Nicholas Martin Winds Down His First Season at Williamstown Theatre Festival
Directing House of Blue Leaves to Open August 30 in Los Angeles
By: Charles Giuliano - Aug 08, 2008
A rolling stone gathers no moss. Next week, the Williamstown Theatre Festival starts to wind down with the final main stage production "Home" by David Storey. The play opens on Thursday and will run through August 24. By every measure, Nicholas Martin, deserves a break after completing his first season which has been universally regarded as an unqualified critical success.
Even at 69, however, when most folks start to scale back, Martin is a man on the go with fire in the belly. This coming week, while seeing through the final production of the season, he will be in rehearsal for "House of Blue Leaves," by John Guare, with WTF regulars, Kate Burton and Mia Barron, which opens on August 30 at the newly renovated ($30 million) Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. That production opens in Los Angeles just a week after the final curtain in Williamstown. On October 16, through January 4, Martin will direct "Saturn Returns" by Noah Haidle, at the Mitzi Newhouse Theatre of Lincoln Center.
At the party following the opening of "Not Waving" at WTF we caught up with the energetic, witty, and brilliant director. Of course, what we most wanted to know is his long term commitment to WTF beyond the initial, too brief contract for just two years. Martin immediately put us at ease. After concerns about his predecessors, including three shaky years under Roger Rees, the Board was acting with caution about a long term commitment. Based on the enormous success this summer at WTF, similar to his remarkable eight year run at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, that commitment has been upgraded. As Martin put it, he has been invited to stay as long as he likes if "my health holds up."
He was quite hilarious in describing a couple of "procedures" which he stated were fabulous in their positive results. We also mentioned a rumor, starting with a New York Times profile some months ago, that he planned to buy a house and move to Provincetown. Again, Martin stated with amusing candor "Doesn't everyone want to do that?" Apparently, there are no such immediate plans.
Right now he has his plate full with two shows that he committed to before taking on the post at WTF. During the winter he will start to plan for the 2009 season. In an earlier discussion with Martin, at the start of the season, I asked if there would be ongoing exchanges with the Huntington. This year, two of the productions from his last Huntington season "The Atheist" and "She Loves Me" came to WTF. Both were enormously successful. It is interesting to note that "The Corn Is Green," with Kate Burton and her son, which Martin directed last summer for WTF, will be seen in Boston at the Huntington this coming season. At the time Martin told me that "It is not as easy as you think" when it comes to moving around productions and sets. That was vividly evident with the elaborate sets for "She Loves Me."
Do not be surprised if one or both of the plays which he is working on "Saturn Returns" or "House of Blue Leaves" find their way to WTF next season. Taking on these productions, if possible, would conserve energy. That's an important consideration for a man of his years and experience.
On the other hand, Martin is striving to establish an unique identity for WTF and not just reshuffling the deck. When we congratulated him for bringing new plays to the Nikos Stage this summer his response was that 'This is what we should be doing." There were world premieres for "The Undrestudy" by Theresa Rebeck and "Broke-ology" by Nathan Louis Jackson. "The Atheist" by Ronan Noone was developed at the Huntington. Ellen Melaver had a workshop presentation of "Not Waving" at the New York Summer Play Festival before its current run at WTF. Martin and the Huntington premiered another Rebeck play "Mauritsius" and its production went on to New York as did its "39 Steps" last season.
Martin and the Huntington were renowned for premieres of several plays by the African American playwright August Wilson including a posthumous premiere of "Radio Golf" which went to Broadway. At some point I would like to discuss in detail his commitment to and relationship with the late August Wilson. Did that have anything to do with the decision to produce the world premiere for an African American play "Broke-ology?"
"I felt it was very important during my first season to include an African American playwright in the program" Martin said.He described that he had gotten quite far into negotiations with another African American playwright but what he wanted to bring to Williamstown was a show he had already produced elsewhere. Martin insisted on something fresh and unique to WTF. When that project ended "That night I read the script for Broke-ology." The rest is now history as the play was an immediate smash and will more than likely find its way Off-Broadway.
While the season had been a success Martin was typically generous in stating that "I could never do this alone. There is a terrific team especially when it comes to casting." True, but there is also that vision thing. With Nicholas Martin it doesn't get much better.