Why Are Certain Actors Pre-Cast?

Posted by Bruce Miller
A noteworthy comment was posted to the previous blog entry. I appreciate the perspective of the writer and the kind words (not included below). I will definitely take the stated opinion to heart. I also offer some additional perspective of my own.

The comment reads, in part, as follows: "I honestly believe there are some in the community (a large number, actually) who DO feel that you tend to favor and precast one particular actor in town. I need not mention his/her name because EVERYONE knows who I am speaking of. Is this person talented? Without question. Should he/she be HANDED 2-3 leading roles per year without auditioning? No. Being "Richmond's favorite actor" comes a little easier when you are in Bruce Miller's back pocket. Why not let said person get in line with all the actors and fight for the part? Who knows, maybe someone else in line will surprise you! Just two cents to add to the pot."

To be fair to Joe Inscoe and Scott Wichmann (pictured at the top in Shipwrecked - I'm not sure which one the commenter is referring to, since both fit the bill), let me say that both guys audition regularly at theatres around town, including ours. And sometimes they don't get cast. If anyone incorrectly perceives that either actor thinks he's above the audition process, let me put that idea to rest. Joe and Scott get in line with all the other actors in town all the time.

So the issue is all about the directors and producers doing the casting, not the actors being cast.

I make a thousand decisions a year (in close association with Phil Whiteway, Chase Kniffen and lots of other folks) regarding how to keep Barksdale and Theatre IV artistically and financially sound. Phil Crosby, Larry Gard, Grant Mudge, John Knapp, Carol Piersol, James Ricks, kb saine, Derome Scott Smith, Tom Width, and the good folks at CAT, HAT, SPARC et al do the same regarding their theatres. All of us have the responsibility to keep our nonprofit companies afloat.

When a director and I precast Joe or Scott, it is because we know they will turn in terrific performances. I also know their names in ads will help sell tickets. Again, I've heard a lot of ticket buyers talk on the other side of that one-way mirror, and the names Joe Inscoe and Scott Wichmann are spoken with regularity.

Every other artistic director in town knows this too. Therefore, we've gotten to the point where if I don't nail down Joe and Scott many months in advance, another artistic director will nail them down and I'll lose them. This is not always the case, but it often is. Joe and Scott are regularly offered work at theatres (and on films) both in town and out of town, and I almost always compete with other directors to secure a contract.

The same thing can be said (at varying degrees) for Brian Barker, Stacy Cabaj, Desiree Roots Centeio, Larry Cook, Sandy Dacus, Patti D'Beck, Paul Deiss, Ford Flannagan, Jan Guarino, Lynne Hartman, Audra Honaker, Tamara Johnson, Jackie Jones, Ron Keller, Kelly Kennedy, Joe Pabst, Steve Perigard, Melissa Johnston Price, Adrian Rieder, Ali Thibodeau, Debra Wagoner, Aly Wepplo, Ginnie Willard, Joy Williams, Irene Ziegler, and several others. They've each worked their way into that place where artistic directors (and/or freelance directors like Billy Christopher-Maupin) talk to them and begin wooing them for projects many months in advance.

That's not the way it used to be, but it is the way it is now. Actually, I was behind the eight ball on this one. James Ricks, Tom Width and Rusty Wilson led the charge to get actors to commit to projects really early. It was a smart move on their parts. I've learned from them, and have begun to copy in order to keep up.

For the artists, it's a good thing. For Richmond theatre in general, it's a good thing. I love the fact that Richmond is starting to have "stars" and I'm doing what little I can to increase that trend. I think it adds to overall interest in theatre, and appropriately recognizes the amazing talent that exists here.

I think we should all love that. But with the increased buzz comes this reality: competition for "star" talent is growing more and more intense. Increasingly, this means that the talents of certain individuals will be secured months in advance.

Another component that drives this trend is health insurance. Several of Richmond's finest theatre artists rely on their unions for their and/or their family's health insurance. They begin negotiating a year in advance to ensure that they'll book enough work weeks from a company that pays for health insurance in order to guarantee that there will be no gaps in their coverage.

The last thing to be considered in this discussion is the notion of an ensemble company. There are independent artists within the community, including all of the names mentioned above, with whom I seek and to whom I offer a long term commitment. I think this helps those artists remain in Richmond (everyone likes a sense of security), and it helps us develop a loose knit ensemble company at Barksdale and Theatre IV that enables us to create better theatre.

Again, I'm not trying to "defend" casting decisions or the casting process. Things are as they are; different people will have different opinions. No "defense" is offered or needed. I'm trying to share with you what goes on in my head and behind the door of my office as the leadership of Barksdale works hard to create a nationally recognized, professional, resident theatre here in Central Virginia.

Sharing perspectives is a good thing. I greatly appreciate all those who share their perspectives with me.

Thanks.

--Bruce Miller

The Song (or Whatever) of Mulan

Posted by Bruce Miller
Every time I think of The Song of Mulan, I remember what happened eight years ago when we first contracted Paul Deiss to create the show for our touring operation. Schools were crying out for a fun way to support the new SOLs on ancient China, and the epic poem about the young girl who went to war to save her nation from the Mongol (Tartar) horde definitely fit the bill.

It had everything--an inspiring story that illuminates authentic history, a classic work of Chinese literature, and the name recognition that could come only from a recent Disney adaptation.

Paul wrote a beautiful script and score, and when the tour first went on the road, the Richmond Times-Dispatch covered the opening. This was back in the days when we could still get some ink for the arts. There was a beautiful color photo and a sizable caption, all surrounding a prominent headline that proudly proclaimed "Theatre IV Opens The Fish of Mulan."

That's what it said, my friends. We never knew why, but somehow someone in the newsroom changed the title of the play from The Song of Mulan (the actual title of the epic poem, sometimes translated as The Ballad of Mulan) to The Fish of Mulan.

It didn't matter. Then as now, all PR was good PR.

That first tour went so well under Susan Sanford's expert direction, that we soon commissioned Paul to expand his musical into two acts for a mainstage production. Susan again served as director/choreographer, and the show again earned raves from audiences, educators, and critics alike.

Mercedes Schaum created the magnificent sets; Jason Bishop designed a brigade of handsome, authentic costumes; and Steve Koehler worked his usual magic with lights. (Lynne Hartman takes on the lighting responsibilities this time out.)

Now that it's time to revive this Theatre IV favorite, how fortunate we are to have been able to reassemble several members of the original team. (In terms of costumes, Jason has moved to New York, but we have been able to retrieve all his original garments.) Susan Sanford long ago moved to Los Angeles to pursue new career opportunities with her husband, Foster Solomon. But thanks to funding from the Louise Moon Fund, we were able to bring her back to town--a blessing for one and all.

The Louise Moon Fund was created in the late 1990s, shortly before Mrs. Moon died. Throughout her life, she had been a great supporter of the arts. She was on the founding committee of the Richmond Symphony, and she had a long history of support for both Theatre IV and Barksdale.

Before our two nonprofit companies began our strategic partnership in 2001, we worked together to establish the Louise Moon Fund in Mrs. Moon's honor. The fund enabled Barksdale and Theatre IV to bring back to Richmond outstanding theatre artists who had moved on to larger markets. Mrs. Moon had fallen in love this idea after we brought her son, John, back from NYC following his earning his masters in directing from Columbia and his subsequent work with Joseph Papp's Public Theatre.

Susan is only the most recent artist to return due in part to the largesse of Mrs. Moon and her friends.

We have a great new cast for Mulan this year. The titular role is played by Yvonne Samé, recently from the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. Her mother and father are played by Hannah Zold and Jason Marks. Mulan's romantic interest is portrayed by Chris Stewart. Lucas Hall, Audra Honaker, Paul Major and Durron Tyre all provide admirable support in a variety of roles.

If you haven't been out to see this wonderful show, please head on down to Theatre IV's historic Empire Theatre. We'd love to have you join us on our return visit to all the wonders of ancient China.

--Bruce Miller

(Note on the images: Whether she is allegorical or real, the character of Mulan has inspired countless works of Chinese art, several examples of which are pictured. First is a painting on silk, then a wooden carving, followed by the oldest surviving copy of the epic poem, circa 1200, found in the British Museum. The original poem dates from the 6th century. Last is a porcelain vase.)

Come to the Cabaret, Old Chum!

Posted by Bruce Miller
Tonight’s the big night! Broadway Today, a cabaret benefiting the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund, opens in Barksdale’s living room tonight at 8. Tickets are still available, so by all means, COME!

When I say "living room," I mean the loft-like lobby of our intimate Willow Lawn theatre. Audience members will sit in comfortable chairs pulled up to our vintage tavern tables, enjoying some of Richmond’s finest musical theatre voices. The bar will be open throughout the evening, and a fun time will be had by all.

The program is a benefit for the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund. All of the performers are volunteering their time to raise funds for the endowment, which is administered by the Richmond Alliance of Professional Theatres and managed by the Community Foundation. Barksdale is contributing the space, cabaret license, etc., and the goal of the cabaret is to raise around $2,000, which will take the Theatre Artists Fund from its current corpus of approximately $22,000 much closer to the benchmark of $25,000, which we hope to reach prior to Christmas.

Broadway Today is masterminded by that most energized of impresarios—Billy Christopher Maupin. The guiding theme is this: from July through December 2009, Barksdale is running three (count ‘em) new American musicals, all of which originated in the 21st century. The three new shows are Thoroughly Modern Millie at the Empire, Souvenir at Hanover Tavern, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at Willow Lawn.

Mr. Maupin has assembled stars from the casts of these three new musicals to sing other songs written in the last few years for today's Broadway. Nancy Crawley (actor photos appear in the order listed), Timothy Ford, Zak Resnick and Ali Thibodeau from the cast of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Audra Honaker from the cast of Spelling Bee, and special guest star Debra Wagoner from the cast of Souvenir will lead the audience on a whirlwind tour of these other 21st Century Broadway hits: Avenue Q, Curtains, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Spring Awakening, Urinetown, Wicked and more!

Maggie Marlin, Millie herself, was to have appeared in the cabaret, but due to last minute vocal strain, she has been replaced by Robin Harris Jones.

The program is conceived and directed by Mr. Maupin, with musical direction by Sandy Dacus and Paul Deiss.

The Richmond Theatre Artists Fund provides emergency relief to local actors, directors, designers and theatre artists and administrators in all disciplines when, through no fault of their own, accident or ill health places one of them in an untenable financial situation. Recent recipients have included Liz Marks, who was able to pay her mortgage during the final months of her life because of support from the Fund, and one of our leading directors who recently was able to avoid having his electricity turned off when the Fund covered his electric bills in the two months following his stroke.

There will be two performances: Sunday (tonight) at 8 and Monday (tomorrow) at 8. Only overflow seating remains for Monday evening’s performance, so why not come tonight. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $15. Barksdale subscribers, students and RAPT Card holders can purchase tickets for only $10.

Hope to see you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

Best of Broadway / Benefits of Barksdale

Posted by Bruce Miller
Rehearsals for Thoroughly Modern Millie began this evening. An eager cast of 22 assembled under the knowing eyes of director / choreographer Patti D’Beck, musical director Paul Deiss, and stage manager Ginnie Willard. I welcomed everyone. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking that nine of the Millie cast members are new to the Barksdale family, including two of the leads. Other than seeing them at auditions, I met these nine for the first time tonight.

One of the leads who is NOT new to Barksdale is Zak Resnick (pictured above and to the right). Zak arrived at rehearsal tonight directly from his drive down from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh, the prestigious university theatre program from which he just graduated. His car was still packed to the roof with everything he owns.

There must be something special about Richmond’s relationship with C M. Other Richmond theatre notables who went to Carnegie Mellon and then vaulted almost immediately into their professional careers include Tony nominee Emily Skinner and Hollywood superstar Blair Underwood. Like Zak, both Emily and Blair shared their talents with Theatre IV, Barksdale and other Richmond theatres before making it big on the national scene.

Like Emily and Blair, Zak seems destined for great things. Many Richmonders remember Zak for his memorable portrayal of Rapunzel’s Prince in our 2007 summer musical Into the Woods. But in New York, Zak is known by his growing fan base as one of the Broadway Boys, a six-man super group comprised of Broadway’s hottest tenors. (Six sing at any one time. There are actually 25 or so talented young men who have been selected for the ensemble.) “A fusion of funk, soul and gospel, the Broadway Boys create an out-of-control energy that makes you want to just get up and dance,” states Amy Birnbaum of the Jujamcyn Theatre organization. “Their arrangements of Broadway and pop tunes give way to a myriad of sound, color and grit. An experience you can’t afford to miss!”

You can hear and see Zak and the Boys singing "Defying Gravity" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJfIYzhLnt8. Zak is the guy to the far left of the screen (stage right). The camera-work is a little shaky, but you'll get the gist.

Taking time off this summer from his develop-ing NYC career as a Broadway Boy, Zak will be playing the male lead of Jimmy in our production of Thoroughly Modern Millie at the historic Empire Theatre. Last Monday, just before leaving New York for Pittsburgh, Zak took Broadway by storm one more time before heading south. After being selected as one of the 16 rising stars to be featured in this year’s Leading Men benefit concert for Broadway Cares / Equity Fights AIDS, Zak performed onstage last Monday side by side with fellow “leading men” including Jonathan Groff (Tony nominee for Spring Awakening), Nick Adams (currently achieving major celebrity buzz in the Broadway cast of Guys and Dolls), and Michael Kadin Craig (now starring Off Broadway in Altar Boyz). Lest you miss the import of being included in this august group, let me remind you that previous Leading Men concerts have featured the talents of current stars including Matt Cavenaugh, Cheyenne Jackson, Aaron Lazar, Matthew Morrison, Hugh Panaro and Christopher Sieber.

You can catch Zak’s star-to-be turn on YouTube, singing "The Streets of Dublin" from A Man of No Importance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIBomyh5cAg. The last time I heard Zak sing this song was in the cabaret that the cast of Into the Woods performed on Barksdale’s Willow Lawn lobby stage to benefit the Richmond Theatre Artists Fund. This time he sounded just as great, but he was introduced by Tony nominee John Tartaglia (Avenue Q, Shrek The Musical). I loved hearing John announce to the packed Broadway audience that Zak would be appearing this summer at Barksdale Theatre in Richmond, VA.

Those of you who listen to the Broadway channel on SIRIUS satellite radio will be interested to know that Zak was accompanied by none other than Seth Rudetsky.

As the Broadway in Richmond series reopens this fall with David Copperfield’s magic show at the new CenterStage, it’s good to remember that more Richmonders get their Broadway at Barksdale than anywhere else. If you really want to catch Broadway stars past, present and future, head on downtown this summer for Thoroughly Modern Millie, and catch the Best of Broadway with the Benefits of Barksdale.

See you at the theatre!

--Bruce Miller

Happy Birthday to Linda and Harry!

Posted by Bruce Miller
Please join me in wishing a very Happy Birthday to two of Richmond’s greatest theatre scribes: Linda Escalera Baggs and Harry Kollatz, Jr. I’m privileged to call each of them my friend. Unlike their fellow birthday celebrant, J. R. R. Tolkien, Linda and Harry tend to base their writing on personal experience and history rather than fanciful acts of the imagination.

I first encountered Linda Baggs on a flight back from London in 2003. Phil and I had just led our first theatre trip abroad, and I was seated next to one of the maiden voyagers who had accompanied us, the wonderful Gerri Escalera. As we talked, she began telling me about her daughter Linda, who had recently left a successful advertising career to become a fulltime playwright. I remember being amazed that here was a mom talking about an adult child leaving a lucrative career to pursue a theatrical dream, and she sounded excited about it. “What a great mom!”, I thought.

And what a great daughter! One year later Barksdale produced Silent Heroes, a new play written by that daughter based on the “Marine wife” experiences of that mom.

Linda Escalera Baggs is one of Virginia’s foremost playwrights. Apparently theatre has been in her genes since her conception, but it took a while to bubble to the surface. Her grandmother was an actress born in Hollywood, but when push came to love Grandma gave up an opportunity to appear on Broadway and chose instead to marry Linda’s grandfather.

Linda’s father was a Marine, and so she spent her childhood moving frequently up and down the East Coast from one base to another. Linda wrote her first short story in the 4th grade as a present for her theatrically inclined granny, and immediately discovered that she loved to write. As she matured, Linda’s practical side convinced her artistic side that she should pursue a career in advertising, and so she did. For 18 years she earned a living, great acclaim, and a couple of ANDY’s and Clio’s writing commercials and assorted ad copy.

In 2000, she heard a funny story and her creative juices transformed it into a one-act play called Who’s Margaret?. When the Richmond Playwrights Forum selected the play for a public reading, and actors breathed life into her characters for the first time, the audience roared with laughter. Linda was hooked. She gave up advertising to pursue playwriting fulltime.

Now, three full-length plays, two short plays and three one-acts later, Linda has earned 18 nominations and awards, and 13 productions (including stagings in NYC, at Barksdale and at the Firehouse). Along with Paul Deiss, Doug Jones, Randy Strawderman, Bo Wilson and Irene Ziegler, Linda is one of the Virginia playwrights to whom Barksdale offers an on-going commitment. Hopefully we’ll see more of Linda’s work on one of Barksdale’s stages soon.

Until then, you can catch her show Silent Heroes opening next week on Jan 8 in New York City produced by the Round Table Ensemble. How cool a birthday present is that!?

Harry Kollatz Jr., I’ve decided, is my mirror image, only he looks good in hats and I don’t. And then there’s that little matter of him being more than a decade younger than me, but who’s counting?

Harry Kollatz and I are both Richmond natives. He graduated from VCU in 1986; I graduated from U of R in 1974. Harry co-founded the Firehouse in 1993; I co-founded Theatre IV in 1975. Harry married Richmond artist Amie Oliver in 1994; I married Richmond artist Terrie Powers in 1985. (Amie and Terrie are colleagues, friends, and alumnae of 1708.)

Harry earns his living writing for Richmond Magazine and publishing books; I earn my keep at Theatre IV writing plays for young audiences and grants. Harry’s most successful writing is inspired by local history (his regular column “Flashback” at Richmond Mag, his new book Richmond in Ragtime, his first book True Richmond Stories). Many of my most successful plays also are based on local history (Buffalo Soldier, The Maggie Walker Story, Arthur Ashe – Champion of Honor). Harry brought local history to life as an interpreter at the Valentine Museum; I did the same directing Do Lord Remember Me at the Valentine.

Harry was in the first acting company of the Playbooth Theatre on Palace Green in historic Williamsburg; my daughter Hannah was just accepted to William & Mary.

Harry keeps the blogosphere abuzz with The Blue Raccoon; I make my regular contributions to the b’o’sphere at the B’dale Buzz. Harry co-created the Theresa Pollak Awards for Excellence in the Arts in 1998. I won one in 2006.

All coincidence, or some twisted trick of the parallel universes? You decide.

Anyway, if you haven’t read one of Harry’s amazing books, you should. I’ve been a longtime fan of True Richmond Stories. Phil just bought his copy of Richmond in Ragtime: Socialists, Suffragists, Sex & Murder at a local book signing. I ordered mine today on Amazon.com.

Linda and Harry are invaluable assets to our Richmond theatre community. As they blow out their candles, we all wish them a wonderful 2009!

--Bruce Miller