New Music

Posted by Bruce Miller
It’s been a busy few evenings. On Saturday, the Miller family of four made it out to Eurydice at the Firehouse. All of us at Barksdale are honored to be partnering with Carol Piersol and the Firehouse Theatre Project on the Sarah Ruhl Festival. Eurydice is a greatly acclaimed component of this effort. We enjoyed it very much.

On Sunday, Terrie, Curt and I attended the kick-off concert of Stretchin’ at Barksdale—another terrific evening of entertainment. On Monday, I had a great time at Dead Man’s Cell Phone, a slightly staged reading directed by the talented Jase Smith and featuring half the cast of The Clean House and half the cast of Eurydice. Tonight, Phil and I joined the throng of celebrants at the One Night Only Concert Event—Ragtime, The Musical, presented as a fundraiser by Chase Kniffen, Peggy Thibodeau and Stage 1 Theatre Co.

I've irked some folks in the past when, on this blog, I've pointed out the Barksdale and Theatre IV connections of various theatre artists working at other stage companies. I've been accused of adopting an inappropriately paternal attitude when I say I'm proud of theatre artists, in a familial way, when they're working for someone else or for themselves. I'll probably irk someone again now. I'm sorry.

There were two things that moved me deeply tonight at Ragtime.

1. When Desiree Roots Centeio’s wide-eyed young son toddled onstage during the stirring conclusion, portraying Coalhouse and Sarah’s surviving son, while all 55 members of the cast joined in a rousing reprise of Wheels of a Dream, I was swept away by the overpowering realization that Barack Obama was at that very moment concluding his second debate, taking him one step closer to becoming President of the United States. The Wheels of a Dream indeed. I thought it was very moving.

2. When I looked up onto the stage, and into the audience, and throughout the lobby, and across to the various backstage tech positions, and saw face after familiar face, with the great majority of faces coming from the ranks of people I’ve worked with time and time again, all turning out to support Chase and Peggy and Richmond theatre itself, I was intensely proud of our theatre community in general and the Barksdale and Theatre IV family in particular.

I don't know why, but I’ve always had a strong sense of being a small part of a far greater whole. When I began my career at the feet of my teachers Bernard Schutte, Marian Waymack and Jack Welsh, and my more senior colleagues Buddy and Betty Callahan, Pete and Nancy Kilgore, and Muriel McAuley, I greatly appreciated the opportunity to learn from them and work to earn their friendship and respect. I hope my playbill bios over the decades have reflected this. Now I find myself on the other end, having the opportunity to learn from younger colleagues who are charting new paths and working together to achieve great things.

Actors, directors, designers, musicians, stage managers, technicians, house managers, contributors, subscribers and staff members with strong Barksdale and Theatre IV connections turned out in droves tonight to support Stage 1. These same artists and enthusiasts proudly support and work with many other nonprofit theatres in town as well. I think this spirit of cooperation and support for the Richmond theatre community in toto is something relatively new. It has not always been like that, and in some quarters, it's not like that today. It was great to see.

My friends did a beautiful job this evening, and they should be thrilled. It was especially gratifying to see Jerold Solomon take time off from his Broadway gig in South Pacific to return to Richmond for this benefit concert. He and Desi brought down the house more than once, ably assisted by Katrinah Lewis. Jan Guarino's "wheeee's" accompanied by that unforgetable Haynes smile were a hoot and a half. The incomparable Debra Wagoner amped up the power grid and stopped the show on Back to Before. The remarkable Eric Pastore showed once again how much old timers like Chase Kniffen have to look forward to from the next generation. And Tom McGranahan was younger than springtime as a feisty and lovable codger of a grandfather.

Richard Koch, Michael Hawke, Chris Stewart, James Opher, Lillie Izo, Brett Ambler, Joe Thibodeau, Mark Persinger and Robyn O'Neill ably added to the momentous achievement. And music director Sherri Matthews and her 17-member band of renown gave Richmonders a rare sense of a true Broadway sound.

The evening was a tribute to Richmond theatre in general, and testament to the talent, commitment and can-do leadership that Chase and Peggy are bringing to their new venture. I can’t wait to see each of the shows in Stage 1’s great new season.

I hope to see you at the theatre—be it one of ours or someone else’s.

--Bruce Miller

Race - Part II: Loving vs Virginia

Posted by Bruce Miller
As previously mentioned, most of the complaints I receive from offended audience members are about language. The second biggest grievance is sex, closely followed by the third major offender, race. Among the racial objections I receive, most document a strong distaste for any onstage depiction of interracial romance. Call it the Guess Who's Coming to Dinner objection.

To an extent, this issue used to split on the “religious right” / “religious left” divide as well as the fault line that separates political conservatives from liberals. But now that Barack Obama and Tiger Woods stand as the two most recognizable children of interracial marriage … now that a conservative icon like Clarence Thomas walks proudly arm in arm with his Caucasian wife … now, I daresay, objections to interracial romance are more generational than anything else.

Before discussing the particulars of present day grievances, let’s look at the history that forged the attitudes of most of the grumblers. As many of you may know, our home state of Virginia played an infamous role in that history.

Virginia is for Lovers. That’s the way the slogan goes. But in 1958, for Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter (pictured to the left), it must not have felt that way. Richard was white, and Mildred was of “mixed blood” (white, African American and Native American). After seven years of friendship and courtship, they married in Washington D. C. and then returned home to live in peace in Central Point, about an hour northeast of Richmond, halfway between Bowling Green and Tappahannock.

Less than a month after their wedding, the local sheriff’s department raided their home at 2 a.m., roused them from their sleep, and hauled them away to face the law. The anti-miscegenation statutes in Virginia and 15 other states (mostly Southern) prohibited the marriage of whites and “non-whites.” Richard and Mildred were arrested and charged with a felony for “cohabiting as man and wife, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth.” They were tried in the county courthouse in Bowling Green. They pleaded guilty and were sentenced to a year behind bars—Virginia law requiring a prison term of one to five years.

The judge agreed to set the punishment aside, however, if they promised to leave Virginia immediately and not return together for 25 years. He justified his verdict as follows: “Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, Malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with His arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix." (From the end of WWI until the sixties, the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel [pictured above and to the right in a Bruegel painting], found in the eleventh chapter of Genesis, was used by numerous religious faiths as proof that God intended the races to remain separate. It was also used as a Biblical foundation for racism and Jim Crow laws.)

For the next several years, the Lovings lived in a Washington D. C. ghetto, while keeping and occasionally visiting their modest Virginia home. They always drove in separate cars, and met covertly while in Virginia to avoid incarceration. In 1963, after one of her three children was hit by a car in their D. C. neighborhood, Mildred Loving wrote to Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who referred her to the American Civil Liberties Union, which agreed to represent the Loving couple in an appeal of their conviction.

During four years of subsequent litigation, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s verdict. Finally, in 1967, in the aptly named Loving vs. Virginia, the U. S. Supreme Court, under Chief Justice Earl Warren (pictured to the right), voted unanimously to overturn the conviction on the grounds that the Virginia law that forbad interracial marriage was unconstitutional. Only then did the American South finally become one of the last places in the world to do away with anti-miscegenation laws. Other holdouts included Nazi Germany which overturned its laws in 1945, and South Africa under Apartheid which abandoned its laws in 1985.

Coincidentally, 1967 was also the year that Guess Who's Coming to Dinner made it into the nation's movie theatres.

To view the amazing, actual ABC News report that was broadcast in 1967 (including footage of Mildred and Richard Loving and their three children), go to http://abcnews.go.com/US/Story?id=3277875&page=2.

On a personal note, the Virginia law defined “non-white” as someone who had “one eighth blood” of a minority population. My wife’s (Terrie’s) great grandmother was full-blooded Oklahoma Cherokee. Her grandfather was one half Cherokee, her mother is one quarter Cherokee, and Terrie herself is one eighth Cherokee. Terrie and I were married only 19 years after Loving vs. Virginia. Had the Virginia law not been overturned, Terrie’s and my marriage would not be legally recognized. Moreover, Terrie’s mom and dad, married in Norfolk, VA 13 years before Loving vs. Virginia, were married illegally under the law of the day. Had they been turned in to the police, as the Lovings were, it’s possible that they too could have been convicted of a felony and sentenced to one to five years in prison.

Coming soon – How Darwin’s Theory of Evolution contributed to anti-miscegenation sentiments.
--Bruce Miller

Actors Don Festive Finery to Lobby for VCA

Posted by Phil Whiteway
Yesterday was Arts Advocacy Day at the Virginia General Assembly. Representatives of over 200 nonprofit arts organizations from throughout the Commonwealth joined forces to lobby the House and Senate for increased funding for the Virginia Commission for the Arts. Whereas many of our neighboring states fund their nonprofit arts industry at $2 per capita or more, Virginia funding still falls far short at less than 70 cents per capita.

The goal of Arts Advocacy Day is to increase Virginia’s public support for all of the Commonwealth’s nonprofit arts organizations to $1 per capita. That’s right, we’re working strenuously, and have been for years, to convince our elected officials that all of the arts in the entire state are worth one tax dollar per citizen.

We at Barksdale and Theatre IV did our part in this lobbying effort by providing each legislator with a voucher for two free tickets to the show of his or her choice, and by asking two of our handsomely costumed characters to help escort elected officials into the House of Delegates.

Above and to the right you'll see Jennings Whiteway escorting Del Riley Ingram from Hopewell. Del Ingram is a GREAT guy and a longtime friend. He entered the chambers through an alternate entrance, and when he noticed the performing artists escorting the Delegates in, he left his seat, worked his way around back to the main entrance, and re-entered with Jennings as a way of showing respect and support for Virginia's arts community.

The photo above and to the left shows Del Chris Saxman from Staunton, and the photo to the right shows Del Tom Gear from Hampton. In keeping with the theme of the Jamie Brindle blog post, we offer the photo below and to the left. When we were getting set up to begin the ushering, an eighth grader came racing in to say hello. Turns out it was Jake Boon, veteran child actor of Theatre IV's Santa's Toyland Adventure and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, now serving as a page in the General Assembly.

Great work, Jake!

After the escorting was done and the House had convened, Del Jennifer L McClellan, District 71 Richmond (the district in which the Empire is located), introduced our actors to the assembled body as follows:

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the House of Delegates –

It is my pleasure to recognize our two escorts today – Ms Jennings Whiteway and Mr. Eddie Tavares, representing the cast of The True Story of Pocahontas, produced by Theatre IV – The Children’s Theatre of Virginia.

Created and presented in association with the Virginia Historical Society, The True Story of Pocahontas toured to hundreds of elementary schools statewide throughout all of 2007, reinforcing the instruction mandated in Virginia’s Standards of Learning. In fact, Theatre IV, headquartered in my district, is the largest school-based, professional children’s theatre in the United States. They have performed in every school district in the Commonwealth, and currently reach over 500,000 Virginia children, parents and teachers each year.

Theatre IV is only one of over 200 nonprofit arts organizations in our state that are participating today in Arts Advocacy Day, in support of the Virginia Commission for the Arts. With you, I applaud all of our state’s nonprofit, professional arts organizations, and thank them for their invaluable contributions to education, tourism, economic development, and the quality of life we all enjoy throughout the Commonwealth."

Thanks to Jennings and Eddie for their efforts on behalf of Theatre IV and Barksdale Theatre. Special thanks to Del Jenn McClellan (pictured to the right with Gov Tim Kaine and Barack Obama) for her gracious introduction.

--Phil Whiteway