Regina Taylor, Author of "Crowns"

Posted by Bruce Miller
Our current production of Crowns is co-produced with African American Repertory Theatre, and directed and choreographed by Leslie Owens-Harrington. This entertaining and inspiring musical is written by acclaimed American actress, Regina Taylor.

Taylor is the sixth African American woman playwright whose work has been produced on the Barksdale and Theatre IV stages. Playing the Six Degrees of Separation game, it's interesting to discover the people (and themes) that connect us with this exemplary American theatre artist.

I first encountered and grew to admire Regina Taylor in the early 90s when she starred in the critically acclaimed TV series, I'll Fly Away. My friend (and Barksdale favorite) Joe Inscoe also appeared in that television classic, playing a Southern antagonist to Taylor's character.

Some of you may best know Taylor from her more recent TV series, The Unit. She played Molly Blane, wife of Sergeant Major Jonas Blane. Molly was the strong-willed homemaker who held all the military wives together when their fighting men were called away on active duty.

The Unit was created and executive produced by another great American playwright, David Mamet. Co-starring with Taylor in The Unit was Scott Foley, who played Sergeant First Class Bob Brown. Foley's brother-in-law is acclaimed stage and screen actor Patrick Wilson, whose father, John Wilson, starred in Barksdale's productions of The Fantasticks in 1963 and Generation in 1968.

Taylor was born in Dallas, Texas. When she was in the second grade, she moved with her mother to Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her mother was a Social Service Administration employee and transfers were common.

Having a professional mother provided inspiration to Taylor as she was growing up. "She taught me never to set limits on who I could be," Taylor states in People. "I developed an active imagination very young and was always writing plays and musicals."

Taylor's mother also encouraged a sustaining sense of pride and identity in her daughter. When she entered seventh grade, Taylor enrolled in a newly integrated school. On the first day of session, a white classmate sitting next to Taylor loudly informed the teacher, "I do not want to sit next to this nigger."

Taylor was shaken when she encountered this level of racial hatred for the first time. "I thought, 'How can she hate me when she doesn't know me?,'" Taylor states in People. Later she realized that this early encounter helped her to understand the racial prejudice to which her mother's generation had been subjected. In many ways, this understanding helped to prepare her for her career.

When the founders of Barksdale moved to Hanover from New York, they encountered for the first time the racial hatred exemplified by the Jim Crow Laws, which prohibited mixed-race audiences at any arts event. Facing possible arrest, Muriel McAuley and Pete Kilgore defiantly invited African American leaders from Virginia Union University to attend their plays in 1954, becoming the first arts organization in the state to do so. Not only did they break the law, they broke the back of that particular Jim Crow Law forever.

During her high school years, Taylor and her mother moved back to Dallas. After graduating from high school, she enrolled at Southern Methodist University. While still a student, she was cast in the 1980 TV series Nurse and 1981's made-for-television movie Crisis at Central High, playing Minnijean Brown, one of the nine black students who in 1957 risked everything to proactively effect history when they enrolled in the previously segregated Central High School in Little Rock, AR.

After college graduation, Taylor moved immediately to New York. Her big break came in 1986 when she was cast in an innovative project of the New York Shakespeare Festival - Joseph Papp, Producer. The project was called Shakespeare on Broadway for the Schools. Three Shakespearean masterworks were produced in rotating rep for reduced-price student performances: As You Like It, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet. John Moon, who directed Barksdale's just-closed production of Is He Dead?, was working in the casting department of the Shakespeare Festival at this time. Taylor was cast as Celia in As You Like It, the First Witch in Macbeth, and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, becoming the first actress of color to play this iconic role on Broadway.

In 1989, Taylor received national attention for her role as the drug-addicted mother of a gifted student in the hit film Lean on Me. This led to her TV stardom playing Lilly Harper in I'll Fly Away, winning for Taylor two Emmy nominations, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Drama, and an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series.

Like many acts of great intention, I'll Fly Away was not without controversy. African American film studies scholar Mary Helen Washington argued that the show focused too much on the white characters (the family headed by Sam Waterston) and too little on the character of Lilly, her family and friends. "Isn't it ironic," Washington asked, "that black people, who produced, directed, cast, and starred in the original Civil Rights Movement have become minor players in its dramatic reenactment? Isn't it tragic that after all the protests, all the freedom songs, and all the marches against white domination, black images in media are still largely controlled by whites?"

Similar arguments have been, are currently, and will continue to be leveled against Barksdale whenever we offer to work in partnership with African American Repertory Theatre and/or choose to produce black theatre ourselves. Any nonprofit theatre that follows its heart has to learn to listen to and respect such criticism, while still continuing to do its best to work proactively for the community's good.

During the period when critics like Washington were questioning the focus of I'll Fly Away, Taylor herself said this in an interview with Essence: "In terms of fully exploring a female character, I believe I have the best television role for a woman, black or white."

Caitlin Collins, a Northwestern University student who worked with Taylor during a recent residency, stated the following: "One of the ideas Regina passed onto us, which will stick with me, is the notion that others may try to label you as one thing or another, to name you, but you have the power to name yourself and to follow your own inspiration."

Billy Siegenfeld, professor of dance at Northwestern, added: "Regina Taylor lives a fiercely open-minded creative life, one that constantly questions the received wisdoms about how one should behave as well as the habits of generalization that drive people to categorize each other unjustly."

In recent years, Taylor has also become one of America's most popular playwrights. Crowns was the most performed musical in the nation in 2006. Her most recent work, Magnolia, is set during the beginning of desegregation in Atlanta in 1961. The world premiere was presented at Chicago's Goodman Theatre last year, after a development workshop in 2008 at this year's Tony Award-winning National Playwright's Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, where Phil Whiteway's nephew, Preston Whiteway, serves as Executive Director.

I hope you'll join me soon for our revival of Crowns. We're earning standing ovations at every performance, and the show is thrilling to watch, both as entertainment and inspiration.

--Bruce Miller

Photo Captions (starting at the top): The set and cast of Crowns, playwright and actress Regina Taylor, Shalimar Hickman Fields as Jeanette in Crowns, Margarette Joyner as Mother Shaw in Crowns, Preston Whiteway - Executive Director of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

Jonathan Sale Forges a Career in NYC

Posted by Bruce Miller
Back in the mid-90s when Theatre IV was still in the theatre-for-adult-audiences business, we produced what I thought was a wonderful production of a play called Stand Up Tragedy (pictured below). John Moon directed. Rusty Wilson, Ben Hersey, Rick Brandt, Richard Travis, Tye Heckman and others co-starred with several talented young teens who played New York gangbangers. One of the teens (maybe he was in his early 20s by then) was a young Richmonder named Jonathan Sale (pictured as he looks today above and to the right). Although he was a clean cut student at the University of Richmond, he had a great urban vibe that served him well in the show.

After graduating from U of R with a double major in theatre and Spanish, Jonathan toured for a year or so with Theatre IV, and then headed to San Francisco where he earned his MFA in acting from the prestigious professional theatre grad program at American Conservatory Theatre. He moved to NYC, married in 2003, and for the last several years has been building an impressive career Off Broadway and in television and film, finding work both as an actor and director.

Recently Jonathan made a fun national spot for Holiday Inn Express, using the rap skills he first honed as a street punk in our fondly remembered production of Stand Up Tragedy. You can catch his commerical star turn at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlCLuIwuVgQ. Jonathan's the white guy, and this credit sits proudly on his resume alongside several gigs on Law and Order, Ed, Guiding Light, As the World Turns, a growing list of independent films, some Off Broadway plays, and numerous other TV commercials.

Most recently, Jonathan directed and produced the short film Sovereignty (http://www.sovereigntymovie.com/), written by Rolin Jones, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer and producer of Showtime's Weeds. Sovereignty began its life as a short play in the Humana Festival at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, starring Jonathan’s wife, Heather Dilly (pictured to the right, and below and to the left). Sovereignty the film just won Best Short Film at the 2008 Artivist Film Festival, the 2008 Peace on Earth Film Festival, and the 2008 Non Violence International Film Festival. Heather Dilly, star of the film as well as the play, won Best Actress for her work in Sovereignty at the 2008 Long Island International Film Festival.

As Jonathan’s career becomes more impressive year by year, it was interesting to find on the www this interesting coverage of an acting project a few years back. Prior to devoting his time to becoming an award-winning filmmaker, Jonathan made his mark on the world of video games. He was the “motion-capture” actor for the main character of Tommy Vercetti, the antihero of the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The character's snarling voice is provided by well known film actor Ray Liotta, but the body and movement are all computer generated on top of the actual movement provided by Jonathan Sale.

When asked by a video game reporter to describe the experience, Jonathan said, “I wore a Spandex/Velcro body suit that included hats and shoe wraps with 33 balls covering the suit. Each of the white spheres was a little smaller than a ping-pong ball. About 20 feet off the ground there was a grid of 14 cameras that read only the light reflected back to them from the balls. The cameras compiled this info in the computer and made a moving model that they later put the skins over for the game. They also filmed all of the scenes with two digital video cameras and later cut that footage together for the voice actors to work with. Ray Liotta spent a week in the booth matching my performance. I always thought that was pretty cool.

We filmed the project six to eight hours a day, five days a week, with two weeks of rehearsal and one week shooting . After rehearsing for two weeks we all knew each other pretty well. We were in this terrific studio in Brooklyn in which every room is decorated as a different set. And I don't mean the rooms that we shot in; I mean every room. The room where the staff would meet looked like a spaceship boardroom. The hallway looked like the inside of an Egyptian tomb; the lunchroom looked like a tropical forest. It was really cool.

The studio where we shot was a huge concrete room with a big square taped off on the floor. That was the playing area. Outside of the taped area, some of the cameras couldn't see us and therefore the computer couldn't calculate us fully and we would disappear.

When we showed up and donned the spandex for the first time, we were all a bit shy, but it wasn't nearly as embarrassing as we thought it would be. We kind of looked like blue/black or red/black superheroes. Everyone was creative and great to work with.”

Asked for any advice he could offer to future motion capture actors, Jonathan wisely offered this: “The more I treated it like a regular acting job, the better. When I was really acting well, it showed through the motion capture. Also, stuff your Spandex mo-cap suit. That's the key.”

There you have it, my friends. And all this time we thought cod pieces were only for Shakespeare.

--Bruce Miller

The Galeski Foyer - Part II

Posted by Bruce Miller
Our foyer at Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn may not be as elegant as the foyer of the National Theatre of Prague (see Progress Continues on Galeski Foyer, posted below), but it’s becoming more impressive bit by bit. Our thanks go out for:
* the hard work, leadership, and financial contributions of Barksdale Board leader John Moon;
* the volunteer design support of Emmy-winning art director David Crank; and
* the major sustaining operational support of Carrie Galeski.

In no small part, these three are leading the charge forward as we continue to build an inviting and exciting entryway to our theatre at Willow Lawn.

That's our friend Carrie Galeski in the photo above and to the right. She's the one holding the award she earned for her work with the Executive Women's Golf Association.

In my last blog report on efforts to spruce up our Willow Lawn facilities (see The Clean Lobby, Sept. 23, 2008), I commented on the fresh crimson paint job, the new hanging lights outside the box office, the sparkling track lighting, the “etched logo” on the glass of our front door, and plans for several more improvements. Now that several of the “several more” have been completed, it’s time to take another look.

Foremost among the recent improvements is a flat screen TV (pictured above and to the left) that constantly runs a video loop of our Emmy Award-winning Barksdale commercial (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Pmj8iFxp0) preceded and followed by stills from currently running shows at Hanover Tavern (Sanders Family Christmas) and the historic Empire (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever). John Moon not only created the video montage, he also bought and contributed the flat screen TV and the professional grade digital player.

Now anyone waiting in line at the box office will have something interesting to watch.

Equally impressive, our tech director at Hanover Tavern, David Powers, has custom designed and built two bench/storage units to provide seating opposite the door of our elevator. Each bench is designed to store the various pieces of hardware employed by our new photo display system. There’s even a hand-crafted logo built into the benches, making them unique works of craftsmanship.

Our photo display area is still somewhat under construction, but it's coming along nicely. We’re continuing to try out various component parts during the runs of The Clean House and This Wonderful Life, determined to find out which components work best. Cast headshots now are hung individually from vertical rods in handsome new frames. We’re also in the process of replacing the large photo display units that ultimately will house the show shots of each production.

We’ll soon be adding headshots of all the volunteer members of our Board of Trustees, and activity shots portraying Barksdale’s various service initiatives that add so much to the cultural life of Central Virginia.

The vintage Barksdale sign is hanging proudly once again just inside and to the right of the front door. Soon there will be an informative plaque explaining the sign’s history. There’s a new rug inside the front door that bears the Barksdale logo in shades of gray. And there’s a new wooden rack card display unit mounted next to the box office window, better enabling us to promote upcoming productions in all our venues.

In an effort to improve accessibility, two bright overhead lights have been added directly over the box office windows, shining straight down, enabling customers to see clearly the paperwork that is presented to them at the box office. Two mini-blinds have been added to the interior of the box office windows, making it possible to secure our ticket center more effectively during non-business hours.

A museum-quality dedication display has been installed to the left just inside the entry door, recognizing the many contributions of Carrie Galeski and her late husband Ed. Carrie Galeski provided the generous gift that made it possible for us to construct the foyer in 1996. Her steadfast support continues to sustain our operations.

The dedication reads as follows:

“Barksdale Theatre’s Entry Foyer is Dedicated to Edward Whitlock Galeski and Carrie Taylor Galeski.

Ed Galeski was born in Richmond and graduated from M.I.T. with an aeronautical engineering degree. During World War II, he was an Army Air Force flight instructor and was instrumental in testing the B-28 Super-Fortresses which did so much in winning the war in the Pacific.

After the war he went into the photo processing business where he established Galeski Photo Center. Ed showed his intellectual and mechanical aptitude becoming one of the first companies good enough to receive the first color processing machines from Kodak. He continued to expand his business to such a high degree of efficiency that it was sought after and finally purchased by a national chain.

In 1971 he married Carrie Taylor. They enjoyed a deep and binding relationship as they worked together for mutual goals. 'Eddie and I moved to the Hanover Courthouse area in 1980, and there we forged a lasting friendship with Pete and Nancy Kilgore along with Muriel McAuley. This was the beginning of our relationship with Barksdale.'

Ed died in 1986, but Carrie continues to be one of Barksdale Theatre’s strongest supporters. We are eternally grateful.”

Indeed we are.

--Bruce Miller

Progress Continues on Galeski Foyer

Posted by Bruce Miller
Until a few minutes ago, this post was going to be about the great work that John Moon is doing to upgrade the entrance to our theatre. Most of you know John as an actor in The Clean House (see photo above and to the right) or as the director of our current, brilliant production of This Wonderful Life.

What some of you may not know is that John is also on our Board. In fact, he’s a former President of the Barksdale Board of Trustees. To our great benefit, John has assumed Board leadership of our commitment to improve and upgrade our Willow Lawn performance facilities.

Sometimes, when I'm writing for this blog, my meanderings don't go the way I think they will. In this instance, I wrote the title, and as I typed the word “foyer,” my mind began to race. I knew that “foyer” was the word selected by the Barksdale powers-that-be in 1996 to indicate the lower lobby I intended to write about. Nonetheless, before I could stop myself, I began Googling to make sure that "foyer" was the right word. Thankfully it was, and is.

But Google can be a harsh mistress. The deeper I followed her into lingua-land, the more questions I had, and the more discoveries I made about this slightly out-of-the-ordinary word, "foyer."

How would readers pronounce it?--I asked myself. How would I pronounce it if I weren’t thinking about it? Why is the correct pronunciation open to debate? Where did the word originate? What does it actually mean?

I know. I’m a freak. I’m sorry. But first things first.

This post is now going to be all about the word “foyer” and how it relates to theatre history. I’ll get to John’s wonderful upgrades soon. I promise.

“Foyer” is defined by Merriam-Webster as “an anteroom or lobby especially of a theater; also, an entrance hallway.” Adding more fuel to the fire—a little foreshadowing here—Answers.com posts this definition: “a lobby or anteroom, as of a theater or hotel; an entrance hall; a vestibule.”
Dictionary.com weighs in with a similar theme: “the lobby of a theater, hotel or apartment house; a vestibule or entrance hall.” That's a photo of the "foyer" of the National Theatre of Prague to the right.

"Foyer,” therefore, seems like the perfect word to indicate the lower lobby of Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn. After all, our upstairs lobby is our official “lobby,” and the lower lobby is the “anteroom” or “entrance hallway” through which one must pass if one is intent on reaching the “lobby" proper. From all accounts the word “foyer” seems to conjure up images of theatre. So, “foyer” it is.

But … actually, the phrase selected in 1996 to serve as the moniker for this illustrious space was “entry foyer.” The official name of this room is the “Galeski Entry Foyer” (more on “Galeski” soon, I promise, when I actually begin writing about John’s upgrades).

Now that I know what “foyer” really means, saying “entry foyer” seems akin to saying “entry entrance hallway,” which I think we all can agree is redundant. So, at least for me, this room will henceforward be the “Galeski Foyer”—the word “entry” being ... silent.

Now's when the fun really begins. How do we pronounce it? Here’s what I thought I knew.

There’s the American pronunciation: foi'ər ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?foyer001.wav=foyer ). Go ahead. Click it. It’s cool. It rhymes with “lawyer.” Well, almost.

And there’s the French pronunciation: foi'ā' ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?foyer002.wav=foyer ). It rhymes with Charles Boyer, except you’re probably not old enough to remember who Charles Boyer is.

So, based on what I thought I knew, I figured if you wanted to sound like “Joe Sixpack” you could use the American pronunciation, and if you wanted to sound like “the cultural elite” you could use the French pronunciation. To me, it was Red State Blue State simple.

Of course I was wrong.

If you really want to sound like an Ahtistic Directah, you would use the real French pronunciation: fwä'yā' (listen for the third pronunciation after clicking http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=foyer&submit=Submit ). But if you really went around saying that, not only would you sound snooty, you'd also run the risk of sounding stupid.

In French, the word “foyer” doesn’t mean what it means in English. In modern French, the word “foyer” means “home” or “hostel.” The most common use of the word “foyer” in modern French is in the phrase “femme au foyer,” which means “housewife.”

You see, “foyer” meaning the entrance hall that leads one to the lobby of a theatre is not a French word at all. It’s an English word. Who knew? The correct English pronunciation is foi'ā' ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?foyer002.wav=foyer ). Don’t take my word for it. Go to London and ask anybody.

Here's where the theatre history kicks in. In days of yore, early London theatregoers of means enjoyed a social meeting room that they could adjourn to when they wanted to warm up during intermission. The common feature of these rooms was a large, roaring fireplace. The theatres themselves were not adequately heated, being relatively cavernous spaces, so social rooms with hearths were provided for the upper crust. They were located off the lobby and you went there to get nice and toasty before you returned to your seat for Act II.

The English chose the word "foyer" as the name for these rooms because, at the time, referencing a little French every now and then was cool among the socially elite. And the Old French word "foier" meant "fireplace" or "hearth."

As more theatres were built, designers began to open up the "foyers" to everyone, not just the wealthy few. In more and more theatres, audiences began entering the "foyers" from the street. They'd enter, warm up, then proceed into the lobby, and finally into the theatre itself. Check out the fireplace to the right, located in the "foyer" of the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway.

Today, in modern French, the word for “fireplace” is “cheminée," the Old French word “foier” no longer exists, and the modern French word "foyer" means "home" and has nothing to do with theatres. So when we correctly pronounce "foyer" as foi'ā' ( http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?foyer002.wav=foyer ), we do so because that's how they say it in England, not because that's how they say it in France.

Of course, we're in the United States of America, and you can pronounce “foyer” anyway you want. All American dictionaries list the American pronunciation first and the English pronunciation second, indicating that both pronunciations are perfectly acceptable. I guess it's just another case of po-tay-to / po-tah-to.

But wait a minute. Isn't there a large fake fireplace in the upstairs lobby of Barksdale's Willow Lawn facility? Doesn't that mean that the real “foyer” at Barksdale is the upstairs lobby, and the downstairs lobby is more appropriately called a …

Fogetaboutit.

--Bruce Miller

It's a Wonderful Art Form

Posted by Bruce Miller
I confess. I’ve never enjoyed opera. I take no pride in admitting this. I consider it a grave shortcoming.

It’s not from lack of trying. I’ve seen great opera. In the early 1970s, I trekked northward with a group of fellow theatre students from U of R to see Norman Treigle’s legendary performance at New York City Opera in the title role of Boito's Mefistofele. The fires of hell left me cold.

I’ve attended Verdi’s La Traviata at the Met; Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann at the Baltimore Opera Company; and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, Tosca and La Bohème, Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Virginia Opera. Others in the audience were enraptured and on the edge of their seats. I was the brain-dead imbecile fighting to stifle a yawn.

All hope is not lost. I loved Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors on TV as a child. I was dazzled and captivated by the scenes from Mozart’s The Magic Flute included in the film of Amadeus. Stephen Sondheim is called “operatic” by many. I hang on every note he’s ever written.

I’ve come to believe the reason I don’t cotton to opera is because, to me, it goes against so much of what I love about theatre. Great theatre seems “real” to me. Great opera frequently seems “fake.” I hear others say this about musicals and I think they’re insane. I guess it’s all about where we come from. So don’t yell at me. I’m admitting to a dearth of intelligence, taste and sophistication. It’s not opera’s fault; it’s mine.

I write this confession, this mea culpa, as prelude to this: I know there will be some in the world who are so enamored of action/adventure and spectacle that Scotty Wichmann’s one-man performance in This Wonderful Life, which opened last night at Barksdale Willow Lawn, may seem "slow" or "small" or "tame." I suspect these same people won’t watch the original Frank Capra film unless it is colorized and even then keep waiting for the car chase and the explosions.

I suppose they're entitled to their opinions, but I really don't share them.

I’m a terrible cry baby and I’m ashamed to be. No matter how hard I try to keep my cheeks dry, it gets worse the further into my dotage I advance. I’m easily and instantly overcome by sentiment. My one consolation is that my father, a.k.a. “the greatest guy who ever lived,” was the same way. He couldn’t make it through a blessing at the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table without becoming so feklempt he was unable to speak.

Last night I’m not sure which made me cry more—the heartfelt sentiment of one of my favorite Christmas stories, or the one hour and 50 minute glimpse I had into the utter majesty of this art form to which I have devoted my life. I don’t want to overstate things so as to build up unreasonable expectations, but in this case I don’t see how overstatement is possible. Scott’s performance is brilliant. He should be on Broadway. He should win a Tony. Richmond is unbelievably fortunate to have him in our midst.

And to be just, it’s not solely about Scott. John Moon’s direction is invisible and outstanding. Every detail--and it’s all about the details--is just right. The pacing is perfect and the ebb and flow of emotion couldn’t be better. Lynne Hartman’s light design is world-class and adds immeasurably to the art. There must be 150 light cues illuminating Adam Karavatakis’s tasteful, evocative and effective set and Sue Griffin’s spot-on costume(s).

Which brings me to Rick Brandt, our stage manager. Do you know how hard it is to call a show that has a different sound or light cue every few seconds? And the irreplaceable Linwood Guyton, our sound and light op. Do you have any idea how crazy you can get trying to focus on and perfectly execute that many rapid fire cues?

Last night went off without a hitch and EVERYONE involved should be intensely proud. This is masterful storytelling at its very finest. I feel so gratified and grateful. Christmas is here; theatre is wonderful and life-changing; all’s right with the world.

I know. My passions are out of control and over the top. Talk about operatic. I’ll stop writing now.

Hope to see you at the theatre! I’ll be the one with the handkerchief poised and ready.

--Bruce Miller

Coffee & Conversations for Evening Viewing

Posted by Bruce Miller
Rostov’s Coffee & Conversations is a weekday talkback event in which theatre enthusiasts meet in Barksdale’s Willow Lawn lobby on the second Tuesday of each month (October through July) to participate in a panel discussion with some of our community’s leading theatre artists. Working folks who can’t make it to these 9:30 a.m. programs frequently ask if we can repeat them in the evening. We're attempting to do so. Until then, we will broadcast the discussions on YouTube and provide links to these snippets on this blog.

The following links will connect you to the Coffee & Conversations event that was a part of our recent Sarah Ruhl Festival. Steve Perigard, associate artistic director of Barksdale and director of The Clean House, moderates. The panel is comprised of Rusty Wilson (director of Eurydice at the Firehouse Theatre Project), Laine Satterfield (Eurydice in Eurydice at the Firehouse), Kelly Kennedy (Lane in The Clean House at Barksdale), and Bianca Bryan (Matilde in The Clean House at Barksdale).

The ancestry of Bianca Bryan is discussed in one of these video snippets. The full story isn’t included on the tape. Bianca is of Chilean ancestry on her mother’s side. She was born in South Africa and spent her earliest years in the Azure Islands, where Portuguese is the native language. As she mentions in the video, most of her childhood was spent in Argentina, where she became fluent in Spanish.

We hope you enjoy watching these selections from our October Coffee & Conversations event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7YS3TjP4LU – in which Steve asks the panelists if this is their first Sarah Ruhl experience, and invites discussion regarding Ms Ruhl’s qualities as a playwright

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrWPqR49V8M – in which Steve prompts a discussion of the difference between reading Ms Ruhl's plays and playing and/or seeing them, and Bianca launches a sidebar discussion of Ms Ruhl’s stage directions

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDjVfUXSZ0U – in which Steve mentions reading that Sarah Ruhl hopes to create ordinary characters who say exceptional things and exceptional characters who say ordinary things, leading into a discussion of the joke in Portuguese that opens The Clean House

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L7N-7ZRsFM – in which the panelists respond to audience questions about language, design and bashert

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMcMkEUsCYo – in which the panelists engage in further discussion of language, building relationships between characters, and managing real life relationships among theatre artists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E21JMXHA8j0 – in which Kelly discusses developing her character (Lane in The Clean House), and the group discusses Ms Ruhl’s use of silence, imagery and punctuation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM03ebxGawI – in which a question from the audience prompts a discussion of the technical aspects of Eurydice and The Clean House

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76Q4gBEVmHk – in which Rusty discusses an email communication between Joe Inscoe (the actor who played Eurydice’s Father) and Ms Ruhl

December’s Coffee & Conversation program will feature Eric Williams (Uncle Stanley in Sanders Family Christmas) interviewing Scotty Wichmann (actor) and John Moon (director) about This Wonderful Life.

Hope to see you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller (with IT help from Brad Tuggle)

A Reading of Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl

Posted by Billy Christopher Maupin

"You know what's funny? I never had a cell phone. I didn't want to always be there, you know."

What would you do in response to an incessantly ringing cell phone as you were trying to enjoy your lobster bisque in a near-empty cafe? Jean, who lies at the center of Sarah Ruhl's most recently published (and my personal favorite) play, Dead Man's Cell Phone, answers it. As it turns out, the owner of the phone, Gordon, is dead. But Jean continues to answer Gordon's phone and finds herself meeting his family, falling in love with his brother -which results in a room full of floating stationery in "classic" Sarah Ruhl style-, meeting his mistress...AND his wife, and becoming involved in organ trafficking.


Charles Isherwood writes in the New York Times:

"A beguiling comedy ... a hallucinatory poetic fantasy that blends the mundane and the metaphysical, the blunt and the obscure, the patently bizarre and the bizarrely moving. As Dead Man's Cell Phone takes surprising twists and leaps, the lament for the supposed coziness of pre-digital culture takes on layers of nuance and contradiction. Characters in Ruhl's plays negotiate the no man's land between the every­day and the mystical, talking like goofs one minute and philosophers the next. And her characters' quirkiness is in keeping, too, with the play's doleful central theme, that each human being is a book full of surprises even to intimates, and that one is destined to be left unfinished. Ruhl's affec­tion for the unexpected phrase, the kooky observation, the unlikely juxtaposition, is essential to her central belief that the smallest and most trivial things in life can be charged with meaning. She writes surrealist fantasies that happen to be populated by eccentrically real people, comedies in which the surface illogic of dreams is made meaningful­ -made truthful- by the deeper logic of human feeling."

On Monday, October 6, on the Barksdale Theatre Lobby Stage at 8PM, Barksdale and The Firehouse Theatre Project will co-produce a reading of Ms. Ruhl's Dead Man's Cell Phone featuring cast members from our production of The Clean House (see Rave Reviews below) and Firehouse's production of Eurydice. This continues as part of the Sarah Ruhl Festival. (Don't forget that audience members who see both Eurydice and The Clean House receive a discount on tickets!)

The reading will feature Laine Satterfield - currently appearing as the title character in Eurydice - as Jean (played in the New York production by Mary Louise Parker, Tony Award winner for her performance in Proof by David Auburn, also the star of the hit Showtime series, Weeds), Andy Boothby - Big Stone in Eurydice - as Gordon, the "Dead Man" of the title, Robin Arthur - Ana and A Woman in The Clean House - as Mrs. Gottlieb, Lauren Leinhaas-Cook - Loud Stone in Eurydice - as Gordon's widow, Hermia, John Moon - Charles and A Man in The Clean House- narrating, Bianca Bryan - Matilde in The Clean House - as The Other Woman, and Chris Hester - Orpheus in Eurydice - as Dwight. The reading will be staged by Jase Smith from The Firehouse Theatre Project.

Both Bruce Miller and Carol Piersol (Artistic Director of The Firehouse Theatre Project) will speak prior to the reading. A cash bar will be available in the lobby beginning at 7PM and will also be available at intermission. There is no admission charge and seating is general admission.

Don't miss out on this exciting collaboration!

Our First Review for "The Clean House"

Posted by Bruce Miller

We welcome Julinda Lewis to the growing fold of Richmond theatre critics. She wrote a complimentary review for The Clean House in this morning’s T-D (more about that in a moment). Ms Lewis has been reviewing dance in Richmond for four or five years now, and she’s critiqued other theatrical shows and companies over the last 18 months, including one show at Theatre IV. This is her first review of a Barksdale production, and we’re pleased to be working with her.

Ms Lewis is director of the Ayinde2 Children and Ayinde2 Youth Dance Ministries at St Paul’s Baptist Church in Richmond. Prior to moving to Richmond, she was the founding director of the Spiritual Walking Liturgical Dancers at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Brooklyn, NY, where she grew up and studied dance with George Faison, Fred Benjamin, Eleo Pomare, Maurice Hines and Pepsi Bethel. She also studied with the Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Ms Lewis holds BS and MA degrees in Dance and Dance Education from NYU’s School of Education, Health, Nursing and Arts Professions. She has been a dance writer and critic for more than 25 years. She is the author of a young adult biography, Alvin Ailey: A Life in Dance, and editor of Black Choreographers Moving Towards the 21st Century, which has been used as a textbook in dance programs throughout the nation.

Ms Lewis is enrolled in the PhD in Education program at VCU. Her dissertation examines the needs and perspectives of gifted performing arts students. She is currently a teacher with the SPACE Program (Special Program for Academic and Creative Excellence) with Richmond Public Schools, and a frequent contributor to Dance and Pointe magazines. Just like her esteemed T-D colleague, Susan Haubenstock, Ms Lewis works as a “Special Correspondent” for the Times-Dispatch.

Here are the quotes we'll be pulling and publishing from her glowing review of The Clean House:

“Perfect!
Free-Spirited, Romantic Comedy
Vivacious, Mystical, Defies Convention
The best tantrum ever seen on a stage!
An Analogy for Love ~ Poignant ~ Beautifully Designed
Everyone is Laughing!”

--Julinda Lewis, Richmond Times-Dispatch

We’re so proud of this beautiful production of a great play by Sarah Ruhl, and honored to be partnering with the Firehouse on the Sara Ruhl Festival. If you haven’t made your reservations yet to see The Clean House at Barksdale and Euridice at the Firehouse, I hope you’ll call the box office today at 282-2620.

See you at the theatre!

(The Jay Paul photos seen above picture the following outstanding cast members: [top left] Bianca Bryan and Robin Arthur, [top right] Kelly Kennedy, [mid left] Bianca Bryan and Robin Arthur, [mid right] John Moon and Robin Arthur, [lower left] Jan Guarino, [lower center] Jan Guarino and Bianca Bryan.)

--Bruce Miller

The Clean Lobby

Posted by Bruce Miller
When you come to see The Clean House, opening this Friday, you’ll notice that our theatrical house is, in fact, noticeably cleaner. After a few weeks’ investment of sweat equity, our hardworking Board is about to complete a redesign of our downstairs lobby.

This is Phase III in the gradual renovation of our Willow Lawn theatre facilities. Phase I was the installation of our new sidewalk awning at the top of the 07-08 Season. Phase II was the addition of our new exterior signage last spring.

As you’ve no doubt discerned, we’re transforming our duckling into a swan step by step, as time and contributed funds allow. We began with those components that you first encounter when walking toward the theatre from the parking lot. Now we’re making our way indoors.

Phase IV will be the cosmetic renovation of our elevator, and then we’ll move onward and upward to our box office and, thereafter, the atrium that surrounds our stairway as it ascends to the theatre proper.

The work on the downstairs lobby is not yet finished, but we’re promising completion of at least the painting before the end of the week.

All thanks go to the two guiding lights of this noble effort:

John Moon (actor, director and past Board President), who has organized and implemented the work. When not laboring in theatre, John is engaged professionally as a designer of exhibits and installations at museums and other cultural institutions nationwide.

David Crank (set and costume designer and former Board member at TheatreVirginia), who has shared with us his design expertise. David just won an Emmy Award for his Art Direction of the John Adams miniseries. Before John Adams, David worked as Art Director of last year’s multiple Oscar-winning film, There Will Be Blood.

Both men have generously donated their time and talents to this project, and we thank them for their gracious contribution to the cause.

You may remember that the downstairs lobby was originally painted a peach / cream color. Various viewers have described the particular tint and its twelve-year patina as “Silly Putty” (Phil), “Band-Aid” (me), and “Nipple” (Page Bond).

Since last the roller met the wall in 1996, the interior surface has become markedly scratched, dinged and smudged, so it was time (past time really) for Extreme Make-Over: Barksdale Edition.

The new color is a deep, dramatic crimson, serving as an elegant background for new photo displays enhanced by new track lighting. A good deal of clutter has been removed from the lobby. We’re creating new, more coordinated and informative interior signage, and constructing a new, comfortable seating area opposite the elevator.

The work was performed on a volunteer basis by Barksdale Board members (ably assisted by Emily Cole from our development staff). David Powers, our Tech Director at Hanover Tavern, is constructing the new seating. Many thanks to all those who made this renovation possible.

As you experience our spruced up digs, please let us know what you think. The theatre’s public spaces are always a work in progress, just as are our continually changing stage sets. We welcome your input, and look forward to seeing you at the theatre!

(Notes on photos: top right - today's view of the wall where our photo boards will go, the church bench will soon be replaced with other seating; top left - the new "etched" logo on our glass front doors, reflecting this morning's sunny parking lot; mid right - Pardon Our Dust; lower left - new lighting outside the box office window; lower right - our staging area in the atrium, the vintage Barksdale sign will soon be re-hung by the front door with a plaque explaining its history.)

--Bruce Miller

Reacquainting Myself w/ Frankie's Meatloaf

Posted by Bruce Miller
About 15 years ago I was privileged to direct Terrence McNally’s lovely two-hander Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune in the Little Theatre at Theatre IV. It starred Irene Ziegler and John Moon, and boy were they great.

People remember it as a Theatre Gym production, but it wasn’t. It was back in the days when Theatre IV staged full fledged adult seasons of its own in the Little Theatre. Frankie and Johnny was a part of these seasons, as were our productions remembered with equal fondness: Crimes of the Heart, A Shayna Maidel, our first Shirley Valentine, Gary Hopper's Hamlet, and Stand Up Tragedy.

One of the many fun aspects of Frankie and Johnny is the cooking that happens onstage. Just as in Shirley Valentine, every night the actress playing Frankie makes a Western omelet, and the actor playing Johnny makes a meatloaf sandwich. One of my jobs was to make the meatloaf that emerged each night from the fridge and was sliced for the sandwich and devoured on-stage.

I relied on the old tried and true meatloaf recipe that my dad gave me when I went off to college. It’s quick and easy to make, it’s relatively cheap, it freezes well so you can make a large batch and save some for later, and it tastes wonderful.

Roy Proctor apparently had a Pavlovian response while watching John Moon slice the meatloaf, slather it with ketchup, slap it between two slabs of bread, and then slowly slide it down his gullet. With saliva flowing, Roy asked me for the recipe. He later ran it in the T-D using the name my father gave the entree when he first presented me with the recipe card. My father had passed several years earlier, so I let the slightly embarrassing name stand in his memory.

Miller’s Mighty Meatloaf

2.25 lbs ground beef—as lean as you can get
4 slices whole-grain bread
1 large sweet onion, minced
1 green pepper, minced
2 medium carrots, minced
2 stalks celery, minced
1 egg
½ cup 2% milk
1 can condensed tomato soup
2 tsp salt
½ tsp oregano or Italian Seasoning
¼ tsp pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced

Cube the bread slices (the older the bread the better) and dry them for about 10 minutes in a warm oven (100°). Mince the onion, pepper, carrots and celery. Remove the bread and preheat the oven to 350°. Crush the dried bread cubes into crumbs. Mince the cloves of garlic. In a medium-large mixing bowl, combine all ingredients and kneed them until they are thoroughly mixed. Lightly coat the interiors of two 5” x 9” glass loaf pans with vegetable oil spray. Press the mixed ingredients into the two pans. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Insert a knife between the sides of each loaf and the pan. Allow to cool for 5 minutes. Remove each loaf using two pancake turners, and place the loaves on paper towels to drain. Each loaf serves 4 hearty appetites, and can be cut in half and frozen if desired.

Now that times are lean again and Barksdale is facing some significant recession-driven cutbacks (including my salary), I pulled out the old recipe card today and whipped up a pair of meatloaves for the two omnivores in my family. At least it made me feel like I was being proactive. We're eating half a loaf tonight and freezing the other three halves for later. At a cost of about $1.25 per hearty serving, it’s still a great deal.

And now when I cook it and eat it, I remember not only my dad but also that delicious production of Frankie and Johnny. Meatloaf by the light of the moon. What could be better?

--Bruce Miller

More Coffee Please...

Posted by Jessica Daugherty

ROSTOV's Coffee & Conversations

This Tuesday, April 8 at 9:30 AM

Rostov's Coffee & Conversations
at Willow Lawn
On The Board's: The Role of Richmond's Theatre Trustees

Moderator: Peggy Baggett, Executive Director of the Virginia Commission for the Arts

Admission:
Barksdale at The Shops at Willow Lawn
Time: 9:30 -10:30 AM
Cost: Suggested $3 Donation includes Rostov's Coffee, Hot Tea and Pastries
No reservations required. Questions? Call our Box Office at 804-282-2620.

For the full schedule of Coffee & Conversations Events, click here. Three more Coffee & Conversations dates have been added to the schedule! Thanks to Rostov's for making this program possible.

Meet the Stars Cancellation

In response to cuts in state funding, Barksdale Theatre has cancelled the two remaining Meet the Stars events originally announced for the 2007-08 Season. Cancelled are the Little Dog Laughed discussion program on Monday, April 14, and the Guys and Dolls discussion program on Monday, June 16.

Those who would like to participate in discussions with the casts of these two productions may attend Rostov's Coffee & Conversation events scheduled for Tuesday, May 13, 9:30 a.m. (Behind the Scenes of The Little Dog Laughed) and Tuesday, July 8, 9:30 a.m. (Behind the Scenes of Guys and Dolls). All Rostov's Coffee & Conversation events are held in the lobby of Barksdale Theatre at Willow Lawn.

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream for

Posted by Bruce Miller

It was a dark and stormy night, on stage and in the “real world,” as we kicked off the fall season at Barksdale Hanover Tavern with tonight’s opening of Deathtrap by Ira Levin. After directing last fall’s successful production of Agatha Christie’s whodunnit, The Mousetrap, John Moon returned to direct this fall’s thriller, Deathtrap. He's done a terrific job. We’ve yet to decide which trap will be used to ensnare John’s services for next season.

Screams and laughs accompanied all the flashes of lightning and claps of thunder as John’s talented cast kept things edgy until the final curtain. Michael Goodwin made a terrific Barksdale debut in the leading role of has-been playwright Sydney Bruhl. One of our nation’s finest actors, Mike has built a stellar career at Seattle Rep, the Guthrie in Minneapolis, Arena Stage in D. C., the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, the Long Wharf in New Haven, and the New York Shakespeare Festival under Joseph Papp. Broadway credits include A Patriot for Me, Cyrano, Ambassador, and a revival of Charley’s Aunt. TV credits include recurring roles on Dynasty, Falcon Crest, St. Elsewhere, McGyver and Matlock, among many others.

Christopher Evans returned from New York to rejoin his Barksdale family in the role of novice playwright Clifford Anderson. Chris appeared with us before in The Full Monty, Melissa Arctic, Fifth of July, and Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde. He even filled in for a week in the lead role of Paul Bratter in last year’s Barefoot in the Park.

Robin Arthur, Jacqueline Jones and ‘Rick Gray round out the cast of potential murderers and/or murderees. Robin is well remembered at Willow Lawn for her role as Vera Charles in Mame, and she counts among her Hanover Tavern credits everything from Nunsense to Amanda Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie. Jackie starred in Das Barbecu, the last show before the start of Barksdale’s ten-year hiatus from the Tavern in 1996, and Over the River and Through the Woods, one of the shows in the first season back at the Tavern in 2006. ‘Rick makes a point to come play with us every six years or so, having last appeared at Barksdale in my 2001 production of The Little Foxes at Willow Lawn.

Sharing in the Opening Night festivities were Barksdale Board members Rick Arenstein and Kevin Kilgore, and longtime supporters Roy Burgess and Ed Ramsey. Steve Moore and Derek Phipps, two of the poker playing pals from The Odd Couple, came back to experience life on the other side of the footlights. Chase Kniffen and his mom, Bev Kniffen, were overheard making book during intermission as to who on stage was and who wasn’t who or what they seemed to be. Brad Tuggle, our able stage manager, and Alex Whiteway, his weapon wielding assistant, hovered over the food tables at the post-show party, glad that their responsibilities had gone off without a hitch. Terrie Powers (my wife) beamed with pride as crowds of fans congratulated her on another fantastic set.
(From left to right: Michael Goodwin, 'Rick Gray, Brad Tuggle, Chris Evans, Jackie Jones, John Moon and Robin Arthur)

If you weren’t there for Opening, you have six weeks to get caught in the Deathtrap before it becomes just another scream in the night. After breaking all records as the longest-running thriller in Broadway history (5 years), Deathtrap promises to be a hot Barksdale ticket during this most haunting time of year.

It was a great Opening. Hope you’ll call 282-2620 for your tickets today!

--Bruce Miller