Provincetown Playhouse Productions

I was furnished with this extraordinary list of Provincetown Playhouse production by a colleague named Robert Blodgett who is working on the advocacy and anti-demolition project. Read this and tell me if you're not stunned.

Partial List of Plays and Their Opening Dates
Provincetown Playhouse, 133 MacDougal Street

*Denotes world premiere.

The Provincetown Playhouse at 133 MacDougal was inaugurated on November 22, 1918, with three one-act plays:

*Eugene O’Neill, Where the Cross Is Made
Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Princess Marries the Page
*Florence Kiper Frank, Gee-Rusalem

A sampling of other plays includes:

*Eugene O’Neill, The Moon of the Caribbees, December 20, 1918

*Edna Ferber, The Eldest, January 9, 1919

*Susan Glaspell, Bernice, March 21, 1919

*Eugene O’Neill, The Dreamy Kid, October 31, 1919

*Edna St. Vincent Millay, Aria da Capo, December 6, 1919

*Lewis Beach, Brothers, December 6, 1919

Wilbur Steele, Not Smart, December 6, 1919

*Eugene O’Neill, Exorcism, March 26, 1920

*Eugene O’Neill, The Emperor Jones, November 1, 1920 – Professional acting debut of Paul Robeson. “The play has been one of the sensations of the season,” according to The New York Times.

*Lawrence Langner, Matinata, November 1, 1920

*Eugene O’Neill, Diff’rent, December 27, 1920

*George Cram Cook, The Spring, 1920

*Susan Glaspell, Inheritors, March 29, 1921

*Susan Glaspell, The Verge, November 14, 1921

*Theodore Dreiser, The Hand of the Potter, December 5, 1921

*Edna St. Vincent Millay, Two Slatterns and a King, 1921

Susan Glaspell, Trifles, 1921

*Eugene O’Neill, The Hairy Ape, March 9, 1922

*Susan Glaspell, Chains of Dew, April 27, 1922.

*John Luther Long, Crowns, November 6, 1922

Sholom Ash, The God of Vengeance, December 20, 1922

August Strindberg, The Spook Sonata, January 5, 1924 – American premiere

*Eugene O’Neill, All God’s Chillun Got Wings, May 15, 1924 – Starred Paul Robeson. The play dealt with the marriage of a white woman and a black man and was incredibly controversial. When Mary Blair kissed Paul Robeson, she and the theater received death threats. The city barred the use of child actors, with the result that the prologue – in which the children were supposed to appear – had to be read rather than performed. The New York Times wrote, “From the moment the Provincetown Players announced the production of Eugene O’Neill’s play it was evident that we were in for a campaign of race hatred and bigotry.”

*Edmund Wilson, The Crime in the Whistler Room, October 12, 1924

Eugene O’Neill, S.S. Glencairn, November 3, 1924 – Combined four O’Neill one-act plays previously shown at Provincetown Playhouse

*Sherwood Anderson, The Triumph of the Egg, February 10, 1925 – Starred 19-year-old future movie writer and director John Huston. Time magazine wrote, “John Huston, a hitherto unknown performer, played up and down the tightly tuned wires of Mr. Anderson’s conception and made them vibrant with tragic tones.”

*Hatcher Hughes, Ruint, 7 April 1925

August Strindberg, The Dream Play, January 20, 1926 – American premiere

*Paul Green, In Abraham’s Bosom, December 30, 1926 – Won the 1927 Pulitzer Prize for Drama

*e.e. cummings, him, April 18, 1928

*Upton Sinclair, Singing Jailbirds, December 6, 1928

*Virgil Geddes, The Earth Between, March 5, 1929 – The New York stage debut of 20-year-old Bette Davis. Time magazine wrote, “The play has a certain intensity of gloom, but much of its force is lost in clumsy ambiguity. However, it permits Miss Bette Davis to do an effective bit of acting as the daughter.”

*Eugene O’Neill, Before Breakfast, March 5, 1929

*Edward Peyton Harris, Homecoming, November 16, 1942

*Horton Foote, Only the Heart, December 5, 1942

*William Saroyan, The Hungerers, The Ping Pong Game, and Hello Out There, August 23, 1945.

Federico Garcia Lorca, The Shoemaker’s Prodigious Wife, June 14, 1949

August Strindberg, The Father, August 1949

Luigi Pirandello, Naked, September 1950

*Sara Reavin, The Ivory Branch, May 24, 1956

*Hans Holzer, Hotel Excelsior, August 7, 1956

*Of Mice and Men (musical version), December 4, 1958 – The musical version of the John Steinbeck novel was staged with his support. It was adapted by Ira J. Bilowit and Wilson Lehr, with music by Alfred Brooks and lyrics by Bilowit.

Samuel Beckett, Krapp’s Last Tape, January 14, 1960 – American premiere

Edward Albee, The Zoo Story, January 14, 1960 – American premiere

*Lee Kalcheim, A Party for Divorce and Match Play, October 11, 1966

*Frederick Feirstein, Harold and Sondra, 1967

John Guare, Muzeeka, April 28, 1968 – New York premiere

Sam Shepard, Red Cross, April 28, 1968

*Charles Ludlam, Caprice, 15 April 1976

Sam Shepard, The Unseen Hand and Killer’s Head, January 21, 1982

David Mamet, Edmond, October 27, 1982 – New York premiere

Charles Busch, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, June 19, 1985 – Ran at the Provincetown until 1990

Dario Fo (Italian playwright and Nobel laureate), Johan Padan and the Discovery of the Americas, September 20, 2001 – The play had its American premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and then moved to the Provincetown. The performance at the Provincetown was presented by the New York University Steinhardt School of Education’s Program in Educational Theater and the American Repertory Theater.

Here are a few quotes about the Provincetown:

In 1978, Helen Hayes called the Provincetown Playhouse “the cradle of modern drama in America.”

In her 2006 book The Provincetown Players and the Culture of Modernity (Cambridge University Press), Brenda Murphy, Professor of English at the University of Connecticut (and a past president of the American Theatre and Drama Society), writes: “The founding of the Provincetown Players is an event that has grown beyond legend to assume the status of myth in the annals of the American theatre. Its significance is paramount because, as theatre historians have recognized, the Provincetown, with its nurturance of self-consciously literary American playwrights like Susan Glaspell, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Eugene O’Neill, has come to represent a new conception of the theatre in the United States. The Provincetown is now seen as the major progenitor of experimental non-commercial theatre in America, the pioneering group that taught theatre practitioners how to develop, nurture, and practice theatre as an art in a country where theatre had always been almost exclusively a business.”

Normand Berlin, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, writing in 2005 in Massachusetts Review, said, “The Zoo Story, first produced by the Schiller Theater in Berlin in 1959 on a double-bill with Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape, made American theater history when the same double-bill came to the Provincetown Playhouse in New York City in 1960. A new, exciting voice was being heard off-Broadway at a time when Broadway – up to the ‘60s really a synonym for American theater – seemed to be stagnating, with the highest achievements of America’s three major dramatists (O'Neill, Williams, Miller) behind it. America needed a dramatic rebirth. Albee’s play, reviewed by the major New York newspapers, helped to give off-Broadway an importance that it would continue to maintain, with off-off-Broadway and alternate theaters throughout the land soon following.”

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Thank You, Mike Daisey -- Roundtable Tomorrow, Comedy Tonight

To my unalloyed delight, Mike Daisey has asked me to appear on the first of a series of post-show roundtable panels after Sunday performances of How Theater Failed America, which has just transferred from Joe's Pub to the Barrow Street Theater. This means tomorrow night, folks, so run run run, forget the babysitter, and come listen to me and a whole bunch of other sages and fogeys discuss how we're going to tear the American theatre a new one.

Here's the full breakdown of all six panels. May I add that in addition to being thrilled -- quite seriously, I really mean this -- to be on a panel with the great and legendary Robert Brustein, to also be on a panel with Jonathan West, my old buddy from the NYU glory days, fills me with joy and total apprehension -- because the dude is smart!!

Sunday, May 18: “DOWNTOWN, MIDTOWN, EVERYTOWN” with Robert Brustein (Founder of Yale Repertory Theatre & American Repertory Theatre), Gideon Lester (Artistic Director, American Repertory Theatre), Jonathan West (Milwaukee based actor, blogger), Emily Ackerman (actor, ensemble member of The Civilians) Leonard Jacobs (National editor, Backstage), Sheila Callaghan (playwright, Dead City).

Saturday, May 24: “DO-IT-YOURSELF OR BUST” with Greg Kotis (playwright, Urinetown), Jason Eagan (Artistic Director, Ars Nova), Erez Ziv (Managing Director, Horse Trade Theater), John Clancy (Founder of the New York International Fringe Festival), Scott Shepherd (The Wooster Group), Lisa Kron (actor, solo performer, playwright - Well).

Sunday, June 1: “YOU ARE WHAT YOU WATCH” with Jim Nicola (Artistic Director for New York Theatre Workshop), Mark Russell (Founder, PS122 & the Under The Radar Festival), Steve Bodow (Head writer, “The Daily Show” & Elevator Repair Service member), Morgan Jenness (Literary agent, former literary manager of the Public Theater), David Cote (Theater editor, Time Out New York), Isaac Butler (director & blogger).

Sunday, June 8: “FOR PROFIT, NON-PROFIT, NO PROFIT” with James Bundy (Dean of the Yale School of Drama, AD of Yale Repertory Theatre), Dan Fields (Disney imagineer & freelance director), Stephanie Weisman (Founder & Director of The Marsh in San Francisco), Dave Greenham (Executive Director, The Theatre at Monmouth), Tommy Thompson (veteran Broadway PSM) & Diane Ragsdale (Mellon Foundation).

Sunday, June 15: “ASSEMBLING ENSEMBLES” with John Collins (Artistic Director of Elevator Repair Service, The Sound And The Fury), Tanya Selvararnam (actor, collaborator with Jay Scheib & The Builder's Association), Colleen Werthmann (actor, Elevator Repair Service ensemble member), Heidi Schreck (actor, collaborator with The Theatre of the Two-Headed Calf, Seattle's Printer's Devil), Scott Walters (former Artistic Director of Illinois Shakespeare Festival, blogger), Hal Brooks (director, Thom Paine and No Child…).

Sunday, June 22: “THEATER IN 2033” with Rocco Landesman (Tony®-winning producer, Angels in America, The Producers), Gregory Mosher (Tony®-winning director, former head of Lincoln Center), Oskar Eustis (Artistic Director of the Public Theater), Richard Nelson(playwright, Conversations in Tusculum), Paige Evans (Director, Lincoln Center's new LCT3 program), Garrett Eisler (Village Voice theater critic, blogger).

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Arts Advocacy Update XLI

The content below is from Americans for the Arts' Cultural Policy Listserv, email blast of May 7, 2008:

Arts help culture, economy flourish
Poughkeepsie Journal (NY), 5/1/2008
According to a recent economic impact study by the Center for Creative Community Development in North Adams, Mass., Dia:Beacon, the contemporary art museum housed in a former Nabisco factory in upstate New York, "contributes more than $10 million a year to the economic development of the region."
Love the Dia: Beacon -- gorgeous, gorgeous space.


Bill to require P.E. eliminates arts electives
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (GA), 5/6/2008
"[A] bill before the Alabama Legislature could limit or eliminate choir and other electives from the curriculum in favor of more physical education time. The bill, sponsored by House Majority Leader Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill, seeks . . . to set minimums for the amount of daily exercise students will be required to have in school, with at least 200 minutes a week for elementary school students and 225 minutes for middle and high school students."
225 minutes of gym? Are we living in Sparta?


SNAAP Judgments
Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/5/2008
Princeton professor Stan Katz comments on the newly announced Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a longitudinal assessment of arts alumni to show, among other things, “how students in different majors use their arts training in their careers and other aspects of their lives.” The project has been developed by the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy at Vanderbilt University.
First, definitely go and read this PDF. Second, I'm not sure I understand how one gets chosen for this sort of thing, but it's a great idea for a project. I'd like to see a little bit more information on methodology, too.


Florida Legislature OKs cuts to cultural affairs, historic resources
Palm Beach Daily News (FL), 5/6/2008
"State funding for culture and historic preservation will fall sharply under the belt-tightening budget approved Friday by the Legislature. The Division of Cultural Affairs, which administers grants to cultural organizations, will get nearly $6 million — down from last year's $12.5 million — while funding for the Division of Historical Resources, which oversees grants for history museums and historic preservation, will drop from $7 million to nearly $1.2 million. That's a plunge from two years ago, when the state earmarked $32.7 million for culture and $18 million for history."
As usual, the Republican-dominated Florida legislature takes a bat to the arts and whacks it, repeatedly. Talk about a croc.


The irony here is art itself
New Jersey Star-Ledger, 5/3/2008
After reporting to New Jersey's Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee how much the arts contributed to the state economy, Secretary of State Nina Mitchell Wells then was faced with defending "the severe cuts in arts funding the governor had asked her to make," with arts and history funding "being cut anywhere from 25 to 100 percent from a variety of programs."
Poor NJ can't catch a break. First a gay governor and now cuts in arts funding.


Bottom-line philanthropy
Boston Globe, 4/30/2008
Sacha Pfeiffer features the Social Innovation Forum, a program designed to "help nonprofits become more businesslike, understand the language of the private sector, and win the backing of influential, deep-pocketed donors." Each year the program selects six nonprofits through a competitive process, then "gives them free services like management consulting and executive coaching, and introduces them to potential donors" at an event where the nonprofits "make a formal, 15-minute funding appeal, complete with PowerPoint presentation and prospectus, to a large group of prospective funders."
Speak "the language of the private sector"? Shouldn't the private sector equally be incentivized to speak the language of the artists, too?

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Arts Advocacy Update XL

The content below is from Americans for the Arts' Cultural Policy Listserv, email blast of April 30, 2008:

State Arts Funding Grows in FY 2008 National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA)
Very interesting information here. I'm taking the liberty of publishing a tease that you'll find at this link -- but click through and read the full press release, too. It'll give you a great macro sense of where things are at. Meanwhile, the tease:

WASHINGTON, DC—Legislative appropriations to state arts agencies increased in fiscal year 2008, according to a study published by the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA). Between fiscal years 2007 and 2008, state arts agencies gained $9.5 million in state funds, an increase of 2.7 percent. Total legislative appropriations to state arts agencies currently stand at $359.6 million, or $1.18 per capita.

Fiscal year 2008 marks the fourth consecutive year of gains for the arts following three years of sharp declines during the recession. More states experienced increases in fiscal year 2008 than in any of the previous five years. Forty-five state arts agencies report appropriations growth in 2008, with a median increase of 8.9 percent. Three states reported declines, which were significant in Florida and Illinois. Excluding these two states, total appropriations among all other state arts agencies increased by 13.6 percent.

A Knight at the Opera: Big Plans -- Large Bills
Wall Street Journal, 4/24/2008 Peter Gelb, general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, "has managed to enchant both the masses and the elites" and vastly increase the Met's reach. But is he "overly reliant on gimmicks and buzz whose power will fade," as some critics think? The answer is important because other arts organizations are following his lead.
No, dude, you can't win.


Arts Attendance / Performing arts
Arts Research Monitor, April 22 2008
Four reports related to arts attendance, including an American study of the intrinsic impacts of performance attendance, a Canadian examination of the social impacts of performing arts attendance, a study of attendees’ motivations, abilities and opportunities to participate, and a report on the demographic and cultural factors involved in performing arts attendance in Canada. Articles: - Assessing the Intrinsic Impacts of a Live Performance - Social Effects of Culture - MAO-Model of Audience Development- Factors in Canadians’ Cultural Activities (Performing arts findings)
Nice work...ay?


Reach out and touch someone
San Diego Union-Tribune, 4/27/2008
"Theaters have a vested interest in drawing hard-to-reach audiences with 'pay what you can' shows - it's a 'worthwhile investment,'" says James Hebert. "Pay what you can" is geared to young audiences who "are weaned on the flexibility of the Internet and accustomed to defining and controlling their cultural experiences, from assembling iTunes playlists to racking up TiVo recordings to crafting avatars on games like World of Warcraft."
Great story. Not only is "pay what you can" an important audience-building trend, but it dovetails with the pending announcement from TCG of a "Free Night of Theatre" here in New York City, an extension of the very popular program that has been transforming audience-building nationwide.


Artist colony proposed for Patchogue
Long Island Business News (NY), 4/25/2008
In New York, "Patchogue’s rebirth could include a little slice of Manhattan’s SoHo. At least that’s what Patchogue officials hope will become of its 103,000-square-foot project planned for Terry Street, one block south of Main. Artspace, a nonprofit developer of loft-style live/work residences for artists and musicians, will build a 43-unit affordable housing project on the four-acre parcel."
Of course, I'd like to see an actor-centric and theatre-centric piece to this project as well, but this is pretty fascinating. And Patchogue isn't far from what we call civilization. Actually, it's in some ways far more civilized...


New N.E. database tallies culture’s fiscal benefits
Providence Business News, 4/25/2008
"Rhode Island’s arts and culture sector includes 1,750 nonprofits, businesses and professionals who pay their employees more than $350 million per year and contribute more than $750 million per year to the state’s economy, a new regional database reveals." A free service of the New England Foundation for the Arts, "CultureCount, New England’s Cultural Database,” was unveiled April 24 and is "the only regional cultural database in the country," according to NEFA.
Rhode Island -- what's it called? the "biggest little state in the union"? -- exerts much more economic influence regionally that even I would have thought. And culturally, too -- I mean, I friggin' love Family Guy. (I really do.)


Congress sees eye to eye on helping one immigrant group -- entertainers
Los Angeles Times, 4/27/2008
"With support from both sides of the aisle, the House and Senate are working to clear visa hurdles for fashion models, singers and pro athletes to enter the country. . . . The ARTS (Arts Require Timely Service) Act, sponsored by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village), would give the Department of Homeland Security a 30-day window to process visas for performers and their crews. If it failed to meet that deadline, it would have to offer 15-day expedited processing free to artists invited by a nonprofit organization."
About time my government started dealing with this issue. What creatives from foreign lands have to go through to get into the country now is hurting us culturally -- and it's hurting stateside artists who want to travel overseas, which is perhaps equally if not more important. I'll keep an eye on this.


New Bills Would Limit Liability on Use of 'Orphan Works'
Digital Media Wire, 4/25/2008
"A bipartisan group of powerful lawmakers this week introduced legislation that would mitigate the legal risk and potential damages associated with the use of 'orphan works,' or songs, books or other copyrighted media where the creator or owner cannot be identified. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) are sponsoring the Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008 in the Senate, while House Judiciary IP Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) and House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) introduced The Orphan Works Act of 2008 in the House. The bills would enable creators to use orphaned works after documenting a 'good faith' search for their owners, submitting a 'Notice of Use' with the copyright office, and providing attribution to any original owner."
Only problem here is one of the amendments -- to furnish "orphan Republicans" after the next election with legislative perquisites. Let us pray.


Group aims to aid arts via new tax
Reporter-Herald (Loveland, CO), 4/23/2008
"Dance, theater, natural history and science could create a driving economic force in Northern Colorado through tourism, supporters of a proposed Science and Cultural Facilities District said Tuesday. For three years, a 12-member steering committee has worked on the plans for the proposed district. The committee members’ work will come to fruition in November if they can gather enough signatures to get the district proposal on the ballot." Denver created a similar district in 1989, which in 2005 "distributed $34 million to qualified organizations, and the area brought in $387 million in outside revenue."
I read through this pretty thoroughly. We're talking $.01 in tax for every $10 in expenditures -- not including food -- adding up to about $20 per person per year. Seems fair.


N.Y. gives filmmakers bigger tax break for production in state
Poughkeepsie Journal (NY) - AP, 4/23/2008
"Gov. David Paterson is signing a bill that will triple the tax break [from 10 percent to 30 percent] for television and movie producers who decide to shoot in New York. . . . Paterson says New York has been losing out in recent years to other states that have offered their own tax credits, a trend he says has cost the state economy about $750 million."
What's so funny is how this decade began -- with everyone screaming about "runaway production" and asking, "When the states finally start competing?" Now the states are finally competing and it's turning into a race to the bottom. I'm not saying whether that's good or bad -- I'm not sure I know what the alternatives are -- but I find it ironic and amusing.


State deficit brings arts funding back to earth
Dayton Daily News (OH), 4/22/2008
"Especially when it comes to arts funding, what goes up is likely to come back down. The Ohio Arts Council, which made national news when it boosted support 11 percent last year, announced a 10 percent cut Tuesday, April 22, in response to a shortfall in the 2008-9 state government budget. Gov. Ted Strickland has directed state agencies including the OAC to find $733 million in savings because of a projected deficit that could go as high as $1.9 billion."
Sigh. Get used to it. The economy is tanking and this is going to be the meme on and off for the next 1-2 years.


Tourism money may be redirected to the arts
Winston-Salem Journal (NC), 4/30/2008
In North Carolina, "[t]he Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County would receive a significantly bigger portion of the county's hotel-occupancy tax if a resolution before the board of county commissioners gains approval at the local and state levels. However, the redistribution of the tax money is likely to lead to job cuts at Visit Winston-Salem, which is the city's chief marketing arm to visitors."
Courtesy of...the Robin Hood Foundation? Doesn't seem so great, this idea.

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Here's Andrew Berman on YouTube -- About the Provincetown Playhouse

There will be several YouTube videos of me going up today and tomorrow. But for now, here's Andrew Berman:

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Here to You, Cubby Bernstein II

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Here's to You, Cubby Bernstein I

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Happy birthday to me -- except from some people

Yes, I am 40 today. Four-oh. Any moment now Gary Merrill is going to come walking into my party while Marilyn Monroe comes up the stairs looking gorgeous and George Sanders waxes deadpan and lyrical. And, at the end of the party, as I stare into my fifth martini, I shall mutter the word "Liebestraum." Repeatedly.

What's amazing is how many people are coming to my soiree tonight. Amazing, amazing group of people. And then there's a person who just called me on my cell phone -- a high-ranking member of the Drama Desk with whom I've never, ever actually discussed the Drama Desk -- telling me that she couldn't attend my party tonight because in her mind it would justify, condone, give credence to, and/or validate my post of a few weeks ago regarding the supposedly dirty doings occurring within the organization, in particular some actions of perhaps questionable legality by a person I referred to as Said Chair. How extraordinary that someone would call me on the phone to tell me that they couldn't attend a personal, private, social event -- an event that has nothing to do with the industry, nothing to do with the Drama Desk -- because I exercised my right to an opinion and dared to state it openly. How dare someone!

I know, I know. After speaking to several people about this, I agree with their assessment -- that Said Chair might well have instructed this person, or implied to this person, not to attend my party. Gee, will the Drama Desk mafia wack me tonight, too? (I didn't realize the script to Glory Days was so heavy.) Well, this is redolent of the way Said Chair coerces people, for instance, into emailing letter upon letter to the Drama Desk listserv singing her praises -- as if "The lady doth protest too much" wasn't already a well-known phrase by William Shakespeare.

Well, tell you what. If you can't attend a social function without needlessly hauling in outside and inappropriate business, then that's quite right -- stay away. After all, if you need the permission of Said Chair before attending a social event, that says more about you (and Said Chair) than any insult you can hurl at me. What it proves -- or at least suggests -- is that Said Chair does indeed operate by coercion, intimidation, subtle or outright threats, cajoling, stealth, or by the implied retrobution for refusing to cooperate with Said Chair's demands and expectations. I suppose the test will really come later this summer, when I send in my 475 clips to renew my membership in the Drama Desk. I can assure you it wouldn't be profitable for Said Chair to target me, but then, she's really so consumed with frothing vengeance that I imagine she will.

Said Chair wants vengeance not for what I posted on my blog. That only added fuel to the fire, I'm sure. In fact, she's been hungry for vengeance for years. If only I had taken Said Chair's side when Said Chair and Said Chair's husband were fired from the publication where I am employed so many years ago. I won't even get into the reason(s) they were canned because it was all quite silly. The point is, Said Chair holds a grudge against me for not publicly, avidly, fervently siding with them when that took place. Said Chair never cared to understand, so huge is her narcissism, that when she forced me into a position in which I had to choose between my job and the Said Chairs, for the sake of self-preservation I had to do whatever I had to do to keep my job.

What really infuriated Said Chair, moreover, was the fact that I said at the time that I was not going to take sides -- not the side of my boss at that time, and not her side. I had no dog in that fight. But apparently neutral = bad, and thus I've been on her shit list ever since.

I am loving my 40th birthday. Anyone else want to call and try to turn my day into something that's all about them? Y'all feel free to go ahead. For I know who my friends and colleagues are who are genuinely worth my time. I'll be seeing about a hundred or more of them tonight.

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New Profile: Joel Derfner

My dear Joel Derfner (I can call him that because, though we've never met, he's already quite dear to me) has written a fabu book called Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever. I did this Q&A with Joel for Metromix.com, and possibly for AM New York, if they pick it up. Enjoy! Here's a little tease:

"Swish: My Quest to Become the Gayest Person Ever" is a very funny new memoir by Joel Derfner, who has done it all—being a go-go boy, a cheerleader and a knitter (hence the book title). But "Swish" is also Derfner’s coming-of-age tale as a gay man. Writing with the nervous, breathless style of a David Sedaris, but with more self-empathy, Derfner, who teaches musical theater at NYU and leads aerobics classes for a living, includes on a chapter on going undercover at Exodus International, the organization that claims to cure homosexuality through Jesus Christ. We spoke with the author about all the highs and lows in his "Quest."

"On Knitting," "On Teaching Aerobics," "On Musical Theater"—are all great chapter titles. Are there chapters, though, that you didn’t write?
Twelve inches! Um, make it nine—I don’t want to be unrealistic. What were you asking?

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You Want Grants for New Playwrights? Here's Something For You. (Grousing Begins Immediately)

Just received the following press release:

MANHATTAN THEATRE CLUB
RECEIVES A MAJOR GRANT FROM
BANK OF AMERICA
TO LAUNCH NEW
PLAYWRIGHT COMMISSIONING PROGRAM

MULTI-YEAR PROGRAM WILL SUPPORT BOTH NEW AND ESTABLISHED PLAYWRIGHTS

New York, NY (8 May 2008) -- Manhattan Theatre Club (Lynne Meadow, Artistic Director; Barry Grove, Executive Producer; Daniel Sullivan, Acting Artistic Director 2007-2008) has announced that Bank of America has granted them $225,000 to support a new playwright commissioning program. The three-year program will support two commissions per year – one for an established playwright and one for an up-and-coming playwright. Commissions will be issued each June beginning this year. This program will be overseen by Lynne Meadow and MTC’s new Director of Artistic Development Jerry Patch.

“We are so grateful to Bank of America for this generous gift,” says Peter J. Solomon, Chairman of MTC’s Board of Directors. “Both Bank of America and MTC have a common goal – to invest their energy and resources in the future. This grant allows MTC to do that.”

“Our sincere thanks to Bank of America in helping us achieve our mission,” said Artistic Director Lynne Meadow and Executive Producer Barry Grove in a joint statement. “MTC has a long tradition of bringing new voices to the American theatre. With these Bank of America commissions, we will be able to continue to support contemporary playwrights by providing the resources needed to create new work – work that will be nurtured and developed and hopefully be presented on one of our three stages.”

“As a leading national sponsor of arts and culture, Bank of America believes in the power of the arts to create and sustain vibrant and economically healthy communities,” said Rena DeSisto, global arts & culture executive for Bank of America. “We are thrilled to partner with Manhattan Theatre Club on this innovative program to help provide opportunity for artistic talent and vision to flourish.”

First drafts of all commissioned plays will be given an in-house reading at MTC’s Creative Center, to be followed by feedback sessions between Artistic Development staff and the playwright. All final scripts will be evaluated for potential production at either MTC’s Broadway house, the Biltmore Theatre, or on one of their Off-Broadway stages at City Center.

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Andrew Berman's Letter to the Editor on the Provincetown Playhouse

This is a must-read for anyone trying to put together an op-ed on the Provincetown Playhouse:

To The Editor:

Re "N.Y.U. would drop curtain on O'Neill's Playhouse" (news article, April 29):

The proposal New York University is contemplating to demolish the historic Provincetown Playhouse would be a tragic mistake for the university and for the neighborhood.

The Provincetown Playhouse is one of the most iconic historic sites in all the Village. It is known throughout the country and world for the critical role it has played in the history of the Off-Broadway and alternative theater movement. It is a landmark in every sense of the word except
official designation, although the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation and many others have been seeking to remedy that through our proposed South Village Historic District, which includes the site. Last year N.Y.U. agreed to support the designation of the proposed South Village Historic District; demolition of one of its key historic sites would not only damage the proposed district's chances of full adoption, but damage the university's reputation for keeping its word.

When N.Y.U. recently signed the planning principles with members of the Borough President's N.Y.U. Community Task Force, including G.V.S.H.P., it agreed to "prioritize reuse before new development," a principle that could not more clearly apply here. This is actually the first new project N.Y.U. is proposing under the commitments it made in the planning principles; so,
how the university does or does not adhere to the commitments it made will have a huge impact upon how this process is viewed.

By N.Y.U.'s own admission, its proposed new building is somewhat but not much bigger than the current Provincetown Playhouse building. So why demolish at all? N.Y.U. claims this old building (the underlying historic structure is nearly 200 years old) cannot support the kinds of uses it wishes to put in there. They have not substantiated that claim, but let's assume for a moment that they are correct. The building currently houses a theater, offices and residences - uses which it can clearly continue to house, and all uses which N.Y.U. needs. Therefore, any decision to demolish the building because it is not suited to N.Y.U.'s "needs" is not really one of necessity, but actually one of choice.

Further, N.Y.U. claims that because the facade of the building was altered almost 70 years ago, it is no longer a historic building worthy of preservation. Yet, in the 1990s, when N.Y.U. began a renovation of the building (with the same historic facade), it proudly trumpeted the building's history and its pride to posses this great piece of local and national history. Now, the university is choosing the "Poe House" method of historic preservation - demolish a beloved piece of the neighborhood's history, and then try to make up for it by tacking a piece or a facsimile of
it onto the new building. As we've seen, this approach just does not work.

N.Y.U. clearly wants credit for considering a building on this site that is neither as big nor as insensitive in its design as it could be or as many recent N.Y.U. buildings have been. But the loss of a treasured piece of the neighborhood's history is the price we would have to pay, while the
alternative G.V.S.H.P. has been urging - a sensitive reuse or renovation of the building, as the planning principles N.Y.U. agreed to seem to call for - would still allow the university to make very productive use of its property.

Hopefully, N.Y.U. will see the light. I strongly urge anyone who is interested to come to the Community Board 2 Institutions Committee hearing on the issue on Wed., May 28, at 6:30 p.m. (location TBD), to help make the case.

Andrew Berman
Berman is executive director, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation

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Provincetown Playhouse History, III

More from Gail Cohen:

Jasper Deeter was an actor and director with the Provincetown Players. Ann Harding who gave Jasper the money to buy the Hedgerow Theatre was a Provincetown Player. Jasper directed IN ABRAHAM'S BOSOM by Paul Green in 1926 at the Provincetown Playhouse. In 1927, the play was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The cast consisted of the major African-American actors of the day - Rose McClendon who played over 30 roles on Broadway before she died in 1936 when about to premiere Countee Cullen's play ONE WAY TO HEAVEN at Hedgerow Theatre, Jules Bledsoe, Frank Wilson, Abbie Mitchell, and Stanley Greene who continued acting at Hedgerow. The original cast came back to Hedgerow with him, and saved the theatre from being sold by the sheriff - so that it could live to celebrate its 85th Birthday.

Theatres from all over are writing letters of protest. Hedgerow is the most important of these theatres to write to John Sexton, President of New York University with a copy to Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Historic Preservation Society. I don't even know if Janet and Susan Wefel got any of the emails I have sent to info@hedgerow.org . If any one there truly cares about Jasper Deeter, someone will write a letter to save the Provincetown Playhouse which has a far greater history than just the Provincetown Players.

There is more Hedgerow History with the Provincetown Players and Playhouse. Takashi Ohta, Pete Seeger's Father-In-Law was one of the first set designers at Hedgerow. He also worked at the Provincetown Playhouse. Being Japanese, he was beaten up by the Hudson Dusters in front of the Provincetown Playhouse. In the 1960's, Jasper said in an interview that was the thing he was most ashamed of in his life - that he could not do anything at the time.

Jasper Deeter premiered in many of Eugene O'Neill plays with the Provincetown Players. He directed, and originated the role of Smithers in THE EMPEROR -JONES! Jasper Deeter was responsible for finding Charles Gilpin to play the lead role. He also suggested that Dudley Diggs play his role of Smithers in the film of THE EMPEROR JONES. Jasper Deeter acted in O'Neill's play EXOCISM for which no copy of the play survives. Eugene O'Neill gave his plays royalty free to Hedgerow. That was extended by his second wife Carlotta Monteray after Jasper's death. Eugene O'Neill wrote to Jasper Deeter during WWII, "I admire your guts and integrity in this our chaos." Jasper Deeter also directed THE SPRING by George Cram Cook, and AUTUM FIRES by Gustav Weid at the Provincetown Playhouse.

He directed and acted in the premiere of Susan Glaspell's play INHERITORS. He credited INHERITORS with why he founded Hedgerow,"the story of what life might be if people bring their caring directly to bear upon their ways of doing can best be told by you." He also wrote to Glaspell on a trip to Provincetown, MA. where the Players started, "I looked at the harbor - thought of your beginnings and my own - and your part in mine - and how much I owe to a few people."

The Provincetown Playhouse had the first dome (from the German stage) built in this country by George Cram Cook, the Founder of the Provincetown Players. He built it to give the small stage more scope for the jungle scene in THE EMPEROR - JONES!. Jasper did the exact same at Hedgerow in building a dome on the Hedgerow stage. It was an art to light the dome. Hedgerow's dome was destroyed in the arson fire. The dome at the Provincetown Playhouse was destroyed after the Hedgerow fire when NYU did not protect the dome during their renovation and it collapsed. Some Hedgerow Alumni saved pieces of the Hedgerow dome as it was historic and meant something to people who had acted before it.

Miriam Phillips who acted with the Hedgerow Repertory for 32 years first appeared with the Hedgerow Repertory company at their special engagement of THE EMPEROR JONES with Paul Robeson at the Walnut Street Theatre in 1924. Jasper Deeter had asked the Provincetown Players not to move uptown with THE EMPEROR JONES. He said, Why don't you play it in Repertory, and play it forever." That is exactly what he did at Hedgerow Theatre. Eugene O'Neill's plays, and those of Susan Glaspell played throughout the 33 years of the Hedgerow Repertory, and later at Hedgerow. A different play was performed each night. The Repertory was a library of 210 plays that could be recalled at any time. The Hedgerow Repertory had 50 World Premieres, 14 American Premieres, and 2 plays for the first time in English. The actors lived together with the average stay 6 to 33 years.

Jasper Deeter also acted with the Provincetown Players in the following plays: BROTHERS by Lewis Beach directed by James Light; THE ELDEST by Edna Ferber directed by James Light; MONEY by Irwi Ganich directed by James Light, VOTE THE NEW MOON by Alfred Kreymborg directed by James Light, EXOCISM by Eugene O'Neill directed by Edward Goodman; THE EMPEROR JONES by Eugene O'Neill directed by George Cram Cook and Jasper Deeter, set designed by Cleon Throckmorton; WHAT D' YOU WANT by Lawrence Vail directed by Florence Enright with setting by Cleon Throckmorton; INHERITORS by Susan Glaspell; and PRINCESS TURANDOT by Carlo Gozzi directed by Leo Bulgakov.

Actors from Hedgerow who acted with the Provincetown Players include Jasper Deeter, Kirah Markham, Ann Harding who was a major Hollywood star in the 1930's, William Challee who later joined the Group Theatre, Jeannie Begg, Emily Taft, Frank Wilson, Paul Robeson, and Sidney Machet. Provincetown Player playwrights whose plays were in the Hedgerow Theatre Repertory include - Eugene O'Neill, Susan Glaspell, Sherwood Anderson, George Cram Cook, and Theodore Dreiser. Set designers Mordecai Gorelik, and Aline Bernstein who worked at the Provincetown Playhouse also did set designs for plays at Hedgerow Theatre.

Jasper Deeter kept in touch with Susan Glaspell, Christine Ell, Charles Ellis, Norma Millay, Harold Macgee, Ann Harding, Ida Rauh, Mary Blair, Paul Robeson, Sherwood Anderson, Floyd Dell, and Theodore Dreiser of the Provincetown Players during his lifetime, and theirs. There is a letter in the Hedgerow Theatre Collection from Harold Macgee who is with Christine Ell and others at Christine's restaurant at the Provincetown Playhouse. He writes, "We are all here drinking to you Jasper." There are letters in the Hedgerow Theatre Collection from all the above names. Boston University's Twentieth Century Archives houses the Hedgerow Theatre Collection.

So if no one else there wants to write a letter for Hedgerow, perhaps you will. Lynne MacLaren from Hedgerow who acted with Janet,Moira Rankin, and Charles Walnut in INHERITORS in 1973 is on the Planning Committee with the Greenwich Village Historic Preservation Society. Lynne's photo for numerous years was up on the wall at Hedgerow House. Maggie Flynn didn't know Lynne, but she remembers the photo! I'm sure Janet does want to write one, and perhaps even Penny. As far as I know it hasn't been done.

It is imperative that those who care about Jasper Deeter respond. This is a very difficult battle. NYU School of Law is very powerful, and owns a great deal of property. The stage, auditorium, and dressing rooms are the exact same as they were in the days of the Provincetown Players. NYU is falsely reporting that the theatre was gutted in 1940 after a fire. This is not true. The facade was changed, but that dome stood on that stage.

I have gone on for too long. I urge you to read INHERITORS if you want to know what Hedgerow was about. It was about America. I have used an old email address that I had for Penny, so I don't know if she received the Provincetown Playhouse materials. I hope you will talk about this issue, especially with Janet - and that a letter from whatever Hedgerow is will be sent. We owe that much to those who have gone before us, and Jasper Deeter. Thank you for your attention.

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Provincetown Playhouse History, II

Here's more information and history from Gail. The following was contained in an email that Gail cc'd me on that she sent to Gary Garrison, Executive Director of the Dramatists Guild.

That Pulitzer Prize of Paul Green's that is on your wall for IN ABRAHAM'S BOSOM premiered at the Provincetown Playhouse in 1926 directed by Jasper Deeter, an actor and director with the Provincetown Players. The all star African American cast of Rose McClendon, Frank Wilson, Jules Bledsoe, Abbie Mitchell, and Stanley Green returned with Jasper to Hedgerow Theatre which he founded in 1923, and saved the theatre financially. Hedgerow just celebrated its 85th Birthday.

Other playwrights at the Provincetown Playhouse that premiered their work under the Provincetown Players include Djuna Barnes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edmund Wilson, Sherwood Anderson, Theodore Dreiser, Lawrence Vail (married to Peggy Guggenheim), Susan Glaspell who also won the Pulitzer Prize in 1931 for ALISON'S HOUSE, Neith Boyce, George Cram Cook, John Reed, Wilbur Daniel Steele, Louise Bryant, Floyd Dell, Alfred Kreymborg, Saxe Cummins, Michael Gold, Harry Kemp, Grace Potter, Rita Wellman, Lewis Beach, Edna Ferber, Lawrence Langer, Evelyn Scott, Stark York, E.E. Cummings to name a few. All were involved in the intellectual life of their times.

Eugene O'Neill premiered 17 of his plays at the Provincetown Playhouse, with O'Neill revivals also done during the days of the Provincetown Players, and Experimental Theatre Inc. at the Provincetown Playhouse until 1929. 11 of Susan Glaspell's plays were premiered at the Provincetown Playhouse with several revivals. Edna St. Vincent Millay's play ARIA DA CAPO premiered there. The entire Millay family was involved with the Provincetown Players. Norma Millay, Founder of Steepletop, the Millay Colony for the Arts played the most roles with the Provincetown Players. Charlie Chaplin, and Paul Robeson performed on the stage for the Provincetown Players. Helen Hayes first theatre experience was when her Mother took her to a rehearsal of O'Neill's THE HAIRY APE at the Provincetown Playhouse. Bette Davis acted there in 1925. In later years, Edward Albee premiered his plays there. A young group headed by Doyle Warren produced plays at the Provincetown Playhouse when the theatre was owned by Norman Buckbinder.

NYU did not protect the historic dome on stage at the Provincetown Playhouse. It collapsed during their renovation of the theatre. The dome from the German Theatre was built by George Cram Cook for O'Neill's play THE EMPEROR - JONES! (that is the real title as he wrote it) to give the small stage scope. With the arson fire in the 1980's at Hedgerow Theatre, the last dome in America was at the Provincetown Playhouse. The building had been a stable. On a hitching post that remained, John Reed etched HERE PEGASUS WAS HITCHED.

Charles Gilpin was the first African American dramatic actor cast by the Provincetown Players in THE EMPEROR - JONES! Mary Blair kissed Paul Robeson in ALL GOD CHILLUN GOT WINGS by O'Neill. The theatre, and Blair received death threats. Ludwig Lewinson wrote in 1921 about Susan Glaspell's play INHERITORS, "The major event of the theatre season is happening on MacDougal Street where Susan Glaspell has added to the wealth of her craft and her country."

The original Provincetown Plays began in the summer of 1915, and 1916 in Provincetown, MA. at Lewis Wharf owned by Mary Heaton Vorse. They moved to a brownstone in New York on MacDougal, then in 1918 to the present Provincetown Playhouse site.The official name was The Playwright's Theatre. After George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell left for Greece in 1922, the group was taken over by Eugene O'Neill, James Light, and Kenneth MacGowan. Cook and Glaspell made them take another name hence The Experimental Theatre Inc. at the Provincetown Playhouse.

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Provincetown Playhouse History, I

Things are moving along swimmingly in the fight to cure NYU's addiction to demolition -- to stop John Sexton, the President, and Alicia Hurley, one of the VPs, from hurling a wrecking ball at the Provincetown Playhouse. The email and phone call campaign has been continuing, and we know they have been overwhelmed by the response, which, in their case, probably only firms up their resolve. A meeting was held on Tuesday that plots around a good deal of the rest of our strategy, and there's one part of that strategy that's happening today, involving me, but I can't discuss it until tomorrow.

Anyway, because the alarm bells are ringing in every corner of our world about this, I've made the acquaintance of a theatre historian named Gail Cohen. Gail, who lives in Florida, is a real spitfire -- she has more energy than I do! And she's been providing me with lots of information on the history of the Provincetown Playhouse. I've decided to post a lot of it here. Sometimes when I post stuff, I'll go in and fix typographical errors, but because Gail's history is so wide-ranging (and because I bet you $50 she types fast, too), I'm just posting as it is. Amazing stuff.

...It is NYU School of Law that did not protect the historic dome on the stage of the Provincetown Playhouse when the theatre was renovated. It collapsed. The contractors should have protected it, but obviously the school did not care. The done was built by George Cram Cook who is being honored in Delphi where he is buried soon. The building had been a stable. On one of the existing hitching rings, John Reed etched HERE PEGASUS WAS HITCHED. It is true that the facade is different today than the original one that housed the Provincetown Players. The photo of the proposed one is difficult to see, but it doesn't look to me like the original one. The theatre auditorium though I believe is the same minus that important dome. When Doyle Warren's group was there, an actress told me that touching the dome before going on stage gave her strength. The plaque commemorating George Cram (Jig) Cook at the Provincetown Playhouse, Susan Glaspell had melted down for the war effort during WWII. "The Light may go out forever," she wrote to Jasper Deeter at Hedgerow.

As for the NYU history write up. The Provincetown Players revolutionized American Theatre. It started a complete change from the melodrama's of the 1800's. As Norma Millay said, "We were There, and that's what we were For," referring to O'Neill always being cited when the Provincetown Players are mentioned. What NYU and others constantly fail on is the reason for the end of the Provincetown Players. It was not a conflict between O'Neill and Cook - or strife even though Glaspell aludes to this. The reason was simply that they chose to move uptown with THE EMPEROR - JONES which detracted from, and scattered their energy and resources for the base theatre on MacDougal Street. Jasper would roller skate from MacDougal Street to the theatre uptown and back. He originated the role of Smithers, and was responsible for finding Charles Gilpin to act in the main role. Jasper also recommended Dudley Diggs for the film instead of playing the role himself.

The Provincetown Players also toured the play. In Chicago, the cast received 20 curtain calls. Bert Williams came up to Gilpin with tears rolling down his face saying that he waited all his life to see a Negro in a major dramatic role. There is an extensive history of African-Americans at the Provincetown Playhouse, including Paul Robeson, Rose McClendon, Jules Bledsoe, and the major African-American actors of the time. Rose McClendon played over 30 roles on Broadway before she died in 1936. Countee Cullen had just written a play for her to premiere in at Hedgerow before her death. Otto Kahn was the main source of funding for the Provincetown Players. Charlie Chaplin also contributed, and performed at the Provincetown Playhouse.

George Cram Cook and Susan Glaspell left for Greece in 1922. "We give this theatre we love a good death. The Provincetown Players end their story here." They made the others who stayed take a new name, The Experimental Theatre Inc. at the Provincetown Playhouse. James (Jimmy) Light was the director, but the group running the theatre was Eugene O'Neill, Kenneth MacGowan, and Robert Edmond Jones. Eleanor Fitzgerald, and Edna Kenton help run the theatre as they always had. Their papers are in Special Collections at the NYU Library. Cleon Throckmorton, and others were on the Board. Another season was planned for the Garrick Theatre. I have that final fundraising program from 1929. It lists all of the plays, and people who had been associated with the Provincetown Players, and the Experimental Theatre Inc. It lists the Board Members, reviews, quotes about the Provincetown Players, and the proposed new season that never happened. This program belonged to Jasper Deeter. I sold the other one to the O'Neill Center. Maybe NYU would like to buy it from me...

The theatre was also owned by Al and Sarah Maissel, and Norman Buckbinder. Sarah taught art at Cheltenham High School in Elkins Park, PA. Norman Buckbinder knew Norma Millay, and had great feeling for the Provincetown Playhouse - which is interesting because I also yelled at him a lot during the years. At one point Signature Theatre was considering moving to the Provincetown Playhouse. Let me end this with the words of George Cram Cook that were on the plaque honoring him at the Provincetown Playhouse:

And we will make the cold world
Flame and music,
The dance of flame
Obedient to dream

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New Review: Boeing Boeing

This was posted a few days ago on the New York Press' website, and is in the issue that comes out today.

Here's the obligatory tease:

One perk of theater criticism is you’re often given the script for a play that’s been off the scene. That certainly applies to Marc Camoletti’s Boeing Boeing, which ran on Broadway for 19 days in 1965 and fell off the radar faster than you can say Bermuda Triangle. True, the sex-farce-loving Brits kept it going-going for over seven years during the swinging ’60s, and the Guinness Book of World Records, in the early ’90s, proclaimed it the most-performed French play on earth. (Camoletti, who was French, died in 2003.) But in America, the play has long been going-going-gone.

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New Review: Glory Days

In Back Stage.

And the obligatory tease:

Glory Days has two stories. The first is contained within this poorly written excuse for a musical about four best friends who, after their freshman year in college, meet in the bleachers of their high school football field to plot pranks, sing songs, argue, brag about booty they bagged, betray one another, and storm off for angst-ridden parts unknown. All of which leaves us to wonder whether the real action occurs in a sequel, something I pray remains unwritten. The second is how Glory Days ever got to Broadway to begin with.

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New Feature: A Dialogue with the Cast of Endgame

In Back Stage, both print and online.

Here's my favorite quote from Stritch:

"I have a great deal of anger that's been brought up in me doing this play. And I'm not ashamed to say it. And I'm desperately trying to understand. And it's not that Elaine Stritch, who does jazzy material, is now suddenly doing Beckett. There's no difference in singing a good standard song by Rodgers and Hart and doing Beckett, only Rodgers and Hart doesn't make it so hard on you. I mean, can he give you a break once a while? I think this guy is a selfish son of a bitch. That's what I think. I think that Beckett is selfish, selfish, selfish..."

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Curbed.com: Pay Attention

Curbed.com has been doing a lot of coverage of the Provincetown Playhouse crisis, and its most recent posting highlights the fight that NYU has on its hands. I've been posting comments on a daily basis on this site, but you can only do so much in a short period, so I have crafted the following statement, which will go on the website as soon as permitted:

NYU -- my alma mater -- is addicted to demolition. It is also addicted to prevarication. On the one hand, it publicly promises to exhaust all methods and means of considering structual reuse before hauling out its precious wrecking ball, but here's evidence, as if anyone needed it, that NYU's words yet again stand naked and exposed, meaningless and empty, its promises fatuous and dismissive and blithe and superficial, its ethics and morals gathering dust on a shelf.

Full disclosure: I am Leonard Jacobs, national theatre editor of Back Stage, the entertainment industry trade paper, and first-string critic for both Back Stage and the alt-weekly New York Press. I am serving as one a primary liaison to the working, active professional theatre community, both locally and nationally, and we have enlisted several hundred people, including many names everyday citizens will recognize and who are working in ways public and private, overt and covert, and subtle and unsubtle in this fight. You can view just some of those names on the list of signatures on the letter to President Sexton available on GVSHP's website,
http://gvshp.org/documents/PTownSextonLtr04-30-08.pdf.

In advance of the community board meeting on May 28, we promise to spend the next four weeks building our coalition. We further promise that our approach to a satisfactory resolution of this crisis will be wide-ranging, legal and memorable.

Final note: I understand there are those who believe NYU's plan is a good and great thing, a big mountain of justification disguised as beautification. We do respect those who disagree with us. But we assure you that our disagreement will be louder, longer, more passionate and, if need be, unrelenting.

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