off-stage right

I love when a theater company creates a multi-level campaign to celebrate a success.  But, I find what is happening at Hartford Stage to be an absolute joy and a unique spin because it is actually more a celebration of the company’s talented Artistic Director’s work and partnership with one of the greatest story-tellers ever to write for the theater.

Horton Foote’s Dividing the Estate is about to start performances on May 28.  A bit of back-story, the show has been an interesting example of collaboration at many nonprofit theaters.  The play was actually written in the 80s but Horton made some significant revisions for its New York premiere at Primary Stages (great company) directed by long-time Foote collaborator and Hartford Stage’s Artistic Director, Michael Wilson, went to Broadway with a producing team led by the incomparable Lincoln Center Theater, and now it heads to Hartford Stage.  In other words, it isn’t quite Hartford Stage’s show yet.

Michael and the late Horton Foote have worked closely for the last several years on several projects, Dividing the Estate, a heart-wrenching revision of To Kill a Mockingbird that is rumored to be Broadway bound for the 2010 season, and the upcoming 9 play Orphans Home Cycle, that Hartford Stage commissioned to be revised as a three production event, will be produced in Hartford early this fall and then will move straight to New York’s Signature Theatre Company.

Hartford Stage has celebrated many of it’s production in wonderful ways.  For example, Hartford Stage participated in the National Endowment for the Arts Big Reads Program for Mockingbird. This included among other events a wonderful evening during which Wilson interviewed Foote about the writing of the Oscar-winning film script.

But now the celebration has shifted full force to the Tony-nominated Dividing the Estate – a show that has yet to even begin performances.  The company is basically helping run an outright campaign for the show by offering tickets to Tony voters who might not have made it to the far too short run of the show in New York.  Keep in mind this is a Tony Award that two other theaters would win.  And the most brilliant part – the company is hosting a Tony Awards Party at the theater for the company’s donors and audiences.  That’s right, a party for a show that the company is not even part of the producing team of.  Not only does it sound like a fun event for those who love Hartford Stage, but it gives the majority of the Dividing the Estate cast a way to be celebrated stars that evening – since the cast will be in residence in Hartford for performances.  And this cast deserves it.  A cast that is such a wonderful ensemble that they helped revive the long discussed idea of having a “best ensemble” Tony category (great article in New York Magazine about this).

The fundraiser in me says, “great job, what a way to center an event on a show and raise some money at an reasonable price point!”

The marketer in me says, “great cross-promotion and what a way to insert ownership over a show!”

The theater practitioner in me says, “Wow, what a great example of how we should all support our artistic leaders and the artists who work with us.  Celebrate the work an artistic director (or any artistic staff) does no matter if the work was done at the institution they run or at other theaters.  Make sure a show that should have had a longer run does.  Celebrate the relationships with artists that make our institutions thrive.  And most importantly, involve our audiences in the celebration because without an audience it is just a rehearsal!”

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