Stage craft
By KAREN SHADE, 4/2/2006
The revival of "Poona . and Stories for Children (Not a Play for Children)," starring Kaycee Johnson, demonstrates that the ideal programming choice for the theater may be unorthodox, racy subjects. JAMES GIBBARD / Tulsa World
Troupes seek balance between artistic fare, audience favorites
Some theater groups like to carefully construct a season around themes and ideas, while others present shows still steaming from informal brain storm sessions among small groups of artists.
But whatever method Tulsa's theater companies use to arrive at a series of shows for the year, the stirrings often culminate in groups performing works meeting every mission statement, whether the desired effect be to entertain or to shock.
Theatre Tulsa's upcoming line up for 2006-2007, wears a familiar set of faces. All the plays are stories that have been told in movie theaters.
The season includes "The Women" by Clare Booth Luce (Sept. 22-30), "The Outsiders" based on the novel by S.E. Hinton and adapted by Christopher Sergel (Nov. 10-18), "As You Like It" by William Shakespeare (Feb. 9-17), "Lost in Yonkers" by Neil Simon (April 13-21) and "Clue: The Musical," based on the board game, with a book by Peter de Pietro (May 25-June 2). "Clue: The Movie" from 1985 starred Tim Curry and Madeline Kahn.
Missy Childs, chairwoman of Theatre Tulsa's board of directors, said next season will offer a variety of shows to please the company's season subscriber base (about 500 for the current season), but also entice new patrons.
"'The Women' is something several of us on the board have been asking for for sometime, so we were happy that that was on the selection list," she said. "We were looking for something that had an Oklahoma theme to it since it's the centennial coming up in 2007, and 'The Outsiders' seemed like a perfect fit for us."
"Simon's plays have served Theatre Tulsa well in the past, and to add a drop of frivolity, 'Clue: The Musical' was proposed.
"And 'As You Like It' is one of my favorite of Shakespeare's plays," Childs said.
Theatre Tulsa, which stages its productions at Tulsa Performing Arts Center, starts the season selection process in the fall with Vern Stefanic, company artistic director, as well as recruiting ideas from other supporters.
"He comes to us with a list and we kind of break it down in a board meeting. Then he takes suggestions from board members throughout the year and even patrons. Of course, they always like the Neil Simon stuff," Childs said.
Patrons often are the prime consideration in trying to create a balanced season, Stefanic said.
"You're trying to find a balance that serves the community. You want to be as artistically pure as possible, and the other line is providing what the community wants," Stefanic said. "When you do your own stuff and 12 people come to see it, what's the point?"
Heller Theatre, 5328 S. Wheeling Ave., operating beneath the umbrella of the City of Tulsa park department, plans ahead to meet budgeting demands.
Heller plans to announce its season (often heavy in contemporary pieces) soon after its board of directors has taken a final vote later this month, said Julie Tattershall, artistic director of Heller Theatre.
"We have five slots in the season and one for the winner of the original play contest," she said.
Original plays are one way to pare down expenses since royalty fees factor into the selection mix.
"For here, it's about $450-$500 per show," Tattershall said.
That is the cost for a mid-size theater, like Heller and its 50-seat house, to produce a show with an average two-weekend run. The cost goes up when more seats are added.
"It also depends on which (play publishing) company you're using, but usually if its under 100 seats, you've got the cheapest royalties available," Tattershall said.
The nonprofit Heller Theatre Council helps absorb some of that cost with fundraiser events and shows.
For a company renting time and space in the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, royalty costs for an average-run show can total between $60 and $150 per performance. Musicals are even more expensive, sometimes running into thousands of dollars.
Theatre Tulsa tries to have at least one musical a season, Childs said.
With so much money on the line, Theatre Tulsa has started asking patrons to fill out questionnaires so the company can learn more about its audience. So far, the company has largely selected play titles considered dependable - proven works that have appealed to mass audiences looking for comfortable entertainment.
"That's probably a very good word. Reliable. Comfortable. I was interested to see on some of the questionnaires that people really wanted to see more comedy. That's what they turn out for," Childs said.
Theatre Club started in 2000 when Craig Walter and Scott Heberling found they had an artistic goal in common.
"Scott and I started this, and our interests are not identical, but they overlap in the absurdists. We wanted to see Beckett and Ionesco. Things that no one was doing, Edward Albee, things like that," Walter said.
Walter said Theatre Club's firm production plans include Eugene Ionesco's one-act plays "The Bald Soprano" and "The Lesson," in a double-bill set to run in June at the Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St., and "The Pillowman" from Martin McDonagh in November.
Everything else between June and November is up in the air, but Walter said less baggage allows the troupe to produce a show at nearly a moment's notice. He prefers it that way.
"We've kept it small purposely. We don't want any money. We don't want big stuff. We can do the shows we want the way we want now. When you get boards and you get grants and all this stuff and you're paying people's salaries, suddenly you can't do what you want to do," Walter said.
"Suddenly you have to do that play that's going to make you some money, and we've avoided that happily," he said. "Crowds - the more the merrier - but we're just kind of a vanity production. We do what we like."
Theatre Club has a board of directors to maintain its nonprofit status, but many of its board members are active contributors to the group's productions - actors, directors, designers. The group has first call on the titles Theatre Club presents.
"It's all very informal, but we're constantly asking people their opinions. I really, really don't want this to be the 'Craig and Scott Show,' " Walter said.
Walter, who also works with other groups in town, said he is happy to participate in more mainstream works, and there is room for stagings to meet all tastes.
"I've played Neil Simon happily, but no one else needs to do Neil Simon. That's covered. Big musicals - we (Theatre Club) don't need to do that. Someone else is going to do that," Walter said.
Because Theatre Club doesn't have its own theater space (the group usually performs at the Nightingale Theater), the group has to plan ahead.
Many of the titles in Nightingale Theater's season are a mystery, or if you've heard of them, the staging likely will not be what you expect.
John Cruncleton, owner of the Nightingale Theater along with his wife, Sara Cruncleton, and friends Jeff and Amber Whitlatch, said Nightingale also listens to an active group of artists tied to the troupe.
Often using the title Midwestern Theater Company, the group has been housed in its own space for the last five years, presenting original and oftentimes bizarre works.
Although the practical considerations can't be ignored, the owners find that balancing art and product doesn't have to feel as unpleasant as a ride on a splintered see-saw.
"We tend to do projects that are brought to us by contributing artists. In other words, the director will want to do a show . . . and he'll pitch it to us, basically," John Cruncleton said. "We have a nine-show season, which is basically a 12-month season."
Presenting year round is a financial necessity, Sara Cruncleton said.
"We have to keep shows coming just as fast as we can," she said. "We have a few small grants here and there, and we're working toward some larger grants to help out. The best thing we've found is just getting as many shows as possible in, and that helps keep the mortgage paid."
For John Cruncleton, the situation is "peculiar," allowing Nightingale the largest number of shows of any theater group in town. The downside, he said, is that the quality of productions can suffer without adequate preparation.
"We have a space we're trying to support with it. It would be cool sometimes to just concentrate on three or four shows a year and really do them up to their maximum potential. But there's also a charm in having a constant deadline. I can see the romance in both ways, and I've learned a lot having a deadline," Cruncleton said.
In the future, Nightingale may be able to scale back its "season," depending on how profitable its shows are. The group may even try again to offer season subscriptions.
"We tried to do it years ago, but it didn't really get off the ground because we didn't promote it very well . . . It would be a good place to get to," he said.
The group recently brought back "Poona . . . and Other Children Stories," which was successful when it premiered at the Nightingale two years ago. The revival in February also was successful, demonstrating that the ideal programming choice for this theater may be unorthodox, racy subjects.
"'Poona' was a fun project artistically. It's a crowd pleaser and it has a solid box office performance. We did it twice, but I don't feel like were selling out so much because we were enjoying ourselves and learning. I think we did a better production the second time around . . . We always want to excel artistically," Cruncleton said.
Up next for the group is this month's "The Cyclops," a shadow puppet show based on the Greek play by Euripides. In late summer, the troupe will stage "Sex Habits of American Women" and Ovid's "Metamorpheses." No matter how the company is organized, groups tend to have at least one thing in common.
"What we try to do is find theater that matters to people," Stefanic said, "theater that makes a connection. We want our audiences to walk away thinking something new, thinking in a different way."