National Actors Theatre:
America’s
Classical Repertory Company
by Tony Randall
Tony
Randall, Founder and Artistic Director of National Actors Theatre
As a teenager
growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I saw every roadshow that came through.
Although at the time Tulsa was one of the richest communities on earth, it
had no cultural life of its own. Not even a museum. One night, the entire
town turned out to see the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo perform Swan Lake
and Sheherezade. I – and most of the audience – had never seen a
ballet before. We stood and cheered, thinking it was a "once in a
lifetime" event. We accepted the fact that an American ballet company
did not exist; if we were ever to see another ballet, it would be when
another European company passed through Tulsa on tour.
We were proven
wrong, for today every state has a ballet company. The Metropolitan Opera
once stood alone; now there is world-class opera in Chicago, San Francisco,
San Diego, Santa Fe, Dallas, Houston and more. Even Tulsa has turned into a
cultural city, with its own ballet company, two museums, an opera company,
a symphony orchestra and a statue in the center of town honoring five prima
ballerinas who grew up there: Maria and Marjorie Tallchief, Rosella
Hightower, Yvonne Cheauteau and Moscelline Larkin. If you were to name the
top ten symphony orchestras in the world, six would be American. And our
second-ranked orchestras – Saint Louis, Buffalo – are equal to, if not
better than, almost any in Europe.
We have developed an
audience that understands and wants the best in art: more than a million
people visited the Museum of Modern Art’s great Picasso exhibit several
years ago. Yet, despite this explosion of an arts audience, we are
simultaneously seeing the frightening shrinking of the theatre. The United
States today has no classical repertory theatre. What does it matter? Is
the history of theatre so important? Does the American public really miss
an exposure to classical theatre and the performances of our leading actors
and actresses in classical roles?
Of the time I’ve
spent in theatres, on either side of the footlights, I can’t remember a
more moving experience than seeing Britain’s National Theatre play
Chekov’s Uncle Vanya. It was an indescribably thrilling and
touching experience, with a cast that included Laurence Olivier, Michael
Redgrave, Joan Plowright and Rosemary Harris. Yet even more thrilling was
that only two nights before, I had seen Olivier play Othello with Maggie
Smith. This was theatre! Fantastic artists working together, performing
treasures of our inheritance for a glorious cause: a new National Theatre
to bring the best to their people and to the world… a theatre for which
England has waited many lifetimes.
And this success
quickly spawned another: one year after the founding of the National
Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare had come to the U.S. thirty-five times. We
go crazy for it, and walk out after performances saying and thinking what a
shame it is that we don’t have something comparable of our own.
This sentiment is
not unique to people in New York and Los Angeles, nor even just to people
involved with theatre. It is a growing awareness of the importance and
value of our world’s culture everywhere across the country.
Every civilized
country but ours has a classical repertory theatre which is the pride of
its nation. France has the Comedie Française, founded by Louis XIV for
Molière 400 years ago; Israel, the Habima; Japan, the Kabuki; Ireland, the
Abbey Theatre in Dublin; Russia has the Moscow Art Theatre, and the list
goes on. Yet the United States has none. This, in my opinion, is not only a
crime, but a scandal. The serious play has become an exotic rarity on
Broadway and prices exclude most New Yorkers, not to mention many visitors
to the city. Why has this happened? Certainly, the idea of supporting the
arts has entered the American consciousness: the idea that individuals and
corporations have a responsibility to improve the quality of life in their
communities, an investment from which all benefit.
Theatre has not been
thought of as one of the arts: it is show business; it is commercial; it
brings about a billion dollars a year into the city’s economy. We have a
great challenge before us. We must change our thinking about theatre, and
think of it as an art, not only as a commercial venture. The dramatic
literature from every country, beginning with Greece, is our heritage. It
is not to be read; it is to be seen on stage. Most Americans know little of
it. This is our challenge, our duty, and our mission in life – to bring
live theatre to our city and country at a price which families can afford.
It has been my dream
and ambition to be a classical actor since the day I left for Northwestern
University. I trained for it, as many actors have done, learning the
articulation and other classical stage techniques that are undervalued in
American theatre. We have envied the similarly trained British actors who
have classical theatre to go into, if that is what they want. We
commiserate with each other, and bemoan the fact that we do not have a
classical theatre to allow us to develop into Oliviers and Gielguds and
Redgraves. Oddly, we once did have it; the nineteenth century was a time of
Shakespearean giants in America: Edwin Forrest, the Booths, father and son,
James O’Neill, Richard Mansfield and others.
When I founded the
National Actors Theatre in 1991, we searched for a theatre in the heart of
New York’s theatre district that would accommodate us. With the help of
the Shubert Organization, we found a home at the Lyceum Theatre on 45th
Street. Since then, we have mounted fifteen productions with works by
leading playwrights such as Shakespeare, Gogol, Odets, Miller, Ibsen,
Sheridan and Shaw, to name a few, and with highly regarded actors like
Brian Bedford, Julie Harris, George C. Scott, Charles Durning, Ethan Hawke,
Lynn Redgrave, Anne Jackson and Eli Wallach, among others.
This past January,
two-time Tony award winner Matthew Broderick and noted English actress Judy
Parfitt starred in Emlyn Williams’s classic thriller Night Must Fall,
written in 1935. The New York Times called it "an utterly
disarming revival… a surprisingly delicate and compelling
treatment." And before that, Jack Klugman and I starred in the revival
of Neil Simon’s The Sunshine Boys, which first opened at the
Coconut Grove Playhouse in October of 1997, where we played for four weeks
before opening to rave reviews on Broadway.
Julie
Harris and Charles Durning in The Gin Game by D.L. Coburn, directed
by Charles Nelson Reilly at New York’s Lyceum Theatre
Photo:
Carol Rosegg © 1997
Press
Contact: Candi Adams, Springer/Chicoine
Increasingly, NAT
productions take on lives of their own, not just on Broadway but before and
after their New York run. For instance, our production of D.L. Coburn’s The
Gin Game starring five-time Tony award winner Julie Harris and Charles
Durning ran on Broadway for seven months before beginning a six-month
national tour of Chicago, California, Washington D.C., Fort Lauderdale, and
a gala closing performance recently in Boston. In addition, Jack Klugman
and I just finished a four-week run of The Sunshine Boys in Fort
Worth, Texas.
Tony
Randall and Jack Klugman in the National Actors Theatre production of Neil
Simon’s The Sunshine Boys, directed by John Tillinger.
Photo:
Joan Marcus © 1997
Press
Contact: Gary Springer / Charlie Siedenburg, Springer/Chicoine
I continue to work
with the administrative staff and Board of Directors to gain recognition
and support for a theatre company dedicated to producing classic works,
namely National Actors Theatre. In addition, we also have an excellent
"High School Outreach Program" for the students in New York City
public schools, the highlight of which is the students’ attendance at
special matinee performances of every NAT production. The students’
experience is enhanced by preparatory and follow-up in-class workshops
conducted by our professional teaching artists, supplemented by
comprehensive curriculum guides for teachers. At the end of each matinee
students have the rare opportunity for a question and answer session with
me and the cast.
As a result of
running programs in the high schools we observed that students with an
expressed interest in the performing arts failed to see the need to develop
well-rounded academic skills. Consequently, in 1996, we developed
"Staging the Basics," an innovative interdisciplinary method of
presenting the practical applications of the high school core curriculum,
through the exercise of producing a play. We also offer ten dollar student
tickets to every performance through our "Tomorrow’s Audience"
program, and we continue to work with area teachers and the New York Board
of Education to develop other theatre-related education programs.
In our past eight
seasons, the Theatre has distinguished itself in significant ways by
successfully challenging Broadway’s commercial tradition and presenting
classic works of theatre rather than producing more financially rewarding
new plays. We believe that the American theatre should be accessible and
relevant to the public. Through extensive outreach and education programs,
we strive to bring a new audience into the theatre and to develop their
appreciation for the classics.
Tony Randall
is the Founder and Artistic Director of the National Actors Theatre. Since
its inception in 1991, Mr. Randall has been featured in many of the
Company’s memorable productions, most recently, Neil Simon’s The
Sunshine Boys (1998) with Jack Klugman. His other NAT appearances
include: Sheridan’s The School for Scandal (1996); Gogol’s The
Government Inspector (1994); George Abbott’s Three Men on a Horse
(1993); and in the Tony Award-Winning play M. Butterfly. Mr. Randall
co-starred with Jack Klugman in NAT’s benefit productions of Neil
Simon’s The Odd Couple (1991,1993) and subsequently toured U.S.
cities and Australia with the production. They re-created their roles in a
two-hour TV movie The Odd Couple Returns.
Mr. Randall made his
New York debut at Erwin Pascator’s New School Theatre in Circle
of Chalk. He then went on to play Marchbanks to Jane Cowl’s
Candida,; appeared with Ethel Barrymore in The Corn is Green,
and was rehearsing The Skin of Our Teeth, with Tallulah Bankhead,
Montgomery Clift, and Frederick March, when he was drafted. Upon his
return, he appeared in The Barretts of Wimpole Street and Anthony
and Cleopatra with Kathrine Cornell and in Caesar and Cleopatra
with Lili Palmer and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Broadway provided important
roles including Inherit the Wind and O Men, O Women.
Tony Randall has stared in over 30 movies, including The Mating
Game, Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? and three films with
Doris Day and Rock Hudson: Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back,
and Send Me No Flowers. Tony Randall is a graduate of the Neighborhood
Playhouse.
For
further information contact Michael
Kramer, Director of Development, National Actors Theatre, 1560
Broadway, Suite 409, New York, NY 10036. Tel 212 / 719 5331. Fax 212
/ 719 5385
