What's the history of the Huntington's relationship with commercial producers?

Peter DuBois

by Peter DuBois

The Boston Globe reported recently on an upcoming study about the partnership between the non-profit-theatre and commercial producers. The study was sponsored by the Center for Theater Commons at Emerson College and written by Diane Ragsdale.

With respect to the Huntington, its true that we occasionally collaborate with commercial producers, and we believe that this can be accomplished in ways that stay on mission.

I encourage you to read the Globe article and to think about your own response to the questions raised. The Globe reported a short overview of our history of collaborations that involved commercial producers. In the interest of transparency and adding additional facts to the conversation, here's the full history of the Huntington's relationship with commercial producers, dating back to the our founding.

What do you think about the relationship between non-profit theatres and commercial producers? If you're an audience member, do you think it's impacted your experience at the Huntington?

My tenure: 5 seasons, 3 projects scheduled in collaboration with commercial producers (one dropped out before production), and one co-produced with a New York-based non-profit 

2012-2013 Season
Our Town
In collaboration with an Off Broadway commercial producer

2011 – 2012 Season 
Sons of the Prophet
Co-production with New York-based non-profit

Captors
In collaboration with an outside producer

2008-2009 Season
Pirates! 
Scheduled with the with the participation of an outside producer who ultimately pulled out before production

The Nicholas Martin years: 8 seasons, 7 projects in collaboration with commercial producers including 3 with Broadway in Boston

2007-2008 Season
Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps
West-End transfer transferred directly to Broadway

2006-2007 Season
Radio Golf
Pre-Broadway production with commercial producers involved

2004-2005 Season
Gem of the Ocean
Pre-Broadway production with commercial producers involved

2003-2004 Season
As You Like It
Commercial touring production co-produced with Broadway in Boston

2002-2003 Season
Marty 
Produced in collaboration with commercial producers

2001-2002 Season
Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Toward the Somme
Produced in association with Broadway in Boston, direct transfer to Lincoln Center Theatre

2000-2001 Season
Fully Committed
Produced in association with Broadway in Boston

The Peter Altman years: 18 seasons, 7 projects in collaboration with commercial producers

1999-2000 Season
King Hedley
Produced in collaboration with commercial producers

1998-1999 Season
Jitney
Produced in collaboration with commercial producers, no commercial run

1995-1996 Season
Seven Guitars
Produced in collaboration with commercial producers, pre-Broadway run

The Young Man from Atlanta
Enhanced by commercial producers, ran on Broadway in 1997

1992-1993 Season
Pal Joey
Enhanced by commercial producers

1990-1991 Season
Two Trains Running
Produced in collaboration with commercial producers, pre-Broadway run

1987-1988 Season
The Piano Lesson
Produced in collaboration with commercial producers, pre-Broadway run

Rehearsal Dispatch: NOW OR LATER

Omar Robinson

by Omar Robinson, Assistant to the Director

One of the many wonderful things about this rehearsal process is how we start the day. Usually, after enough of us have entered the rehearsal hall, someone will ask, "Did you see the news from last night?" or "You catch that interview this morning?" These conversations lead directly into those about what's going on in the political world of Now or Later and how the events of the play align so closely with what's happening in our country today.

Last Tuesday we watched President Obama's address to the United Nations together. Many of his points touched upon issues raised in Now or Later, specifically Obama's bold defense of freedom of expression - something John, Jr. (the play's protagonist) fervently fights for throughout the play. Between our current presidential race and the controversy surrounding the recent anti-Islam film, we're finding so many parallels to the play that it's beginning to get a little eerie. (My working theory is that playwright Christopher Shinn is mildly clairvoyant.) Come see the show and see what I'm talking about.

Now or Later plays at the Huntington's Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA October 12 - November 10, 2012. Get tickets and information or call our Box Office at 617 266 0800.

Producing Without a Net

Lisa Timmel,
Director of New Work

by Lisa Timmel

Last spring, in a highly unusual artistic leap of faith, Peter DuBois made an offer to Gold Dust Orphans mastermind and Huntington Playwriting Fellow Ryan Landry: the Huntington would give Ryan a production slot to do whatever he wanted. With little time to waste, Ryan got to work, handing in an early draft of the new project about six weeks later.

The resulting play (though the word "play" hardly seems to contain the exuberant clash of the ridiculous and the sublime happening on the page) is "M", a fantastically funny and astonishingly challenging deconstructed adaptation of the Fritz Lang movie of the same name.  Since this is a new play, we've scheduled a series of developmental readings and workshops where the artists working on the production read the play together and discuss what works, what doesn't, what should change, and what shouldn't. All last week, a cast and crew of twenty (including a puppeteer) spent their days in a workshop designed to help sketch out the free-wheeling, physical flow of the show.

It was a crazy week. 

Ryan's aesthetic trades in highly theatrical mash-ups of cultural touchstones. In his Gold Dust Orphans productions, the veddy, veddy highbrow meets the verrrry, verrrry low.  For five days, Ryan, director Caitlin Lowans, the cast, and a whole phalanx of dramaturgs worked scenes, listened to read-throughs, incorporated rewrites, and talked, talked, talked. True to Ryan's idea that "the lowest form of comedy and the highest form of struggling with our existence can come together on stage," these discussions have teased out the deep existential panic that underlies the more farcical elements of the play.

Best of all were the hours the actors were up on their feet, experimenting with style, timing, and physicality. Ryan's dramaturgy has deep roots in the high camp style of The Theatre of the Ridiculous, rather than the staid psychological realism of most new plays. This means that more than with most rehearsal processes, the actors have been finding the play with their bodies, transforming from one character to another via posture and voice. Landry likes to remind us that the world of the play "...is not an essay; it's music." 

"M" plays at the Huntington's Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA March 29 - April 27, 2013. Get tickets and information or call our Box Office at 617 266 0800.