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Pittsburgh Public Theater director energized for challenge
Tuesday, October 05, 1999 By Christopher Rawson, Post-Gazette Drama Editor
The Pittsburgh Public Theater yesterday introduced Ted Pappas as its artistic director designate. When he steps into the job next summer, he will become the company's fifth artistic leader in its 25 years, succeeding Edward Gilbert, who announced last December that the 1999-2000 season would be his last.
Pappas will share company leadership with Stephen Klein, who continues as managing director.
Although in some ways a predictable choice, Pappas, 46, also brings an unlikely background to the job. Noted mainly as a director of musicals, he'd be a more obvious match for the Civic Light Opera; though an experienced itinerant choreographer and director, he has never run his own theater; and his taste in non-musical drama includes a passion for the Greek classics, which have never been part of the Public's fare.
But Pappas is also a known quantity, because he has directed six shows for Gilbert at the Public in as many seasons. The seventh will be "The Pirates of Penzance," the company's second offering (in January) in its new O'Reilly Theater, Downtown.
Yesterday, Pappas summed up his feelings: "It's a brand new job and a brand new theater, but it's also like coming home."
"This is the next stage in my career," he said in an earlier interview. "I want to build a body of work. I've been a guest [director] in so many places, I'd now like to be a host. I love the idea of creating not just a season but a series of seasons, a long-term adventure for an audience."
In introducing Pappas, William E. Hunt, president of the Public's board, described an extensive national search. Its preliminary stage, in which headhunter Len Alexander not only recruited but helped the Public "focus on what we needed," ended up with 46 qualified candidates. Hunt says there was a great deal of national interest because of the Public's state-of-the-art O'Reilly Theater (opening in December), more than $10 million endowment, 25-year history, willingness to take artistic chances, upcoming premiere of August Wilson's "King Hedley II" and, finally, "Pittsburgh itself."
Eight candidates were interviewed. When the list was narrowed to three, the search committee was expanded, and then the choice of Pappas was put before the full 57-member board.
In an earlier interview, Pappas said. "In one respect, it was an advantage that they knew me, knew I was a good guy. But there is also something very seductive about the unknown."
What moved the committee, Hunt said, was Pappas' "tremendous enthusiasm in interviews. He sees the new theater as a beehive of activity, 18 hours a day. He has a wonderful presence: You want an artistic director who can speak for the organization."
Chief among Pappas' credits are his many directing stints, primarily musicals, at Connecticut's Goodspeed Opera House, the New York City Opera, Toronto's Royal Alexandra Theatre and the Chautauqua Opera, among others. He started as a choreographer at such New York theaters as Circle in the Square, Classic Stage, Minetta Lane and Playwrights Horizons.
Pappas' work as guest director at the Public was all musicals -- "Wings," "Fifty Million Frenchmen," "Sweeney Todd," "Falsettos" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" -- until last year, when Gilbert showed his confidence by having him direct the non-musical "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"
That assignment was made before Gilbert announced his intended departure. But asked yesterday whether he had purposefully given Pappas a chance to audition for the artistic directorship, Gilbert said, "I did have an opinion [on his successor], and I expressed it in the way that I could." Gilbert further complimented Pappas by giving him the slot in the O'Reilly right after the August Wilson world premiere.
By phone this weekend, Pappas marveled on "this incredible coincidence of timing" -- just as he was re-examining where he wanted to be in his career, this artistic directorship opening up at a theater he had come to regard as an artistic home.
"I feel I've been inadvertently prepared for this wonderful job. I have an enormous investment in this company. I would have been devastated if Eddie hadn't asked me to do a show in the new space." Then came the search. "I know many people who wanted the job. Pittsburgh is a terrific town and it's a great company with an endowment and a new theater. When I saw who was stepping up to the plate, I thought, 'These people are coming to take over my company!' "
Though he doesn't take on the artistic directorship full-time until summer, in the next few months Pappas must put together the 2000-2001 season.
"The stakes feel even higher in the O'Reilly," he said. "Standing there with Eddie in our hardhats, I said, 'We're going to have to be fabulous in this theater!' . . . I'm one of those guys who dresses up for the theater. There's a sparkle to the O'Reilly. My heart beat quicker when I was there. I felt a rush: I've got to be better."
He admitted to one reason stage directors like to run their own theaters: "I'd like to choose the plays I want to direct. There's a lot I want to do and I don't want to wait around and see if I get invited to do it." He plans to direct two of the Public's six annual shows himself.
Will he stage five musicals the first year?
"I'm not even sure you'll get one the first year," he laughed. "I think we should be what a great theater should be -- diverse. I'm attracted to the European classics," including Shakespeare and the antique Greeks. "I'm a great fan of American comedy, such as George S. Kaufman. I know a lot of playwrights, which means I expect I'll be inundated with scripts." He's also thinking of some sort of annual festival centered on one playwright or one idea. He'll also lean toward "unusual musicals, or those that can be transformed by the intimate space, like my 'Sweeney Todd.' "
Although Pappas has never run a theater, the search committee was impressed by his position as president of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers -- the national directors' union. Both Hunt and Pappas alluded to his leadership on the national scene and the connections it gives him in the national theater community.
"I like putting people together in an exciting mix," Pappas said. "With all my work in New York and my travels, I have lots of connections who will be happy to come to Pittsburgh. . . . And I'm interested in seeing Pittsburgh talent. I've used it in three shows ["Fifty Million," "Sweeney Todd," "Forum"] so I know there's a wonderful theater community here."
Yesterday's announcement was attended by a handful of such other arts administrators as the Symphony's Gideon Toeplitz, Ballet's Steven Libman, City Theatre's Marc Masterson, Pitt's Buck Favorini, Playhouse's Ron Lindblom and Quantum's Karla Boos.
Phoned for an opinion on the Public's appointment of a nationally known director of musicals, CLO head Van Kaplan reacted with enthusiasm: "It's just wonderful." He praised Pappas' recent production of "On the Twentieth Century" at Goodspeed and said, "Ted is hot nationally -- it's really a coup for the Public."
Continuing, Kaplan joked, "Maybe they [the Public] will give us a run for our money. Or, since they don't do much over the summer, maybe he can come over and direct for us. . . . Now I'll have someone else to talk to in town."
Recently, no one beside the Public has employed Pappas more than Michael Price, longtime executive producer at Goodspeed. Reached by phone, he was voluble in his praise. "The most important thing is casting, and Ted casts impeccably. Musicals are as much to do with logistics as art, and he can put together complex pieces. He also brings with him really fabulous designers."
Price also praised Pappas' recent "On the Twentieth Century" as "much better than Hal Prince's [production] on Broadway. Cy Coleman and Comden and Green [the authors] came to see it a half-dozen times during the run." Pappas is now in final preparation of "The Apple Tree" at Goodspeed. Price said, "They're doing a run-through today for [composer] Jerry Bock. Ask him tomorrow and he'll tell you it was wonderful."
Pappas was born in Tampa, Florida, of immigrant Greek parents, but he grew up both in Gary, Ind., and in Greece, especially his parents' native Rhodes, where they returned several times, including the years he was 11 to 13. Greek was his first language and he remains fluent in it. His parents now live in Athens and he visits frequently.
"I'm really an immigrant son, raised in the tradition of Greek church and school," he said. But he has been at home in Pittsburgh, because, "I'm a mill boy, a USSteel kid. My dad worked in the mills forever." That was in Gary, where Pappas worked in the mills himself while in college at Northwestern, where he had an academic scholarship and majored in theater.
Graduating in 1975, Pappas moved to New York City, where he's lived ever since on Manhattan's Upper West Side, while spending his time "mostly on the road" as a choreographer and director.
Now, "I'm moving to Pittsburgh," though he'll keep his Manhattan apartment as an office, since his Public job will require him to be there often for auditions and meetings. Asked where he'll live in Pittsburgh, he asked, laughing, "Is there an upper west side?"
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