LOOKING FORWARD: DOUG HAVERTY
LOOKING FORWARD: THE FUTURE OF THE PERFORMING ARTS IN L.A.
INTERVIEW: DOUG HAVERTY
Artistic Director The Group Rep
BY RYAN M. LUÉVANO
Now almost a year into the ongoing pandemic our fond memories of live entertainment seem to be waning—and too much so for my liking. Just like that rare blue moon we saw this Halloween, the ancient ritual of live theatre is now deemed rare and magical—an artifact of the “before times”. Even so, if we take a moment and tune out the din of social media, the news, our own inner anxieties and frustrations, I know we can recall, maybe even find hope in, our memories from the “before times”. The feeling of eagerly sitting in a full theatre as the lights begin to dim. The sound of an orchestra tuning moments before they play a majestic downbeat. The smell of popcorn wafting around a movie theatre like tasty electricity. The restless anticipation of waiting in the wings before making your first entrance on stage. The sound of applause that roars in a venue like thunder that means no harm. You see these memories are not dreams—they were real. And whenever these memories start to get fuzzy all we need to do is take the time to summon them, thus reminding ourselves that they will return.
Next Window Please. Photo Credit: Sherry Netherland
In the spirit of looking forward, what’s next for live entertainment? Broadway has announced its return for June 2021—well what about L.A. and the rest of the world? When will we be able to appreciate the performing arts in person again? That date remains to be seen. Accordingly, what have performing arts organization been doing since the shutdown? How has this impacted them both now and in the future? In the next couple of weeks, I will be publishing interviews with artistic directors of various performing arts organizations in L.A. and they will answer these questions and many more. In this Tin Pan L.A. exclusive Doug Haverty, Artistic Director of The Group Rep, tells us about the future of theatre for his organization and the steps they are taking to keep it alive.
What was your fondest memory of live theatre by your organization before the pandemic?
There are many, so it’s hard to choose. In December 2018, we premiered a musical I wrote (with music & lyrics by Bruce Kimmel) called A CAROL CHRISTMAS. It’s a musicalized, Americanized update of “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, only Scrooge is a Home-Shopping Network-esque maven who makes clothes for women called “For Girls Who Eat” and all the main male characters from the Dickens short story have been changed to women. We had amazing orchestrations, sound, a beautifully diverse cast and audiences just LOVED it. It was pure joy, with the same message as the beloved story, only contemporary.
What do you think the “new normal” of LA theatre will look like in let’s say in the next one to two years?
My crystal ball in on the fritz. But, we are a theater company and we love live theatre. So, I suspect we will be presenting plays on our stages (we have two theaters) for “in-person” performances (with socially-distant seating along with live streaming at first), and probably some projects will be virtual and, hopefully, we will have opened an outdoor theater in our adjacent parking lot.
Once theatre is allowed to open how will the ideal notion of physical distancing have an impact on your future seasons (programming, scale etc.)?
The audiences will be seated socially-distanced (at first). The actors, will be tested weekly, and be under the guidance of our Covid Compliance Officers, and be able to perform together onstage without masks.
How has the COVID pandemic impacted your organization and its current programming?
Majorly impacted us. We completed the run of our first play of the season on March 15. We had two plays in rehearsal, reading to open the following month. We videotaped one of those plays (with two characters) and did a SAG-AFTRA New Media contract and sold pay-per-view tickets. The other play has continued to rehearse via Zoom. Meanwhile, we did a virtual Multi-Media project (with grant money from Department of Cultural Affairs) and a Virtual one act play festival. Both of these were successful. We are currently prepping another festival of one-acts, which are holiday themed. We also contributed a one-act play to Alternative Theatre Los Angeles’ TOGETHER LA Virtual Festival. We did play readings via Zoom and had a guest speaker come to our company meeting. We also hosted a Zoom meeting with our Subscribers.
Do you have any words of hope for the performing artist community (actors, musicians, dancers etc.) that are mostly out of work at the moment?
People who go to plays will be hungry for live theater. I think their appreciation of live theater will be enhanced and they will support it vigorously. Our subscribers said they were ready to return in May, and that they’d be happy to have their temperatures taken and wear masks. While patrons may have taken live theatre for granted, pre-pandemic, I think they will crave it and attend more.
Even with the ongoing pandemic and it unforeseeable end, what excites your organization most about the return live theatre/events?
We all miss the personal interaction; the joy of rehearsing together, the excitement of opening a play together, the camaraderie of performing a run together. But mostly what excites us is the main ingredient in theater — the audience. Zoom is okay for rehearsals and readings, but we look forward to body language, reacting to one another, holding for laughs, applause and the exhilaration when everyone realizes that each performance is unique and one-of-a-kind.
If your organization accepts/develops new theatre works (plays and musicals), what type of work is your company looking for to best serve the city’s diverse performers, and audiences while upholding your company’s mission?
We do have a Playwrights Unit started by our Founding Artistic Director, Lonny Chapman. This is for Los Angeles writers only. But we meet regularly for play readings, develop new plays and musicals and offer public performances of new works regularly. We have two theaters and regularly premiere new works developed at our theater. We are open to all voices. We had one musical workshopped at our theater, it opened here, went Off Off Broadway and then to Off Broadway (The Cherry Lane Theatre). That musical has played around the country and was a huge hit in Belgrade (in Serbian) and after 18 months, closed because of Covid.
Do you have any words of hope or advice to the writers’ community that are mostly out of work at the moment or struggling to create?
Write, write, write (but don’t write about the Pandemic — no one will want to re-live it any time soon). We have an annual contest for short plays (with submissions from around the world) and we are always open to new (Los Angeles-based) writers to join our Playwrights Unit. We would love to become the kind of theater that is known for developing new works to the point where other theaters would call us and ask us if we have anything they might like.
OTHER LOOKING FORWARD INTERVIEWS:
caryn desai, Artistic Director/Producer of International City Theatre
