Thanks to My Fair Cast

Posted by Bruce Miller
There's an old saw that goes "Nine tenths of directing is casting"--the point being that if a director is fortunate enough to be able to cast the right actors in the right roles, everything else sort of takes care of itself. Of course, this is overly simplistic crazy talk. Yeah. But it's also kinda true.

In my own experience, I'm reminded of Do Lord Remember Me, Crimes of the Heart, The Normal Heart, The Little Foxes, Boleros for the Disenchanted, and the Smoke on the Mountain trilogy. Somehow I wound up with perfect, surprising, wonderful casts in each of those shows, and my job in rehearsals became refreshingly joyful and easy.

The same is true with My Fair Lady. Will any theatre anywhere have a more perfect cast for this irreplacable classic? I don't think so. Of course, these are the words of a lovesick director so they cannot be trusted. Most of you already know to take this and everything I ever write with a grain of salt. If you didn't know that before, you now have been so advised.

Having admitted that, here's some gospel truth you can take to the bank. Any stage director who has the privilege to work with Stacey Cabaj, Joe Inscoe, Jason Marks, Suzanne Pollard, Matthew Costello, Lauren Leinhaas Cook and Ben Houghton should count him/herself blessed. And having a supporting cast that includes Brian Baez, Andy Boothby, Dawn Hall, Robin Harris, Michael Hawke, Maggie Horan, Christie Jackson, Paul Major, Mark Persinger, Russell Rowland, Ali Thibodeau, Alana Thomas, Durron Tyre and Ingrid Young ... well, that's just an embarrassment of riches.

Not only are these people talented, experienced and smart, they're fun to be around, they expect serious and focused work from each other, and they give every moment of rehearsal and performance everything they've got.

The show is going great guns, and prompting among the most enthusiastic audience feedback (phone calls, emails etc.) that I've ever encountered. These are the first people I need to thank. And I do so, now, with a full and happy heart.

--Bruce Miller

Matthew Costello

To Members and Supporters of the Richmond Theatre Community:

Many of you have learned recently about the critical health issues that our colleague Matthew Costello is facing. If you have not, you can learn more directly from the horse’s mouth, by visiting Matthew’s blog: http://matthewcostello.com/blog/

Matthew is a dear friend. Like many of you, my heart goes out to him in this time of need. If you would like to help Matthew address his financial challenges, I suggest you consider making a contribution to the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund at the Community Foundation – Serving Richmond and Central Virginia. If you choose to do so, here’s what you need to know.

Among the many rules that the Community Foundation lives by is this one: “Charity ends where certainty of the beneficiary begins.” What that means is that there is no way anyone can give money today or tomorrow to the Theatre Artist Fund at the Community Foundation with any guarantee, stated or implied, that those donated funds will go to Matthew Costello or anyone else. IRS rules are very clear on this.

Having said that, let me add that the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund and the Community Foundation are advised by a Committee of four active leaders in the Richmond theatre community. This Committee reviews requests and makes recommendations to the Community Foundation regarding how funds available through the Theatre Artists Fund should be spent.

The Committee will advise on the distribution of two types of funds. The first type comes from interest that already has been earned by the principal of the Theatre Artists Fund, and is available for immediate use. The second type includes donations that recently have been or soon will be made to the Theatre Artists Fund at the Community Foundation, IF these donations include the phrase “SPENDABLE PORTION” in the instructions (if contributions are made online) or on the memo line of the check (if contributions are made via the mail).

I know the workings of this Committee well; I trust them completely. I know they will make wise and appropriate decisions.

I am very eager to support Matthew in this time of need. I am making my contribution online to the Community Foundation (http://www.tcfrichmond.org/). I am making the contribution in honor of Matthew Costello (they provide the opportunity to do that). In the Instructions section (towards the bottom of their page), I am writing:

“For the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund. Spendable portion.”

If I were mailing in a check, I would make the check payable to the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund, and on the memo line I would write “Spendable portion. In honor of Matthew Costello.” The mailing address of the Community Foundation is:

The Community Foundation
7501 Boulders View Drive
Suite 110
Richmond, VA 23225-4047

I recommend this course of action to you and to all my colleagues and friends.

By making this gift to the fund and trusting the Committee, I will be able to support the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund AND count this gift as a tax deductible contribution.

If you would like to communicate with me further regarding these matters, please feel free to contact me on Facebook.

With great appreciation,

Bruce Miller

Matthew Costello Remembers Hutch

Posted by Matthew Costello (pictured below)
Thanks, Bruce, for inviting me to take part in this tribute to Hutch. You have spoken eloquently about this extraordinary man and he deserves the honor you give him. He was my mentor and a great friend.

Mallory Freeman once told me of his high regard for Hutch and recalled Hutch’s outstanding performance in The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the Virginia Museum Theater in the 1960’s. "He is an Actor’s Actor," he said.

Hutch was an inevitable force in the Richmond theatre community and also in the community-at-large, having served the Boys' Club for so many years and had the vision to spearhead and guide the International Food Festival. There are many other contributions for which he will be remembered. I am truly grateful that his life touched mine with such deep blessing.

I met Hutch shortly before the Experiential was formed. He was directing a production of Does the Tiger Wear a Necktie? at Barksdale at Hanover Tavern, and it included many of the young actors from the Boys' Club with whom he had worked in previous years. He asked me to fill in for the role of Tonto. We rehearsed in that basement at the Boys' Club and for the following years, as the Experiential took off, I felt it was my theatrical home.

It was indeed in 1975 that the Experiential Theater opened its doors. Hutch once shared with me his progression from Stanislavski to Grotowski and then his exposure to the "environmental" theatre ideas of Richard Schechner which led to the inception of the Experiential.

As I recall, its first production was of Of Mice and Men. Hutch’s son Jody (now deceased) played Lenny. I played George. We had the opportunity to reprise the roles a few years later in a second production. To my knowledge this was the first of only two plays that were ever repeated in Experiential’s history.

I was fortunate to appear in many shows there, among them: Hamlet ESP, The Diary of a Madman and the first Experiential production of The Seagull, where I played Treplyov to Jenny Brown’s Nina.

It was twenty years later after Hutch had revitalized the Experiential banner that he produced The Seagull again at the Windy River Winery in Beaverdam. Indeed Erin Thomas was stellar as Nina. I was Trigorin in that production and Justin Dray played Treplyov.

I also remember the early Experiential productions of Alice in Wonderland and Ubu Roi.

It was, I think, 1978 when that first incarnation of the Experiential settled into a pregnant pause. Demands of his family life and the duties with the Boys' Club were in need of his attention.

In 1996 Hutch asked me to "direct" him, that is be his "third eye," in a production of Darrow for the Defense that he performed at Firehouse Theatre under the Experiential banner.

He later produced the earlier mentioned seasons at the Windy River Winery, starting in 1998. I remember The Importance of Being Earnest (Erin was in this as well), Playboy of the Western World with Justin Dray and Tom McGranahan, and Night Must Fall with Justin (again) plus Stephanie Kelley and Sara Heifetz.

I hope I have helped to fill in some of the history here. I know I have failed to mention many of the performers who worked onstage for Hutch. My apologies.

In the late 1990’s I had mounted a website for the Experiential. It’s long been removed and I’m not quite sure where it is in the mountains of archives in my studio. It is my intention to find it and to try to assemble a better history.

--Matthew Costello

In Memoriam: W. R. Hutch Hutchinson

Posted by Bruce Miller
There were/are a couple handfuls of great men in Richmond theatre. These men will long be remembered for extraordinary talent and for modeling selfless commitments to theatre as an art form. For them, theatre was much more than an avocation or job. It was a calling.

Richmond theatre would be nowhere without them.

These men were committed not only to the art form but also to Greater Richmond. They pursued their callings here by choice. They were leaders and servants, forward thinkers and caretakers of the past.

Among those who have died, Barksdale co-founder Pete Kilgore certainly belongs in this fraternity of honor, as do fellow Barksdale legends Fred Haseltine, Mallory Freeman, Jay Lundy and Kim Strong. (Fred and Mallory also acted extensively and provided leadership at Virginia Museum Theatre; Kim acted at Swift Creek and acted and provided leadership at Theatre IV).

William Robert Hutchinson, whom everyone knew as Hutch, died on Thursday. Attention must be paid. Anyway you look at it, Hutch was one of the few who earned the honor of being among the Great Men of Richmond Theatre.

There’s a nice tribute piece in this morning’s Times-Dispatch. Unfortunately, some of the Richmond theatre history noted in the T-D is incorrect.

Hutch’s greatest contribution to Richmond theatre history, in my opinion, was his founding and artistic direction of the Experiential Theatre, and his creation of The Empty Space theatre facility in the basement of the Boys’ Club facilities located at the intersection of Robinson and Kensington.

The Times-Dispatch says, “In 1995, three years after retiring from the Boys’ Club, he founded the award-winning Experiential Theatre in the club basement. After a short run, the group folded, but Mr. Hutchinson continued to rent the venue, dubbed The Empty Space, to other experimental groups for several years.”

I don’t pretend to have the exact dates in front of me, but I know the T-D dates are about two decades off. Hutch founded the Experiential about the same time Phil and I founded Theatre IV, which was 1975. I hope Matthew Costello will weigh in with a comment—I’ll phone him on Monday—because when Matthew was in his early 20s he was very involved with the Experiential and with Hutch.

The Experiential had a huge impact on theatre in Richmond, and then slowed down in the late 70s or early 80s. By approximately 82-83, Theatre IV was renting The Empty Space for its adult audience season.

It was during our watch, and I report this with a significant feeling of guilt, that The Empty Space was shut down by the Richmond Fire Dept. due to inadequate sprinklers and egress. The facility had stayed “under the radar” during the Experiential days, but the increased scrutiny brought about by Theatre IV’s use of the space brought about its undoing. About six years later, the Fire Dept. also shut down Stanley’s Backstage for the same reasons after Theatre IV assumed residency there.

Hutch was not retired from the Boys' Club when he founded the Experiential and created The Empty Space. He was very much large and in charge. By the time he retired in ’93, and then began new theatre ventures in ’96 (perhaps reviving the name Experiential--I can’t remember), he was producing at the Windy River Winery. I hope Erin Thomas, who was in Hutch’s production of The Seagull at the Winery, will weigh in with some accurate info. Stephanie Kelly, who was a good friend of Hutch's, may also be able to shed some light.

I’ll be writing more about Hutch, the Experiential, and The Empty Space in the next few days. I’ll try to get the facts straight. It’s important to me that Richmond theatre history is honored, or at least accurately recorded. Please feel free to pass on any and all info you may have about Hutch. He's deserves our remembrances.

Hutch was an amazing, hard working and inspiring talent. With affection and respect, we will dedicate our upcoming production of Children of a Lesser God (which Theatre IV originally produced in The Empty Space in the early ‘80s) to Hutch’s memory.

--Bruce Miller

Keeping Up with Kevin

Posted by Bruce Miller
Kevin Hoffman, pictured to the right with Erin Thomas, Susan Sanford and Matthew Costello in Barksdale's 2003 production of Proof, just won a significant shot at the big time. We couldn't be happier for him.

After earning his BFA in Acting from Elon University, NC, Kevin came to Richmond to appear in Proof. He did a terrific job. Since then he's been pursuing his career out of NYC. After two soap opera gigs on All My Children and As the World Turns, lead roles in four independent films, four NYC stage acting credits, ten regional theatre gigs, and one theme park stint with Universal Studios in Orlando, Kevin is about to take a big step forward.

He has just been accepted into the prestitious Old Globe/USD MFA Acting program starting in the fall. This nationally recognized actor training program only accepts seven students each year to participate in a two and a half year training period focusing on classical theatre while performing at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. It includes a full tuition scholarship, living stipend, as well as an expenses paid trip to London to study in the second year.

Needless to say, Kevin is ecstatic. We wish him all the best.

--Bruce Miller