How did she do it? Benesch says she looked to another theatre leader for inspiration: David Dower, co-artistic director of ArtsEmerson in Boston. “My bible, I will say, was David’s article in HowlRound two seasons ago about season programming,” she explains. “One of the things he said was: There is no more important public statement of a theatre’s mission and value statement than the program itself. What is the work that you’re doing?”
2 comments:
Although the article is mainly about choosing perfect theater seasons, there is something else that sticks out from the article. I LOVE that more diversity is brought into the artistic director level because diversity in the leadership certainly trickles down to the production team and the artistic team, not to mention diversity in the season selection. Although the audience base may not be as responsive to the newly introduced diversity, there are examples that new and diverse seasons can sustain regional theaters. Berkeley Rep has a reputation for it. If risking the subscription rate is not viable, what Joseph Haj did in Guthrie theater can be a stellar model. Implement the changes from backstage so the audience members are not exposed to the changes abruptly and reflect the changes gradually to the front of the stage. The changes in the leadership are well deserved and long awaited changes but also it is about time that theaters actually jump in and actively advocate for diversity.
I was interested by my own reaction while reading this article. I kept cheering when people were steering away from the classics, but when reading the last section on Joseph Haj at the Guthrie and why he chose the shows he did, I agreed with him. Classics are classics for a reason. They resonate in the long term and still are applicable today. Classics are like science fiction. It is easier for an audience to hear social commentary when it is a little removed from the present. We can hear hard truths when they are slightly divorced from the present. Also all classics were at some point new works. Ibsen was radical. Arthur Miller wrote the new hot plays. They have only become classics through their longevity. By that same reasoning, we should program new plays too because they are exactly talking about the issues of the present and some of those new plays and upstart playwrights will be tomorrow’s classics.
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