 
|
|||||||||
              
|
On Stage: News swirls around the Playhouse
Wednesday, February 24, 1999 By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Critic
News happens in clusters, no doubt about it. Most recently, in this department, it clustered around the Playhouse.
The sad coincidence of the deaths of Jim Prescott, 60 (died Feb. 2), and Mark Lewis, 79 (died Feb. 6), brought back a flood of Playhouse memories. Both men led the Point Park Performing Arts Department and served as Playhouse producers, Prescott succeeding Lewis.
Then, that very week, actor Charles Durning came to town with his vivid memories of the 1966 John Hancock company that followed William Ball's A.C.T. in the Playhouse's most famous (and famously aborted) attempt at cutting-edge professional theater.
And all those memories were poignant background for the bold new Playhouse plans fleshed out last week by the newest chief of the Playhouse and Point Park program, Ron Lindblom.
So the PG has been abloom with Playhouse news these last three weeks, some unhappy, some hopeful. But the sequence seems about right: Grieving, then reminiscing (with more than a few laughs), then striding bravely into the future. It's a cliché, but let's say it anyway: Both Lewis and Prescott must be pleased to see what the latter affectionately called "that old whore" being spruced up for new adventures.
Both would also approach Lindblom's plan with caution, of course, born of their own rich experience of Playhouse catastrophes, noting warily the programming similarities between these new plans and the heady days of the mid-'60s. But let's hope the world is different today. The Pittsburgh audience, while certainly smaller (Pittsburgh has shrunk, if you've noticed), is certainly more broad minded and adventuresome today. More importantly, Point Park is stronger, especially its performing arts: Lindblom has institutional backing that wasn't there in the '60s.
By the way, there were a few errors in Mark Lewis' PG obituary. In spite of his crucial role in Playhouse developments from the late '60s on, he cannot really be said to have helped found A.C.T., which was a joint project of the Playhouse and CMU, presided over by Playhouse manager Richard Hoover. And the initial Playhouse summer film series in 1957 was put together by Hoover and Arthur Manson - what Lewis did was expand it into a year-round series in 1968. That first fall, his film coordinator, who later ran the series, was a rather younger Richard Rauh, just to give you an idea how old he is. (And I arrived in Pittsburgh that very fall to teach at Pitt, to give you an idea how old I am.)
PLANETARY SHIFT: Speaking of clusters, some astrological conjunction of Pluto (money), Mercury (p.r.) and Thespis (theater - a small, obscure planet) must have decreed that last week was the time to unveil future plans. Joining the Playhouse in announcing next year's schedule, even if only tentatively, were Public, City and Gargaro - in all, two-thirds of what we can now call Pittsburgh's pro theater Big Six. (The CLO follows a different schedule and we should soon hear from the Broadway Series.)
Fortunately, Shakespeare wrote a sonnet on the subject, an early version of his 73rd:
That time of year thou mayst in us behold,
When seasons new we dream, a brimming cup
With something for them all, both new and old,
But nothing blue - we want them to re-up.
EXPORT: Actress and mother of seven, Mary Harvey, along with her husband and their entire brood, are spending a year in Kinsale, County Cork. As if she didn't have enough to do, Mary auditioned for the Everyman Palace Theater in Cork City and was hired (a rarity for an outlander) for two roles in "Rashomon," now on tour. Friend Melissa Martin tells me the reviews have been great.
BOTTOM LINE: Paid admissions at city's professional theaters for week ending Feb. 21:
Chicago/Benedum (57%) 13,018
Gross Indecency/City (91%) 991
FINAL WORDS: "There is no sin but stupidity." - Oscar Wilde.
|
||||||||
