Of Marquees and Misperceptions

Posted by Bruce Miller
I love coming home at the top of every month to find my hot-off-the-press edition of Richmond Marquee waiting for me in my mailbox. It reminds me what a great theatre town Richmond is. Is there a comparable monthly newsletter about what's going on among Richmond's diverse dance companies? How about Central Virginia's symphony and orchestra scene, or our opera troupes? I don't think so.

Richmond is a THEATRE town, with a remarkable wealth of talent and audience interest for a city our size. Thank God for that. We should all be glad that Lisa Kotula (actress, theatre administrator, and Publisher / Managing Editor of the Richmond Marquee) continues to commit her energies and resources to the creation of a monthly newsletter that celebrates and promotes the great things happening on ALL of Greater Richmond's many stages.

The September edition includes coverage of 18 different local theatres: AART, Barksdale, Cadence, CAT, Firehouse, HATTheatre, Henley, Henrico, Huguenot Community Players, I Am She Productions, K Dance, Mystery Dinner Playhouse, Richmond Shakespeare, Richmond Triangle, Saint John's Players, Swift Creek Mill, Sycamore Rouge, and Theatre IV. And there was Road Trip info from other Virginia theatres as far afield as Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Riverside Dinner Theatre in Fredericksburg, and Signature Theatre in Alexandria.

The newsletter costs only $2 per month, and you can purchase subscriptions in three, six or twelve month packages. Lisa needs all our support. You can contact her and/or subscribe online at www.richmondmarquee.com. I hope you'll consider doing so.

One of the things I learned in this month's issue of the Richmond Marquee is that Tom Width at Swift Creek Mill Theatre makes life easier for veteran actors than I do at Barksdale. In the article announcing auditions for It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, playing throughout the holidays at the Mill beginning Nov 17, the following paragraph appears.

"Any questions may be directed to Tom Width at Twidth@aol.com. If your work is well-known to Mr. Width, please email for alternate audition information (callback-only auditions are possible.)"

We at Barksdale, Cadence and Theatre IV are not being as generous with our longstanding friends. Instead of having individual auditions for each of the 16 mainstage productions we produce each season, we are beginning this fall to have open calls three times a year: September (Oct 1 in 2011), January and May. We ask every Richmond-based actor, age 18 and up, who is interested in working with us to attend at least one of these auditions each year.

We have already heard, of course, from actors who have conflicting plans on Oct 1, and we will make every effort to include them in callbacks when we believe their talents are well suited to the needs of a show. However, we are also asking these same actors to plan now to attend the open calls in either January or May (exact dates to be determined and announced soon).

It's not that we fail to see that our veteran performers have earned special treatment. In fact, we believe they have. However, we are also aware that there is a misperception out there that Barksdale is a closed shop, privately casting only the same favorite actors over and over again. We know this misperception is not true. In any given year, more than 1/3 of the actors we cast are new to us. But we fear that the perception may keep talented actors whom we do not know, or don't yet know well enough, from attending an open call. Therefore we have a commitment to make every effort to treat all actors exactly the same. If our veteran actors can work with us to address this commitment, we will greatly appreciate it.

As Greater Richmond's resident professional theatre, we hope that all of the talented actors in our metro area will audition for us at least once a year. As we all know, casting happens in callbacks, not open calls. But having open calls, and creating a culture that demonstrates equal respect for all actors--those with whom we are familiar and those with whom we are not--is, we believe, the best way to identify the very best actor for every role.

Ultimately, that is our job. We greatly appreciate everyone's understanding and cooperation.

--Bruce Miller

Harnessing Honaker

Posted by Bruce Miller
First of all there’s the pronunciation. You put the emphasis on the first syllable—just like you would expect. But the first syllable rhymes with “bone,” not “don.”

Then there’s the matter of the second and third syllables. You say them just as if you were talking about an “acre” of land, with the “a” getting more emphasis than the “ker.”

So it’s Hone’-ake’-er, with each syllable getting slightly less emphasis than the one that preceded it. Like homemaker. Not Hahn’-ah-ker.

I’m talking of course about Audra Honaker, who is now starring in Barksdale’s I Ought To Be In Pictures at Hanover Tavern (see pictures above and to the right and below and to the left).

About her performance, critic Celia Wren wrote in the Richmond Times-Dispatch: “If America could harness the vim that actress Audra Honaker brings to her latest gig, the country’s energy problems would be solved.” That’s the first sentence of the review.

In STYLE Weekly, Mary Burruss issued similar compliments: “Hackman and Honaker hit dramatic heights. Honaker delivers a strong performance.”

If Richmond has stars--and I think we do--she's one.

So who is this theatrical powerhouse whose talent and energy are capable of lighting up a stage and a nation?

1. She’s the youngest of that elite group known as “the most talented professional actors in Greater Richmond.” No group’s really known as that, but you know what I mean. I’m not talking the top 50; I’m talking the top ten. I don’t use these words lightly. (That's Audra in Seussical to the right, and in Brooklyn Boy below and to the left.)

2. She’s one of the two or five actors in town so enjoyed and remembered by the theatre-going public that her name above a title can actually sell a significant number of tickets.

3. Like most of the greats, she’s a quadruple threat: she can act, sing and dance, and she’s very good looking.

4. She has a healthy self confidence. But her most endearing quality is that she honestly seems to have very little sense of her elevated place in the pecking order. I don’t think she knows there is a pecking order. And if she ever finds out there is one, I don't think she'll give a peck. She accepts roles in the ensemble just as happily as she accepts leads. In her spare time you can find her spray painting props, power washing sidewalks, laundering costumes, and tending to abandoned kittens. Whatever around the theatre needs doing, Audra is happy to do it. All these things I’m saying, she’d never say herself … or even think.

5. Like all the greats, she works all over town. Barksdale, Stage 1, Swift Creek Mill and Theatre IV (in alpha order) are all regular employers. (That's Audra with Drew Seigla, as Little Red and Jack, outside Willow Lawn on the sidewalk for Into the Woods.

6. She is equally adept at comedies, dramas and musicals. She has the instincts of a seasoned performer. She always takes direction eagerly. I’ve never once seen her roll her eyes as if she knew better.

7. She takes quickly to accents and with little or no effort can sound as eloquent and British as anyone could want. But in real life, she speaks with an unselfconscious Hopewell drawl that is easy to imitate as the Audra-voice. She probably (and proudly) has the most frequently impersonated accent in town.

8. She’s SMART. I should have put this as the first comment, because it may be the most important. (That's Audra to the left with Jan Guarino in the world premiere of Mona's Arrangments.) Audra's blog, and I won’t give you the address because it’s completely unselfconscious and I don’t want to freak her out, is laugh-out-loud-funny and warmly enjoyable. Other than boy genius Matt Hackman, Audra’s usually the first one off book. She sight reads vocal music like a pro, and is almost always the first one off score.

9. She’s nice, thoughtful and is friends with just about everybody. Seriously, does anyone know someone who knows Audra and doesn’t like her a lot?

So now for the shameless self-promotion part, except it’s not really self-promotion, it’s Barksdale promotion. Come see Audra in I Ought To Be In Pictures, playing now through June 21, and Audra may be missing a couple shows the last week, so come soon. Audra plays the wonderful role that won a Tony for Dinah Manoff (Best Supporting Actress, 1981) and should win Audra her second Richmond Theatre Critics Circle Award next fall. (Audra won Best Actress last fall for her star turn in Once Upon a Mattress at the Mill.)

I Ought To Be In Pictures is a funny and sweet play. Audra, Matt and Lisa are wonderful in it. Hope to see you at the theatre.

--Bruce Miller

"I Ought To Be In Pictures" Opens

Posted by Bruce Miller
Neil Simon's I Ought To Be In Pictures opened on Friday, just in time to make up for the fact that Annie and Well were closing on Sunday. Thoroughly Modern Millie begins rehearsal this evening. Ah, the circle of life!

It's been fun working the past four weeks on Pictures. Fun because I was able to spend evening after evening with Audra Honaker, Matt Hackman and Lisa Kotula--three funny, smart and kind-hearted friends. I've said it for years. The greatest blessing of my job is that I get to work with wonderful people.

It's been fun to work with a play written in 1980 and update cultural references (the names of popular movie and television stars, cars, baseball heroes etc.) so that the play continues to be set, as the author has written, "in the present." The one popular movie star who needed no updating after 29 years? Jack Nicholson.

It's fascinating to see how a comedy plays when its 29-year-old bones are all dressed up in 2009 duds. (I'm using "duds" in the context of "clothing," not in the context of "a bomb that fails to explode." Yikes!) Is there some friction when dialogue written three decades in the past rubs up against cultural references from the present? You bet there is. Fun!

In theatre, it can't be only about recreating--or creating in the case of Bo and Steve's wonderful Mona's Arrangements--the comedies and dramas of today (Well, The Clean House). It can't be only about honoring the great plays of the past (Children of a Lesser God, Driving Miss Daisy). Sometimes it's fun to mix the past and present together and see what happens.

I was honored that Celia Wren, a great national theatre writer who happens to live in Richmond, reviewed Pictures for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Here are the quotes we're pulling from her terrific review:

“Funny, Poignant Play!

If America could harness Audra Honaker, the country’s energy problems would be solved!

Super-Competent, Shrewdly Choreographed

Hackman exudes the right kind of world-weary cantankerousness

Smart! Agreeable! Droll!

Kotula displays apt wistfulness

Exactly the Right Place

God is in the Details!”

--Celia Wren, Richmond Times-Dispatch

I hope you'll find the time to come out to Hanover Tavern to check in on this lesser known Neil Simon comedy. It's fun and sweet and I'm proud of it.

See you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller