“Community theatre is theatre that is part of the community where it resides”.
Hi Friends,
This month I am just going to turn it all over to Dennis Gleason. I so enjoyed talking to him and reading his experiences producing theatre in South Dakota is beyond informative and fascinating.
Dennis: One of the slogans we came up with for Abilene Community Theatre was “Community is our middle name”. This philosophy held true in all the theatres I worked at whether the actual word was in the title or not. The sentiment always was true. Often we were the first exposure audiences members had of theater either as a patron or a participant. Most of our audiences never saw a Broadway show and many never saw a touring company. So we were it. Often we were the only theatre in town or even within an hour’s drive and it was not uncommon for people to drive several hours to come see our shows. More importantly we were supported by Season Subscribers, some of whom had attended our theatre for 60 years! We definitely played an important cultural and financial role in the community since we, and our patrons, spent our dollars at local businesses. I often urged our audience to use our playbill as the Yellow Pages. Our sponsors and advertisers were local as they knew we in turn gave them exposure to a wide cross section of local buyers spanning all demographics.
People in town knew us and supported us as we supported them. At one theatre I did a joint fundraiser with an AIDS organization and the Mayor served as host for the event. We did another one with the local Alzheimer’s Association by presenting “Love Letters” on Reagan’s birthday. That time the expanded cast featured local celebrities: the Mayor & his wife, two local tv anchors, the head of the ballet, local college professors, a minister and his wife and our own actors. At another theatre’s annual awards show (their version of the Tonys), the Mayor and local celebrities were presenters. The Mayor also did a special presentation every season on our opening night of the first production. A local art gallery agreed to let us stage the play “Art” in their space. Schools that did not have a performing space did their shows on our stage and we split the proceeds. We also teamed with the town’s choir to perform a holiday concert. Miss Louisiana always used our theatre to present her “Trunk Show” to model the outfits she would wear in the upcoming Miss America pageant. She would then let the little girls try on her tiara afterwards for pictures. Holiday time always featured a barrel in our lobby for donations of food, toys or clothing brought by our patrons who received a discount on their ticket. We opened our doors to high school and college students, senior groups and veterans homes to attend our previews. Students taking the college course Theatre Appreciation (which I sometimes taught) would read our plays and come see them for credit; after the show some performers and I would go to their class to answer their questions and discuss the merits, good & bad, of the production. And we never wanted for publicity. We always had huge stories with color photos in the newspaper on opening night. Part of our media sponsorships included free commercials for every show that included our performers plus we did interviews and show excerpts on tv and radio shows; one favorite activity was our actors going on a half hour cooking show to cook a dish related to the show somehow and give away free tickets….we took over the entire show and sometimes they dressed in character!
Malini: What was a typical production like including budget, casting, design, run?
Dennis: One advantage of doing theatre at one theatre is the variety of shows you get to work on. At some theatres I was Artistic Director (directing six to seven Mainstage full productions a season), others I was Managing Artistic Director (directing two to three Mainstage shows a season) and others I was Managing Director where I worked behind the scenes. Each theatre had their own system, their own staff and their own theatre. The theatres ranged from 125 seats up to 800.
Black Hills Community Theatre in Rapid City, South Dakota (20 minutes away from historic Mt. Rushmore) was unique in that it had six different branches of theatre. The oldest and most popular was the Mainstage. The Mainstage presented five productions a year (one to two musicals, two comedies and one drama) for three to four weeks. The next was Youngstage which presented three to four, one hour shows a year performed by adults for children for one to two weeks. Both of these had subscribers. The second children’s theatre was called Cherry Street Players; these were twice weekly, two hour classes for youth ages 8-18 who learned about theatre. At the end of the semester, the students presented a one hour to 90 minute production on our stage for one weekend. The third children’s theatre show was presented on an outdoor stage at Storybook Island which were original or adapted plays 20-30 minutes long for kids and families; these were performed by high school or college students who were paid to perform three shows a day, five days a week from June through August (they also put on two week long workshops). My favorite group were the Well Done Players which consisted of 10-15 senior citizens (all ladies while I was there) who met weekly to learn original shows they would perform on a variety of topics. They had a monthly paid gig at one retirement home where they would perform a readers theatre with song sometimes that centered around a theme depending upon the time of year. These were original skits, scenes, songs, poems that were usually nostalgic in some way; they would also put together an original show with material about whomever they hired them and would perform at birthdays, anniversaries, etc. They also went with me whenever I had to give a speech and they briefly performed then as well. The last branch of the theatre was the annual dinner theatre three performance fundraiser at a local hotel (usually a comedy with a cast of two to eight) with dinner or brunch,an emcee, a raffle and silent auction items. And if money became a problem we threw in smaller projects as well. This meant we would be putting on a minimum of 16 different shows a season.
The budgets for individual productions varied greatly from show to show or theatre to theatre; would often meet with tech director early on to set priorities for each show or season. Typical overall budget for the year would be $300,000. Shows would run two to four weekends, sometimes Wednesday through Sunday. Only one theatre brought in a guest artist to act otherwise no one was paid to perform; at some theatres musicians were paid (individual amounts determined by music director), at others musicians donated their talent and time. Stage managers, designers and crew were usually paid.
Malini: What was your experience as artistic director and managing director of theatres in the flyover states?
Dennis: My experience in flyover country was varied. After leaving Louisiana to go to South Dakota, I discovered that the midwest was even more conservative than the south and was told “You may have been in the bible belt but are now in the bible buckle”. Interpret that how you wish; shows we had done in LA were dismissed in SD. There were other theatres that did some edgier shows but not where I was.
My duties as Managing or Artistic Director were diverse and depended upon the theatre. I either did it myself, worked with a staff or a committee and once counted 33 days in a row on the schedule without a day off! I researched, selected and scheduled the shows; arranged for all the licenses and royalties to be paid; set up a master calendar, ran rehearsals, production meetings, committee meetings,staff meetings, attended board meetings; wrote and oversaw the playbill and recruited advertisers for it; acquired show and season sponsors; worked on season brochure; handled all marketing (tv, radio, print and social media), deciding who would appear and what would be said if I did not do it myself; research and write grants; oversee the box office; oversee all front of house (house manager, ushers, concessions, merchandising); arrange fundraisers; obtain silent auction and raffle items; direct; produce; handle rentals of costumes, props, set pieces, the facility itself; hire and supervise theatre and production staff; make speeches and public appearances; devise and monitor and adjust fiscal and production budgets; serve as liaison to local government, other arts organizations, other non-profits, local colleges and schools; sometimes design and so much more. Many tasks we were never taught in grad school but quickly learned and it would be different at each theatre and in each community.
Malini: What were the different types of theatre that you directed and the audiences really enjoyed?
Dennis: I had many wonderful experiences directing. A real highlight was to direct STEEL MAGNOLIAS in Louisiana and travel to the town it was based on and visit the real M’lynn (Sally Fields role) and real Drummond (her husband) and hear them tell stories of their daughter, Shelby, who lost her life 20 years before and whom the play was based on (Julia Roberts role). Invaluable experience to meet them, another lady from the script and to see the actual town; they actually came and saw our show and gave it their stamp of approval. SIX DANCE LESSONS IN SIX WEEKS was another treat featuring a gay character giving lessons to a Baptist widow. We had three choreographers (one head of Dance Department at the University, one head of her own dance academy and one a national ballroom dancer) who donated their time to stage two dances each for the show. We completely redid the Youngstage Theatre space to replicate the NY Snapple and Sullivan Street theatres to stage THE FANTASTICKS around September 11th (taking advantage of the “Try to Remember” song). We also got to do STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE with real southerners just a few hours away from New Orleans was a real treat.
And yes stunt casting exists even in fly-over-country. I directed OSCAR AND FELIX (updated ODD COUPLE) starring the town’s two most popular morning DJs who every day in the studio would talk about the night before’s rehearsal or performance. To blunt any criticism of FOOTLOOSE I cast a minister as Ren’s mother and the organist at the biggest church in town as the Reverend; this cast of sixty by the way had 9 different families in it such as spouses, siblings, grandmother and grandchild, etc. My lead in ALWAYS, PATSY CLINE was Tim McGraw’s opening act. And SMOKE ON THE MOUNTAIN, a musical about a traveling evangelical singing family, starred a couple who really used to do this and we sold their CDs in the lobby. Please note that these actors and actresses were all seasoned performers who deserved their roles and were excellent in them.
I did a play about First Ladies and gave all the cast biographies to read and our rehearsals turned into history lessons and political discussions. MISERY was a real challenge to do onstage. We expanded the cast (with the playwright’s okay) of ALMOST, MAINE from 6 to 19 with different people in every scene and a cast in age ranging from 15 to 75. As a result of doing SPELLING BEE in a small South Dakota town, I met SIDE SHOW lyricist Bill Russell who came and saw my show while on a visit and then helped him on a local benefit he was doing! Some of the shows were so popular we took them on the road to other theatres out of town or brought them back for a summer return engagement. I made a point of casting new people in every single show to expand the theatre base and the audience and avoid favoritism. Remember what JFK said “Not everyone has equal talent. But everyone deserves an equal opportunity to develop their talent”.
Malini: In your experience, was the community open to new works?
Dennis: I think community theatres are open to new works, especially those in bigger cities with playwrights. It mighter be better to say they are open to newer or less known works. When selecting shows for a season I liked to follow Hal Prince’s advice: “Good theatre is not just giving people what they want. Good theatre is giving people what they didn’t know they wanted”. While I was always conscious of the bottom financial line, and was grateful for the built-in-audience we had for every show with our season subscribers, I also tried to pick shows that I thought could stand on their own and bring in non-subscribing audience members, especially younger demographics, and not always pick those that had been done to death, done by us or others in area recently. I did not pick a show to lose money however. We did have to be somewhat careful with content; people were more apt to accept a controversial subject or character or situation if it was in a comedy.
The AIDS benefit I did had original songs and original short plays we solicited from around the country. Our children’s theatre tended to have original scripts. When our production of DOUBT did not do well (there was the misconception it was anti-church or anti-catholic) I was charged with making up the financial loss. I instituted “Plays off the Page” a weekly readers theatre we did on Tuesday evenings in the summer consisting of plays people may not have heard of, some we were considering for future seasons and some that were too heavy for our our normal season (ZOO STORY, ART). We started with TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE for two shows with entry by contribution only (any amount) and it was so popular we brought in over $2,500 for just that one show! People were pitching scripts to us but many were not very good or not something we thought there would be interest an audience. At another theatre we did do LAST TRAIN TO NIBROC with a real life soldier and real life husband and wife playing the couple as a Valentine’s Day fundraiser. No one knew the show but it drew a decent crowd. It is all in the marketing (when selecting a show I always thought how to market it). I did a entire season of shows that had been movies, billing it as “From Stage to Screen to Strauss” or “Stage to Screen to Abilene” and unveiled them at a red carpet event covered by the media on Academy Awards afternoon.
Dennis has been the Managing or Artistic Director for the following companies:
Chanticleer’s Theatre, California
Act Now Theatre Company, California
Spartanburg Little Theatre, South Carolina
Strauss Theatre Center, Louisiana
Black Hills Community Theatre, South Dakota
Abilene Community Theatre, Texas
Sheboygan Theatre Company, Wisconsin
Pinewood Dinner Theatre, Wisconsin
Dennis Gleason’s Bio: Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr Gleason immersed himself in theatre. Serving as an Executive Board Member at Role Players Ensemble, Diablo Stage Players and Stage One, he went on to serve as Artistic Director for Chanticleers Theatre and Act Now Theatre Company. His first directing gig was a stage adaptation of Free To Be You And Me. Twenty-five years later he has directed over 130 plays and musicals coast to coast, winning a dozen “Outstanding Director” and “Outstanding Production” awards.
Earning a MFA in Directing from the Actors Studio Drama School in New York City, Dennis was awarded a scholarship all three years of his schooling while he studied with Broadway directors, designers and playwrights. Starting out in a cohort of 18 directors he is one of only 8 who made it through all three years of the program; his thesis production of Passion was heralded by ASDS Dean James Lipton. He attended Master Classes by artists who came to ASDS for Inside the Actors Studio.
Dennis enjoys collaborating with playwrights on original works and has directed almost 50 of these including 15 world premieres. His production of An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein (the first NY mounting since the original) transferred to Off-Broadway playing the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre. Other successful productions had recurring mountings at additional theatres and were featured in the Strawberry Festival, Midtown International Theatre Festival and the NY International Lesbian & Gay Theatre Festival; two original productions he directed have been published, listing him as Director in the credits. In addition to directing he served as Artistic Associate for Ensemble Studio Theatre, Venue Director for the NY International Fringe Festival and as a private acting coach.
In addition to theatre, Dennis holds a MA in Speech Communication and has taught both speech and theatre courses at high schools, colleges and universities. A national speech champion himself, he served as Forensics Coach leading his students to statewide and national honors. Besides teaching in the classroom he has also directed theatrical productions for both colleges and high schools.
His directing credits are varied. Some of the plays he has directed include Deathtrap, Misery, Doubt, Cuckoo’s Nest, Streetcar Named Desire, Steel Magnolias, Prelude to a Kiss, Foxfire, Driving Miss Daisy, Crimes of the Heart, Blithe Spirit, Tuesdays with Morrie and many Neil Simon shows. Dennis’ past musicals include Spelling Bee, Wild Party, Into the Woods, Sound of Music, Footloose, The Fantasticks, Smoke on the Mountain, Gypsy, Beauty & The Beast, Meet Me in St Louis and Nunsense.
Live, Love, Learn,