Maria Ricossa, Audrey Dwyer and Joel Greenberg rehearsing Clybourne Park (photo credit: Robert Harding)
The Art of Avoiding Panic
Studio 180, and its Artistic Director Joel Greenberg, are everywhere this year. This season, however, they are cementing their already solid reputation in the city with revivals of two of their works. One is the insanely praised The Normal Heart, the other - as part of Mirvish's new season - Clybourne Park.
CHARPO: We understand there is a good story behind getting the rights for the Normal Heart. Care to share it?
GREENBERG: During the 2011 run of our production of The Normal Heart, which was exactly a year ago, we felt that there was more audience eager to see the play. As is so often the case in Toronto (and maybe everywhere?), we couldn’t extend the run because Buddies In Bad Times was already booked. We spoke to the Company about a re-mount for this Fall, and everyone was on board.
What I thought was a simple phone call to arrange for the performing rights became a five month conversation with the American producers who had successfully brought the play to Broadway in the Spring of 2011. Their production won the Tony award for Best Revival Of A Play, and they planned a National tour during the 2012-13 season. Toronto was on their list of preferred cities.
They were aware of the success we’d had with Larry Kramer’s masterpiece and they understood our desire to bring it back. The conversations with them were all entirely cordial and open but the producers weren’t prepared to release Toronto. Our company was kept up-to-date with the ongoing discussions and, at the same time, Studio 180 was looking for other projects as part of the 2012-13 season. I found it was very hard to get excited about replacement choices. Finally, in late March of this year, after I made a call to say that we were really at the point of having to give up any thought of a re-mount, the New York folks released the rights to us.
At the outset, when they withheld the rights, they said that they would know their own plans by the Spring. Hearing that in November felt a long, long time away. Happily for Studio 180, the entire company, save for one actor who was moving out West, was still ready and eager to proceed. As I write this, we have just finished the third day of rehearsals. We have our first audience on October 19 and we run until November 18.
It’s always a major boost to be on the receiving end of this kind of conversation.
CHARPO: Who approached who for the new Mirvish season?
GREENBERG: I was approached by David Mucci and JohnKarastamatis at Mirvish Productions with the idea of bringing Clybourne Park to the Panasonic Theatre as part of the new off-Mirvish series. I was also introduced to Linda Intaschi, an Associate Producer at Mirvish, who joined the conversation as we discussed budget details. Re-assembling the entire team took a bit of juggling, but I'm happy to say we have everyone back.
Mirvish Productions presented our production of ‘Stuff Happens’ at the Royal Alexandra Theatre as part of their larger subcription series in 2009 so they know us and our work. It’s always a major boost to be on the receiving end of this kind of conversation.
CHARPO: So right now your company - and you - are dealing with preparing Normal Heart and Clybourne Park. How do you juggle all this as well as doing PR (like this very interview) and...er…living?
GREENBERG: We have a break between shows – not much, but there is a breathing space. The challenge here is that we hadn’t even considered a re-mount of Clybourne Park and it came to us very late in our own planning.
It would be fairer to say that we had no such plan in mind and the conversation, when it began, came with a very very fast deadline. The juggling has been intense but I am hoping that once we have all the fundamental pieces in place, the rest will follow with a degree of calm and order. That’s what we say to avoid encroaching panic I guess – since we have the original team back and ready.
Living? I’m not so good with that piece, I have to admit. My two young granddaughters provide me with the opportunity to gain perspective and to really let the work alone for an hour or two at a time.
CHARPO: What's next for you and for Studio 180?
GREENBERG:
Reading plays all the time, talking with other companies – we strive to find partners to co-produce with, but this is harder than I would have thought. To date, we’ve managed one co-production, Parade, with Acting Upstage. After having been a Berkeley Street partner with Canadian Stage for four years, we are now as nomadic as ever we were, so looking for a home base is a primary focus for all of us and our Board – not a home we can buy and thereafter have to maintain and sustain, but a home where we can present our work and where audiences can know where we are.
It never stops being about what’s next, does it?
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