Gregory Boyd a man of mode Essay Example For Students

Gregory Boyd: a man of mode Essay You cant help but notice Gregory Boyds sense of style. Whether hes in an elegant Upper East Side hotel suite (complete with baby grand piano) in Manhattan or his windowless, black-and-gray, high-tech Houston office furnished with sleek furniture and large abstract paintings, the man has an unmistakable mode. Halfway through his fifth year as artistic director of Houstons Alley Theatre, Boyd has also shown something of a golden touch. A recent capital campaign, launched by outgoing managing director Stephen Albert, has raised over $6 million in pledges, an accomplishment which Albert calls a major step towards achieving financial stability for the theatre. Since Boyds tenure began in 1989, says Albert, Greg has brought a real sense of renewed energy to the Alleyone of the oldest resident theatres in the U.S.which went through a difficult recovery period (artistically and financially) after the death of its founder, Nina Vance, in 1980. The Alley is also expanding upward, with the shell of a new 500-seat proscenium theatredubbed the Theatre in the Sky by the staffwhich sits atop an adjacent parking garage. Boyd seems adept at mixing controversy (male nudity in a leather-and-chains Measure for Measure) with the comfortably mainstream (this seasons schedule includes Dancing at Lughnasa and Shirley Valentine). During his tenure, Boyd has brought playwright Edward Albee, directors Robert Wilson and Jose Quintero, and composer Frank Wildhorn (with whom Boyd has collaborated on two new musicals, Jekyll and Hydewhich is optioned for Broadway and should open there in the next two-yearsand Svengali) into the Alley fold to serve as associate artists. And in perhaps his biggest act of bravado so far, Boyd opened the 1993-94 season with an unabashedly old-fashioned and theatrical Cyrano de Bergeracnot a daring choice, except that he both played the title character and directed the production. The gamble paid off, with Boyd receiving respectful notices from local critics and the production breaking box-office records for single-ticket sales. I spoke to Boyd shortly after hed finished his run as Cyrano, and found his sharp, dry wit (one is hard-pressed at times to tell whether or not hes making a joke) and quotable eloquence reminiscent of Rostands romantic hero. Why did you choose to play your first major acting role at the Alley this fall, and why Cyrano? In 1968 when I was 16, I heard Jean-Louis Barrault say that Cyrano de Bergerac was the one play that an actor-director could direct from the part. Now, I think it was a sucker punch he was throwing. But I remember filing that piece of information away because I admired Barrault so much. And its the only leading role that a short, funny guy can get away withas opposed to your Hamlets or your Lears. Thats only half a joke. But Cyrano wasnt the first part Ive played at the Alley. I went on for an actor who was indisposed in a Feydeau play and worked for Bob Wilson in Dantons Death. And yes, they were shorter parts, but as we all know there are no small parts. When we began working with Wilson, the actors in the company wereI think its safe to sayapprehensive about beginning work with him, so I agreed to be in it with them, because they asked me to. It turned out that they all absolutely fell in love with Bob, which was what I thought would happen. What Bob was talking about was the same thing Stanislavsky was talking about and the same thing Brecht was talking about: effective acting is the same phenomenon whenever it appears, and wherever it appears, in whatever kind of production. After that some of the other actors lobbied for me to do something else with them. Because I trusted and liked them as people and wasnt going to be embarrassed in front of them, that made it easier to be in this play. So those were the main culprits: Jean-Louis Barrault, Bob Wilson and the other actors. Alexander meets with theatre professionals at forum EssayA number of regional theatres are moving pieces to Broadway. Is that something thats a goal for the Alley? It is definitely a goal to launch work into other consciousness besides the ones in Houston where we live. I just got back from Berlin, and were going to do two productions at the Schaubuhne there. Its important, I think, to let your work be seen in other places. Were talking to American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Mass. about switching productions. It would be so interesting if audiences in Houston could see the work of Seattle Rep. or audiences in Louisville could see what the Alleys doing, or vice-versa. Do there really need to be 72 productions of Dancing at Luhnasa in a season? Wouldnt eight productions be better? I mean, what are we going to do, have a dance-off or something? Thats pointless. Whereas, if we spent our resources more wisely, actors would work more, more interesting things would get done and more titles would get produced. Five years ago you took over a theatre that was really a matriarchy. Do you think the focus or the sensibility of the Alley has changed in any way because its led by a male artistic team as opposed to a female one? I dont know, I didnt see much of the work from before. I dont think this is particularly male or female, but I believe the Alley mainly did American plays about relatives theres nothing wrong with that, its just there was a steady diet of it. There wasnt a lot of classical work, there wasnt Chekhov or Shakespeare or Moliere. So its different in that way. I think the energy is different just because the individual people are different; I dont know if its a gender thing. Lets face it, theatre is the one enterprise in life, the one human endeavor, it seems to me, in which you have total freedom to have men play women, or women play men, or women play women, or men play men, and nobody gets upset about it. The theatre has inherently in it the potential to be genderless. Where do you see the Alley going in the next five years? Towards a larger permanent acting company and a larger extended family of designers, composers, directorsand more performances internationally. Three performance spaces at home instead of two and all of them filled every night with people who sit this way (he leans forward in his seat). All that.