Looking up and staring while walking around in Times Square sounds like the classic stance of a gawking tourist, but should you happen to be at the northeast corner of Forty-Sixth Street and Seventh Avenue, I suggest you take a few moments to do just that. At a time when every square inch of the area seems to be covered by video screens, the owners of the one-time I. Miller building have beautifully restored a rather unique feature of a bygone era.

Gaze above ground level along Forty-Sixth Street and you’ll spy four gold-flecked alcoves with statues of four famous women entertainers – famous by 1920s standards. Shoe entrepreneur I. Miller, in renovating the existing building in 1926 as an outlet for his growing shoe store chain, made the decision to honor great women in the performing arts, and so each alcove is dedicated to a paragon of her field: Ethel Barrymore for drama, Marilyn Miller for musicals, Mary Pickford for film and Rosa Ponselle for opera. They first appeared in 1928.

Although the building received landmark status in 1999, by 2008 The New York Times described the state of the statues as follows, “Today, Israel Miller’s building has descended to a sorry state, with brutish plastic signage in minimal box frames, broken marble trim and the limestone stained by dirt. Miss Barrymore gazes up, as if pleading for a hot shower.” That description no longer applies, as the photos on this post attest – they were taken just yesterday after scaffolding around the building came down, affording the best view for some time.

The sculptures, incidentally, aren’t merely the work of a journeyman artist. They are by Alexander Stirling Calder – the son of Alexander Milne Calder, a premier artist of Philadelphia who crafted the statue of William Penn that caps Philly’s city hall, and the father of the Alexander Calder whose mobiles and wire sculptures are renowned in the sphere of modern art.

Times Square has been an advertising mecca dating back to the days when I. Miller unveiled his store and sculptures, so it’s foolish to inveigh against encroaching commercialism. But it is comforting to know that these great ladies have been restored to their rightful place, grace notes in a riot of color and light.

Note: by clicking on each photo in this post, you can bring up a larger version of each one, affording a better view of each great lady in her perch above the Times Square fray. All photos © Howard Sherman.

Yesterday afternoon, Trumbull High School Principal Marc Guarino released a letter in which he announced the restoration of Rent to the school schedule, albeit with new dates. His letter was followed swiftly by a response from a group of Thespian troupe parents. Beyond my headline, I will allow these statements to stand on their own, except to say that in my experience, the Anti-Defamation League can move very swiftly when their services are required, and that I wish Mr. Guarino would speak personally to this issue, rather than simply releasing statements.

*   *   *   *

From Trumbull High Principal Marc Guarino:

“The Thespian Club Advisors, Mrs. Spillane and Mrs. Bolan, Dr. Cialfi and I have been in discussion regarding the performance of Rent: School Edition. The objective was to determine when and how the performance could take place in accordance with my original plan for the necessary learning opportunities that are essential as a preparatory process. Rent: School Edition provides opportunity for me to be in concert with the Thespian Club Advisors to implement an annual performance for the Trumbull High School stage.

The learning opportunities are essential. To plan for these, I will be working collaboratively with various groups. Our Intervention Specialist will be key in understanding the significant themes which will carry our cast and crew from production to performance and integrate them throughout the school. We will look to partner with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to provide resources and training for our faculty, staff and students. I will also consult with our student support staff, as well as our Advisory co-chairs to develop appropriate learning experiences through our Advisory program. Groups of students, in addition to the thespians, will contribute to our planned learning experience, such as Peer Leaders and members of the Link Crew. In addition, we are planning community outreach activities to acknowledge these themes. This also provides an excellent opportunity for the THS community to focus its civic and social expectations aligned to our core values and beliefs.

I believe that this process can be accomplished during the 2013/2014 school year if the performance dates can be delayed to Wednesday, April 30, dress rehearsal, through Sunday, May 4, 2014.”

*   *   *

From a group of Trumbull parents:

“Yesterday, following Trumbull First Selectman Herbst’s public statement on the radio that Rent would be brought to Trumbull High School, we were encouraged. We issued a short statement in support of Mr. Herbst’s efforts to broker a positive outcome, but raising a note of caution in light of indications the show might be postponed until later in the academic calendar, where it would run up against many competing curricular and extracurricular activities.

We also sent THS Principal Marc Guarino a letter expressing our deep concern that any delay would be unworkable, urging him to keep focus on the primary concern here: the best interests of the THS students who would be involved in this production. We sent a copy of that letter, to Superintendent Cialfi and to First Selectman Herbst. Although some of us were fortunate enough to have a meeting with Mr. Herbst this morning, he made clear that he was not the decision-maker here. He indicated that he would speak with Dr. Cialfi on our behalf, and we presume he did, but we received no further word from him, from Dr. Cialfi, or from Mr. Guarino before today’s announcement that the production would be postponed to the end of April and into early May. Indeed, despite Mr. Guarino’s expressed desire for “dialogue,” he again unilaterally issued a decision to the detriment of our children without responding to our letter and without offering to speak with us to address our concerns.

The announced schedule for Rent is unworkable. Many of the students who would be in the musical will be spending their spring break, in the middle of April, in England on tour with THS’s Concert Choir. Preparations for that tour will be intense, and make rehearsals for the musical difficult, to say the least. A popular time to take the SAT and SAT Subject tests will be on Saturday, May 3, right in the middle of the scheduled show weekend, which follows the intense week of final rehearsals. The following week, AP exams begin. On top of these obstacles, students who would like to participate in other demanding extracurricular activities, including athletic and music activities, as well as the curricular We The People competition, may have to make a difficult choice whether to give up those activities or the musical.

All of these conflicts arise because Mr. Guarino insisted upon delaying the production by approximately 16 school days in order to pursue an ambitious educational agenda around Rent. No explanation has been provided why this agenda could not take place around the show, rather than before it. Nor has there been any meaningful explanation why the school edition of Rent is so “sensitive” that an entire curriculum must be arranged around that musical. Rather, it appears that delaying Rent is the fig leaf required to allow Mr. Guarino to reverse his unpopular decision, which has made Trumbull a laughingstock throughout Connecticut, and far beyond.

Because some of the media has been reporting that Trumbull has solved its Rent problem, we must be clear that Mr. Guarino and the THS administration have continued their unpopular and untenable practice of deciding first, issuing public statements later, and ignoring the clearly expressed wishes of those whose interests their decisions should be serving. Students and parents in Trumbull do not believe that a solution has been reached, nor a genuine compromise. What has happened instead is a game of politics, with students as pawns, and many of us consider it a travesty.

If Mr. Guarino is looking for educational opportunities around Rent, perhaps he should seize this opportunity to demonstrate what true leaders do when they recognize that they have made a mistake. He should admit it, restore Rent to its proper place on the academic calendar, and bring his campus together to heal.

Jonathan Tropp, Lauren Tropp, Rick Bolton, Cathy Bolton, Jackie Madwed, Jeff Madwed, Annette Clift, Nelson Clift, Dan Gottschall, Andrea Gottschall, Tim Gallo, Gina Gallo, John Ell, Virginia Ell”

Report as of 9 am, Tuesday, December 10

Yesterday afternoon, in response to a caller on WICC Radio in Connecticut, host Jim Buchanan reached or was contacted by the First Selectman of Trumbull, Tim Herbst, regarding the situation regarding the production of Rent at Trumbull High School, which was announced as cancelled by school principal Marc Guarino on Monday, November 25 and reiterated, via a letter from Mr. Guarino that was read at a Board of Education meeting, on Tuesday, December 3.  The following is a partial transcript of Mr. Herbst’s comments from a recording that was created sometime after he began to speak on WICC.

“He wanted it to be an educational opportunity where we teach not only our students, but all of our citizens, a lot of the fundamental principles that are derived from this musical. We want to teach our kids acceptance, responsibility and tolerance. He wanted to make sure that if this went forward, that there were programs integrated into curriculum at the high school, through homeroom teachers, through the English department where a lot of these issues were raised in advance of the production so it was done in an appropriate manner. Let me just tell you some of the due diligence Mr. Guarino showed. He went to Amity High School, he went to Greenwich High School, which put these productions on, to ask their staff, their theatre director, their school intervention specialist to ask what did you do to make this a successful production. And they told him what they did. And it was a collaborative effort across disciplines, across departments with the entire faculty working together.

It’s going to happen. What’s holding it up is getting it to a place where Mr. Guarino and the staff are part of the production and integrating it the way itself.”

Mr. Herbst then repeated a story about Mr. Guarino only learning of the production from a conversation he had in his hometown of Guilford. Mr. Buchanan asked whether the drama program had ever been required to seek prior approvals before, which Mr. Herbst acknowledged had not been the case. When Mr. Herbst spoke of open communication, Mr. Buchanan asked why his caller had been unable to get any response from her inquiries to the school, with Herbst replying that he couldn’t speak to that.

Mr. Herbst continued:

“It is my strong hope that tomorrow, we are going to have an announcement that addresses everybody’s concerns so we can move forward as one community together and god willing  settle this and get this production this year so these graduating seniors can participate, but do it in a way that gets to where Mr. Guarino wants to be, making this an educational, learning opportunity for not only the kids at Trumbull High School, but for the community where we teach the fundamental principles of tolerance, acceptance and responsibility.”

Mr. Buchanan asked, “What time might we expect an announcement”

Mr. Herbst replied:

“I’d like to get it by early afternoon. I’ve basically canceled all of my appointments for the morning to dedicate my efforts to getting this resolved, it needs to be resolved. Maybe this will be a nice Christmas gift for everybody knowing that this has been resolved. But this needs to come to a head. But this has to be resolved, the play should go forward in a responsible way that addresses the concerns of the administration. I’m confident that working together we can get to a place that everyone’s going to be happy with.”

I am delighted that the net result of this situation is that Rent will likely be performed at Trumbull High School. But while the recording I’ve heard is missing the very beginning, I hope that what is not lost here is:

1. Mr. Guarino, in his letter to the Board of Education, placed the blame for the situation on a member of his faculty, who even Mr. Herbst acknowledges was following the exact procedure she has in prior years. There needs to be a statement of support for her efforts and dedication on behalf of her students and a repudiation of the prior statements which, many have said, essentially took a veteran teacher and “threw her under a bus.”

2. There needs to be an acknowledgment that this resolution is due to the extraordinary efforts of the Thespian troupe at Trumbull high, since Mr. Guarino twice stated that the production was canceled, with the Board of Education expressing their support for Mr. Guarino’s decision. If it were not for these students, Rent would not be so close to being restored to Trumbull High School. They may have learned a big lesson here, but they have also taught one.

3. Mr. Herbst cites Mr. Guarino’s visit to Amity High School as part of his “due diligence” to insure the production happened properly. While it is true that Mr. Guarino met with staff at Amity, it should be noted that the meeting took place on December 3, hours prior to the reading of the letter at the Board of Education which reaffirmed the cancelation. The show is being restored because students and parents kept up pressure until the school and the town realized how damaging it was to not let the show go forward, since the Amity meeting certainly didn’t prompt Mr. Guarino to withdraw his letter, which spoke of delaying the production until at least next school year.

4. Mr. Guarino, please speak publicly yourself as this is resolved. You have been silent since you met with the students in November, and to lead your school from this point forward, everyone needs to hear from and be able to speak with you. That will go a long way to insuring an positive, open communication in your school.

I await the official announcement this afternoon, like so many others. I look forward to a season of love at Trumbull High School.

I had not intended to write again about the conflict over a planned production of Rent in Trumbull, but the story continues to grow. In the interest of brevity, this post will merely draw your attention to several other pieces written about the Trumbull High School Rent controversy, notably from the chairman of the Board of Education and from the town’s First Selectman. They bear directly on the controversy, and even offer a compromise solution.

From Stephen P. Wright, Chairman of the Trumbull Board of Education, in the Connecticut Post:

 “The benefits of exposing the school and the community to the play Rent are undeniable. The discipline of tolerance, the gift of acceptance, the splendor of diversity, and exposure to different lifestyles are certainly lessons that should be a critical part of a high school student’s education and mature growth….While I personally do not agree with the position taken by Mr. Guarino, I support his right to make that decision. This is a school decision, not a Board of Education decision, and is one that a head of school has every right to make. While much of our town may be “for Rent,” I am confident that we have a firm “lease” on promoting diversity and tolerance here, too.”

An alternate solution proffered by Trumbull First Selectman Tim Herbst in the Trumbull Patch:

“I believe there is a positive alternative that addresses Mr. Guarino’s valid concerns while at the same time allowing RENT to proceed. Every summer, the Trumbull Youth Association (TYA) offers a summer musical for the community. Many of the Trumbull High School students who participate in our high school theater program are also members of TYA.  Proceeding with this musical in the summer through TYA offers enough time to address the very valid points offered by Mr. Guarino.  It will also allow graduating Trumbull High School seniors the opportunity to perform in this musical before they leave for college. Finally this action will embrace the concept of collaboration, communication and compromise at the same time we try to teach our students the fundamental principles of acceptance, responsibility and tolerance. It is my sincere hope that this recommendation will establish a dialogue and a workable solution that all of us as Trumbullites can respect.”

Subsequent to Herbst’s suggestion, Trumbull Youth Theatre indicated their taking on Rent wasn’t a viable option:

Those involved in the Trumbull Theatre Association say as good as it sounds, it may not be feasible.

“It really isn’t going to work for us,” said Mary Wright with the Trumbull Youth Association. “We feel like the high school should take it on.”

From a letter titled “Five reasons we should be concerned about cancellation of Rent” by John Blyberg in the Trumbull Times:

“These are high school students. They can handle this. To suggest that the student body requires a comprehensive, board-approved coddling betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the very students he is supposed to be serving. They don’t need to be coddled. And just to be clear, this is only an issue because Rent deals indirectly with homosexuality, AIDS, and addiction. Quite honestly, I think the THS Musical players will provide a much more insightful and compelling treatment of this subject matter than Mr. Guarino will be able to cobble together in the next year.

I find this whole business to be very concerning. What happens when Mr. Guarino gets ahold of the AP English reading list and takes exception to some of it? This is a dangerous precedent to set. I suppose the one lesson that the THS students can benefit from is that sometimes we all experience authoritarianism and it’s maddening. You know it’s authoritarianism when you witness righteous anger from its recipients — which is what I see with this fine group of THS players. The silver lining in all of this is that they have handled that anger beautifully — with grace, poise and maturity.”

From “High School That Banned Musical Over ‘Sensitive’ Content Doesn’t Get Teens,” by Emily Abbate, a former Trumbull high drama kid writing at The Stir:

“I’m gonna be blunt: High schoolers across America aren’t dumb. Although parents may not be ecstatic about the topic, their teens are most likely sexually active. They sure as hell have friends that are trying to figure out their sexuality, and most definitely have been through a few health classes talking about sexually transmitted diseases. Which is why I’m dumbfounded about what’s going on in my hometown right now: the principal of Trumbull High School has cancelled the Thespian Society’s production of Rent because of its sensitive nature involving topics like sexuality, drug use, HIV, and the love lives of both gay and straight characters. Topics that kids are discussing AT school probably this very moment.”

And finally from today’s “Tattle” column in the Philadelphia Daily News by Howard Gensler:

“Last March, the “school edition” of Rent was performed by Hillsboro Comprehensive High School in . . . Nashville. The home of the Grand Ole Opry is more progressive than Trumbull.

So before the Trumbull Thespian Society is ordered to perform South Pacific, but cuts the onetime questionable romance between Nellie and Emile because, you know, they’re different, here’s a suggestion: Take Rent off campus. Perform it in a barn if you have to.

Or go to principal Guarino and tell him you’ve decided to instead perform something else.

Spring Awakening.”

The previously released statement by Trumbull High School Principal Marc Guarino appears in its entirety in my post from Wednesday.

Needless to say, please try to read each of these piece in their entirety and share your thoughts. This issue is more important than any single school, because it is far from an isolated incident, and not unique to Rent.

Updated Saturday, December 7

In the immediate wake of announcing to the Trumbull High School Thespian Society that he was canceling the planned spring production of Rent, Principal Marc Guarino spent almost an hour talking to the students about his decision, speaking of “challenging issues” with the play and saying it wasn’t “the right time.”  These nebulous explanations didn’t seem to satisfy the students or many of their parents.  Two days later, the principal let it be known that he was going to have further conversations on the topic, suggesting there might still be the opportunity for the Tony Awarded and Pulitzer Prize-winning musical to play this spring.

Well the hammer dropped last night, only two working days later, given the Thanksgiving holiday. At a meeting of the Trumbull Board of Education, a letter from Mr. Guarino was read reaffirming his decision to terminate the production. Yes, that’s right – a letter was read. Principal Guarino wasn’t present at the meeting to make his position known, or to respond in any way to the comments and questions of parents in attendance.

Trumbull High School

As the first-year principal of a school in a new system (he was previously an assistant principal in Guilford CT), Mr. Guarino has adopted a stonewalling stance. He has not responded to inquiries from me or from any member of the media, including major national outlets. What at first seemed like it might become a valuable dialogue about art, educator’s responsibilities and important themes that run from Jonathan Larson’s 1996 musical right through the present day, has turned into the cone of silence. In the course of a little over a week, Mr. Guarino has transformed himself from educator to autocrat.  That’s a real shame.

Neither Guarino nor the system’s superintendent’s office are willing to even release the text of the letter that was read at the board of education meeting last night. Obviously by dragging things out, he makes it utterly impossible for Rent to go forward, even though his letter will eventually (presumably) be released when the minutes of last night’s meeting are approved and made public.  But make no mistake about it, his actions have poisoned the atmosphere at his school and fostered a somewhat heated dialogue on the Facebook group Keep Trumbull Real. The issue will not die.

In the absence of official comment, I can only respond to what I’ve heard and read from others. As a result, I have many questions.

• Why did Principal Guarino meet on Tuesday afternoon with the drama director and principal of a nearby high school which has already successfully produced Rent, if there was presumably already a letter to be read at the Board of Education meeting hours later? Was that meeting for show, a pretend stab at looking for a positive solution?
• In speaking about the “issues” of Rent, what exactly troubles Principal Guarino? Is it the mere mention of AIDS & HIV, which have been sad facts of life since before the Trumbull students were born? Is the mention of drugs, which are so prevalent in both our society and our entertainment that one of the most acclaimed TV shows in recent years is about a high school teacher turned meth kingpin? Surely Mr. Guarino can’t think of gay, lesbians and transgender people as lesser citizens. Besides being discriminatory, that retrograde thinking can’t be countenanced in anyone in an educational position. So exactly what’s the problem here?
• Mr. Guarino reportedly expressed the feeling that there was not adequate time to prepare the appropriate contextual activities to prepare students and the community for the show. But beyond asking the drama teacher what she would do, did he reach out to anyone for the study guides and lesson plans that already exist at the many high schools that have already done the show? Or did he just foist blame onto a 17-year veteran of Trumbull High for not having one that met his undefined standards? There’s so much support that could be brought to bear if only Mr. Guarino wished to try.
• Could there have been better communication between the drama director Jessica Spillane and Principal Guarino? Yes, it would seem so, and presumably appropriate but not draconian consultation will occur in the future. Yet why punish the students for this, since that’s who are really losing out – in particular the seniors.
• Mr. Guarino, are you opposed to Rent, or are you afraid that others will be and, in your first year, are you moving it off the school’s stage to avoid controversy? If so, you’ve actually blown it, because now, unless you completely capitulate and let the show go forward, a portion of faculty and the community will always see you as someone who didn’t want to work for the best possible solution for the students, rather than for yourself. If, as I’ve been told, you’ve said that you’d be open to Rent at some point in the future, you might salvage the situation by immediately and unequivocally declaring your approval for Rent beginning next year, and leading the effort to create whatever education plan you feel is necessary for a production.
• I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I was intrigued to learn that the mother of Trumbull’s First Selectman, Timothy Herbst, is the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Education. Neither of them have spoken publicly about this situation, but do I detect a bit of a dynasty? And is it at all relevant that in winning his third term, Mr. Herbst defeated Martha Jankovic-Mark – the mother of Thespian Society president Larissa Mark? What is the official stance of the Town of Trumbull on this dispute?

One person who was eager to talk about the situation in Trumbull is Daphne Rubin-Vega, a Tony nominee for creating the role of Mimi in the premiere of Rent, now the mother of a nine year old child. Asked about whether the content of Rent should be considered problematic for teens, she said, “In this day and age, I can’t think of anything more appropriate. It’s perfectly designed for high school.  To me, a loving awareness of the issues, sexuality, health, AIDS in particular is important. Rent is the perfect way to open up dialogue with young people. The cancellation of a production that people have been looking forward to is an obvious sign that our educators don’t want to take on the responsibility of educating our young. They’d have to answer questions and they don’t want the questions raised.” Vega said her child has already seen Rent and asked me if we should jump in a car right now and go up to Trumbull to lobby for the show. That may yet happen.

Does any official in Trumbull have to answer my questions? I guess not. I’m a former Connecticut resident, but I don’t live there or pay taxes there. However, if these questions are being asked by residents, by parents of students in the schools, by the students themselves, by the press, they deserve a coherent, public answer, and an answer that is neither reactionary or fearful. They deserve it not next week, not next month. Now.

*   *   *   *

Update December 4, 10 pm: Several hours after my post was made public, the statement from Principal Guarino was publicly released. I reproduce it here in its entirety, as posted on the Keep Trumbull Real Facebook page.

Dear Trumbull students, parents, and community members.
    My decision regarding the spring 2014 musical Rent: The School Edition was a difficult one and understandably caused much disappointment. I truly believe that successful and supportive schools are those that nurture strong relationships between the school and its community. Programs which foster student learning, growth and creativity require support from all aspects of the school and community. 
    With that said, I understand the responsibility I have as Principal of Trumbull High School to assure that our school is a safe, supportive environment for all students to learn, grow, and create. I first learned Trumbull High School was producing Rent: The School Edition not from the theatre arts department, but rather from a member of the community where I reside. Mrs. Spillane neither informed me nor consulted with me regarding the selection of Rent: The School Edition during the meetings we had in July and August. I appreciate that Rent is an important piece of American musical theatre. It presents educational opportunities for our students, staff, and community members to explore themes like acceptance, love, and responsibility. 
    Rent: The School Edition also presents challenges – both in content and execution. There is no evidence that an open communication, collaborative process – with either my predecessor or me—was considered to further explore Rent: The School Edition’s inherent opportunities and challenges. Open communication would– to the best of the school’s ability – provide a safe environment educationally, artistically, and emotionally for all of our students. Whether or not a formal approval process was required in the past, these opportunities and challenges should have been shared with me, especially given the fact that I am new to Trumbull High School and the Trumbull community.
    Since this decision has been made, I have met with students and have read their messages of support for this production. I have met with parents and received correspondences from community members and concerned individuals from around the country. The commonality I share with all these groups is the potential Rent: The School Edition has to promote our district’s mission statement and our school’s core values and beliefs. To date, I have not been presented with a plan to make this a reality for our students, staff, and community. Without a thought out plan, Rent: The School Edition will be a missed educational opportunity. Without proper planning, Rent: The School Edition has the potential to become a speech rather than a meaningful dialogue to capitalize on all significant themes it presents. I am committed to developing this plan to best meet the needs of all students.
    Trumbull is a wonderful community and our students continue to impress and amaze me. I am honored to serve as Principal and will always focus my efforts to support all aspects of student growth and development. I have already spoken with Dr. Cialfi, Dr. McGrath, Mrs. Spillane, and Ms. Bolan regarding my intentions to develop a collaborative process based on open communication to bring Rent: The School Edition to Trumbull High School. This process will require input and feedback from various groups. Most importantly, it will take time. Based on my research with various schools, this process will not meet the timeline for the spring of 2014. As I told our student leaders, Mrs. Spillane, Ms. Bolan, Dr. Cialfi, Dr. McGrath and some parents, I fully support Rent: The School Edition. We will bring Rent: The School Edition to Trumbull High School following a model that has proven to be successful at meeting our intended learning goals. 
Thank you.
Marc W. Guarino
Principal, THS

Kirstie: tragedy tomorrow, travesty tonight

Outside of the annual Tony Awards broadcast, theatre is not a subject frequently dealt with on national television. So the next six days might be one of the richest confluences of theatre-related programming in recent memory, with three separate programs with roots in the theatre coming through America’s cable boxes between now and Monday night.

That said, I must immediately dash any expectations that the first of these programs in any way proves of benefit to theatre in America. Premiering tonight on TV Land, the series Kirstie features Cheers alumnus Kirstie Alley as the veteran star of 14 Broadway plays who, in the first episode, is reunited with the now-adult son she gave up for adoption in his infancy. That the show is a poor excuse for a sitcom is beyond my declared expertise, so I’ll contain my comments to its representation of theatrical life.

Kirstie is a show that seems to have been made by people who have watched movies about the theatre, and their creative liberties have been magnified into absurdity. Alley’s character lives in an apartment that seems sprung from 30s or 40s plays like The Royal Family, Accent On Youth or Old Acquaintance. Her career supports a full time personal assistant as well as a driver; there’s a chef in the pilot but he has disappeared in the three subsequent episodes available for review. How many stage stars can manage that? Could she have family money that would explain the largesse? Perhaps. But there’s no excuse for her decision, in the final moments of the opening night performance of her newest play, to delay the final curtain by adding dialogue meant as a declaration of affection for her once-abandoned son. It is patently absurd.

It’s worth noting that the series’ creator, Marco Pennette, has exercised his love of theatre on TV before, albeit through a supporting character. On the late 90s sitcom Caroline in the City, Amy Pietz played an actress who was appearing in the musical Cats, late in its long Broadway run. This afforded many sly and knowing digs at tired Broadway musicals that may well have been lost on much of the audience, but which jollied along those of us who watched primarily for Malcolm Gets’ performance. Kirstie offers little that sly beyond naming Rhea Perlman’s personal assistant character Thelma, a nod to the role played by Thelma Ritter in All About Eve. The only saving grace is that after the first two episodes, Kirstie’s depiction of theatre seems to become a footnote in the series, although Kristin Chenoweth’s cameo as an Eve Harrington type in the second show carries a bit of welcome snap that elevates the leaden comedy as much as possible (there’s also a terrific guest shot by Cloris Leachman as Alley’s estranged mother). But, in short, Kirstie makes Smash look like a documentary.

The second offering is the much promoted live broadcast of The Sound of Music, with Carrie Underwood leading the cast as Maria. Because it will be done live, it’s impossible to make any judgments, though I’m sure the commentary will be flying fast and furious during and after the broadcast on social media; I have already seen critiques of the cast recording, which was being streamed by Spotify yesterday.

Unlike almost everyone in the country, apparently, I am one of the very few who has never seen The Sound of Music, so I’ll be able to take the broadcast on its own terms. Yes, you read that right: I’ve never seen the show on stage and I’ve only seen snippets of the film (specifically Julie Andrews’ opening mountaintop twirl, the “Do Re Mi” and “16 Going on 17” numbers, and the final sequence with Von Trapp singing Edelweiss and the family’s subsequent escape). But I’m very pleased that there will be a version of the stage show to sit alongside the film for posterity, allowing fans and musical theatre students to get a sense of how a show can be altered for its screen incarnation (it joins Rent in this category). While the NBC presentation will be a peculiar hybrid of TV and theatre (it’s being produced for TV as if it were a stage production, though it is a one night only event that will play in person only for technicians, sans audience and audience reactions), I suspect it will prompt me to see the movie at long last, to make my own comparisons.

Audra McDonald in Six By Sondheim

Capping this trilogy, on Monday night, is the HBO documentary Six By Sondheim, directed by James Lapine and produced by (among others) former New York Times drama critic and lifelong musical theatre buff and expert Frank Rich. While the roughly 80 minute program makes the shrewd decision to focus musically on only six significant Sondheim songs, it casts a much wider net over the composer’s life and process than the title might suggest. It admirably features but a single talking head (in contrast to so many documentaries): that of Sondheim himself, drawn from a wide range of interviews over several decades. I was impressed to hear Sondheim, ever the wordsmith, drop “concatenate” and “serendipity” into a single sentence – no wonder this guy is the eminence grise of composer-lyricists, perhaps never to be equaled.

While his interrogators are mostly excised, there’s really something to be said for any show which manages to embrace moderators as diverse as Diane Sawyer, Tony Kushner and Mike Douglas and which squeezes in clips of performers like Cher and Patti LaBelle singing “Send In The Clowns” (LaBelle proves that, unlike Glynis Johns, she really knows how to hold a note). Another asset of the show is the newly produced performances of, among others, “I’m Still Here” (by Jarvis Cocker) and “Opening Doors” (with Jeremy Jordan, America Ferrara, Darren Criss, Laura Osnes and Sondheim himself as the producer seeking a “hummable melody”) which vary greatly in visual style thanks to contributions by different directors for each, most notably Todd Haynes.

A prized personal possession

As a big fan of Sondheim, but something short of a rabid one, the program certainly includes tales and tidbits I’d heard before, but packaged as elegantly as one could ask; I was certainly startled when the composer recommended liquor as an indispensable aid to writing a musical. Whatever one’s familiarity with Stephen Sondheim and his work, Six By Sondheim is a indispensable record that speeds by in a flash, and its presence on the dominant pay cable service puts other outlets like Ovation to shame. It would be naïve to expect a series of such programs from HBO, but Sondheim has many more memorable songs worth exploring; we can only hope that we may yet see more documentaries on his life and work as expert as this one, whatever the forum.

So gather around your viewing screen, set your DVR, or get ready to buy a couple of DVDs very shortly (definitely for Six By Sondheim; possibly for The Sound of Music). As for Kirstie, please stay away, so its travesty of theatre fails to make much of a mark anywhere. And, in the meantime, I hope you’ll join me in my daily prayer for season four of Slings and Arrows.

Last weekend in Connecticut, Trumbull High School’s Thespian Society presented their fall play. On Monday afternoon, instead of a scheduled informational session for those planning to audition for the spring musical, Rent (the school edition), a full meeting of the Thespian Society was called. At that meeting, the school’s principal informed the students that Rent was cancelled.

Trumbull High School

Describing the meeting, Trumbull High Thespian Society president Larissa Mark said, “There were a lot of tears from the kids because Rent is so precious to so many of us.” As to how the principal explained his decision, Mark said, “I can’t say I know the reason, because it’s still unclear to so many of us.”

Now at this point, you might imagine this is going to be another story about an authoritarian, puritanical school administration squashing the dreams of helpless students. And that’s where you’d be wrong.

On Monday evening, after completing other commitments, Mark got organized and began to organize her peers. Having seen a raft of comments on social media while she was otherwise engaged, many carrying the phrase “Rentbellion,” she recommended a more measured tone. “I didn’t think ‘Rentbellion’ was going to help our case. We had to create an organized response. I said that students should speak with their parents about this and not act brashly.

“On Tuesday morning, “ Mark continued, “I helped organize a bunch of students with petitions to go around. In the course of two days, we collected 1,516 signatures, which is about two-thirds of our school. On Wednesday, I handed [the principal] the original copies of the signature sheets and surveys we’d done to the Trumbull community. We had asked whether people would support Rent and gave them a chance to make comments. We got over 400 responses and an almost overwhelming number of yesses.”

Mark also created a “Trumbull for Rent” Facebook page (which has over 4000 likes as I write), wrote a letter to the local Patch site (where another student was quoted anonymously), was interviewed by the Trumbull Times and Connecticut magazine and, by Wednesday evening (the night before Thanksgiving, mind you), had spoken with the local ABC and CBS affiliates. This is an impressive campaign even by professional standards, all marshaled by a 17 year old high school senior.

To the students, everything happened suddenly on Monday, but in fact there had been behind the scenes discussions going on since late October. Jessica Spillane, a 17-year-veteran of the high school, the English Department Chair, and English and drama teacher and director of the Thespian troupe and the spring musical, said her first conversation with principal Marc Guarino had occurred, spontaneously, on October 23, when they happened to run into one another. By Spillane’s account, Guarino said, “I just heard yesterday that we were doing Rent as the musical. Did we ever talk about this?” Spillane said she replied, “I don’t know but we announced in August. It’s been on our website since then. It had been announced through daily announcements for two weeks at the beginning of the school year. I said that it’s the school edition.” She said the selection of shows has always been autonomous, not requiring prior approval.

“Should I be worried?” Guarino asked, according to Spillane. She replied, “Absolutely not. We’ve got nothing but support. If there are any questions, I’ll handle them.” Spillane says that two weeks later, Guarino met with her to say that the plans to do Rent were “on hold.” Spillane provided him with the script, her conceptual plans for the production, and information on productions at other area high schools, including Amity Regional in Woodbridge and Greenwich High School, as well as the Fairfield Teen Theatre. She also gave him many of the books she had been using as research.

Subsequently, Guarino told Spillane that he had met with his assistant principals and the president of the Parent-Student-Teacher Association. He said he needed to speak with the superintendent. On November 20, Guarino told Spillane he could not support going forward with the production. In an appeal to the superintendent, Spillane was informed that he was backing the principal’s decision. Spillane made the decision to delay informing the students until after the fall play finished over the weekend.

Did Spillane inspire Mark’s campaign? “I told the kids that we [referring to herself and other Thespian advisors] needed to take a step back and not be seen as puppetmasters. The kids said ‘if we’re going to be heard, we need to be rational, respectful, organized and articulate’.”

So where does this all stand?

The first two days of Mark’s campaign resulted in Principal Guarino informing Spillane that he was reconsidering his decision and that he would be speaking with the superintendent when school resumes Monday. Yesterday, Mark said, “We just want to keep people as active as possible because we don’t want to lose any steam over the weekend.”

Now it’s worth noting that Principal Guarino is new at Trumbull High this year. It’s also important to note that he’s not been issuing edicts from on high – after informing the students of the cancellation, he remained with them for an hour to talk about his choice. He is obviously not trying to make this adversarial, and is open to further discussion. No doubt the tone set by the students played a role in this, along with their effective outreach.

I am reminded of a situation in nearby Waterbury a few years ago, when a canceled production of Joe Turner’s Come And Gone was reversed thanks to passionate students and the support of the Yale Repertory Theatre, which helped create educational sessions for students and the community to address the play’s use of “the n-word” multiple times, to place its more difficult themes in a proper educational context. Now the time has come for everyone who loves theatre to lend their voices to the students’ efforts, but with the respect and level-headedness that the students have employed. If you love theatre, like the Trumbull For Rent Facebook page. If you have deep feelings about Rent and its value for students and what it may have meant in your life, share them with Principal Guarino at Mguarino@trumbullps.org. If you are a theatre professional and you are able, offer to go to Trumbull High School and lead workshops for the students and the community. This posting is my offer of that support.  But heed the wisdom of Larissa Mark and act with respect.

“I think the main reason why Rent is so important is that homosexuality, drug use and disease are not ‘issues’ in the twenty-first century,” Mark told me, fittingly on Thanksgiving morning. “They’re part of our lives. It’s not fiction to us, it’s reality. The fact that so many people think of it this way is a reflection on our community. Trumbull is a very accepting community and a production of Rent will only reflect that.”

By the way, remember how I mentioned that Mark had a commitment after the announcement of the cancellation which prevented her from springing to immediate action? It was a government class, and she was at the town hall from 3:30 to 10 p.m. Let’s help her and all the students at Trumbull High School ensure they’re able to do Rent this spring. Then let’s nominate Larissa Mark for public office. Imagine what she could do.

Note: Via e-mail, I reached out to Mark, Spillane and Guarino to request interviews at about 3:45 pm on Wednesday afternoon. Principal Guarino did not respond to my request, as he has not responded to any media requests thus far. Should I hear from him, this post will be updated accordingly.

Update, Wednesday December 4 at 8 am: Last night, at a regularly scheduled meeting of the Trumbull Board of Education, a letter from Trumbull High School principal Marc Guarino was read out. In the letter, Guarino affirmed his decision that Rent should not be produced at his school this year. To date, Mr. Guarino has personally made no public statement about his decision since his meeting with students on November 25, declining all media requests. That he would not personally appear to make his final decision known, and to participate in discussion about how he arrived at his conclusion, sets a poor example for public discourse. What at first seemed like it might yield a beneficial dialogue has taken on the air of an edict.

The August Wilson Cultural Center

If Trip Gabriel, the New York Times reporter who wrote yesterday’s story about the dire straits of the August Wilson Cultural Center in Pittsburgh, were steeped in Wilson’s writing, he might have noted a sad irony. In August’s final play of his ten-play Century Cycle, Radio Golf, the plot turns on the fate of a decrepit house in the Hill District, the setting for almost all of the Cycle plays. The home of the great Aunt Ester, a seer and guide who reputedly lived for centuries, is standing in the way of urban redevelopment, until one of the men spearheading the project begins to regret the loss of this historic home and fights, at great personal cost, to save it.

That tale was August’s creation. But now two Wilson homes in Pittsburgh are on the precipice. The first is August’s actual boyhood home on the Hill, owned by one of his nephews but long boarded up; the other is the gleaming new downtown cultural center, opened only in 2009, on the verge of being taken by the bank to which it owes the money which funded its construction. It sits without programming and no visitors, used primarily by a megachurch that rents it on Sundays for its predominantly white congregation.

The August Wilson Theatre

With arts organizations like the Minneapolis Orchestra and the New York City Opera all but finished and already buried, respectively, it’s not difficult to understand how a new arts facility that opened in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis has failed to succeed, but of course there are countless reasons that contributed both to its construction and its downfall. The story has been followed in detail in the Pittsburgh press; the Times story makes it a matter for national attention at a time when it may already be too far gone. It is nonetheless quite sad, since there deserves to be a commemoration of one of America’s greatest playwrights beyond the Broadway theatre that bears his name, long the home to Jersey Boys, though that honor is not unwelcome in the least.

Radio Golf At Yale Rep (Photo: Carol Rosegg)

In Radio Golf, Harmond Wilks risks his career and faces possible indictment, largely self-inflicted, in order to preserve history and the soul of a lost neighborhood. No doubt many people have made sacrifices and given support in the effort to create the August Wilson Cultural Center and it must be painful to see it failing so very publicly. I cannot help but wonder what his widow and his children must feel to see what was surely a source of emotional support and civic love rise and fall in just a few years time. That this happens just as reports of the precarious state of many of America’s black theatre companies have also gained national attention makes the story even sadder.

I have never believed in the “if you build it, they will come” school of arts promotion; I don’t know the people who led the Center or their specific plans and where they went awry. As no doubt some of them have, I would like to think that at the last minute some deus ex machina, or more specifically some deep pocketed individual or group, might rescue the Center, but that is the heart of a theatregoer speaking, not the mind of an administrator. Yet the administrator dreams that if by some miracle it happens, the Center is put in the hands of people with the commitment and skill to successfully and creatively run it.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Yale Rep
(Photo: William B. Carter)

I came of age in the theatre just as August burst onto the national scene. I saw Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in a pre-Broadway engagement on the campus of my college, I saw the premiere of Joe Turner’s Come And Gone at Yale Rep; I saw The Piano Lesson in its first reading in the barn at The O’Neill Theatre Center as well as its final dress rehearsal at Yale; I attended the Broadway openings of Two Trains Running, Gem of The Ocean, and Radio Golf. I have seen many other productions of his work.  Though I knew August only casually, I was to have been a guest on a 60^th birthday barge trip on the Nile that he and his producing partner Ben Mordecai had planned together, because my wife worked with Ben, and therefore August; she was ultimately a producer of August’s final Cycle play. The trip never happened because the birthdays fell in 2005, the year that Ben’s cancer recurred, leading to his death in May, followed by August’s passing only months later.

August Wilson in 2004 (Photo: David Cooper)

So my most direct connection to August is one of a great opportunity missed, and I feel the same sense of lost opportunity as I read about the troubles of the Center in Pittsburgh. I wish I could rush out there and lend whatever help I can, but I don’t have the financial resources and it seems as if I would be much too late regardless. Even if Pittsburgh will lose what could have been an extraordinary cultural and community asset, at least America and the world will always have August’s Pittsburgh (and one fateful night in Chicago) through his writing . As I write this, Ruben Santiago-Hudson is sustaining August’s living legacy by enacting August’s words at the opening night of How I Learned What I Learned, a monologue Wilson originally wrote for himself to perform.

There is one bit of positive news that the Times missed. Wilson’s boarded up childhood home may yet see life again, as a plan to reopen it as a coffee shop was announced just over a week ago. Since August was well known for writing in coffee shops, perhaps that will be the truest memorial, rather than the $42 million edifice that never really become anyone’s home.

Rylance’s Richard III

When it comes to Shakespeare, not all plays are created equal. That’s far from a surprise to anyone who pays attention; Hamlet certainly ranks far ahead of King John in the canon, and even Coriolanus and Timon of Athens get more attention than Pericles. A great deal of this situation in recent years, at least in the U.S., is attributable to the educational curriculum, which has a strong hand in creating the “greatest hits.” The hierarchy is also a product of performers’ aspirations, and I daresay that when asked what Shakespeare roles they’d like to play, actors respond more frequently with Lear and Rosalind than Henry VIII and the Countess of Roussillon.

Rylance in Twelfth Night

The choices for the current Shakespeare plays in repertory on Broadway are among the more familiar titles, but they take on novelty for being all-male casts and indeed for being in rotating rep. Had it not been for the coincidence of a competing rep of Waiting For Godot and No Man’s Land in the same season, the Shakespeares would have been the only shows in rep on Broadway since the mid-90s. A key selling point in the Shakespeare rep is actor Mark Rylance, playing Olivia in Twelfth Night (or Twelfe Night as they’re spelling it in ads) and the title role in King Richard The Third.  After his triumphs in Boeing Boeing, La Bête and Jerusalem, one suspects the audiences would flock to anything Rylance chose to perform, except perhaps those poems he reads as award acceptance speeches.

The January calendar of Twelfth Night and Richard III

So while it’s hardly the discovery of a shocking secret, I was surprised today to discover that the Shakespeare rep doesn’t treat its productions as equals: in general there are six weekly performances of Twelfth Night and only two of Richard III. The producers (and perhaps Mr. Rylance) have decided that the market will bear plenty of comedy and not so much tragedy, with the added bonus that Stephen Fry appears only in the comedy, and for some of us, he’s a big draw too. They also may be saving a few dollars by making fewer set changeovers, since labor costs money.

I can’t say that I wouldn’t have lobbied for the same balance, if I’d had a say in the matter. I happen to have a great love for Twelfth Night, due to it having been the first play I worked on when I started at Hartford Stage in 1985. As for Richard III, even though I’ve seen terrific productions with Ian McKellen and Richard Thomas, among others, I always feel a bit lost in the constant realignment of loyalties throughout the play, and I rarely walk away having had an emotional experience, even as I might appreciate the talent on stage. Indeed, my college roommate, who has been my Shakespeare wingman for some three decades, was befuddled when I refused to see Richard III at BAM last year; I just didn’t feel like it and he wasn’t going to change my mind (he took his mother-in-law). By the way, I should note I have not yet seen the current Broadway shows.

Shakespeare scholars and Rylance buffs may be dismayed to learn of this programming imbalance. The former might not cotton to the elevation of a comedy over a history, but the latter may just be realizing that if they wish to be Rylance completists, they’d better hustle up on getting tickets, because the Richard III inventory is much scarcer than the seats for Twelfth Night.  As for whether there’s a deeper meaning to favoring one play over the other beyond gauging the marketplace, I leave that for the academics to debate.

P.S. Waiting for Godot and No Man’s Land each play four shows a week. Make of that, you should pardon the expression, What You Will.

November 21, 2013

President Barack Obama

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington DC  20500

Dear President Obama:

There was an anniversary yesterday, and I’m willing to bet that you forgot all about it. You didn’t need to send a card, but it would have been nice if you’d made some gesture of recognition, of concern. Presidents often do that sort of thing, especially when they’re stalling about something. But since you were silent, I’ll remind you: yesterday was the one-year anniversary of the day that Rocco Landesman announced his resignation as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Now I can understand if you don’t remember the letter I wrote you about this in June, expressing my concern about this issue; it might have registered somewhere in your press office, but there are probably lots of bloggers yapping about this issue or that every day. Yet in August, your inaction on this topic was written about on successive days by Robin Pogrebin in The New York Times and Frank Rizzo in The Hartford Courant, and surely those are outlets that your media team pays closer attention to. But months have passed since then, still without a word.

I wouldn’t, as David Letterman says, give your problems to a monkey on a rock, especially with the current Obamacare debacle and the Senate denying hearings on some of your judicial nominations. But as a citizen who places the arts very highly among issues dear to me, your seeming abdication of responsibility or interest in the National Endowment for the Arts and its empty chairmanship has become not only absurd but insulting.  It’s bad enough that the NEA is a frequent and easy target for those who want to carve up the budget willy-nilly or wage some fatuous war on culture, but without the full force of the presidency behind the agency, the government’s commitment to the arts (and the humanities, since the NEH is in the same boat) suggests that they are of no value to anyone at all in Washington, since it is the Democrats who usually speak up most strongly in defense of government funding of the arts.

I said it before and I’ll say it again, if you don’t have the time to have someone on your staff deal with this, then by all means nominate Joan Shikegawa, the acting chair, and let her fully assume the leadership mantle. The agency may be functioning as it stands, but you’re hobbling it by not appointing an officially vested leader. It’s also worth mentioning that in the past few weeks, two key staff positions have also opened up at the NEA, as Ralph Remington, head of the theatre and musical theatre program leaves for a job with Actors Equity, and the agency’s chief of staff Jamie Bennett decamps for ArtPlace America. I’m not saying there’s any connection here, simply that at a time when the agency has important decisions to make very soon, you have proven unable to make one after a full year’s time.

I take no pleasure in watching you struggle these days, but after an almost playful tone in my prior communiqué, my sense of humor on this topic is pretty much gone. I still support you, Mr. President, but I’m impatient now. Surely someone in your staff can vet candidates and get someone appropriate ready for your review. But in the meantime, your silence is sending a very negative message about the future of government funding of the arts and the value of the arts in Americans’ lives. You disappoint me and my colleagues and to be honest Mr. President, when you start making us angry, you’re really chipping away at your base.

Sincerely,

Howard Sherman

Addendum: 20 minutes after I posted this letter, Mark Swed, music critic at The Los Angeles Times, posted an excellent essay about President Kennedy’s one-time role as “arts patron in chief.” It speaks directly to the leadership gap in this area today and throws the problem of the NEA into even greater relief.