Salem Theatre company’s artistic Director John Fogle believes ” that the arts exist - and will forever exist - as mankind’s unique problem-solving tool. Theatre models human experience. Be it a tragedy, comedy or something in between, a play presents a troublesome situation and shows us a resolution - happy, sad or bittersweet. We laugh, we cry, we feel connected to a wider world. And because we bear no moral responsibility for what happens onstage, we watch with our defenses down. We learn - and enjoy it.” (read the full story ArtThrob here)
We caught up with John to ask him some questions about the Salem Theatre Company’s upcoming season.
What can the audience expect from STC this season?
First off and closest to home, Judith Black unleashes her force-of-nature talents on that “witchy thing” -and more-in Bittersweet Midnight… then Paula Vogel’s riotous take on “good cheer anxiety,” The Long Christmas Ride Home, arrives in the nick of time for those pesky holidays…followed by Margaret Edson’s W;t, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, which transforms the fearful into the sublime right before our eyes. Next up -one of the freshest voices in American theatre-is Sarah Ruhl whose Dead Man’s Cell Phone probes the loopy metaphysics of today’s connected society…and finally, Tina Howe’s Painting Churches beautifully frames an artist’s longing to embrace her aging parents.”
This is Salem Theatre Company marks its eighth season with a series of plays by and about women. What inspired this season’s play choices written by contemporary female playwrights?
During the past year, there has been a lot of chatter in theatre circles about gender bias in theatre. Why do so few female playwrights get their work performed…in commercial theatres in the big tents like NYC and elsewhere? This conversation was kicked off, in part, by a study done by Emily Sands, a graduate student at Princeton, which revealed a pattern of apparent gender bias against female playwrights on Broadway. (Check the details here.) Her study also drew some other very surprising conclusions…but, the point is, this discussion started the wheels in motion for me. Provided with the opportunity to put together a season of plays, why not buck this trend? Why not showcase just a few of the powerful and successful plays written by women? Clearly, five plays cannot cover the waterfront of the work of female writers - but it’s the best we can do in one season - so I decided, and our Board of Directors agreed, that it was worth doing. Now, there’s another factor at work here… the fact that theatre audiences are made up of more women than men…and my unscientific judgment that it is the woman in the family who most often makes the buy for arts events. We’re going to test that assumption with Season Eight.
Have you ever worked with Judith Black before? What can we expect from Bittersweet Midnight? How is it working with writer/actor as a director?
I have worked with Judith many times over the 30+ years that I have known her. She was the Children’s Theatre Director at the Barton Square Playhouse in Salem, which I co-founded and served as Artistic Director in the early1980’s. She starred in the BSP production of A Moon For the Misbegotten there. I directed a one-woman show of hers in the late 1980s. Judith is delightful to work with - courageous, inventive, disciplined and eager for a third eye to sharpen her work.
Each play is also connected to a fundraising initiative.
Can you please speak about why and the goals for these fundraisers?
Three major goals here: to increase awareness of STC by partnering with other non-profits in our community; to bring new audiences into our theatre; to give back to the community. We see it as a win-win.
Mark your calendars:
October 2010 - “Bittersweet Midnight”
December 2010 - “The Long Christmas Ride Home”
January 2011 - “W;t”
March 2011 - “Dead Man’s Cell Phone”
May 2011 - “Painting Churches”
For more information on STC, visit salemtheatre.com/
