What Audiences Are Saying About GOOD PEOPLE

Have you seen Good People? Please share your comments with us.

• What was your experience like seeing Good People in Boston? Did the characters and setting feel familiar to you? How did that affect your enjoyment of the production? 

• Who do you think are the "good people" in this play?

• Did you attend a post-show conversation? What comments surprised you or made you think differently about the play? Would you attend a post-show conversation again? What were you thinking about on the way home from the theatre?

Make a comment

The Huntington Theatre Company's production of Good People plays through October 14, 2012 at the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre. Get tickets and information or call our Box Office at 617 266-0800.

Michael Maso on the Death of John Silber

We learned today that John Silber passed away early this morning. As transformative a figure as Dr. Silber was to Boston University, he was even more critical to the Huntington, which would not have come into being without his personal determination that the City of Boston have a world-class resident theatre. When asked why he would invest the University's resources in what might be perceived as a risky proposition, he said "If Boston University can support a football team, it can damn well support a theatre company!"

Thirty years later the Huntington is an independent organization, but our strategic partnership with and support from BU continues to this day. Over 3.5 million people have seen more than 180 productions since the Huntington's founding in 1982, and 450,000 young people have been served by our education and community programs. The Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, which the Huntington built and opened in 2004, would not exist if the Huntington had not been founded by BU 22 years earlier, and a proud John Silber was with us at its dedication.

I last saw John about a year ago when he attended our production of Candide, which he greatly admired. I look forward to finding a way to honor him and his role in the founding of the Huntington in the coming weeks, and I take great pleasure in knowing that the service to BU and to Greater Boston that he envisioned for us over 30 years ago continues stronger than ever. As you can see from his obituary on Boston.com, the founding of the Huntington is recognized as an important part of John Silber's legacy.

The Huntington family and I send my deepest sympathy and condolences to the entire Silber family.

-- Michael Maso, Managing Director

A Dispatch from GOOD PEOPLE Rehearsal: Week 2

Melanie Garber

We now find ourselves about halfway through our rehearsal process for Good People. The clarity of story is becoming a reality onstage. In a constant effort to serve the play, we comb through the complex layers of each scene, and at times even each beat, which continues to fuel a wonderful sense of discovery for the artists in the room.

For the actors who are representing Southie natives, a focus on keeping things light and funny, no matter how actually horrible circumstances might be, permeates the room. This approach seems to be the ultimate modus operandi of Good People. Characters taunt and tease each other as a form of entertainment.

The concept of back story keeps emerging, almost, in its own right, as another one of the characters. Do the choices we make really inform our social status? Economically speaking? Are people who are happy just lucky? How does our past affect our present? I suppose it depends how much we hold onto it…

Until next week…

- Melanie Garber, Assistant to the Director, Good People

 

The Huntington Theatre Company's production of Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire runs September 14 - October 14, 2012 on the Avenue of the Arts / BU Theatre, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115. Tickets and information here or call our Box Office at 617 266 0800.

Tessitura: More Than Your Average Software Conference

Contributed by Lisa McColgan, Annual Fund Coordinator

 

I recently got back from a software conference where - in addition to making a presentation in which the red sheep from Candide were prominently featured - I ate meals in a giant ballroom with around 1,200 arts administrators, pocketed several teeny-weeny bottles of Tabasco from the buffet line, and performed in a rock band on the flight deck of the storied USS Midway.

One generally doesn't equate "software conference" with "a real good time." That is, unless one works with Tessitura.

Tessitura is "the leading enterprise-wide, fully integrated software system for arts and cultural organizations." It was originally developed by, and for, The Metropolitan Opera. Once they realized what a good thing they had, they decided it would be silly not to share it. The Huntington has been using Tessitura since 2004. How popular is it becoming? Well, at the first Tessitura conference I attended (here in Boston in 2005), there were 550 attendees representing about 90 organizations. This year, in San Diego, there were over 1,200 folks from over 350 organizations in 6 different countries. Chances are, if you've bought a ticket, made a donation, or asked to be sent information about an upcoming performance, you've indirectly dealt with Tessitura.