AMERICAN THEATRE: That play was called Could I Have This Dance, and she got it and it was a wonderful production with rave reviews and many awards, including the American Theatre Critics Association giving the Steinberg New Play Award in 1992. I have since seen that play produced in regional theatres across the country (and Off-Off-Broadway), and Barbara’s production at the Colony was what I call “star-flight”: It just soared every night.
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It must be incredible to have someone like Barbara Buckley approach you and ask for you show on the spot. I think what made her so successful was her attention to detail but also her ability to fit that detail in to the big picture of each show season and the larger artistic direction of the Colony Theatre. I really admire her and enjoyed reading about her and her impact on The Colony Theatre. I think especially in regional theatres, there are not a lot of women at the top of the food chain, at least in my experience, which is kind of surprising. Reading this article made me think a lot about my future and what legacy and impact I want to leave behind in the industry or if I will ever leave a legacy behind. I think it would be super cool to be an artistic director someday.
The bit about her fine-tuning the cricket sound effects? That’s some next-level dedication. It made me think of how in filmmaking, sound designers spend hours perfecting footsteps or background noise that most people won’t consciously notice—but they feel it. In theatre, just like in film or music, those little choices build the entire experience. It’s like how a painter carefully layers colors to create depth, or how a songwriter tweaks a single note in a melody to make it hit just right. And her personal connection with the audience? That’s rare. It’s easy to see theatre as a one-way thing—the artists create, the audience watches. But Barbara made it personal. She knew her subscribers, their lives, their stories. It reminds me of interactive art installations or immersive theatre, where the boundary between artist and audience disappears. She wasn’t just putting on plays; she was building a community. Then there’s the part where she casually changed the trajectory of a playwright’s career just by believing in the work and recommending it. That’s something you hear about in old-school artistic circles—like how Picasso hyped up other artists, or how certain jazz musicians mentored and lifted each other up. It’s that pure “art supporting art” energy, and it’s kind of rare these days.
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