Those Canaan Days

Posted by Bruce Miller
Being, as it is, the first day of Autumn, I would be remiss to say goodbye to the Summer of ’09 without recognizing that a quarter century has passed since Barksdale began the most prosperous two years of its history. It was on Friday, June 29, 1984 that Barksdale opened Randy Strawderman’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, a success of Biblical proportions. The smash hit musical took Richmond by storm. It ran for over two years at Hanover Tavern and then headed out of town on national tour. Joseph was directed and choreographed by Randy, with music direction and arrangements by Barry Hayes, setting and costumes by Jann Paxton, and lighting by Katrina Allison. James Hughes, a virtual unknown with no professional stage experience, starred in the title role, with Sandee Flores (née Hayes) co-starring as the Narrator, the role of her career.

The incomparable Jay Lundy appeared as the patriarch Jacob, and the now ubiquitous David Clark, Larry Cook, and Cynde Liffick (née Cindy) made their first big splashes on the Richmond theatre scene.

The rest of the original cast included Robin Arthur, Regina Christopher, Karen Elaine Cress, Holly Dudley, Robert Easter, Adam Harris, Paul Haynes, Kevin Henshaw, Tyler Lincks, Connie Manson, Harry McEnerny, Robert Pemberton, Don Semmens, Bernard Toliver, and Bryan Wade. Tracy Adams, Graham Cheek, Michael Cole, Philip Jowdy, Rhonda Lipscomb, Bobby Mauney, and Norvell Robinson Jr. joined as replacements and alternates later in the summer.

Terry Little served as Production Stage Manager. Barbara Stanitski stage managed (to be replaced later in the summer by Sybel Crone). Richmond artists Bill Nelson (poster graphic) and Clifford Earl (sun sculpture that held center stage) added immeasurably to the production. Rook Strong and Doug Draucker (alternating with David Jewett) joined Barry Hayes in the onstage combo.

In those days gone by, Barksdale did not have a “season” or “subscribers,” and when a show was a hit, it simply kept running. Joseph certainly was a hit, and its phenomenal run broke Richmond longevity records for all time.

So as we bid farewell to this Silver Anniversary Summer, all of us at Barksdale offer many thanks to the innumberable theatre artists who have added so much to our company’s history. Your incomparable efforts and talents will live on our stage / your stage forever, long after the final curtain of any one particular show.

Your presence is felt and honored.

--Bruce Miller

Femme Fatale / Femme Fantastique

Posted by Bruce Miller

As we prepare to open The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers, the latest production in Barksdale’s ongoing Women’s Theatre Project, I’m revisiting the four remarkable women playwrights whose work made it onto the Barksdale stage between 1953 and 1962. Last week I profiled Nancy Mitford (see Barksdale’s First Woman Playwright – Nancy Mitford, Sept. 6). This week, I introduce to you a second woman author who is now remembered as a feminist pulp fiction pioneer and the author of the glitzy showbiz story of Cole Porter’s final musical for film or stage.

VERA CASPARY (1899 – 1987)

It took help from my pal Jackie Jones and the Boston Public Library to find the handsome photo of Vera Caspary that is pictured to the right. And then it cost me $20! But it's worth it to know that Ms Caspary will now show up on Google Images for the first time because of this blog.

Unlike Diana Mitford, Vera Caspary wasn’t famously wealthy, glamorous or socially connected. Yet she danced around the edges of some of the more important events and celebrated people of her time, and emerged as one of the most progressive and successful woman authors of the 20th Century.

Vera Caspary was born in Chicago in 1899. She grew up in a middle class neighborhood next door to Ferdinand Barnett, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, and their four children. Mr. Barnett was a lawyer and the founder of Chicago’s first black newspaper. Ms Wells-Barnett (pictured to the left) was a nationally prominent journalist and anti-lynching activist.

A former slave, Ms Wells-Barnett was sought out as an impassioned speaker for civil rights, both in the United States and abroad. She founded the first African American suffragist organization, and was a founding member of the “Committee of 40,” a group of national activists that evolved into the NAACP. Within two years of joining she left the Committee because she felt they were not revolutionary enough.

Vera Caspary was completely taken with her next door neighbors and their progressive politics. At the age of 17, Ms Caspary left high school, took a secretarial course and began earning her living writing advertising copy. She soon felt unfulfilled by this position, and turned her attentions to writing fiction addressing serious social themes.

Her first novel, The White Girl, concerned a black woman from the South who tries to pass for white when she moves north. Her second novel, Thicker than Water, focused on a Jewish family from Chicago. Her first play, Blind Mice, told the story of Chicago’s young working women who lived together in Rolfe House, the low income residence where she herself resided. Blind Mice was not commercially successful, but it took Ms Caspary to Broadway just as she was entering her 30s.

Paramount optioned Blind Mice, reset it in New York City, and filmed it as Working Girl in 1931. (A still from the film is pictured to the right.) Clearly ahead of its time, Working Girl is a subversively funny film laced with an ironic view of marriage, work and class. Film scholar Judith Mayne calls it "perhaps the most daring and innovative film Arzner (the film's acclaimed woman director) ever made." Using this as her calling card to Hollywood, Ms Caspary next wrote the story and the screenplay for The Night of June 13th, a romantic murder mystery of sorts that became her first real commercial success.

In many of her books, especially those from the late '30s, Ms Caspary's heroines were career women, or women attempting to juggle romance and independence, very similar to her own situation. In 1943, Ms Caspary’s career took a giant leap forward when she wrote the novel Laura, which was licensed by 20th Century Fox and turned into a movie by producer and director Otto Preminger. Laura marked a return to the hard-boiled romantic mystery genre of her first success. The novel and the movie were so popular that Ms Caspary soon thereafter co-authored with George Sklar a stage version for Broadway. The play was a hit in both New York and London. It was this stage version of Laura that was produced by Barksdale in 1958, starring Burt Edwards, Bernard Schutte, Jay Lundy, Pete Kilgore, Helen Jervey and Muriel McAuley.

Laura had several elements that seemed to come from Ms Caspary's life. The heroine, Laura Hunt, works as a secretary at an advertising agency, but has some daring and ambition. With some unexpected help from columnist Waldo Lydecker (played by Clifton Webb in the film, pictured in the bathtub above and to the right), she becomes a top executive. At the same time, Laura is forced to balance her professional and personal life, a situation with potentially lethal consequences. In the 1940s and still today, the character of Laura was and is the "quintessential femme fatale."

Shortly after the success of Laura, Ms Caspary co-authored the screen adaptation of her hard-hitting feminist crime novel, Bedelia, which was filmed by John Corfield and Isadore Goldsmith, an Austrian-born producer who became Ms Caspary's husband. Bedelia is considered by many to be the original "black widow" crime story. In 1948, she wrote the screenplay for Joseph L. Mankiewicz's movie, A Letter to Three Wives, which was another huge hit for the studio.

In 1950, the right-wing journal Counterattack issued a pamphlet-style book called Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television. Because of her commitment to Ida B. Wells-Barnett and the early civil rights movement, her authorship of several plays and novels dealing progressively with women’s and other social issues, and her marriage to a left-leaning Austrian who left his homeland to oppose the Nazis, Ms Caspary was included among the 151 actors, writers and other arts professionals identified in Red Channels as communist sympathizers. No evidence against her was ever asked for or collected, nonetheless, being named in Red Channels effectively placed Ms Caspary on the Hollywood blacklist.

During the years of the blacklist, she continued to write crime novels with strong women at their center. She also wrote a story about three gorgeous showgirls and the man who connected them with each other.

In the late 50s, Gene Kelly expressed interest in making a movie musical based on this story. Cole Porter (pictured to the left) was asked to write the score. This was to be Cole Porter’s last musical for film or stage. (He wrote Aladdin for television one year later.) The musical film was called Les Girls, or Cole Porter’s Les Girls in the United States. It included the Porter standard, Ca C’est L’Amour. This was the haunting love song that, decades later, Muriel, Randy Strawderman and Jim Bianchi picked for Bricktop to sing to Cole in Act II of Red Hot and Cole.

Today, Ms Caspary’s hard-boiled and yet romantic crime novels (such as Laura and Bedelia) are still in print and selling better than ever. New generations grant these classics considerable acclaim as early examples of feminist pulp fiction. Their paperback covers today (see Bedelia to the right) are reminiscent of 1940s Sam Spade. Also, the Academy Award-winning Les Girls was recently released on DVD as an example of the final years of MGM’s reign as the world's foremost producer of entertaining musicals. Outshining Gene Kelly, the real stars are the film's three leading femmes fantastique: Mitzi Gaynor, Taina Elg and Kay Kendall.

We will be selling these works of Vera Caspary along with the works of our other featured women authors in the lobby throughout the run of The Member of the Wedding. Her classic works are as fresh today as they were in the 40s, and are well worth your consideration.

--Bruce Miller

Barksdale and Barter

Posted by Bruce Miller

Exactly forty years ago, Barksdale Theatre was about to wrap up its one-week run of Stop the World—I Want to Get Off at Barter Theatre. This was a history-making engagement, as Barksdale was the first guest company ever to be invited to perform on the Barter Stage.

The following newspaper coverage is quoted in Muriel’s book. She doesn’t identify the newspaper, but I suspect it was either the Richmond Times-Dispatch or News Leader. No publication date is provided.

“Barksdalians To Do Play at Barter

The telephone lines and the mails are humming these days between Abingdon, Va., and Hanover Court House, respective homes to two of the state’s best-known theaters.

Barter Theater, the State Theater of Virginia and perhaps the most famous professional company in the nation, is located in the tiny mountain town of Abingdon. It’s an improbable site for a major theater, but no more so than founder Robert Porterfield’s original idea during the depression of exchanging entertainment for food.

Three hundred miles away is Hanover Court House, another small hamlet that never expected to claim the state’s first dinner-theater, Barksdale. On August 22 through August 29, Barter will be host to Barksdale’s highly-praised production of “Stop the World—I Want to Get Off.”
It all began last fall, when Porterfield saw the off-beat musical at Barksdale Hanover Tavern. What began as a casual suggestion that Burt Edwards and Nancy Kilgore re-create their leading roles at Barter, gradually ballooned into the entire Barksdale company, with the original sets and costumes by Lyde Longaker, guesting at Abingdon for a full week. All of the Barksdale cast will be together again for the event, with some taking leaves from other summer stock jobs in order to do the show.

Rehearsals begin this week, under the direction of Jay Lundy, musical direction of Dougee Zeno and choreography of Frances Wessells, who will also travel to Barter for two days of rehearsals on that stage prior to the opening.

With Edwards, who plays Littlechap, and Mrs. Kilgore, who appears as his wife and as several other women in his life, will be Carol and Bobbie Hamblett, Richmond twins who will again play the two daughters, and the singing and dancing chorus composed of Judy Ward, Patricia Story, Carol Rogers, Gina Vetter, Libby Jarratt, Henrietta Near and Melvina Gooch.”

The history-making aspect of all this, as Bob Porterfield would shortly thereafter explain to me himself (see the upcoming My Dinner with Bob Porterfield), was that in 1967 Barter Theater honestly was, as the newspaper article says, “the most famous professional (theatre) company in the nation.” Please remember that in 1948, Bob Porterfield received the first Regional Theatre Tony Award for his “Contribution to the Development of Regional Theatre.” The next such award was not presented until 1976, when it was won by Arena Stage in Washington, D. C.

The actors whom Barter hired included Gregory Peck (pictured to the right), Ernest Borgnine, Patricia Neal (pictured up and to the left), Ned Beatty and Hume Cronyn. When Bob Porterfield visited Barksdale, loved Stop the World, and invited Nancy and Burt to star in the same musical at Barter, it was a huge deal. And when Pete and Muriel responded by saying, to quote Muriel, “None of that, if you want them, you’ll have to take everybody,” they were taking a huge gamble.

Mr. Porterfield must have had tremendous respect for Barksdale, and he certainly was committed to the developing regional theatre movement. But no matter how you look at it, it was downright amazing that, in Barter’s 34th year of existence, founder Bob Porterfield invited Barksdale to be the first guest company ever to perform in his nationally prominent theatre.

In the next few days, I’ll interview Frances Wessells, Lyde Longaker and others about their Barter experience. Stay tuned.

--Bruce Miller

More photo credits: The two young lovelies are Carol Rogers and Julie Crump from the Stop the World ensemble. That's Nancy and Burt perched atop the Barter marquee, in their full Stop the World get-up. Can't you just hear the Abingdonians shouting, "Who are those two clowns on the marquee?!" The painting of Nancy, which regularly hangs in the Barksdale Willow Lawn lobby, dates back to that famous Stop the World run.

That Championship Reading

Posted by Bruce Miller
We had a great time last night reading That Championship Season by Jason Miller in the Kilgore McAuley Library at Barksdale Willow Lawn. The reading was pulled together by Scott Wichmann. The late Jason Miller is the man who introduced Scott to theatre a couple decades ago. Miller is also the actor whom everyone knows for having played, brilliantly, the younger priest in the film The Exorcist.

In the 1980s, Scott was a mere lad of 12, and he and Miller both lived in Scranton, PA, setting of That Championship Season. More than a decade earlier, Miller had received tremendous national acclaim for writing Championship, which opened on Broadway in 1972 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in '73. Miller immediately followed that triumph by playing the younger of the two titular priests in The Exorcist, the most popular film of 1973. For his role in The Exorcist, Miller received an Oscar nomination. In the late 70s / early 80s, Miller chose to retreat from the limelight and return to his hometown of Scranton.

It was there that Miller directed a community theatre production of A Thousand Clowns, and Scott auditioned for the 12-year-old boy. It’s a GREAT part, one for which Scott was perfect, so of course he nailed it. It was Scott’s first show, and it was directed by one of the most nationally acclaimed playwrights and film actors of the time. Talk about fate.

Scott has never forgotten Jason Miller, and the two stayed in touch until Miller’s untimely death in 2001. One of the things the two had discussed was Scott’s desire to one day play the role of Tom, the cynical alcoholic in That Championship Season.

So last night, Scott called together some pals (Joe Inscoe, Larry Cook, Grant Mudge, and, of course, the current other half of Scott’s Odd Couple, Dave Bridgewater). They sat around the conference table acting their hearts out, drinking bottled water and eating Chex Mix. Phil Whiteway and I enjoyed the privilege of listening in.

All five men were terrific. The play reads beautifully today, and it reminded me how visceral 70s Broadway was. The language is intense. Five middle aged men assemble for the 20th Anniversary of a high school basketball triumph, and explore the limits of macho gamesmanship and the power of friendship and forgiveness. After the reading was over, we all talked about the messages of the play to a 21st Century audience.

I don’t know if Barksdale will produce a revival of Championship or not. After last night's powerful reading, we're certainly considering it.

Barksdale first produced the show at the Tavern in 1975 with Jay Lundy, Burt Edwards, Lloyd Shockley, Frank Howarth and William C. Smith. In the early '80s, the play was made into an acclaimed film, directed by Jason Miller, and starring Robert Mitchum. Martin Sheen, Stacy Keach, Bruce Dern and Paul Sorvino.

Thanks to Scott and his pals for bringing this searing classic back to life.

--Bruce Miller

Stories of the Past

Posted by Robert Albertia

The year was 1963 and I was thrilled to be a member of the cast of Twelve Angry Men directed by David (Pete) Kilgore. Those were magic times at Hanover Tavern. I had not yet reached my 30th year and to work at this marvelous theatre was, for me, a great milestone. The cast was filled with Barksdale favorites: Jay Lundy, Glenn Crone, Mike Pettinger, and Pete himself.

The association with Muriel McAuley and Nancy Kilgore along with Pete was one that has remained a joyous and constant reminder of the creative individuals I have had the good fortune of working with in almost forty-five years in the theatre. I wouldn't change that for anything.

It would seem that I have lost count of the many productions I have worked on, however, there are standouts among that list: playing opposite Mallory Freeman and Edie Williams as my parents in the brilliant production of Da; the hilarious My Fat Friend with Helen Ball Williams, a life-long friend; numerous productions with Helen Levinson (too many to mention)--in fact many people thought we were married!

In most of those productions, I wore my own clothes since the theatre had almost no costume budget. I never minded because of the joy of doing a part in any Barksdale production was an opportunity not to be missed.

Even today I feel the same way and continue to accept delightful roles that continue to challenge me as an actor and feed my soul.

Barksdale Theatre is one of my great loves. Those marvelous actors I have worked opposite remain with me always.