Stage 1 Did Everything Right

Posted by Bruce Miller
Don’t get me wrong. By design, no theatre company is perfect. The minute art becomes perfect it ceases to be art. So when I suggest that Stage 1 did everything right, I’m talking about process, not product.

As most if not all of you have heard by now, Stage 1 Theatre Company is closing its doors. There is no mystery here. Chase Kniffen, founding artistic director, comes right out and says it. Stage 1 is closing due to insufficient financial resources.

This should surprise no one. Nonetheless it does. “How can other companies continue,” some ask, “while Stage 1, which has produced four hit musicals in a row, finds it necessary to fold its tent?”

The answer is simple. From day 1 Stage 1 has operated at a level of professionalism that exceeded that of other fledgling companies. I'm not talking professional intent; I'm talking money.

Stage 1 had its own theatre with enough lighting and sound equipment to stand toe to toe with companies far more established. Chase hired actors, designers and music directors from Richmond’s top tier. If a score called for five musicians, Chase hired five musicians. He aspired to create first class sets and costumes, and produced some memorable designs (and outstanding shows) even while the nonprofit company was still completely wet behind the ears.

I challenge anyone to name any other Richmond theatre company that has worked at this level during its first season, or its second. Or third. The only ones I can think of are Swift Creek Mill, which when it opened in 1965 was a privately funded commercial operation, and perhaps the Renaissance Theatre, which I know only through hearsay. The Renaissance was created in the late 50s when two of Barksdale's original founders split off to start their own company, which burned brightly for two seasons before closing in financial disarray.

The Virginia Museum Theatre (1955) and StageCenter (approx 1970) both started at a high level of professionalism in most departments, but neither paid their actors. VMT was funded by no less a resource than the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and StageCenter was funded in full by the recent inheritance of Tom Crane-Baker, one of its cofounders. When that inheritance ran out, so did StageCenter.

Professional theatre is what Chase knows. It challenges and inspires him; he is committed to it. From his own accounting, he has little interest in working within the artistic limitations that come with a shoestring budget.

Good for him! One can argue (I certainly do) that Richmond needs more shoestring theatres far less than it needs more major professional productions that will finally give our theatre community as a whole the national standing it's always longed for and never quite achieved.

Stage 1 and all who had the privilege of being involved with it lit up the Richmond theatre scene with ambition, youthful energy, passion and talent. And Stage 1’s driving forces achieved everything they set out to achieve. They broke no promises. When it became obvious that what they had created was a $300,000 theatre with a $200,000 budget (I’m sort of making these numbers up, but I’ll bet I’m close), they had the wisdom and maturity to call it a day.

Nothing is lost. The energy and drive and vision of Stage 1 will continue to live on and ignite the Richmond theatre scene for years to come.

I know, easy for me to say. A new venture is no more; a promise-in-the-making has been put to rest. I in no way mean to belittle the broken hearts which always accompany such difficult decisions.

But as a community of support let's not misperceive that a flame has been extinguished. All that talent is still here. The brightest days lie ahead.

Lessons to be learned? Who knows, who cares? Theatres aren't about answers; they're about questions.

As the incomparable Peter Brook wisely said, “Every audience has the theatre it deserves.” Those of us who care about professional theatre in Greater Richmond need to pull in the same direction. We need to buy tickets. We need to make contributions. We need to lobby our local and state governments to measure up to national standards regarding public support for the arts.

And as that lover of life Edna St. Vincent Millay rapturously penned, “My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night. But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends…It gives a lovely light.”

Let us all celebrate the lovely light that was and is Stage 1, and rejoice that all of its candles are still within our midst.

(Photos: Robyn O'Neill in Summer of '42, Brett Ambler and Durron Tyre in tick, tick ... BOOM!, Cooper Timberline in Children's Letters to God, Julie Fulcher and Ali Thibodeau in Normal, Ali Thibodeau and Chase Kniffen at Ragtime: In Concert)

--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