—precisely at the time when funds were at their most restricted. The theatre’s staff and Resident Acting Company were not musical theatre specialists, and I had never directed before in Milwaukee.

The Rep’s Managing Director, Dawn Helsing Wolters, was also new to the theatre, having started the dual-leadership transition five months prior to my appointment. She shared my belief that there was an untapped audience for musicals in Milwaukee, as well as my experience that incorporating musical theatre was a vital step forward.

Our board was understandably leery when we decided to open my first season with CENTRAL Cabaret. Not only did we need to invest Kansas | Kentucky | Illinois | Indiana | Iowa in audio equipment, but in musicians, Oklahoma | Michigan | Minnesota | Missouri additional union stagehands, instrument Nebraska | North Dakota | Ohio | South Dakota rentals, a large cast, and extra tech time. We Texas | Wisconsin felt confident that ticket sales would offset those costs and gain us new patrons, but in C | Members = 210 an organization with a recent track record of Associates = 107 unmet ticket sales goals, our numbers were AMY MORTON, SDC’s Central Regional unprecedented.

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is the most beautiful theatre in the country. I used to say ‘arguably the most beautiful theatre,’ but having worked as a freelance or artistic director from New Hampshire to California and from Seattle to Alabama via a number of cities across the heartland, I feel well qualified to use the uncluttered superlative.

Rep, was elected in 2004 to the Board and became the Central Region Rep in 2007. Since that time she has worked with the staff and Board to heighten SDC’s presence in the Mid-west.

Working within her region is

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Public response to our announcement ran the gamut from excitement, to skepticism, to outrage. I felt confident that Cabaret was a strong choice. With classic title recognition and a strong book, it appeals to both serious

theatregoers and those looking for fun. My vision for the piece would allow us to create a low-cost ensemble approach to the music, incorporating actor/singer/dancer/musicians by way of “quadruple threat” performers— both professional and from our renowned Artistic Internship Program. Because the Kit Kat Club music would be played live onstage (from a raised band platform), we could create a finished sound that had a certain raw, raucous, unrefined element to it. But the show had to deliver an energized, seamless, fast-paced experience that would re-ignite a dormant “wow” factor for the Rep. Cabaret opened to enormous audience and critical acclaim. Nearly half of our single ticket buyers were new to us and we attracted over 9,000 more people to the theatre than did the previous season’s opener. Many—though not all—of the skeptics even came forward to admit that they loved the show. We immediately started thinking about our next musical, which became this season’s Next to Normal—a smash hit for us during the Christmas season.

We have made major strides here at the Rep in only two years, replacing the previouslycut $2 million and expanding both our audience base and community outreach programs significantly. Now that we have established a hunger in our audience for musical theatre, we have confidently programmed Assassins to open our 2012/13 season and are eagerly anticipating commissioning our first world premiere musical in the near future.

NORTHWEST

Colorado | Idaho | Montana | Oregon | Utah Washington | Wyoming NW | Members = 76 Associates = 20 LINDA HARTZELL, SDC’s Northwest Regional Rep, joined the Board in 2009.

Artistic Director of Seattle Children’s Theatre for the past 28 years and counting, Linda is SDC’s first Executive Board member with deep roots in Children’s Theatre and has welcomed the opportunity to further educate the Board, staff, and larger membership about the unique challenges and opportunities of creating theatre for young audiences. In this report, Linda shares with our readers some of her own experiences in Seattle.

Rewards + challenges of tya

BY LINDA

HARTZELL

Before the mid-1970s, except for Seattle Junior Programs and weekend plays for children at Seattle Rep, children’s theatre lacked a strong presence within the Northwest region. With the founding of Seattle Children’s Theatre in 1975, the region gained a company dedicated to providing children of all ages access to professional theatre, with a focus on new works and theatre education. With a grant of city-

MARK CLEMENTS since 2001 | LINDA HARTZELL since 2000 | MICHAEL KAHN since 1966 | AMY MORTON since 2001 | GEOFFREY SHERMAN since 1978

subsidized space, SCT first produced plays in the Poncho Theatre at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo. We began as a program of the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation with initial funding from the City of Seattle and PONCHO (Patrons of Northwest Civic, Cultural and Charitable Organizations), and we were afforded the opportunity to establish ourselves as the leading provider of professional theatre for young audiences.

Today, the industry has grown—there is a lot going on, a lot of competition for young audiences in the Seattle area. Good for the audiences. Tough for us.

Today’s theatre for young audiences has the most diverse makeup, economically and culturally, of any theatrical audience in the United States. Seattle, for example, is one of the most affluent cities in the US, yet in the Seattle school district 42% of children are in need of free or partially free lunches. In order to bring everyone into the theatre, most children’s theatre companies feel as though they must take on the role of social service organizations.

To remain competitive and to be taken seriously in Seattle, I made the decision early on that SCT needed to employ only AEA actors. We wanted to put the best working artists in front of young audiences. By the early 1990s we had come to employ SDC directors and choreographers, IATSE stage hands and USA designers. We built our own performing arts complex. The challenge has become funding this level of work while maintaining accessibility for the widest range of audiences.

SCT’s costs are the same per seat as any other large regional theatre in Seattle, yet our ticket prices are sometimes two-thirds less, because we are working to ensure that the intended audience can afford to come see our shows. We are subsidizing up to $1.2 million in tickets a year, and we do this because we believe in the power of art to change young people’s lives and to make them healthier human beings and stronger citizens of the world. We are striving to change the culture.

Among the great rewards of producing work for young audiences are the audiences themselves. They are open, honest, and possessed of unfiltered joy in their responses to what they see in the theatre. Their willingness to embrace new experiences gives us the freedom, and responsibility, to push the boundaries of our work. People often put a “tag” on experimental work in adult theatre, but in theatre for young audiences, the use of puppetry and nonlinear or non-literal storytelling, the use of music and imaginative, minimal sets, that kind of work is mainstream for us. Having been deeply inspired by the work we’ve seen overseas, we’ve been doing it for almost thirty years. Being proud artistically of what we feel is important work culturally—it doesn’t get better than that.

SOUTHWEST

Arizona | California | Nevada | New Mexico SW | Members = 340 Associates = 77 RICK LOMBARDO, SDC’s Southwest Regional Rep, joined the Board just last year in 2011. Rick is a twenty-year Member of SDC and is in his fourth season as Artistic Director at San Jose Repertory Theatre. In his tenure as regional rep he has already traveled up and down the California Coast and welcomes the chance to get to know the full Membership in the Southwest. Last winter he learned about some of the specific needs and opportunities in the greater Los Angeles theatre scene and decided to reach out to Art Manke, Las Angeles director, to discuss the current happenings in LA for this issue of SDC Journal.

LA: theatrical vitality

BY ART

MANKE

When Southwest Regional Representative Rick Lombardo contacted me to write a report on trends in Los Angeles theatre, I tried to squirm out of the assignment.

Quite simply, I had no idea what trends there could possibly be here. The region is too big, too diverse, I thought, to have any cohesive trends. In order to take the pulse of this large and unwieldy beast, I conducted interviews with over a dozen directors, choreographers, and artistic directors from theatres large and small across the region to see what common themes might emerge. As it turns out, there is vitality, an artistic integrity, a “life force,” to quote Shaw, that is coursing through the veins of this beast—the likes of which are unparalleled in recent history.

The economy has had its impact here as it has everywhere, but what surprised me is that it wasn’t the devastating factor that I had expected. It is both dire, and not so dire, depending on how you look at it. On the dire end of the spectrum, we have seen a number of theatres either suspend production or disappear altogether. Several months ago, the venerable grande dame of Southern California theatres, the Pasadena Playhouse, would have numbered among these, but thankfully it emerged from bankruptcy and returned to production with unprecedented efficiency. Also on the positive side of the ledger is the recent opening of A Noise Within’s brand new $13.5 million facility, located just a few miles east of the Playhouse.

Doug Clayton, freelance director and director of programming and operations for LA Stage Alliance, points out that LA’s nonprofit theatres have always been under-funded, so in a way, they are more accustomed to the kind of struggle that has hit the rest of the country. Historically speaking, as a co-founder and former artistic

director (1991-2001) of A Noise Within, I can attest to the fact that while there were a handful of corporate headquarters located in downtown LA in the early 90s, by the end of the decade, they—and their foundations— had all but vanished from the landscape.

Many leaders speak of the pressure to create “events” that will draw theatre-goers away from their homes. Center Theatre Group Artistic Director Michael Ritchie says that today “a bomb is still a bomb, but a hit is a much bigger thing.” For some artistic leaders the brass ring is finding the next big musical or importing the latest hit Broadway play, but the majority—believe it or not— have found the greatest success by simply adhering to their artistic guns and doing damn good work. South Coast Repertory founding Artistic Director Martin Benson says, “We have a moral imperative to stick to our principals and produce work that we are passionate about.” And, for most theatres, this seems to be working. In 2008, Geffen Playhouse Artistic Director Randall Arney began commissioning more plays instead of fewer, despite pressures to the contrary.

Jessica Kubzansky and Michael Michetti, artistic directors of The Theatre @ Boston Court, cite a recent season made up exclusively of world premieres as their most successful to date. Casey Stangl and Darin Anthony, who each directed one of the many short Car Plays for Moving Arts only to see them move to La Jolla Playhouse, point to far more adventurous work emerging from small theatres and having a continued life. And the risk-taking with the classic repertoire is no less apparent with recent and upcoming productions of Troilus and Cressida, Ivanov, Waiting for Godot, and other titles that aren’t typically called “boffo” at the box office.

The city seems to be enjoying a theatrical renaissance of sorts with increased activity at every level of production and greater quality across the board. Busy freelancers Bart DeLorenzo and Dámaso Rodriguez both point out that there are far fewer actordriven vanity productions in the 99-seat arena than was previously the case, and on the contrary, they point to the emergence of new small companies with strong artistic visions. Thanks in no small part to the film and television industry, SCR founding artistic director David Emmes notes that many more talented playwrights are making Southern California their home.

By all accounts, the trend in Los Angeles is a return to trusting and following the artistic impulse. While funding has always been a challenge here, we have a surfeit of highly skilled playwrights, actors, designers, and of course, directors in our midst. While we can never really know what will lead to success at the box office, we can be sure that when the work is passionate, bold, and original, attention will be paid.

8 Do you have an idea for a Regional Report? Want to share provocative, ground-breaking theatre happening in your area? Know an artist you believe deserves to be featured? Let us know. city + state.

DARIN ANTHONY since 2008 | RANDALL ARNEY since 1995 E-mail RegionalReports@SDCweb.org. Include your full name, MARTIN BENSON since 1986 | DOUG CLAYTON since 2008 BART DELORENZO since 2007 | DAVID EMMES since 1979 JESSICA KUBZANSKY since 1966 | RICK LOMBARDO since 1989 | ART MANKE since 2002 | MICHAEL MICHETTI since 1998 | CASEY STANGL since 2003

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

Working With A Dance Arranger CURATED BY

EDIE COWAN

In April 2010 I sat down with Choreographers KATHLEEN MARSHALL and JERRY MITCHELL and Dance Arrangers DAVID CHASE and MARK HUMMEL at an SDC/SDCF Director/ Choreographer Networking panel entitled Working with a Dance Arranger. A composer often turns the painstaking role of scoring a show’s dance numbers over to a dance arranger, who often serves as the musical director or musical supervisor as well. The four artists talked about the different ways they collaborate, the use of improvisation, and their many sources of inspiration. The following is an excerpt from this discussion.

I am going to ask our choreographers to walk us through the process of creating the dance arrangement.

K | It is a privilege when you get to work with an artist like David or Mark and work on a dance arrangement. So many times, as a choreographer, if you are doing a show that already exists and you are dealing with an existing score…getting to work with a dance arranger means you get to start from scratch in the room trying to figure out: what do we want this dance to be, what do we want it to say and where do we want it to go? Starting with the composer’s original song and composition, how are we going to expand this into a dance arrangement? I think a lot of people don’t really know what dance arrangers do.

One great thing that I love about working with David is that we are both kind of research fiends. We both love to find out, if it is a revival, what existed before—when it takes place, and where it takes place, and trying to do research for what was the music at that time, what was on the radio, and what was popular at the time… trying to filter that into what becomes the dance arrangement.

TOP TO BOTTOM

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Kathleen Marshall, Jerry Mitchell, David Chase + Mark Hummel JERRY MITCHELL since 1990

Working with a dance arranger means you get to start from scratch, trying to figure out: what do we want this dance to be, what do we want it to say and where do we want it to go?

Starting with the composer’s

original song and composition, how are we going to

expand this into a dance arrangement?

D | I think the key thing is you can’t really begin on any piece of music until you have the conversations of “what is it about,” and “what are we trying to achieve?” Are we consciously telling a story? Is it a book number that has some kind of movement or dance extension? Is it a performance number because it takes place in a night club? That has a very different feel and approach. What Kathleen was saying about research is very important because it can’t exist in its own weird space. It has to be relative to the entire rest of the score and to the period that the score is in—to the way, especially in the context of a revival, an audience’s ears perceive the music of a certain time. Or to what extent the music as it was written at that time is perceived by an audience of today.

J | Yes, but sometimes that rule is broken.

D | Right, and you have to know the rules to know if you can break them.

J | But you are right. It starts with a conversation between you and the collaborator and oftentimes the composer— if the composer is alive and working with you—because they will certainly have something to say about how you take their song and what you do with it.

D | It is always interesting to me to listen to Sophisticated Ladies, which used all of the original Ellington charts, but because it was [done in] ‘79, all the drum beats changed to current pop drum beats. But it wouldn’t happen that way if it were done again. Would you go back to what was originally played on the Ellington charts, or get something that seems more modern to our ears now, but which in 30-40 years will sound dated also?

J | There isn’t any one way to approach it.

The most important thing, like Kathleen said, is to figure out the story that you want to tell with the dance—if you are lucky enough today to have a dance in a new musical.

M | You are in service of the choreographer but also the composer. You are lifting up their music and stretching it and moving it all around.

I know some choreographers like to have some music to create to. Others have told me that they have said to the dance arranger, “I want 32 bars of 2/4 and I need a 10/8 count in here and it should last four minutes.” How specific do you get?

K | It comes from a lot of different ways.

When we were creating “Too Darn Hot” in Kiss Me Kate, we knew that we wanted it to be a can-you-top-this kind of number— improvisational, with actors hanging out in the alley during intermission and the dancers trying steps out. We knew there would be different sections, some of which were interrupted and some of which someone [else] took over, so from that we knew that David would play with variations.

Sometimes he would come in with just an idea of a variation of taking this melody and saying, “Oh, well, that’s great, and we can use that for the boys section or for that trio…” So once you start to figure out the beats of the dance, he may write something specifically for that section, or maybe there is something he composed that we feel would work for that section. And the other part of it, which is astonishing to me, is the manipulation of keys to keep it fresh. So it’s not all just in one key.

M | But to answer your question, I think we’re probably talking to two of the more hands-on choreographers here—there are some that will say, go ahead write something. And you say “OK!” You kind of take a leap and see what happens.

J | When I was doing Full Monty I was working with [dance arranger] Zane Mark and the drummer [Dean Sharenow]. And I choreographed the [basketball] number in about 20 minutes. Because the story was so clear to me, and because I played basketball my entire life, I knew what I wanted to do

with the number, so I said, “Dean, play the drums, and Zane watch.” And I did the entire thing to drums. I did all the drills, and then we started to play around with how we would musicalize that, and there is a point where they’re bouncing the ball and passing the ball back and forth to each other and all of the chunks were pretty much, for me, rhythmically found out first, and then Zane went away with that rhythm chart and started to manipulate the music to support it.

The dance arrangement is now done. Not finalized but at least there is something there. Does the composer ever come in and say, “Change this section!”?

M | Marvin Hamlisch would take my dance music and interpolate his melody with longer lines over the music that I had written, and I was like, “Oh why didn’t I think of that?”

J | When I was doing La Cage with Jerry Herman, David Krane had done the dance arrangements with me, and we worked for four weeks, and Jerry never ever came to see anything until we were done. He came into the room and had four notes, but they were mostly about where the melody was or where the dance arrangement could actually bring the melody back to the ear and still help tell the story.

M | The sooner you learn that as a dance arranger, the better. Melody, melody, melody.

To hear the entire Working with a Dance Arranger podcast, including an audience Q&A, visit SDCF’s Masters of the Stage series at American Theatre Wing. A collaboration with ATW, Masters of the Stage offers free downloadable podcast recordings of SDCF events. Since 2008, more than 250,000 programs have been downloaded.

New programs are added twice monthly.

Please visit www.americantheatrewing. org/sdcfmasters

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SDC FOUNDATION | THE ZELDA FICHANDLER AWARD xcerpts from the 2011 Award presentation E in Washington D.C.

NOBODY CALLED US, BUT WE CAME INTRO BY

TOM MOORE

Half a century ago, as one group of directors was establishing the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, another group of theatre artists was beginning to flourish, initiating a movement that would eventually provide 90% of our directors’ opportunities outside New York City, very definitely west and south of the Hudson. This movement was the founding of American Regional Theatre; that small group of visionaries literally transformed American theatre.

Three years ago, on the 50th Anniversary of SDC, the Executive Board inaugurated a number of initiatives and celebrations. None was more important than the establishment of an award to be given by the SDC Foundation recognizing those who established American Regional Theatre and those continuing to transform the national theatre landscape through work in the regions.

And although this award was named for one of the leaders of the regional movement, Zelda Fichandler, the idea was to celebrate and perpetuate the dream of the remarkable group of directors who forged these regional theatres.

The Zelda Fichandler Award is not for life achievement, nor is it for emerging artists.

It is to reward directors and choreographers in the center of their artistic lives, either as heads of companies or as freelance artists, working with the same singular passion and dedication as did the founders in creating these theatres. The goal is to single out remarkable directors and choreographers transforming their region’s theatrical landscape through unique and creative work.

Given its regional definition, the award is given in a different part of the country each year. In the first two years, honoring the Western and Central Regions, the recipients were Jonathan Moscone, Artistic Director of the California Shakespeare Theater, and Michael Halberstam, Artistic Director of Chicago’s Writers’ Theatre, respectively.

This year it came home to the East, the very center of the movement. May the recipients follow in Zelda’s footsteps and change their world.

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The goal is to single out remarkable directors and choreographers transforming their region’s theatrical landscape through unique and creative work. | Zelda + Thomas Fichandler during the construction of the Kreeger Theater in 1970 COURTESY Arena Stage TOP

| Zelda Fichandler in front of Arena’s first home, the converted Hippodrome movie theatre, the week before the theatre’s opening on August 16, 1950.

COURTESY Arena Stage OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT

MICHAEL HALBERSTAM since 2006 | TOM MOORE since 1972 | JONATHAN MOSCONE since 1997 | ZELDA FICHANDLER since 1987

EXCERPTED FROM ZELDA’S SPEECH AT THE 2011 AWARD PRESENTATION It would take an aerialist to see the far-flung implications of the Award, tracing, as it does, the impulse born some sixty years ago, to make a thing that would help our fellow humans to know themselves, to fathom more deeply the chaos that is our world, and, in the presence of each other, to shine a spotlight on the delight of being alive.

Of course, I’m deeply honored to have my name attached to this Award. I have my Steuben glass apple from Tiffany’s, my gold-framed certificate, and my medallion from President Clinton, which I’ve put on a chain and tried to hang around my neck, but it’s too heavy for that.

But this is something else again. This represents a story—a history.

It celebrates the past, a vibrant present, and promises an evolving future if we stay with it and solve our problems as we’ve always solved them—with tenacity, imagination, and hope—and if we can, continue to be tough in the service of something that is tender.

I want to say what we all know, but what I want you to know that I know. I was there at the beginning, and am lucky enough to still be here while many are not, but I was not the founder of this movement…

There are form-givers in every new style of art, form-givers in new scientific inventions, new medical discoveries, new technologies. There may seem to be just one in front, but, like seeds under the snow, they emerge in small clusters, and, if the plants are strong, they become widely absorbed into the culture.

So, then, I’m the chorus in Henry V, and for that I’m very proud to have this Award in my name. You recall it’s the Chorus who enlists the imagination of the audience to “imagine if we speak of horses that you see them,” and, “into a thousand parts divide one man.” Well, I’m your man, and there are a thousand men and women with me. More than a thousand. Many thousands. I think of them, I knew and know so many of them, I feel their presence.

“There are a thousand men and women with me. More than a thousand.

Many thousands. I think of them, I knew and know so many of them, I feel their presence.”

The founders: Joe and Gordon and Tyrone and Nina and of course Margo Jones, who was truly the first; and Jules when Amy Irving was still crawling around on the kitchen floor when I met them; and Herbert, his partner, and all the others who came after them— using these founders as a model, or finding their own way, each with his personal individual nature, his own inherent style and view of the world. And all the actors through all the years, all the directors—architects of our work—and all the designers, and stage and production managers, administrators, and artisans, and board members, and fundraisers, and so on, and so on, and so on—who have made this idea concrete. So many thousands. There’s hardly room for me on the stage. I should move away and give room for the others, and in my mind I do.

Tony Kushner, never a man of tentative words, writes that the work we began “led to one of the most significant developments in American theatre history, perhaps its most important 20th-century development.”

Just think of it. Nobody was looking for us, peering through the window, watching for us to come to relieve the boredom and unawareness of their lives. It was we who had to teach and persuade them to want what we wanted to give them. And we had to insist on it for their own good, but, really, for our own, if we were honest enough to admit that.

Nobody called us, but we came.

Zelda at the 2011 Awards presentation in Washington, DC | PHOTO Michael Butcher SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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She embodies all that Zelda stands for. Courage.

Commitment. Impact.

Artistry. Imagination.

Transformation.

Persistence.

PHOTO Michael Butcher

Blanka Zizka 2011 RECIPIENT | EXCERPT FROM HER ACCEPTANCE SPEECH

Blanka AN INTRODUCTION

BY ETHAN

MCSWEENY

We should all aspire to achieve even a fraction of what Zelda and her colleagues accomplished.

It is such a great pleasure and honor to bask in her wisdom and delight, in her passion for this ancient, yet timeless and immediate, art.

As an officer of SDC and on behalf of the Committee, I’d like to thank the 70 nominators and 55 nominees from this year’s region, the Eastern United States.

It was a record-setting year, and these numbers testify to the richness of this region and the number of committed artists thriving in its communities.

In the end, the committee selected one artist who they feel embodies all that Zelda stands for. Courage. Commitment.

Impact. Artistry. Imagination.

Transformation. Persistence.

And that is this year’s Zelda Fichandler Award recipient, Blanka Zizka, Founding Artistic Director of The Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. The Committee described Blanka’s level of artistry in directing as extraordinary, and her passion, fire, and joy in the work reminiscent of a 22-year-old.

She is a renegade—adventurous and brave—whose theatre has made an indelible mark in a tough town like Philly, and whose work resonates up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

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I am extremely honored, thrilled, and humbled to receive the Zelda Fichandler Award, and to find myself in the company of these distinguished finalists: I’m very grateful to be in their company…

So for me, the big question is: how do we return to creating art? I know that this has to be my focus and my effort in the next few years. How do we get back to creating art on stage? How do we create theatre that is stunning, meaningful, beautiful, that shakes our audiences to their core, and shows us what it means to be human?

I have more questions about making art in the regional theatre. How do we create and support artistic communities in our cities? How do we take advantage of what’s happening in our cities and support new artistic energies that are coming to life? How do we give support not only to playwrights, but also to experimentation in rehearsals and workshops to help us develop strong theatre aesthetics? How do we change today’s practice of artists working in isolation?

Actors can’t work alone. They need to be in a rehearsal room, in workshops; they need to be challenged by new possibilities; they need to work within a collective. Playwrights, too, so often write in isolation from theatres, without the chance to observe actors experimenting with breath and vocal resonators, with language, silence, movement, ritual, and improvisation. Might these kinds of experiences give writers an impulse to experiment with a new style of writing? Wouldn’t it be great to have at least a week of rehearsals before we try to design our productions? How do we create a unified vision when we work on new projects in such a short amount of time? Theatre is a collective art form. We cannot do it alone. We cannot do it in isolation.

I believe that we will find our audiences if our theatres produce work that takes on the complexities and issues of our lives in a courageous, bold, unexpected, and original way. We must not be afraid.

As the artistic leader of the Wilma, I want to help create a culture in Philadelphia that is generous to its local artists, that helps them grow and learn, that challenges them but also supports and connects them to the community. Theatre doesn’t need to happen only in the safety of our theatres. If we have a company, we can go and perform in unexpected places; we can go to schools and to different communities. We can travel.

We need to be courageous, generous, and giving. We need to listen to each other, be open, and learn. As artists, we need to strive to get better in our work. We have to be able to create a memorable theatre, one that matters. Fear of failure makes us stagnate. Generosity and investment in people make us grow.

Thank you, once again. I’m very moved to be awarded the Zelda Fichandler Award. I want to thank the selection committee for this great honor. I also wish to express my deep gratitude to Jamie Haskins, the Managing Director of the Wilma, for his commitment to the art of theatre, for his passion, wisdom, and for his trust and support. I’m very lucky to work with Jamie, as well as with the rest of the Wilma staff, and the generous Wilma Board.

Thank you all.

ETHAN MCSWEENY since 1998 | BLANKA ZIZKA since 2000

2011 FINALISTS This year’s selection committee was comprised of nine SDC Members from across the East, from Florida to New England and west on to Ohio. The committee, impressed with the depth of this year’s pool of nominees, elected to name not only a recipient, but also four finalists meriting special recognition. With a few words from the committee about each, and excerpts from their artistic statements, those finalists are:

RICHARD GARNER

DISTINGUISHED FINALIST

Producing Artistic Director + Georgia Shakespeare co-founder Richard is transformative in creating a fantastic ensemble of actors, honing this resident company into a truly gifted troupe of classical actors on par with the best the nation has to offer, and in emphasizing diversity.

My mission was to create a nurturing work environment that encouraged, no, DARED our company of artists—actors, directors, designers, craftpersons, etc.—to create their best work. My role as an individual creative artist took a necessary backstage to my role as one who nudged and cajoled other artists to reach beyond their comfort zones and risk the possibility of greatness in their own work…A commitment, at that time, to nurture a company over a period of years has now yielded a remarkably talented group of artists with a significant depth of skill that is lauded by guest directors from all over the country. Another hurdle I wanted to take on was the degree of racial division that still existed in this community, and I wanted to approach that challenge as a director. My goal was simply to work to help reflect a new reality that was enveloping the whole community…It is important that what used to be referred to as “non-traditional casting” in our classic shows is now an expected norm in this community. - RICHARD

RICHARD GARNER since 2001 | HOWARD SHALWITZ since 1997

| Clybourne Park directed

by Howard Shalwitz PHOTO by Stan Barouh HEADSHOT by Colin Hovde

TOP

| The Odyssey: A Journey Home directed

by Richard Garner PHOTO by Bill DeLoach HEADSHOT by Stacey Bode Photography BOTTOM

HOWARD SHALWITZ Artistic Director of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company The 2011 Fichandler committee named DC’s own Howard Shalwitz its first Distinguished Finalist, noting the universal respect for Howard among his peers. Continually transformative, continually challenging the status quo, with a real integrity of mission from which he has never strayed, Howard has proven there is an audience for risky work, and he never stops pushing himself and his ensemble to risk more. And, to his colleagues, Howard displays a seemingly endless generosity.

At the core of my work is the idea of a company, and I have been working with a group of the most gifted DC-based actors for over 25 years, while continuing to add new members slowly. I am currently initiating Woolly’s biggest company shift in two decades—adding a few directors, designers, and playwrights to the group, which so far has included only actors. This is intended to knit together our focus on new work with our long-standing focus on a distinctive acting style, bringing us closer to the company dream that Clurman had in the 1930s and Zelda had in the 1950s...I hope my impact lies not merely in the plays and playwrights Woolly has launched. I hope we are also a model for a kind of theatre that follows its own path and never underestimates the audience’s readiness to follow along as equal partners. - HOWARD SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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JOSEPH HAJ

D. LYNN MEYERS

Producing Artistic Director, PlayMakers Repertory Company Chapel Hill, NC Joseph is an extraordinary artist with great passion and commitment, who, in a five-year tenure, has made his theatre into a real destination for artists from around the country, and increased programming while eliminating a deficit and strengthening the theatre’s financial health.

At PlayMakers, we have increased our output in order to increase diversity. In my five years as Producing Artistic Director at PlayMakers, we have doubled the programming at the theatre from five plays annually to ten, instituted rotating rep, solicited major support from the Mellon Foundation to support companies creating devised work (Pig Iron 2011, SITI 2012, The TEAM w/ Taylor Mac 2013), and created PRC2, an annual three-play series on our second stage designed around an idea about community dialogue. We program challenging work in that series, and every performance is followed by a post-show conversation around the themes of the play. We leverage the intellectual capital of the university, and invite artists and thinkers from the region to create a different panel for each discussion. A labor-intensive process to be sure, but that series—a series of the hardest work that we do—has helped create a theatre that is deeply connected to the intellectual and cultural lives of the people in our region. - JOSEPH

Producing Artistic Director of Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati | The Illusion by Pierre Corneille, adapted

by Tony Kushner, directed

by Joseph Haj PHOTO by Jon Gardiner HEADSHOT | Rehearsal photo of Joseph Haj w/ composer/musician Jack Herrick, COURTESY PlayMakers Repertory Company TOP

| Next to Normal directed by

RIGHT

D. Lynn Meyers PHOTO by Ryan

Kurtz Kurtz

HEADSHOT by Ryan

The SDCF Zelda Fichandler Award will be presented in the fall of 2012 to an artist working in the Western region of the United States.

Nominations will be accepted through July 2, 2012. To nominate an artist and for further information about the award, please visit http://www.sdcweb.org/foundation/fichandler-award/ 44

SDC JOURNAL

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D. Lynn is the leading employer of local talent in her area, nurturing a core ensemble of directors and designers.

Through her continued artistic and directorial excellence, her theatre has been the cornerstone in transforming her neighborhood, which, when she began her resident wizardry, was the single most dangerous neighborhood in America.

The belief that a theatre could heal, transform, and help the place where it was planted was at the core of my work then and now. Sarcastically, my fiancé at the time asked if I intended to change the whole neighborhood in order to keep the place open. My answer was yes, and that is just what we did. So we stayed open.

And from that moment on we started to not only keep the doors open, but build a place where people wanted to come. We did shows that shook the town’s comfort level. THE EXONERATED in conjunction with the Ohio Innocence Project and THE GUYS on the first anniversary of 9/11 with every fireman in Cincinnati getting an invitation. We got the rights to the first regional production of I AM MY OWN WIFE the night it won the Tony. We opened SIDE MAN six weeks after it won the Tony. Edward Albee himself gave us the regional premiere of THREE TALL WOMEN. Through a tenacious effort, ETC became a destination which could not be ignored.

- D. LYNN

JOSEPH HAJ since 2004 | D. LYNN MEYERS since 1986

SPECIAL THANKS TO SDCF ANNUAL FUND CONTRIBUTORS JAN 2011-JAN 2012 Charles Abbott · Woody Allen · Julie Arenal · David Armstrong · Michael Arnold · Rob Ashford · Peter Askin · Michele Assaf · Adriana Baer Cliff Fannin Baker · Jesse Berger · Pamela Berlin · Zeke Berlin · Melvin Bernhardt · Allison Bibicoff · John Bowab · Judith Braha · Mark Brokaw Charles Brooks · Tricia Brouk · Arvin Brown · Ronald K. Brown · Ian Cadenhead · Andrew D. Cadiff · Karen Carpenter · Tisa Chang · Frank A. Corsaro Edie Cowan · Yvonne P. Curry · Gordon Davidson · Robert Davis · Gemze De Lappe · John Dillon · Marcia Milgrom Dodge · Dwight Edwards Susan Einhorn · Sheldon Epps · David Esbjornson · John + Mary Everson · Jonathan Falk · Tom Ferriter · Robert E. Fitch · Peter Flynn · Aaron Frankel Richard Garner · Michelle Gaudette · Barry Fredrik Gerber · Darla Germeroth · John E. Going · Michael Grandage · Beth Greenberg · David Z. Gutierrez Michael Halberstam · Richard Hamburger · Joseph Hardy · Barbara Hauptman · Sara Lampert Hoover · Amnon Kabatchnik · Steve Kaplan · E. Allen Kent Ilona Kessell · Pamela Khoury · Kappy Kilburn · Brian Kite · Gary John La Rosa · Ron Lagomarsino · Edward + Nancy Langbein · Nina Lannan Renee Laredo · Stephen Largay · Paul and Kitty Lazarus · Kenny Leon · David LeShay · Annie G. Levy · J. Barry Lewis · Cathleen Fitzpatrick Linder George Loros · Bruce Lumpkin · Mark Lutwak · Gwynn MacDonald · Will Mackenzie · Albert Marre · Sarah McMahon · Kitty McNamee · D. Lynn Meyers Janet E. Miller · Paul Millet · Gregory Mosher · Robert H. Moss · Shakina Nayfack · Timothy Near · Sharon Ott · Sheldon Patinkin · Laura Penn · Jim Petosa Thomas Pierce · Barry Primus · Charles Richter · Sanford Robbins · Steven Robman · Ellen Rusconi · Amy Saltz · Andy Sandberg · Ike Schambelan Terry L. Schreiber · Dave Sikula · Lester Shane · Ronald Shechtman · Molly Smith · Haila Strauss · Susan Stroman · Carol Sundquist · John Tillinger Dr. Arthur Williams · Seret Scott Williams · Zhenjun Zhang THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING ORGANIZATIONS FOR PROGRAM SUPPORT AND SPONSORSHIP The James and Deborah Burrows Foundation · National Endowment for the Arts · New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council · New York State Council on the Arts · Play by Play · Pryor Cashman LLP · Richard Besoyan Trust · Stage Directors and Choreographers Society · Stonybrook State University of New York MFA in Writing and Literature and Southampton Directing Conference · The

Normal Heart

AND SDCF ENDOWMENT FUNDS TO PARTIALLY SUPPORT SPECIFIC PROGRAMS Charles Abbott Fellowship Fund · Joe A. Callaway Award Fund · Reginald Denham Fellowship Fund · Sir John Gielgud Fellowship Fund · Mike Ockrent Fellowship Fund · Shepherd + Mildred Traube Fellowship Fund · George C. Wolfe Fellowship Fund THANKS TO THE FOLLOWING FOR SUPPORT OF THE 2011 “MR. ABBOTT” AWARD Joy Abbott · Alyson Adler · Julie Arenal · Rob Ashford · Karen Azenberg · Walter Bobbie · Christopher Brockmeyer · Linda Burson · Joe Calarco Larry Carpenter · Edie Cowan · John Dias · Denise Di Novi · Marcia Milgrom Dodge · Carol Fineman · George Forbes · Seth Gelblum · Wendy Goldberg Richard Hamburger · Linda J. Hartzell · Doug Hughes · Loretha Jones · Moisés Kaufman · Pamela Koslow · Sue Lawless · Paul Lazarus · Margo Lion Hal Luftig · Mara Anne Manus · Kathleen Marshall · Ethan McSweeny · Tom Moore · Wendy Orshan · Sharon Ott · Laura Pels · Lisa Peterson · Hal Prince Kenneth L. Roberson · Mary Robinson · Jordan Roth · Daryl Roth · Scott Sanders · Mary Schmidt Campbell · Susan H. Schulman · Mary Therese Sick Leigh Silverman · Steve Showalter · Daniel Sullivan · Nancy Trichter · David Whitcomb · Seret Scott Williams · Jeffrey Wilson · 101 Productions · Actors Equity Association · Broadfield Music Co · Broadway League · CAA · Dewitt Stern Group · DiNovi Pictures · Dodger Properties · Fried & Kowglos Partner Gould, Kobrick & Schlapp, P.C. · Jane Harmon Associates · Joey Parnes Productions · Jujamcyn · Lincoln Center Theatre · Local 751 · Loeb & Loeb LLP Mackenzie Community · Makeup Artist & Hair Stylist Local 798 · Margo Lion Ltd · Morgan Stanley Smith Barney · Nederlander Theatrical Company The Normal Heart · Niko Theatrical Companies · NYU · Off-Broadway League · Peggy Siegal Company · Pryor Cashman · Public Theater · Roger Berlind Foundation · Rothschild Foundation · The Segal Company · Serino Coyne · Shubert Organization · Stage Directors and Choreographers Society TDF · Temple University · Terence Kramer-Remarkable Partners · Tophet Inc · Two River Theater Company · University of Rochester · William Morris Entertainment SDCF’s Ellen Rusconi, Alex Mallory + Manda Martin of Culture Project, SDC Members Emily Mann + Blanka Zizka, with Kate Loewald of The Play Company at SDCF’s One-on-One Conversation with Mann + Zizka at Culture Project’s 2012 Women Center Stage Festival.

LEFT TO RIGHT

ALEX MALLORY since 2009

SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

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THE SOCIETY PAGES

the

“Mr.Abbott” Award

Lifetime Achievement in the American Theatre

for

In 1964, The “Mr. Abbott” Award was established to recognize exceptional directors and choreographers—clearly GEORGE C. WOLFE is emblematic of all that and more.

Directors and choreographers, each in their own very specific way, bring unique contributions to this wondrous art form. They are tenacious leaders, gentle enablers, careful listeners—their grand visions, deep passion, unqualified love, and affectionate control make our work possible. Their centrality to the process makes their influence on all the artists and craftspeople around them indisputable. They mentor us; cajole us (and console us); and demand from us because they so often see in us what we may not believe is possible.

These are the qualities that George Abbott brought to us, along with our other Abbott winners, including those masters here with us this evening—Gordon Davidson, Graciela Daniele, Kathleen Marshall, and Jack O’Brien.

SDCF has committed itself to ensuring that the handcrafted art forms of directing and choreographing are passed on to the next generation. We must ensure that the legacy of the giants of this craft is embedded in the memories of those to come long after us.

EXCERPTED FROM EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR LAURA PENN’S REMARKS AT THE 2011 “MR. ABBOTT” AWARDS PRESENTATION IN NYC ABOVE George

C. Wolfe receiving The “Mr. Abbott” Award | SMALL Joy Abbott + George C. Wolfe Stritch | Tonya Pinkins | Jeffrey Wright + George C. Wolfe PHOTOS Bruce Glikas

TOP TO BOTTOM Elaine

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GORDON DAVIDSON since 1969 JACK O’BRIEN since 1969 | GEORGE C. WOLFE since 1984

Visionary Director/Choreographer BOB FOSSE has long been hailed as not only one of the founding fathers of SDC but also as a leader among our leaders.

His refusal to break his strike pledge in 1962 in order to direct Little Me on Broadway was a crucial component to the young Union’s successful gain of recognition by all producers on Broadway.

Today, SDC unites, empowers, and protects stage Directors and Choreographers throughout the United States.

PHOTO Bob

Fosse with Tom Poston during Conquering Hero in 1960 COURTESY Nicole Fosse

SUMMER 2012 | SDC JOURNAL

Jules L. Aaron · Charles Abbott · Gregory Abels · Braden Abraham Karin Abromaitis · Ernest Abuba · Robert Allan Ackerman Dean Adams · Abigail Adams · Hilary S. Adams · Jerry Adler May Adrales · Suzanne Agins · Maria Aitken · JoAnne Akalaitis Tea Alagic · Edward Albee · Kenneth Albers · Jeremy Aldridge Jason Alexander · Jace Alexander · Kate Alexander · Debbie Allen 1501 Broadway | STE 1701 | NYC | 10036 Billie Allen · Woody Allen · Brian P. Allen · Michael T. Allosso Geoffrey Alm · Richard Amaro · Stephen Amato · Benny Sato Ambush Kathleen Amshoff · Peter H. Amster · Susan Ancheta Melissa Rain Anderson · Jane Anderson · Andrea T. Andresakis Carl Andress · Rosemary K. Andress · Keith Andrews · Julie Andrews Darin Anthony · Libby E. Appel · Elena Araoz · Matthew Arbour Arin Arbus · Loy Arcenas · Julie Arenal · Stafford Arima · Alan W. Arkin Charles P. Armesto · Robert Armin · Karole Armitage David S. 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