Hello from Beyond Broadway!
The American Regional Theatre Movement is one of the great artistic experiments of our country, and we’re reaching out to learn just what makes these artists and this aspect of theatre unique – from the specific challenges these theatres and artists face to their ever-changing audiences. Each month, we’ll meet someone working at some of America’s most exciting Regional Theatres, and learn just what makes them love what’s going on Beyond Broadway.
Photo by Mikki Schaffner
| WHO | D. Lynn Meyers, Producing Artistic Director |
| WHERE | Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH |
| MISSION | To produce new works and works new to the region, many with a social conscience. |
| AFFILIATIONS | Actor’s Equity Association; LORT, LOA |
AKR: What, aside from location, makes Regional Theatre different from Broadway?
DLM: Well, for one thing, we develop a team. If you’re producing a show for a limited run in New York, even if it’s a hit show, you bring a team together for a finite amount of time. Here at ETC, we have this core ensemble of artists that work together show after show, year after year, so we’re in a unique position to help those artists in the long-term goals of their career, as apposed to just production after production.
AKR: What is the hardest thing about being in Regional Theatre?
DLM: I think the hardest thing is being perceived as the Others by people who may be in NY, or Chicago, or LA. There is a certain attitude that it was people who couldn’t make it in NYC who end up in Regional Theatre. It’s a choice. The vast majority of people I work with in Regional Theatre are the people who’ve done NYC, worked in LA, done feature films, and have chosen a region to work in because that enriches them in a bigger and broader way than, maybe, being part of the pool in the city.
AKR: So, why did YOU choose to become a part of the Regional Theatre community?
DLM: Well, it kind of chose me. I got hired back in my hometown of Cincinnati and Cincinnati Playhouse and then I started to really get excited by the concept of how that theatre and all the other theatres in their regions were so unique and the artistic freedom you had to create and make a difference there.
AKR: What has been your proudest moment as a member of the Regional Theatre community?
DLM: Oh man, well, our theatre, ETC, is forever going to be affiliated with our address, which is 1127 Vine St. and that is in the heart of Over-the-Rhine, which used to be the worst neighborhood in the nation. And, in 2001, CNN used the theatre as the backdrop for their coverage of a riot that happened in front of our building caused by a charged racial incident.
Perhaps the proudest moment, and the most defining moment for this theatre, is when we stayed. The day that we came back in the building, after we had been taken out at gunpoint, and then few days later, against the police and all the authorities’ advice, the staff was escorted back and moved back into the building. And the Board supported that. They said, “no, we are not going to give up.” So, for me, that was a defining moment. The defining moment that said that art can change, art can heal, art can only help, and, for me, it was the decision to come back to work and realize that quitting solved nothing.
AKR: And what was the condition of the theatre when you returned?
DLM: Well the great news was that nothing had been broken – to the left, to the right, and across the street from us, there had been a lot of destruction. That told me that we were making a difference. That told me that people in this region saw us as a safe place. They saw us as part of the neighborhood, not an imposing force on the neighborhood. That meant a lot to me, and it means a lot to me to this day that, be it a kid, be it a teenage mom, be it somebody who needs help along the way, they know that our door is open to them. That makes a difference to me; that makes us genuinely a part of our region and a part of our community.
AKR: In Regional Theatre your audience is unique to your region, so what makes your regional audience unique?
DLM: (laughs) They’re super-smart. I mean, they are! Without hesitation, I will tell you that ETC audiences are SMART. They like to be challenged, they love being part of something that’s making a difference in this region, they are proud of that. My audience, also, to the tune of at least 80% renew their subscriptions without knowing the titles [of the coming season], which means they are giving a leap of faith to an experience at ETC, as opposed to waiting for hit titles. We’re a theatre dedicated to new work, so a lot of time that means the titles aren’t household names, but yet, they come anyway, and I think that makes my audience extraordinary.
AKR: Moving beyond, just the generality of Regional Theatre, what new/young playwrights are you most excited about?
DLM: Ooo, we have several people in our season, including someone like Gina Gionfriddo, who I think is extraordinary and wrote Rapture, Blister, Burn. I think what she’s done, is that she’s taken the inspiration from women playwrights of the past, particularly Wendy Wasserstein and taken that voice of American Women to the next generation and I really admire her work. Katori Hall, who wrote The Mountaintop, that we’re also doing next season – that’s just an insightful, poetic, beautiful voice. She’s somebody who sees beyond the legend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to the man, and beyond what we know of him to what her heart and soul feels could have happened, and I like that kind of inspiration a lot.
AKR: What role do you feel your theatre and/or Regional Theatre in general should play in arts education?
DLM: I think that the most important thing that a Regional Theatre does, in terms of arts education, is to give children access to theatre and to give them a understanding of what theatre is. The theatre is not just the musical at the end of the year, which the high school kids do that can sing. That theatre, is an ongoing, organic, living art form. I think that theatre education is misunderstood sometimes as being less of an art form and I don’t believe that’s true. Theatre education IS an art form.
AKR: What do you wish American/ your local audiences and patrons understood about regional theatre or theatre in general?
DLM: I wish that everyone understood that theatre is here FOR them and WITH them. I wish that people didn’t look upon it as something they had to do as an assignment. But I do think theatre is more embraced than it used to be. I think, with the advent of not only educational theatre, but community theatre and semi-professional theatre and Equity theatre, and Broadway theatre, I think that the tiers on which the people are working in theatre have broadened. That means more people are involved. That says something to the nation about theatre being a collective experience. If I could say anything to this country, I would say, embrace it.
Thank you, Lynn!
Live, Love, Learn,
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