Julianne Boyd of Barrington Stage Company
Discussing the Upcoming Season in Pittsfield
By: Charles Giuliano - Feb 24, 2010
Charles Giuliano There has been a lot of discussion among arts organizations about developing a shoulder season.
Julianne Boyd. We already cover that period. Most Berkshire arts organizations run from July to August. We start May 27 and go to December 28 except for last year. For the past three to four years we have added on shows. That are produced on Stage Two. This year's season starts in the fourth week in May. We have done a fall show since we've been here. Last fall it was Fantasticks and we also had a staged reading of Laramie Project.
CG The only problem with Fantasticks was that it didn't run long enough. It seems like it could have gone on forever.
JB Fantasticks did not have audience we thought we were going to have. We were not sure we could afford a fall show. We announced it later so we didn't start promoting it till August. We had to see how the season would go. So we didn't really get a run on it to get marketing done. Basically we couldn't publicize the show ahead of time. So, while the show got great reviews, the audience wasn't as large as we would have liked it to be. This year we are announcing the entire season through December in a brochure in March. From Whipping Man to Christmas Story. Last year we weren't really sure we could afford a fall show. So in the fall this year we are coming out of the gate with the entire season announced. We will announce the Stage Two shows next week and some cabaret evenings. Next week most of the season will be announced. All of this stuff will be in the brochure out in March. Single tickets go on sale March 1.
CG Tanglewood has sold out its Fourth of July weekend with three shows by Carole King and James Taylor and Pops on Friday night. If you do the math that is some 60,000 tickets. Those folks can't go to Tanglewood every night. You will have Sweeney Todd that weekend. Are you planning any special marketing to take advantage of all those visitors to the Berkshires?
JB As to special plans we have none what so ever. It is great that all those people are here. We put ads in papers and in the Tanglewood program. Maybe they (Tangelwood patrons) will like what we have. It may represent more people. The biggest day we ever had was during a James Taylor concert. We sold $30, 000 worth of tickets for West Side Story. We had five people in the box office. We love having a big weekend at Tanglewood. We all do well.
CG How are ticket sales going for that weekend and for the season?
JB Right now we are only selling flex passes and subscriptions. Sales are doing well. If you buy three tickets for the Main Stage that is a saving of about 25% off single tickets. Also you can exchange tickets up to 48 hours in advance for another date. I think July 4 will be great weekend.
CG Looking forward what do you anticipate for this season?
JB For 2010 we're exhilarated. We have gotten great feedback from telemarketing calls. People are loving the season.
CG Telemarketing?
JB For years and years we've done it. We sell subscriptions for three weeks in February. People tell you exactly what they think. We've gotten really great feedback.
CG Given the state of the economy last season was challenging. How did that impact your programming and what changes do you see this year?
JB Last year, 2009, was a cautious season. It was well planned. We could not afford to make mistakes. We had staff cutbacks. Everybody was so understanding. They all knew what we were up against. One of the things we try to do is to be inclusive. We let people know about our problems. We let the pubic and the artists know. We were inclusive if we had a problem. If it is going well we tell it like it is and not keep the community in the dark. So what happened last year was that the community rallied behind us. We did a lot of marketing. We did niche marketing. For Streetcar Named Desire we had a Stella yelling contest. We had people from Lenox to Pittsfield yelling Stella. We played it on Facebook. We had a live Stella contest during a Pittsfield Third Thursday. It brought people in to see Streetcar that we had never seen before. They were people not accustomed to seeing theatre. They found the contest fun.
CG You had a hit on the Second Stage with the play about Freud and C.S. Lewis. Was that a surprise?
JB C.S. Lewis and Freud. Who would have thought? That show marketed itself more last summer than any show in the Berkshires. Through word of mouth. Just so you know, we will do it two weeks this summer before it heads to New York Off Broadway. It is going to Marjory Dean Theatre on West 63rd Street. It's in the West Side Y. It opens in July. We will do it here first. So when it goes into NY they will have been playing it a couple of weeks. We developed it from the get go. It started as a staged reading. We started it.
CG Is it your production in New York? Do you get a percentage?
JB It will be our production. We get a small percentage. It's in a small Off Broadway theatre so it's not much money. But the prestige, that's the most important thing.
CG It is interesting to see Berkshire productions go on to New York. A couple of years ago Williamstown Theatre Festival sent three plays to Off Broadway: The Atheist, the Understudy, and Broke-ology. From last season there were none. Currently Present Laughter is on Broadway which Nicholas Martin first directed at the Huntington. How many productions has Barrington Stage sent to New York?
JB. I saw Broke-ology in New York. That was a great play. We have developed a number. Before Putnam County Spelling Bee we did Ears on a Beatle. One of shows we did Off Broadway was Mark St. Germain's The God Committee. He also wrote Freud. Opening tonight is Calvin Berger a modern retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac by Barry Weiner and then in May the Burnt Part Boys which was first shown in the Music Lab here in 2006. That's moving to Playwright's Horizons Off Broadway in May. So we have had six shows move to NY.
CG Why is it important to develop shows that go on to New York?
JB I think it is important because one of things we want to do is support playwrights at the beginning of their creative process here and then let it continue to blossom in another place. What better place to have it blossom than NY one of the theatre capitals of the world. It allows work to develop here and continue to other places.
CG Why Pittsfield? Are you feeling settled and secure here? There was a lot of build out and development. How are the finances?
JB This year is our 5th season in Pittsfield and I think it was not until last year that we felt totally at home here and part of the fabric of the community. We love it here. Pittsfield has never been more vibrant. With the opening of the Beacon Cinema and new restaurants. Then the whole community pulls together for the Big Read in April. Pittsfield got an NEA grant to do this. The Big Read features books that the whole community reads. A couple of years ago it was To Kill a Mocking Bird which we staged here. This year the book is Things They Carry on the Vietnam war. We will do a reading from the book and Beacon Cinema will run movies about Vietnam. The Berkshire Museum and other museums will have exhibits and talks. One book will bring a community together and Pittsfield is a community that really wants to come together. That's been so great.|
CG A life in theatre is stressful. Recently Tina Packer (founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company) told me that she has been in therapy for 12 years. In the early days of the company they had a resident shrink. How do you cope? (What followed were off the record remarks that she has never been in therapy. Including a comment that "I'm Italian. Half Sicilian." It's something we have in common. Although I am half Irish I understood where she is coming from regarding being Sicilian and coping. We tend to vent. She is obviously remarkably balanced to keep it all together and run a major company with all of its problems for many years. When we went back on record she discussed the importance of her family.)
JB My three kids bring me back to reality. One day I got a call from school that my kid couldn't attend gym class because I forgot to buy her gym shoes. That tends to bring you back to reality. I have been married 43 years. We were very young. I was really grounded. Kids keep you low to the ground. I don't remember a morning when I didn't get up and not loved what I'm doing. I love what I do but it is not always easy. It is challenging in a wonderful way.
CG Compared to other theatres in the Berkshires it often seems that Barrington Stage is conservative. It plays the hits; West Side Story, Carousel, Spelling Bee, Streetcar Named Desire. Where is the risk taking?
JB Last year was no year to take chances in respect to keeping going. I have a responsibility to the company and to the board to make sure we make it to the next year. We purposely picked a Main Stage season with shows people had heard of. I think Carousel and Streetcar were anything but safe. You try to get up Streetcar in just three weeks. We always put our most challenging work in Stage Two. If we make a mistake we don't get hurt that much as if it were a Main Stage show. To say a season is conservative sounds derogatory. I think it's smart programming and good business when the economy has fallen apart. It is just good business sense. We did South Pacific after 9/11. We had it that fall. It didn't feel safe but we felt, no, it should be done. This fall we are doing Arthur Miller's The Crucible. That's anything but safe.
CG Why?
JB For a couple of reasons. It is one of greatest 20th plays. There is still a threat from a culture of hysteria. It still exists. The Crucible is a play that will be read by all Berkshire country students. It is wonderful to take a work from the page to the stage.
CG What about the finances? Last summer was challenging for all arts organizations. But it seemed you had a string of hits from Carousel, Sleuth, Streetcar and the surprise Second Stage hit in Freud.
JB We ended the season in black. We are thrilled. We had major cutbacks last year and they paid off. The box office did very well.
CG During the season you do just three Main Stage shows. If they are hits that's great. But there are also risks. If a show gets bad reviews or doesn't appeal that's a long run in prime time.
JB Our plan is to have three shows on the Main Stage. Our job is to select what will last 4-5 weeks as a musical. The other two plays are two and a half weeks each. The musical is up for five weeks and the other two take three weeks each. We think Sweeney will sell well. Sweeney will appeal to young people because of the movie with Johnny Depp. It will cross over and appeal to more age ranges than Carousel. Theatre is a gamble. We never know how long to run a production. We never know. You take chances.
CG What about the shoulder season? The arts organizations have been trying to develop longer seasons appealing to year round residents. Many of these individuals will also return and support summer programming. Shakespeare & Company is running a winter show but you have opted not to.
JB We are very interested in developing the shoulder seasons. We have nothing in the winter this year because of the big season we are planning. It will take more effort to plan and put on more than ever before. There is more planning that is necessary. We are also involved in Big Read. We love the shoulder season. We get a chance to know audiences then. The audiences tend to be more local, year round residents. At that time of year they are not running to 18 other events. It is not as much of a whirl wind like high season and there is more time to talk to people.
CG That's what it's all about.