Celebrating American Theatre's 25th Anniversary
Laura Osnes Johnson, currently Nelly Forbush in South Pacific at Lincoln Center Theatre, winner of the role of "Sandy" on the televised Grease: You're the One that I Want! competition and Sandy in the 2007 Broadway run of Grease.
Michael John LaChiusa, Tony Award-nominated American musical theatre composer, lyricist, and librettist best known for complex, musically challenging shows such as Hello Again, Marie Christine, The Wild Party, and See What I Wanna See.
Marc Kudisch, seen this spring in the Joe Mantello-directed Dolly Parton musical 9 to 5 w/ Allison Janney, Stephanie J. Block & Megan Hilty as Franklin Hart, Jr.
Mary Testa, two-time Tony Award nominee, for performances in revivals of Leonard Bernstein's On the Town and 42nd Street.
Excuse me? Could somebody explain to me what in the world is in this organization's head? Has the regional theatre and the Broadway stage become so interchangeable that these are the people we ask to entertain us are the winners of the Grease: You're The One That I Want TV show? Every time I open American Theatre I am more and more baffled.
Comments
I find that inspiring.
In the meantime I'm adding you to our blogroll and if you feel so inspired would love to be added here.
Relentlessly yours,
Colin Mitchell
You express clearly that you would prefer to be entertained by "regional artists rather than celebrities", but you want people to put the regional stage on equal footing with the New York stage.
Your phrase "regional artists rather than celebrities" implies that you see all Tony nominees as hugely successful and in another category than successful artists in other towns. The people mentioned are not famous people outside of our niche, yet you call them celebrity simply because of the town the work in. By separating them from their fellow artists who work in other towns, and by elevating them above those other artists with your language, you are directly contributing to the schism that you are purportedly trying to mend. You directly imply that "celebrity" and "regional artists" are exclusive terms, and I think that belies an attitude that is contrary to what you claim to believe.
What is your real discontent with the NY theatre scene? You seem to say that you are opposed to the idea of any centralization in the theatre world. This is fine, but you must realize that the artists are not to blame for that centralization, mostly they have are controlled and frustrated by it as much as you are. There are many talented, driven theare artists in NY who could help your movement, but not if you make it your business to tell the rest of the theatre world that they aren't worth watching and don't deserve their success.
What you really want, if I understand you correctly, is for all theatre to be 'regional', and for NY to be treated like any other region of the country. As a NY artist, I completely support this movement. However, if that is what you want, then you must concede to treat successful NY artists with the same respect you would treat artists who have had success in any other region.
You seem to have a clear idea of the nature of my "discontent" with the NY scene. But your advice to treat NYC actors like regional theatre actors seems premature to me. I am not telling the rest of the world not to watch what they do, just not to watch what they do INSTEAD of watching what regional actors do, and that's our current situation. If you read back through my most recent posts, you will see my beef with a centralized theatre scene that valorizes NYC over anything else.
My particular complaint regarding TCG is that TCG was created and receives funding for a very specific mission, and by seeing NYC as just another region, and particularly Broadway as... I don't know what...a bunch of commercial regional theatres?... they are not fulfilling their mission.
I don't give a damn who is to blame. For the record, I have never "blamed" NYC actors for anything. But I DO blame ANYBODY who continues to reinforce the NYC myth, and I STRONGLY condemn TCG for doing so. Of all organization, TCG ought to be able to make that distinction.
I am constantly amazed as how thin-skinned NYC artists are. I speak for those who are tired of NYC artists getting so much attention.
In all of their literature, "not-for-profit" is the closest they come to addressing what you call "regional" theatre.
Another quote from them:
"TCG believes that our diversity as a field is our greatest strength. We celebrate differences in aesthetics, culture, organizational structure and geography. Indeed, we believe that every theatre makes a contribution to the greater field as a whole, that every performance expands the artistic vocabulary for us all, and that we all benefit from one another's presence."
Every theatre, Every performance. We all benefit.
I just don't see any way that inviting Broadway performers to support that message is contradictory. In fact, I think getting commercially successful artists involved in not-for-profit theatre is an important step in the mission.
The event is in NYC, so naturally they have invited artists from the 'region'. You blame them for reinforcing the NYC myth, but I think that if they were to invite 'regional' artists to be flown in because they were unwilling to include NYC artists as part of the theatre community, that would be a very strong statement that there is a fundamental difference between the artists from the city and artist from outside the city, which seems to be the very myth you are trying to dispel.
I don't know how many thick-skinned actors you know, but if you expect NY artists to be less sensitive than others then you really don't understand the situation. We are artists, after all.
Most of the theatre people I know in NY came here because of the centralization, not to support it. If I want to get involved in supporting regional theater, NY is the only place to start. Since I am an actor, the most direct reason is that they do most of the casting here, and the organizations like TCG are headquartered here.
I care about theatre very much. I did not move my entire life to NY because I was trying to sell out and because I am artistically vapid. The people I've met here are incredibly hard working and talented, and I think you would better serve your cause by enlisting their support than by treating them as the enemy, as the symbol of your frustration, or by assuming that they don't support you; which is what I get from some of your posts.
I appreciate your blog and I love to consider the broader ideas behind the current state of theatre in our society. When you use a flippant attitude and are dismissive of the artists because you are trying to make a point about the organization who hired them, I think you shut down communication more than you encourage it.
Christopher: Here is the history: "As regional theatres throughout America began to proliferate in the 1950s and '60s, W. McNeil Lowry, director of the Ford Foundation's Program in Humanities and Arts, noted a lack of communication and cooperation that seemed to impede the movement's growth. Lowry convened a group of theatre professionals and educators to discuss the possibility of a central office that could be run by representatives from the field. In 1961, the Ford Foundation set aside $244,000 over a four-year period to meet this goal, and Theatre Communications Group was established. It was originally headquartered in Pittsburgh, under the administrative and financial supervision of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and Pat Brown, the founding artistic director of Magnolia Theatre in Long Beach, CA served as director."
The website says the mission of TCG is: Over the last 45 years, TCG’s constituency has grown from a tiny network of groundbreaking theatresacross the country, as well as over 17,000 individuals nationwide."
But when it comes to fundraising, apparently that constituency is irrelevant. What is needed are Broadway musical actors.
The MC's for this event are also NYC-based artists of "The Universes."
The Honorary Committee:
Anne Bogart
Eric Bogosian
Nilo Cruz
Olympia Dukakis
Oskar Eustis
Richard Foreman
David Henry Hwang
Tony Kushner
Michael John LaChiusa
Ming Cho Lee
Suzan-Lori Parks
Marion Seldes
Lindy Zesch
Gosh, those people look pretty NY-oriented, too.
Now just what message is that sending, do you think?
You don't have to apologize for the centralization, but you don't have to defend it either. It is possible to acknowledge the problem, rather than explain it away with a shrug of "that's just the way it is." The question is: is that the way it should be?
I have no opinion about the quality of the artists -- shoot, I think Tony Kushner is a god -- the point is not to dismiss artists, but to point to a larger issue. Just like African-American artists in the past and present have pointed to the dearth of African-Americans, as have women and Asian-Americans. I am speaking for the Regional-American artists, who are apparently considered to be disabled as far as TCG is concerned.
Call it flippant if you want, but the issue is the issue.
This is an event in New York, celebrating an institution that is headquartered in New York, and most of the people donating are probably New Yorkers. Why wouldn't they invite New York artists to perform?
I know the TCG was originally headquartered in Pittsburgh and that they came to be because regional theaters needed some organization. To me, that isn't the same as saying that their mission today is to promote regional theater and fight the deleterious effects of centralized theater.
Even if that is their mission, I don't believe that the right way to achieve that is by promoting artists from outside of NY to New Yorkers. I think regional theater is important specifically because it is local. If the same organization hosted an event in Chicago and invited NY stars, then I would be agreeing with you.
By the way, they are promoting this event to their entire membership -- remember, I'm getting emails, and I'm not in NY. Apparently, they want the regions to claim this celebration as their own.
If you are saying that the mission of TCG has changed, I would ask this: SHOULD it have changed, and if it DID change, who is now responsible for supporting regional theatres, and why is TCG still getting funding to do something you are suggesting it no longer does? I would suggest that TCG would not admit that their mission has changed.
I'm all for an honest discussion of who TCG is serving, of other ways for them to raise money, about whether their mission has crept away from its founding principals. But let's make it an honest discussion.
And please, these people are not celebrities in any real sense of the word, but just current Broadway performers. Let's be honest about that, if we're going to be honest.
For this kind of event, even in New York, these are pretty big draws, though it's also obvious that the biggest draw, the first name on the invite is the one who's been on a nationally televised show and, presumably, has a lot of fans, since they voted for her. They're not just run-of-the-mill Broadway performers (or writers, since Michael John LaChuisa is more known as a writer than a performer).
But that also shows the, let's say, inconsistency of this argument: if they're not celebrities bussed in from out of town, then they're local, regional artists, from the same place that the magazine is based in.
Again, let's talk about how TCG and AT should be doing a year of these events, all around the country. Let's talk about how AT's offices should be more centrally located or move. But to keep talking about this one event as some sort of indictment of what TCG is doing is complaining about the paintjob on a burning house. Or something similarly trivial.
That said, I also don't think the fact that something is a fundraiser means it should be divorced from your mission or your values -- that you get a free pass just because it is about raising money. I find that kind of compartmentalization hypocritical, but unfortunately pretty routine in our society where hardly anybody commits to values strongly. It could have been an opportunity to promote the actual mission of the TCG (if it IS still the mission), rather than just another celebrity elbow-rub.
But if you want to talk about the other, I'm game. I think the headquarters of TCG ought to be in a truly regional place. In addition, I think that AT ought to commit, just for an issue or two, to having an entire issue that didn't mention New York, Chicago, or LA ONCE -- that focused solely on the non-NYLACHI regional theatre.