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Press & News The Art Behind Choosing a Season A Chat with Sara Garonzik, Producing Artistic Director, and Warren Hoffman, Literary Manager
August 2006
Warren — Sara, with so many plays floating about out there, both those that are brand new and other that have received productions elsewhere, how do you begin to sort through the shear amount of options? Sara — Since our mission is to produce the world or regional premieres of the most significant new American plays or musicals, the playing field is pretty much defined. Throughout the year we receive hundreds of scripts from playwrights or their agents (most of which you read, Warren!) that need to be carefully considered. We also attend new play readings, workshops, and festivals throughout the country and I spend a lot time on the phone speaking to directors, producers, and other theater companies. From all of this input, a season eventually gets chosen. It is important to me that each season demonstrates the genius and diversity of the contemporary American playwright. We also want to take the audience on a journey from October through June so they experience a veritable banquet of plays and musicals in terms of style and theme. In many ways I feel that we are in a constant dialogue with the public both locally and nationally and I want each and every selection we make to advance the "conversation" as it were. I never want us to repeat ourselves or offer work that is not taking audiences to the newest and most interesting places possible. Warren — Let's talk about the current season. What shows came into place first? How did the selection of the first few shows impact what the rest of the season would look like? Sara — Last year, as part of our 30th Anniversary season, we invited our long-time subscribers and donors to a special reading of Jeffrey Hatcher's newest play Murderers. As frequent producers of his plays, we were especially eager to hear how audiences reacted to it. They (and we) just loved it, and we knew wanted to produce it fully this year. So that took care of one selection. For the last several years, we have been producing new musicals which have become a special pleasure for us and a great expansion of our mission (what is more indigenously American than musicals after all?). When we were told about Nerds://A Musical Software Satire and heard a selection of six delightful songs, we jumped at it. The season continued developing when we saw the production of In the Continuum co-written and co-starring the gifted Danai Gurira (an actress who had been in our production of The Story two seasons ago) and Nikkole Salter. The vibrancy and sheer theatricality of their performances just knocked me out and while the play can certainly be considered "new" and "American," its concerns are global which I find very politically compelling. We had read Orson's Shadow, a clever backstage drama by Austin Pendleton, in our STAGES new play reading program a few years ago. We would have produced it then, but that same year another local theater company had produced a play about Orson Welles so I felt the subject had been exhausted in the press. This, our final season at the Plays & Players Theater, seemed to be our year to move ahead with it. Since our reading of Orson's Shadow, Austin has revised and tightened the script. It also received a very successful Off-Broadway production. Warren — The season opens with Murderers by Jeffrey Hatcher. Was the fact that you produced three other plays by Jeffrey a deciding factor in choosing to do this show? Sara — We have always been big fans of Jeff's work so every time he has something new, I rush to read it. I enjoy the fact that we have hosted a number playwrights here for several of their plays. I like to provide a feeling of "home" and foster an environment of trust. I am also proud to offer playwrights like Jeffrey Hatcher really smart, cosmopolitan audiences. It makes them write at the top of their game! Warren — We're also producing Nerds, a new musical this season by relatively unknown, but fantastically creative writers. What made you choose this project and is it at all scary territory to enter given that this is a brand new work? Sara — Every time you agree to develop and produce a world premiere play or musical it is a risk! It doesn't really matter if the playwright or composer is seasoned or simply "emerging," as we say about newer artists. I think it all boils down to the material itself and the instinctive, gut-level excitement you need to feel about a project. In the case of Nerds://A Musical Software Satire, the subject matter concerning Bill Gates and Steve Jobs filled us with glee and the songs we heard were exceptionally wonderful, and so we decided to make the leap! Warren — In the Continuum was co-written and co-stars Danai Gurira who was in Philadelphia Theatre Company's 2005 production of The Story. Did that have any impact on you deciding to choose this show? Sara — When Danai was performing in The Story (as a middle class teen posing as a gang leader), she told me one day backstage that she and a colleague from her NYU days were working on a script about the AIDS epidemic here and in Africa and that they were seeking a director. I wished her well and told her to feel free to send the script to us anytime. The next thing I knew, the two women not only had their director, but a promise to mount it at Off-Broadway's Primary Stages. Not long after, it opened to fantastic reviews and then transferred to Perry Street Theatre, becoming what they call "a sleeper hit." I do feel a certain kinship to In the Continuum because of Danai, but, frankly it is simply such an exuberant piece of theater, that we would have presented it regardless! Warren — Orson's Shadow will be Philadelphia Theatre Company's final production at the Plays and Players Theater, where the organization has spent the majority of its history. Did this fact at all impact your decision to choose this show for the final slot? Sara — I must admit that when I read the final few lines where the actors are on the empty stage of an old theater saying goodnight to the audience, it resonated with me. This is our last season at Plays and Players Theater before moving to our brand new Suzanne Roberts Theatre and the sentimentalist in me thought that this last scene would be a lovely leave-taking for us. |
Press & News
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